Armistice brought fighting to an end

Armistice brought fighting to an end but not the family losses.

The Armistice signed on 11^th November, 1918 brought the fighting of the Great War to an end (except in East Africa where it continued for several more days). The joy for some at home however was often shattered by the continuing receipt of news that a loved one had died of wounds or was discovered to have died in a prisoner of war camp.

In addition, the poor state of health of many who had served in the war, brought on by the conditions in the battlefields, meant that many men succumbed to general illness. We do not know when Lieutenant George Frederick Ball was sent to Ireland at Balla, County Mayo, when he died in December, 1918 serving with the 2^nd/1^st Highland Cyclist battalion but many troops had been deployed to Ireland in the wake of the continuing political agitation and disorder surrounding the campaign by nationalists for separation from the United Kingdom.

The Shields Daily News announced on 10^th December, 1918 that George Ball, who was the younger son of Henry and Mary Ball, of 3 Milton Terrace, North Shields, and Lately Assistant Scout Master of the Christ Church Troop Boy Scouts would be interred at Preston Cemetery that week.

The Tynemouth Parish Church Monthly Magazine in January 1919, noted in its IN MEMORIAM. Section ‘Our sympathy goes out to the relatives of three of our promising young men, who have given their lives as part of the toll exacted by the War... Dec. 6th brought the news of the death in Ireland from pleurisy of 2nd Lieut. Geo. F. Ball, our Assistant Scoutmaster, who was exceptionally keen in all that he undertook. We shall miss them all tremendously, and to the relatives of each we offer our deepest sympathy. The friends of Geo. Ball had the melancholy satisfaction of a military funeral here at home, which was attended by a large number of Scouts’.

George Ball had attended Tynemouth High School and is remembered in the school’s Record of Service compiled by the Headmaster, Wallace Heaton who knew every pupil who served in the war and followed their lives during the war. (The school opened in 1904, and of 381 former pupils who were known by Heaton to have served in military or naval service, some 69 had died on active service or through war related causes).

Ball is named on several memorials including on the Honour Boards of the High School – now part of the Queen Alexandra Sixth Form College, on the bronze tablets set into the school gates (one of which was stolen in 2010), and on the Pulpit in Christ Church which carries the names of members of the parish who were regular attenders at the church before enlistment. His parents at least had the comfort denied to most of being allowed to repatriate his body for burial in Preston Cemetery (picture).

The toll of deaths from war related causes would continue for years to come and the last death recorded in the Tynemouth Roll of Honour is for a man who died in July, 1921 – just two months before the last qualifying date for the grant of an Imperial (now Commonwealth) War Graves Commission headstone. 

Toll amongst junior officers

Project research brings to light toll amongst junior officers

One of the enduring myths of the Great War was fashioned in the 1960s, when Alan Clark (author of ‘The Donkeys’) and other revisionist writers (e.g. Joan Greenwood – Oh! What a lovely war) were able to propagate the idea of an uncaring officer class willingly sacrificing the ordinary men in the ranks without a care for the numbers killed or maimed, in pursuit of foolhardy and impossible targets. This caricature of the reality of the war culminated in the extremely well-crafted fourth and final series of the Blackadder comedy. It is perhaps worth noting however that the final episode and denouement of Blackadder saw all the officers who were so mercilessly lampooned in an extremely humorous series rush to their deaths in a climactic which was reckoned to be one of the most emotive and moving in any broadcast drama.

The reality of the Great War was the loss of many more officers proportionately than of serving Other Ranks. 232 officers of Brigadier-General rank and above were killed or wounded in the war – 78 dying on active service. After the first 12 months of the war the losses of recently recruited junior officers, who had been drawn principally from a narrow elite group of leading public schools reached such a level that the army was forced, albeit reluctantly, to look further amongst the educated but not so socially narrow class of grammar school men to replace the burgeoning loss of young men who had offered themselves in droves from Eton, Harrow, Winchester and similar elite bastions of the establishment.

The antidote to the glib offerings of Clark and Greenwood can be found in the superb story of the junior officers at company level and below – ‘Six weeks - The Short and Gallant Life of the British Officer in the First World War’ [2010] by John Lewis-Stempel. He comprehensively punctures the myth of an uncaring and remote class of officers lolling about in gilded chateaux at the rear, as the men suffered and died in the horrors of frontline trenches. The facts of the courage and diligent caring for the men they led are the reminder of a time when duty and self-sacrifice were qualities taken for granted: so ingrained, that of all the combatant armies, only the British Army never suffered any significant loss of morale or disobedience by men in the frontline. This is attributed in large part to the British policy of employing junior officers in large numbers to lead dangerous tasks (e.g. wiring parties in No man’s land’); otherwise managed by NCOs in the allied and opposing armies.

The story of the former pupils of Tynemouth High School who took promotion as temporary officers is now being researched by a volunteer who recently joined the project. Already we have found that of 381 former pupils noted in the school’s Record of Service who were known to have been involved in military and merchant navy service during the war some 65 took commissions as junior officers in the army. Of these 19 were killed - almost 30%. This figure is consistent with Stempel’s findings and shows the true contribution of the junior officers in the four year-long struggle. Losses amongst junior officers reached such proportions that The Times was requested to cease publication of names of the dead so great was the loss amongst the sons of the establishment and consequent damage to morale.

We are fortunate that John Lewis-Stempel is one of the leading authorities who have come forward to deliver one of the lectures we arranged jointly with Northumbria University, He is giving his lecture – ‘The experiences of junior officers at the front’ at 6pm on Tuesday 3^rd. December at the City Campus East site of Northumbria University – School of Law and Business building. This is an opportunity to hear and put your questions to the author of the acclaimed story of the Captains. Lieutenants and Second lieutenants who it is argued won the war for the allies by their leadership and example.

You can register interest in attending any of the lectures at our website www.tynemouthworldwarone.org Lectures are free and open to the public on a first come basis, although pre-registration helps us to plan ahead.

The lecture by Dr Martin Pugh on Women in the Greta War (November 13^th) attracted a large audience; confirming the rising tide of interest in the war and the views of the leading historians of today who we have been able to secure for this landmark series of lectures.

Powerful picture from 1919

Powerful picture from 1919 resonates around the world

On Remembrance Sunday the project posted on its Twitter site a scene in a London street (pictured) on the first anniversary of Armistice day in 1919.This powerful image of national remembrance was re-circulated by more than 300 other Twitter sites such that more than 200,000 people will have received the picture – possibly the same number as those gathered on that London street 94 years ago.

The picture captures the overwhelming national solidarity that must have been engendered by the terrible toll of the previous four years. Now as we prepare to enter the centenary of the outbreak of the war on 4^th August, 1914 there is a palpable sense that the nation will seek to recognise and re-evaluate the loss and the changes wrought by that tragic episode in the history of the modern world.

Over the period of the centenary we will be reminded of the names of battles fought by the British, Dominion and colonial troops – many of which require little mention to reawaken sad memory amongst older generations who lost fathers, uncles and brothers in the well-known campaigns and battles on the Western Front. Of course the war involved our major ally France as well as Belgium and Russia. However it came as a surprise to me just how little recognition there is today of the major episodes that involved the French troops who suffered in equal measure with their British ally. The response of the other governments to the centenary (allies and foes alike) is different and it is fair to say that the centenary will not be marked in such definite terms as within the British and Commonwealth nations.

The most potent place name in modern French culture is Verdun – the fortification on the north east border area of France - the scene of fighting which was unparalleled in its ferocity and human toll and a place which has the same resonance for the French as The Somme and Passchendaele. The story of Verdun will be told at our next talk at the Low Lights Tavern, Brewhouse Bank, North Shields on Tuesday, 26^th November at 730pm. Tickets are still available from Keel Row Bookshop, Preston Road, North Shields and from the Low Lights Tavern.

Ian McArdle will examine the myths and the reality of this most important struggle; said to be one reason for the ill-fated Somme campaign – designed to take pressure off the French by forcing the German High Command to divert troops north to protect their front line in Picardy.

Correction – please note the lecture by Professor Gary Sheffield in March, 2014 will be given on 

4^th March –not 8^th March as stated in last week’s column.

99 years on

99 years on the nation prepares for Centenary of outbreak of the Great War

After the nation remembers the catastrophe of 1914-18 this coming Remembrance Sunday we shall shortly enter the centenary year of the beginning of the war, which will see the first events of a four year programme of national remembrance of the most significant aspects of the war.

On 4^th August, 2014 the Queen will open a commemorative programme to be managed by the Imperial War Museum and the Department for Culture Media and Sport that will be focussed on five themes; the opening of the war; the Battle of Loos (September 1915; the battle of the Somme (July – November 1916); the 3^rd Battle of Ypres (July – November 1917 – commonly referred to as the Passchendaele campaign); and culminating in the final events around November 2018, to mark the Armistice that brought to a halt the bloodshed of more than four years. The programme content has aroused some criticism for apparently overlooking the Gallipoli campaign (1915) and the final 100 days of the Battle of Amiens (from 8^th August 1918) and the advance of the allied armies, claimed by many to be the greatest achievement of British forces of all time ( see Forgotten Victory – by Gary Sheffield). Professor Sheffield is the speaker (8^th March, 2014) in one of our winter programme of lectures at Northumbria University – see our website for details of all the lectures.

In advance of the 4^th of August, 2014 and the formal events we can expect a tidal wave of new books and publications (latest estimate more than 1000) seeking to re-tell the story of the war and individual participants from what will be claimed to be ‘ a new angle’. Whether these will actually cast any new light on a subject that has attracted probably more writing in the last 100 years than any other aspect of human history is open to doubt. All the records appertaining to the war have been in the public domain for many years and all the participants in the war have now passed away so no new insights or revelations are likely.

What is now apparent however is the rising number of groups seeking to tell the story of the war and family loss in the context of their own communities. The Tynemouth project began work three years ago but in the last 12 months a significant number of new groups have been formed in the NE region to research their own stories. All these projects will have a vital role to play in supporting the creation of an enormous national biographical record which the Imperial War Museum will launch in February 2014, aiming to build a database to tell the story of as many as possible of the 8 million men and women reckoned to have been directly involved in the war as fighting troops or as workers on the home front in munitions factories, shipyards and other vital sectors of the economy (e.g. mines and engineering).

Any readers of this blog who have materials of interest in respect of anyone who served in the war, whether from the Tynemouth borough area or elsewhere will be able to offer that information for inclusion in the national database. 

We will provide further details of this initiative when it is launched. 

Haigh' last Push

Haig’s last ‘Big Push’ floundered in Belgian mud

The Great War gave recognition to many terms or place names that would become synonymous with the futility of men’s attempts to defy nature. Perhaps the greatest of these is the name of the

previously insignificant community of Pasendael (Passchendaele) sitting on the low ridge to the North East of the town of Ieper (Ypres) in Belgium. Over four months from July to October 1917 it would become the final objective of a failed ‘grand plan’, intended to break through the German frontlines and secure the trade routes through the Channel by seizing the Belgian seaports. From these ports the enemy’s submarines threatened the very continuance of the war, according to a gloomy appraisal of the security of the shipping lanes presented by Admiral Jellicoe, in the Spring of 1917.

The reluctant decision to sanction Field Marshal Haig’s plan for a summer offensive followed a long and drawn out struggle across the tables of Whitehall as Prime Minister Lloyd George and his colleagues were wary of a repeat of the blood-letting of the previous year on the Somme.

Lloyd George wanted to transfer military assets and men to prop up Italy and was sceptical of Haig’s confidence that the British imperial forces could carry through the latest scheme to break-out of the deadlock on the Western Front and seize the narrow strip of Belgian coastal ports before turning back onto the enemy’s rear. France was seriously weakened, following another failed offensive which had provoked substantial mutiny in its armies; and appeared content to sit out the next 12 months and await the arrival of significant American forces in 1918, following the US entry into the war in April. The arrival of substantial German troops released from fighting on the Russian fronts, as that country slipped into the chaos of Revolution, only served to increase the improbability of success for the proposed campaign, that would become known as the Third Battle of Ypres. For reasons of public morale Lloyd George was unable to remove Haig and reluctantly the government agreed to the planned offensive.

What no one could defeat was the weather. Despite knowledge of the poor conditions that existed in the battle areas at almost all times, repeated attacks were pressed forward into a sea of mud, as the rain poured down relentlessly, with few respites, in one of the wettest summers for fifty years. The horrors of that campaign stand out as possibly the worst conditions in which men have ever been sent to fight.

More than fifty men of the borough of Tynemouth were sacrificed in a campaign which slithered to a halt in mid-October, as the tiny gains of shell cratered and gas saturated swamp were measured against the losses of hundreds of thousands of killed and wounded, for an advance to the village which would give its name to this futile tragedy.

For a full understanding of the enormity of this disaster you can find a comprehensive and very readable explanation of the objectives and reality of the campaign in Leon Woolf’s ‘In Flanders Fields’ (Longmans 1959).

The Public meeting to gauge support for the formation of a group to begin the task of assembling the record of service and casualties of Wallsend, Howdon and Willington Quay districts in the Great War will be held at 7pm on Tuesday 29^th October, 2013 at the Memorial Hall, Frank Street, Wallsend If you are interested to help in the work of the proposed project (no previous experience in research is necessary- as training will be provided) please come to the meeting to find out how a properly constituted body will be formed and how you might be able to assist. A number of opportunities will be available for people with special skills to volunteer and it is hoped that the project will get underway early in the 2014, when funding and workspace have been secured.

Play about local man executed in Great War

Play about local man executed in Great War wins Arts Council funding

The Tynemouth commemoration project has based its work on a published Roll of Honour recording names of men who died from causes related to the Great War of 1914-19. That Roll includes the name of one local man – William Hunter, of Coronation Street - caught up in one of the most controversial issues of the war - the policy of judicial execution of hundreds of men for military offences. The project commissioned North East playwright and author Peter Mortimer in 2011 to write a play based on Hunter’s court martial papers; and now the significance of his case has been recognised by the Arts Council of England, who have awarded the project £11,000 to assist in the writing and production of the play – Death at Dawn – to be first performed in week commencing 1^st September, 2014 at the Linskill Community Centre.

There are a number of unusual aspects to Hunter’s case and Peter has taken the few known facts of his early life to develop a fictional account of how his short military career might have progressed; interwoven with the information available from the handwritten court martial records. William’s life was ended by a firing squad at 6.58am on the 21^st February, 1916. He had claimed, when arrested and tried, to have been under age when he enlisted. That claim appears to have been ignored although at least one very senior officer recommended a reprieve of the death sentence, relying on Hunter’s assertion about his age but was overruled by Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig who sanctioned all executions in France and Belgium.

The grant of the Arts Council money makes the staging of the play more certain, as other bodies are now likely to come forward with funds, in the knowledge that the play has support from the major funding body for the performing arts in England.

The play will be directed by Jackie Fielding and produced by North Tyneside’s only professional theatre company – Cloud Nine. Play author and Artistic Director of Cloud Nine, Peter Mortimer commented – “this is brilliant news. Arts Council funding in our straitened times is increasingly difficult to come by, so this is a real vote of confidence for the play and the project”

A Public meeting will take place on 29^th October, 2013 at 7pm at the Memorial Hall in Wallsend to gauge support for the formation of a group to begin the task of assembling the record of service and casualties of Wallsend. 

Unlike in Tynemouth Borough no document was ever produced (that is known about) giving a comprehensive record of Wallsend’s casualties. The first task of any group that is formed will be to collate the details to be found on numerous separate memorials, plaques and other artefacts connected to the town and the war. Memorials from places of employment, works, factories and shipyards as well as Church memorials will be a key source of information. The group, if formed will seek funding similar to that obtained by the Tynemouth project from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

If you are interested to help in the work of the proposed project (no previous experience in research is necessary- as training will be provided) please come to the meeting on 29^th October to find out how a properly constituted body will be formed and how you might be able to assist.

A number of opportunities will be available for people with special skills to volunteer and it is hoped that the project will get underway early in the 2014, when funding and workspace have been secured.

New project planned

New project planned to expand commemoration of North Tyneside’s Great War casualties

The Tynemouth commemoration project has based its work on a published Roll of Honour recording men who died from causes related to the Great War of 1914-19 although it has mention of men who died as late as 1921. That document only related to the former Borough of Tynemouth. The current borough of North Tyneside was formed in 1974 by the coming together of Tynemouth with two other boroughs – Wallsend and Whitley Bay and parts of a number of district council areas (Backworth, Shiremoor, Earsdon, Forest Hall, Killingworth, Longbenton, Dudley Burradon and Seaton Burn). Now we are helping an initiative in Wallsend to begin the task of forming a group to carry out a similar role for the many hundreds of victims of the war who lived in or were connected to the former Municipal Borough of Wallsend.

A public meeting will be convened shortly – details will be given in this column and advertised widely – to assess support for the formation of a group to begin the task of assembling the record of service and casualties of Wallsend. Unlike Tynemouth Borough no document was ever produced (that is known about) giving a comprehensive record of Wallsend’s casualties. The first task of any group that is formed will be to collate the details to be found on numerous separate memorials, plaques and other artefacts connected to the town and the war. Church memorials will be a key source of information; and the great work of the North East War Memorials Project which began many years ago to seek out and list the memorials of every town and village in the North East will be a valuable first source of information.

The group, if formed will seek funding similar to that obtained by the Tynemouth project and will be provided free access to the database systems of our project. A number of opportunities will be available for people with special, skills to volunteer and it is hoped that the project will get underway early in the 2014, when funding and workspace have been secured.

The next in our series of talks at the Low Lights Tavern, North Shields, will be given by John Sadler, author of a book of WW1 poetry under the title – ‘World War One poetry they didn’t let you read’ A few tickets are still available from the Low Lights Tavern, Keel Row Bookshop, Preston Road and the project workroom at Linskill Community Centre.

New venue for Public lectures at Northumbria University.

Due to unprecedented demand the project has been obliged to transfer ALL lectures from the Sutherland Building, Northumberland Road to the City Campus East site - Room 002, New Bridge Street, Newcastle, opposite the Manors Metro Station. (Charged parking is available). The next lecture is on 13^th November, 2013 when Dr Martin Pugh will speak on the role of women in the Great War. If you may like to attend this lecture please help us by registering your interest in advance via our website. All lectures are Free but space is limited so places cannot be guaranteed.

Norham High

Norham High leads the way to give pupils understanding of the Great War

As the education sector slowly wakes up to the impending centenary of the outbreak of the Great War in 2014, the Tynemouth project has already formed a multi-faceted partnership with Norham High School which will ensure that pupils from one of the parts of the borough which suffered the heaviest losses in the war will gain a full understanding of the impact of the war on the community in which they live today.

From initial contacts in the summer term of 2012/13 we have been looking to help the school teaching staff to prepare a fully- rounded programme of work which will be built into a week of the current school term and immerse over 400 pupils in the story of the war through all elements of the school curriculum examining the history, art, literature and music of the war as well as the physical aspects of the conflict. With an external specialist art practitioner who has already done some exciting work with pupils at Riverside School and members of a ‘military re-enactment’ group – Time Bandits – coming into the school, pupils will be able to learn about many aspects of the conflict both at home and at the Front. Everything from food in the trenches to handling military equipment and acting out daily routines will be combined to present a realistic and thoughtful series of class-based sessions but in an informal structure. Some pupils will have the opportunity to work on the design of an interpretation board to tell the story of a number of the 65 men of Preston (Ritson’s) colliery killed in the war and who have a memorial in Preston cemetery; shortly to be restored by North Tyneside Council as part of its commitment to ensuring that all the borough’s public war memorials are in as a good a condition as possible for the forthcoming centenary period. We hope that the board to be researched and designed by the pupils will (subject to funding) be manufactured and installed in time for the 90th anniversary of the unveiling of the memorial in June 1924.

New venue for Public lectures at Northumbria University

Due to unprecedented demand the project has been obliged to transfer ALL lectures from the Sutherland Building, Northumberland Road to the City Campus East site - Room 002, New Bridge Street, Newcastle, opposite the Manors Metro Station. (Charged parking is available).

The inaugural lecture to be given by Professor Sir Hew Strachan on Wednesday 9^th October is now fully subscribed. Places are still available for the further seven lectures, beginning on 13^th November at 6pm with Dr Martin Pugh who will speak on the role of women in the Great War.

If you have already registered for the lecture to be given by Professor Strachan you will receive a confirmation e-mail regarding the change of venue. You are advised to attend in good time to assist us in ensuring a prompt to start to what is already an acclaimed series of lectures.

Local connection

Local connection uncovered at project lecture.

The latest of our Great War talks was given by Dr Dan Jackson of the project group on Tuesday evening (22^nd) on the Chaplaincy services in the War. A packed room at the Low Lights Tavern on the Fish Quay heard a comprehensive review of the many issues surrounding the role and function of the military chaplains as they strove to bring comfort to the men at the front. Sometimes under the critical eyes of the commanders who wished to see the men infused with a fighting spirit, chaplains often trod a difficult path between their vocation and their patriotic sentiments; which on occasions saw them abandon their strictly non-combatant role and lead men in action when all their immediate officers had fallen in action.

Dr Jackson noted comparisons between the chaplains of the Church of England and those of the Roman Catholic Church. Drawing on a wide range of sources he quoted the observations of Robert Graves in his famous autobiographical memoir – Goodbye to all that, where criticism of the Anglicans (certainly up to late 1915) was contrasted with admiration for the Catholic priests who went forward in action and strove at all times to ensure that their co-religionists had the rites and comfort of their faith in the hours of extreme danger and often near certain death.

The great importance placed by the High Command on the role of the chaplains, as they saw it, was reflected in the undoubted courage and willingness of most chaplains to endure the hardships of the men and place themselves in danger alongside the fighting troops. Many of the characters of the war still remembered today were chaplains. ‘Woodbine Willie’ was the nickname of the Revd. Studdert-Kennedy (he was always armed with a packet of the troops’ favourite cigarette); and the Revd. ‘Tubby’ Clayton, founder of the refuge and place for quiet reflection he established a few miles behind the lines at Ypres – Talbot House in Poperinghe - where men of all ranks could mix freely and try to forget, for a brief time, the horrors to which they would have to return.

 ‘Woodbine Willie’ the Revd. Studdert-Kennedy

However the amazing coincidence of the evening came after our speaker had noted the heroism of a double VC winner – Captain Noel Chavasse of the Medical Corps and son of the then Anglican Bishop of Liverpool. Later, during questions a member of the audience noted that she was the great niece of Chavasse and that her grandfather was Chavasse’s twin brother, who had served as a chaplain and subsequently himself appointed as Bishop of Rochester.

The public response to our forthcoming lectures at Northumbria University has been significant and has already obliged us to seek a larger lecture theatre for these lectures. Notice of the new venues will be given in this column and by e-mail when we have determined the likely attendances. To register your interest to attend any of the lectures from 13^th November onwards (Dr Martin Pugh – Women in the Great War) please see our website.

Opportunities for new volunteers

Still opportunities for new volunteers to work with project.

Although the Tynemouth World War One Commemoration Project has been engaged in its many activities for more than 2 years we still have many tasks to be completed in order to achieve our aims for the forthcoming centenary of the outbreak of the war on 4^th August, 1914.

Anyone who would wish to get involved with a project which has won recognition at both regional and national levels for the breadth of its activities and quality of its output is welcome to get in touch through our website, or in person at our workroom (B9) at the Linskill Community Centre, Trevor Terrace, North Shields.

The project has been recognised for the multi-faceted forms of community information and engagement it has produced to commemorate the tragic events of the war and the tremendous response of the local population, which resulted in a terrible toll in lost lives and family grief.

Working with schools, community groups and higher education institutions we aim to inform the population in general and make available to relatives of casualties the fullest information possible about the nearly 2000 men reported as killed or died as a result of the war.

The project’s programme of lectures, organised in conjunction with Northumbria University, attracted national comment for the breadth of topics to be covered and the quality of the speakers who will address people from all walks of life in the north east, who would only rarely have the opportunity to hear these leading researchers of the war and its consequences.

The public response to the lectures has been significant and has already obliged us to seek a larger lecture theatre for the first three lectures, and probably all succeeding events. Notice of the new venue will be given in this column and by e-mail when we have determined the likely attendances. Registration of interest to attend any of the lectures can still be made through our website – see below.

The first lecture will be given on Wednesday, 9^th October by Professor Sir Hew Strachan of All Souls College, Oxford University a leading authority on the history of the Great War and author of an acclaimed history of the conflict.

The Army Benevolent Fund is staging a concert – Salute our Heroes – at 7.30pm on 28^th September, at the Sage. Tickets for this spectacular show are still available and are on sale now from the Sage Box Office – 0191 443 4661.

Plans taking shape for major commemorative event

Plans taking shape for major commemorative event to mark centenary

The Tynemouth Commemoration project is focussed on the nearly 2000 men of the former Borough who were killed or died in the Great War and we have always intended to mark the centenary of the outbreak of that conflict, which will coincide with the launch of the biographical database to be available on the internet for public enquiry and information.

However, the commemorative event planned for 3^rd August, 2014 to be held in Northumberland Square will seek also to bring into public remembrance all those who served, as well as those who did not return. We will have a respectful event which will remind the population today of the enormous sacrifice and efforts of the townspeople 100 years ago both at home and in the services.

The project’s major exhibition will be open to the public on that day in the Exhibition area of the Customer Services centre and Library. In addition a number of informal displays and exhibits will be on view inside the Square. Musical and other performances will remind us of the life and times of the people of that bygone era. We hope schools and other groups will contribute to the day bringing to life the story of their organisations and the part they played in momentous events.

The Scouting movement and Guides were particularly engaged at home. The YMCA and Salvation Army were active at the front providing simple comforts for the men, while the Red Cross were a means of seeking information about men missing and sometimes prisoners. Men of the St John Ambulance were often enlisted into the RAMC, putting into practice their skills in an environment they could scarcely have imagined before the war. We hope all of these groups still active in the community today will wish to participate on the day.

A more formal part of the day’s events will be a parade at 2pm of military and cadet formations as well as veterans organisations to form up on the north side of the Square, where brief speeches by the Lord lieutenant (or Deputy) and Chair of the Council will be followed by a short service of commemoration. This will be an opportunity to remember all those who served, on all sides, in the most terrible conflict the world had experienced up to that time. We will remember those of all faiths and all nations who suffered physical loss and mental anguish through four years of conflict.

Special provision will be made for relatives of those killed or died to attend and be a part of the formal event, while members of the public also will be able to be present in the Square. Full details of the event will be posted on the project website and in the news media nearer the event.

The Army Benevolent Fund is staging a concert this year – Salute our Heroes – at 7.30pm on 28^th September, at the Sage. Tickets for this spectacular show are still available and are on sale now from the Sage Box Office – 0191 443 4661.  

Another remarkable document brought into project

Another remarkable document brought into project

The Tynemouth World War One Commemoration Project has received many interesting items in the past two years. Another remarkable fragment of information from a little known episode of the Great War was brought into us recently by the son of one of the nearly 1500.men of the Royal Naval Brigades marched into interment in neutral Holland to avoid capture by the German army advancing into Antwerp in October, 1914. Sent out as a scratch force to assist the Belgian army and hopefully prevent the fall of the strategically important seaport to the enemy, the men of the Royal Naval division were in part new recruits into the Naval Brigades, formed under Winston Churchill – then First Lord of the Admiralty – as he sought a fighting role for the many thousands of surplus naval reservists for whom no posting at sea was available.

After only three days the force was ordered to retreat but in the case of the Collingwood, Benbow and Hawke battalions, the orders came too late and many men were then marched into Holland to avoid capture. The document brought to us was a note sent home from an internment camp only a few days later and was written on the back of a short newsletter issued by the British Consul in the Netherlands to men in the camp to keep them informed of developments in the war.

Written by AB Horace George Doxford of Little Bedford Street, North Shields he tells in stark terms of the chaos of war and retreat into captivity. He is adamant that his family should not believe assertions that they had strayed accidentally into Holland, making plain his view that they were ordered to do this; and passing several caustic and critical comments on the conduct of some of his officers, with the serious allegation that one officer of the Collingwood battalion had been shot in the back by his own men. The letter (part only it seems) passed into the hands of his son who lives in Whitley Bay. It was brought to us for copying and will certainly get a place in our exhibition to be held in summer 2014.

The project is contributing again to the Tyne and Wear Heritage Open Days programme. Two guided tours of Preston cemetery are available on Sunday, 15^th September at 1130am and 230pm. To attend you must book in advance - contact 0191 643 7413.

The date for our commemorative concert at the Sage Gateshead on September, 27^th 2014 has now been confirmed. Planning is now well in hand with the Army Benevolent Fund for a superb event which will commemorate the response from the Tweed to the Tees of the men of the north east in 1914; and will be a tribute to all those who served, both in the armed services, the merchant navy and the fishing fleets.

The Army Benevolent Fund is also staging a concert this year – Salute our Heroes – at 7.30pm on 28^th September, at the Sage. Tickets for this spectacular show are on sale now from the Sage Box Office – 0191 443 4661.

Dardanelles Campaign fails – humiliation for Allies

Dardanelles Campaign fails – humiliation for Allies

The campaign which ended temporarily the ministerial career of Winston Churchill, in autumn 1915 was a particularly poignant event for many local families. The harsh and unforgiving climate and terrain of the Gallipoli Peninsular frustrated the Allies (Britain and France), much as the hostile terrain of Afghanistan today allows a small and irregular group of dissidents to cause significant difficulties at a heavy cost for a much larger and sophisticated foreign alliance.

Much more so in Gallipoli, where the opponent was a well-trained and reasonably well-equipped adversary, assisted by German advisors who had been active in training the Turkish Army for many years before the war began. Heavy losses at the southern tip of the peninsular were incurred in April and June, 1915 with further losses in August as the Allies tried to get around the Turkish defenders ensconced on the high ground that ran down the centre of the narrow isthmus guarding the access to the sea of Marmora and the prize of Constantinople. Capturing this capital city of the decaying Ottoman Empire was seen as the way to knock Turkey out of the war and gain access to Russia for supply and reinforcement of the beleaguered Tsarist Armies. By September the position was hopeless but it was another four months before the allied governments admitted defeat and organised an ignominious, if brilliantly executed withdrawal at virtually no cost in terms of soldiers’ lives but enormous damage to the reputations of the two greatest imperial nations of the day.

A failed naval assault in March, 1915 was followed by what is often called a ‘reinforcement of failure’ – the forced landings onto the peninsular. The local population in Tynemouth saw many men killed and wounded in the fearful conditions of heat and a bare landscape offering little protection against enemy fire. The campaign also saw the near destruction of the Collingwood Battalion of the Royal Naval Division (RND) on the Fourth of June, 1915. Only reformed after most of its men were interned in Holland in October, 1914 at Antwerp, the battalion was put into action for the first time on 4^th June, 1915 and suffered 75% casualties, with over 300 men killed including 18 of its officers, of whom, only two survived and both wounded and put out of action. Major General Paris, commander of the division felt he had no option in the field but to disband the Collingwood and reallocate its survivors to other battalions in the second brigade of the RND.

The next in our series of talks will be at the Low Lights Tavern and will take place at 7.30pm on Tuesday 21^st August, 2013, and will feature the origins and deployment of the Royal Naval Division.

Tickets – Free – can be obtained from the Low Lights Tavern, Keel Row Bookshop, Fenwick Terrace, Preston Road and the Project workroom.

Project prepares for a busy year ahead

Project prepares for a busy year ahead

Few people can have failed to notice the upsurge in media coverage of the government’s plans for the marking of the forthcoming centenary of the Great War, which will be commemorated at key dates over the four anniversary years of the conflict.

Here in North Tyneside we are launching our commemorations with a series of lectures beginning on 9^th October, 2013 at Northumbria University, where, in conjunction with the History Department, we will welcome Professor Sir Hew Strachan, a member of the government’s commemorations working party, who will deliver the first lecture. As perhaps the leading authority on the history of the conflict alive today we are delighted to have him to launch the programme. Further lectures will follow at monthly intervals – full details on our website. www.tynemouthworldwarone.org

The project has a number of outreach activities and these have been enhanced recently by the decision of Norham High School to dedicate a week of study to the war in all its aspects for students from certain year groups, in the autumn term of 2013. We will be working with the school to deliver a programme which puts the war into the context of North Shields - the area in which many of Norham’s pupils live today – in some cases in the houses of men who died.

Local playwright Peter Mortimer is currently engaged to write a full-length play concerning William Hunter (aged 19) who was shot for military offences in 1916. Peter hopes to be working with pupils from Norham as part of the development of the play and may be able to involve some pupils in the production planned for September, 2014 which is to be staged at the Linskill Community Centre in North Shields, only a few hundred yards from Hunter’s home in Coronation Street.

The project has plans for a major exhibition of stories of local men and materials collected from relatives and other sources; to be staged over three months starting in July, 2014. This is to be held in the Exhibition Area of the newly refurbished Customer Service Centre and library in Northumberland Square.

The major focus of 2014 for the project will be the launch of the database of biographical data on the almost 2000 casualties of the war, which will be open to public access on the internet from 28^th June, 2014 – the anniversary of the assassination of the Archduke Ferdinand of Austria. This is will be the culmination of more than three years of effort by more than fifty local volunteers, who have painstakingly researched the stories of the men of the town who lost their lives in the war.

The culmination of the coming 12 months will be a public service of commemoration in Northumberland Square on 3^rd August, 2014 – planning for this is now well in hand.

The next in our series of talks will be at the Low Lights Tavern and will take place at 7.30pm on Tuesday 21^st August, 2013, featuring the origins and deployment of the Royal Naval Division.

Tickets – Free – are limited, and can be obtained after 1^st. August, 2013 from the Low Lights Tavern, Keel Row Bookshop, Fenwick Terrace, Preston Road and the Project workroom.

Bloodiest month for town ends with second tragedy for Brook family

The First World War was the first in several hundred years, if ever, to engage the entire population of the country. The incidence of losses however was not something distributed evenly across the four years and four months of the war.

Research by the Tynemouth project shows 145 men killed or died in the month of July, 1916 - about 8% of the total number recorded on the Roll of Honour printed in 1923. That month stands alone in the severity of the losses borne by the community. However, the impact of an average daily death toll of 4 or 5 of the town’s men was tempered by the fact that many died on a single day - the bloodiest day of losses ever for the British Army - on the First of July, 1916; when 19240 were killed and a further 36000 were wounded. Large numbers of those men (78 died from Tynemouth Borough) would be reported as Missing in Action and their deaths not presumed or confirmed until the spring of 1917.

One of the last casualties of July, 1916 was James Edward Blythe Brook, Killed in Action on the 29^th he was the brother of Nevill Brook (KIA – 27^th April, 1915 - see News Guardian 4^th. April 2013). James was studying for the priesthood at St John’s Church of England Theological College in Perth, Western Australia when he learned of his brother’s death in the Second Battle of Ypres. He determined to ‘take his brother’s place at the front’ and left college to enlist in the Australian Imperial Forces in October, 1915.

The Christ Church Parish Magazine noted that their father had been a Collector of Excises for the government but had returned to London with his family (except Nevill) in 1910 -

“We are also deeply pained to have to record the death of Nevill Brook's brother,

Corporal James E. B. Brook, of the Australian Infantry, who was killed in action on July 29th

and who was studying for the ministry at St. John's, Perth, when he enlisted in order to

take the place of his brother who was killed at Ypres last year.”

A former pupil of Tynemouth High School, James was recorded in the School’s Record of Service, from which the photograph featured here was taken.

The next in our series of talks will be given by me at the Low Lights Tavern and will take place at 730pm on Tuesday 21^st August, 2013, featuring the origins and deployment of the Royal Naval Division - in particular the Collingwood Battalions.

Tickets – Free – are limited, and can be obtained after 1^st. August, 2013 from the Low Lights Tavern, Keel Row Bookshop, Fenwick Terrace, Preston Road and the Project workroom.

Stellar line-up for Lecture series

The Tynemouth project has staged a number of very successful talks at the Low Lights Tavern over the past 12 months. Building on that foundation the project has organised a series of free lectures in association with Northumbria University, to be held in central Newcastle at the prestigious Sutherland Building, Northumberland Road at 6pm on eight dates from October, 2013 to May, 2014.

We have been fortunate indeed to secure a line-up of speakers widely-recognised as experts in their specialist fields and all recognised as having particular interest in the history of the Great War.

The first speaker, on 9^th October, will be Professor Sir Hew Strachan, of All Souls College, Oxford. A member of the government’s World War One commemorations planning group, he has firm views on how the war should be remembered and the part played in it by Britain, her Dominions, colonies and allies.

Other speakers include Emeritus Professors Martin Pugh and John Derry of Newcastle University, speaking on Women and the Great War; and Hindenburg and Ludendorff (German commanders), respectively.

John Lewis-Stempl, author of the widely acclaimed book ‘Six Weeks – the short and gallant life of the British officer in the First World War’ will talk on his findings. Dr Edward Madigan historian in residence at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and Professor Gary Sheffield, soon to take a new chair of WW1 studies at the University of Wolverhampton, will consider courage and valour; and Sir Douglas Haig (British Supreme Commander on the Western front), respectively.

The role of the Royal Navy will be examined by Professor Andrew Lambert of King’s College London, a former lecturer at the Royal Naval Staff College and Sandhurst Military Academy.

Finally Professor Joanna Bourke, of Birkbeck College, London University will examine the aftermath of the war in a lecture entitled ‘Armistice and Disability’.

Details of how to register interest in attending any of these lectures can be found at our website www.tynemouthworldwarone.org We would encourage anyone who would like to hear these acknowledged expert speakers to assist us by registering an interest as soon as possible.

Further details about each event will be provided in this column and on our website as the series progresses. We believe this is a significant programme of lectures and we have been signally successful in attracting such a range of widely recognised persons. All are giving freely of their time to speak to an interested audience not often able to hear such experts outside the capital. This series of lectures is something which emphasises the credibility of the Tynemouth Project nationally, in that we have been able to secure such a range of exceptionally learned speakers.

Meanwhile, our next three talks at the Low Lights Tavern, Brewhouse Bank, Fish Quay will begin with ‘Cruelty and Compassion’ a review of the literature of the Great War, to be given by Mr Ian McArdle at 7.30pm on Tuesday, 30th July, 2013. Tickets – Free – can be obtained from the Low Lights Tavern, Keel Row Bookshop and the Project workroom.

Last year of peace was far from harmonious at home.

99 years ago, on the 28^th June, 1914 an event that would change the world forever, and alter the balance of power and influence across the globe, was recorded as just another example of disaffection in Austria-Hungary, in a small part of the former Ottoman Empire – at Sarajevo, in Bosnia.

In a month the world would be plunged into the most terrible conflict yet seen. However, the common view over many years of a Britain at that time set in a serene position of peace and harmony at home with a dutiful collection of Dominions and colonies overseas is far from the truth of the immediate pre-war years.

In reality, the notion of a long period of Edwardian prosperity and social peace is not supported by the facts of the period. The government of the Liberal Party had to force through legislation to contain the power of the House of Lords to frustrate the Commons (1911). Trades Unions had engaged in some of the most bitter and protracted industrial disputes between 1910 and 1913, while constitutional issues of Irish Home Rule and a possible insurrection in Ireland (formation of the UVF and Ulster Covenant), were troubling the government of HH Asquith. He also had to contend with insistent campaigns for Women’s Votes in Parliamentary elections. So when the crisis in Europe loomed, ending in the declaration of war by Britain against Germany for her invasion and breach of Belgian neutrality, the government and population diverted their attention from some very intractable issues at home and plunged headlong into a war many had long foreseen as inevitable at some point.

The incident in a faraway corner of SE Europe developed into a stand-off between the great power blocs of Europe, with little Serbia on one side supported by Russia and therefore involving France as Russia’s treaty ally, set against Austria- Hungary and Germany (the Central powers – with Italy, who did not join in the conflict immediately and then later only on the Allied side).

By 28^th July, 1914 Serbia had acceded to all but one of Austria’s demands in response to the assassination of the heir to the Austrian Empire, Arch Duke Ferdinand and his wife in Sarajevo a month before, by Bosnian nationalists and allegedly supported by Serbia.

Austria, encouraged by a militarist administration and army in Germany saw this as the lever to begin a long-planned war to counter perceived threats from the Russian and French power in Europe. War was declared by Austria against Serbia and within days the main nations of Europe were mobilising for war. Britain followed on the 4^th August, after German troops entered Belgium and thus began the greatest conflict to affect the British nation and her colonies.

The Tynemouth Project will mark the forthcoming centenary of the start of that war [2014] and its effects on the population in the coming year in a series of public events and the launch on the internet of the database recording the history of many of the local victims researched over the past three years.

Letter of comfort tells of Jutland disaster

The flow of information to the Tynemouth project continues, with items of interest brought in by relatives of casualties of a conflict 100 years ago. One item produced at the Project workroom recently is a remarkable document which may turn out to be of great significance.

A letter sent to the family of every victim of the loss of HMS Invincible in the crucial naval action at Jutland on 31^st May- 1^st June, 1916, was intended to comfort the more than 1000 families who lost a member in that great engagement which was marked by greater losses in our navy than were inflicted upon the enemy.

HMS Invincible, one of the most powerful ships in the Royal Navy of the time suffered instantaneous destruction when a shell penetrated her armour and set off a fatal explosion in the magazine containing the high explosive charges used to fire her own massive array of guns.

All but 6 of her more than 1000 crew were lost, including Admiral Horace Hood. Some days later a Captain Dannreuther visited Lady Hood and told her of the loss of the ship and his own remarkable escape along with only 5 other men. Thrown from high in one of Invincible’s masts by the fearsome explosion which sent the ship to the bottom in only 10 seconds, Dannreuther’s story was related in a letter sent by Admiral Hood’s widow to the family of every victim; each letter being individually addressed and signed by her. In it she said ‘-and I only hope that this short account will help you as it has helped me’.

15 men on the Tynemouth Roll of Honour were lost at the Jutland battle including

Albert Hold . Only 17 years old, from Eston in the North Riding of Yorkshire, he had been sent to the Training Ship Wellesley moored off North Shields Fish Quay in 1911 aged only 11. He entered the Navy at just 15 in March 1915. The navy did not have restrictions on service at sea in active operations so this young man was one of the victims of the loss of the Invincible after only 13 months as a sailor. His period of forced separation from his family from the age of 11, because he was’ non-compliant’, and short naval career brought a sudden end to what had clearly been a difficult childhood.

We can only wonder what comfort the letter from Lady Hood brought to his mother Martha Hold, a widow in the 1911 census and living at Peel Street in South Bank in1916 at the time of his death - four weeks short of Albert’s 17^th birthday.

Although the letter brought to us relates to William Davey of Byker Bank in Newcastle, we hope to have it available for display at the project exhibition planned for 2014, in the meantime we have alerted the Royal Navy Museum to its existence and are keen to learn whether this is yet one more remarkable and perhaps unique find brought to light by the project’s work.

Alan Fidler

‘Votes for women’ in post-War Britain did not pay the bills

One problem of the aftermath of Great War was how to accommodate the vast ‘army’ of war widows in a rudimentary system of social security; still framed within the concepts of middle class Victorian values.

That war widows were to be held in high esteem was beyond question – they had lost their husbands fighting in a noble cause. Many were left with a number of dependent children and were in need of support – unable to work. The single widows however posed a particular problem as the end of the war approached. With the imposition of the ‘Pre-war measures Act’ – designed by agreement with the male dominated trades unions to force women out of the employment they had enjoyed temporarily whilst men were at the front – it became clear that single widows with a state pension posed a number of threats to the economy.

It had been hoped that the many pre-war domestic servants (dismissed as a luxury) would be re-employed and take up some of the surplus. But the war had changed attitudes irrevocably. The drudgery, long hours and pitiful rewards of domestic service did not attract women who had enjoyed high earnings and consequent freedoms of the booming wartime economy.

The solution was the imposition of a mean-minded system of monitoring to obtain evidence that single widows had forfeited the right to support by behaviour deemed unbecoming of their ‘honoured’ position.

Special committees of the fledgling Ministry of Pensions were established to review the cases of women who came to their attention. Faced by confiscation of their meagre allowances, for ‘immoral or delinquent behaviour’ the situation of these single widows was not comfortable.

Here was a vast group of younger women with years of life ahead of them. Fortunately for the government and a society still dominated by patriarchal middle class values the difficulties of general unemployment meant that many of these young widows found few opportunities open to them – given the restriction of so many occupations to men returning from their ‘heroic’ service at the front.

So, many women, faced with falling foul of the puritanical surveillance of the ‘Boards of Guardians’ opted for re-marriage, often into loveless relationships but acceptance as ‘normal’ members of a society built around a ‘woman’s place in a domestic setting’.

Mary Jane Stagg (formerly Philips) was perhaps one of those who forfeited her widow’s pension on re-marriage (with a gratuity of a lump sum payment) for her re-integration into the norms of a pre-war Edwardian society. Research by the project shows that in June 1919, she was still seeking information about her husband – officially reported killed at Messines Ridge in 1917 but his death not yet confirmed by any witness. With two young children of school age she opted to forego her £1.45 per week widow’s allowance and re-married.

The grant of a vote in the Electoral Reform Act of 1918 was probably of little comfort to her in a society which was busy reasserting male domination of the workplace and relegating women to the home.  

Alan Fidler