Cornwall in the First World War

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

In July 1903, at just 15 years old, Mullion-born Ernest Herbert Pitcher joined the Royal Navy. By August 1914 he was serving in the Dreadnought battleship King George V. The following year Ernest volunteered for special service with Britain’s growing Q-ship fleet.

Q-ships were intended to combat Germany’s submarines by posing as defenceless merchant vessels. To inflict a nasty surprise on attacking U-boats these tempting targets concealed weaponry aplenty: deck-guns, torpedoes, depth-charges. It was perilous work, the Q-ships serving as decoys to draw enemy fire, their crews all volunteers.

 

In February 1917, ex-collier Q-ship HMS Farnborough was sailing off Ireland’s west coast.  Among her crew was Ernest, by then a Petty Officer. Farnborough was attacked by submarine U-83; in a brutal exchange the U-boat was sunk, the ship damaged but beached, while Ernest was mentioned in despatches.

By the summer he was embarked in HMS Dunraven, again a Q-ship disguised as a collier. On 8 August, around 130 miles south-west of Ushant in the Bay of Biscay, submarine UC-71 spotted Dunraven. Taken in, the U-boat surfaced and attacked. Shells from its deck-gun struck the ship, setting off depth-charges; fire caught at her stern while a torpedo caused more damage. 

The British replied with two torpedoes of their own, but missed. UC-71 stole away while Dunraven slowly began to go down; later she sank under tow. Happily the crewmen who’d lived through the action were rescued, and the story of PO Pitcher’s gallantry came out.

Ernest had been in charge of the sailors manning Dunraven’s 4-inch gun, hidden in the poop. When the magazine below was set afire, to stave off catastrophe the men carried all the powder and shells they could up to their gun. There they calmly held these materials on their knees, to stop the deck’s heat igniting them. Finally though the magazine had exploded; the sailors were blown high into the air. With several injuries, Ernest came round on the deck.

Somehow, all the gun-crew had survived. In the light of such exceptional discipline and bravery, along with the other sailors Ernest’s name was entered into a ballot for a Victoria Cross, and drawn. He received his medal in November 1917; his men were awarded Conspicuous Gallantry Medals.

In July 1918 Petty Officer Pitcher VC and his wife Lily attended a private view of the Exhibition of Naval Photographs at the Princes Galleries in Piccadilly, London, where they met King George V and Queen Mary.   

After the war, as a regular Ernest stayed in the Navy; during August 1920 he was promoted to Chief Petty Officer, and that year was a member of the honour guard at the Cenotaph Service of Remembrance. He left the Service in 1927, becoming a teacher and then a publican. During August 1940, at the height of the Battle of Britain, he rejoined the Navy. Courageous Ernest Pitcher saw out his second great war, and died in February 1946.

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 Cornwall's First World War.

Today, one small Cornish community is unique. 

The parish of Herodsfoot nestles in the West Looe valley near Liskeard; it’s a gentle place, surrounded by woodland. Set on the village green, its most poignant feature is the First World War memorial.   

For the granite monument’s inscription is truly remarkable, the only one of its kind in Cornwall; it tells us that during the conflict, Herodsfoot was spared military fatalities.

All 13 of the village men who joined the armed forces came home safely. The memorial records their names, and the parish’s ‘gratitude for their services in the Great War.’

The handful of British communities which lost no men at all during the First World War have since become known as Thankful Villages; Herodsfoot is Cornwall’s only Thankful Village, one of around just 50 across the entire 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 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'm posting images showing different aspects of Cornwall's First World War.

In February 1915 the Royal Navy arrived at Penzance. Mount’s Bay had long been a favourite anchorage for passing British fleets, and a base was needed away from congested Falmouth. Also, as Germany's U-boats broadened their searches, the western outpost allowed a greater patrol area by the Navy’s shore-based vessels.      

At the heart of Penzance harbour-front, N Holman & Sons’ dry dock was requisitioned. Over the company's offices a White Ensign was raised, the new base run by Lieutenant Commander David Blair, RNR.

Here, it's 1918; the Navy's Motor Launch ML351 is arriving for maintenance at Holman’s dock. Inside the dock gates divers are in the water, while workers watch proceedings from beyond.

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 images showing different aspects of Cornwall's First World War. Here's early British submarine A.7, a visitor to the Duchy'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 weekday I'm posting a different image showing aspects of Cornwall's First World War.

Here's another photo from Royal Naval Air Station Mullion. This aeroplane is a Sopwith 1½ Strutter, its naval serial number N5624. Pilot and observer are aboard; ground crew prepare to start the 110 hp Clerget engine and release the wheel chocks. Behind is a windbreak protecting the mouth of Mullion's larger airship shed. 

In mid-April 1917 four 1½ Strutters arrived at Mullion, accompanied by Squadron Commander John T Cull DSO and three Flight Sub-Lieutenants. The aircraft was built in two versions: a two-seat fighter, and a single-seat bomber. Use of landplanes in the Duchy had been a second choice; the Royal Naval Air Service would have preferred water-based aircraft for its patrols off Cornwall, but at the time none were available.

A single Bessoneau canvas hangar was erected for the Sopwiths, near the main airship shed.  As well as anti-submarine flights, sometimes the aircraft were used for aerial photography. Over the summer of 1917 several more 1½ Strutters arrived at the station; by November though only two remained, the rest transferred to other duties.

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, a group of officers and four-legged friend pose for their photograph at Royal Naval Air Station Mullion. It's the summer of 1918, by when the station supported an aircraft force as well as airships. In the background rests an unloved de Havilland DH.6 biplane, one of several flown from the base. 

By 1918 the DH.6 was an old design, but was kept in service at Mullion for coastal patrols against German submarines. An unreliable aeroplane, it could hardly lift its crew of two let alone a bomb. Several were lost off Cornwall, none to enemy action; over the summer this photo was taken, much to the aviators' delight they were weeded out.

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 I posted a series of photographs 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 November. Many thanks for your support and interest.

Here's a scene showing Padstow harbour during 1918. Mud-berthed at the temporary naval outstation are a gaggle of Naval Motor Launches. Generally the MLs were based at Falmouth and Penzance, but for their anti-submarine patrols off the north Cornish coast put in at Padstow, tying up at North Quay. From the left: ML350, 334, 245, 357, 321 and 570. A hundred years later, the background is remarkably unchanged; today the low building accommodates Mountain Warehouse while to its right is the Shipwrights pub.

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. 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