Thomas Young VC

Thomas Young, The DLI Collection

Thomas Young was born Thomas Murrell (or Morrell) in January 1895 at Boldon Colliery, County Durham. After his father was killed in a pit accident, his mother remarried and the Young family eventually settled in High Spen, a colliery village west of Gateshead. 

In 1914, Thomas Young, enlisted in the 9th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry, a territorial battalion, and went to France in April 1915 (http://ww1countydurham.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/the-second-battle-of-ypres-9th.html). He served as a stretcher bearer on the Western Front and was twice wounded before he gained the Victoria Cross for his bravery between 25 and 31 March 1918 at Bucquoy in France. 

Victoria Cross Citation for 203590 Private Thomas Young, 9th Battalion DLI, London Gazette, 4 June 1918: “For most conspicuous bravery in face of the enemy when acting as a stretcher bearer. He showed throughout the whole course of the operations a most magnificent example of courage and devotion to duty. On nine different occasions he went out in front of our line in broad daylight under heavy rifle, machine-gun and shell fire which was directed on him, and brought back wounded to safety, those too badly wounded to be moved before dressing he dressed under this harassing fire and carried them unaided to our lines and safety; he rescued and saved nine lives in this manner. His untiring energy, coupled with an absolute disregard of personal danger, and the great skill he showed in dealing with casualties is beyond praise. For five days Private Young worked unceasingly, evacuating wounded from seemingly impossible places.”

Private Young was presented with his Victoria Cross by King George V at Buckingham Palace on 29 June 1918. 

In 1939, Thomas Young, along with many other Great War veterans, joined the newly formed 13th (Home Defence) Battalion DLI. In 1942, he transferred to the 1st (Blaydon) Battalion Durham Home Guard and Sergeant Young served with this unit until the Home Guard was stood down in December 1945.

Thomas Young, who was an enthusiastic member of the Victoria Cross and George Cross Association, died at Whickham aged 71 in October 1966, and was buried at St. Patrick’s Church, High Spen. 

On 27 March 2018, a paving stone honouring Thomas Young’s Victoria Cross was laid at the war memorial site in Cotswold Lane, Boldon Colliery. The ceremony was attended by descendants of Thomas, as well as the Mayor of South Tyneside, Olive Puncheon, and Major Chris Lawton on behalf of the regiment. 

You can see photographs from the ceremony at the South Shields Gazette website:
https://www.shieldsgazette.com/news/victoria-cross-winner-honoured-with-lasting-memorial-1-9085142

Durham at War:

http://www.durhamatwar.org.uk/story/11278/

The Beginning of the Spring Offensive

In early March 1918, the new Bolshevik government of Russia signed a treaty with the Central Powers, ending fighting on the Eastern Front. Germany moved its army that had fighting there, to the Western Front, in order to mount a series of large scale attacks. The intention was to destroy the British Army, the only way Germany could see to win the war. They felt that the British Army was in a weakened state after the 1917 Battles of Arras, Messines, Passchendaele, and Cambrai.

Germans gathering at Saint Quentin on 19 March 1918, IWM Non Commercial Licence © IWM (Q 55479)

The area of battle was back at the Somme region, fighting on ground already fought on in 1916, this is where Germany wanted to break though the line. Of the German strategy, The Long Long Trail website writes:

"Their infantry attack would be preceded by an intense barrage concentrated not on the British infantry holding the forward posts, but on the artillery and machine gun positions, headquarters, telephone exchanges, railways and other important centres of communications… When the German infantry attacked, they would operate in small groups, specially trained to “infiltrate” – exploiting gaps and moving forward, not worrying about areas that were held up… For the British, unused to a discontinuous line and the idea of a deep zone of defended hotspots, such a tactic would spell chaos, uncertainty and disaster". 

http://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/battles/battles-of-the-western-front-in-france-and-flanders/the-first-battles-of-the-somme-1918/

The offensive would consist of four operations, Michael, Georgette, Gneisenau, and Blücher-Yorck. For the British Army, it later became officially known as The First Battles of the Somme 1918. The British were expecting an attack in March, but did not know when exactly, their defences were not complete when Operation Michael (or the Battle of Saint Quentin) began on 21 March. 

Many battalions of the Durham Light Infantry (DLI) were involved in the battle, including 2 DLI. Acting Lieutenant Colonel David Lloyd Brereton was in command of the battalion at this time, holding the left sub-sector of the Morchies Section (near Arras and Cambrai), and wrote a narrative of the events of 21 March 1918.

They had been warned of the probability of an attack so “patrols were out throughout the night and the battalion ‘stood to’ at 5am. At that hour, a heavy gas bombardment was opened on to our trenches, especially the Reserve Line”.

B and D Companies were in the Front Line, A and C Companies, and the Battalion Headquarters, were in the reserve.

At 7am, B Company reported that the shelling was getting worse and then the communication wire broke down. Communications with their brigade (18th Brigade) and the 1st Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment (1 West Yorks) in the right subsector were also severed. “About this time I sent two runners (Privates Matthews and Turnbull) to try and find out what was happening in the Front Line; they […] had to pass through a terrific bombardment but they managed to visit both the Company Commanders and to bring back a report that the bombardment had greatly increased and that their casualties were very heavy. I regret that both these runners are amongst the missing. I cannot speak too highly of their gallant behaviour.” 

British prisoners captured in the German breakthrough at St. Quentin arriving at a village south of St. Quentin, March 1918, IWM Non Commercial Licence © IWM (Q 51460)

Colonel Brereton had the Reserve Line in gas masks until 9am, and contacted the Brigade HQ by pigeon. The Front Line had been captured had been captured and the enemy were advancing towards the Reserve Line. They managed to keep the enemy from advancing over the open ground, but they managed to reach the Battalion HQ using bombs. Second Lieutenant McBain mounted a counter attack and took four machine guns and ammunition and returned it to the Reserve Line. Using this, 2 DLI killed many of the approaching enemy, who they later found out to be 3rd Prussian Guard. Whilst the shelling lessened, heavy machine gun fire remained trained on the Reserve Line. 

“About 11 am after the counter attack the Artillery Liaison Officer who was wounded as he came up to join the battalion at 5 am from Lagnicourt attempted to get the anti-tank gun along Leech Avenue into action but found it impossible to do so. This officer was of great assistance to me throughout the day and I do not know whether he got back or not. I regret that I have forgotten his name.”

The Germans were advancing on the left and right flanks of 2 DLI and 1 West Yorks. Both were ordered to retire. However, the enemy still could not cross the open. A company of the 11th Essex Regiment arrived to support 2 DLI, and two companies to 1 West Yorks. The remainder of the latter joined up with 2 DLI about 4:30pm, Lieutenant Colonel Alfred Boyall DSO was in command of 1 West Yorks, and Major Guy Stockdale MC was in command of 11 Essex. The three commanding officers decided it would not possible to retire during daylight “owing to the enemy’s machine guns which were now on three sides of us, and the only thing to be done was to hang on till dusk and then attempt to get back”.

They ran out of bombs whilst there was still an hour to go before dusk. About 7:15pm, a thick mist formed and they took the opportunity to get back to the Corps Line. “The order was given only just in time as five minutes later the whole of the Reserve Line would have been surrounded. I estimate that about 300 all ranks attempted to leave and that probably about 250 reached the Corps Line. These numbers were made up of the different units. Directly the move was made heavy machine gun fire opened on three sides and the Germans followed in great numbers at about 300 yards. There was no chance for anyone who was hit. The majority reached the Corps Line by the copse in front of Morchies.”

The Corps Line did not go untouched, the following day, more men and officers were killed. After the two days of action, only two officers (including Colonel Brereton) and 58 other ranks were unwounded. 

The companies in the front line obeyed their orders to ‘hold on to the last’ but no more was known due to the loss of communications. None returned. 

Writing to a fellow officer on 1 April, Brereton wrote, “I have a fairly good nucleus on which to build up again, as there was a large leave party and several at courses. I have had reinforcements from the other regiments and we shall soon be up to strength again”. He goes on to say, “The battalion I am satisfied has fully upheld the traditions of the old regiment and I am thankful that I have been able to be here now and help in the reorganisation… I have 13 excellent officers with me and several good NCOs [non-commissioned officers] and men with the 1914 Star and the battalion will soon be ready again”.

You can read more about Lieutenant Colonel Brereton and the transcripts of his account and letter on Durham at War:
http://www.durhamatwar.org.uk/story/14089/
http://www.durhamatwar.org.uk/material/739/

Lidar Landscapes

I am writing this blog post at this year’s Archaeology Day (10 March 2018), organised by the Durham County Council Archaeology Section. One of the displays I put together for the event is about the project on which we have been collaborating with the Archaeology Section. 

Durham at War Lidar Landscapes began in early 2017 with a workshop introducing interested volunteers to Lidar and its use in archaeology. Lidar (originally a portmanteau of ‘light’ and ‘radar’) is a relatively new information source being used by archaeologists to discover, interpret and record archaeological sites. The data for this project, provided free of charge by the Environment Agency, was gathered using sensors mounted on an aircraft. This data can be processed to make a computerised 3D model of the ground and all the features on it, in effect producing what is termed a ‘Lidar map’. For this project the 3D data collected has been processed to produce 2D ‘hillshaded’ images; this technique emphasises features on the ground, including surviving earthworks of archaeological sites and allows the data to be used as image files which can be viewed on home computers.

Digital surface model and digital terrain model of Dene Mouth , Horden

The workshop was given by Paul Frodsham of Oracle Heritage Services, who introduced us (I was new to it too) to what Lidar is, and how to analyse it (you can read more about the methodology in the report, see below). Ten separate survey areas were chosen by the Project Team, eight in County Durham and two in Tyne and Wear. These vary in size from a single km square to 5 km squares. Each was chosen because of the known or suspected presence of features relating to the First World War, such as training camps, prisoner of war camps or training trenches. The ten areas included: 

Stanhope 

Whitburn and South Shields 

Cocken Hall, near Durham City 

After the workshop, volunteers were sent data for a km square at a time, this comprised four jpegs sent by email: DTM, DSM, OS map, and aerial photograph. They analysed the data at home at their own pace, and returned their findings by email. Once all the km squares had been looked at, Paul went through the data and a produced a report. You can download this in pdf format from the Durham at War website: 

http://www.durhamatwar.org.uk/material/740/

In February this year, we began a second phase project. For this, we wanted to look at a larger, and continuous, area, as opposed to sites dotted around the county. This will enable us to complete a landscape survey as well as looking for things of archaeological interest.

Area is orange shows Lidar being looked at for 2018 project

Like before, as this is a First World War project, the area has been selected with this mind. We know there was military activity from this time in the Seaham and Dawdon area. This activity included the submarine bombardment, three Voluntary Aid Detachment hospitals, and 4th Battalion Durham Light Infantry on coastal defence. The rest of the selection was then made based on coverage. 

Since the first phase of the project, we have found a website that itself is concerned with providing data for home insurance, but provides processed Lidar coverage for England and Wales. It is not possible to search the map, but clicking on an area provides a grid reference that can be used to help orient yourself: https://houseprices.io/lab/lidar

A report for this project will be produced at the end, and will again be put online. 

The Voice of the Sepoy

A blog post from Jo

Learn as if you were to live forever.

One of the amazing things about being an archivist is that you never know what you might be called upon to learn about next. When cataloguing, you might have to teach yourself about how a building society works, in order to understand how the records were created and therefore how they should fit together in the catalogue. In the searchroom, you might have to bone up on the railway plans in the county, so that you can advise a researcher in that field.

There is always something to learn about, and that has been especially true of the Durham at War project. Neither Victoria nor I were experts on the First World War when we started the project and, while I don’t think either of us would claim to be experts now, we have certainly increased our knowledge to a great extent.

One of the things that I do for the project is to research, design and deliver educational sessions. I very much enjoy this part of the job, partly because I like to see the reactions of the young people that we work with, but also because it gives me a chance to delve into our collections, the collections of other repositories, and generally to read more widely on all sort of topics linked to the First World War.

The girl boxers on their visit to the Record Office, 2018

Most recently, I have delivered a workshop to a group of young women from Newcastle, aged 8-14 years. They come from Muslim households whose families originate from South Asia. As well as studying the idea of “Otherness” during the First World War, the girls are learning to box. So, my challenge was to put together a workshop that included the South Asian experience of the First World War and try to sneak in a bit of boxing! It was going to be a steep learning curve.

D/DLI 7/217/5(27) A boxing match with crowd taken at Rennbahn prisoner of war camp, c.1916

Fortunately, I knew that James Fish would not let me down. James trained at Bede College in Durham and served with 8th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry. He was captured and spent much of the war at Rennbahn prisoner of war camp near Munster. James seemed to have been an avid collector of photographs and his album of camp photos is a gem. His pictures show life in the camp, including the theatre performances and boxing matches that prisoners arranged to keep themselves busy. So, not only did he tick the boxing box (or should that be ring?) for me, but his photographs of the inmates at the camp helped me to find a way in to the South Asian men who served during the war. His photographs show a wide cross-section of the men in the camp, including Scots in kilts, Sikhs in turbans, Gurkhas and West African troops. Do have a look, they are online on the Durham County Record Office catalogue:

http://www.durhamrecordoffice.org.uk/article/10924?SearchType=Param&Variations=N&Keywords=d%2fdli+7%2f217%2f5&ImagesOnly=Y&ImageView=List 

D/DLI 7/217/5(34) Photograph of a prisoner of war at Rennbahn prisoner of war camp, c.1914-18

The photographs really are fantastic (one of the most vocal members of the group became quite somber and thoughtful when she described the power and sadness of one of the Indian men depicted), but I wanted to go further. What were these men thinking? How did they react to fighting in a war so far from home in an alien environment? I rolled up my cardigan sleeves and began to dig.

Luckily, I came across an article by Santanu Das on the British Library website: https://www.bl.uk/world-war-one/articles/the-indian-sepoy-in-the-first-world-war

In it, he discusses the British Library’s collection of letters written by men from pre-partition India to their families back at home. The British authorities were worried about the Indian independence movement and so these letters were censored with particular care. As well as being censored at regimental level, all of the Sepoys’ correspondence went through the hands of a central censor who created monthly reports of the extracted and translated letters. It is these reports that survive at the British Library, and which (albeit through several layers) allow us to hear the voice of the Indian soldier during the First World War. The following is the example that I used with the girls.

From Giyan Singh, a Sikh, at Indian Artillery Depot, Milford-on-Sea, to his brother in India. (Gurmukhi, dated 15/4/15): “The German is very strong. His ships sail the clouds and drop shells from the sky; his mines dig up the earth and his hidden craft strike below the sea. Bombs and blinding acid are thrown from his trenches which are only 100 or 50 yards from ours. He has countless machine guns which kill the whole firing line when in attack. When he attacks we kill his men. The dead lie in heaps. England is full of wounded. No man can return to the Punjab whole. Only the broken limbed can go back. The regiments that came first are finished – here and there a man remains. Reinforcements have twice and three times brought them up to strength, but straight away they were used up. The German is very strong.”

(British Library, IOR/L/MIL/5/825/3 f.11) 

Looking at different sources, 2018

Nearly 1.5 million men from pre-partition India, which included the present countries of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Myanmar, volunteered during the First World War. Indian army troops were quickly shipped to Europe at the beginning of the war and Sepoys were involved in some of the earliest battles. According to the British Council, 50,000 Indian men were killed, 65,000 injured and 10,000 reported as missing. 

The British Library has digitised all of the Sepoy letters and they are available to view online. This amazing collection gives us a chance to continue learning about the war from a different perspective, and to carry on uncovering hidden histories of the First World War.

https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/how-was-india-involved-first-world-war
https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/statements-by-three-wounded-indians-prisoners-of-war-in-germany1
https://www.bl.uk/world-war-one/themes/race-empire-and-colonial-troops

Winter is here

Instead of searching for dragonglass to fend off a potential invasion from White Walkers in this snowscape, I have been looking at the newspapers and found reports of a severe winter storm that took place at the end of March 1917 and into April. The photographs are from our collection, and are of Langdon Beck. We are not sure of the year but we think they are from sometime during the First World War period.

D/Ph 441/4/3 Langdon Beck Hotel, c.1916

On 2 April 1917 the Shields Daily News reported on their area saying:
Yesterday morning, a heavy fall of snow occurred in the Tynemouth district. The fall was much greater than any which had taken place during the winter, and the unusual spectacle of a snowstorm in April created much surprise…In some places the snow had drifted to a considerable depth, and the streets were almost impassable…The snowstorm was accompanied by a hard and continuous frost.

The Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail of the same day reported:
There is an old English proverb which says that April borrows three days of March, and they are. Yesterday must have been such a borrowed day.

From all parts of the country come reports of wintry weather. In the North of England, and in the Midlands especially, the snowfall has been very severe.

April weather is proverbially fickle, but the reputation of the month rests on the erratic alternation of sunshine and rain and not on such a combination as the first day of this new April gave us.

Snow fell on eight days in March and on the 24th of the month there were nine degrees of frost. March went out with snow and April came in with snow.

The weather of the first three months of this year will long be remembered. The temperature has been continually below the average. There was frost on 23 days in January, 20 in February, and 22 in March. Snow has fallen on 20 days since the new year came in. For 61 days out of 90the wind has been in the north or east.

D/Ph 441/4/8 Clearing the snow and building with it, c.1916

The issue’s editorial read:
The clerk on the weather did his best yesterday to make us all feel like April Fools. When we peeped from our bedroom windows and saw the Artic conditions that prevailed it was difficult to believe we had left March behind. The fall of snow in the Hartlepools was one of the heaviest we have had for many years, and the winter conditions appear to have been general in the country. The snow will do something towards protecting seeds in the ground from the hard frost which prevailed last night, but it will also delay operations on the land which have been sufficiently difficult this spring. There are people who say that cold wintry weather at this time of the year is often followed by much more genial conditions in late spring and early summer than usually prevail. We doubt if there is much truth in the saying, but we can only hope that such conditions will be realised this year.

 Let's hope indeed.