A Very British Romance, part 2: Still fishing

On Valentine’s Day, we posted the first in volunteer Margaret Eason’s series of posts titled ‘A Very British Romance’ about Angus Leybourne and Connie Kirkup. This week, we catch up with Connie in March 1916, writing to Angus who is currently a prisoner of war in Gütersloh, Germany. 

National Projectile Factory, Birtley, June 1916, Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums ref. 1027/271 https://flic.kr/p/o8WJfL

On 13 March 1916, Connie writes to ‘My dear Angus’ whilst she is on duty in the hospital hut at the Birtley munitions works. She tells him that the new girl, Miss Agar - 'a bouncy girl' that she mentioned to him in her last letter - is chattering away in the background while she writes. Connie tries a spot of fishing again, 'I can just imagine how you and Phil would have made excuses to come down to tea at the Hut this week if you had been at home'. And if the 'bouncy Miss Agar' is not attraction enough, Connie goes on to tempt him by waving a girdle cake under his nose:

'we have had a girdle cake for tea, made on the oven shelf put over the top of the fire, rolled out with the Roller Towel roller. Improvisation!! I am a marvel at it.'

Mrs Leybourne, Angus’ mother, came out the other day to see them, Connie's mother brought her down to the Hut, but he may already know about it as it was a fortnight ago. '[Mrs Leybourne] was very great on the house at Alston that she has taken.' and Connie is going to spend a weekend with her there when she is settled in. 'It will be something to look forward to, glad it is a place where clothes, I mean smart ones, are unnecessary because I'm saving up until after the War.'

Now Angus is imagining his Mother and Connie having tea, let's draw the parlour curtains on that scene; he's got it in his head now. A spot of coarse fishing has its attractions.

D/DLI 2/8/12(39) Prisoners of war in Germany, Angus Leybourne is seated second from the right, 1915/16 

The letter goes on to tell that a returned prisoner of war has called to see them, Ainsly, 'Do you remember him? The only thing wrong with him is that one leg is 3 inches shorter than the other. I can't think why he has been sent back.'

Other bits of news she tells Angus are that:

'The 8th have been having a hot time again, but are out of it now, Phil is alright and the others that you know, I believe they had 50 casualties.' 

'Lieutenant Edgar of the 9th DLI has been killed. He was a barrister in Newcastle and a brilliant young fellow.'

Despite Connie thinking there doesn't seem to be any news, she goes on to say that, 'Ernest's [Connie’s older brother] battalion has been ordered to the South Coast, but not gone yet. And Eric is digging trenches on the Fell, and is going to try to get left behind, I wish he could, it wouldn't be so lonely for Elsie if he could stay at home. It is hard lines on the married men and women.'

Before signing off and wishing Angus 'Best of Good Luck' and hoping he and the others keep fit, Connie just happens to mention Captain Grey, an officer she mentioned in her last letter. In that letter of 20 February, she says she thought the Captain was coming into the hut because of the pretty nurses, and then asked her for advice about leg cramp. He is stationed nearby and looking in occasionally.  He caught her up quick the other day when she said she had been rubbing her parents for rheumatism. ‘He said, 'I thought you said you couldn't massage.' I told him I didn't believe he ever had had cramp in his leg, and he went out chuckling. Now goodnight I'm going off home, it is 6:00pm'.

Now what was Angus to make of that amusing little ditty? 

Connie has discarded the rod for a net.

Six months on the job

In October 2015, volunteer Jean Longstaff wrote about the research she had begun into local men who found their way to Canada and served with the Canadian Army. This week, Jean gives us an update on what she has found out.

I started “doing the Canadians” in August and still find it as absorbing, if not more so, as I come across more and more ordinary people from the county who led extraordinary lives.

Of the 400,000 Canadians who volunteered for service in WWI, 70% were recent immigrants from Britain and just under three thousand came from County Durham, as one Durham man wrote “at times, when duty calls, we have to set our jaws a little firmer, and remember the Great Cause for which we are enduring discomforts and hardships”. They too were volunteers, but life was perhaps a little harder for them than for us!

I’ve met men who worked at the old brewery at Castle Eden, sons of vicars, Justices of the Peace, and magistrates, schoolmasters, miners of both lead and coal, farmers, paper-makers, sons and fathers from all ranks of life, from all areas of the county. What tales they have to tell.

Memorial to soldiers who worked for the Bank of Montreal, outside the offices in Winnipeg, Canada (Wikimedia Commons - public domain)

Have you ever been to Winnipeg and seen a statue of a soldier outside the offices of the Bank of Montreal? At first glance it looks like a standing version of Seaham’s “Tommy” - but that’s probably just the greatcoat and helmet. The model for that soldier was a Sunderland man, Wynn Bagnall, who rose from Gunner to Acting Major and won the Military Cross. 

For a different soldier, by sheer chance I came across an article that implied that the 18 year old Weardale man I was researching had been charged with manslaughter and was to appear before Durham Assizes. My initial thought here was “were we still transporting convicts to the colonies in the twentieth century, was that why he went to Canada?” - pause for breath and think rationally, no of course not, delve a bit deeper. Then you discover that the minute books of the Assizes for the relevant date were destroyed by a clerk during the Second World War, did he think that they would be of use to the Germans? So you start searching the Northern Echo, trying not to get waylaid by other interesting articles only to find that the judge literally gave him a slap on the wrist, said naughty boy I know you didn’t mean to kill anyone, don’t do it again and sentenced him to two weeks in prison with no hard labour! The village obviously forgave him too as he married a local girl and returned to live there after the war. 

I got stuck on another man as on his enlistment paper he had given his brother’s date of birth, so I ended up with two Josephs born in the same quarter of the same year with both births registered in Lanchester. How to unravel this? I checked other family trees on Ancestry and it looked as though quite a few others had confused the two men, then I came across a name I thought I recognised, put two and two together, and luckily made four. I got in touch with someone I had worked with in a previous life and discovered that her great uncle was the Joseph I wasn’t looking for, so I could rule out all those details and concentrate on the right one.

D/DLI 7/913/178 Embroidered postcard of Canadian and British flags, with a maple leaf

There is plenty of material out there but some you have to take with a pinch of salt. I found an article about someone’s great-aunt who happened to be the wife of a man I was researching and it had gone down in family history that she was a survivor of the Titanic. She wasn’t, that is something that has been well documented and is easy to check. It’s a person’s life post war that can be most difficult, as mentioned on previous blogs, and I have decided it is better to ignore what could be “duff gen” as an old boss used to say.

I never dreamt that I would end up reading books on Canadian military history, not my usual choice of reading matter. I usually read historical Regency novels, but even they came to mind when I was looking at a census report for one boy and in the house along with the housekeeper, cook, and nanny was a “monthly nurse”, shades of Georgette Heyer. 

My knowledge of Canadian geography hasn’t improved - you could still show me a map and I wouldn’t be able to name the provinces correctly or put towns in the right place - but I can now at least spell SASKATCHEWAN.

Jean Longstaff, Durham at War volunteer

The Tyneside Irish and the Somme part 2: Training and trenches

In the last blog by John Sheen, we left the Tyneside Irish Brigade (24th, 25th, 26th, and 27th Battalions of the Northumberland Fusiliers) on 12 January 1916, landing in France and being moved off to the sector behind the front line.  John continues the story.

After landing in France the Tyneside Irish Brigade was given instructions to move to the Blendeques area where on arrival they detrained and marched to billets in various villages, as follows:

24th to Esquerdes

25th A and B Companies to Hallines

25th C and D Companies to Wizernes

26th to Wizernes

27th to Quiestede

Billet locations, France

Training was undertaken which included route marches and musketry. Inspections of one form or another were the order of the day. Battalion specialists, i.e. signallers, scouts, snipers and bombers, all began intensive training, with men being sent on courses of instruction to the 23rd Divisional School. The training carried on until the 20th January when the whole of the 34th Division was inspected by Sir Douglas Haig and General Joffre. 

The inspection was timed for noon on a very cold and windy day with sleet showers but it was not until three o'clock that the motor vehicles carrying the inspecting officers arrived and drove slowly along the lines of the assembled troops. 

By the end of the first week of February, the battalions were considered ready for the trenches, and were to be attached to experienced units for instruction.

The 24th Battalion was to be attached to 24 Brigade. The companies were allotted as follows:

A to 1st Battalion, Sherwood Foresters

B to 2nd Battalion, East Lancashire Regiment

C to 2nd Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment

D to 1st Battalion, 1/Worcestershire Regiment

C and D Companies moved off at 9:00am on 9 February, and marched to Rue Marle where they went into billets. A and B Companies did not move off until 4:30pm and went straight in to the trenches. On 12 February A and B Companies were relieved by C and D Companies. The next day the battalion had its first casualty when Lieutenant Short of C Company was wounded during a trench mortar barrage. That night the two companies returned to billets. 

On 14 February, the battalion relieved the 2nd Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment, with A, B, and C Companies in the front line and D Company in support in the Bois Grenier line.

The trenches in the area of Bois Grenier had to be built up as the water table was so high. Image from ‘The Tyneside Irish’, by John Sheen

The 25th Battalion were attached to 68 Brigade of the 23rd Division, with the companies attached to various battalions, although the exact allocations are unknown. 

During the occupation of the trenches by A and B Companies on 12 February, the enemy heavily shelled the Bois Grenier line, resulting in the death of 25/1102 Private Joseph March of Teresa Street, Blaydon, County Durham, and the wounding of four other men. Private William Smith of B Company, a stretcher bearer, from Gateshead, and a member of the Battalion band, put pen to paper and wrote a poem about the bombardment.

Twas on the 12th February, on a cold Saturday 

The 25th NFs in the trenches lay 

They had just finished breakfast, and all was bright and gay 

Until that German bully thought he would spoil their play 

He started to bombard us and mind they made it hot 

But our brave lads stood bravely and did not care a jot 

The faithful 23 Northumberlands alongside us did stand 

For we all knew they were eager to give us a helping hand 

First two verses of ‘A Rough Day in the Trenches’, Private William Smith

At 11:00am on 14 February, the Bombing Officer, the Regimental Sergeant Major, all Company Sergeant Majors and Company Signallers of the 25th Battalion began the relief of 1st Battalion, Worcestershire Regiment. At 2:00pm the Company Commanders went into the line. At 6:00pm the battalion paraded, and marched off from the billets, reaching the trenches at 7:45pm. By 8:40pm the relief was complete, and work started on rebuilding the trenches. 

The 26th Battalion received its baptism of trench warfare under the guidance of the 2nd Rifle Brigade, and 2nd Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment of the 8th Division, with A and B Companies going into the trenches on 10 February. Two days later on the 12th, C and D Companies replaced the other two companies. 

It was about now that the 103 Light Trench Mortar Battery was formed, with the personnel found from all four battalions of the Tyneside Irish Brigade. The war diary of the 26th Battalion records that Second Lieutenant Brown and 12 other ranks were transferred to the new unit. 

The Company Sergeant Major came from D Company of the 27th Battalion, and Sergeant Richard Madden from Washington was promoted to fill the company’s vacancy. CSM Madden was to be wounded on 1 July 1916 and subsequently awarded the DCM and the MM with a Mention in Despatches. The battery was commanded by Captain DH James from the 24th Battalion.

The Brigade Light Trench Mortar Battery was not very popular with some of those who served in the front line. Captain Jack Fleming, 26th Battalion, described the activities of the battery in a letter:

'My pet aversion, Trench Mortars! Why my pet aversion I'll tell you. 

The TM Officer here it's the softest job in the Brigade. He stays 

well behind the firing line and calls up with his satellites 

occasionally to do a strafe. Locates himself behind a bay and lets 

fly a dozen or so at the Hun and retires not too gracefully to his 

lair. Now the Hun with all his faults is some strafer and he always 

acknowledges receipt. We get the receipt, while the unmentionable 

TMO is taking his tea in perfect safety somewhere.'

At 9:00am on 10 February a party of officers and non-commissioned officers of the 27th Battalion proceeded to the trenches for instruction, under 10th Battalion, Sherwood Foresters and 8th Battalion, York and Lancaster Regiment. 

It was on this day that the Tyneside Irish Brigade had its first fatal battle casualty, Major EA Leather, officer commanding B Company, 27th Battalion. Major Leather was not strictly a Tyneside Irishman but had originally joined the 3rd Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers during the Boer War and served with that unit in Malta. On the outbreak of the Great War he had volunteered his services and had been appointed as Second in Command of the 10th (Service) Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers. 

A bad accident, caused by his horse falling, prevented Leather from embarking overseas with the 10th Battalion. On his recovery, he was initially posted to the 15th (Reserve) Battalion but just before the embarkation of the Tyneside Irish the post of officer commanding B Company of the 27th Battalion became vacant. Leather was appointed to fill the vacancy. Major Leather was one of six brothers who served during both the Boer War and The Great War. One of his brothers, Lieutenant Colonel Kenneth Leather, commanded the 20th (Wearside) Battalion Durham Light Infantry.

Major Ernest Arthur Leonard killed in action 10 February 1916, aged 48. Officer commanding B Company 27th (Service) Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers (4th Tyneside Irish). Buried at Rue-David Military Cemetery, Fleurbaix.  Image from  ‘The Tyneside Irish’ by John Sheen