David P Whithorn - Bringing Uncle Albert Home: A Soldiers Tale

DAVID P. WHITHORN

First published in 2003 by Sutton Publishing

This revised paperback edition first published in 2006

The History Press

The Mill, Brimscombe Port

Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL5 2QG

www.thehistorypress.co.uk

This ebook edition first published in 2011

All rights reserved

David P. Whithorn, 2003, 2006, 2011

The right of David P. Whithorn, to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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EPUB ISBN 978 0 7524 7998 9

MOBI ISBN 978 0 7524 7997 2

Original typesetting by The History Press

A t the beginning of this twenty-first century the terrible wars of the twentieth seem remote, belonging to a bygone era somewhere, sometime before the swinging sixties. There are few, if any, veterans of the First World War left; the soldiers from the second are rapidly fading away. We watch the participants of the former living in a silent, sepia-and-white world, knowing they believed the politicians lies and were slaughtered by the thousand on the fields of France by incompetent generals and for nothing. Many people buy a poppy during November and observe two minutes silence for the fallen, although most knew neither the soldiers nor their times. Why? We might look at the long list of faceless names on local war memorials as we hurry by, but they are just names to us now, and old-fashioned ones at that. I wonder how long our respect for them will continue? What will happen when there are no veterans left to march past the cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday?

A quarter of a century ago I too could be counted among the knows-nothing and the cares-less regarding the world wars. This was to change one rainy night when, for once, I didnt go for a night out. Instead, I watched a television documentary entitled The Battle of the Somme. This one programme was to change my whole outlook on life, for ever. The hows and whys of this are not the subject of this book; let it be sufficient to say I have a passionate interest in the First World War, and the men who took part in it. I have read many books, talked with veterans and visited the battlefields many times. To the layman, I am an expert; for myself, I realise only how little I really do know about this event in history. Yet, by studying it, I have found a purpose for my own life to ensure that the First World War, the men who took part in it and what they achieved, are never forgotten.

This book is about the search for another mans life story, a man who fought and died in the Battle of the Somme one faceless name on a church war memorial. This man was not a hero: he didnt win any medals for gallantry. He didnt leave a diary, poems, letters or anything by which he was remembered not even a photograph. He does not even have a grave on which to lay flowers or to stand by and weep. Yet this man is very, very precious; and but for the chance of birth it could have been me or you who fell on that hillside, one sunny afternoon in August 1916.

It is not my intention to write a scholarly account of the history of events of over eighty years ago just to prove that I am an expert in military history: I am not interested in such intellectual competitions. Rather, I have sought to present my search for the past and from it to build a picture of the life and death of that one soldier killed on the Somme in 1916. The sources I have used are varied, and although I have some experience in accessing and using these, gained from twenty-five years of study, they are readily available for everyone to use. Following such guidelines as are provided in this book, I believe similar (and better) research can be performed by other people qualified with only the capacity and determination to succeed. In this way, the story of the men of 191418 will continue long after the last veteran has marched past the cenotaph.

To those who use this book for their own endeavours in this field, may you too, bring Uncle Albert home.

A s I submitted the manuscript for Bringing Uncle Albert Home in the hope it might be published, I could not have believed the warm reception it would come to receive from both reviewers and a caring public. Nor could I imagine being asked to add updates for a paperback edition to be released in time for the commemoration of the 90th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme! An honour indeed.

Publication triggered more family memories, Alberts youngest sister, Elizabeth, was just 6 years old when he was killed. In the final years of her life (in the 1970s), she undertook a trip to the Somme battlefields to look for her brothers grave. Sadly, beyond this little is known neither about what information she had to work with nor what she found.

I have been able to include much new information. One reader recognised his own great-uncle listed in the Appendix and was able to supply me with letters from a soldier in the front line serving with Albert. Continuing to read soldiers accounts has provided other eye-witnesses to events and places in Alberts life. Searching through information, available at the National Archive in Kew, brought both highs and lows. Alberts service records, sadly, have not survived (along with 60% of such records destroyed by enemy action in the 193945 war). His medal index card has survived indicating he served only with the Worcestershire Regiment, a point of importance in Alberts story. Reading original war diaries compiled by Territorial Force and New Army battalions only highlighted just how little detail is sometimes found in similar diaries kept by Regular battalions of the same regiment, such as the 3rd Worcestershire and 1st Wiltshire my main sources of information.

To paraphase, to understand a man, first walk a mile in his shoes. I have not served in the armed forces. At times, I was acutely aware of this defficiency in trying to rebuild Alberts life, having to rely on only what I had learned from other soldiers accounts. With publication, I set out to make up for this. I joined the Great War Society. Each member puts together the complete uniform and equipment of a Great War Soldier. Wearing this, he voluntarily undergoes military training according to contemporary manuals and lives the life of a soldier of the 191418 period, all, except the fighting and the fear.

I now know what it is like to wear the thick serge uniforms equiped with 1908 pattern webbing and kit (weighing the regulation 66lb or so!), not forgetting rifle and tin hat, to march miles in all weathers, even on the Western Front itself. I have fired the .303 Short Magazine Lee Enfield rifle on a range. I have lived in a trench, eaten bully beef and biscuit out of a mess tin with an oversize spoon taken from convenient storage in my right puttee. I now know basic drill and can