11784 (W.O.2) BATTERY SERGEANT MAJOR
JOHN WILLIAM WATERS
DISTINGUISHED CONDUCT MEDAL
1ST/1ST (NORTH RIDING) HEAVY BATTERY
ROYAL GARRISON ARTILLERY
DIED OF ILLNESS
4TH MAY 1919
AGE 34 YEARS
One of the few pre-war professional servicemen remembered on the Halesworth War Memorial from World War One is John William Waters, whose birth in the third quarter of 1886 had been registered under his original Christian names of William John. He was the first of twelve children born to George, who, at the time of his birth, was listed as an agricultural labourer, and his wife Elizabeth (née Spoore). At that time, they were living in one of the farmworker’s cottages located on the Broadway, Halesworth. His father must have been industrious as by the time of the 1911 census he and some of his family were now to be found living in the Triple Plea public house, also on the Broadway, with George being the licensee.
On leaving school the young John found work as a groom employed by the Countess of Stradbroke at nearby Henham Hall. In 1902, clearly underage, he fraudulently enlisted in the Suffolk Artillery Militia at Ipswich, becoming a Gunner with the service number of 2670. Possibly to aid his deceit he reversed his Christian names, declaring his place of birth as being Bolton in Lancashire, with his age given as nineteen years and eight months, when in fact he was barely sixteen years of age. He also claimed to have been living in Ipswich with somebody having his mother’s maiden name of Spoore. As mentioned in our story of William Rose, who also enlisted in the Militia in 1895, the conditions of service were that each soldier should initially carry out a minimum of fifty-six days of continuous training prior to returning to their civilian life, followed by twenty-one days of service over each of the following years.
William no doubt enjoyed his training as, on 20th October 1902, while at Great Yarmouth, he signed on for full-time Regular Army service, now becoming 11784, a Gunner in the Royal Garrison Artillery. On his new set of enlistment records he continued to use his reversed Christian names and birth details but now listed the correct name and address of his mother as being his next of kin. On completing his recruit training he had then been posted on 1st November 1902 to join the 24th (Heavy) Company of the R.G.A., at that time based at the headquarters of the Royal Regiment of Artillery at Woolwich in South East London. Here he remained for the next two years. In October 1904 John signed to extend his service from six to eight years, which then qualified him for extended overseas service. On 7th February 1905 he disembarked from a troop ship in the Indian port of Bombay to join the 86th (Heavy) Battery of his regiment, at that time based in the Indian (now Pakistani) City of Multan in the Punjab. John’s surviving records show that he stayed with this battery on the Sub-Continent for the next seven years, two hundred and forty-seven days, having been promoted to the rank of Bombardier and signing on for a further four years of regular service with the Colours. On 12th October 1912 John returned to England where, no doubt after an extended period of home leave, he had reported to his new unit, the 108th (Heavy) Battery, at their peace-time base of Fort Nelson in Hampshire, originally built in the 1860s to protect the important Royal Navy base of Portsmouth. After settling into his new posting he and his comrades, when not on duty, would visit the nearby town of Fareham for their evening’s entertainment. It was no doubt on one of these nights out that he met a local young lady, Elizabeth Anne Andrews, who was known as Annie. In 1912 she would have been just eighteen years of age. They then began to ‘walk out’. If there was any talk of marriage, the 4th August 1914, the day that the Great War was declared, would have put pay to any such plans for, within twelve days, John, now with the rank of Sergeant, along with his Battery as part of the 5th Division, crossed to France on 16th August to join the British Expeditionary Force, where they fought during some of the early battles which included the retreat from Mons and those fought on the banks of the Marne and Aisne rivers. By early November 1914, with the start of winter, the German advance began to falter and fade. Both sides then settled down to fight a war of attrition from behind defensive lines of trenches which would eventually stretch from the French coast to the border of Switzerland. As the war continued John must have remained in contact with Annie at her mother’s home at 59, Gosport Road in Fareham, for in the early part of the fourth quarter of 1915, now having spent over a year in France, he received a period of home leave during which he married Annie in her home town. Whether any of his family from Halesworth were present is not known. On returning to his Battery, his first task would have been to alter his next of kin details from his mother to his new wife. In the meantime, his life and that of the men of the R.G.A. at the front continued with the daily task of supplying both offensive and defensive artillery support for the infantry in the firing line. Although their guns were positioned to the rear of the front line, which would see them christened as ‘Long Range Snipers’, they would often come under counter battery fire from the German artillery and, as the war progressed, more attacks from the enemy’s aircraft (see Albert Grice’s story). Early in the new year of 1916 further promotion in rank was awarded to John. On the 7th January he became his Battery’s Quarter-Master Sergeant. This was followed in February by a new posting to the 34th (Siege) Battery R.G.A. The 34th, who were armed with four of the 9.2 inch heavy howitzers, had arrived in France during September of 1915, where they gave support to the infantry of the 34th Division. On 7th April 1916 John received a further nine-day period of home leave. Whether this was spent in Fareham, which he now considered as home, or in Halesworth is not known. Sometime after returning to France, he and his battery, from early July 1916, became involved in the Battle of the Somme which, of all of the battles of the Great War proved one of the costliest in the number of British lives lost. On 25th November 1916 John received his final promotion to the rank of Warrant Officer Class 2 and was relocated to serve as the Battery Sergeant Major of the 48th (Heavy) Battery of his regiment, a role that he would retain for the remainder of the war. As well as his promotions over the previous years on 11th December 1917 the London Gazette announced that, no doubt due to his hard work and diligence in caring for the men under his command, he had been Mentioned In Despatches. This would, if he had lived, given him the right to wear the small leaf emblem on the ribbon of his World War One Victory medal to illustrate that he had received the award. Whether John was granted any further home leave during 1917 is not known, but at some time in February 1918 he was allowed a short period to return home after hearing that his wife Annie had given birth to an illegitimate daughter with the name of Dorrien on 2nd December 1917. On 22nd April 1918 the Ministry of Pensions wrote to his Battery Commander to check if the details regarding John’s request that all allowances and pensions in the event of his death should be cancelled with regards to his wife were correct. This he confirmed with all monies etc now being credited back to his mother Elizabeth. His wife then went on to appeal her case, stating that during her husband’s visit to her in February, he had forgiven her indiscretions, but on being questioned John denied this. Now, having no responsibility other than for the conduct and welfare of the soldiers of his battery, John worked tirelessly in his role as Sergeant Major over the remaining months of the war. Due to his efforts, at the end of hostilities in November 1918, his Battery Commander put forward his name for the award of the Distinguished Conduct Medal for Devotion. A copy of the citation is shown below.
For continuous good services in action and devotion to duty
since 25th February 1918. He has been on active service since
16th August, 1914, and has served in the following battles:-
Mons, Marne, Aisne, Ypres (1st and 2nd),
Loos, Somme, Arras, 3rd Ypres.
He has recently done very good work under hostile shell fire
with the section to which he was attached, and has set a very
fine example to all ranks.
His award was announced on his Batteries Part One Orders on 27th January 1919.
With the coming of the Armistice John, being a Regular Soldier who had extended his obligation in December 1913 to complete twenty-one years of service, still had at least five years to serve. From 6th December 1918, under the terms of the German Surrender Allied troops began crossing their border to set up zones of occupation. The British Army were designated to the region of Westphalia, with its main city being Cologne. On 28th March 1919 John had received what would be his final posting when he joined the 1st/1st (North Riding) Heavy Battery, R.G.A. in the area of the town of Duren. Within a month of joining his new unit he was taken seriously ill with severe internal pains. On being admitted to the 17th Casualty Clearing Station of the Royal Army Medical Corps he was immediately operated on, but sadly died of what is listed on his service records as acute internal obstruction. After his passing he was laid to rest in the Duren town cemetery along with a further seventy-eight of his British comrades. They remained there until 1922 when it had was decided to collect all the Commonwealth war dead buried all over Germany into four centralised cemeteries. John and the others buried in Duren were reinterned in the Cologne Southern cemetery where he lies today.
On 13th May 1919 the Halesworth Times newspaper published an article in which his parents announced their son’s loss. They also proudly related that they had heard from some of his comrades, who had stated that John had shown a strict attention to duty and a steadfast coolness when under enemy fire.
On hearing of John’s demise, his disowned widow Annie applied for some kind of financial help. It appears that she received a one-off payment of £6.0s.0d (£6) on 3rd June 1919 with no other monies being paid.
In contrast, his mother Elizabeth, now being his sole beneficiary, received a payment for the loss of her son in the sum of £93.18s.5d (£93.94p). This comparatively large amount would have also included the £20.0s.0d (£20) bounty paid to all those awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal.
As well as the financial awards, Elizabeth would have been able to claim his medal awards of the Distinguished Conduct Medal, the 1914 Star Trio (it is believed he would have been entitled to the 5th Aug-22nd Nov 1914 Clasp, although it appears not to have been claimed) together with a Mentioned In Despatches emblem to be mounted on the ribbon of his Victory medal, and his named bronze memorial plaque and scroll.
The location of these awards is not known.
Shown above is a Christmas card from 1917 that would have been sent to the loved ones of those soldiers serving overseas. This example would have been particularly apt for John to send, as he had been serving in France from 1914 and would have had no idea when the war would end!