Cornwall in the First World War

It’s impossible for us to imagine the innermost thoughts of people who lived and fought during the First World War. But perhaps a word of reflection on those four shattering years can be left to Private Harry Patch.

Harry was Britain’s last surviving soldier who’d served in the trenches, and lived until his 112th year. The Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantryman was conscripted in 1916 and fought at Passchendaele’s dreadful battle; nearly a hundred years later, his medals are displayed at the DCLI Museum. Today Harry’s thoughts ring out: "When the war ended, I don't know if I was more relieved that we'd won or that I didn't have to go back. All those lives lost, for a war finished over a table. Now what’s the sense in that?"

Across Cornwall's towns and villages, after the war memorials were erected to the fallen. Above is Truro's, topped by a triumphal representation of a Cornish soldier. Beneath the figure are commemorated the dead.

This is my final post on Cornwall's First World War. I'm grateful for readers' interest, and for the guest posts generously provided by contributors.

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.

For much of the war, Cornwall had its own defence force: the Volunteer Training Corps. Here’s a relic from those times, a cap badge from a Cornish VTC officer’s uniform.

The Duchy’s long coastline, mostly isolated and dotted with small bays, was felt vulnerable to possible enemy incursion. To help protect exposed and sensitive areas, by mid-1915 VTC contingents had formed in many Cornish towns and villages. Generally its men 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: God’s Rejects, Gorgeous Wrecks, Grandpa's Regiment.

But for Cornwall’s VTC men, guarding military centres and protecting key resources such as the railway network was deadly serious. They worked as orderlies at the Duchy's Red Cross hospitals, provided sentries for the explosives factories at Hayle and Perranporth, and volunteered with local fire brigades.  
 
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.

At the mouth of the River Lynher, Cornwall’s naval station HMS Defiance served throughout the war. The base was built at Wearde Quay near Saltash, using two wooden hulks moored off the river’s northern bank: Defiance, an old 2nd rater after which the station was named, and the smaller sloop Perseus. During 1905 a railway line was added, its station named Defiance Halt, connecting the sailors with Great Western’s route to the diverse attractions of Plymouth waterfront. 

Between them the vessels provided quarters for officers and ratings on main and lower decks respectively, as well as a galley, gymnasium, and also lecture rooms, for 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.

Defiance operated various craft, including the gunboat Scourge fitted with an 18-inch aluminium torpedo tube; a steam pinnace, numerous torpedo boats and a destroyer also served.

The main hulk itself was fitted with training torpedo-tubes, pointed toward the mud flats across the river. Using the other vessels live exercises were regularly carried out in Plymouth Sound, a torpedo-range cleared of traffic apart from moored tender HMS Falcon, which spotted and marked the students’ efforts. 

Mine-laying practice and recovery drills were generally performed in Whitsand and Cawsand Bays. In today’s image the sailors are putting in some hauling practice with sea mines; these mines are dummies, but the base conducted many live exercises off the Cornish coast. Live mine and torpedo firings even took place on the Lynher itself. 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 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
 

Christmas Charades

This Christmas, why not enjoy some traditional festive games of charades:

• ‘Putting Up With Relatives I Detest’ charade

• ‘Enduring Old People’ charade

• ‘Believing in Jesus’ charade

• ‘It’ll Be Worth It To See The Children’s Faces’ charade

• ‘The Year’s Most Enjoyable Meal’ charade

• ‘Visiting Loathsome Neighbours’ charade

Have a jolly and peaceful Yuletide; may your accompanying long-term debt crisis not break your spirits entirely.

Old People At Christmas

"I'm 84, they never come ..."

500,000 elderly folk in Britain will spend Christmas alone, a recent survey shows. Commissioned by the charity Hello Old PEople, the study examines attitudes of the young toward senior citizens during the festive season.

The survey revealed most young people wouldn’t be inviting elderly relatives to their Christmas meals or parties, and would rather befriend animals than older citizens. Many didn’t have time to visit an old person, especially at Christmas. Others said they couldn’t be bothered, or had a feeling elderly folk already received enough visits.

The chief reasons for older people being abandoned, say the youngsters, are their unappealing habits. Rudeness and tutting; mania for quizzes on flags of the world; a belief their anecdotes are worthy of film rights. It’s claimed many old folk endlessly bemoan the decline of 'common sense' in modern times, and expect reverence simply because of their age.

But some young people did make visits. A handful were religious, others doing their Duke of Edinburgh Award. The survey also revealed well-off elderly people, especially those in bad health, received frequent calls from the young. The Enduring Old People charade is a well-known Christmas game, and can be lucrative.

 

Cornwall in the First World War

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

Here's Castle Class armed trawler John Kidd, Admiralty Number 3508, seen in Mount's Bay. Built on the Tees at Smith's Dock Company, Middlesborough, she was launched in February 1917 and completed three months later. 

John Kidd served as a minesweeper; usually she had a crew of 15. She was armed with a 12-pounder gun amidships, and stern-mounted depth-charges used to attack U-boats. As we can see from all her elaborate aerials, to help co-ordinate her activities she was fitted with wireless.

Happily John Kidd survived the war, and was renamed Rotherslade. She went on to serve in the Second World War. Any further information on her would be much 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'm posting a different image showing aspects of Cornwall's First World War.

This photo dates from December 1914. To our left stands Lieutenant Cuthbert Lloyd Fox of Glendurgan House near Falmouth. His men have been working on the construction of Trevethan army camp, which continued its training work throughout the war. Behind the troops are some of the camp's accommodation huts. Today the site is marked out by Falmouth's Highfield, Mayfield and Fairfield Roads. 

Cuthbert Fox later served with the Royal Engineers on the Western Front; he was promoted to Major and awarded the Military Cross. In 1946 he was appointed High Sheriff of Cornwall. Cuthbert died in 1972.

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.

In 1921 eight surrendered U-boats from Germany's First World War fleet appeared at Falmouth, brought by the Royal Navy for trials. Six moored at Gyllyngvase, but during a winter storm five were driven onto the Pendennis rocks. Abandoned, they became something of a tourist hit. 

The submarines stayed until the Second World War, when they were partly dismantled during Britain’s push for scrap-metal. The photo shows two men from Falmouth docks surveying one of the vessels just prior to the exercise, its conning tower slanting up and to the right. Today the bare bones of the U-boats are still there. 

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.

Here's a photo from November 1918, just before the war's end. Camouflaged American coaster Lake Harris has come to grief on the beach at Longrock, east of Penzance. Local people have turned out to view the vessel; a few days later Lake Harris was successfully refloated. The American flag flies from her stern, and on the poop is mounted a small defensive gun.

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 an image showing Cornwall's First World War. 

Today's guest post is kindly provided by @PoltairHistory, the History Department at Poltair School in St Austell.

How did Cornish people know how the war was progressing? Television and radio were still a long way off and few people were sufficiently literate to read newspapers. Therefore it was the responsibility of the educated to spread the news. In St Austell,  headmaster of the County School Arthur Jenkinson led the way. On 11th December 1914 in the Public Rooms on Truro Road, he gave a lecture entitled “The War”. 

From the school magazine of the time we learn that, with slides and diagrams, he explained the significance of the Battles of Mons and the Marne before examining the stalemate caused by “modern methods of warfare, entrenchments, dug outs etc”.  He then illustrated the progress that the Russians were making on the Eastern Front. Next he analysed the naval campaign, describing the loss of HMS Amphion before talking about the sinking of four German cruisers in the Atlantic.

Learned and well-read, Jenkinson had a thorough grasp of the situation and one that would favourably compare to a modern textbook. Feeling better informed, the audience ended the evening by singing of “God Save the King” and a making a collection for the Red Cross and St John’s Ambulance. 

A week later Arthur Jenkinson volunteered for the Royal Fusiliers as a private soldier. Later he held a commission in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps, from which he was discharged in March 1919 with the rank of Major.

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.

From 1916 the Royal Navy posted armed motor launches at Falmouth and Mount's Bay, tasked with hunting German submarines in the waters off Cornwalll's long coastline. To keep them supplied, the Navy co-opted the Dreel Castle, an drifter of 97 tons originally registered at Kirkcaldy.   

Converted into a depot vessel and based at Falmouth, Dreel Castle plodded a monotonous route to Penzance and the small naval outpost at St Mary’s, ensuring the launches and naval auxiliary craft were replenished with fuel, arms, equipment and rations. Here's a painting of the unsung boat by the sculptor George Wade, who was also a self-taught artist.

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.

In August 1914, just as war broke out and with deeply unlucky timing, two German liners sailing for America put in at Falmouth. The Hamburg America vessel Prince Adalbert (Captain Schonfeldt) arrived on 4 August, closely followed by Kronprinzessin Cecilie, seen above anchored off Falmouth. Their crews and several hundred passengers were transferred to Custom House Quay by Falmouth’s tug Victor and detained, some briefly held in stinking quayside fish-houses.

Both vessels were seized by the Admiralty; the aliens, harmless and by no means all Germans (some were Americans), were taken under armed guard to the workhouses at Falmouth, Helston, Penzance, Redruth, St Columb Major and Truro. American citizen Theodore Cuyler Patterson of Philadelphia protested loudly, claiming he was a personal friend of President Wilson; it made no difference. With neutrals weeded out and released though, by the autumn’s end the German nationals had been interned up-country.    

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.

Here is General Sam Hughes, Canadian War Minister, inspecting a guard of Royal Fusliiers of the Falmouth Garrison during his visit in March 1916. The men were from the 16th (Reserve) Battalion which had formed at Falmouth in October 1914.

 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.

Here is a section of female employees who worked for the famous old Camborne firm of Holman Brothers Ltd. Before the war Holmans made mining machinery for use worldwide, but during hostilities turned to munitions manufacture. These ladies are 'shell-girls', sometimes known as munitionettes, who produced 18-pounder ammunition and high-explosive howitzer bombs for the British Army and Navy. 

The women worked round the clock in three shifts; above is Section 1. Holman's rather patronising post-war literature records: "We are proud to say that these girls tackled unfamiliar tasks with willingness and enthusiasm ... girl labour proved excellent in every way." 

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.

Here is Corporal William Harmer, who served with the 10th (Service) Battalion (Cornwall Pioneers), Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry. 

The 10th Battalion was raised at Truro in March 1915 by the Mayor and the City, and trained at Penzance before moving to Hayle in October. In June 1916 they landed at Le Havre, fighting on the Western Front until the end of the war. 

We don't know a great deal about William but he came from the Penryn area. During the conflict he was awarded the Military Medal.

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.

In 1914 these men were mobilised to Falmouth.  They're gunners from the Royal Artillery, posing proudly on Pendennis Head with their 6 inch field gun. Many gunners trained there in the use of such weapons, before being sent to the Western Front.

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'm posting an image showing Cornwall's First World War.

Here is the 3rd Battalion, Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry on a route march during 1917. The soldiers are out of step and rifles are being carried on different shoulders, which suggests they've been travelling some distance.

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 a close-up of Coastal Class airship C.2, which flew from Royal Naval Air Station Mullion. She's being walked across the flying field by her ground-crew, using trailing-ropes to manoeuvre her; her engines are stopped so perhaps she's just arrived home at the end of a patrol. Beneath her gondola we can make out bombs, used to attack German submarines on the rare occasions they were spotted.

 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