Trench Lincs 27th April 2025
- trenchlincs
- 18 hours ago
- 15 min read
Welcome to this week’s Trench Lincs which comes to you from Manchester, where my daughter Amy, is running in the city marathon later this morning, and I am also pleased to report that the Easter Pace eggs went down well with my grandchildren last Sunday and I shall continue the tradition again next year.
Although Erin seemed to prefer the white chocolate egg!
Also this last week, we have celebrated St. George’s Day. It seems that the English do not make so much of this day in comparison to the Irish, with their St. Patrick’s Day celebrations and Guinness consumption!
Did you attend a St. George’s day event? Please let me know.
FORTHCOMING EVENTS.
Next Meeting - Lincoln & North Lincolnshire Branch WFA - Monday, April 28th - Doors open 7.00pm for prompt start at 7.30pm - Venue: Royal Naval Association Club, Coulson Road, Lincoln, LN6 7BG.
Alex Keyes presents “The Easter Uprising: The Irish Perspective”. (TOMORROW NIGHT)
Alex Keyes is a serving Prison Officer - currently based at Warwick Prison - who has made a speciality of researching the history of Ireland, the struggle for home rule, the creation of the Irish Free State, and, ultimately, the Republic of Ireland. In September of 2024 he delivered his talk, to both Lincoln and Spalding Branches, concerning the life and times of leading republican Sir Roger Casement, and his attempt to form a German-Irish Brigade to fight against the British in Ireland. The conversation at the end of that talk led to a greater debate on the Easter Uprising, and an offer to research and present a talk on the subject to the Branch, to be delivered as near as possible to Easter itself.
This evenings talk is the end result of that debate, but, instead of the more usual presentation of the story of the Easter Uprising through British eyes, it aims to present the story through the eyes of the Irish Republicans themselves who, even after the arrest of Sir Roger Casement and the seizure by the Royal Navy of the ship carrying arms from Germany intended for the rebels, decided to go ahead with the uprising regardless. British Naval Intelligence had been fully aware of the arms shipment and the planned uprising, and passed their information to the Under-Secretary for Ireland, Sir Matthew Nathan, urging him to take pre-emptive action. However, because the source of the information was not revealed to Sir Matthew, he doubted its accuracy, and deferred the question of taking action to London. This gave the rebels all the time they required to plan and execute their uprising which they supposed would be widely supported by the Catholic population who would rise up against the British across the whole country. But, they had seriously misjudged the reaction of the population in their support for an uprising, and, as we all know, it was firmly suppressed and its ringleaders arrested and subsequently jailed or executed.
The Easter Uprising cost the lives of 64 rebels, with an unknown number of wounded. British forces lost 132 dead, and 397 wounded. However, the real cost of the uprising was borne by the civilian population of Dublin of which it is estimated that 250 were killed and 2,217 wounded or injured.
But, the seeds of freedom from British rule had been sown with the reading of the Irish Declaration of Independence which read "We solemnly declare foreign government in Ireland to be an invasion of our national right which we will never tolerate, and we demand the evacuation of our country by the English Garrison", and this evening, in "The Easter Uprising: The Irish Perspective", we will learn the story of that declaration, and the mind-set and experiences of the men - and women - behind it.
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Woodhall Spa Country Show - Sunday - May 18th - Volunteers Required
Along with some of our other WW1 colleagues/local organisations - including Editor Jonathan - Lincoln Branch WFA will be putting on a display in the Heritage Tent at this wonderfully friendly local country show to promote the Branch and its activities. Peter Garland is organising our stand, and is looking for:
a) Volunteers to help out on the day. If you can just manage a couple of hours, that would be good, but a whole day would be greatly appreciated.
b) If you have any interesting WW1 related items that you could loan to us for the day that would contribute to a creating a good display, we would be pleased to hear from you. All items loaned will be well looked after and safely returned after the event.
c) As in previous years, we like to send visitors away with a freebie, so if you have copies of Stand To! or the Bulletin gathering dust around the house that you no longer require, please bring them along to the next Lincoln Branch meeting on Monday, April 28th.
If you can help out, contact Peter on 07933-287316.
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The East Midlands (Nottingham) WFA Branch meets again on Friday 8th May at 7.30pm at St. Peter’s Church Hall, Church Street, Ruddington, Nottingham, NG11 6HA. All welcome.
The speaker is Grant Cullen who will speak about ‘The Tragedy at Quntinshill.’
This rail tragedy is still the worst accident for fatalities in British history. On May 22nd 1915, a troop train heading south near Gretna Green, collided with a stationary train, the next northbound express then collided into the wreckage of the first accident.
Two-hundred and thirty, mainly men of the 7th Royal Scots bound for Gallipoli, were killed and another two-hundred and forty-six were injured.
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Next Meeting - Spalding & South Lincolnshire Branch, WFA – Thursday 22nd May, - Doors open 7.00pm for prompt start at 7.30pm - Venue: Spalding Baptist Church, Swan Street, Spalding, PE11 1BT.
May 22nd - Grant Cullen presents “The First Air War”.
Further details to follow.
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The Leadenham Military History Group’s next meeting will be on Tuesday 27th May, at Leadenham Village Hall with a start time of 6.30/7.30pm.
From 6.30pm there will be a display of Military Vehicles in the village hall car park and surrounds.
At 7.30pm Ian Prince will present “WWII May to September 1945 Asia-Pacific Theatre.”
As we celebrate VE Day on 8th May, our very Anglo-Centric view of the Second World War often means that we forget that the war against Japan continued until mid-August 1945 as it was primarily an American theatre of war.
I have had the great pleasure in acting as a ‘Guinea Pig’ audience for Ian’s dress rehearsal for his upcoming talk and I can thoroughly recommend Ian’s talk to you. It is well researched, beautifully illustrated and extremely thought provoking with regards to the use of the Atomic bomb. I will say no more, but I do hope that you will attend on 27th May.
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The next presentation in the Friends of Lincoln Tank 2025 season of talks will be held on Thursday 12th June. (No talk in May due too the bank holidays)
Andy Burn will present “Fray Bentos, the action, the crew and the forthcoming film.”
Trapped: The Story of Fray Bentos - The Tank Museum
The venue will be, as ever, The Royal Naval Club, Coulson Road, Lincoln. The entrance fee for the event is £5.00 payable on the night on the door. Doors will open at 7.00pm for a 7.30pm start and I hope many of you will be able to join and support us on the evening. Refreshments will be available at the bar and there is plenty of parking available on site. Don’t forget you do not need to be a member of FoLT to attend. All will be warmly welcomed – old and young. See you all then.
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Another group who meet at the Royal Naval Club, Coulson Road, Lincoln, LN6 7BG are the Lincs Aviation Society.
I now have great pleasure in advertising their forthcoming events, which take place on the third Thursday of each month - entry is £2 for members and £3 for visitors.
However, for their May event, there will be an evening visit to Metheringham Airfield on Thursday 15th May, meet at 6.45pm. Ray Sellers will be our guide for the night and this event is open to everyone and will double up with the Lincoln WFA’s branch May outing.
Please drop me a line if you wish to attend.
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May 8th will be a day of Victory in Europe celebrations and commemorations across the nation and as part of those celebrations, there will be an afternoon of events at Leadenham village hall.
Starting at 4.30pm, there will be an unveiling of a plaque at the village hall. The LVH trustees have sponsored a memorial plaque to mark RFC/RAF Leadenham Aerodrome which operated from 1916 until June 1919 and provided home defence against the threat of Zeppelin attacks.
Following the unveiling at 4.30pm, Bar opens at 5.30pm.
Games, activities and a family BBQ from 6pm.
Church bells will ring around the nation at 6.30pm
Lighting a Lamp of Peace and the Beacon at 9.20pm
1940s Period dress is optional!
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Neil Strange and Steve Baldwin are conducting a number of CWGC cemetery tours in Lincolnshire and Leicestershire in May and I am delighted to advertise these events. I hope some of you can attend.
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For more than 15 years, the Lincoln and North Lincs WFA branch has run an annual tour to various locations on the Western Front and this year it is proposed that the tour departs on Sunday 12th October, takes in the annual service of remembrance at the Hohenzollern Redoubt on Monday 13th October and then spends three days, possibly on the Somme battlefields, before returning home on Friday 17th.
However, time stands still for no man, and the volunteer drivers of recent years now find themselves the wrong side of 70 years of age and can no longer drive a 17 seat mini bus.
Therefore, for the 2025 tour to happen, the branch committee are looking for new blood. Are there two volunteers to drive in the UK and on the continent a 17 seater bus, or four volunteer drivers to drive two 9 seater people carriers as in 2024?
If you would like to volunteer for this role or receive more details about the role and the tour, please let me know, and I will pass on your interest to Mike Credland and Peter Garland.
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Michael Doyle has kindly supplied the link for the May edition of The Tiger newsletter.
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Tying up the loose ends from last week’s Trench Lincs, I was delighted to receive a very kind email from Gareth Smith. Gareth writes; ‘We have met - I spoke to you at a brilliant lecture you gave last year in Ruskington. [Thank you for those kind words Gareth – Ed]
I’m also a friend of Ray Sellers and a volunteer at Metheringham Airfield.
I think Ray put me on your mailing list, and I always look forward to reading your informative emails each week.
I read with great interest this last week your update about the men from 1st/4th Battalion killed in April 1916. My great-great uncle, George Ladbrook, was also killed during this incident. He is named on the Helpringham Memorial and I’m planning on visiting his grave for the first time this November. I never knew about the two Rear brothers who were killed as well, how very sad.
Please keep up the good work and I hope to maybe bump into you in the future.’
I of course, dropped Gareth a reply and offered any assistance that he may require in organising his trip this coming November. I know from first-hand experience that it will be a very emotional visit.
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David Gray appears to have a limitless collection of remarkable first-hand tales, and this week, he shares another of them with us.
David writes; ‘Lost and Found (and Lost Again)
Back in 1991, which seems like another world, a friend and fellow WFA member, Roger Negus, was working as a police officer in Peterborough. During the course of his work he visited an elderly lady who told him that her late husband had been a soldier during the First World War. Being interested in the subject Roger asked her more about him and it turned out that her husband, Private, 30046, Cecil Buckingham, of the Bedfordshire Regiment, had been in Albert on the Somme in 1916. He had found himself walking through the ruins of the town and came across the shattered remains of the Basilica.
Cecil Buckingham in later life.
He walked into the ruins and discovered a shrapnel damaged oil painting amongst the rubble. He cut it out of its frame and eventually had it posted home. Mrs Buckingham still had the painting and showed it to Roger. As it was quite big and she was living in a small flat, she offered it to Roger for his collection and he did not hesitate to take off her hands.
The Road to Calvary.
Roger of course showed me the painting and we discussed what was to be done with it as it was a little too big to go on the wall in his house. We eventually decided that the best course was to take it back to Albert and return it to the Basilica. We had been visiting the Somme battlefields for many years, (we eventually stopped going after about thirty years of annual visits). We knew the Basilica well and we knew the people of Albert would welcome the return of their ‘Tableau.’
The Basilica at Albert with leaning Angel.
Roger and I went to see the curator of Peterborough Museum, Martin Howe, who sadly passed away very young some years ago. We knew Martin and knew he could speak French. He identified the painting as being entitled ‘The Road to Calvary.’ We told him what we wanted to do and he immediately phoned the Mayor’s office in Albert and by the time the phone call was over, arrangements had been made for a Champagne reception for Roger and I when we went back with the painting.
Left - The picture, from the Peterborough Evening Telegraph, shows from left to right: The late Martin Howe, Curator of Peterborough Museum, David Gray, the late Nell Buckingham, and Roger Negus.
The photograph was taken at the Peterborough Museum and Art Gallery. Being fluent in French, Martin Howe had kindly helped to identify the painting and make contact with the authorities in Albert in order to make arrangements for its return. The tears and holes caused by German shelling of the Basilica during the First World War can clearly be seen.
“In 1992, two Peterborough men, Roger Negus and David Gray, completed a journey which had begun in 1916 and will forever link the Cambridgeshire City of Peterborough and the French town of Albert on the Somme, France.
In 1916, a young soldier, Private, 30046, Cecil Buckingham, of the Bedfordshire Regiment, walked into the war ravaged and ruined Basilica in Albert and amongst the rubble he discovered a soiled and battered oil painting. He rescued the painting entitled ‘The Road to Calvary’, rolled it up and placed it in his backpack, eventually sending it back to England. When Private Buckingham came home at the end of the war, he became a vicar, eventually moving to Peterborough, and kept the picture until his death in 1988. His widow, Nell Buckingham, presented to the painting to Roger Negus of the Soke Military Society [Now the Peterborough Military History Group]. After this, Roger, together with the club Treasurer, David Gray, travelled to Albert in February 1992 to return the picture to the rebuilt church. The picture, or as the French called it “Tableau,” was not of any great monetary value, but to the people of Albert, as one of the few remaining items in existence from the days before the Basilica was destroyed, it was priceless.”
A Champagne reception was organised and Roger Negus and David Gray presented the Tableau to the Priest of the Basilica left, and Stephane Demilly, the Mayor of Albert right, at the Hotel De Ville, in Albert.
The procession in 1992, bringing ‘The Road to Calvary’ back into the Basilica from which it was rescued by Cecil Buckingham in 1916.
There is a sad sequel to this story however; as it appears the ‘Tableau’ has gone missing. Soon after it was returned it was reported to have been put in the Somme Museum under the Basilica. Roger and I went back the following year, 1993, and were told by a friend we had made there that he had been unable to locate it either in the museum or the church. If anyone has been to Albert recently and has managed to see the picture, we would be very interested to know where it now resides.
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I had so much to write about last week that I didn’t include a colourised picture for you all. This week, I have found a selection that I think you will find of interest.
The first one is very poignant given what the National Socialists did to the Jewish communities of Europe during the 1930’s and 40’s, as it shows a very proud group of German Jewish soldiers celebrating Passover in 1916. I am sure that the survivors of this photograph could not have begun to imagine what lay in store for them in the next twenty-five years?
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If you are an avid reader of Great War books, you will come across some regiments in virtually everything that you read. The Guards regiments, the Highland regiments, the Rifle regiments, the Australians and Canadians all feature highly, but there are some unsung regiments that receive very little attention in the main stream narratives.
One of these is the Hertfordshire regiment, which Trench Lincs readers will know about due to the unstinting efforts of Jonty Wild and his volunteers who run the ‘Herts at War’ project and web site.
The Hertfordshire regiment is unusual in that it did not contain any Regular Army units and was a Territorial Force single battalion regiment. The 1st Battalion was renumbered the 1st/1st and was the only battalion to serve overseas in the war. A 2nd/1st, 3rd/1st and 4th/1st battalion were created but these served only as recruitment and training battalions within the UK and were all disbanded by the autumn of 1917.
The 1st/1st battalion serving in 39th Division fought with distinction and especially in the 3rd Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele) when they suffered an appalling number of casualties, some 75% of their strength, in the fighting at St. Julien on 31st July 1917.
Therefore, when I spotted this colourised photo of men of the Hertfordshire regiment at Ashridge Park, Berkhamstead in July 1914, I just had to share it with you. Little did they realise what lay ahead.
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Finally, for colourised photos for this week, here is a superb example of another of our Victoria Cross winners thanks to Colour by CJS.
Major General Clifford Coffin VC, CB, DSO & Bar, Legion of Honour (France), Croix de Guerre (France)
Clifford Coffin was born in Blackheath, London in 1870 and followed his father into the army and was commissioned in February 1888.
Clifford Coffin first saw action in the Boer War and had risen to command the Royal Engineers in 21st Division from August 1914 to January 1917. During that period the Division fought in the Battle of Loos and on the Somme.
In January 1917 he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order, appointed a Temporary Brigadier General and given command of 25th Infantry Brigade (part of 8th Division).
His actions on the opening day of the 3rd Battle of Ypres, 31st July 1917, were acknowledged with the award of a Victoria Cross. The citation published in the London Gazette read;
"When his command had been held up in attack owing to heavy machine-gun and rifle fire from front and right flank, and was establishing itself in a forward shell-hole line, he went forward and made an inspection of his front posts. Though under the heaviest fire from both machine-guns and rifles, and in full view of the enemy, he showed an utter disregard of personal danger, walking quietly from shell-hole to shell-hole, giving advice and cheering his men by his presence.
His very gallant conduct had the greatest effect on all ranks, and it was largely owing to his personal courage and example that the shell-hole line was held in spite of the very heaviest fire.
Throughout the day his calm courage and example exercised the greatest influence over all with whom he came into contact, and it is generally agreed that Brigadier-General Coffin's splendid example saved the situation, and had it not been for his action the line would certainly have been driven back."
He was awarded a bar to his DSO for the skilful handling of his Brigade during the German Spring Offensive on the Somme in 1918.
In May 1918 he was promoted to the temporary rank of Major General and given command of 36th (Ulster) Division, a division that he commanded until the end of the war.
In addition to his medals he had been mentioned in despatches five times.
He retired from the army in November 1924, lived a full life and died in 1959 aged 88.
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It really doesn’t seem like five minutes since I was attending WWI centenary events between 2014 and 2018. All of a sudden the commemorations are now for 110 years and as 1915 was a seminal year for the BEF on the Western Front as it attempted to learn the necessary lessons to fight a modern industrial war, the next few months will see the anniversary dates come thick and fast starting with Aubers Ridge and Festubert in May and culminating in the Battle of Loos in September and October.
However, this week in April is especially remembered for two main and very key events. On the 22nd Apri 1915, the Germans opened their offensive north east of Ypres with the first use of poison gas in 20th century warfare.
The gas cloud initially fell upon French colonial troops who broke and ran for their lives. Only a lack of impetus from the Germans stopped a major breakthrough and the capture of Ypres. The newly arrived Canadian Corps plugged the gap and with many acts of selfless gallantry the fighting continued into the early summer, and today, we know this as the 2nd Battle of Ypres.
On a completely different front, the first Allied landings of British, French and Australian troops took place on Gallipoli on the 25th April 1915 after the failed Nval offensive. This opening day would herald nine months of bloody and attritional stalemate against the well drilled and well officered Ottoman forces and would eventually lead to an ignominious defeat for the attacking force and the evacuation of the Gallipoli Peninsular in December 1915 and January 1916.
We Will Remember Them
IN MEMORIAM - The Lincolnshire Regiment 27th April.
1915
3787 Sergeant William John Evans, 1st Battalion, aged 39. Buried in Dickebusch New British Cemetery, Belgium.
1727 Private James H Chamberlain, 4th Battalion, aged 19. Buried in Lindenhoek Military Cemetery, Belgium.
1204 Private Walter Turner, 5th Battalion, aged 21. Buried in Longunesse Souvenir Cemetery, France.
5246 Private Arthur Deacle, 1st Battalion. Remembered on the Menin Gate, Belgium.
1916
12625 Private H W Wing, 7th Battalion. Buried in Bailleul Communal Cemetery Extension Nord, France.
1917
Eight men of the Lincolnshire Regiment are recorded as having died on this day during the fighting in the Battle of Arras.
1918
Ten men of the Lincolnshire Regiment are recorded as having died on this day.
1920
63754 Private Arthur Edwin Dowlman, 2nd Battalion, aged 31. Buried in Poona Cemetery, India.
WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.
I hope you all have a good week and I hope to see some of you tomorrow night at the Naval Club.
Until next week
All best wishes
Jonathan
© Jonathan D’Hooghe
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