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 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

Today I’m pleased to feature a guest post written by Anne Chapman, who lives in Gorran Haven.  Many thanks for the piece, Anne. 

In Memory of Henry Chapman

On 26^th November 1914 the UK suffered its second worst loss of life due to an explosion at sea, when HMS Bulwark was destroyed off the coast of Kent. The final death toll was 738 men, and this is the story of one of them ... my Great Grandfather Henry Chapman. He’s pictured above, with his wife Elizabeth.

Henry was born on 6^th October 1869 in Higham, Strood, Kent, the son of Charles and Mahala Chapman. He had at least eight brothers and sisters. His family had been farmers in Kent and Sussex for many years, but Henry chose another path.

He became a coastguard and this profession led him to Gorran, Cornwall, where in 1896 he married Elizabeth Ann Lewarn Liddicoat. The Liddicoats are an old Gorran family; their roots there go back at least 200 years.

Henry’s career took the couple from Gorran to Kingswear, Devon, then to Charmouth in Dorset and finally to Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight. In each place they lived in coastguard cottages, some of which remain standing today.  As they moved around the country, the family grew. Henry and Elizabeth had eight children; Florence Eleanor, Mary Mahala, Ruby Audrey, George Henry, William Charles, Elsie May, Percy John and Charles Leslie.  Mary and Ruby sadly died young.

When war was declared in August 1914 Henry joined the Navy as a Petty Officer Stoker (Coastguard), number 147160, and embarked in HMS Bulwark along with many reservists from the Portsmouth area. His family left the Isle of Wight and moved back to Cornwall, where they lived at 2, Ledrah Villas, Ledrah Road, St Austell. Henry was 45 when he died and his youngest child was only two. 

Elizabeth remained in St Austell and raised her family there alone, under what was undoubtedly great hardship. They lived on St Austell’s west side, initially in Ledrah Road and later in the Gover Valley. Henry and Elizabeth’s surviving children prospered and many of their descendants can be found in the St Austell area today. Surnames of family members include Chapman, Giltjes-Vincent, Giltjes, Raymond, Bennett, Williams, Casson, Wellington, Webb, Evely, Kingdom, Laville, and Arrowsmith.

HMS Bulwark had a short career. One of three “London” class battleships, built in Devonport in 1902, amongst others she was commanded by Captain Robert Falcon Scott, who later explored the Antarctic.  At the outbreak of War she joined the Channel Fleet, and early in November 1914 became the location for the court martial of a senior Naval Officer. 

On the morning of the disaster Bulwark was moored off Sheerness in the River Medway estuary and most of the crew were below decks at breakfast, hence the large loss of life. The huge explosion was felt in buildings on the Essex coast, and the sailors’ personal effects were later found scattered across the Kent countryside.

That afternoon the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, said in the House of Commons: “I regret to say that I have some bad news for the House.  The Bulwark battleship, which was lying in Sheerness this morning, blew up at 7.53 am. The Vice and Rear Admirals who were present have reported their conviction that it was an internal magazine explosion, which rent the ship asunder. The ship had entirely disappeared when the smoke cleared away.”

“The loss of the ship does not sensibly affect the military position, but I regret to say that the loss of life is very severe. Only twelve men were saved, and all the officers and rest of the crew, which, I suppose amounted to between 700 and 800 persons, have perished. I think the House would wish me to express on its behalf the deep sympathy and sorrow with which the House heard the news, and the sympathy it feels with those who have lost their relatives and friends.”

The subsequent enquiry found the explosion had been caused by the overheating of charges, which then set off the ammunition stored in the ship’s passageways. Despite the Coroner’s best efforts, the blast was so severe that many of the recovered bodies remained unidentified; they were buried under full military honours in the Naval Section of the Gillingham Cemetery.  Sadly, most of the crew were not recovered for burial. 

Today, the men who died are remembered at Chatham’s Naval Memorial and the Portsmouth Naval Memorial. The disaster’s centenary will be marked by remembrance services and events in Gillingham and Chatham.

As Henry spent so few years in Cornwall he is not remembered on any local memorials, but his legacy is alive in Cornwall today in the form of his many descendants.  He is not forgotten.  

Cornwall in the First World War

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

Here is Sea Scout Zero airship SSZ.42 seen at Royal Naval Air Station Bude, the lonely outpost on Cornwall's north coast established outside the town in 1918. Beneath, her ground-handling crew are holding the airship's trail ropes, to help manoeuvre her across the field to a mooring position. Today, one of Bude's old concrete mooring points, a huge ball into which was sunk a metal loop, survives in private hands.

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 scene from Falmouth. At the war's end the town was recognised by the Government for its financial contribution to the war effort by the presentation of a tank for display on The Moor. The tank arrived by train on Saturday 13 September 1919, making its own way from Falmouth recreation ground and down Killigrew Street led by Falmouth's Town Band, where hundreds waited to see it.

Cornwall received four other display tanks, at Camborne, Penzance, Redruth and Truro. Falmouth's stayed beside the Packet Memorial until 1927, when finally it was scrapped.

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.

Among the Cornishmen who joined up when the First World War broke out was St Austell-born Percival Phillips; later he served with the Royal Flying Corps in Mesopotamia, Persia and Kurdistan.

This image was taken during 1918; Percival sits in the cockpit of his R.E.8 two-seat biplane at Baqubah. ‘PP’ survived the fighting and returned safely home. After a spell as a partner in a St Austell motor garage, in 1924 he formed the barnstorming Cornwall Aviation Company.
 
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 is Charles Dyer, born at Mevagissey in 1883. By 1901 the Dyer family was living at Heligan Mill, and Charles, aged 17, was working for the Squire as a gardener. Later the family moved back to Meva and he became a fisherman. Charles married his sweetheart Annie, and on their wedding day they swapped identical rings.

Like so many Cornish fishermen Charles had enlisted for the Royal Naval Reserve. After war broke out he served aboard His Majesty’s Trawler Rosa on mine-sweeping duties, and also saw action during the Battle of Jutland in 1916.

Later wounded, he was moved to a naval hospital at Chatham Dockyard. But Charles disappeared; he was registered as a deserter. His family was left disgraced and penniless.

Two years later, in woods by the hospital, a skeleton was found with a ring matching Annie’s. The Royal Navy removed Charles’s name from their list of deserters and the family’s name was redeemed.

Charles Dyer is buried in Mevagissey cemetery, beneath a Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstone.

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 are eleven men who worked at the Trewheela China Clay Works near Fraddon. With two other comrades, in August 1914 they joined the Territorial Force of the Royal Engineers.

It’s thought they were encouraged to enlist by the Nalder family, who had a large stake in the clayworks at Trewheela, and also had links with the Royal Engineers at Falmouth.

The men’s names were Frederick Stanford Biscombe (Summercourt); three brothers Ernest, James and Orlando Brokenshire (Summercourt); Richard John Cole (Summercourt); Richard Veal Common (Higher Fraddon); Richard Grigg (Ruthvoes); two cousins Charles Bernard Halls and Llewellyn Halls (St Newlyn East); John Harvey (Toldish); Albert Victor Menear (Indian Queens); George Robins (Summercourt) and William Phillips Tippett (Summercourt).

Ernest Brokenshire was killed in August 1918 while Richard Veal Common, who had transferred to the Tank Corps, lost his life in October 1918. It’s believed the others survived the war, though sadly two men died within five years of the end of the war.

Any further information on these men 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 a photograph showing Cornwall's First World War.

Here's a mystery. This image was taken earlier this year, and shows a bench-end at St Fimbarrus church, Fowey. The carved wooden angels are holding a shield, engraved with the crest of Britain's First World War Royal Flying Corps. 

But what's the significance of the crest; why is it there? As usual, any help with this 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 a photograph showing Cornwall's First World War.

Here's it's August 1914, just after war began. Passengers and crew of German liners in Falmouth harbour at that time were rounded up by the army, and initially interned in Cornish workhouses. 

Under armed guard, the foreign civilians - by no means all German nationals - are being marched up Redruth's Station Hill. They've been detained in nearby Barncoose workhouse, but are about to be sent by train to Devonport. From there, some will be allowed to travel home; others, defined as enemy aliens, will enter long-term internment. 

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