Trench Lincs 30th November 2025
- trenchlincs
- Nov 29
- 14 min read
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Good Morning,
It is Sunday again and November has passed. I think the last quarter of 2025 is passing quicker than any time so far in my life. One minute it was September and now we are rushing headlong towards Christmas.
Anyway, back to this week’s Trench Lincs. Firstly, I would like to use TL to thank so many of you that turned out on a dank November evening last Monday night to listen to me speak about Horace Smith-Dorrien, his life and his decisions. Your support means a lot to me and I was very touched and humbled by the kind comments that I received on the night and by email the following day. Thank you.
Tomorrow, my wife and I with friends jet off to Prague in the Czech Republic. The primary reason for our trip is to explore the city and sample the famous Christmas market. However, I have already bookmarked a number of sites of interest, including Prague castle, cathedral and the CWGC cemetery, and the location where Hitler’s top henchman, Reinhard Heydrich was assassinated – more next week, I hope.
If you don’t know about Heydrich, he was one of the main architects of the “Final Solution”, chief of the Reich Security Main Office, the SS and police agency most directly concerned with implementing the Nazi plan to murder Jews of Europe during World War II.
A thoroughly unpleasant individual, to say the least.
It has been a very busy week and Trench Lincs is a little shorter this week, although there are a number of snippets of interest for you, but as I am away for much of next week, please do drop me a line with anything of interest that you would like to share with the readers. I look forward to hearing from you.
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FORTHCOMING EVENTS.
December sees a ‘Double Header’ of events on consecutive Monday’s, the 8th and the 15th for the Lincoln WFA Branch.
Next event - Lincoln & North Lincolnshire Branch, WFA - Monday, December 8th - Doors open 7.00pm for 7.30pm start - Royal Naval Association Club, Coulson Road, Lincoln, LN6 7BG.
The annual branch Christmas Buffet and Show and Tell Evening will be held on Monday 8th December. Entrance is FREE and the buffet will be delicious!
Please sign in on arrival if you would like a 10-minute slot to show and talk about a Great War artefact in your possession.
Christmas dress is not obligatory, but if you have a Christmas jumper, shirt or hat, why not wear it and really enter into the festive party atmosphere.
Next Speaker Event – Monday 15th December at the venue and time stated above.
Dr. Scott Lindgren presents – “The Fog of Naval Warfare – The Battle of Jutland May 31st 1916.”
The Battle of Jutland was the major naval engagement of the Great War. Although the Royal Navy lost more ships than the German fleet, the German fleet returned to their home ports and did not set sail again for the duration of the war. Therefore, was it a British victory?
Come and listen to Dr. Lindgren on 15th December.
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Next Meeting - Spalding & South Lincolnshire Branch, WFA - Thursday, December 11th - Doors open 7.00pm for 7.30 pm start - Spalding Baptist Church, Swan Street, Spalding, PE11 1BT
December 11th sees the Spalding branch Show and Tell Evening and Christmas Buffet. Everyone welcome.
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The Leadenham Military History Group’s next meeting will be on Tuesday 27th January 2026 at 7.30pm at Leadenham village hall.
This event will be an inter-active workshop which will look at the infamous Battle of Isandlwana which took place on 22nd January 1879 at the start of the Anglo-Zulu War.
All contributions on the night are welcome, or you can just sit, listen and hopefully learn.
You can also click on the link below to see the Leadenham events for the first six months of 2026.
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The next event in the Friends of Lincoln Tank 2025 season, will be held on Thursday 4th December when the Annual Show and Tell evening will be held at the Royal Naval Club, Coulson Road, Lincoln, LN6 7BG.
This pre-Christmas social event will include a buffet and give anyone who wants to speak for ten minutes, the opportunity to bring along a Great War artefact and tell everyone about it.
It may be a generic item of uniform, weaponry, postcard, picture or it may have a special place in your family’s history. Whatever it is, please do come along and share your treasures with the group.
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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.
The final event for 2025 will take place on Thursday 18th December when the Annual General Meeting and Members Night will be held. All welcome for a 7.30pm start.
PLEASE NOTE – this event is now the 18th December, not the 11th as originally planned.
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The East Midlands (Nottingham) WFA Branch meets again on Friday 12th December at 7.30pm at St. Peter’s Church Hall, Church Street, Ruddington, Nottingham, NG11 6HA. All welcome.
The speaker on this night is Tim Lynch, who will talk about “The Enemy Within – Germans in Britain 1914-18.”
Tim gave this talk in Lincoln in October and it is very informative. John Beech and friends at Ruddington would be delighted to welcome you if you can attend on December 12th.
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Melvin Dobbs kick us off this week as he very kindly dropped me a line to say; 'I hope I am not too late to express my thanks to David Moore on his research into the Thomas Hussey conudrum....little did I know how one photo I took would snowball into something of great interest.
I found it fascinating how the titled few look after thier own, and one has only to look at memorials in Churches of the Landed Gentry, especialy those with hereditary titles to see how the Widows or Widowers inter marry either to preserve what they already have or to enrich themselves still further by acquiring new Estates and Titles !
I have said before, there is a lot of history to be found in our churches and churchyards if we care to look. [I totally agree Melvin - Ed]
Thankyou too Jonathan, for editing and putting together all sorts of interesting topics from yourself, fellow Academics-Researchers and us humble roaming Reporters....it really was a 'cracking read' in the last issue of Trench Lincs.'
Thank you Melvin, you are very kind with your words.
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I will now start with more thoughts about this year’s Poppy Appeal and the younger generations. Bill Roffey writes; ‘I was pleased to read about the positive contribution the young Nottingham Forest footballers were making to the memorials and the interest they had in the war, plus the fact that they wearing paper poppies.
My own experience this year was very positive too. In the school where I work we always sell poppies to the children and this year we sold out. They were worn in the lead up to Armistice Day and the school held an impeccable 2-minutes silence at 11.00am.
I also told as many classes as I could get round about my own family’s experience of WWI, based around my Grandfather Alfred William Roffey and shared my photos from a trip to the Belgian battle fields in 2019. My talk is always well received and I have to cut the sessions short when the children all begin to tell me their family stories. I think sometimes they muddle up the conflicts their grandparents and great grandparents fought in but no matter it is always a day I enjoy and value, and the children value the opportunity to share their stories too.’
Thank you Bill. More heartening news!
Photo of Alfred Roffey - above. Long term TL readers will remember when we featured Alfred Roffey’s Somme diary in TL.
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We kick off the new stories this week with the next chapter of Ray Sellers’ recent tour of Ireland and Ulster.
Ray writes; ‘As promised, some more photos of my recent visit to Ireland. The four photos regarding the statue and house were taken in Banbridge, County Down. It’s the birthplace of Francis Crozier 1796-1848, who served in the Royal Navy.
Crozier is also a major figure in the annals of polar exploration. More details are of course available on the internet.
170-year-old mystery of famed Irish Arctic explorer solved | IrishCentral.com
Click on the link above to read about the life and death of Crozier and Franklin.
In 1845, he commanded HMS Terror, and with Sir John Franklin, a local hero born in Spilsby, Lincolnshire, set sail in search of the Northwest Passage. As we all know, it turned out to be a disaster resulting in the deaths of all the members of the expedition. Like so many historic shipwrecks, HMS Terror and HMS Erebus have both been found in recent years.
The photos of the Church and the War memorial are of Down Cathedral, Downpatrick. It’s one of the finest churches in Ulster. Founded as an Abbey in the 13th Century, it fell into ruins after the dissolution of the monasteries. Restoration work commenced in 1790 and it was re-consecrated in 1829. It contains many military memorials, and this is one of the many relating to WWI.
The church is still a major pilgrimage site as Ireland’s patron Saint, St. Patrick is buried in the Churchyard. Next week we will be in Armagh.’
The Irish Rifles memorial in Down cathedral.
Thank you Ray.
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When I attended the Cambrai Day memorial service on 20th November, I started chatting with Andrew Statham, who we had met earlier in the year at the Doddington Hall collection of military uniforms.
Andrew very kindly signed up to become a Trench Lincs subscriber, and in our subsequent email exchange, Andrew explained that he is ‘….an amateur military historian and I also sculpt and paint military miniatures (see photos). I also have a large collection of WWI militaria.’
I now attach a selection of Andrew’s military miniatures. My favourite is the Sikh with the Lewis gun. I love the attention to detail with the 1914/15/16/17 overseas service chevrons on the right sleeve.
Unfortunately, Andrew is not able to attend the Show and Tell evening on 8th December, but I hope that he will display some of his Great War militaria for us in the near future.
Wonderful Andrew. You must have a great deal of patience!
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Andrew’s military models lead on nicely to my next story. Last weekend, two of my grandchildren came to stay over, “General” Tom and his sister Eva.
General Tom [I am sure he will be one day! – Ed], was captured in full flow leading a large multi- national task force against that well-known enemy, The Hulk!
A chip off the old block!
No sitting in front of a tv or iPad screen when at my home! Model soldiers are much more entertaining.
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The 1914-18 Great War is remembered by many as a bloody war of attrition, that saw close to one-million British and Empire troops lose their lives.
We all fixate on the 1st July 1916, the opening day of the Somme offensive, when some 57,000 British soldiers became casualties and one third of them were killed. Next in the collective memory is the slog in the mud at Passchendaele, the 3rd Battle of Ypres, between July 31st and December 1917, and yet, the worst attritional major battle that produced the most ongoing daily casualties was the Battle of Arras, fought in April and May 1917.
Whilst a lot has been written about the opening of the German Spring Offensive on March 21st 1918, not a lot is known about the British and Empire casualties sustained in the effort to hold back the German advance. Likewise, the 100 day’s advance to victory from August 8th 1918 to the Armistice is often overlooked for the sheer number of British casualties, the majority being young conscripted men aged between 18 and 21.
Therefore, I have produced for you below, a monthly casualty chart for the duration of the war.
When you have had the opportunity to study it, I would be pleased to hear from you with your thoughts and observations.
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In April 1918, the news from the Western Front was as bad as it could get. The German Spring Offensive was in full swing, and Commander in Chief, Sir Douglas Haig issued his famous ‘Backs to the Wall’ Order of the Day in an effort to rally the troops and the Home Front.
Haig’s order stated; ‘To All Ranks of the British Forces in France.
Three weeks ago today the Enemy began his terrific attacks against us on a 50-mile front. His objects are to separate us from the French, to take the Channel ports and destroy the British Army.
Despite throwing already 106 Divisions into the battle and enduring the most reckless sacrifice of human life, he has as yet made little progress towards his goals.
We owe this to the determined fighting and self-sacrifice of our troops. Words fail me to express the admiration which I feel for the splendid resistance offered by all ranks of our Army under the most trying circumstances.
Many amongst us now are tired. To those I would say that Victory will belong to the side which holds out the longest. The French army is moving rapidly and in great force to our support.
There is no other course open to us but to fight it out! Every position must be held to the last man: there must be no retirement. With our backs to the wall, and believing in the justice of our cause each one of us must fight on to the end. The safety of our Homes and the Freedom of mankind alike depend upon the conduct of each one of us at this critical moment.
D. Haig F.M.
Thursday 11 April 1918.’
In war, morale is everything. As the Germans discovered, when morale sinks on the Home Front, so does the morale of the fighting men as they start to receive pitiful letters from home. This rot can soon infect a whole army and alongside Sir Douglas Haig’s rallying order, King George and Queen Mary toured the country to boost morale, inspect munitions and weapons factories and present medals to the troops, especially those recovering in hospital.
Part of their tour included a visit to Lincoln, where they toured Ruston and Proctor’s and William Foster’s works. Their itinerary also took them to the 4th (Northern) General Hospital on Wragby Road and as you might imagine, the visit was widely reported in the press.
Here is a newspaper cutting of their visit including a photograph taken at Foster’s in front of a Lincoln built Whippet tank.
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Felicity Sayers has provided an excellent head’s up that I know will be of interest to Dudley Giles, and many others. Felicity comments; ‘….. the Royal Military Police museum at my old training establishment HMS Dryad, by Portsmouth, have a wonderful historian who is compiling a huge database on everyone who served in the RMP from the late 1800's to 1952 - if I recall correctly. You can see more here https://rmpmuseum.com/
I was delighted to find out some data on my grandfather on our visit to Southwick House that I did not know.’
Thank you Felicity, and welcome to your new home, not a million miles away from me now!
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Just along the coast from Portsmouth comes our next snippet of interest. John Robinson has been in Southampton and writes; ‘I found this memorial to the musicians on the Titanic which is on a newly built brick wall. This area of Southampton was heavily bombed during WWII and the original memorial was lost.
There is also a very impressive memorial to all of the Engineers on board the Titanic in the adjacent East Park.’
‘The Titanic Engineers' Memorial is a memorial in East (Andrews) Park, Southampton, United Kingdom, to the engineers who died in the Titanic disaster on 15 April 1912. The bronze and granite memorial was originally unveiled by Sir Archibald Denny, president of the Institute of Marine Engineers on 22 April 1914.'
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When Sir Douglas Haig succeeded Sir John French as Commander in Chief of the British Expeditionary Force in December 1915, he was completely focussed on a large offensive to break the German lines east of Ypres. Haig’s Flanders Offensive would have to wait until the second half of 1917, the battle we know as 3rd Ypres or Passchendaele.
Why was it that Haig had to wait? “Events, my dear boy, events” – so said Harold MacMillan the ex-Tory Prime Minister, and so it was with Haig’s plan of attack in Flanders.
In February 1916, the Germans launched a large and devastating attack in the vicinity of Verdun against the French army, in Von Falkenhayn’s words, ‘we shall bleed the French white’.
As Britain and France were both militarily and politically fighting a coalition war, Haig had no option but to launch the Somme offensive on 1st July 1916, against his wishes, to try and relieve the pressure on Verdun and the horrendous number of casualties being sustained by the French.
Again, as 1916 drew to a close, Haig started to plan for his long awaited Flanders offensive, only to have to postpone his thinking one more time as the French pushed their planned offensive in Champagne, the Nivelle Offensive of April/May 1917.
In support of the Nivelle Offensive, Haig’s hand was forced to fight the Battle of Arras which opened on 9th April 1917 and led to the appalling casualties detailed earlier in this edition of Trench Lincs.
It was after the horrendous ‘butcher’s bill’ of Verdun and the Nivelle Offensive that the French Army mutinied in the summer of 1917 and refused to leave their trenches in another attack. This led to Petain, the French hero of the Great War and the French villain of the second world war, replacing Nivelle, and with a mixture of an iron fist and a velvet glove, he eventually restored some order and discipline in the ranks of the French Poilu’s.
Nevertheless, Verdun became a sacred location in the national psyche of the French population and this led to the production of a film and some wonderful propaganda works of art to bolster the morale of the nation. I include a couple below.
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The war memorial in the market place at Sleaford holds a special place in my list of favourite war memorials, because it formed the basis of my British First World War Studies MA dissertation back in 2014.
Therefore, whilst waiting for two tyres to be fitted to my car last week, I walked into the market place to buy a coffee and mince pie, and as the winter sun was shining in a clear blue sky and the memorial was bedecked with fresh wreaths following Armistice Day, I snapped these two shots of the memorial looking splendid in front of St. Deny’s church.
If you suffer from insomnia! And would like to read my dissertation, please click the link below.
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We finish as usual with a wonderful colourised photo from Chris at CJS. This week, I have chosen a nurse from Chris’ large volume of work.
Sister Lily Lind - Croix de Guerre (France).
Lily was born in Makarewa, Southland, New Zealand in 1882. When she left school she trained to become a nurse.
In 1913 Lily travelled to Ireland to study midwifery, and when war was declared in August 1914 she was working in London.
She joined the newly formed French Flag Nursing Corps and arrived in France in late October 1914.
Lily was posted to various locations and during May 1915 while working in Bergues near the Belgian border, she was twice caught in heavy German artillery bombardments.
In a letter home to her family, she told of nights as the lone nurse on duty and caring for 80 patients, many suffering from typhoid and some delirious.
For her devoted service she was awarded the Croix de Guerre by the French.
Sadly, Lily was taken ill in January 1916 and was diagnosed with tuberculosis. When her condition steadily deteriorated in October 1916, she left Europe to return home to New Zealand.
On the voyage she was nursed by her good friend and fellow nurse Margaret Hitchcock. However, Lily did not reach New Zealand as she died on 21st November 1916 and was buried at sea.
Lily Lind was 33 years old.
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In Memoriam the Lincolnshire Regiment 30th November.
1914
8046 Private Frank Sharpe, 2nd Battalion. Buried in Wimereux Communal Cemetery, France.
7834 Private William Murray, 1st Battalion. Remembered on the Menin Gate, Belgium.
7531 Corporal John Edwin Caborn, 1st Battalion, aged 26. – Ditto. –
1916
Second Lieutenant Gerald Joseph O’Reilly. 10th Battalion. Buried in Trois Arbres Cemetery, France.
1917
22782 Private E Whitelam, 2nd Battalion. Buried in Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery, Belgium.
1918
21857 Private William Bailey Parker, Depot, Aged 30. Buried in Pinchbeck Cemetery, UK.
40924 Private A V Craddock, 10th Battalion. Buried in Wall Churchyard, UK.
WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.
Finally, a little cartoon postcard for you that I hope makes you smile!
As we shall be in December next Sunday, I hope to bring you some news about the Christmas Truce of 1914. Watch this space.
Until next week
All best wishes
Jonathan
© Jonathan D’Hooghe
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