Author: Sue Clapson

43044 PRIVATE BERTIE CROFT
7TH (SERVICE) BATTALION SUFFOLK REGIMENT
DIED 23RD APRIL 1918
(FROM WOUNDS RECEIVED 28TH APRIL 1917)
AGE 22 YEARS

The early years of Bertie’s life have been difficult to trace, but we know he was born to Ellen Croft, possibly illegitimately, on the 22^nd October 1895.  Ellen herself had been born in Bermondsey, South London, in 1875.  Sixteen years later at the time of the 1891 census, her entry shows that she was in the employ of a Mr Ripps Massingham, a butcher and farmer of the Thoroughfare, Halesworth, where her duties consisted of being a General Servant and Nanny to the family’s five children.  Who fathered Bertie and what name his birth had been registered under remains a mystery, although it appears that Ripps and his wife Elizabeth must have stood by her after Bertie’s birth since she remained in their employment up until the 1901 census, when she is listed as living and working for the family at their premises, No.1 Thoroughfare, although there is no sign of Bertie.  In 1905 Ripps died.  Shortly after his death Ellen married Ernest Spoore, a brewers drayman in the first quarter of 1906. She then moved into his home at 76 London Road.  At the time of the 1911 census Bertie appears to have eventually appeared on official records, since a lad of his name and age is listed as a house boy, resident in the Walberswick Cottage Home for invalided and crippled boys, with at least one described as being feeble-minded, their ages ranging from seven to fifteen years of age.

As the seaside village of Walberswick lies just eight miles to the east of Halesworth, this might be Ellen’s son, although, as a further twist in this particular tale, on this census his place of birth is shown as Manchester.  However, a search of the birth records for that period and location shows no sign of a boy of that name having been born there.

Unlike the majority of all British fatal casualties of the Great War, Bertie’s service papers survive.  These, combined with other sources of research, enable the researcher to produce a fairly accurate pen-picture of the trials and tribulations of his life in khaki up until the time of his death.  On the 1^st October 1914 he set out from his then home in the village of Hacheston, which is situated close to the town of Wickham Market, to travel the not inconsiderable distance for those times of some twenty-seven miles to the town of Beccles, on the Suffolk/Norfolk border, in order to enlist in the town’s Territorials of the 6^th (Cyclist) Battalion, Suffolk Regiment T.F.  Why he made this journey when he could have signed up in any of the towns close to his home is not clear.  Furthermore he would have had to pass close to Halesworth where he could have enlisted while visiting his mother.  One possible answer could be that he may have been a keen cyclist with his own bicycle and would have been happy to join a Cyclist Battalion with like-minded volunteers.  After passing the necessary medical examination and documentation he was enlisted to serve as a Private Soldier with the regimental number of 1764.  This would have changed after 1917 when members of the Territorial Force were brought into line with the rest of the army, with Bertie receiving the new number of 43044.  His personal details as entered on his enlistment papers stated that he was nineteen years of age, that he was 5 ft 6 ins tall and had a chest measurement of 35 inches. His trade or calling is listed as being a general labourer with a later entry showing him as being a horse dealer.  For his next of kin he nominated his stepfather, Ernest, and his mother, Ellen, now living at Bramfield Hill near Halesworth.

After carrying out ten days’ basic training in the Beccles drill hall, Bertie, along with others from his intake, were transferred to the Suffolk town of Leiston where they were found accommodation in and around the works of Richard Garrett and Sons, manufacturers of steam traction engines.  While there, it was decided to form a second battalion of cyclists with the original Territorials and new recruits split between the two new units, now known as the 1^st/6^th and 2^nd/6^th (Cyclist) Battalion, Suffolk Regiment.  Both of these units were to remain in England employed in the Home Defence role since being cyclists, they were able to patrol large areas of the eastern counties coastline where it was believed any invading forces would land.  Bertie was posted to join the 2^nd/6^th Battalion, who after a short time, were relocated to be based in and around the town of Louth near the Lincolnshire coast.

Over the next few months Bertie would have completed his training and been posted to serve in one of his Battalion’s four companies.  Each of them were now stationed at various points between Skegness and Sutton-on-Sea to carry out their patrols.  Within the local population it was reported that the people of Lincolnshire really grew fond of the sturdy men from Suffolk, which lead to several romances.

As the war progressed and the number of casualties mounted to many hundreds of thousands, men of the right age groups were asked if they were prepared to serve overseas.  It appears that Bertie volunteered with many of his comrades of the 2^nd/6^th.  Their time came shortly after the opening phase of the battle of the Somme with the massive losses inflicted during the first week in July 1916.  By mid-July Bertie had joined a draft of men from the 2/6^th Suffolks who were transported by train to Folkestone on the Kent coast.  From there they sailed to France, landing at Boulogne on the 26^th July.  After a short time spent at a reinforcement centre, he and several of his comrades were posted to join the 7^th (Service) Battalion Suffolk Regiment on the 12^th August 1916.  His new battalion had been formed at Bury St Edmunds in August 1914 after Lord Kitchener’s appeal for young men to enlist in a totally New Army.  After training they had crossed to France in May 1915.  The Battalion had taken part in the opening few days of the Somme offensive, suffering four hundred and eighty casualties on the 3^rd July alone.  By the time that the reinforcements joined them in the area of Bouzing Court they had just been once again relieved from the firing line and desperately needed a large number of casualty replacements.  Initially posted to ‘A’ Company Bertie began his eleven months of service with the 7^th Suffolks, during which time he quickly learnt that the life of a front-line infantryman was a total change from that of a military cyclist patrolling the coastline of Lincolnshire.

At 4.28am on the 28^thApril 1917 Bertie, with his battalion, left their trenches situated to the front of the village of Pelves in the Arras sector.  Their role that morning was to support an attack on the German front line with the 7^th Norfolk Regiment and the 5^th Royal Berkshires in the vanguard of the assault, the plan being that when the two forward battalions began to take casualties, the Suffolks could then pass through them to continue the advance and, it was hoped to enter the enemy’s line.  Right from the start, the Germans were alert to the troop movements and began to pour machine gun fire into the advancing Tommies.  This was also backed up by very heavy fire from the enemy’s artillery.  Poor Bertie was caught in the barrage, suffering severe shrapnel wounds to his abdomen and back.  Luckily for him he was picked up by his Battalion’s stretcher-bearers and carried to the rear where he would then have entered the evacuation chain that finally found him as a patient in the Stockport Military hospital in the north-west of England.  Here he underwent major surgery.  This caused him to stay in hospital recuperating for the next ten months.

On his release from the hospital he was medically assessed and was declared to be unfit for any further military service due to wounds.  He was then discharged from the army, having served a total of three years and one hundred and two days.  On the 10^th January 1918, due to the nature of his discharge being honourable, he was awarded a Silver War Badge.  These had been issued to men who had qualified from the 12^th September 1916, in order that the men wearing the badge and not in uniform would not be harassed for not doing their duty.  Each badge bore a number to prove it had been issued to the individual concerned.  Bertie was number 300690.  As with many other discharged ex members of the military, he was found work to help the war effort, although because of his injuries, he was not able to undertake heavy activities.  After training he was appointed as an inspector at the Chilwell National Artillery Shell Filling Factory, that was situated in Nottinghamshire.

From a report written in the Halesworth Times newspaper of the 21^st May 1918, recording Bertie’s death, it seems that barely after three months of being employed in his new role the strain of the work was too much for him and his death followed after a few days of illness at the young age of twenty-two years.  The article goes on to describe his funeral with full military honours, with him being laid to rest at St Michaels Church, Brumcote, Nottinghamshire on the 2^nd May 1918.

The chief mourners present were his mother, Mrs Ellen Croft, (why she was listed under her maiden name is not known) and Bertie’s fiancée, Miss Elaine Clarke.  Where they had met and become engaged to be married remains a further mystery. Today Bertie’s grave, complete with military headstone, remains one of three in the churchyard maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

After his death, his mother, as his next of kin, received a weekly pension of 3s 6d (18p) rising to 5s 0d (25p) after November 1918.  This was followed by a gratuity of £15.0s.0d (£15.00p) awarded in February 1920.  She would also have been entitled to receive his medals which consisted of the British War and Victory medal pair with his named memorial plaque and scroll.

The location of these is unknown.

Postcard of London Road, Halesworth 1916
Where Bertie’s mother was living

200280 PRIVATE FREDERICK HERBERT JAMES COWLES
1/4TH BATTALION, SUFFOLK REGIMENT (T.F.)
KILLED IN ACTION
23RD APRIL 1917
AGE 22 YEARS

Frederick or Fred as he was known had been born in the town during the second quarter of 1895.  He was the first child of nine born to Herbert, a coach trimmer and his second wife, Sarah (née Cornish).  All of Fred’s early life had been spent living in Chediston Street which at that time had a not very desirable reputation and was commonly known by some as the slums of Halesworth.  On leaving school in 1909 he originally found work as a draper’s boy, possibly for Roe and Co who had premises in the Market Place.  Later, his father Herbert, wishing his son to learn a trade, managed to obtain a position for him with the East Suffolk Carriage Works in Bridge Street, a company that Herbert had been employed by from the age of twelve years some forty-five years earlier.  He also encouraged Fred to enlist in the Halesworth Territorials, having himself been a long-serving and keen member of the town’s Rifle Volunteers, the forerunner of the Territorial Force that had been formed in 1908, Fred’s original Regimental number of 1788 shows that he had enlisted in November 1913.  Sadly, Herbert passed away in July 1914 at the age of sixty, which left Fred as one of the main sources of income for the family.

A month after the outbreak of World War 1 the Halesworth Times newspaper of the 25^th August 1914 printed an article by the rector of St Mary’s Parish Church, the Reverend A.C. Moore, in which he listed every one hundred and twenty-eight men from the town who were at that time serving in the Armed Forces, including those who were members of the local ‘F’ Company of Territorials.  These men had been mobilised on the 6^th August and had joined with their comrades from other towns in the east of Suffolk to undergo intensive training at Felixstowe. Each of these men fell into one of two categories, the first being Officers and men who had signed the Imperial Service Obligation which committed them, if it was considered necessary, to serve overseas.  For this they received a small sum of money and were then authorised to wear above their right tunic pocket a small badge known as the ‘Imperial Service Brooch’.  The second group consisted of men who for whatever reason, felt that they were not able to make this commitment and were only prepared to serve under the original terms of service, being purely that of home defence.

Fred was listed in the second category.  It is possible that he felt, after his father’s recent death, he should remain in England to support his mother.  Another factor was that several of the younger members of the company who had not reached the minimum age required under the Territorial Force Regulations for men to serve overseas being that of 19 years of age.  It was later reported that a number of these boys claimed that they celebrated their birthdays over the previous few days before they had sailed to France, to which their Officers and Sergeants must have turned a blind eye.  As such was the excitement of what they must have felt was the beginning of a great adventure.  Little did they know of the horrors that lay ahead of them.  It is not known when Fred was eventually reunited with his pals from Halesworth who remained serving in the 1/4^th Suffolks but as the British casualty numbers increased daily there was a desperate requirement for men to replace them, so irrespective of their original Territorial commitment, Home Defence men were now being sent to the front line as replacements.

There are two items of research that would suggest that his time came sometime in the Spring of 1916.  Firstly, at the war’s end, each man or woman who had served overseas would have qualified to be awarded service medals.  Their entitlement would have been listed on an individual index card.  These can still be seen today. Fred’s card shows that he had not been awarded either of the medal stars awarded for the years 1914 or 1915, indicating that he must have landed in France sometime after the first day of 1916.  Further research shows that in the first quarter of 1916 he had married a Harriet Manning in her hometown of Colchester in Essex.  The town having been a Garrison, with several military barracks and camp, it is possible they could have first met when he had been stationed there after the men of the 1/4^th Suffolks had gone their separate ways.

On the 16^th April 1917, the 1/4^th Suffolks were serving in the 98^th Brigade of the 33^rd Division where they were in the process of taking over a section of trenches that had recently been captured from the Germans who had named it the Hindenburg line.  On inspection the Tommies were shocked at the construction and facilities their enemy enjoyed in comparison to their own trench systems, for they found underground sleeping quarters with properly constructed bunk beds etc.  After four days they were relieved and moved back to outside of the French village of Neuville-Vitasse in preparation for a forthcoming attack that was due to take place in the early hours of 23^rd April.  After barely twenty-four hours rest, they were moved back into the front line, relieving the 20^th Royal Fusiliers.  Zero hour was set to be at 4.45am on the morning of 23^rd April, St Georges Day.  At the allotted time, the Suffolks climbed out of their trenches and advanced along the line of the Hindenburg trench system that remained in German hands.  Initially all went well, with the hastily built barricades erected by the retreating enemy quickly torn down. The advance of the Suffolks was now so rapid that those battalions to their left and right were unable to keep pace with them.  The battalion war diary for the day reports that by 6.30am their companies were just two hundred yards short of their final objective but, with both flanks exposed, they were forced to halt their advance and prepare for the inevitable counter-attack, which the Germans mounted against them just three hours later.  With the Suffolks’ numbers dwindling and the enemy now able to attack them from the rear, they were compelled to carry out a hasty withdrawal over open ground, back to their original positions.  By 5.30pm the remains of the battalion had regrouped in their section of the line.  When the Roll was called it was found they had lost one officer and forty-one other ranks confirmed killed, with another one hundred and sixty men wounded and a total of one hundred and four men missing.  The last figure possibly included young Fred; whose body was never identified.  Today he is remembered on the Arras Memorial to the missing.

Although the day had proven costly in casualties for the 4^th Suffolks, they had inflicted equally heavy losses on the Germans, with an unknown number of dead and wounded as well as over six hundred and forty prisoners taken.  Regarding the number of prisoners, a humorous anecdote included in the Regimental History illustrates the unshakeable humour of the British Tommy.  When one of the smallest men in the battalion appeared in the rear area, escorting some seventy prisoners on his own, he was asked how he had managed to collect so many by himself.  He replied that “He had surrounded them”.

The Halesworth Times of the 8^th January 1918 reported that Fred’s mother, who had since married Arthur Driver of 58 Chediston Street, had received notification that her son Fred, who had been missing ever since the 23d April of the previous year, was now listed as having been Killed in Action.  It also stated that his young wife Harriet remained living in Colchester where she would have been awarded a widow’s weekly pension of 13s 9d (69p) which was followed during 1918-19 by a total of £18.17s.8d (£18.88p) in war gratuity.

She would also have been entitled to have received Fred’s British War and Victory medal pair and his named memorial plaque and scroll.

The location of these awards is not known.

20 YEARS
VOLUNTEER LONG SERVICE MEDAL
AWARDED TO
701 PRIVATE HERBERT COWLES
‘F’ COMPANY
1^ST VOLUNTEER BATTALION, SUFFOLK REGIMENT
MARCH 1901
FRED’S FATHER

18536 PRIVATE JAMES CONSTANCE
2ND BATTALION SUFFOLK REGIMENT
KILLED IN ACTION
2ND MARCH 1916
AGE 34 YEARS

Another of the Halesworth war dead who originally hailed from one of the local villages was James Constance who was born at Linstead Parva in the second quarter of 1882.  He was the fifth child of John, a farm labourer, and Hannah (née Page).  All of his early years were spent living in and around his village where, after completing his education, he followed his father into working the land.  At that time, it was also common for some of the local farm hands, on completion of the planting and sowing the seeds for the season, to travel to nearby Lowestoft and find work on one of the many fishing boats operating from the port, returning back to their villages to harvest the crops at the end of the summer.  In 1908 James married Florence Hurren from the neighbouring village of Linstead Magna.  No doubt deciding on a more stable married life, within a year James had found regular employment as a maltster employed by Parry and Sons of Quay Street, Halesworth while living at 148 Chediston Street with their first child Arthur, born in May 1910.

Sometime after the outbreak of the war, the Halesworth Times reported on the 23^rd February 1915 that James was one of a group of 8 local men who had volunteered to serve in the Suffolk Regiment.  By this time he had three young sons and now they were living at 23 London Road.

Over the following six months James trained in the art of becoming a soldier, until almost six months from the date of his enlistment he crossed to France on the 24^th August 1915 to join the 2^nd Battalion, Suffolk Regiment to serve as a Private Soldier with the service number of 18536.

On Britain’s declaration of war on the 4^th August 1914, the 2^nd Suffolks, being a Regular Army Battalion, were stationed at the Curragh, a vast military training ground and garrison in County Kildare, Ireland.  Within ten days the entire Battalion that numbered twenty-eight Officers and nine hundred and seventy-one other ranks had been mobilised and then transported to France joining the British Expeditionary Force.  Within days of landing they had pushed north over the Belgian border to meet the German forces marching on Paris.  On 23^rd August they experienced their first skirmish with the enemy, losing three soldiers killed.  Little did they realise at that time that these would be the first of many hundreds who would be killed, wounded or taken prisoner in what would become known as the Great War.

At the time of James joining the 2^nd Suffolks they had been relieved from the front line and were at rest in a camp at Ouderdom, close to the Belgian/French border.  Over the following seven months the battalion continued to move in and out of the  

Firing line.  Within a month of Jame’s arrival, they were involved in the fighting during the early days of the Battle of Loos that raged from the 25^thSeptember to the 8^th October 1915.  Christmas Day 1915 was spent in trenches in the area of the Ypres-Comines canal, with each side indulging in its own meagre celebrations unmolested by the other.  The new year brought much more of the same for the battalion with many harsh winter days both in and out of the firing line, many spent in the open.  On the 1^st March 1916, during the night prior to Jame’s death the 2^nd Suffolks moved forward into the assembly trenches in preparation for a planned early morning attack on the German line.  This was timed to commence at 4.30am.  Now, for the first time, all Officers and men were equipped with the new steel helmet, where up to this point the main headdress worn by the majority of the British army consisted of a soft cloth cap or bonnet, but with the development of more and more sophisticated weapons such as airburst shells that would explode several feet above the trenches showering those below with red hot balls of metal, it was decided to develop head protection similar in design to those worn hundreds of years before by the English archers at the Battle of Agincourt.

The Suffolk Regiment history, published in 1928, records the actions of the 2^nd March 1916 thus: “As our men rose from their trenches a tremendous roar of machine gun and rifle fire burst forth from the brigade on our right in support of the battalion’s advance.  The attack was a complete success with the enemy driven back from their front line by 7am.”

As with all of these battles it came at a very heavy cost in flesh and blood.  The 2^nd Suffolks suffered some two hundred and fifty casualties, which would have been almost half out of a total of five hundred taken into action, James being just one.  Sadly, no identifiable remains could be found of James, as he is listed today on the Ypres (Menin Gate) memorial to the missing, his but one name in a total of fifty-four thousand, three hundred and ninety-five others.

The sad news of Jame’s death must have taken some time to reach his poor wife Florence, with his death finally being announced in the Halesworth Times newspaper of the 4^th April 1916.

After her loss Florence would have continued to receive James’ soldier’s pay up until the 18^th September 1916 when she was granted a war widow’s pension of £1.0s.6d (£1.2p) for her and the three children, all of which were under the age of seven years, with each child being admissible to be included up to the age of sixteen.

This pension was followed in July 1919 when she received the sum of £4.4s.0d (£4.20p) in war gratuity.  She would also have received her husband’s medal entitlement of the 1915 Star trio, Memorial Plaque and Scroll.

These, minus the scroll, are now in the collection of the Halesworth and District   Museum. (See below)

An original copy of a condolence card printed on behalf of his mother

P5/2549 CORPORAL WILLIAM GEORGE COLE
16TH (SERVICE) BATTALION, MIDDLESEX REGIMENT
(PUBLIC SCHOOLS)
KILLED IN ACTION
1ST JULY 1916
AGE 24 YEARS

William was the older brother of Leonard (see previous).  He had been born in Halesworth in the third quarter of 1892.  He was the third child and son of John and Catherine of London Road.  After schooling, in 1906 he found work with W.H. Smith at their newspaper stand on Halesworth railway station where he must have been well thought of as by the time of the 1911 Census he was listed as boarding and working in Chelmsford, Essex.  His profession was listed as a Station Bookseller.

Regarding William’s military service in the Great War, it is a very lucky situation in that his enlistment and service records remain courtesy of the National Archives.  The likelihood of these still being available is very small as the vast majority of the records attributed to those soldiers who lost their lives were destroyed in the London Blitz during World War 2.

From information found within his service records, at the time of his enlistment on the 15^th July 1915 we know that he had remained employed as a Bookstall Clerk and at that time was living and working at Brockley in South East London.  Interestingly, instead of enlisting in his local recruiting office, he had travelled to Woldingham in Surrey to enlist into the 16^th (Service) Battalion, Middlesex Regiment (Public Schools) who at that time were then in training.  His reasoning for this is not known but it is possible he had a friend already serving with them.  The reference to Public Schools in their title originated from the then Secretary of State for War Lord Kitchener’s, appeal for men to join what was titled a New Army that would consist of groups of friends, members of clubs and those from the same towns and districts to enlist together into what became known as ‘Pals’ Battalions’ of infantry and supporting arms such as Regiments of Artillery.  On their formation, those who were raised as infantry battalions would then be affiliated to their local County Regiments.  Formed in September 1914, the 16^th Middlesex had originally recruited young men and older boys who had received a private education and no doubt came from a similar social background.  As the war progressed, more of these initial recruits became casualties or were considered to be of the Officer Class and were then commissioned to serve in other Regiments.  Their places were filled by men from right across the social divide.  One such recruit was William, becoming PS2549, a Private soldier in the battalion.  The 16^th Middlesex landed at Boulogne on the 17^th November 1915.  William who had possibly been behind, with his training incomplete, having enlisted later, joined them on the 8^th January 1916.  He soon settled down to the life of a front-line infantryman as, within four months of joining his battalion, he had risen two ranks, becoming a Corporal.

The day of William’s death, 1^st July 1916, would go down in the annals of British Military History as the most costly in the loss of human life and suffering in any single day, with a total of nineteen thousand, two hundred and forty men killed in action from a total of fifty-seven thousand, four hundred and seventy men listed as casualties.  Now known as the first day of the Battle of the Somme, it involved on the British side many of the New Army Service Battalions that had been formed less than two years before taking part in their first major attack.

Prior to ‘Going Over The Top’ on that fateful day the German lines and strong points had been subjected to a full seven days of bombardment by the British Artillery who in that period fired over 1.5 million shells, the object being not only to neutralise and destroy the German defences but also to cut lanes through the many hundreds of miles of barbed wire that criss-crossed in front of their trenches.

William and his comrades of the 16^th Middlesex were now part of the 86^th Brigade of the 29^th Division who were tasked with being a reserve Battalion.  During the early hours they formed up in the support line in preparation to follow the main assault and deploy wherever they would be needed during the battle to storm the German strongpoints around the French village of Beaumont-Hamel.  They were eventually called forward  at 7.40am and as they advanced over ‘No Man’s Land’ they witnessed the dead and dying men from the first wave, with many of them cut down around the small breaches made within the enemy’s barbed wire entanglements.  It later transpired that up to one third of the British shells that had been fired during the pre-attack bombardment were of a shrapnel nature, which when fired against troops in the open proved to be devastating but when used against static targets or wire were of very little use.  Many of those who were killed that day were caused by concentrated machine gun fire, from those weapons that had been hidden away from the British observers and had been brought forward to inflict carnage at the last moment.

Nothing is known regarding the circumstances of William’s death other than that he was one of the total of five hundred and twenty-four casualties that were recorded by the 16^th Middlesex that day.  Exactly one month later the Halesworth Times of the 1^st August 1916 reported that William was missing in action.  This was followed at the end of the year by an article in the Lambert Almanack for 1917 that also reported that Corporal W Cole had been missing in action ever since the 1^st July.  This would  have been a very worrying situation for his parents, not knowing whether William had been killed or maybe had been made a prisoner of war.  Their grief must have been further compounded a little over a year later when they heard that another of their five sons, Leonard, had met his end while fighting in Flanders. Sadly Leonard’s remains were never found, although William’s body was eventually and he was able to be identified and laid to rest in Beaumont-Hamel military cemetery.  During the preparation of his headstone John and Catherine were asked if they would like a personal inscription added to the stone.  They chose ‘HE GAVE HIS ALL’.

In August 1919 John received a gratuity of £6.19s.4d (£6.97p) paid for the life of his son. 

As well as the gratuity he would also have been entitled to claim his son’s medal awards of the British War and Victory medal pair with a named memorial plaque and scroll. 

The location of these is unknown.

Leonard and William’s parents, John and Catherine
After they had moved to Nottingham

200374 SERGEANT (ACT C.S.M)
LEONARD JAMES COLE
1/4^TH BATTALION SUFFOLK REGIMENT T.F.
KILLED IN ACTION
26^TH SEPTEMBER 1917
AGE 23 YEARS

Leonard James Cole had been born in Halesworth during the third quarter of 1894. He was the fourth child of seven raised by John, a coal merchant, and his wife Catherine (née Leach) at their home in London Road.  On beginning his education, a young Leonard soon proved himself to be a more than average sportsman, particularly on the soccer field where he later went on to play for local senior teams, although his main claim to fame in the sporting arena came in 1907 when he was one of the Halesworth Boys School relay swimming team who won the Lady Gooch Challenge Shield.  This competition was held annually and was hotly contested by all of the local schools, including six from the seaside town of Lowestoft.  The Halesworth Times newspaper of the 1st October 1907, in reporting their victory, compared the facilities of the Lowestoft teams, who had free access to the town’s swimming baths with the local lads who carried out all of their training in the river Blyth.  The small named silver shield that at the time had been attached to the trophy illustrates just how the forthcoming War to End All Wars would decimate an entire generation of British manhood with three of the four boys named, including Leonard, going on to lose their lives, the fourth being discharged from the army due to wounds.

It is also believed that not only did Leonard excel at sport.  On leaving school he was accepted to begin a much sought-after apprenticeship with Smith and Co., the East Suffolk Carriage and Motor Works at their premises in Bridge Street, Halesworth.  He had followed his elder brother John who, having completed his apprenticeship with Smiths was, by the time of the 1911 census, being employed by a coach-building company in Harrogate, Yorkshire.  At the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, Leonard, after the initial rush to sign up had died  down, had eventually volunteered to serve in the Suffolk Regiment in mid-November with the Regimental number of 2750.  He was originally posted to serve in the 11^th (Service) Battalion, Suffolk Regiment.  By this time, the Army had such a backlog of volunteers requiring to be trained to become a soldier, it would be a full year before he was sent to the front.  His time came when he landed at Rouen, France, on the 23rd January 1916.   Soon after, on the 4th February, he was posted to join ‘C’ Company, 1/4th Suffolk’s where he would have met up with several old Territorial friends from the town.  During the following months, Leonard, with his Battalion, would have spent several periods both in and out of the firing line, including, after the 14th July, becoming involved in the Somme battles where by the end of that month, they had suffered a total of three hundred and fifty-four casualties in dead and wounded.  To make up for some of these losses in junior leaders, Leonard was promoted to Lance Corporal on the 29th July.  Within a month of receiving his first stripe he had suffered a slight wound but had returned to duty within five days where he must have continued to impress his superiors, as within six weeks he received further promotion to that of a full Corporal while serving in the trenches.

For the remaining months of 1916, the 4th Suffolks continued to be involved and included in several actions both major and minor, each causing a loss in both Officers and Men, with many of the original Territorials now missing from their ranks.  The new year of 1917 found Leonard and his comrades now located in the area of the northern French hamlet of Villiers-Sous-Ailly where they underwent three weeks of further training.  Shortly after, and under a new Army directive, all units of the Territorial Force would be brought into line with the Army’s regimental numbering system in which all of their soldiers would now have a six-digit number from a block allocated to the Suffolk Territorials.  Leonard, who had also received further promotion, became 200674, a Lance Sergeant.  In mid-April 1917 his battalion received orders to relieve the 1st Cameronians from their trenches.  This included a section of the old German Hindenburg Line.  The relief took place during the night of the 16th and 17^th.  As with similar situations, the Germans were not slow to react to troop movements.  During their barrage of artillery and machine gun fire that followed, the 4th Suffolks suffered four soldiers killed and thirteen wounded, Leonard being one of the latter, having received a gunshot wound to his back.  After receiving treatment at No.2 Casualty Clearing Station on the 20th April, he was admitted to the 18th General Hospital.  Here he remained for the following seven weeks until he was considered fit to re-join his Battalion.  Shortly after his return to active service, he had been granted a full month’s home leave.  Whether he returned to Halesworth is not known as by this time his parents had relocated to the Hyson’s Green area of Nottingham where his father John was now engaged in work for the Government.

In an item written in the Halesworth Times in March 1917 his parents thanked the people of the town and surrounding area for their support during the time they had been in business.  They also reported that all of their five sons were serving in the army  in France, with their third son William having been reported as missing during the previous July.

On the 30^th July 1917 Leonard returned to the 4^th Suffolks who were at that time in the process of leaving the Somme region for new battlefields in the Flanders area of Belgium.  Within weeks of their move he had received further promotion in rank, now acting in the role of the Company Sergeant Major in ‘C’ Company, this being the most senior Non-Commissioned rank within a company.  This once again illustrates how highly he was regarded by the senior Officers within the Battalion, especially considering his young age of just twenty-three years.  By mid-September 1917, the 4^th Suffolks were holding a section of the support line in the area of Bellegoed Farm.  On the 24^th of the month they were ordered forward in preparation for a planned attack on the German trenches that was due to be mounted at 5.30am on the morning of the 26^th.  It was while the Battalion were preparing themselves ‘To Go Over The Top’ that the German artillery, sensing something was afoot, immediately laid down a barrage, once again concentrating their fire on the British front-line trenches.  This caused casualties among the tightly packed troops who were formed up for the attack.  Just fifteen minutes after the scheduled time, the remnants of the battalion broke out of the confines of the trench and headed in the direction of the German line, one small party of just twenty or so men led by Captain Stuart Scrimgeour M.C. who had local connections to Halesworth and would later live at Wissett Hall.  He with another Officer and some twenty or so men, managed to enter a section of the German front line which they held for some time before hearing the order to withdraw.  This they then carried out, taking with them two captured heavy machine guns and thirteen prisoners.  It is not known if Leonard would have been a member of this group or had become a casualty earlier during the German barrage, but following a roll call it was found that the Battalion had lost a total of two Officers and forty-three men killed, with a further sixty-three men missing.  Leonard was one of the latter as his remains were neither found or identified.  Today Leonard is remembered on the Tyne Cot Memorial to the missing.

The Halesworth Times newspaper of the 30^th October 1917 reported on Leonard’s loss.  Although his mother and father had recently moved home, they and their sons were still much respected in the town. 

As neither his father nor his mother were dependent on their son’s earnings, they did not qualify for a military pension, although his father, having been nominated as his son’s next of kin, had received a war gratuity of £22.2s.6d (£22.12p).

He was also entitled to claim his son’s medal awards of the British War and Victory medal pair with a named memorial plaque and scroll.

The location of these is unknown.

Leonard’s name listed on the
Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing

1801 PRIVATE BERTIE RICHARD CALVER
‘C’ COMPANY 1/4^TH BATTALION SUFFOLK REGIMENT (T.F.)
KILLED IN ACTION
26^TH AUGUST 1915
AGED 18 YEARS

Born in Halesworth on the 9^th October 1896, Bertie was the third child of a family that would eventually reach a total of eight children.  His father Charles and mother Mary (née Clarke) ran a small fruiterers’ and market garden business in the town.  By 1911 the family had grown so large that they occupied two of the small four room cottages situated near the far end of Chediston Street in an area known as Rumsby’s Yard.  On leaving school in 1910 Bertie found employment at Mr Leckenby’s boot factory in Quay Street.  Described as a lad full of spirit, in late 1913 he followed his elder brother Hubert into enlisting in the town’s Territorials serving as No.1801 private soldier in ‘F’ Company at the age of seventeen years.  Like many of his pals, including his brother in ‘F’ Company, after the outbreak of war in August 1914 he signed the Imperial Service Pledge thereby volunteering to serve overseas around the time of his eighteenth birthday. 

Barely four months later they were preparing to cross to France when it was realised that the pre-war regulations still applied which meant the youngest age a soldier could travel overseas was nineteen years, it is said that the night before the 4^th Suffolks sailed on the 8^th November 1914 there were several men who celebrated their nineteenth birthdays Bertie being just one.  For the 1/4^th Suffolks the following few months consisted of further training and gaining front line experience where they became involved in a number of minor engagements as they prepared for their first major action.  This would come during the battle of Neuve Chapelle between the 10^th and 13^th March 1915.  Bertie was not present as on the 5^th March 1915 he had been struck down with tonsillitis and had been admitted to the Canadian Field Hospital where he remained until the 17^th May after which he re-joined his battalion.  During his time away as well as the Neuve Chapelle action, the 1/4^th Suffolks had also fought during the battle of Aubers Ridge.  Their combined losses for both of these in Officers and Men amounted to well over three hundred all ranks being killed and wounded. 

Within six weeks of Bertie’s return to the 1/4^th Suffolks, the Regimental history, which was first published in 1927, records that on the 21^st June 1915, whilst the Battalion were still serving in the front line, they had been bombarded by a battery of German heavy artillery, during which one Officer and four Other Ranks had been killed, with a further three soldiers receiving wounds.  One of these had been Bertie, who had been grazed by a shell splinter to his lower stomach, for which he had been admitted into the 20^th British Field Ambulance and discharged two days later.

On 10^th July Bertie would have been present at a parade outside the town of Estaires when the Divisional Commander, Major General Keary, presented the ribbons of Gallantry medals to those of the battalion who had been awarded for their part in the battle of the previous March.  Like all the lads from Halesworth he no doubt would have been particularly proud of Percy Sones, as he had the ribbon of the Distinguished Conduct Medal pinned to his chest.  Just over a month later Bertie would be dead.  In a letter sent to his parents shortly after by the then ‘C’ Company Commander, Captain W.G. Tollemarche, expressing sympathy “for the loss of a very popular lad”, he mentioned that Bertie’s death was instantaneous.  This, combined with the fact that he was the only loss to the battalion on that day, could point to the fact that he had been shot by a German sniper or struck by a stray bullet, having attempted to look over the top of the trench.  After his death his comrades would have given him a field burial and sometime later his remains may have been transported to the Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery Cabaret-Rouge, outside the town of Souchez, France, where he now lies at rest.

After his death, his mother Mary having been nominated as his next of kin, received War Gratuities in the total of £8.10.4d (£8.52p) and a weekly pension of 5/- (25p).  She would also have received his medal awards of the 1914 Star Trio, Memorial Plaque and Scroll.

The present location of these is unknown.

Field Service Postcard sent to Bertie’s mum Mary by his older brother 1523 Private Hubert Calver 1/4^th Bn, Suffolk Regiment on the 1^st March 1915.

10138 L/CPL CECIL HARRY ASHFORD
9^TH BATTALION SUFFOLK REGIMENT
WHO DIED OF WOUNDS
9^TH OCTOBER 1915
AGE 32 YEARS

Cecil, more commonly known as Harry, had been born in Framlingham in 1883 and was the second son and twin to sister Alice born to Sutton, jeweller and watchmaker and Louisa (née Simpson).  By the 1890s the family had moved to Halesworth, where Sutton had set up his watchmaker’s business at No. 8 London Road.  On leaving school Harry served his apprenticeship with the Halesworth Printers, Premier Press.  By 1911 he had qualified as a compositor and was employed by Messrs Flood and Sons in Lowestoft whilst lodging with the Press family.

At the start of the Great War in 1914, although the Royal Navy ruled the waves with the most powerful fleet afloat, the British regular army with many of its troops overseas, policing the Empire, were not in any state to fight a protracted war against Germany and her allies.  At this point the then Secretary for War, Lord Kitchener of Khartoum, announced the formation of a new citizen army to be based around men of a similar social class or walks of life, originating from the same town or village with similar interests such as being members  of the local football club etc.  These formations were originally known as ‘Pals Battalions’.  Shortly after Lord Kitchener’s call to arms (best illustrated by his well-known  poster of ‘Your Country Wants You’), Harry stepped forward to enlist in Lowestoft instantly to serve as 3/10138 a Private Soldier in the 3^rd (Reserve) Battalion, Suffolk Regiment then based in Felixstowe.  He was then posted to the 9^th (Service) Battalion of his county regiment.  The inclusion of ‘service’ in their title indicated that they were a Kitchener’s battalion, which had been first formed at Bury St Edmunds in September 1914.

As can be seen from the photograph of Harry taken before he crossed to France, due to the large number of men enlisting, standard khaki uniforms were not available.  In 1914, many of the new battalion’s soldiers would have been dressed in obsolete blue uniforms which they despised.  After completing training, during which he was promoted to L/Cpl he crossed to France with his battalion on the 30^th August 1915. 

Less than a month later, the 9^th Suffolks entered the fray, when they took part in their first action of the war, the Battle of Loos, which they with their comrades of the 24^th Division joined on the 25^th September 1915.  Initially forming up in the area of the northern French city of Bethune, their task was to carry out a follow up attack on the German support line, after the main assault had overrun the enemy’s front line.  Their order to advance came at 11.25 on the morning of the 26^th September whereupon each platoon of the battalion mounted the trench parapet and began to advance forward, whilst under a very heavy barrage being fired by the German artillery.  After making some two hundred yards, their advance gradually slowed and then ground to a halt as many of their inexperienced soldiers began to fall either dead or wounded.  Eventually the order to withdraw was given, with those able helping the injured to the rear.  From what information is available, it appears that Harry was one of those who had suffered wounds from which he eventually would die from on the 9^th October 1915.

For some time no official notification of Harry’s death was made to his family with them initially receiving the news from a comrade who helped to bury him.  As with many other cases during the ebb and flow of the Great War battles, Harry’s grave was lost with his name joining many thousands of others that are remembered on the Menin Gate Memorial to the missing in Belgium.

Shortly after, as their own memorial to their son’s life, the family arranged for an enamel sign to be produced to remember Harry’s sacrifice.  This it is believed was placed somewhere in the Halesworth Cemetery.  Many years later it was found in a hedge and handed into the Towns museum where it remains today.  As well as being remembered on the Halesworth War Memorial, his name is also to be found on the Framlingham Memorial and that at St Margaret’s Church, Lowestoft.

It was during the withdrawal that 3/10133 Sgt Arthur Saunders of the battalion became the first of two members of the Suffolk Regiment to win a Victoria Cross during the Great War.  Arthur who hailed from the parish of St. John’s, Ipswich must have enlisted on the same day as Harry as their regimental numbers are within four digits of each other.

After Harry’s death his father Sutton now living with his wife in Lowestoft, received a combined War Gratuity of £7.12s.6d (£7.63p) for the loss of their son.

He would have also been able to claim Harry’s medal entitlement of the 1915 Star medal trio with his named memorial plaque and scroll.

The location of these awards are not known.

J/27366 BOY SEAMAN 1^ST CLASS
WALTER BENJAMIN ADAMSON
H.M.S. HAWKE
LOST AT SEA 15^TH OCTOBER 1914
AGED 17 YEARS

Walter was the first and youngest of the Halesworth War Dead.  Born in the town on the 6^th November 1897, the second son of Samuel a brewers labourer and his wife Florence (née Watson) he went onto attend the Halesworth Boys School until the age of fourteen, when having completed his education he found work locally as a sack mender employed by Dennington and Co Ltd sack, rope and tent manufacturers of London Road.  No doubt he found the work menial and possibly finding his older brother Samuel’s stories of life at sea exciting.

In August 1913 Walter left the family home at No. 19 Chediston Street to join the Royal Navy enlisting as J/27366 Boy Seaman 2^nd Class, he first attended H.M.S. Ganges, the Boy’s Training School at Shotley in Suffolk.  Whilst there although described as a quiet lad he soon began to show great promise so much so that he was one of the twenty top students to receive their posting with the rank of Boy 1^st class.  On the 15^th April 1914 he joined his first and only ship the Edgar Class Cruiser H.M.S. Hawke launched in March 1891 by 1914 she was now considered rather old for a modern ship of the line.

At the outbreak of the Great War in August 1914 his ship was part of the Home Fleet patrolling the North Sea.  Thereon the 15^th October whilst in company with her sister ship H.M.S. Theseus she was torpedoed by the German Submarine U-9.  The Hawke sank in just a few minutes taking with her the Captain, twenty-six officers and four hundred and ninety-seven men and boys including poor Walter.  The Hawke was the latest sinking attributed to the U-9 having just a month previously accounted for three other British cruisers in the space of an hour.

After his loss Walter’s parents would have heard the sad news of his death at their new home at No. 63 London Road on the 23^rd October 1914.

As with the rest of his shipmates lost that day Walter is now remembered on the Chatham Memorial to the missing, unveiled in October 1924.

Due to his young age and the fact that his father was still alive, his parents would not have received any pension for their loss, although they were entitled to receive his medal entitlement of the 1915 Star medal trio and memorial plaque and scroll.

The location of these are unknown.