Great War Lives Lost

We died 100 years ago in the War to end all War
October 13, 2018

Monday 14 October 1918 We Lost 1,754

James McPhie VC

Second Lieutenant James Herbert Grahame (Royal Air Force) when bombing Herseaux aerodrome, obtains two direct hits on a hangar, completely demolishing it. Four members of 29 Royal Air Force engage a large number of enemy scouts shooting down five, Lieutenant Henry Coyle Rath accounting for two of the victories.  For this action he will be awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, though he will be killed in a flying accident less than two weeks after this action.

Major General Louis James Lipsett CMG General Officer Commanding 4th Division is killed in action at age 44.  He becomes the last British General to be killed in the Great War when he is mortally wounded in the front of his own line, while engaged in a reconnaissance.

At the Canal de la Sensée near Aubencheul-au-Bac, Nord, France, Corporal James McPhie VC (Royal Engineers) is with a party of sappers maintaining a cork float bridge, which when our infantry starts to cross it just before dawn begins to break away and sink. Corporal McPhie jumps into the water and tries to hold the cork and timbers together but this proves impossible so he swims back and collects the materials for repair. Although it is daylight and the bridge is under close fire he then leads the way to the bridge, axe in hand. He is severely wounded and dies almost at once. For his actions he will be awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross.

Today’s losses include:

  • The last General killed in the Great War
  • A Victoria Cross winner
  • A battalion commandree
  • Aces
    • 15-victory
    • 8-victory
  • Multiple sons of members of the clergy
  • Multiple families that will lose two sons in the Great War
  • The son of an Admiral
  • The elder brother of anthropologist, social scientist and linguist Gregory Bateson

Today’s highlighted casualties include:

  • Lieutenant Colonel Claude Swanwick Worthington DSO (Manchester Regiment commanding 5th Dorsetshire Regiment) is killed at age 41.
  • Captain John Edmund Greene DFC (Royal Air Force) a 15-victory ace killed at age 24. He is Canada’s first ace and was shot down 10 days before being fatally shot down today.
  • Captain Humphrey French Flowers (Royal Air Force) is shot down and killed over Ledeghem at age 22. He is the son of the Reverend John French Flowers Vicar of Gt Carlton and his brother was killed last April.
  • Captain Edward Aubrey Persse (Royal Field Artillery) is killed in action at age 37. His younger brother has been killed in June of this year.
  • Captain Sacheverel Darwin Wilmot (Royal Garrison Artillery) dies of influenza in Karachi Military Hospital at age 33. He is the son of the Reverend Darwin Wilmot.
  • Captain Denman Lambert Henry Baynes MC (Royal Garrison Artillery) is killed at Ypres at age 32. He is the son of Admiral Henry Compton Baynes.
  • Captain William Sandilands Brown (North Staffordshire Regiment) is killed at age 26. He is the son of the Very Reverend Dr Brown.
  • Lieutenant John Bateson (Royal Field Artillery) MC is killed at age 20. He is considered a naturalist of exceptional promise.  He is the elder brother of the anthropologist, social scientist and linguist Gregory Bateson.
  • Lieutenant Claude Melnot Wilson DFC (Royal Air Force) is killed at age 20. He is an 8-victory ace.
  • Lieutenant Arthur Noel Buchanan (Royal Air Force) dies of pneumonia while on leave at home at age 33. He is the son of the Honorable ‘Sir’ John and Lady Buchanan and had served in Mesopotamia from 1914 to 1915, where he was a prisoner of war.
  • Second Lieutenant Robert Aubrey Hastings Lloyd (Royal Air Force) received four days earlier at age 18. His brother was killed in April.
  • Private T H Dorsett (Hampshire Regiment) is killed in action at age 20. His brother died in October 1915.
  • Private Charles James W Martin (Machine Gun Corps) is killed at age 22. His older brother was wounded in October 1914 and will die from the effects of those wounds in June 1920.
  • Private Joseph Booth Hodgkin (North Staffordshire Regiment) is killed at age 21. His brother was killed in October 1916.
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October 12, 2018

Sunday 13 October 1918 We Lost 1,387

Claude Handley Trotter

Second Lieutenant Joseph William Gould (York and Lancashire Regiment) is killed at age 31.  His brother was killed in September 1915. The following Privates of the York and Lancashire Regiment are killed on this day having also lost their brothers earlier in the Great War.

  • Thomas Daltry is killed at age 23. His seventeen-year old brother was killed last August.
  • R J Cranfield is killed at age 19. His brother was killed in October 1916.
  • Frederick Bennett is also killed at age 19. His brother was killed in July 1917.

Lieutenant Claude Handley Trotter (Alberta Dragoons attached Royal Air Force) is accidentally killed while flying at night in Essex at age 23.  He is the son of the Reverend Canon John Crawford Trotter.  He was previously recommended for the Albert Medal for attempting to save his pilot’s life in an earlier crash.

Flight Sergeant Albert Edgar Warne AM (Royal Air Force) dies on service at home. He was awarded the Albert Medal for attempting to save life of a pilot who crashed in January of this year.

Today’s losses include:

  • An Albert Medal winner
  • A man recommended for the Albert Medal
  • A General
  • A man whose son will be born after his death and then killed in November 1944
  • A woman whose brother was killed in September 1915

Today’s highlighted casualties include:

  • Brigadier General Colin Lawrence MacNab CMG dies of illness contracted on service at home at age 47.
  • Second Lieutenant Harold Robert Robinson (Royal Garrison Artillery) is killed at age 20. He is the son of the Reverend Alexander Robinson.
  • Second Lieutenant Reginald Gillon Christophers (Otago Regiment) is killed at age 36. He is the last of four brothers who will be killed in the Great War.
  • Sergeant Hugh G Matheson DCM MM (Seaforth Highlanders) is killed. His brother was killed in May 1917.
  • Private Robert Miller (Seaforth Highlanders) is killed. His brother died as a result of an accident at home in May 1916.
  • Private Edward John Poole (London Regiment) is killed in action at age 18. His older brother was killed at the third battle of Ypres in 1917.
  • Gunner Henry Davies (Royal Field Artillery) is killed at age 21. He is the last of three brothers who are killed in the war.
  • Private William Alexander Fotheringham (Black Watch) is killed. His brother was killed in September 1916.
  • Private Edward Parker Wilkinson (Royal Army Medical Corps) is killed in Mesopotamia at age 47. He is the son of the Reverend Robert Parker Wilkinson Rector of Longparish.
  • Private John Joseph Hobart (Lancashire Fusiliers) is killed in action. His son and namesake who is born after his death will be killed in November 1944.
  • Member Edith Mary Tonkin (Volunteer Aid Detachment) dies on service at age 26. Her brother was killed in September 1915.
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October 11, 2018

Saturday 12 October 1918 We Lost 1,416

Frank Lester VC

In driving rain and sleet 22-year old Private Frank Lester (Lancashire Fusiliers) performs a deed for which he was awarded the Victoria Cross. During clearing operations in the village of Neuvilly with a party of about seven men under an officer, he is the first to enter a house from the back door. He shoots two Germans as they attempted to get out by the front door. A minute later a fall of masonry blocks the door by which the party has entered. The only exit into the street is under fire at point-blank range. The street is also swept by fire of machine guns at close range. Observing that an enemy sniper is causing heavy casualties to a party in a house across the street Lester exclaims, “I’ll settle him” and dashing out into the street, shoots the sniper at close quarters, falling mortally wounded at the same time.

Today’s losses include:

  • A Victoria Cross winner
  • A Military Chaplain
  • The son of a member of the clergy
  • The son of a General
  • Multiple families that will lose two sons in the Great War

Today’s highlighted casualties include:

  • Major Ernest Frederick Powys Sketchley DSO (Royal Marines Light Infantry) is killed at age 35. He is the son of the Reverend Ernest Powys Sketchley.
  • Second Lieutenant Robert Hugh Alban Cotton (Army Service Corps) dies in Italy at age 29. He is a Clerk in Holy Orders and Assistant Priest at Holy Innocents Church. His brother was killed in June 1916 and they are sons of the late Major General W H Cotton.
  • Chaplain Archibald Owen Carwithen Longridge dies of wounds at age 38. His brother was killed in August 1916.
  • Corporal John Henry Courtier (Machine Gun Corps) is killed at age 23. His brother was killed in September 1915.
  • Corporal Thomas Black MM (Royal Engineers) dies as a prisoner of war at age 26. His brother died of wounds at home in 1916.
  • Private Thomas Maxwell Stevenson (British Columbia Regiment) died of wounds received on 20th September. His brother was killed in January of this year. He was drafted under the Military Act of 1917.
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October 10, 2018

Friday 11 October 1918 We Lost 1,603

Wallace Lloyd Algie VC

Brigadier General Stuart Campbell Taylor DSO (93rd Brigade, 31st Division) dies of wounds received in action ten days prior at age 45.  While on an inspection tour of his battalions he is seriously wounded in the head and body by shellfire.  He took part in the operations on the North West Frontier in 1897-98 and fought in the South African War in the advance on Kimberley and actions at Belmont, Enslin, Modder River and Magersfontein.

When with attacking troops northeast of Cambrai which come under heavy enfilade machine-gun fire from a neighboring village Lieutenant Wallace Lloyd Algie (Central Ontario Regiment) rushes forward with nine volunteers. He shoots the crew of an enemy machine gun, and, turning the machine on the enemy, enables his party to reach the village. He then rushes another machine gun, kills the crew, captures an officer and ten of the enemy and thereby clears the end of the village. Lieutenant Algie, having established his party, goes back for reinforcements, but is killed when leading them forward. For his valor and personal initiative in the face of intense fire and saving many lives and enabling the position to be held he will be awarded the Victoria Cross posthumously.

Today’s losses include:

  • A Victoria Cross winner
  • A General
  • A 13-victory ace
  • A man whose son will die on service in 1945
  • A Military Chaplain
  • The son of a member of the clergy
  • Multiple families that will lose two sons in the Great War

Today’s highlighted casualties include:

  • Captain John Herbert Towne Letts MC (Lincolnshire Regiment attached Royal Air Force) is accidentally killed at age 21. He is a 13-victory ace.
  • Lieutenant Ernest Edward Tuckett (Royal Naval Volunteer Resereve) dies on service at age 27. His son will die on service in 1945 and is buried in the same cemetery in Yorkshire.
  • Lieutenant Ronald Cecil Vernon (General Depot Staff, South African Forces) dies in South Africa at age 26. He is the son of the Reverend James Campbell Vernon.
  • Second Lieutenant Samuel Richard Ernest Walker (Northumberland Fusiliers) is killed in action at age 28. He is the son of the Reverend Canon Philip James Walker.
  • Chaplain Frederick Walter Cleveland MC (attached North Staffordshire Regiment) dies of wounds received one week ago at age 30. He was the Curate at Christ Church, Tunstall.
  • Second Lieutenant Frank Watson Ballard (Northamptonshire Regiment) dies of wounds at age 28. His brother was killed in July 1915.
  • Lance Corporal E B Stittle (Royal Engineers) is killed at age 26. His brother was killed in June 1915.
  • Private Alfred Whalley (Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers) is killed in action. His brother was killed in June 1917.
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October 9, 2018

Thursday 10 October 1918 We Lost 1,657

Royal Mail Ship S S Leinster (Captain William Birch) operated by the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company, serving as the Dublin-Holyhead mail-boat is torpedoed by the U-boat UB-123.  Having departed the Dublin ferry port at Kingstown (now re-named Dun Laoghaire) she is sunk just outside Dublin Bay at a point four miles east of the Kish light.  When she goes down 501 people perished — the greatest single loss of life at sea in the Irish Sea.  Despite many previous requests for a naval escort the Admiralty relied on the Leinster’s speed as her only protection from U-boat attack. She had been unsuccessfully attacked before but the torpedoes missed their target.

On her final morning she carries a crew of 77 and 694 passengers, of whom 500 are soldiers.  Initially UB-123 fires two torpedoes; one misses, passing harmlessly across the ship’s bow, but the other strikes the Leinster mid-ship forward of the bridge.  The ship begins to settle very slowly bow down in the water. In response to her distress call the British destroyers HMS Lively and HMS Mallard go to her assistance.  It is believed that at this stage she could have been saved by being towed back into Dublin or Dun Laoghaire harbour but the captain of the submarine decides to administer the coup de grace and finish her off with a third torpedo.  This he does as the Leinster continues taking on water and is disembarking her passengers into the lifeboats in rough seas. One hundred seventy-six of the 757 people on board are lost, including

  • Captain Birch who has been wounded in the initial attack and drowns when the lifeboat he is in swamps in heavy seas and capsizes while trying to transfer survivors to HMS Mallard. Others killed include
  • Lieutenant Commander George Richard Colin Campbell (Royal Navy Compass Department) age 34 the superintendent of the Magnetic Compass Department and inventor of the Campbell-Bennett aperiodic compass who is travelling with his wife and 4½ year old daughter. All are lost. He is the son of the Reverend Edward F Campbell.
  • Clerk shorthand typist Josephine Carr (Women’s Royal Naval Service) killed at age 19 after being in the service less than 30 days. She is the first WREN killed on active service.
  • Able Seaman David White (HMS Pembroke) is lost at age 41. His wife is pregnant and will name their son George Paul Leinster White.
  • Lieutenant Anchitel Edward Fletcher Boughey (Rifle Brigade) drowns at age 26. He is the son of the Reverend Anchitel Harry Fletcher Boughey (Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge).
  • Captain Harold Locke (Irish Regiment) is killed at age 45. He is the son of Frederick Locke DL JP.
  • Captain Robert Ernest Lee (Royal Army Medical Corps) is killed at age 35. His brother was killed in action on Gallipoli in August 1915 and they are sons of the late Edward Lee JP.
  • Second Lieutenant Douglas Gilbert Hayward Aldworth (Berkshire Regiment) is killed at age 19. He is the son of the Reverend Arthur Ernest Aldworth Vicar of Laverstock.
  • J Shaw-Jones dies of injuries received in the sinking. He is a veteran of the South Africa War and rejoined the army at the outbreak of the Great War and was wounded twice and invalided out. He then worked in the Factory Audit Department of the Ministry of Munitions and was returning from a business trip.
  • Corporal Samuel Eddy (Welsh Regiment) is killed at age 25. His brother was killed in action earlier this year.

 Today’s losses include:

  • The co-inventor or the Campbell-Bennett aperiodic compass with his wife and young son
  • Multiple sons of members of the clergy
  • The first WREN (Women’s Royal Navy Service) member killed in action
  • Multiple sons of Justices of the Peace
  • A twice wounded discharge veteran currently working in the Department of Ministry of Munitions
  • Multiple battalion commanders
  • Multiple families that will lose two and three sons in the Great War
  • The son of a Member of Parliament

Today’s highlighted casualties include:

  • Lieutenant Colonel George Ernest Beaty-Pownall DSO (Border Regiment commanding 1st King’s Own Scottish Borderers) dies of wounds at age 41. His brother has been killed in March 1917.
  • Lieutenant Colonel Philip Edward Kelly (Royal Irish Fusiliers commanding 9th (North Irish Horse) Royal Irish Fusiliers) is killed at age 29.
  • Lieutenant Colonel George Bissett DSO MC (commanding 1st Royal Scots Fusiliers) is killed at age 28.
  • Major Leonard Coulthard Hill MC (Royal Field Artillery attached Fourth Army Artillery School) is accidentally killed at age 31. He is the son of the Reverend Percival Oakley Hill.
  • Captain Kenneth Sutherland Rudd (West Yorkshire Regiment) is killed at age 24. He is the son of Prebendary Eric John Sutherland Rudd Rector of Souldern.
  • Captain George Goldon Dilliway (Army Service attached Camel Transport Corps) is killed in Palestine at age 28. His brother was killed on the first day of the battle of the Somme.
  • Captain Robert Chaworth-Musters MC (King’s Royal Rifle Corps) dies at home. His two brothers have previously been killed in action in the Great War.
  • Lieutenant John Hackett (HMS Nimrod) dies of illness at home. He is the son of the Reverend John Hackett Rector of Orlingbury.
  • Lieutenant Richard Henry Hocken (Canadian Light Horse Regiment) is killed at age 26. He is the son of H C Hocken MP.
  • Lieutenant John Carruth (Dublin Fusiliers attached Irish Rifles) dies of wounds. His brother was killed in September 1916.
  • Second Lieutenant Victor James French (Irish Guards) is killed in action at age 20. He is the son of ‘Sir’ Somerset French KCMG.
  • Driver George Lawrence (Royal Garrison Artillery) dies of pneumonia at age 20. His brother died of wounds in July 1916.
  • Private Frederick William Knight (Lord Strathcona’s Horse) is killed in action at age 22. His brother was killed in May of this year.
  • Private Maurice Rudolph Hannam (Royal Air Force) dies on service in Canada at age 18. His brother was killed in November 1916 and the boys came from Brooklyn New York.
  • Private James Samuel Griffiths (Manchester Regiment) is killed. His brother was killed in July 1916.
  • Private Herbert Bennett (Northumberland Fusiliers) is killed in Mesopotamia at age 33. One brother died of wounds as a prisoner of war in August 1917 while a second died of wounds at home in September 1916.
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October 8, 2018

Wednesday 9 October 1918 We Lost 1,219

Alfred Hartley

Captain Allan Hepburn and Second Lieutenant Horace George Eldeon shoot down a Fokker D VII near Seclin, their second victory in two days. Lieutenant (Acting Captain) John Rose begins a period over which he will destroy seven enemy airplanes.

Private William Edgar Holmes (Grenadier Guards) carries in two men under most intense fire and while he is attending a third case, he is severely wounded. In spite of this he continues to carry wounded and is shortly afterwards again wounded this time fatally. For his actions this day he will be awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross being killed at age 23.

Lieutenant Alfred Hartley (Royal Garrison Artillery) is killed at age 39.  He was a cricketer who played for Lancashire. Hartley was a solid, defensive right-handed opening batsman from the West Indies who had a fairly brief career in English county cricket. He made his first-class debut in 1907, made 1,000 runs at a respectable average in both 1908 and 1909, but only really came to the fore in 1910 when, with 1,585 runs at an average of nearly 37 runs per innings, he was selected for the Gentlemen v Players matches at The Oval and Lord’s. He did little in the first match, but in the second, though scoring only 24 and 35, he impressed the editor of Wisden sufficiently to be named in the 1911 edition as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year. His big innings of the season was 234 for Lancashire against the very weak Somerset team at Old Trafford, and he also scored a century in the return fixture at Bath. He was born in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Today’s losses include:

  • A Victoria Cross winner
  • A 1911 Wisden Top 5 Cricketer of the Year
  • A 7-victory ace
  • Multiple families that will lose two and three sons in the Great War
  • The son of the High Baliff of Douglas & Castletown Isle of Man

Today’s highlighted casualties include:

  • Lieutenant Lynn Campbell (Royal Air Force) is killed in action with his observer William Hodgkinson. Campbell is a 7-victory ace.
  • Second Lieutenant Arthur John Woodthorpe (Royal Garrison Artillery) is killed at age 37. His brother was killed in October 1915.
  • Second Lieutenant Cyril Lloyd Moubray MC (Royal Engineers) is killed in action at age 24. His brother was killed in July 1918.
  • Second Lieutenant James Bainton Stowell Gell (Royal Field Artillery) is killed at age 19. He is the only son of the High Baliff of Douglas & Castletown Isle of Man.
  • Lance Corporal Wallace Jesse Ward (Royal Engineers) dies in a London hospital from an illness contract in France. His brother was killed in action in July 1917.
  • Private Henry Walter Deverill (Royal Fusiliers) is killed in action at age 23. He is one of three brothers who will lose their lives in the Great War.
  • Private Archibald G Smith (Dublin Fusiliers) is killed by a bomb dropped from an airplane at age 22. His brother was killed in November 1917.
  • Bombardier Alec Andrew Sprudd (Royal Field Artillery) is killed at age 26. His brother was killed in April 1918.
  • Private Albet Warrington (Lincolnshire Regiment) is killed at age 19. His brother was killed last year.
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October 7, 2018

Tuesday 8 October 1918 We Lost 2,486

 

William Herbert Waring VC

Captain Allan Hepburn and Second Lieutenant Horace George Eldeon shoot down a Fokker D VII southwest of Cambrai.

Beirut is occupied by the 7th (Meerut) Division with French ships are already in the harbor.

Sergeant William Herbert Waring (Royal Welsh Fusiliers) leads an attack against enemy machine guns and, in face of devastating fire from the flank and front, rushes a strong point singlehanded, bayoneting four of the garrison and capturing twenty others with their guns; then under heavy shell and machine gun fire, he re-organizes his men, leads and inspires them for another 400 yards, when he falls mortally wounded. For his action he will be awarded the Victoria Cross posthumously.

Today’s losses include:

  • A Victoria Cross winner
  • A battalion commander
  • The son of a Justice of the Peace
  • Multiple families that will lose two, three and four sons in the Great War
  • A Military Chaplain
  • A Civilian Chaplain
  • Multiple sons of members of the clergy
  • The daughter of a member of the clergy
  • A schoolmaster
  • The son of a Baronet
  • A man whose father died on service
  • A man who lose both a brother and sister on service
  • A Bradford and Brighton footballer

Today’s highlighted casualties include:

  • Lieutenant Colonel George Despard Franks CMG DSO (commanding 19th Hussars) is killed at age 45. He is the son of Matthew Franks DL JP.
  • Major Gerald Messervy MC (Royal Field Artillery) is killed at age 28. He is the second of two brothers who are killed in the war along with a cousin who was killed in 1915.
  • Captain Eustace Hammick MC (Indian Infantry) dies on service in Egypt at age 29. His brother died on service in India in May 1916.
  • Captain James Arthur Jones (South Wales Borderers) is killed at age 28. He is the son of the Reverend James Jones Vicar of Llandebie.
  • Captain Philip de Malpas Wayne Egerton (Hussars) is killed in action at age 23. He is the son of ‘Sir’ Philip Henry Brian Grey Egerton the 12th Baronet, his brother was killed in November 1914.
  • Lieutenant Arthur Charles Fleming Griffith (Welsh Fusiliers) is killed at age 21. He is the son of the Very Reverend C E T Griffith the Dean of Llandaff.
  • Sub Lieutenant F C Harry (Hawke Battalion, Royal Naval Division, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve) is killed in action at age 20. He is the son of the Reverend Lewis T Harry.
  • Second Lieutenant Gordon Eyre Baxter (Devonshire Regiment) is killed at age 28. His brother was killed in April 1915 on Gallipoli.
  • Chaplain William Evans Jones (attached Welsh Fusiliers) dies on service at age 24.
  • Civilian Chaplain “the Reverend” Joseph George Aldridge (Young Men’s Christian Association) dies at the front at age 45.
  • Driver Mildred Constance Davis (French Red Cross Society) dies on service at age 25. She is the daughter of the Reverend Edward Smith Davis.
  • Corporal Louis Henry Foxworthy (Devonshire Regiment) is killed in action at age 31. His brother will die in December 1918 from war service after being discharge.
  • Private Ivor Jenkins (Welsh Regiment) is killed in action. He has had two brothers and a brother-in-law previously killed in the Great War.
  • Rifleman Thomas Caesar Kelly (New Zealand Rifle Brigade) is killed in action at age 28. His brother died in June 1918.
  • Private George Wheeler (Wiltshire Regiment) is killed in action. His two brothers will also die serving in the forces, the first in December of this year in Germany the second when HMS Courageous is sunk in September 1939 while serving in the Royal Marines.
  • Private John Richard Dolman (Lincolnshire Regiment) is killed at age 19. His brother was killed in August 1915.
  • Private Horace Dean (Hertfordshire Regiment) is killed at age 26. He is the former Scoutmaster for Berkhamsted.
  • Sapper E J Mellon (Royal Engineers) died in Damascus. His two brothers have already lost their lives in the Great War.
  • Private Maurice Zimmerman (Royal Fusiliers) is killed at age 33 in Palestine becoming the fourth brother to be killed since August 1916.
  • Private Robert Lennox Butcher (Royal Fusiliers) is killed at age 19. His father died at home on service in 1915.
  • Trooper Arthur Juniper (Guards Machine Gun Regiment) dies of wounds. His brother died of wounds in April 1918 and their sister Nurse Emily died on board a ship.
  • Gunner James Smith (Royal Field Artillery) is killed at age 29. He is a footballer who scored 49 goals in 90 appearances for Bradford after scoring 37 goals in 59 appearances for Brighton.
  • Private Raymond Pickford (Welsh Fusiliers) is killed at age 24. His brother will die of wounds in less than three weeks.
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October 6, 2018

Monday 7 October 1918 We Lost 830

Vivian Pemberton grave

Captain Vivian Telfer Pemberton MC (Royal Garrison Artillery) is killed in action at age 24.  His brother was killed in December 1914.  He wrote the following poem called War Meditations.

When the snow lies crisp and sparkling o’re the frozen sea of mud

Which lies round Combles and Peronne;

When your veins are full of icicles instead of warm red blood

And your circulation’s absolutely gone;

When your fingers get so numb your glasses won’t stay near your eyes,

And your tired of watching movement in Bapaume,

Don’t you sometimes feel you’d like to have a really damned good cry,

When your thoughts begin to turn towards your home

 

When you’re passing Ginchy corner and the Hun begins to strafe,

And you want to throw yourself down in the mud,

But your daren’t because yo kow that the telephonist would laugh

So you can but hope the next will be a dud,

‘When you get to your O.P. and find you’ve worked your factors wrong.

And you’re well within the hundred per cent zone,

Have you never felt that feeling when your whole soul seems to long

For home, a dog, or wife to call your own.

Today’s losses include:

  • A Great War Poet
  • A Battalion commander
  • Multiple sons of members of the clergy
  • The son of an Alderman and Justice of the Peace
  • Multiple families that will lose two sons in the Great War

Today’s highlighted casualties include:

  • Major (Acting Lieutenant Colonel) Leonard Montague Greenwood DSO MC (commanding 13th Durham Light Infantry) is killed at age 25. He is the son of the Reverend Thomas Greenwood.
  • Captain Laurence Hilton Hopkins (Cambridgeshire Regiment) is killed at age 26. He is the son of the Reverend George Hanslip Hopkins Rector of Chigwell Row.
  • Second Lieutenant Albert Lockwood (Royal Garrison Artillery) is killed at age 26. He is the son of Alderman H Lockwood JP.
  • Bombardier Thomas George Herweg (1st Australian Field Artillery) is killed at age 22. His brother died in Cairo in September 1915.
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October 5, 2018

Sunday 6 October 1918 We Lost 962

HMS Otranto is an armed troopship employed in ferrying American “doughboys” to the Western Front in Europe.  It is during one such operation that she collides with HMS Kashmir, another liner turned troopship, in poor visibility in the rough seas between the North East coast of Ireland and the Western Isles of Scotland.  She is holed on the port side forward and, in the heavy swell, begins to list. The stricken ship then hits rocks and becomes grounded.  With the heavy seas pounding her continually against the rocks the ship eventually breaks up and sinks with the loss of 431 lives (351 American troops and 80 British crew members). A number of “doughboys” and crew are saved by a convoy escort, HMS Mounsey, and are taken to Belfast, Ireland.  Captain Ernest George William Davidson (Royal Navy) true to the ancient traditions of the sea stays with his ship and goes down with her in the terrible sea as he salutes his men for one last time. Men in the raging sea cling to anything that will float. One man survived by grabbing a large tub of lard that was floating by him. In addition to her Captain

  • Petty Officer Henry James Greenwood killed at age 26. His father died on service last May.

Today’s losses include:

  • A man whose father previously died on service
  • Multiple families that will lose two and three sons in the Great War
  • The grandson of a Victoria Cross winner and General

Today’s highlighted casualties include:

  • Lieutenant Commander Basil Stratford Noake (Royal Navy, HMS Begonia) is killed when his ship his torpedoed in the Bristol Channel. His brother will be lost at sea from the Ambulance Ship Elloria in 1919.
  • Captain John J Tough (Royal Army Medical Corps) is killed in action when an enemy airplane drops a bomb on the 5th Field Ambulance at Flesquieres. He dies two years after his brother has been killed on the first day of the Battle of the Somme.
  • Second Lieutenant Donald McLeod Innes (Black Watch) dies of wounds at age 19 at Vimy Ridge. He is the grandson of Lieutenant General James John McLeod Innes VC and a scholar of Repton School.  He was an Exhibitioner of Trinity College, Cambridge.  His older brother was killed in action in April 1917 also at age 19.
  • Second Lieutenant Leslie Harold Perry MC (Gloucestershire Regiment attached Durham Light Infantry) is killed in action at age 19. He is the son of ‘Sir’ William Perry.
  • Lance Corporal Betram Smart (Devonshire Regiment) dies on service in Bombay. His brother was killed in February 1915.
  • Private Marcus M Miller (Canadian Infantry) dies at home at age 27. His two brothers have been previously killed in the Great War.
  • Rifleman Percival James Mellon (London Regiment) is killed at age 20. His brother was killed in July 1916 while another brother will be killed in two days.
  • Private Harold Francis Wright (Gloucestershire Regiment) dies of wounds at age 27. His brother was killed in May 1915.
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October 4, 2018

Saturday 5 October 1918 We Lost 1,257

Thomas Jasper Shovel

The Austrian Air Force training school at Egna in the Adige Valley is bombed by 22 Camels of 28 and 66 Squadron.

Captain G B Bailey and Lieutenant Joseph William Greig Clark (Royal Air Force) carry out a pre-arranged artillery shoot with 274th Siege Battery.  They range the battery, and the battery then goes on to fire for effect, obtaining two direct hits on the target causing a fire on the roadside in the battery position.  The 274th Siege Battery then puts out “T” on completion of the shoot.  During this time the aircrew observes two hostile batteries active.  On one of these they carry out a very successful ANF attack, obtaining a direct hit on No. 2 pit.  During the fire for effect the whole battery position is demolished.  By now visibility is becoming extremely poor and Captain Bailey decides to work from a point above the hostile battery, although there is a patrol of eight Fokker biplanes in the vicinity and there is a strong west wind blowing.  The enemy aircraft attack and Lieutenant Clark shoots down one, which he sees fall out of control and burst into flames on hitting the ground. The remainder of the formation is driven off and the ANF shoot is completed.

Today’s losses include:

  • A Military Chaplain
  • The son of a member of the clergy
  • Multiple families that will lose two sons in the Great War
  • A man whose son will be killed in the Second World War

Today’s highlighted casualties include:

  • Captain John Gordon Brown MC (Royal Fusiliers attached 47th Divisional Headquarters, Royal Field Artillery) is killed in action at Radinghem while reconnoitering at age 23. He is the son of ‘Sir’ Herbert Brown KBE.
  • Lieutenant John Ewart Deans (HMS Cumberland, Royal Naval Reserve) dies at home at age 25. He is the son of the Reverend William. Deans.
  • Chaplain 4th Class Thomas Jasper Shovel (attached 2nd/2nd Wessex Field Ambulance) dies of shrapnel wounds at age 34.
  • Sergeant John Reginald Storer MM (Australian Infantry) is killed at age 22. His brother was killed in February 1917.
  • Private Richard Clarence Shone (Australian Infantry) is killed at age 25. His brother was killed in June last year.
  • Gunner William Talmage (Royal Field Artillery) is killed. His son will be killed in the Second World War.
  • Gunner Francis Pickles (Royal Garrison Artillery) is killed at age 30. His brother was killed in October 1916.
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