The Tyneside Irish and the Somme part 4: Letters home

The fourth part in John Sheen's series following the Tyneside Irish Brigade of the Northumberland Fusiliers to the Somme.

26/474 Lance Corporal Thomas McKenna, from Cornsay Colliery, of D Company, 26th Battalion.  From Tyneside Irish by John Sheen

We left the Tyneside Irish Brigade of the Northumberland Fusiliers [NF] in the line, where they were starting to suffer from “daily wastage”. This was a term the army used for the casualties that occurred daily from shelling and sniper fire and the accidental, and sometimes self-inflicted, wounds. They had been in France long enough now for men to carry out acts of gallantry and the first award of the Military Medal was to 26/474 Lance Corporal Thomas McKenna, of D Company of the 26th Battalion (3rd Tyneside Irish), for good patrol work between 20 February and 5 March 1916. Lamentably Lance Corporal McKenna, from Cornsay Colliery, was killed at 4:20am on 8 April, the day the award was announced.

Lieutenant Jack Fleming of the 25th Battalion (2nd Tyneside Irish) wrote to his friend, Captain Robert ‘Bob’ Falkous (then serving at home with the 30th (Reserve) Battalion, NF), on 21 April to tell him what happened:

'Did you know McKenna of D company, a fine big-hearted chap. He was one of the best men and did some excellent patrol work - so excellent that he received the Military Medal the first man in the Army to gain the distinction. The news came too late as poor McKenna got caught by a sniper's bullet while sitting in a fire bay, a most extraordinary thing. How the hell it got him I don't know, but it did.'

The first Military Cross awarded to the Tyneside Irish Brigade, was given to the bombing officer of the 27th Battalion (4th Tyneside Irish), Lieutenant John Woodall Marshall of South Shields. At great personal risk, he crossed No Man’s Land to where a non-commissioned officer (NCO), 27/53 Sergeant James Burk of West Hartlepool, was trapped, badly wounded on the German wire. Lieutenant Marshall carried the wounded NCO back to the British lines under very hot and heavy hostile firing but this brave act was in vain, for Sergeant Burke died shortly afterwards at the battalion aid post.

On 3 April, Lieutenant-Colonel Kennedy Beresford left the 25th Battalion going sick, and did not rejoin. Command of the Battalion passed to Major John Henry Morris Arden DSO of the

Worcestershire Regiment, who was on the staff of HQ 103 Brigade. 

The 26th Battalion Medical Officer, Captain Robert Reid Pirrie, Royal Army Medical Corps, was wounded the same day that Lance Corporal McKenna died, and again Jack Fleming wrote to Bob Falkous:

'That day Doc Pirrie called up. He was not supposed to come to the fire trenches but like the dear old chap he was he did. So I went round with him, we passed an "unknown" near "Jock's Joy" and Doc stopped and said, "It was about here my boy was killed". We strolled along the duckboards chatting amiably when the Hun sent a few over. I was leading and half turned to Doc and said, "These devils are starting again", when poor Doc gave a grunt and fell with a chunk of shrapnel as big as an orange near his kidney. I helped the poor fellow all I knew and went with him on the stretcher to the Field

Ambulance from where he was taken away.'

Lieutenant Jack Fleming who wrote many letters to Bob Falkous.  Fleming was promoted to Captain and attached to the 25th Batallion (2nd Tyneside Irish) but was killed in action at Passchendaele in October 1917. From Tyneside Irish by John Sheen

Holy Mass, led by Father George McBrearty, was a frequent occurrence for those of the Catholic faith and where possible the local French church was used, but often a makeshift altar was set up in a barn. Lance Corporal Ted Colpitts of the 25th Battalion recorded going to Mass and many other incidents in his small diary, where one of the most poignant entries was for 6 April, 'I helped carry Peter Docherty out - Hit in the head - he died in the dressing station later. God rest his soul.'

Lance Corporal Peter Docherty of Wallsend was buried the following day in Brewery Orchard Cemetery, along with Private Robert Mundy of D Company, also the 25th Battalion.

Three Germans approached the front line of the 24th Battalion on 7 April 1916. Two of these escaped, but the other, a 21 year old Prussian, of the 230th Regiment, was captured by 24/1151 Private John Connolly, of Milburngate in Durham, assisted by other Durham men of D Company. He was the first prisoner taken by the battalion, and the brigade, and word of this must have spread through the Brigade quickly for it is entered in Ted Colpitts’ diary. The event was also recorded by Captain George Swinburn in his diary.

Another Durham man, 24/398 Private John Carroll serving with A Company, 24th Battalion, wrote to the 'Durham Advertiser' with news of the Durham City men at the front:

'I write to let you know that my comrades and myself are still in the land of the living, although I have been somewhat poorly. It is very wet and cold out here and we are up to our boot tops in water. Recently we had a very narrow escape, the Hun sent over a "coalbox" and caught eight out of ten of us, but only one was killed, that was good luck on our part. We could do with a few gamekeepers out here to thin out, not rabbits, but rats. There are millions of rats, some of which we have tamed. We cannot get a razor out here as the place has been ruined by shellfire. Every night at "stand to" the Huns shout over to us that the war will be finished in two months. Then the fun starts, it is rat tat tat all night long. I will close now wishing you and all the boys of the city the best of good luck'.

Captain Robert ‘Bob’ Falkous, born in Witton Gilbert.  From Tyneside Irish by John Sheen

Reinforcements started to come out from the reserve battalions in England. After landing, they went up to the 31st Infantry Base Depot [IBD] at Etaples, where they received further training prior to joining the battalions up the line. One of these men was Captain Bob Falkous, who was posted to France in June 1916. He joined D Company of the 27th Battalion (4th Tyneside Irish) as Second in Command. Writing to his mother at Low Fell on the 25th of May, he described the IBD ‘a jolly fine place, heaps of good cafes etc.’ Later the same day he wrote:

'…the night operations turned out to be a gathering of about 600 men and officers under a mob of yellow-backed instructors. We were treated to quite a good lecture and then set off on what sounded like a fearfully exacting stunt. I found myself allocated to a group of New Zealanders. However, the whole business was, as usual, a wash out, and we got back to camp at midnight, feeling not much improved by the experience.'

After handing over to the Australians, the Brigade spent the last days of April and the beginning of May practising their upcoming assault at the training area near Moulle. On 4 May, the battalions entrained at St Omer and Wizernes for Amiens, then marched to St Gratien, where they arrived at 11pm and billeted for the night. This was a long, hot, trying march and several men fell out on the way. Lance Corporal Michael Manley recalled the journey:

'We travelled a whole day in this train, shunting about with all these ammunition trains coming up all the time. Eventually we ended up at a place called Amiens. We had to march about 20 miles to get to the front; we were all tired and when we fell out I remember this officer calling over to us, "If you carry on like this you'll miss the big Push!" Some hope.'

26/1064 Lance Corporal Michael Manley from Lucy Street Stanley, was the last known original enlistment to the Tyneside Irish Brigade to die at the age of 104. From Tyneside Irish by John Sheen