Cornwall in the First World War

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

Here. it's 1917 at Royal Naval Air Station Mullion on the Lizard, established the previous year a little way from the village near Cury. The station's main airship shed has been completed and a second, smaller shed is being built. In the air is submarine-hunter Coastal Class Airship No. C.2; a team of men using trailing ropes are manoeuvring her across Mullion's open space. The airship was around 200 feet long, and her size becomes clear when you take in the ant-like ground-handlers.

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 a different image showing aspects of Cornwall's First World War.

This image is from the St Austell Star newspaper of 3 September 1914. It's headlined: 'FIrst St Austell Young Men to Enlist.'

It continues: 'Messrs W P Northey (left) and J G Wills (right), both members of the staff at Messrs Barclays and Co, bankers, St Austell branch, and Mr Frank Blight (centre) of Messrs J G Blight and Sons, Fore Street, and captain of the St Austell Football Club, enlisted with the Territorials (5th Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry) on Saturday. 

'They are the first young men from St Austell not previously connected with the services, to enlist since the outbreak of war, and their splendid lead and courageous example will no doubt be followed by many others.'

I wonder what happened to these brave men. Would St Austell's war memorial reveal their fate? Or did they somehow survive the dreadful four-year holocaust?

Any thoughts or information on these gentlemen would be most appreciated.

Update, 3 November: Poltair History Department https://twitter.com/HistoryPoltair has very kindly checked out these men. No record can be found of them on war memorials in and around the St Austell area, so it looks as if all three may have survived four years of fighting. Many thanks for this information.

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 a different image showing aspects of Cornwall's First World War.

Today I've selected a 'mystery photo'. It was taken in the Helston area, possibly during 1914. Beyond that, we know nothing about what's going on. A couple of points: firstly the soldiers' trousers are of darker material than their jackets, which is unusual. Secondly their cap badges are round, so we can exclude them being Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry. 

They may be members of Cornwall's Volunteer Training Corps, but these part-time soldiers usually wore identifying armbands displaying the initials GR: no armbands here. It's more likely they're part of the later Volunteer Force, but in that case the photo's date would be at least summer 1916. 

Any thoughts or information on these gentlemen would be most appreciated.

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, it's the summer of 1918. An SSZ Class airship based at Royal Naval Airship Station Mullion hovers over Mount's Bay. Below, a naval motor launch from Newlyn is at rest, several of her crew on the prow, her wireless mast and signalling flags on display. The image was taken from a fishing boat. From 1916 until the end of the war, airships and motor launches formed a major part of Cornwall's anti-submarine campaign.

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'm posting a photograph showing Cornwall's First World War. This week the theme is Cornwall's first military air bases.

That said, rather than Cornwall this photo actually shows the Isles of Scilly. Royal Naval Air Station Tresco was built at New Grimsby, and operations by the Navy's waterborne aircaft against German U-boats began in February 1917.

Here, it's the following summer. The slipway is complete, the main hangar still under construction; to its right is Tresco's old stone mill, which the station absorbed. The single long dark building by the beach is the ammunition store. To the left of the slipway are workshops, while on the right of the photo are several accommodation huts.

On the shoreline we can see moored a Curtiss H.12 flying-boat, along with a derelict-looking hull probably from another H.12; a second hull sits on the road from the slipway. The photo was probably taken after lunch; on the road above the accommodation huts, a line of ratings is returning from the direction of the canteen. 

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 a photograph showing Cornwall's First World War. This week the theme is Cornwall's first military air bases. Here is Royal Naval Airship Station Mullion, on the Lizard peninsula.

The station opened for business in June 1916, built on 320 acres of land belonging to the Bonython estate near the village of Cury, north-east of Mullion itself.  At first known simply as Lizard Airship Station, Mullion became Cornwall’s centre of airship operations, leading a campaign against Germany's submarines which lasted well over two years.

To house the craft a huge shed was built, over 350 feet long, 100 feet wide and 70 feet high; a slightly smaller version followed in 1917. The shed entrances were given towering windbreaks, to protect the airships from gusts across the exposed heath while moving them in and out. 

An electricity generator, fitting shop, meteorological hut and wireless cabin appeared, together with a hydrogen-producing gas-plant and gasometer since at that time all airships were hydrogen-filled. A YMCA cabin also appeared, funded by the Helston and District Allies’ Relief Fund Committee and erected by Mr Bennett of Bodmin. At its peak Mullion’s complement was around 650 officers and men.

In the photo, taken in mid-1917, the airship sheds and their windbreaks have been completed. Four Sopwith 1½ Strutter naval biplanes sit by the small white hangar. Accommodation huts and the canteen are top left.

Today there's still evidence of the station. Both airship shed floors survive, huge flat rectangular surfaces amid undulating grassland. Concrete anchor blocks which once supported the shed windbreaks also remain. Nearby, Cury village hall at White Cross was once an RNAS Mullion building; after the war it was liberated by local people and still puts in good service for the community.

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 a photograph showing Cornwall's First World War. This week the theme is Cornwall's first military air bases.

To allow wider airship patrols off Cornwall and south-west England, the Admiralty built several small mooring-out stations in and around the Duchy, bases with only essential facilities. All reported to the main Cornish airship base at Mullion, and were commissioned over the spring and summer of 1918. One appeared south of Bude on Cornwall’s north-east coast, another outside Plymouth at Laira. Further out-stations were formed at Toller (Bridport, Dorset) and Upton (Poole, Dorset). A site was considered for Scilly at Holy Vale, St Mary’s, but wasn’t built.

Royal Naval Air Station Bude flew Coastal and SSZ craft. The base was sited two miles south of Marhamchurch and south-east of Langford Wood, roughly equidistant between Langford Hill and Langford Bridge. To help with its construction Mullion personnel travelled up from the Lizard.  A clearing was made in a wooded area, creating a natural windbreak for the airships. 

Bude’s officers were billeted at nearby Langford Barton House, while the ratings lived on site in dank bell tents and a few huts; all told, around 200 people. Hydrogen for the airships, contained in high-pressure cylinders, was brought from Mullion’s manufacturing plant.

Generally Bude’s airships watched over the St George’s and Bristol Channels, and west toward the Irish Sea. On station, moored in the open air they were anchored at three points, tied to iron mooring rings set in heavy concrete balls. Like Mullion, Bude was isolated but for off-duty personnel a favourite distraction was the Bullers Arms at nearby Marhamchurch village.

Bude’s patrols were usually routine; apart from its usual beat though, airship SSZ.42 flew an unexpected humanitarian mission. One Sunday the craft was called out to escort two steamers up the Bristol Channel. But on the way, a brief diversionary flight was made allowing wireless operator Stephen Henry Bromhead to drop a message into his sweetheart’s Marhamchurch garden, telling her he’d be late for their date.

Here we see a rare visitor to lonely Bude: airship C*10 hovers over the site during the summer of 1918.  Below, Flight Commander T P York Moore, who by then commanded Cornwall-based Coastal Class airship C.9, sends a signal by semaphore flag.

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 a photograph showing Cornwall's First World War. This week the theme is Cornwall's first military air bases.

By 1917, to provide aerial patrols off north Cornwall’s coast the Admiralty was looking for a place to build an air station, but could find nowhere suitable for its preferred water-based aircraft.  Consequently a search was made for a suitable field to serve as a base for landplanes.

Just west of Padstow at the hamlet of Crugmeer, near the cliff top, a 50-acre site was requisitioned and a bumpy landing-strip marked out.  Exposed to high winds, it wasn’t ideal but the best the Admiralty could find in the area.

Several canvas aircraft hangars were put up, with wooden buildings and bell tents as shelter for officers and other ranks respectively.  Later some brick-built huts were built, their roofs formed from curved corrugated iron. In March 1918 the new base was commissioned as RNAS Padstow/Crugmeer. Small de Havilland DH.6 two-seat biplanes began to arrive and Padstow’s complement grew to around 180 men.

On 31 May 1918, the airfield’s No.500 and No.501 Flights began patrols; roughly a dozen aircraft were stationed there. One or two BE2c biplanes also appeared, a two-seater design stemming from pre-war days.

In May too a DH.9 flight formed at Padstow. The DH.9 was a better-built, more reliable aeroplane than the old DH.6; in mid-June the new unit was christened No.494 Flight. From August 1918 the Flight fell under No.250 Squadron RAF, at first led by Major R E Orton, but later by Major F Warren Merriam AFC who pre-war had made his name in Falmouth as a motor-car enthusiast.

This aerial view of RNAS Padstow/Crugmeer airfield was taken over the summer of 1918. The three canvas hangars were later joined by a fourth. To their left are lines of bell tents for the men, while 11 DH.6 biplanes rest on the grass; bottom right is the motor transport area.  To the left of the station are farm buildings which are still there today.

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 a photograph showing Cornwall's First World War. This week I'll be looking at some shots of Cornwall's first military air bases.

Here's a view of Royal Naval Air Station Newlyn, situated some two miles from Penzance on the western side of Mount’s Bay, using a narrow apron by the village's southern harbour pier. Two canvas hangars and some wooden huts were erected; subsequently a third hangar appeared and finally a more permanent shed. 

To help with the work a tiny stream locomotive was borrowed from nearby Gwavas quarry, of German origin and ironically, still bearing its pre-war name Berlin. A set of rails was laid from the hard-standing across the shingle to the water’s edge, and a trolley installed on which to mount a floatplane. The station was commissioned in January 1917; its first Short 184s, 8049 and 8350, arrived on 20 January  

Officers were accommodated at York House, around two miles from the station on the west side of Penzance, where the wardroom was also established; other ranks were billeted in local cottages. As their daytime lodgings the officers used a cottage immediately behind the station, one of the few local dwellings with indoor water and sanitation, and apparently having an old tunnel running down to the beach. Two windows were cut into the east-facing bedroom walls to allow a view over the new base.

On 3 April 1917, Newlyn became part of the newly-formed RNAS South Western Group, which had its headquarters at Mount Wise, Devonport and reported to C-in-C HM Ships and Vessels Devonport. The Group was established to control the activities and resources of the growing RNAS presence in Cornwall, the south-west of England and south Wales; its first Commanding Officer was Wing Commander Eugene L Gerrard.  As Newlyn built up strength, the small apron became so cramped that sometimes aircraft were housed in the Trinity House sheds at Penzance.

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 a photograph showing Cornwall's First World War.

This is Coastal Star Class airship C*6 of the Royal Naval Air Service. She's leaving Mullion's airship base for a convoy protection patrol over the Channel, to guard against attacks by German submarines. 

C* airships featured an open crew gondola skinned with plywood, and mounting an engine at each end. The envelope of most Coastal Stars was nearly 220 feet long; a rare indulgence too at that time, the five crewmen were allowed parachutes. Though the C* was a successful design, the war’s end meant only ten were built. 

Over the summer and autumn of 1918 two C* airships were based in Cornwall. C*6 arrived at Mullion on 29 May and stayed until 20 August, when it travelled up-country for major repairs. Mid-October saw a return; it was finally dismantled during March 1919, having flown a total of 522 hours.  C*10 served at Mullion, Bude, and latterly Toller mooring-out station in Dorset where eventually in October 1919 it too was decommissioned. 

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 a photograph showing Cornwall's First World War.

On 18 April 1918 the British merchant steamer SS Runswick, carrying coal, was torpedoed by German submarine UB-109, three miles off Trevose Head near Padstow. She was beached and abandoned; all the crew were saved. 

Today she lies against the Quies, the islands a mile or so off Trevose Head.

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 a photograph showing Cornwall's First World War.

Today’s Old Cornwall Society is a broad group of local history enthusiasts, with branches across the Duchy. Just outside Redruth the Society runs an excellent museum; among its most prized artefacts is the diary of Sapper John French.

John was a tin miner, born at Redruth in 1892 and one of 11 children. A volunteer soldier, early during 1915 he travelled to France with the Royal Engineers. For two years he kept a detailed diary of life in the trenches, three volumes of immaculate pencilled hand-writing recording his experiences.

Many events were shocking: facing gas attacks; digging trenches so near the Germans he could hear their shouted insults; carrying away the dead. In March 1915 he wrote: “There is a pretty smart German sniper and he has killed a number of our men.”

But several entries include unexpected flashes of humour. In a “rather curious” episode, during a respite in the fighting a British soldier yelled an invitation across no-man’s land to '”come on over, Fritz,” in a mock-German accent. A Teutonic shout replied in accented English: “No blooming fear.” Sometimes, to act as warnings of approaching gas the troops carried caged mice, but in June 1916 the diary recorded: “We got enough gas to make us sick but the mouse was still alive and kicking.”

Despite his experiences, it seems John somehow stayed unruffled. He wrote of how war was “rather exciting” and “you never know what’s coming next.” He rose to Sergeant and later received a field commission as a 2^nd Lieutenant. In the latter half of 1917 John fought at Passchendaele and was awarded the Military Cross for “conspicuous bravery.”

Though he was injured he survived the war, and during June 1919 returned to Cornwall. He didn’t stay long but sailed for America, where he met and married a pianist named Eve. Unhappily though, he developed tuberculosis; aged just 37, John died in 1929. 

For many years the diary remained lost, but in 2009 was discovered among his late sister’s effects. The record is a rare first-hand account reflecting great bravery and fortitude, and today we’re privileged to have it safely preserved near John French’s home town.

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 a photograph showing Cornwall's First World War.

Here it's 1918, just south of Newlyn on the western side of Mount's Bay. Resting on its launching rails down to the water at Royal Naval Air Station Newlyn is a Short 184 seaplane. Between the floats of the aircraft are mounted a depth charge and a bomb. Three more bombs, used by the station's seaplanes on anti-submarine patrols, sit on a concrete plinth. 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.

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'm posting a photograph showing Cornwall's First World War.

This lady worked with munitions at the National Explosives Company, set among the towans at Hayle. She wears a drawstring cap, to keep her hair from her face while handling explosives, and a flame-retardant cotton twill overall.

National had been founded in 1888 to produce dynamite for mining. With demand down for commercial explosives the factory had turned to War Office and Admiralty contracts, becoming a leading supplier to the services.

During the war, Hayle produced huge quantities of ammunition cordite, as well as guncotton charges for torpedoes and mines. While soldiers of the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry guarded the factory’s perimeter, National grew to employ around 1,800 people. All told, at its wartime peak over 3,000 people worked for Cornwall’s explosives makers.

Despite the greatly increased work in such a hazardous place, over the war years just two serious explosions occurred at National and only four people were killed. In the same accident during December 1916, two men and two women died. Cissie Rogers and May Stoneman, aged 20 and 21, were laid to rest nearby in Phillack churchyard, their war service acknowledged; Cissie was buried on Christmas Eve.

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 a photograph showing Cornwall's First World War.

Here's an image from 1915 showing a workshop at J & F Pool Ltd. During the war, the Hayle metalworking concern turned to making munitions, many of their workers female.

These ladies are working in the turning shop, producing bomb cases and fuses. The finished items are stored in wooden boxes ready for shipment. On the rear wall is a pre-war sign reading: 'J & F Pool Ltd, Art Metal Workers'.

The image is by courtesy of John Bennett.

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 last month, each weekday I posted a photograph showing Cornwall's First World War. People were kind enough to come forward with comments and information, so I'm going to continue posting during October. Many thanks for your support and interest.

This image shows the Young Men's Christian Association canteen at Pendennis Castle. Behind the counter, three ladies provide refreshments for the castle's garrison: hot meals, tobacco and tea. Two off-duty soldiers hold snooker cues, while their seated colleagues tuck into snacks.

 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