Cornwall in the First World War

During this month, each weekday I'm posting a photograph showing Cornwall's First World War.

Here, it's the summer of 1918. A convoy of merchant vessels sailing for Falmouth passes the Lizard. High above, on watch for prowling German U-boats, is a Submarine Scout Zero Class airship from Royal Naval Air Station Mullion.

Ten SSZs flew from Mullion at different times; the first arrived in July 1917. The SSZ was powered by a 75 hp Rolls-Royce Hawk engine and carried either two 110 lb bombs or a single 250-pdr.  Below the gas-bag, three crewmen sat in the small gondola: a wireless/telegraphy operator, who also manned the nose machine-gun; the pilot in the central position; and aft, by his engine, the air mechanic.

My new book, 'Cornwall In The First World War', is published by Truran. With 112 pages and 100 images, you'll find it in bookshops across the Duchy. It's also available on line through Waterstones, with free UK post: http://bit.ly/I47c9p

Cornwall in the First World War

During this month, each weekday I'm posting a photograph showing Cornwall's First World War.

HMS Defiance was Cornwall’s naval training base, built at Wearde Quay on the River Lynher near Saltash.  Throughout the First World War, Defiance trained seamen to operate naval weapons including torpedoes and huge sea-mines. 

Here are two of the station’s divers, wearing their bulky underwater suits. The image is by courtesy of Steve Johnson and his fascinating Cyberheritage site. Why not check him out: http://www.cyber-heritage.co.uk/ 

My new book, 'Cornwall In The First World War', is published by Truran. With 112 pages and 100 images, you'll find it in bookshops across the Duchy. It's also available on line through Waterstones, with free UK post: http://bit.ly/I47c9p

Cornwall in the First World War

During this month, each weekday I'm posting a photograph showing Cornwall's First World War.

Here's an image from Fowey. By the riverside, soldiers guard a stack of boxes while an officer supervises. A small crowd of spectators has gathered and the town policeman stands by. 

But what is the photo showing us? Why have the army and constabulary turned out? And what do the boxes contain? Any information on this image would be gratefully received.

Update: Poltair History Department at https://twitter.com/HistoryPoltair and Fowey wooden boatbuilder Marcus Lewis at http://www.woodenboatbuilder.co.uk/ have come forward. They feel the boxes may contain ammunition for use on a rifle range across the water at Polruan. Many thanks for your help.

My book, 'Cornwall In The First World War', is published by Truran. With 112 pages and 100 images, you'll find it in bookshops across the Duchy. It's also available through Amazon: http://amzn.to/19JbtZm

Cornwall in the First World War

During this month, each weekday I'm posting an image showing Cornwall's First World War.

In February 1918 Royal Naval Air Station Newlyn received its first American pilot when Ensign Benjamin Lee, seconded from the US Naval Reserve, made the overnight journey down from Paddington. He was soon in the worst kind of action.

On the murky late afternoon of 3 March Lee fired up the Renault-Mercedes engine of his Short 184 floatplane. With his British observer, Sub-Lieutenant Bertram Rowley, he took off from Mount's Bay and began a patrol east of the Lizard. Five minutes into the flight his wireless failed.  Constant buffets from a strengthening easterly wind made Lee feel airsick, and it began to grow dark. Compass luminosity was poor; the men became lost.

At last, in the deep gloom they spotted a light and settled on the water, but struck a reef; the Short’s floats were shattered and it began to sink. Lee had landed by the Eddystone lighthouse, in rough seas. Yet he was blessed that night; keeper Mr Williams heard the commotion, flung him a life-buoy and dragged him through the waves to an iron ladder. Up in the lighthouse the men watched helplessly as Rowley’s Aldis signalling lamp chattered from the wrecked aircraft. Finally, it went out. Lee soon returned to duty but his observer was never seen again.
 

During March, Ensign Lee’s new Short broke a con-rod south of Land’s End and he ditched once again, that time rescued by a passing trawler. Seven months later, on 28 October 1918 Benjamin's luck finally ran out. Just before his twenty-fourth birthday he crashed while starting a flight to Dundee, and was killed. Two weeks later the Armistice was announced.

My book, 'Cornwall In The First World War', is published by Truran. With 112 pages and 100 images, you'll find it in bookshops across the Duchy. It's also available through Amazon: http://amzn.to/19JbtZm

Cornwall in the First World War

During this month, each weekday I'm posting an image showing Cornwall's First World War.

Here's a photo of Royal Naval Air Station Mullion on the Lizard peninsula. It's 1917 and the base is home to giant airships, used to patrol the surrounding seas in search of German U-boats.

The main airship shed to our right has been completed; a second, smaller shed is under construction. Below the airship is the team of men who helped move it across the airfield when taking off and landing, using trail ropes to manoeuvre it to and from the sheds.

My book, 'Cornwall In The First World War', is published by Truran. With 112 pages and 100 images, you'll find it in bookshops across the Duchy. It's also available through Amazon: http://amzn.to/19JbtZm

Cornwall In The First World War

During this month, each weekday I'm posting an image showing Cornwall's First World War.

Here's the Royal Navy's Motor Launch ML319, Newlyn-based, seen at the Isles of Scilly anchored off Tresco. Some of her ten-man crew are on deck and the wireless mast is deployed.  Her cockpit's open to the elements, but later in her life she acquired a simple wheel-house.

Cornwall's MLs were used to hunt German U-boats within Admiralty Patrol Area XIV, a zone jutting south and west from the Duchy, and also watched over the Bristol Channel from Padstow.

The boats were wooden with twin petrol engines, armed with stern-mounted depth-charges and a quick-firing 1- or 3-pounder deck gun; they could manage almost 20 knots. Maintenance was generally carried out in Penzance, either alongside, beached at Newlyn or for bigger jobs, berthed in Holman’s dry dock.

My book, 'Cornwall In The First World War', is published by Truran. With 112 pages and 100 images, you'll find it in bookshops across the Duchy. It's also available through Amazon: http://amzn.to/19JbtZm

Cornwall In The First World War

During this month, each weekday I'm posting an image showing Cornwall's First World War.

James Henry Finn was born in 1893 at St Clement near Truro; he had ten brothers and sisters.  The family moved to Bodmin and settled in Downing Street, but when James left school he travelled to the South Wales valleys, looking for work.   

He found a job at a colliery but when war began enlisted as a medic with his local regiment, the South Wales Borderers, joining the 4th Battalion.

James served at Gallipoli, but by spring 1916 his battalion was in Mesopotamia (now Iraq), fighting Turkish forces at the First Battle of Kut.   

On 9 April, south-east of Baghdad at Sannaiyat, the enemy mounted a night attack and many British soldiers were injured.   

Under heavy fire James crawled into no-man's land, close to the Turks’ trenches, to rescue wounded comrades. In separate journeys he carried two men back to his lines, and several times returned to bandage and comfort others.  He came under repeated fire and eventually was hit, though he made a recovery. 

For his gallantry that night, James was awarded the Victoria Cross; he also received the Order of Karageorge 1st Class, the equivalent medal of Serbia.

In the following March though, near Baghdad James was wounded again.  He was rescued, but his ambulance was hit by enemy fire and Private Finn died; he was 23 years old.  Today he’s remembered on Iraq’s Basra Memorial, set amidst a former battle-ground from the first Gulf War.

My book, 'Cornwall In The First World War', is published by Truran. With 112 pages and 100 images, you'll find it in bookshops across the Duchy. It's also available through Amazon: http://amzn.to/19JbtZm 

Cornwall In The First World War

During this month, each weekday I'm posting an image showing Cornwall's First World War.

Here, it's August 1914; war has just broken out. In Redruth a rush of volunteers takes place as men step forward to join the fight. Shepherding the recruits are two regular soldiers. The new men wait on the town's station platform; they're travelling up-country to begin military training. For many, this will be the last memory of where they'd grown up.

My book, 'Cornwall In The First World War', is published by Truran. With 112 pages and 100 images, you'll find it in bookshops across the Duchy. It's also available through Amazon: http://amzn.to/19JbtZm 

Cornwall In The First World War

During this month, each weekday I'm posting an image showing Cornwall's First World War.

Construction of the air base known as Royal Naval Air Station Newlyn (Land’s End) began late in 1916, using a bulging waterside apron near Newlyn’s southern harbour pier, around two miles from Penzance. Canvas hangars and wooden huts were erected; later a more permanent aircraft shed appeared. Newlyn’s first Short Type 184 floatplanes,arrived for anti-submarine operations during January 1917.

In the image above, Short 184 N1609 ‘4’ has come to grief during mid-May 1918; it's seen nose-down in Mount’s Bay as rescuers arrive.  The aircraft was safely beached, but scrapped after an inspection. 

My book, 'Cornwall In The First World War', is published by Truran. With 112 pages and 100 images, you'll find it in bookshops across the Duchy. It's also available through Amazon: http://amzn.to/19JbtZm

Cornwall In The First World War

During this month, each weekday I'm posting an image showing Cornwall's First World War.

This lady wears the uniform of a Volunteer Aid Detachment nurse, and came from the St Agnes area. The photo was taken just post-war; she’s wearing her British War Medal (to our left), and Victory Medal.

During the war, Cornwall's biggest military hospital was created in the old workhouse at Truro. As more and more wounded men arrived home from the fighting, all over Britain auxiliary hospitals were also established. In Cornwall these hospitals were: 

• Camborne Auxiliary Hospital, Tregenna
• Redruth Officers’ Auxiliary Hospital, Scorrier
• Penzance V.A. Hospital, Morrab Road, Penzance
• Auxiliary Hospital, Launceston
• Auxiliary Naval Hospital, Truro
• Auxiliary Hospital for Officers, Fowey
• Trefusis, Falmouth
• Convalescent Hospital for Discharged Sailors and Soldiers, Newquay. 

My book, 'Cornwall In The First World War', is published by Truran. With 112 pages and 100 images, you'll find it in bookshops across the Duchy. It's also available through Amazon: http://amzn.to/19JbtZm

 

Cornwall In The First World War

During this month, each weekday I'm posting an image showing Cornwall's First World War.

Cornwall's easternmost naval base was HMS Defiance, situated at Wearde Quay on the River Lynher. Wearde Quay received occasional British submarines, from the old A Class to the somewhat less dangerous D Class, the surface-power engines of which ran on diesel rather than petrol.   

Over 1917 and 1918 His Majesty’s Australian Ship Platypus also appeared on the Lynher. Platypus was a submarine depot vessel used to store equipment, weapons and provisions for the undersea craft, which were too small to carry much themselves. By then though she was redundant in her original role; both Australia’s submarines had been lost.

Here, Platypus is at anchor with submarine D.3 alongside. On 12 March 1918 D3 was sunk with all 29 hands by a French airship which mistook her for a German U-boat.

My book, 'Cornwall In The First World War', is published by Truran. With 112 pages and 100 images, you'll find it in bookshops across the Duchy. It's also available through Amazon: http://amzn.to/19JbtZm

Cornwall In The First World War

During this month, each weekday I'll be posting a different image showing aspects of Cornwall's First World War.

In 1916 the Royal Naval Auxiliary Hospital was created in Truro’s workhouse at the top of Tregolls Road, initially with 150 beds; the usual inmates were moved out. Already, since June 1915 the Royal Cornwall Infirmary at Truro had been treating wounded servicemen. Here, it's Christmas and the ward has been decorated with small trees. Patients wear a light cotton uniform indicating their status as wounded servicemen, and pose for the photo with some of the nursing staff.

More hospital facilities were pressed into use at Falmouth, Launceston and Penzance, as well as Camborne, Fowey, Newquay and Scorrier. Local people opened canteens for the walking wounded, and many welcomed recuperating men into their homes. Schools and public halls were requisitioned for additional temporary nursing care; some reached a dreadful longevity. 

My book, 'Cornwall In The First World War', is published by Truran. With 112 pages and 100 images, you'll find it in bookshops across the Duchy. It's also available through Amazon: http://amzn.to/19JbtZm

Cornwall In The First World War

During this month, each weekday I'll be posting a different image showing aspects of Cornwall's First World War. 

Here's a photo from the summer of 1918. The location is Royal Naval Air Station Padstow, a small airfield just outside the town at the hamlet of Crugmeer. We don't know the identity of the RAF officer resting on his cane, but the aircraft behind is a de Havilland DH.6 biplane.

Padstow’s DH.6's were as much a burden as a fighting force. The DH.6 was a depressing aeroplane, its engine puny and reticent; many examples also suffered from structural problems. Carrying bombs was a great burden but a load of 100 lb was just about manageable, provided the pilot flew alone. Sometimes DH.6s patrolled merely as unarmed signalling aircraft, the observer using an Aldis lamp to commune with those below. 

Patrols off Cornwall's north coast usually lasted around two hours, back and forth over an inshore area say 40 miles across. To help spot the enemy, flights were low-level; in any case the DH.6’s ability to climb while lugging bombs was feeble. If aircraft returned to Padstow still carrying their bombload, often they couldn’t make enough height to clear the cliffs and reach the landing-ground. That meant a turbulent flight along the nearby valley south of Gunver Head, followed by a drop onto the airfield. Numerous airmen flying from RNAS stations across Britain had previously suffered war injuries deeming them unfit for service overseas, but Padstow’s DH.6 patrols would have taxed those in sparkling health.
 

My book, 'Cornwall In The First World War', is published by Truran. With 112 pages and 100 images, you'll find it in bookshops across the Duchy. It's also available through Amazon: http://amzn.to/19JbtZm

Cornwall In The First World War

During this month, each weekday I'll be posting a different image showing the story of Cornwall's First World War.

Here's a group of officers and men from 1/5 Battalion Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry, taken probably during 1916. The location? Place House, St Anthony, on the Roseland peninsula.

My book, 'Cornwall In The First World War', is published by Truran. With 112 pages and 100 images, you'll find it in bookshops across the Duchy. It's also available through Amazon: http://amzn.to/19JbtZm

Cornwall In The First World War

During this month, each weekday I'll be posting a different image showing the story of Cornwall's First World War.

Here, it's July 1916: pictured is airship C.9, which operated from Royal Naval Air Station Mullion. She was punctured by ‘friendly’ fire from British troops during a patrol over Jersey. Slowly deflating, C.9 made it back as far as Mullion harbour, where finally she folded in half and fell into the sea. As naval personnel stand perplexed on the harbour wall, local people watch proceedings from the bank above. The following month, repaired, C.9 returned to her anti-submarine patrols.

My book, 'Cornwall In The First World War', is published by Truran. With 112 pages and 100 images, you'll find it in bookshops across the Duchy. It's also available through Amazon: http://amzn.to/19JbtZm

Cornwall In The First World War

During this month, each weekday I'll be posting a different image showing the story of Cornwall's First World War.

The Duchy’s long coastline, mostly isolated, was felt vulnerable to possible enemy invasion. To help protect exposed and sensitive areas, Volunteer Training Corps contingents were formed in many Cornish towns.

Generally the men of Cornwall's VTC were ineligible for front-line service: old soldiers, essential war workers, members of the clergy.  Among other duties they helped protect national treasures, including precious state papers which had arrived for safe keeping at Bodmin Gaol.

The Corps was a national body, the forerunner of the Second World War Home Guard, and given similar tasks.  Its members wore a red brassard emblazoned with the initials GR (Georgius Rex), which led to unkind nicknames such as ‘Gorgeous Wrecks’ and ‘God’s Rejects. Above is a Cornwall VTC cap badge which has survived from those days. 

My book, 'Cornwall In The First World War', is published by Truran. With 112 pages and 100 images, you'll find it in bookshops across the Duchy. It's also available through Amazon: http://amzn.to/19JbtZm

Cornwall In The First World War

During this month, each weekday I'll be posting a different image showing the story of Cornwall's First World War. 

Here's a young recruit to the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry. Hardly more than a boy and swamped by his new greatcoat, he's having his photograph taken before he leaves for the front.  Did he return?  We don't know, because he's anonymous, but for me this is one of the most poignant images in my collection and underscores the terrible waste of war.

My book, 'Cornwall In The First World War', is published by Truran. With 112 pages and 100 images, you'll find it in bookshops across the Duchy. It's also available through Amazon: http://amzn.to/19JbtZm

Cornwall In The First World War

During this month, each weekday I'll be posting a different image showing the story of Cornwall's First World War. Here's early British submarine A.7, a visitor to Cornwall's naval station HMS Defiance.

Commissioned in 1884, Defiance was formed at Wearde Quay on the River Lynher, near Saltash, built around two wooden naval hulks moored off the northern bank. Defiance was a training station.  Its deadly courses taught wholesale maritime destruction, using some of the most lethal weapons of their day: torpedoes and enormous sea-mines.

Mine-laying practice and recovery drills, using dummy weapons, were generally carried out in Whitsand and Cawsand Bays.  But live mine and torpedo firings even took place on the Lynher itself.  Along the shore Cornish people would gather to watch the explosions, as colossal gouts of water were flung high into the air.

My book, 'Cornwall In The First World War', is published by Truran. With 112 pages and 100 images, you'll find it in bookshops across the Duchy. It's also available through Amazon: http://amzn.to/19JbtZm

Cornwall In The First World War

During this month, each day I'll be posting a different image showing the story of Cornwall's First World War.

Here's Miss Clemence, a young machine-operator with J&F Pool Ltd. During the war the Hayle metalworking concern turned to producing munitions and many of its shop-floor staff were female.

My book, 'Cornwall In The First World War', is published by Truran. With 112 pages and 100 images, you'll find it in bookshops across the Duchy. It's also available through Amazon: http://amzn.to/19JbtZm

Cornwall In The First World War

One hundred years ago today, on 4 August 1914, Britain declared war on Germany. The First World War lasted four terrible years, and affected every town and village in Britain.

At the outbreak thousands of men joined the colours and left their homes, many forever. In Cornwall, naval ships, aircraft, even airships arrived along the coast, to help protect Britain's sea-lanes in a brutal campaign against  Germany's submarines. On the Duchy's home front, Cornish men and women worked tirelessly to support those fighting in ditstant battles overseas.

Here's a Cornish image from 1918. On the hard standing at Royal Naval Air Station Newlyn, an airman tends to a Short 184 seaplane. Between the floats of the aircraft is mounted a depth charge. In the background is a canvas hangar, standard issue of the day.
 
Newlyn was one of four Cornish centres of aero activity during the First World War; the others were at Bude, Mullion and Padstow.  An air base was also built at Tresco on the Isles of Scilly.

During this month, each day I'll be posting a different image showing the story of Cornwall's war.

My book, 'Cornwall In The First World War', is published by Truran. With 112 pages and 100 images, you'll find it in bookshops across the Duchy. It's also available through Amazon: http://amzn.to/19JbtZm