Trench Lincs 2nd February 2025
- trenchlincs
- Feb 2
- 15 min read
It’s Sunday once again and I have to report that I have had three or four days of feeling ropey this week – a good old fashioned head and nose cold, but I am now definitely on the mend.
Last week’s Trench Lincs seemed to go down well as I received a lot of useful feedback, especially with regard to Bertram/Benjamin Johnson and the lone memorial at Shelton.
I also have news of the first outing for 2025 which will be to Derby on 19th February. Read more below.
If, like me, you enjoyed John Chester’s recent talk at Lincoln about German atrocities in Belgium in 1914, then you will be interested in clicking on this link to read the official British enquiry into the tales of atrocities, known as the Bryce Report. Thanks to Frank East for letting me have the link
I hope you enjoy today’s read and I look forward to hearing from you with any thoughts, stories or queries, don’t be shy, there’s no such thing as a daft question or an uninteresting tale.
FORTHCOMING EVENTS.
The next meeting of the Lincoln and North Lincs WFA Branch will be held at 7.30pm on Monday February 24th – When Andy Stewart will present “Armistice Day 1918: Where The Guns Didn’t Stop”.
The venue will be the Royal Naval Club, Coulson Road, Lincoln, LN6 7BG. A warm welcome awaits you. New faces always wanted.
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The East Midlands (Nottingham) WFA Branch meets again on Friday 14th February – When Dr. Scott Lindgren will speak about naval warfare in his talk “Ocean Greyhounds – The Battle of Dogger Bank, 1915”.
The talk will be held in St. Peter’s Church Rooms, Church Street, Ruddington, Nottingham, NG11 6HA with a start time of 7.30pm. Everyone welcome.
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The Spalding and South Lincolnshire WFA Branch will next meet on Thursday February 27th – As at Lincoln earlier in the week, Andy Stewart will present “Armistice Day 1918: Where The Guns Didn’t Stop”.
The venue is Spalding Baptist Church, Swan Street, Spalding, PE11 1BT with a start time of 7.30pm.
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The Leadenham Military History Group’s next meeting will be on Tuesday 25th February, at Leadenham Village Hall with a start time of 7.30pm.
The evening will involve an Interactive Workshop – “The Air Battles In The North Of England, 1940.”
This will be an interactive discussion where participation is encouraged but is not compulsory. Come along and play the role of Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding or simply buy a beer and sit and listen.
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Next month will see the 2025 series of lectures at the Friends of the Lincoln tank Group start once again.
All meetings on a Thursday night at the Royal Naval Club, Coulson Road, Lincoln, with a 7.30pm start time.
March 13th - Alwyn Killingsworth will speak about "Lt. Bond and tank 743."
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With regard to my trip to Normandy from 7th to 11th April, Arthur Wood and Dave Burkitt are looking to arrange a car share with one, two or three like minded folk. If the thought of a four-day guided tour of the D-Day beaches and surrounds appeals to you, please let me know and I will put you in touch with Arthur and Dave.
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I have booked a group visit for Wednesday 19th February at 10.30am to the collection of Derby Museums, The Strand, Derby, DE1 1BS. There are a number of museum halls that can be visited on the day but the main attraction for our visit is the military museum which showcases The Royal Lancers, The Sherwood Foresters and the Derbyshire Yeomanry.
The Soldiers’ Story - Derby Museums | Derby Museums
Parking is only 50m away from the museum at Parksafe on Bold Street, Derby.
It is now one year since our first outing last February to the Newark Civil War Museum and I hope that you will support this visit to Derby.
So that I can confirm numbers with the museum staff, please let me know if you will be attending and I am also happy to arrange car sharing etc.
I look forward to hearing from you.
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Last week’s Trench Lincs brought in a lot of very kind words and additional information from the readers.
I therefore, begin this week with tidying up various loose ends from last week. First is Tony Nutkins who writes; ‘Just had a speed read of this week's Trench Lincs and once again an excellent edition with well researched, detailed and informative contributions form yourself and members.
It always impresses me with the level of the research and the stories that come to light. I shall be interested and probably educated as I read through it again during the week.’ [Thank you Tony. It is good to know that the weekly effort is appreciated by so many – Ed]
Tim Willbond dropped me a line to say that my memory of the Reindeer pub in East Bridgford triggered happy memories for him too. Tim comments; ‘Your reminiscences of East Bridgford and the Reindeer brought memories flooding back. I knew Ken and, if memory serves me right, Doreen very well at the time and used to have great fun in the Reindeer including helping to clean the pub on one or two occasions when I lost a challenge with Ken. On the night before decimalisation I brought a very heavy and large bag of pennies from Ken as an ‘investment' which I still have. Hope you do not mind me sharing the memory.’ [Not at all Tim. I knew Ken and Doreen Adlington very well and I went to school with their children, Bev and Stuart. Happy days – Ed]
The other conundrum from last week was the memorial with a single name on it, Benjamin Johnson, at Shelton. You will recall that I, with a quick look up, could only find a Bertram Johnson killed on that date, 21st March 1918, whilst serving with the Sherwood Foresters. I surmised that Benjamin and Bertram must have been one and the same man.
Mike Credland responded with confirmation of this fact and writes; ‘I read with interest your story relating to Shelton War Memorial and apparent anomaly with Private Johnson's Christian name. Having looked into the question I believe the answer is quite simplistic. The soldier's full name was Private Bertram Benjamin Johnson, No.31144 2nd/6th Battalion Sherwood Foresters (Notts & Derby) Regiment. Born Shelton, Enlisted Newark on Trent, killed in Action 21st March 1918 and listed on Bay 7 Arras Memorial.’
Armed with this news, I again searched on Ancestry for his Medal Index Card but again, could not locate it, and yet, Matt Colley found his MIC on Find My Past and Forces War Records. It just goes to show how the digitisation process can allow records to slip through the net. Matt also kindly provided details of Bertram Johnson’s mother, Ada, who lived at Shelton.
I think that we have well and truly and nailed that story. Thank you Mike and Matt.
Mike also kindly provided details of two further memorials in Lincolnshire that contain only one name, he notes; ‘There are a couple of war memorials in Lincolnshire to just one casualty and paid for by public subscription. In Chapel St Leonards churchyard is a superb 6'0" high Celtic Cross to Private Mark Hall who was killed in action with the 5th Royal Berkshire Regiment on 13th September 1917 aged 21.
In Burton Pedwardine churchyard, a small white marble shield was placed on the family headstone in memory of Private Thomas Goy, 4th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment, who died of pneumonia in Rauceby Hospital, near Sleaford on 13th January 1915 aged 18.’
Bill Pinfold was also quick off the mark picking me up last week for the misuse of an apostrophe! Did anyone else spot it? Bill wrote; ‘Wow! what an amazing Trench Lincs this morning! So much inspiring material to read. I am particularly taken with the photos from Damascus - the people who are tending the CWGC cemetery have clearly persevered through some very difficult times and the result is honourable and admirable.
As you say, Simon Roots' report of his ancestors is a herculean bit of research and very well put together, very readable. And your own report on the church at Shelton and Benjamin/Bertram Johnson is great for showing how worthwhile it is to stop off at little village cemeteries.
Felicity’s Armistice Day recording item is perhaps not quite understandable on the Instagram link. The image of the film used to record seismographic data in 1918 is real and held by the IWM. In 2018 for an exhibition they got an audio company to recreate the sound tracks shown on the film as a way to give the effect of the Armistice moment.
More details are at https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/listen-moment-guns-fell-silent-ending-world-war-i-180970772/
[Thank you Bill for the link – Ed]
As you know of old, I am into my WW1 train research and modelling. I have shared some information about that on the Great War Forum for anyone else interested in the trench tramways etc. see the blog articles at https://www.greatwarforum.org/blogs/blog/707-not-only-railways/
It really is worthwhile clicking on Bill’s GWF blog link above. I found the article and research about King George’s visit to the railway gun to be an astonishing piece of work – ‘The King’s Shot Location.’
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Readers will have gleaned in recent weeks that Matt Colley is a devotee of all things appertaining to the memory of the Old Contemptibles, those men of the original BEF that saw service in France and Belgium between August and November 1914.
We have read short clips in the last two weeks about the Lincoln branch of the OC’s in the 60s and 70s penned by IMP, who, thanks to Andrew Thornton, we now know to have been Chum George Hammond.
This week I have been asked to share this link with you that will take you to Andrew Thornton’s blog site https://oldcontemptiblesassociationscrapbook.wordpress.com/?s=Hammond+lincoln
The link is specifically a search for George Hammond and Lincoln and Andrew hopes that once you have found the site, that you will navigate the search tool to find many articles about the Old Contemptibles and their post-war old comrades branches.
I scrolled down the articles in the link posted above and found the news of six OC grave marker plaques being stolen in 1962 from Lincolnshire graveyards to be particularly galling. Unfortunately, the theft of these gun metal plaques is still a problem today.
Many thanks to Matt for sharing the news and to Andrew, I say, well done and please keep up the good work.
We Will Remember Them.
[pic oc plaque]
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Regular TL readers will know that I am a fan of the colourisation of old photos. I also fully understand that other folk do not like to see old photos tampered with, but one of the sites that I now follow on a regular basis is Colour by CJS.
This last week, CJS has produced colourised pictures of two of the Great War’s most well-known British characters, The Reverend Geoffrey Anketell Studdert Kennedy who was universally known as ‘Woodbine Willie’ and Cecil Lewis, the aviator, who wrote one of the best RFC memoirs, ‘Sagittarius Rising’, a copy of which resides on my bookshelves.
Lewis was on patrol over the Somme battlefield on 1st July 1916 when the Lochnagar mine was detonated near La Boiselle just before 7.30am on that fateful day. He wrote; ‘We were over Thipeval and turned south to watch the mines. As we sailed down above it all, came the final moment. Zero.!
At Boiselle the earth heaved and flashed, a tremendous and magnificent column rose up in the sky. There was an ear-splitting roar, drowning all the guns, flinging the machine sideways in the repercussing air. The earthy column rose, higher and higher to almost four thousand feet. There it hung, or seemed to hang, for a moment in the air, like the silhouette of some great cypress tree, then fell away in a widening cone of dust and debris. A moment later came the second mine. Again the roar, the upflung machine, the strange gaunt silhouette invading the sky. Then the dust cleared and we saw the two white eyes of the craters. The barrage had lifted to the second line trenches, the infantry were over the top, the attack had begun.’
What a ‘birds-eye view he had of such a momentous moment in history and here is CJS’s picture and text for Cecil Lewis.
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Captain Cecil Arthur Lewis MC
Cecil was born in Birkenhead in 1898. His father was a Congregational minister.
He was educated at Dulwich College, University College School and Oundle School.
Aged 17 he enlisted in the Royal Flying Corps in December 1915 having lied about his age. After a period of training he was posted to 3 Squadron in France, where he flew many missions during the Battle of the Somme.
For his actions during this period he was awarded the Military Cross.
The citation printed in the London Gazette in November 1916 read as follows:
“For conspicuous skill and gallantry. He has done fine work in photography, with artillery and on contact patrols. On one occasion he came down very low and attacked a column of horsed limbers, causing casualties and scattering the limbers”.
After a period back in the UK he was posted to 56 Squadron. The unit was a fighter squadron and equipped with the new single seat SE5. It counted amongst its pilots the leading British ace at that time, Albert Ball VC.
The squadron flew to France on 7th April 1917. Cecil fought many combats during the spring and early summer of 1917. Those fights were often against the elite German Jasta 11, led by Manfred von Richthofen.
During this intense period, he was credited with shooting down 6 enemy aircraft and sharing two others.
He narrowly avoided death on 7th July when he received a flesh wound in the back.
He was posted back to the UK where he served with 44 and 61 Squadrons on home defence duties,
returning to France on 18th October 1918 as a flight commander with 152 Night Fighter Squadron.
After the war he enjoyed a long and varied career. He worked in commercial aviation, was a flying instructor in China, a farmer in South Africa, civil servant, author and a founding executive of the British Broadcasting Company.
At the BBC he was a writer, producer and director. Working in Hollywood he won an Academy Award for helping to write the screenplay for a film.
During the Second World War he joined the RAF and served as a flying instructor and later on other duties at home and overseas.
He joined the Daily Mail in 1956 as a journalist and retired in 1966. In 1970 he settled in Corfu where he spent the rest of his life. Cecil Lewis died in 1997 aged 98. A life well lived.’
If you have not read Sagittarius Rising by Cecil Lewis, I thoroughly recommend that you track a copy down. It is an excellent account of life in the RFC during the war. A quick search on Amazon [Other sites available – Ed] reveals that a used copy in good condition can be bought for £4.99.
[pic woodbine]
Geoffrey Anketell Studdert Kennedy MC
Geoffrey was born in Leeds in 1883. The son of a vicar he was one of nine siblings. He was educated at Leeds Grammar School and Trinity College, Dublin.
In 1905 he became a curate and by 1914 was the vicar at St. Paul's, Worcester.
When war was declared, fired by patriotism and a sense of duty, he offered himself as an army chaplain.
He lived with the men in the trenches, shared their experiences and spoke to them in their own rough language. They loved him for it and he became famous for dispensing woodbine cigarettes as well as spiritual help and comfort.
It is estimated that he gave away over 850,000 cigarettes at his own expense earning him the nickname ‘Woodbine Willie’.
He went into the thick of battle, believing that as a padre he had to be where death was closest. He would crawl into No Man’s Land to comfort dying men and give them a final smoke.
He soon became disillusioned and wrote poetry that reflected the harsh realities of war. His poems were published in a book ‘Rough Rhymes of a Padre’ which sold 30,000 copies in a few months. He provided a voice for the men whose experiences he shared in the trenches.
He was at the front during the Battle of the Somme in 1916 and for his actions during the attack on the Messines Ridge in 1917 he was awarded the Military Cross.
The citation read:
“For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. He showed the greatest courage and disregard for his own safety in attending to the wounded under heavy fire. He searched shell holes for our own and enemy wounded, assisting them to the dressing station, and his cheerfulness and endurance had a splendid effect upon all ranks in the front line trenches, which he constantly visited”.
He was a socialist and after the war worked tirelessly to improve the lives of the poor. He died in Liverpool on 8th March 1929.
Thousands attended his funeral in Worcester. As the coffin passed by many ex-servicemen threw packets of woodbine cigarettes on to it. Many more were thrown into his grave.
Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy was just 45 years old.’
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There is quite a famous photograph that many of you will have seen showing the men of the 8th Battalion Sherwood Foresters on parade in Newark’s market place as they mobilised in August 1914.
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This week I came across an additional set of photos shot on the same day. They were on the internet but without any reference to who they may belong to, so I am unable to reference their origin. However, I think you may find them of historical interest.
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On Saturday 25th January, I travelled with my son William and one of my daughters, Lizzie and grand-daughter Erin, to Hayfield in the High Peak above Chapel en le Frith.
Here we parked and walked a most scenic eight-mile walk up onto Kinder Low and Swine’s Back, a steady climb of about a mile over the first four miles until a descent back into the village and a well-earned drink in the pub [non- alcoholic pint for me, although Dry January is now officially over – Ed].
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The Chapel en le Frith, Glossop, Buxton area was the recruiting region of the 6th Battalion of the Sherwood Foresters, Territorial Force, prior to and during the 1914-18 war. Back in 2016-18, I was the ‘historical adviser’ to the Lottery Funded Chapel en le Frith Male Voice Choir Great War Centenary Project.
The Chapel en le Frith Male Voice Choir was formed by returning servicemen in 1918/19 and the centenary of the war ending obviously coincided with the centenary of the choir. As well as attending several events including an Armistice day concert at Buxton Opera House, I wrote a short book about the Great War and its effect on the people of the High Peak based on newspaper research by members of the choir. If you would like to read the book, drop me a line and I will send you a PDF copy to read.
Therefore, to revisit the area once again was a delight, and though it was very cold on the top of Kinder, it was a beautiful day to be out with three generations of my family. It is one of our New Year resolutions to scale a different peak each month during 2025.
As we left Hayfield, I of course stopped to snap the village war memorial and here are a couple of photos.
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The Kinder area of the High Peak was the scene for a mass trespass of northern workers inspired by Manchester communist groups in 1932. The land, at that time, was primarily owned by the Duke of Devonshire and managed as a grouse moor, but the mass trespass and claim for public access to moorland led eventually to the formation of the country’s National Parks in 1949 and the Peak District National Park came into being in 1951.
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This last week has seen the 108th anniversary of the ramping up of the German ‘Blitz’ on London and the south east of England by Gotha and ‘Giant’ bombers of the German Airforce.
On 28th January 1917, some thirteen Gothas and two Giants attacked dropping bombs on many districts of London as well as coastal towns in Kent. One Gotha was shot down by Sopwith Camels of 44 Squadron (Home Defence) and crashed in Essex killing the crew. Several other planes were lost on their return to occupied Belgium but this did not stop the Germans continuing the attacks on a nightly basis until 30th January.
Casualty figures differ depending on which account you read but between 60 and 70 people were killed and over 160 injured in what was a foretaste of what was to come in 1940/41.
I found this to be a fascinating topic to read about this week and can recommend you click on this link for Ian Castle’s very detailed web site.
28/29 Jan 1918
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The Lincolnshire Regiment 2nd February.
1915
7538 Private James William Simon, 2nd Battalion, aged 18. Buried in Rue Petillon Military Cemetery, France.
8340 Private R W Aldrich, 1st Battalion. Buried in Kemmel Chateau Military Cemetery, Belgium.
1916
Lieutenant Francis Elliott (*), 3rd Battalion, aged 35. Buried in Mogadishu African War Cemetery, Somalia.
1917
10974 Private Arthur Halliday, 2nd Battalion, aged 30. Remembered on the Thiepval Memorial, France.
7609 Private William James Robert Frost, 2nd Battalion, aged 19. - Ditto. –
32905 Private Charles William Bateman, 2nd Battalion, aged 18. – Ditto. –
2551 Private W Trushell, 2nd Battalion. Buried in Combles Communal Cemetery Extension, France.
1918
2329 Private Albert Thomas Daley, 2nd/4th Battalion, aged 24. Buried in Lincoln Canwick Cemetery, UK.
11891 Private William Stanley Lynn, 8th Battalion, aged 21. Buried in Edenham Churchyard, UK.
1919
Second Lieutenant Frederick Reginald Holness, 4th Battalion, aged 29. Buried in Woodgrange Park Cemetery, London, UK.
1920
10435 Private George Morley, Depot, aged 33. Buried in Ilkeston Park Cemetery, UK.
WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.
(*) Regarding Lieutenant Francis Elliott named above in 1916, I believe this is the first time that we have had a Lincolnshire soldier buried in Africa, and why was he noted as serving with the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion in Africa?
Although the internet has its problems and issues, it is in an invaluable tool for researching the likes of Lieutenant Elliott – I found this link to him, his service in the Boer War and afterwards in east Africa and the unusual circumstances and apparent stupidity that led to his death. Please click this link to read about him
Europeans In East Africa - View entry
[Elliot pic]
I look forward to hearing from you, new contributors are always welcome. And have you had a click on the link below to my new web site? What do you think? Please let me know.
Until next week
All best wishes
Jonathan
© Jonathan D’Hooghe
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