22847 CORPORAL VICTOR CHARLES NICKER
98TH COMPANY MACHINE GUN CORPS
KILLED IN ACTION
4TH MARCH 1917
AGE 19 YEARS
Yet another very popular young man who was born and lived in Halesworth for all of his short life, was Victor Charles Nicker. The son of a coach painter, James, and his wife Jane (née Reeve), he had been the third of their five children, born in the third quarter of 1897. Victor was one of that generation of young men who would fight and die in the Great War while still in their teenage years. In 1902, while living with his family at 14 Station Road, he began his education at the Boy’s School where he would go on to gain a fine reputation as a talented artist. This was confirmed in 1910 when some of his work was entered into the East Suffolk Schools Prize competition. He received a first and third prize for the quality of his work. Away from the classroom, he and his cousin, Edward, who would also go on to lose his life during the war (see his story), became regular members of the school’s football team, more commonly known as the ‘Holza Lads’. Their love of the game continued after their schooldays were over, when both of the Nicker boys went on to play for the Halesworth Alliance team. An article in the local paper of 13th February 1913 reported on their latest victory, having beaten the Beccles team by eight goals to nil with Victor and Edward credited with a single goal each.
Young Victor’s talents had not only been confined to the quality of his artwork or to the football pitch, as he was also highly thought of as a member of the Halesworth Boy’s School Operatic Society. Another article, published in the local press on 2nd January 1912, reported on the Society’s Christmas show, which had been held in the Corn Hall, then situated to the rear of the Angel Hotel. During their performance of the Japanese operetta ‘The Princess Ju-Ju’, Victor received special praise for his interpretation of the magician Abud Hiram.
On leaving school and after a brief period working as an errand boy, his father James managed to obtain a position for him as an apprentice, employed by Smith and Co, East Suffolk Carriage and Motor Works of Bridge Street, a company that he had himself worked for, for over forty years. While employed by them he had also been encouraged to volunteer for service in the Halesworth ‘F’ Company of the 4th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment, Territorial Force. Which had, in 1908, replaced the 1st Volunteer Battalion, Suffolk Regiment, a unit that both his father and uncle John had served in. On his enlistment he had been given the regimental number of 1802 with the rank of a Private Soldier.
On 31st July 1914 Victor, now classified as having been trained, along with all of the other part-time soldiers that made up the 4th Suffolks, assembled at Great Yarmouth for their 14 day annual training camp. As the train transporting them began its journey in Ipswich it stopped in every town to pick up the various companies of the Battalion. The excitement of the men grew, as over the previous few days there had been much talk of a possible war against Germany and her allies. Just three days prior the Austrians had declared war on Serbia. On arrival at the camp in Great Yarmouth the troops of the 4th Suffolks settled down in preparation for their training to commence, while the situation in Europe began to take on a more serious nature, with the Germans invading Belgium on 4th August 1914. Due to this, on the same day, Great Britain declared war on the Kaiser’s Germany. Prior to this, with the likelihood of war becoming more apparent, the men of the 4th Suffolks had, the day after their arrival, received orders to return to their home towns to await general mobilisation. This order arrived at ‘F’ Company’s Headquarters in the Rifle Hall at midnight on 4th August, the day the declaration of war was signed. On receiving the news, all the men had been sent home for the night with instructions to return the following day prepared to go to war.
On its formation in 1908 the original terms of service for members of the Territorial Force had been that of purely Home Defence. However in 1910 these regulations had been amended to allow for those men who had freely volunteered to sign the Imperial Service Obligation which had then committed them to serve overseas, in the event of a national emergency. For this commitment they were issued with a small badge (see below) to proudly wear above the right breast pocket of their service dress tunic.
The Imperial Service badge as awarded to Territorials who had volunteered to serve outside of the Country. The second example illustrates the wear after over one hundred years of laying on a W.W.1 battlefield.
It appears that Victor, along with several other Halesworth Territorials, had signed what was known as the pledge. On being mobilised the various companies of the 4th Suffolks had gathered at the battalion’s headquarters in Ipswich, prior to travelling to their war station at Felixstowe where they then began preparing defences against a possible invasion. While there the 4th Suffolk’s Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Colonel F Garrett T.D., had sent a telegram to the War Office in which he had offered the services of his battalion in any theatre of war. At the same time many of those soldiers who had not initially signed the Imperial Service pledge rushed to do so. For those men who had still not signed, it was decided to split the battalion in two with what became known as the 1st/4th Suffolks being made up of those willing to serve overseas, while those for whatever reason, had not made the pledge became the 2nd/4th Battalion, which would remain in England with a Home Defence and training role. Eventually, with things not going well for those Regular Army Divisions of the British Expeditionary Force now fighting in France and Belgium, those Territorial Battalions which were considered ready for war were despatched to the Continent to fill the gaps in the B.E.F.’s order of battle, with the 1/4th Suffolks landing at Le Havre on 9th November 1914.
One story regarding their transfer to the Front Line occurred the day before their transport sailed from Southampton, when it was realised that a previous army regulation set the minimum age for a British soldier to travel overseas at nineteen years. It was later said that, the night before they had sailed, several of the young Suffolk lads had celebrated their nineteenth birthdays, with Victor, aged just seventeen, being one of them. Such was the excitement of those who felt they were going on a great adventure. It also shows that those in authority must have turned a blind eye to the situation. Within just over a month of their arriving in France, the Halesworth Times newspaper of 15th December 1914 reprinted a number of letters that had been received at the offices of the East Suffolk Carriage Works. These had been sent by former employees, one being from Victor in which he thanked them for the parcel he had received from the staff, particularly the scarf sent by Mr Smith’s young granddaughter Gwendoline, as at that time it had been very cold. He also went on to describe how he and what would have been another cousin Arthur had been inoculated for a second time and, while waiting in line, had spent some time picking out German bullets from a damaged wall.
After serving for a year at the Front, during which time he had witnessed much heavy fighting, including his battalion’s baptism of fire during the Battle of Neuve Chapelle in March 1915, on 2nd December 1915 Victor was sent on a course of instruction at the 15th Divisional Machine Gun School, where he became proficient in the handling and firing of the excellent Vickers’s medium machine gun. On his return to the 1/4th Suffolks he was granted seven days home leave, returning to France on 22nd December. After he returned he received promotion to the rank of Lance Corporal. This was followed on 2nd May 1916 by a further advance in rank to that of Corporal, at the young age of eighteen years. A week after his second promotion and no doubt due to having excelled on his machine gun course, he, with a few of his comrades, had been transferred to the recently formed 98th Company of the Machine Gun Corps. With this change of regiment he had also received the new regimental number of 22847.
Over the next few months Victor settled well into his new Corps, which had, during the war, gained the unenviable nickname of the ‘Suicide Club’. By December 1916 he had also become qualified as an instructor in the use of the new Lewis light machine gun.
At some time between joining the M.G.C. and losing his life, Victor had received another period of home leave, returning to Halesworth for a short time. The new year of 1917 found him and his comrades now serving in the 33rd Division in the area of Bethune in the Pas de Calais region of France where, due to a heavy period of rain, all attempts to gain ground were foiled due to the deep mud and water, with many of the men suffering from trench foot, a very painful condition that saw many of the sufferers taken out of the line.
On 13th March 1917 the Halesworth Times, on behalf of his family, announced that Victor had been killed in action on 4th March 1917. The information regarding his loss had been conveyed to them in a letter sent by his Company Commander, Major C D Jay, in which he wrote that during the night of their son’s death, he and his section had just been relieved from duty manning their guns when, while making their way back to the rest area, they had been blown up by a random German artillery shell which had killed Victor and seven other members of his section. The Major then went on to explain that they might be reassured that their son had not suffered any pain as his death had been instantaneous. He then went on to comment on what a popular young man Victor had been with both the Officers and men of the 98th Company. The following week the local paper printed another article regarding his death in which they reported that James and Jane had received further letters of sympathy, sent by comrades of their son, one being from Private Arthur Larman, another of the original Halesworth Territorials, who wrote that even though being eight years his senior, he and the other surviving soldiers in Victor’s section appreciated his soldierly qualities and cheerfulness even under the most trying of circumstances. Arthur then went on to explain that his burial had been carried out in the most respectful manner possible. Sadly, with so many men having lost their lives in that area of France, Victor’s remains were never found. He is today remembered on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing.
After his death, having listed his mother as his next of kin, on 19th June 1919 she had received the final payment of War Gratuity in respect of her son’s loss, amounting to a total of £23.13s.1d (£23.65p).
His parents would have also been entitled to claim his medal entitlement of the 1914 Star trio. The location of these awards are not known, while his named memorial plaque is now in a private collection. (See below)
With regards to his chum Arthur Larman, just six weeks after helping to bury young Victor, he had been captured and made a prisoner of war on 23rd April 1917. He did not return to his home at 5 London Road, Halesworth until 6th December 1918. He then went on to live to the age of seventy-one, passing away in the nearby village of Reydon in August 1965.
A copy of an original Field Service Postcard Victor had sent home to his mother during February 1915.
