The Deepings Remember 1914-18
Weaving a tale of success Spencer Ames was born in Peterborough to Spencer and Annie and, like his father, trained in the skills of basket making. From the age of 14 he worked in Leighton Buzzard, where up to 100 men were employed producing cabbage crates, turnip skeps and other specialised baskets for Covent Garden Market. Later he worked with Sellars and Son of Wharf Road Peterborough who made baskets from the osiers grown at Peakirk.
Road. Father and son together cleared reeds, weeds and bushes and planted rows of osiers and willows brought over from the new wildfowl gardens at Peakirk. They built sheds to store the fast growing osiers, installed a boiler to boil the canes and made their own equipment to strip and treat the cut willows.
Covent Garden
In 1915 after marrying Pricilla Bird and having a baby son, Peter, Spencer joined the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve Service (No. Bristol Z/4912), being awarded the Victory and British War medals.
When the development of cheap plastic led to the decline of basketry Spencer held on to the land and it was here that his grandsons Kenneth and Tony Payne founded the Ampy Automation Company in the early 1960s. Pricilla died in 1965, and Spencer in 1979 and is buried in Deeping St James Cemetery.
Ampy Automation Digilog Ltd Frognall, became world renown in the manufacture of electricity meters, employing 300 people and producing 25,000 meters every week. The company eventually moved to a larger
site in Market Deeping and the plot sold for a housing development.
Spencer Samuel Ames 1892 – 1979
Later, during and after the Second World War, he worked at the Ordnance Depot at Walton. Approaching retirement, he decided to return to his original occupation as a basket maker, buying and clearing a damp, swampy area of land in Frognall, near the Rose Inn close to their house on Spalding
Sources: Dorothea Price, Nancy Titman, National Archives, Deeping St James Parish Records
Keeping the faith in difficult circumstances
All of the Mulligan family of Deeping St James were involved in the War, Agnes was twenty six and a typist with the Post Office, when she married Don Rooksby, a bank clerk from Grantham. Don served in the Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire Regiments before volunteering for the Royal Flying Corps, training at Cranwell.
Andrew (Pat) Mulligan outside his Chemist shop in London
Her brother, Andrew (affectionately known as Bert, sometimes, Pat) was twenty six when he enlisted in November 1914 at Market Deeping in the Lincolnshire Regiment, number 13622. Just two months later he was discharged stating Kings Regulation 392 as he had been injured and as a Chemist, a member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, was in a reserved occupation. Not to be deterred, just a month later, Andrew enlisted and became a member of the 12th Battalion of the Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. The Peterborough Advertiser reported on May 21st 1918, ‘Pte. A R Mulligan K.O.Y.L.I St James Deeping has been awarded the
military medal for rescuing wounded under heavy fire.’ After his discharge in 1919, Andrew was given an Army pension and went back into the trade he had learnt as an apprentice to Mr Bodger and Boots the Chemist in Peterborough. His Chemist shop in London was in Prindledale Road and Andrew was helped in its running by Violet (nee Coster) whom he had married in 1922. With the outbreak of World War 2, their four children were evacuated with their schools, but Andrew decided that now was the time to move back to Deeping St James. First renting and then buying the shop and house at 62/64 Church Street, Andrew opened his own Chemist shop which was very
Wilfred Mulligan
Waterton Arms C 1910, right Agnes and left Mary Elizabeth Mulligan
popular in the 1940’s where he was a well respected gentleman. He died at the age of just sixty in 1945. Brother, Wilfred enlisted as a regular soldier with the Scottish Rifles in 1908 as Private 10450. Training in Colchester, Wilfred did not enjoy good health and was hospitalised four times in one year for diarrhoea, diphtheria and after injuring himself in training he had a fractured radius. Two weeks later on contracting bronchitis he was declared in need of good food as he was underweight and put on light duties at the barracks. Rising through the ranks to Sergeant, Wilfred arrived in France with the 2nd Cameroonians on November 5th 1914. In 1915 it was reported in the Peterborough Standard that he had been shot in the knee in the battle of Neuve Chapelle and incapacitated. Later in 1918, he was to have another spell in hospital due to the earlier injury. In 1919 he was discharged with a pension and married Doris Lenton at Sleaford. Settling in the Deeping area,
Wilfred was employed at the Helpston Paper Mills and had five children. On May 3rd 1940 the Peterborough Advertiser reported on his funeral; ‘Prior to the internment on Wednesday a Requiem Mass was sung in the small Catholic Church adjoining the Xaverian College. The plain chant Mass was beautifully rendered by the Brothers of the College, the celebrant being Rev. Fr J Power. As the cortege made its way from the Church to the Cemetery preceeded by the cross-bearer and acolytes, the Brothers choir rendered Miserere Jesu Salvator Mundi and the Benedictus. The Rev. Fr. Power officiated at the grave-side. Family mourners were: Mrs W Mulligan (widow), Miss M Mulligan, Mr B Mulligan, Miss R Mulligan (sons and daughters) Mrs Rooks by (sister), Mr A Mulligan, Mr J Mulligan, brothers, Mr and Mrs L Mulligan (brother and sister in law).
Agnes Rooksby 1889-1954 Andrew Mulligan 1885-1945 Wilfred Mulligan 1891-1940
Sources: Peterborough Advertiser, Margaret Barratt, Peter O’ Duffy and Gerry Mulligan, National Archives
Military Cross for Market Deeping Rector who displayed rock like stability
No 5 Stationary Hospital Rouen. Courtesy of the RAMC Muniment Collection in care of the Wellcome Library.
The Rector of St Guthlac's, Market Deeping, was awarded the Military Cross by King George V for his conspicuous bravery in the trenches while serving as chaplain
Paul Ashby was born on January 14th 1867 and christened on March 17th at St Andrew’s Church, Cobham, the son of Richard and Beatrice Ashby. He started his clerical career by becoming the Curate of St. Jude’s, Gray’s Inn Road 1891-3. By 1895 he was Chaplain of Revesby, Boston and Curate of Wilksby with Claxby Lincs, and then Rector between 1896 and 1909. In 1910 he was appointed to become Rector of St Guthlac’s, Market Deeping, and was a member of Bourne District Council and the Board of Guardians. For seven years he was Chaplain of the 1st Lincolnshire Volunteers and by 1912 he became the Assistant Chaplain for the 4th Battalion Lincolnshire Territorials. He was appointed to the 1/4 Lincolns and was mobilised on August 6th 1914.
His wife, Ellen Maud, accompanied him to Buckingham Palace to receive the MC from King George V.
In January 1915 he was Senior Chaplain of the 4/6 Division. By March 1915, the Lincolnshire Free Press reported that as Chaplain to the Lincolnshire and Leicestershire Territorials, he had arrived in France. On May 20th 1915 a mine exploded under an advanced trench about 30 yards from the German front line. Under cover of darkness, the first evacuation of wounded and dead began. “They went via
Courtesy Lincs Archives
Courtesy of St Guthlac's Church
the communication trenches to Pond Farm Dressing Station and from there to North Midland Brigade Field Ambulance at Dranoutre. At the Field Ambulance the men could expect spiritual as well as physical first aid. The Brigade Chaplain, the Revd. Paul Ashby, was there to meet the wounded and to offer any assistance that he could. Informing loved ones at home by letter was most important to the men.” (“1/5th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment in the First World War” by Chris Bailey and Steve Bramley – with permission.) In January 1916 he was awarded the Military Cross for conspicuous bravery at Ypres. On Saturday April 8th he was decorated by the King at Buckingham Palace.
From the Grantham Journal Sat April 15th 1916: “The Revd P. O. Ashby, Rector of Market Deeping, Chaplain to the 4th Lincolns, who volunteered for service at the beginning of the war was decorated by the King at Buckingham Palace, on Saturday, with the Military Cross for conspicuous bravery at Ypres. The Rev gentleman was at one period in the trenches for eight weeks without a break. The parishioners are very proud of having such a distinguished clergyman as their Rector.”
Chaplain to the Forces 3rd class. He returned to France in October 1916 as Chaplain at the 12th Stationary Hospital.
His dog tag, uniform stripes and the box in which the medal was placed, though sadly not the medal, are to be found in Lincolnshire Archives.
His obituary in the St Guthlac’s Parish Magazine commented that: “He was genial and sympathetic with a sense of humour. He had a rock like stability.”
By August 1916 Ashby was granted honorary rank of
Paul Ogilvie Ashby M.C (1867-1937)
By October 1917 he had been demobilised and he continued as Rector of Market Deeping until 1923. On March 12th 1937 the Evening Telegraph reported: “the Very Rev. Paul Ogilvie Ashby M.C, the Dean of Stamford and Prebendary of Bedford Major in Lincoln Cathedral, died at Hitchin, Herts, today, aged 69.”
Sources: Parish records and Census returns, "The 1/5th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment in the First World War" by Chris Barley and Steve Bramley, Grantham Journal, St Guthlac's Parish magazine and the Wellcome Institute
An ancient craft goes to war
William Vickers Bennett was Master Blacksmith, the eldest son of William and Martha Bennett (nee Vickers). Last in a long line of local blacksmiths the first one mentioned was Robert at the baptism of his daughter Emma in Deeping St James in 1585. William was born in the house opposite the Cross, 10 Church Street and it was here in the Blacksmiths Shop helping his father that William learnt his trade, becoming an apprentice after leaving school. The shop, near the church, was a low building with a pitched and slightly sagging roof of Colleyweston slates, the large chimney being on the west end. The doorway was big enough for horses to go through and on the right there was an ancient window. A feast for the senses, going inside was like entering a dark cave, walls hung with mysterious shapes until the fire came alive after a blast of air from the bellows and revealed in haphazard confusion, rails of horseshoes, lumps and strips of iron, various implements and peculiar tools. The fire glowed on a raised platform about a yard high and as wide and as long as a bed, in front of it a tank of water and
nearby an all important anvil, a heavy piece of metal weighing two hundred weights and mounted on a block of oak or elm, so it produced a pleasant bell like sound when tapped by a hammer. The shaped end, a ‘beak‘, was for moulding horseshoe shapes to the required size. Even more memorable than the sights of the smithy were the sounds and the smells of the smithy, the fire, the scorching horse hooves, sizzling metal and the odour of horses and leather, a nostalgic and indefinable mixture. William married Grace Jackson of Lovedale House, Deeping Gate at the Priory Church in 1912 and they lived in 2 Church Street against the gates of the Church. Their two children were born there; Kathleen in 1914 and Charles in 1915. On the outbreak of War, William was called up as a
Shoeing Smith on His Majesty’s Service. He had to present his tradesman’s efficiency certificate at Peterborough Recruiting station on November 14th 1914 and became a member of the Royal Army Service Corps TS/1253 with the rank of Sergeant. Initially at Woolwich, William was sent to France on March 22nd 1915 and here he stayed shoeing horses, mending wheels and servicing the needs of the Army until he was demobilised in June 1919 suffering with rheumatism, heart disease and chest trouble. Classed as only 30% disabilities he did not receive a pension.
hot metal and sparks from the fire. Nancy Titman remembers, “It was a joy to stand and watch him shoeing a steady old farm horse. Here was a haven on wet days, when the farm men would talk over news of the day while Mr Bennett coaxed and soothed the horses being shod to the age old sounds of the smithy.” On reaching retirement he had a bungalow built on the site of the shop and he lived their for the rest of his life. The end of a centuries old tradition.
William Vickers Bennett (1886- 1962)
In 1921, William took over his father’s business and carried on the family tradition. A genial man, five foot nine and a half inches in height he had the trademark stature, strong and sinewy working with his sleeves rolled up and wearing the heavy leather apron split up the centre to protect his legs from the
Sources: Photographs, Leonard Buttery, text Nancy Titman and Joy Baxter, National Archives
Last letter home to Deeping
James Blessett was born in Horsegate Deeping St James in 1889, the third of 5 children. His father, also James, was an agricultural labourer, as were his two older brothers.
Unlike his brothers, however, by 1911 James had moved to Peterborough to work for the grocers Barber & Ross who had premises in Long Causeway and Westgate. Shortly afterwards he married Kate Culpin from West Pinchbeck, and their only child Donald James was born on the 31st July 1914. When war broke out 5 days later he did not join the rush to enlist. Not surprising really, being recently married and with a new born baby. However, when conscription was introduced in early 1916, he was called up and sent to Kent for training with the 3rd Battalion. By June 1916 reinforcements were badly needed, and he was posted to France to join the 6th Northants Battalion. On July 1st the 6th
Northants were in the support role to the 11th Royal Fusiliers and 7th Bedfords north of Carnoy. The battalion lost 29 killed and 123 were wounded. On the 14th/15th July the battalion was in action again at Trones Wood. 38 were killed, and 211 wounded. On the 26th September they were again in action at Thiepval. This time 105 were killed and 235 were wounded. Shortly after James was home on leave, for the first and last time. On the 14th February James wrote his last letter home telling his wife they were ’going up the line’ but not to worry. The battalion had been selected to be the right assaulting battalion in a major assault outside Miraumont in what became known as the Battle Of Boom Ravine. It had been bitterly cold for
weeks and the ground was frozen solid, and it was impossible to dig the usual forming up trenches. Nonetheless, the battalion had to form up during the early hours of the 17th February and take up their attacking positions some 300 yards from the enemy’s positions in pitch black darkness. During the night the weather changed, and the ground thawed making conditions even more miserable. Moreover, the enemy had some how been warned of the imminent attack, and began very heavy shelling of the forming up positions. This caused many casualties before the attack even began. In total during this battle 112 men were killed from the 6th Northants, along with 6 officers. James Blessett was one of them. He had been wounded in the back
and legs, and died shortly after on the battlefield. Most of the dead from this battle were buried in the nearby Regina cemetery. Most of the graves bear no name. The enemy had already taken the decision by February to withdraw to stronger defensive positions some kilometres back, so the small amount of ground gained had no strategic purpose whatsoever. James Blessett’s name appears on the Thiepval memorial. He has no marked grave. He was 27 years old. His wife Kate did not remarry, and brought up their only child Donald on her own. NB: The fighting strength of a battalion was approximately 650 men
James Blessett (1889- 1917)
A budding career begins on the waves
Cecil Burchnall, son of Robert and Eliza, was always a bright lad at home in 6 Bridge Street Deeping St James, winning a scholarship to Stamford Grammar School. But at the tender age of just 19 he enlisted in 1917 in the R.N.V.R where he became a Wireless Telegraphy Operator.
It took five months to train, to begin with learning the Morse code and the Navy's method of sending and receiving signals. To pass the course it was necessary to read at 22 words per minute and transmit at ten words per minute. Also trained in coding, Cecil wore a badge with wings crossed by a streak of lightening representing a radio frequency pulse and above was a star. Known as a Sparker on board ship, Cecil saw service on a Flower Class Mine sweeper on the English Channel. Both the English and Germans sank mines in the English Channel in the early part of the war and the sweepers kept shipping lanes clear. The Flower Class comprised of five classes of sloops built under the emergency war programme all of which named after flowers and so became affectionately known as the ‘herbaceous borders‘. The ‘flowers’ were designed to be built at merchant ship yards to ease pressure on the yards building war ships. The initial three groups were the first purpose built mine sweepers built with triple hulls at the bow for extra protection against loss from mine damage. When submarine attacks on
British merchant ships became a serious menace after 1916 the existing Flower Class Mine sweepers were transferred to convoy escort duty and fitted with depth charges as well as 4.7 naval guns. After the war, Cecil trained to be a teacher at St Johns and St Marks College Chelsea. There he met Kathleen Henson who had moved from Bingham in Nottingham to be with her widowed mother. On completion of his Course, Cecil moved back to Deeping and taught at Grantham School before moving to the Cross School Deeping St James in 1922. He married Kathleen in 1923 and they made their
home at 4 Bridge Street later moving back to number 6 where their son, William, was born in 1930.
a sidesman at the Priory Church and for over 30 years the correspondent for three local newspapers.
Jimmy Deeping was Cecil Burchnall's life. He taught at the Cross School for 41 years, becoming headmaster in 1958. He was an authority on the history of the village and incorporated this into the school's curriculum in the 1920's and 30's.
He loved his garden and orchard and bunches of his snowdrops, daffodils and crates of apples were sent to Peterborough Market.
Writing several articles for magazines, in 1958 published the widely acclaimed book 'The Story of Education and the Schools of Deeping St James.'
A keen and active member of the Masonic Lodge, he died on April 15th 1973 aged seventy five.
Cecil Burchnall (1898-1973)
For some years he was Clerk to the Parish Council,
Sources: Nancy Titman, Dorothea Price, Stamford Mercury, Peterbrough Advertiser
‘There was nothing Father would not try, and usually succeed at’
He saw his mate blown up on the Western Front, was himself seriously wounded at the Somme, resulting in the loss of his left arm, yet Jack Burton, born and bred in Deeping Gate, refused to let his injuries stop him from having a full and active life. After the war he returned to Deeping St James, married and raised a family of seven.
John William Burton, always known as Jack, was born in North Fen House, pictured below. Deeping Gate, on 14 May 1890. His parents were Thomas and Mary Ann; Thomas worked as a gardener and labourer, eventually becoming head gardener for Joseph Archer and his family at the Laurels, a post he held for 25 years. Jack was one of nine children; by 1911 the family was living in a fiveroomed house in Church Street, Deeping St James.
Jack enlisted to the 2nd Northamptonshire Regiment as a Private on 26 November 1907. By 1911 he was serving in Malta; he was promoted to Lance Corporal and sent to Aden, where he remained until the outbreak of World War I. He was sent to France, where in December 1914 he saw his friend, J. Bingham blown up by a shell whilst on sentry duty at the Front. He wrote to his mother to tell her of this. On 4 March
1917, Jack himself was seriously wounded in the Battle of the Somme. Blood poisoning resulted in the amputation of his left arm at Boulogne and, seriously ill, he was brought home to Guildford Hospital. Fortunately he recovered and returned to Deeping St James where, on 17 December 1917 he married Alice Smart. They had seven children. Jack was finally discharged from the army on 13 February 1918. Jack and Alice’s daughter Alice, known as Cissie, left a detailed account of her life as in a child in Deeping St James: After my father was invalided out of the army he got a very small pension, I think £1.50 a week ... Mother and Father had to work even though he had one arm – there was nothing Father would not try and usually succeed at. He
mainly did odd jobs and gardening for local people, and he could even wallpaper, cutting, pasting and folding it as well as anybody. There was always casual work as harvest time, too. We often used to go with Mother to take Father’s lunch in the fields and we would sit resting against a stook to eat it. Around 1930 the family moved from their thatched cottage in Church Street, Deeping St James to a council house in Broadgate Lane. After all their children had left home, Jack and Alice moved to Walnut Cottage in Deeping Gate. Jack died aged 60 on 16 January 1950.
John Burton 1890-1950
Sources; Stamford Mercury, Cissy Burton, National Archives, Peterborough Advertiser
George sees service at home and abroad, at war and in peace.
Deeping St James Home Guard
Young George Charity and his friend left Deeping St James early in March 1915 for a day out in Birmingham, two days later they returned in Royal Marine Uniforms.
George had lied about his age, stating his date of birth at April 1896 when in fact it was in 1898, in Manchester where his father had briefly gone to work in the coal industry. He was slim, 5’7” tall with greenish light grey eyes. Saying goodbye to his parents Edward and Susan, brother and sisters at Lindsey Cross, George was sent for training at Deal where he passed his swimming test. He left Portsmouth in January 1916 on HMS Glasgow for missions in the Mediterranean and the Adriatic. The ship, delivered large guns, weapons and shells for the war effort. It was taking one of these large guns and assembling it that George was caught in a mustard gas attack.
4 generations of Charity's l-r Edward, Samuel, George and baby Gordon
Acting as landing parties in the naval campaigns against Turkish fortifications in the Dardanelles before the Gallipoli landings, Marines were sent ashore to access damage to Turkish fortifications after bombardment by British and French ships and if necessary to complete their destruction. The Royal Marines were the last to leave Gallipoli replacing both British and French troops in a neatly planned and executed withdrawal from the beaches, it even required some Marines to wear French uniform as part of the deception. George remained with HMS Glasgow on all its operations until 26th February 1918.
He served at Portsmouth until April of that year, volunteering on the British lifeboat at Eastbury. George spent time in Russia after the War, where the Royal Marines took part in the Allied Intervention, a multi national military expedition in support of the anti-Bolshevik White forces in the Civil War. Discharged from service on December 6th 1919, George was kept on the reserve list until 1936. Never speaking about his experiences, though they were undoubtedly in some of the most dangerous and audacious manoeuvres of the War, George received both the Victory and British
War Medals. On his return, George began farming and opened a coal merchants business. An active member of the community he joined the Committee of the Deeping Agricultural Show. He had two children, Gordon and Janet with his wife, Jane (nee Law) who he married in 1924. George served on South Kesteven Rural Council, the Welland and Deeping Drainage Board and the Parish Council. He was a Trustee of United Charities and manager of the Cross and Infants schools. Sadly George also had to attend the Inquest of his father who died in June
1935 in Peterborough Hospital after a tractor accident on Edward’s land at Lindsey Cross. Edward Charity suffered from a broken leg and other injuries but while recovering died of an embolism in hospital. His death was reported in the Mercury where the headline read ‘Farmers at Deeping Funeral.’ George served in the Deeping Home Guard during the Second World War. He died in 1963 from Carcinoma of the stomach and long standing Tuberculosis
George Charity (1898-1963)
Sources: Graham and John Charity, National Archives, Forces War Records, Stamford Mercury
On land, sea and in the air brothers in arms
Lieutenant Ernest Claydon
Glenbrook, Deeping St James is a beautiful spacious double fronted house, typical late Victorian design built in 1897 for mariner Captain Benjamin Claydon by his brother in law, John Kitchen. It was with John, further up Eastgate at no. 3, that Annie resided while her young husband was away at sea.
Distinguished Flying Cross
Glenbrook, 37 Eastgate, Deeping St James
With five sons, Ebenezer, Ben, Arthur, Cecil Robert, and Ernest, the Claydon family lived in some style and it is easy to imagine the regulars at the George & Dragon taking an avid interest, especially when they heard that the family would be emigrating to Canada. Leaving Ben, a Pupil teacher at the Cross School, the family arrived in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1910. Ebenezer and Arthur partnered to form Claydon Bros Co. Ltd, later to be joined by Ernest, Cecil Robert joined the Canadian Pacific Railway Co becoming Chief Clerk to the Vice President. As general contractors, Claydon Bros were involved in the construction of many significant residential and commercial buildings including the installation of the underground water and sewerage infrastructure in Winnipeg. Ernest enlisted in 1914, serving overseas for 4 years with the Canadian Expeditionary Force and Royal Naval Air Force. With the rank of Lieutenant, Ernest returned to Winnipeg after the War and continued to work in the family construction business as it’s Treasurer until his death in 1956. The boys were keen swimmers and Arthur was an enthusiastic boater, building the sleek speedy
Capt. Arthur Claydon DFC.,CFA and RFC
craft, Atlanta which proudly won many regatta races on the Red River in Winnipeg. He enlisted in 1916 38th Battery 10th Battalion Canadian Field Artillery transferring to the Royal Flying Corps in 1917 and, after training, was posted to the 32nd Squadron flying DH5’s. During that year he claimed his first two victories. The Squadron was re-equipped with SA5A’s in January 1918 and in May, Arthur was promoted to Flight Commander. He was constantly in action during the spring and early summer, claiming six more
victories. Reported missing on 8th July 1918 in machine C1089 over Carvin at 0840 hrs; he was brought down by Lieut. Paul Billik of Jasta 52 Squadron of the 6th German Army while flying machine No. S.E.5/C1089/D.F/45.N.E south of Lille, France. On the award of the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC), the Canadian Gazette reported, “this officer single handed, went to the assistance of another pilot who was attacked by 11 Fokker biplanes and 6 scouts. By his gallant conduct and skilful manoeuvring he not
only extricated the pilot, but drove down several of the enemy aeroplanes. He has shown great initiative and gallantry in locating, bombing and attacking troops on the ground from low altitudes.” Arthur’s nephew, David Claydon, a pilot with the R.C.A.F was shot down and killed during the Second World War while on a Lancaster bombing raid on Berlin In January 1944.
Arthur Claydon 1886-1918 Ernest Claydon 1895-1956
Sources: Robert Claydon, Dorothea Price, Nancy Titman and Ian Baxter
Ringing in the peace, 1918
The Band of the Royal Engineers in Bristol: Horace Day of Market Deeping is in the middle row, 4th from the left.
In November 1918 Horace Day, Sapper 471523 of the Royal Engineers, found himself ringing the first peel of bells in Christ Church, Bristol after the Armistice was signed.
Horace was born in 1881 in Tallington and lived with his family in Market Deeping. He left school aged 11 and worked on a farm until, at 16, he became apprenticed to a local builder. He married Lucy Baker of Frognall Manor in 1916 and they had three children in the new family home in Towngate. Their eldest daughter, Florence, later became the Headmistress of West Deeping School. In June 1916, five feet five inches tall and aged almost 36, Horace was conscripted as a Sapper into the Royal Engineers, gaining certificates as a bricklayer and a plasterer before being assigned to the Waterway Docks in Bristol.
Left to right Horace Day, son Walter and an employee
Avonmouth Port and Royal Edward Dock had been taken over by the military in 1914, and building work needed completing, such as canteens, for the dock workers. By 1918 almost 4,500 men were working there and the port was constantly busy: everything for the Mediterranean and Dardanelles campaigns left from there, and incoming were troops from Canada and America, horses and mules, and food imports. Each canteen provided for
600 men, and there were separate rooms at the end of each building to seat 80 clerks and the same number of foremen and chargemen. The first canteen was built in a month. Horace’s work for the Inland Waterways also included repairing bridges, tunnels and locks, so that rivers and canals could be used to move goods, as well as the railways. Horace’s considerable musical talents had already emerged in Market Deeping Brass Band and in St Guthlac’s Church Choir. In Bristol, he was able to use those talents to entertain at regular concerts in the canteens for the dockers and in the General Hospital that received injured troops. Discharged in 1919, Horace returned to Market Deeping where he set up his own building business. He was interviewed for the Stamford Mercury on 15
His main hobby was bell-ringing, which took him all over England and earned him an enviable reputation, using many different patterns of ringing. It was later claimed that Horace was the oldest bell-ringing conductor to have conducted a peal of ‘Spliced Surprise’ in 16 methods; it was rung for almost three hours with 5,040 changes.
August 1958, when he talked about working with his two sons, one of whom later emigrated to Australia. He described his work on the old tannery (reputed to be the oldest house in Market Deeping) on Church Street. It was then an antique shop and is now a private house. Horace told the reporter that he had no worries about climbing onto a roof, adding as long as it was no more than 30 feet high!
On Horace’s 76th birthday the local rector in his parish magazine noted: ‘If [Horace] was convinced that there was a peal of bells on Mars he would get there somehow. We express the hope that he will celebrate many successive birthdays, and that each will find him bubbling with youthful delight in some new ringing achievement!’ Horace did indeed live a very active life until his death in 1962.
Horace Mason Day (1881-1962)
Census (National Archives), Military records (Ancestry), St Guthlac's Parish magazine, Stamford Mercury, ‘Bristol and the Great War’ by C.W. Wells and G.F. Stone (1920). Photographs from the Walter Day Collection (copies held by Deepings Heritage).
‘From Deeping to Flanders Fields the poppies blow’ September 1915 and served there for only 21 days! His records show that he was wounded by a bullet in the leg and was returned to England. The initial days on the Front could often be the most dangerous. After his recovery, he was stationed at Brockton Camp and he returned to the Western Front as part of the 7th Battalion, the Lincolnshire Regiment on 14th January 1916. He went as part of reinforcements for the regiment after they had endured very vigorous action and a long spell of duty in the trenches near to Ypres, many men suffering from “trench foot”. As he arrived the regiment was involved in a lot of action as the opposing armies struggled to take control of the “Bluff” and this often involved hand to hand fighting in the trenches. The Distlllery courtesy Keith Simpson
Holland’s Essential Oil Distillery in many ways defined Market Deeping in the nineteenth century. Owned by two generations of the Holland family there were over 400 acres of land growing peppermint, lavender, rosemary and opium poppies. It was said that you could smell Market Deeping before you saw it! The distillery itself produced lavender and peppermint water, Oil of Caraway and other herbs such as Henbane and Belladonna.
After “Squire” Holland’s death in 1899, the Distillery was eventually taken over by Mr Payen (from Switzerland) and it was he who employed the young James Edwards who had travelled here from Upper Warlingham in Surrey where he had been born the son of James Albert and Caroline Edwards in 1892. At the age of 21 years James enlisted at Spalding and was attested on September 2nd 1914 as Private 11021, 7th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment, one of the earliest men to enlist from the Deepings. Described as a labourer, he was 5 feet and 9 inches high and after posting he was in the 8th Battalion.
After a spell away from the front trenches, the regiment returned to the front line on 1st March. At 4am on 2nd March there was another attempt to capture the “Bluff”. The men crawled forward and gathered in groups close to the German lines and under heavy fire they went over the top taking the German trenches by surprise. The Lincolnshire men rushed
forwards to capture the machine guns and there was a heavy toll on both sides. The captain of the 7th Battalion described it “.....as the heaviest bombardment I ever experienced.” James fell in that action along with 33 other men, 183 wounded and 16 missing. Initially his place of death was unknown. Immediately, 4 Military Crosses and 8 Distinguished Conduct Medals were awarded.
The Grantham Journal reported on March 18th 1916, “Another victim of War - news has been received that Pte James Edwards, who joined the Lincolnshire Regiment at the commencement of war, has been killed in action in France. The deceased was employed before the war by Mr Payen of the distillery. He was of a quiet disposition and much respected.”
On 9th June 1916, his personal possessions were sent to the Distillery: 1 wallet, 2 photographs, 2 cards, 1 letter, 1 metal mirror in case and 1 testament (his copy of the Bible issued to every serving man). There appeared to have been some confusion about the address but they were collected from the Distillery by his parents. Imagine their reaction when 7 years later in July 1923 they were sent a piece of his boot! The same year they received his war medals. The newly released Commonwealth War Graves records show that as the CWG cemeteries were established, many bodies were moved and reinterred – and this was the case with James. He was laid to rest in the Bedford House Cemetery, West Vianderen, Belgium (Enclosure No 4 VIII AA 35). The body had been identified at that point along with his boot – many there have never been identified. He is also commemorated on the Market Deeping War Memorial in St Guthlac’s Church as W.J Edwards. He was awarded the 1914 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.
James William Edwards 1892-1916
James trained and served at home for just over a year when his service records show that he left Folkestone for France on 10th
Sources: Ancestry, Grantham Journal, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, “The History of the Lincolnshire Regiment 1914-1918”: Major-General C R Simpson.
‘A typical soldier ... in the best of spirits’ A seasoned soldier by the beginning of World War I, Thomas Ellis had already seen service in South Africa and India and had spent five years overseas. By 1914 he was in the Reserves but was called up on 5 August 1914, the day after war was declared; he served for only eight months before he was killed. On his memorial scroll he was, like many others, remembered as ‘among those who ... left all that was dear to them, endured hardness, faced danger, and finally passed out of the sight of men by the path of duty and self-sacrifice, giving up their own lives that others might live in freedom’.
Thomas was born on 8 February 1883 at Wellingborough, the son of Thomas and Ellis Fairey. In 1900, then living in Northampton, he joined the Army – he was 17 and 7 months. In May 1901, at 18, he officially joined the Northamptonshire Regiment, and after training he was posted with his Battalion to South Africa. He served there for three years and in 1904 was posted to Pune, and then Bombay. Back in England for demobilisation in 1909, having completed eight years’ service, he was transferred to the 2nd Battalion Northamptonshire Regiment Reserves. By 1911 Thomas was living in Market Deeping and working as a postman. He lodged with a Mr and Mrs Davis at Halfleet Cottages, and in April of that year he married their daughter, Martha, at St Guthlac’s Church. Thomas and Martha had two children. In May 1911 Thomas signed up for another four years and on 5 August 1914 he was called up, landing with the 2nd Battalion Northamptonshire Regiment at Le Havre later that month. Thomas was given leave for Christmas, returning to the Western Front before the New Year, where he was involved in several actions. On 14 March he was killed at Neuve Chappelle during an attack on the German lines, and is remembered on Le Touret Memorial, Pas
de Calais. His name is also included on the Post Office Memorial, Peterborough, and the Oundle War Memorial. Thomas’ death was announced in the
Peterborough Advertiser on 3 April 1915: Another loss of the Deepings News was received by Mrs T. Ellis of Market Deeping on Tuesday last week of the death of her husband Private T. Ellis of C Company, Northamptonshire Regiment; the following notification being received: ‘I am sorry to inform you that your husband Pte. Ellis of C Company was killed in action on the 14th of March 1915 whilst the Battalion was taking part in attack on the Germans – F.W. Laud,
Company Sergeant Major.’ Private Ellis, who has seen five years’ service in India, was a reservist and a typical soldier. He leaves a widow and two young children to mourn his loss, for whom much sympathy is manifest by all who knew him. The deceased soldier was home for a few days at Christmas in the best of spirits. This casualty makes the third Deeping man who has been killed in action in the present war.
Thomas Percival Ellis (1883-1915)
Sources: Susan Broccoli, Post Office Archives National Archives
Dedicated nurse is swift to smile
Ethel Swift pictured right
Ethel’s ambition was to be a nurse, nothing else would do. At 15 in 1901, she was a dressmakers assistant, a job she hated, just as she hated being a nursemaid to some children a little later.
Horton House Hospital, Epsom
When she was old enough, Ethel struck out from the family home in Eastgate, Deeping St James, leaving parents Alfred and Annie Swift behind and enrolled for proper hospital training at Lincoln. Having realised her ambition, she loved every aspect of the job. Early in the War she joined the Territorial Force Nursing Service with the rank of Sister and in 1915 she saw service on a hospital ship which was evacuating the wounded soldiers from Gallipoli. She told many gruesome stories of this exercise; how she had told jokes in an attempt to distract a young soldier while she wriggled his dead toes from his gangrenous foot. Later she was posted to Horton Hospital in Epsom. This hospital had been built in 1902 as the London County Council Mental asylum with 2,000 beds. In 1915 the Asylum was taken over by the Army Council and its 2143
inmates were transferred to other hospitals. It became Horton (County of London) War Hospital, a general hospital for servicemen from all parts of the Empire wounded during the First World War. King George and Queen Mary visited in July 1916, by which time there were almost 2000 military patients.
Ethel lost her fiance who was killed in France and she returned to civilian life and became a District Nurse in Middlesex, ending her nursing career in Pinner, where she was highly esteemed for the excellent care she gave to her patients. On retirement she returned to West Deeping
to live with her widowed sister. She became very deaf and wore a very primitive hearing aid which squeaked and oscillated madly.
Ethel Swift (1886-1961)
Fearless Felix saves lives on the battlefield
Felix Fowler’s feisty nature proved well-suited to army life. Born in 1887 in Horsegate, Deeping St James, he chose not to follow in his father’s footsteps as a shoemaker on leaving school. 10, Eastgate home of mother-in-law, Eliza Swift from where Felix enlisted.
Instead he found employment firstly as a farm labourer and then later as a labourer for the Great Northern Railway. At the age of 20, Felix married Julia Swift at Deeping St. James Priory Parish Church, on August 4, 1907. By 1912 the couple had four children: Lizzie (born 1907); Minnie (born 1908); Arthur Clark (born 1911); and Annie (born 1912). Their fifth child, Ethel, was born in 1915. Felix enlisted on September 9, 1914, joining the 3rd Lincolnshire Regiment, to become Private 12136.
Described as fearless and courageous by his fellow soldiers, the 5ft 7in tall, beerloving former labourer, adjusted well to life on the front-line. By 1916 Felix had been promoted to the rank of Lance Corporal and was now serving with the 7th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment. Despite the promotion, he was still very much in the thick of it and on February 15, 1916, was wounded in the line of duty. The injury however, did nothing to slow this brave soldier down. According to a piece in the Peterborough Standard newspaper, dated July 29, 1916, Lance Corporal Fowler was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM). The newspaper stated that Felix had been “highly praised by both officers and army doctors, for the devoted attention to the wounded on the battlefield.” A piece run in the Stamford Mercury on August 4, 1916, said that the medal had been awarded for carrying out his duties as a stretcher bearer under heavy fire. It stated that: “regardless of his own danger, he succeeded in saving the lives of his comrades.”
Council house built in the 30's allocated to ex-servicemen in this case, Felix.
A Brigadier-General Maxwell made the presentation of the DCM to Felix, at Brocton Camp, Staffordshire. Maxwell expressed his great pleasure at being able to present one of his old regiment with the honoured distinction. On August 23, Felix was posted back to France. It’s possible that all this attention side-tracked young Felix somewhat, as he was subsequently reprimanded for overstaying his leave. However, it wasn’t the first time and it wouldn’t be the last… He was also reprimanded for overstaying leave on June 29, 1916 and May 10, 1917. The latter proving a bridge too far for his superiors, resulting in a demotion to Private. His run-ins with authority didn’t end there. On March 9, 1918, he was fined two day’s pay for using “improper language to an Officer while on duty in the field.” We can only guess what Felix’s choice remarks might have been! This little tête à tête notwithstanding, Felix saw out the rest of his service safely and was demobbed on March 10, 1919.
It’s not known how Felix filled his time for the first seven months after leaving the army, but we do know that by October he was enjoying another brush with authority: this time, for poaching. On October 24, 1919, the Stamford Mercury ran a story on Felix Fowler appearing before the Liberty of Peterborough Petty Sessions in Stamford to answer a charge of game trespass at Bainton on September 29. Despite compelling evidence from both a police sergeant and the estate’s gamekeeper, the case against our adventurous exservice man was dismissed. In later life Felix Fowler was a notable supporter of the Discharged Soldiers and Sailors Federation of Market Deeping and Deeping St James. He remained a resident of Deeping St James, living in Broadgate Lane until his death in 1960.
Felix Fowler 1887 – 1960
‘… he was the dearest son a mother could have...’ Moving from Hillingdon, Middlesex, the Freeman family took up residence in a solid brick and tiled house next to Horsegate Terrace., Deeping St James. With two sons, John (b. 1888) and George (b. 1892) and two daughters, Sarah (b.1886) and Grace (b.1884), mother Annie bought up the young family alone on the death of her husband, Henry in 1903
Courtesy Ian Baxter
position. But even this process involved the use of many men from the reserve companies and due to sickness and casualties, numbers were steadily decreasing.’
The two girls, worked in the drapery trade, Grace eventually became manageress of the drapery department of A. Payne & Co. in Church Street, Market Deeping, the largest establishment in the Deepings, in the 1920’s and 30’s also selling groceries and hardware. Sarah worked in Basingstoke but when her mother’s health failed Sarah returned to look after the house, by then 59 Bridge Street.
conditions and he wrote this to a friend a Quarter Master in A Company. ‘I hear we are to be relieved tomorrow night. Can you possibly arrange some sort of bath and a change of underclothing? We are damn near alive. Shall also require 10 pairs of boots, 3 mess tins, 4 pairs of socks, 3 pairs of trousers and one tunic.’
George and John both joined the Colours, George had been a farm worker and John had moved to become a groom at Welton Cliffe further up country.
‘The whole of the Theodore sector was now in British hands… The weather had changed and became very hot which increased the demand for water.. this had to be bought in petrol cans, the former contents of which added a distinct flavour. Fortunately the transport limbers could come as far as Battalion headquarters unmolested. The cans were then hauled forward from that
Enlisting in 1916, George was Private 201714 1/5 Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment and in 1917 was with the Battalion at Cite St Theodore. Sergeant Porter kept a notebook of
29th April 1/5th Battalion returned to the front line, recorded in the War Diary,
‘30th April ‘Activity consisted of desultory shellfire cross the whole 1/5 Lincolns sector. The area around Battalion headquarters received some heavy shellfire between 11am and noon. This cost 3 men their lives. Sgt David Kent from Grimsby and 2 members of Sgt Porter’s number 1 platoon. George Freeman and George Inkley. Porter that day had only acknowledged receipt of the men’s extra cardigans. Inkley and Freeman were good friends as George Inkley served his grocery apprenticeship with Henry, George’s father.’ In his letter informing Mrs Freeman that her son was killed in action, Sgt. Major J.W Harrison spoke of the deceased as one who was well respected, always willing to do anything asked of him and he would be greatly missed by his platoon. On May 7th Sgt Porter received a letter from Annie Freeman (George’s mother) ‘Dear Sir, Will you pardon the liberty I am taking: I received a letter yesterday morning 6th May from Padre J.C Murray saying he had laid my son to rest with his comrades my boy but he did not put on his
number or initials. Please will you tell me if you can if it is my son, his number is Pte G.H Freeman 241174: sometimes it is too long before you get an official notice. I would, can you tell me, so like to know how he met his death, tell me if you can: he was the dearest son a mother could have, please excuse a widow mothers anxiety.” George is commemorated on the Maroc British Cemetery Grenay. As if not bad enough, Annie was to loose a second son within six months. John had enlisted as Gunner 800895 Royal Field Artillery at Grimsby and it was reported in the Peterborough Standard November 3rd 1917 ‘Gunner John Freeman R.F.A son of Mrs Freeman widow who resides near the Gas Works Deeping St James was killed in action in France and was buried in a cemetery behind the lines.’ John is remembered on the Sucrerie Cemetery Ablain St Nazaire.
John Redley Freeman (1888 -1917) George Harry Freeman (1892-1917)
Sources: Steve Bramley, Chris Bailey, Dorothea Price, Nancy Titman
Through adversity to the stars via Frognall
FE2B
Known as Market Deeping Airfield, this class 2 landing ground was officially listed as a 75 acre field, one and a half miles from St James Deeping Railway station, and one of 38 in Lincolnshire. It occupied a piece of land known as ‘The 90 Acres’ east of the Stamford to Spalding road (A16) between Deeping Common and Frognall.
Consisting of a wooden hut with a supply of petrol landing flames and spares, this was the responsibility of the Royal Defence Corps who were billeted at the Granary at Willow Lodge Farm, Spalding Road, Frognall. The Royal Flying Corps Motto ‘Through adversity to the stars’ remains the motto of the Royal Airforce. Early planes were unreliable as revealed in a letter to his parents in Boston from Jack Baker,
Willow Lodge Farm, Spalding Road
RFC; ‘We were flying over France when the engine stopped altogether. And a good job we were 3000 feet up in the air or I should have been killed outright. When the engine stopped the officer said to me, ‘Baker our time has come. Be brave and die like a man’. And he shook hands with me. I shall always remember as long as
I live the ten minutes that followed. The next thing I remembered, I was in a barn in a field.’ The need for planes in 1915 was urgent and all Lincolnshire major engineering firms, except those manufacturing tanks, were employed for the construction of aircraft.. Ruston & Proctor received an initial order for 100 BE2c’s in January 1915, later responsible for the manufacture of 300 airframes for the Sopwith ½ Strutter, a light weight fighting scout. With a contract to build the Sopwith Gunbus in 1915, the bulk of Robey & Co’s output was between 1915-18 to build the short 184 Sea Plane. With a workforce of approx 5,000, Clayton & Shuttleworth were the largest manufacturer with a factory including the Titanic Works, covering about 100 acres. All of these firms recruited in the Deepings for men with engineering skills and it is believed that quite a few went to Lincoln to build tanks and aeroplanes. The military requisitioned 2,500 acres of land at Cranwell to train the newly recruited pilots, needed to fly these planes. Later recruited from the army, initially volunteers were sought, one of which was Donald Rooksby, husband
of Agnes nee Mulligan of the Waterton Arms, Deeping St James. In September 1916, the headquarters of No. 38 Squadron was formed at Melton Mowbray and by 1st October, ‘C’ flight was resident at the newly constructed Fight Station near Buckminster and at Leadenham. The busy airfield at Frognall was the main refuelling base for these Home Defence Squadrons, whose task was to patrol the East Coast using B.E.2s and F.E.bs to stop the Zeppelins reaching the industrial sites of the Midlands. The first Commanding Officer of 38 Squadron was a Captain A.T Harris who was better known in World War Two as Air Marshall of the RAF, Bomber Harris. Frognall catered for all types of aircraft and pilots of different nationalities. Posters were put up locally so that residents could distinguish between German aircraft and our own. For residents, the airfield created quite a spectacle and for pilots it was a favourite stop as residents would supply refreshments for the brave airmen.
He had been flying over the fen district for some time and when in Crowland some minutes before the accident he was observed flying around the town, sometimes so low to nearly catch the buildings. He eventually got down in Snowdens field and then rose again but only to a little height, when the machine went sideways, dived down in the Church Field, running by the side of the Churchyard. The machine was smashed and the airman (Lieutenant Robertson a Canadian in the RFC) still breathed but was unconscious and badly injured. He died in a few minutes.’ By December 1916 there were 11 Home Defence Squadrons and by the end of the war 14 RAF Squadrons were established, the RFC becoming the Royal Air Force on 1st April 1918. The Frognall airstrip was closed in 1919 and returned to farm land.
In 1917 tragedy struck; the Peterborough Advertiser reported; ‘A fatal accident occurred in South Lincolnshire to one of our airmen on Friday morning.
Sources: ‘The Airfields of Lincolnshire 1912’, Fenland Aviation Museum, Newark Air Museum, Shuttleworth Collection.
An “Old Contemptible” George Edward Plowright was a seasoned campaigner when he was called up on August 4th 1914 to join the British Expeditionary Force in the task of halting the German advance through Belgium and Holland. Although the Kaiser allegedly called them the “contemptible little army”, the British soldiers proudly called themselves the “Old Contemptibles.” His younger brother, Alfred, followed in his footsteps and volunteered. Both were to fall victims of the war. No 5 Stationary Hospital , courtesy of Wellcome Library, R.M.A.C. Collection
George and his twin, James, were born in Holbeach in 1884 to John Thomas and Betsy Plowright. By 1891, the couple and their 3 young children had moved to set up home in Mill Lane (Stamford Road), Market Deeping. After living in several locations around the town, they settled in Towngate and had a family of 8. George made the decision to enlist in the 1st Lincolnshire Regiment in 1902 and served until 1909 in India before moving into the reserves. During his time away, tragedy struck the family with the loss of both his twin brother and a younger brother.
Mr Butterfield left his house for use as a cottage hospital in 1910. By 1913 there were two wards of 4 beds. The hospital was used during WW1 treating over 900 local men.
At the declaration of war in 1914, George, 30 by then, was mobilized and enlisted in Stamford as Private 6054 of the 1st Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment. By August 8th he had joined the regular soldiers at
Portsmouth and after 3 days of strenuous training, they marched out of Victoria Barracks bound for France all in great secrecy. On 13th August they arrived in Le Havre and caught a glimpse of the French soldiers they would fight alongside. Along the route to the front, they were greeted tumultuously by the local inhabitants and showered with gifts. On 23rd August George faced the Germans at Mons. The British defended strongly but were ordered to retreat as the French withdrew, leaving them exposed on their right flank. There followed a 2 week trek of 175 miles in almost tropical weather, with shortages of food and water. The order was then given to “march light” and great coats and packs were left at the side of the road. Along the route they sometimes stopped and fought, as at Le Cateau, before eventually turning north to engage the Germans in the battles of the Marne and of La Bassee. It was on October 31st that they reached Kemmel (near Ypres) as the Allied army faced heavy shelling. At 1.30 am George was marching to Wytchaete to retake the trenches that had been lost. In the dark, the trenches were difficult to find and they were fired upon by their fellow Indian troops and also by German machine guns. They later charged under heavy fire, getting within a few yards of German trenches, so as
dawn broke, they were so exposed that they “got up and ran for their lives.” The battalion now numbered less than 100 with 301 killed, wounded or missing – George was one of those wounded. He died of his wounds on November 3rd. The sad news was later reported in the Peterborough Standard of January 30th 1915 and the following letter; ‘Number 2 Clearing Hospital November 3rd 1914. I am writing to say that Private Plowright after fighting hard against his wounds passed away at 8.00 am this morning. Like many another he has laid down his life in a noble and just cause. I hope that thought will comfort you in your bereavement. Pray accept my sympathy and rest assured that everything mortal man could do was done - Yours Sincerely J.H Gillingham Chaplain.’ He was buried and is remembered at Bailleul Communal Cemetery (C 16) close to the Belgian border and to a number of casualty clearing stations. Brother Alfred was born in Market Deeping in 1896 and was a farm labourer when he enlisted on May 25th 1915, knowing full well that his older brother had already been killed in action. Initially he was posted to Grimsby as Driver 801356 (460 Battery Royal Field Artillery), but on 13th March 1917 he embarked for France with the 295th Brigade RFA. His records show that he had served 1 year and 291 days
when he was returned home and hospitalised. Bronchitis and cardiac problems had been aggravated by the war and caused him to be constantly tired. Eventually he was invalided out of the Army with 50% disablement and given a pension until March 23rd 1920 but he died in 1919 at Butterfield Hospital in Bourne. His funeral was reported in the Lincolnshire Free Press on 29th July 1919. ‘Soldier’s Death… The deceased was invalided out of the army and gradually got worse. The funeral took place on Tuesday afternoon at the cemetery, Canon Ashby officiating. The cortege was met at Towngate by about 20 discharged soldiers, who proceeded with the coffin and mourners to the Church. At the conclusion of the service at the cemetery, Mr Kay sounded the Last Post. This makes the 27th man of this parish who has given his life for his country. The manhood of the Deepings has been severely cut down in this terrible war.’ He was buried in Market Deeping Cemetery but there was no headstone for him. The two brothers are commemorated on St Guthlac’s Church War Memorial.
George Edward Plowright 1884-1914 Alfred Plowright 1896-1919
Sources: ancestry.co.uk, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, WW1 Pension Records, Steve Bramley and Chris Bailey, “The Lincolnshire Regiment 1914-1918 by Major-General C R Simpson, C.B.
Deeping Duo escape huge Anzac losses
Frederick Hainsworth
Generations of Hainsworths had been born in and around the Deepings. Frederick and Sarah were married in the Priory Church in 1896 and quickly had two sons, Frederick William and Cecil David. Tragically when Cecil was a baby, his father died of acute pulmonary tuberculosis and cardiac failure at only 29.
Courtesy S Le Sage
Sarah went south to London where she lived with her brother, Alexander Walkyier and took a job as a servant. But just before Christmas 1901, the little family boarded the RMS Steamer Austral at Tilbury bound for Fremantle, Western Australia. It is likely that Sarah came to look after Adele, daughter of her younger sister Maude after her premature death. The family all stayed in the same boarding house in the searing hot and dusty frontier gold mining town of Kalgoorlie/Boulder. In 1909 they moved to Perth, Sarah in poor health, both boys had to work to support the family. Australia entered the War in 1914 and Frederick enlisted in September of that year, his military service number was 267. All who enlisted in the First Australian Imperial force (AIF) for service in this war were volunteers. Frederick was 17 though his enlistment papers show him as being 18. Cecil was 16, too young and needed to support his mother, but he became a cadet with the Commonwealth Military Forces (CMF). Following training at Blackboy Hill just outside of Perth, the 16th Battalion 4th Brigade AIF embarked for Egypt arriving early 1915 and they continued training near Cairo. In early April the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) were placed on readiness to leave Egypt, their task to capture the Gallipoli peninsula and so allow Allied Navys’ into the Dardanelles. Their landing at Anzac Cove was met with fierce resistance from the defending Ottoman Turkish troops. Brief notations in Fred’s service records allude to the grimness of war. Losses were horrific ‘On the landing on 25th April the 16th had been about 1000 strong. At roll call on Monday 3 May only 9 officers and 290 men
answered their names.’ That day Frederick received a gunshot wound to the right thigh; after recovering at a hospital in Alexandria he returned to the campaign and in August was hospitalised with a similar wound. In the eight months before the allied forces were evacuated, over 8,000 Australian soldiers were killed. Recuperating, in England, he rejoined his battalion now stationed in France. Two months later in the winter of 1916 he was immobilized with ‘trench feet’. His case was not severe and he rejoined his unit Cecil Hainsworth and returned to Taranto, Italy 8th July. combat. In mid June 1917, Crossed frontier into France 4 he received a gunshot days later, came through wound to his left hand requiring the amputation of France and left Cherbourg arriving at Fovant Camp, the fourth finger and was Wiltshire late afternoon. 6 repatriated and discharged days embarkation leave in November 1917. London.’ Here Cecil caught the train from London to Six days before Fred was discharged and now able to Peterborough, curious to visit his roots. take on the care of his mother, Cecil enlisted, Training continued at 5th raising his age from the Training Battalion, Fovant correct 19 years old to 20 on his application. Number in preparation for 52063 in the AIF, Cecil was reinforcing the 28th Battalion. Meanwhile the allocated to the 1st Battalion in France was Reinforcements ‘W’ of the part of the Allied offensive 28th Battalion. Training took place at Blackboy Hill. that marked the beginning of Germany’s defeat. In Europe, the Battalion was fighting to turn back With November came the the German spring signing of the Armistice offensive. and the cessation of Boarding HMAT troop ship hostilities. Cecil’s dairy SS Port Darwin, Cecil sailed records that in December he was at Hurdcott from Albany on 8th May Training Camp also a large 1918 bound for Egypt. Australian staffed Group From the Australian Camp Clearing Hospital. At the Suez he was transferred to end of the year Cecil Alexandria. His diary returned home. An entry records: ‘Left Alexandria crossed the Med. And arrived made on 26th January his
last day on the troop ship before it docked at Albany reads ‘Reverted from appointment to military police.’ This suggests that at least for the journey home he wore the red band of the Australian Army Provost Corps and assisted in maintaining discipline. Cecil went on to obtain accountancy qualifications and run his own business as a manufacturers representative, Frederick became a ticket writer and graphic artist. He had been issued with a Silver War Badge (because his wound made him unfit for future service), the 1914/15 Star Medal for the Dardanelles campaign, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.
Frederick Hainsworth 1897-1968 Cecil Hainsworth 1898-1967
Sources: Frederick & Pamela Hainsworth
Joe puts the tin hat on it!
Ballst Pits Deeping St James
Hanging on the branch of an apple tree, a tin hat filled with red geraniums, the hat that had protected Albert (Joe) Hare when he enlisted as Private 28452 Lincolnshire Regiment serving as a runner.
In the days before easy communications on the battlefield, young men such as Joe, ran with messages one officer to another often in dangerous situations. Joe was badly wounded, losing most of his toes on one foot, ever after walking with a limp! He returned home where he bought a cottage, 9 Eastgate Deeping St James and with it the garden and field which ran down to Back Lane, this for just ÂŁ50. One of 12 children, Joe lived with his parents and never married. His father,
Ernest, told of his childhood when aged 11, he would leave home at 5.00 am to work for a farmer who had two farms, one 3 miles away and the other at Deeping St Nicholas, another 3 miles after that, returning home at 7.00pm. Later he worked at the engine sheds in Peterborough, walking from Deeping to New England every day. Employed on the Bancroft Cutting for 34 years, Ernest worked on the railway ballast pits at Deeping St James earning the nickname 'Sandy'.
Joe, short and stocky and a local character, set up business as a boot and shoe repairer. Customers would put their shoes on a pile for Joe to repair, he never needed to put names on them, he knew the shoes as well as he did their owners! His little wooden workshop with its stove became a hub in the village, men rained off work on the land would gather to exchange the latest news and gossip in a ritual which became known as 'Cobblers Mondays!'
Joe's particular pride and joy was his garden and he was proud to have the first new potatoes, beans and other crops. Always smoking a pipe, he remained a batchelor and he died in Deeping St James in 1973.
Albert (Joe) Hare (1898-1973)
Every picture tells a story The Smith family have formed a dynasty in the Deepings; brothers Philip Cornelius and Stephen both served in the First World War. Herbert, their brother had a son in 1896, Philip Herbert Smith, who also served.
The boys were all sons of Philip and Ann (nee Todd) Smith of Market Deeping but it was in Nottingham that Herbert, a van driver, married Selina and bought up their young family in 11, Grainger Street.. By the 1911 Census however, the family had moved back to Market Deeping and lived in the High Street where Herbert, now 38 years of age, worked as a coal merchant. Son Philip Herbert now had four younger sisters; Maud, Annie, Elsie and Clara and at the age of 15 had taken up an apprenticeship as a wheelwright. This career however was relatively short lived as Philip enlisted during the First World War and on the 11th November 1916, the Peterborough Advertiser and the Grantham Journal both reported that Pte. P H Smith of Market Deeping, son of Herbert Smith is wounded. We have three pictures that Philip Herbert served in two theatres of war; the Western Front and the Eastern Front.
PICTURE A
PICTURE A In his newly issued tropical uniform with helmet, Philip is part of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment setting off to war. This is a studio portrait and he has brought along a picture of his sweetheart, Ethel Inkley Lenton, to have it superimposed on the photo. The stag emblem of the Warwickshires can be clearly seen. The sun helmet would have been needed in Egypt, Palestine, Mesopotamia (Iraq), Salonika (Greece) or Gallipoli.
PICTURE B
We do not know his enlistment date or whether he volunteered. He may have set off with the whole of the Battalion or as part
PICTURE C of reinforcements to a battalion already serving on the Eastern Front.
January 1918. The uniform is that of the Western Front.
Only 2 Warwickshire Battalions served in these areas:
Each of the BEF Divisions was allotted a Pioneer battalion – a service battalion devoted to various types of labouring work. There might be men with experience in construction or general labouring and also fit enough to provide labour but had lost fitness over time, either in the trenches or recovering from wounds. ( Bert as he was known to his family had been wounded). They were issued with extra tools and equipment but kept their rifle and ammunition pouches to defend themselves. The only Royal Warwickshire regiment Battalion that was converted to a Pioneer Battalion was the 14thformed on 5th October 1918 – 5 weeks before the Armistice.
1st Garrison Battalion went to Egypt for guard duties only and men were mainly soldiers who were not A1 fit or older. Philip did not appear to fit into this category. The 9th Service Battalion served in Gallipoli as part of the 39th Brigade ( 13th Division) and went after January 1916 to Egypt, much depleted with casualties and in need of rest and reinforcements. By February they were up to full strength and were sent to Basra, Mesopotamia (modern Iraq). They strengthened a force being assembled to relieve a besieged garrison at Kutal Amara. They saw service and fighting there until 1918 when they were sent to North Persia. We do know that in November 1916 he was wounded. PICTURE B This group photo clearly shows the emblem of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment (stag) and that they are a Pioneer Battalion, endorsed by the crossed axes. The Lance Corporal at the front left with the overseas inverted chevrons on his left cuff, dates the picture to after
PICTURE C An interesting mixture of soldiers – some with some elements of tropical wear – hats but Bert is wearing a Western Front tin helmet.. They are either French or Belgian soldiers (square cap badges) and also Scottish or Canadian? soldiers wearing kilts. Possibly the Western Front? His grand-daughter, Mrs Elaine Wright, does know that he served in France.
Examination of the Medal rolls leave us with Philip H Smith Lincolnshire regiment Private 4919 and then Private 27166 Royal Warwickshire Regiment. The Lincs number has no record so he may have joined and been immediately sent to the Royal Warwickshires. Fortunately, Philip survived the War and in March 1920 he married his sweetheart Ethel Inkley Lenton, the eldest daughter of another Deeping dynasty, Samuel and Mary (nee Hales) Lenton of Eastgate, Deeping St. James. The couple had three children; Fred, Betty and Connie and around 1934, moved to Sutton on Sea, Lincolnshire. Here, Philip, always artistic, became a signwriter on commercial vans and writing shop signs, he was also a painter and decorator. At one point the became a brush salesman for Betterware. In 1941 the family moved to March. Bert, as he was known to his family, also played the organ and could often be heard practising! Philip died in Sutton on Sea in 1980, aged 85 but the family home at that time was actually Victoria Road, Louth.
Philip Herbert Smith 1896-1980
Sources: Elaine Wright, Peterborough Advertiser and Grantham Journal
Was he an absentee?
The licensee of the White Horse Inn, Market Deeping brought brief notoriety to the town when he was charged under the Military Conscription Act with being an absentee for four days only from 29th June - 3rd July, 1917.
Courtsey Coates Collection, Wisbech Museum
Earlier directory entry
George Hercock, as he was then known, had taken over the White Horse (the sign of the Hanoverian Kings) sometime before 1917. A commercial inn and posting house, it had had a succession of licensees during the early twentieth century, including Alice Wyman in charge in 1911, Harry Boland in 1913 and Edith Darcy in 1919. George was born Thomas George in Bainton in 1877 to John and Elizabeth (nee Dolby). Like many others, George was concerned about what would happen to his business if he enlisted and a number of men from the Deepings appealed to the Rural Tribunal at Bourne after they were conscripted. The Spalding Free Press (10th July 1917) tells the story: “Medically re-examined at Lincoln and passed into category C2.... he was given notice to report on June 29th. Prisoner presented himself on that day but explained to the
sergeant that he had lodged an appeal with the Bourne tribunal. On the strength of that statement he was allowed to return with the purpose of getting his notice endorsed by the clerk of the tribunal. On Saturday, the recruiting authority ascertained that defendant had no appeal pending, but that after he had been to Grantham he had presented himself at Mr Bell’s office at Bourne for the purpose of lodging an appeal. Prisoner was then ordered to report to Grantham without fail on July 2nd but on the evening of that date he wired ‘Extreme urgency causes delay. Shall submit myself tomorrow.’ On July 3rd at 11 am, he was still an absentee and at three o’clock in the afternoon after the draft had departed, he presented himself at the Grantham recruiting office and Colonel Peake placed him under arrest.
through and he understood he had done so. On Tuesday morning he went to Peterborough to catch an express train to Grantham, but unfortunately lost his connection. He arrived at Grantham some time after 12 o’clock and went to the recruiting office about one o’clock. He found that the office was closed until 2 15 pm. He returned to the Guildhall and stayed there until the sergeant came up. The sergeant told him he would have to go back to the recruiting office as he had not got his papers and when he got back there they told him he was a deserter and arrested him.
him over to the military authorities to be dealt with.’
Mr T Carter said if defendant went to the recruiting office at the time he left him he would be there between one o’clock and 1.30 and in plenty of time to go away with the draft.
Currently there is no further information on what became of George on his return to civilian life.
Defendant’s statement agreed with the prosecution in many respects, but he explained that he thought that he had an appeal pending. He was no scholar and had asked a gentleman to put the appeal
Mr Millhouse, recalled, said the recruiting office was closed from one o’clock to 2.15 pm. Dr Wilson, the magistrate said that as far as he could see the defendant was not an absentee, but decided to hand
The following day, George became Airman 86514 in the Royal Flying Corps. He had given his occupation as posting stables and his next of kin as his mother, now Elizabeth Boor, having married a chemist from Wisbech who, in 1911, had been lodging in Station Road, Deeping St James and living by private means. George was still serving when the RAF was established in 1918 and was transferred to the RAF Reserves on 4th March 1920.
Thomas George Hercock 1879-
Sources: Spalding Free Press, Ancestry, RAF records from Find my Past.
That magnificent man and his threshing machine! John, always known as Jack, Hibbett, was a Deeping man and a member of the Lincolnshire Yeomanry Territorials for some years, possibly before his marriage to Ethel Whitno in 1910 when they had tied the knot at St Peters in Wisbech.
Lincolnshire Yeomanry Territorials John second left, second row seated
John Hibbett
Nicknamed the Saturday Night Soldiers, the Territorials, mostly made up of farmers and farm workers had regular training which was stepped up after the start of the War when the age limit was raised to 41. They were sent to Norfolk and Suffolk on Home Defence Training in case of German invasion, they also learnt how to deal with Zeppelins and how to recognise enemy aircraft.
Ethel & John on wedding day 1910
A lot of the Lincolnshire Yeomanry answered Lord Kitchener’s call but John was unable to as he was contracted by the Army to supply hay for the War Effort. Jack had acquired a red brick house, 26 Eastgate, to live in with Ethel, it had two rooms either side of the front door and a back kitchen, then there were three bedrooms above. There was a yard to the side and a good sized garden leading down to the
riverbank. He built a large zinc roofed lean-to shed at the side of the house for the storage of his threshing machine. When the Government requisitioned all agricultural land in 1914 and told farmers what to grow, Jack had been told to supply hay to keep horses fed. Always busy from June to October, Jack would take his threshing machine and tackle from farm to farm around an area of about 30 miles at harvest time. Hay was transported by horse and cart and then it was Jack’s job to make sure it got to the various railway stations in the area.
they were cowards for not being in uniform. Gradually as the War raged and tanks were bought into service, the need for hay was not so desperate. After the war ended Jack carried on as a thresher moving to 8 Bridge Street where he owned 18 sets of tackle. He had been born In Eastgate to Edward and Hannah nee Sewell but had moved to Willow Lodge, Frognall when his mother
died in childbirth and there he has been brought up by his Uncle Frank and Aunt Annie. Jack died on 22nd February 1947 at Bridge Street, Deeping St James, leaving a widow and two sons. His obituary recalled that he was a skilled machinist, a first class shot and in demand for shooting parties.
John (Jack) Hibbett 1885-1947
In 1915 he was given a medal to wear to let people know that he was on Army service. All men in reserved occupations wore these so that they would not be presented with a white feather as was the custom if people thought Harvesting at Mrs Lancaster's Eastgate 191
Sources: Nick Hibbett, Nancy Titman, Graham Caldwell. Photographs: Nick Hibbett, Dorothea Price, Ian Baxter.
Family of academics see war service
Herbert Jennings was Headmaster at the Cross School, Deeping St James, living with his wife Annie Maria at 88 Church Street and later 84 Eastgate, where he converted an old barn. Both had come from Eccleshill in Yorkshire.
They had two sons, Percy born 1890, and Laurence born in 1896. Both won scholarships to Stamford Grammar School, served in the World War 1 and both were wounded in action. There is no record of Percy's service but local newspapers reported on August 12 1916 that Mr Jennings had received a card from his son LanceCorporal Percy Jones of the Queen's Westminster Rifles, who had been missing since July 1, when he was wounded in the great advance. He was taken prisoner of war at Festungalasett. The card, dated July 18 1916 said: “My Dear parents, You will be pleased to hear, I am safe although wounded in the right shoulder it is not serious. Since being captured I have been well treated and am pretty comfortable at present. Please send plenty of letters and parcels of eatables and smokes all of which will come post free. Will you send me £1 through the Post Office. I was hit a week ago and my progress is satisfactory. With the exception of my wound I am in the best of health. My arm is quite alright, but the bandage on my right shoulder makes it impossible for me to write myself.”
The Lincolnshire Free Press reported on October 19 1915 that he had been wounded at Vermelles on September 27 by a gunshot in the left leg. After a spell in hospital in Manchester, he returned to France and spent his 19th birthday in the trenches. He was appointed a trainee Saddler, rising to Corporal Saddler. The Stamford Mercury reported on March 23 1917 that L.H. Jennings had been gazetted Second-Lieutenant to the 6th East Surrey Regiment No. 4456. On September 14 1917 the Stamford Mercury reported that SecondLieutenant L.H. Jennings, who had been officially reported missing on August 5, was a wounded prisoner in hospital in Hamburg, the third time he had been wounded. Laurence was repatriated on December 25 1918 and died in Stratford on Avon in 1978. After repatriation and demob from the Army, Percy completed his education with a Bsc from London University. He married Lilian Clark in Wandsworth in 1919. Laurence enlisted on
September 11 1914 and trained as Gunner 1207 in the Essex E. A. Brigade Royal Field Artillery. This small unit was amalgamated with C Battery 346 London Scottish Brigade and he became number 880510.
Percy Jennings 1890Laurence Jennings 1897-1978
Sources: Peterborough Advertiser, Stamford Mercury, Lincolnshire Free Press, Dorothea Price, Nancy Titman, British Army 1WW Service Records, ancestry.co.uk
‘Music and roses burst through crimson slaughter’
Frederick (a quarry labourer) and Mary Johnson were living in Aldgate, Ketton, when their son, Albert was born. He seems to have been the youngest of eight children. Albert Johnson at the Black Bull Deeping Gate with brother Frederick, wife Elizabeth, son and cat
By 1901, Albert was working as a horseman and was still living in Aldgate with his sister Margaret, her husband, John Walpole, and their two children.
Wilfred Owen
Netley hospital
He enlisted in the 1st Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment as Private 5910 and was quickly mobilized for war. On 14th August, the ‘1st Lincolnshires’ left Portsmouth for Harve, France. From this landing point, Albert and his battalion took part in the Battles of Mons where he won the Mons Star medal, Le Cateau, Aisne, La Bassee and Messines. Given his record it seems to be amazing that he did come home on leave in his few months of action, spending the time with his brother Frederick, the licensee of The Black Bull, Deeping Gate.
hospital ships from all over the British Empire. Its purpose was to train medical staff to treat military patients specifically, ensuring their swift return to duty. The hospital was fully operational during the War with an estimated 50,000 patients treated. The bed capacity was doubled to 200 with the building of Red Cross Huts in the surrounding fields. One of its most famous patients was the war poet, Wilfred Owen, who was treated there in 1917 for shell shock. It may have been his sojourn here that inspired his poem, ‘Conscious’.
His fingers wake, and flutter; up the bed. His eyes come open with a pull of will, Helped by the yellow mayflowers by his head. The blind-cord drawls across the window-sill . . . What a smooth floor the ward has! What a rug! Who is that talking somewhere out of sight? Three flies are creeping round the shiny jug . . . ‘Nurse! Doctor!’—‘Yes, all right, all right.’ But sudden evening muddles all the air— There seems no time to want a drink of water. Nurse looks so far away. And here and there Music and roses burst
through crimson slaughter. He can’t remember where he saw blue sky. More blankets. Cold. He’s cold. And yet so hot. And there’s no light to see the voices by . . . There is no time to ask—he knows not what. Wilfred Owen
Wilfred Owen did return to the Front but sadly, not Albert. He died of his wounds on November 4th 1914 and is buried in the Netley Military Cemetery, Plot C.2.1621.
Albert Johnson 1884 – 1914
Albert’s battalion was at The First Battle of Ypres that began on October 19th, 1914. He was badly wounded and was sent back to England to be treated at the Royal Netley Military Hospital near Southampton. Established by Queen Victoria after the Crimean War, its location made it easily accessible by Sources Lincs Free Press, Forces War Records, National Archives. Pictures Dorothea Price Images of Netley
'The Lincoln boys fought as coolly as old warriors.'
One of the large Mulligan family, Joseph was born in 1886 in Peterborough where the family had a general shop in Walpole Street. On the death of his father the family moved north to the Deepings, his mother, Mary becoming landlady of the Waterton Arms in Deeping St James.
Courtesy Joy and Ian Baxter
On the outbreak of War, Joseph served with the Lincolnshire Territorials and then was transferred and promoted to Lance Corporal 13652 in the 6th Lincolnshire Regiment. On 18th July 1915 he embarked to the Balkans landing at Sulva Bay in August 1915, the final and unsuccessful British attempt to break the deadlock of the Battle of Gallipoli. From here Joseph was sent to Egypt and in July 1916 to France where he was promoted to Sergeant. The Peterborough Advertiser reported that Joseph had been wounded and his Mother, Mary wrote to the paper with an abridged letter from her son explaining the circumstances: ‘September 14th 1915 Joseph writes - Here we go again, strong and well and working hard, quite recovered from the wounds I received on the 23rd of which you may have read in casualty list. I will give you an idea of how it happened. We were sent from the base to the trenches on the 20th and found plenty of work waiting for us, although no heavy casualties occurred. The doctor and I were sitting in the dugout waiting for work, when all of a sudden a bomb crashed in front of it and smashed it to atoms. We stopped some of the splintersthe doctor getting it in the head and arm and myself in the
head, face and arm. Anyhow it did not kill us, and we were able to get on with our work of getting to the other chaps. It was very lucky escape for which I thank God. And I felt that your prayers protected me,for I know you are always praying for my safety. After a stay there of ten days we were ordered further up. My word! Shall I ever forget the reception I had. Within twenty minutes we had fifty wounded to deal with, but went stubbornly advancing. The Lincoln boys fought as coolly as old warriors and were highly praised for their work. Yesterday a part of our men were standing round a well when a shell came among them. A lad was sent to help me dress the wounds got a bullet through his heart and fell backwards and dead in my arms. Don (brother in law) has escaped so far. He had a close touch yesterday when he and two of his men held a trench till reinforcements came up. He’s a plucky boy and a lucky one for his rifle shattered in his hands and a bullet grazed his nose. I should love to see old Deeping again. I was raised to the rank of Sergeant in the field by the Colonel. The shells are dropping as I write and the ‘ping’ of a bullet passes over my head. Don’t worry God’s will be done! We are leading clean, straight lives and are ready for almost anything. Don’t forget to pray for me.’ It was reported in the Peterborough Advertiser in
December 1916 that Joseph had been offered a commission and was sent back to England for training as an officer. In January 1917, the same newspaper reported; ‘Mr Joseph Mulligan one of the several sons of Mrs Mulligan of Deeping St James and formerly of Peterborough, has been mentioned in dispatches by Sir Douglas Haig. Mr Mulligan has also been granted a commission and is now in England attached to the Cadet Corps in training.’ On 29th May 1917, Joseph was commissioned Second Lieutenant 5th Battalion Kings Rifles. Back in England in June, Joseph was married to Ivy Howells by his brother, Herbert (Father Stephen), one of witnesses being older brother, Andrew, also home on leave. In October 1915, The Lincolnshire Standard carried a letter from J Mulligan of Deeping St James it was headed ‘Drunken Germans. When we had captured Loos, we were surprised to find people still living there. One house we came to was all lighted up. And the poor woman dare not for the life of her let us in, so we managed to break in. There were a lot of German’s inside and they were very nearly drunk with rum and they were doing anything they
liked in the house; but we drove them out unto the street.’ In 1918, the Stamford Mercury reported that Joseph was in hospital due to injuries and on leaving the Army received a pension and was awarded the Star, British and Victory Medals. After leaving the Services, Joseph suffered for several years with neurasthenia, described as being a result of the exhaustion of the central nervous systems energy reserves. He and Ivy had one son and continued to run the confectioners business in Church Street, Market Deeping. For many years he was a rate collector in Deeping St James and several other villages and was Secretary for Peterborough Hospital and Registrar of Births, Marriages and Deaths for the District. From the start, Joe was an enthusiastic supporter of the Coronation Hall (pictured left) His obituary in the Peterborough Advertiser on September 6th 1940 said; ‘Better known as Joe and a most active man in local affairs, his kind and genial personality will be greatly missed.’
Joseph Mulligan (1886-1940)
Sources: Stamford Mercury, Peterborough Advertiser, Lincolnshire Standard, National Archives
Baker shows the power of flour
Courtesy Nancy Titman
Thrapston born, Arthur Kirby son of carpenter James, served his apprenticeship as a baker with Mr Wilkinson of Beckingham, Lincolnshire and when qualified took up employment with Albert Feneley of Church Street, Deeping St James.
Courtesy Joy & Ian Baxter
The shop, bakehouse and adjoining cottages took up all the space now occupied by numbers 83-91. Two cottages were flush to the pavement with gardens leading to the river, but the brick and tiled mill was to the right close to the river with a yard in front leading to the road. The lofty ground floor was taken up with the milling operation with two pairs of millstones, one of them to grind flour and the other to grind meal for animals. The lower stone of the pair was the bedstone being stationary while the upper one was called the runner because it rotated face down under the control of apparatus keeping it the right distance from the bedstone. The grooves were arranged in such a way that when the runner was rotating the furrows met with a scissor like action on the grain, this was then fed down from the hoppers from the granary and the flour or meal was collected in sacks. The milling process was powered by a 10 horse powered portable steam engine with a fire box and a boiler with water plentifully sucked up from the river.
At some time the milling apparatus was removed and a large oven built on the ground floor of the old mill and hinged bins were installed along the side wall. The bakers day began at dawn when the fire was lit. The great flash oven in the high ceiling bakehouse was built out towards the river and took up half the space. The furnace was stoked quickly with burning coal, the flange of the damper was pulled out of the flue so that all the ash, dust and cinders disappeared up the chimney, leaving the oven bright and very clean for the days baking. Meanwhile the dough had been mixed and kneaded, Arthur’s arms plunged into a floury mass. When it was ready and beginning to rise, it was cut, weighed, moulded and popped into waiting greased tins and left to prove. When the oven was hot enough, the door was opened, the bread quickly shot in with the peel, the long handled shovel which held six tins at a time. When the oven door was closed, the peel returned to its allotted place, the implements scrubbed and drained,
Arthur could go for his breakfast. After an hour, the loaves all brown and crusty were drawn out of the oven and knocked out of the tins on the bin tops, this also had to be a swift process to preserve the heat for the next batch of buns, teacakes and rolls followed by pastries and later in the afternoon a slower oven baked the fruit cakes. Eventually the day’s work done, the oven rested but the bakehouse was always warm and fragrant and now livened by the chirp of crickets and the rustling of black beetles coming out of the cracks and crevices where they had hidden during the day. On his marriage to Ethel Coaten in 1913, the couple made their home in Eastgate, Deeping St James where their first child, Ronald, was born in 1914. In later years the next door cottage was converted to make one house, now number 15. On being requisitioned for the Army, Arthur, now 25, was told to enlist at Grantham in December 1915 taking his trade
bakers proficiency certificate and references from Mr Feneley. His medical records showed TB in the family but he carried no signs, just a right thumb which required attention. He was just over 5’ and weighed 113lbs. Kept in the reserves until he was mobilised in 1916, his number was S/4218603 G. Supply Company 297th R.A.S.C. Posted to Aldershot then to Chester, he joined the bakery section in December 1916. In July 1917 he was sent to the Manchester Army Bakery where he was required to train soldiers in the art of baking. Posted back to Chester in 1919 he was sent to Woolwich Barracks and then in November of the same year, transferred to Class Z Reserves. His Army conduct sheet records him as a very good baker willing and hardworking, honest and sober. He returned to Deeping St James and took up his employment with Mr Feneley again.
Arthur Kirby (1890-1962)
Sources: Nancy Titman, National Archives
A tale of love, hope and heartbreak in Deeping St James Lincolnshire Regiment. He was killed at the age of 22 in one of the battles of the Somme and is remembered on the Theipval Memorial and also on the Plaque in the Priory Church.
Samuel and Mary Lenton and family
Samuel Lenton was one of twins born to Robert and Rhoda (nee Inkley) in 1869. Brought up in Horsegate and High Street, Market Deeping, his father working in agriculture and mother a second hand dealer in furniture and clothes, Samuel married Mary Hales in 1890 and started married life as a coal merchant and farmer. His twin, Robert, had moved to Leicester where he married Hannah Gregory in 1896 and where they brought up Ruth and Leonard in Hartopp Road.
Bank House built 1821 courtesy Joy and Ian Baxter
By the 1901 census, Samuel’s family had grown to seven and he was a foreman in coal yard living near Rundle Farm in Deeping St James. With another addition to the family, Mable Lucy, born in 1906, the family were struggling and in the summer of 1907, as reported in the Grantham Journal, Samuel Lenton was summoned for selling milk out of a can without a name. PC Talbot had seen the defendants son with the can with no name on it, an offence that was admitted by Samuel and for which he asked to be dealt with as leniently as possible. He was fined one shilling with costs. Son, Frederick had become a draper according to the 1911 census, but in the Lincolnshire Free Press on September 22nd 1914 the death of a promising youth was reported; ‘On Monday the funeral took place of Mr Fred Lenton, third son of Mr S Lenton. Deceased who was in his 21st year was a great favourite with the young fellows of the parish and universally esteemed. He was an enthusiastic footballer and as captain of Deeping United had the pleasure of leading his team this spring into the final for the Ancaster Cup. He has patiently borne a lingering
illness and by his death the parish has lost a promising youth.’ Samuel’s eldest boy, John Benjamin had left home to work as a clothing assistant in Winchester Street, Basingstoke, Hampshire with his friend John Crowson who became a boot and shoe assistant. The pair both enlisted on 15th February 1915. No detailed service records have been found but John returned home with a badly injured left leg. He delivered milk from a bicycle with his left leg doing all the pedalling! Joseph Samuel, known as Sam, a year younger than his brother John, joined the 1st Lincolns and was mentioned in Alfred Swift's letters home. Walter, the fourth son was a milkman when he enlisted in Peterborough as Private 202161 in the 2/4
After the War, the family moved to Eastgate, Deeping St James and it was from here that their eldest daughter, Ethel Inkley now aged 29 was married. The Stamford Mercury reported; ‘The wedding of Ethel Lenton, eldest daughter of Mr S Lenton, farmer, Deeping St James and Mr Philip Herbert Smith, eldest son of Mr Herbert Smith of Market Deeping was solemnised at the Cave Adullam baptist Chapel on Monday by Pastor Eade, in the presence of a large number of friends. The bride was given away by her father. Miss Amy Lenton (her sister) was bridesmaid and Mr Harry Lenton cousin of the bride was best man. The wedding breakfast was served at Booth Farm, where a number of useful presents were on view including a good pair of blankets from the Sunday School teachers and members of the Mothers Meeting.’ Just three years later, tragedy again struck when the Grantham Journal reported; ‘The death occurred on Tuesday after a long illness from consumption of Miss Amy Lenton, third daughter of Mr and Mrs Samuel Lenton of Eastgate. Deceased was of a bright and cheerful
disposition and bore her illness with much patience.’ Mabel, at 21, married Thomas Batterham in 1927 while Doris was 22 when she married Wilfred Mulligan in Sleaford in 1919. Their son, James, aged 19 was killed while flying in the RAF as a bomb aimer in 1943. As reported in the Lincolnshire Lancaster Association magazine, his Lancaster was involved in a mid-air collision with another while both aircraft were returning to their respective bases from a raid on the Italian city of Specia. The aircraft crashed near Le Mans and all 14 crewmen lie side - by - side in the French City’s West Cemetery. James’, Grandfather, Samuel had died just 8 years earlier at the age of 66 as reported in the Peterborough Advertiser, ‘The burial service was conducted by the Mr J Longstaff of Stamford, the first part of the service being taken in the Baptist Church. For many years Mr Lenton was a well known coal agent after which he became a farmer and a dairyman. The family mourners were: Mrs J Lenton (widow), Mr J Lenton, Mr Joe Lenton (sons), Mr and Mrs H Smith, Mr and Mrs W Mulligan (sons in law and daughters), Miss Lenton (niece), Mr JB Lenton (brother), Mr Wilderspin (representing the Baptist Church) the floral tribute was from his wife and children.’
John Benjamin Lenton 1892-1971 Joseph Samuel Lenton 1893-1970 Walter William Lenton 1895-1917
Small holding taken in 1964 showing layout when the Lenton's lived here. Sources; Elaine White, Ancestry, Peterborough Advertiser, Stamford Mercury, Grantham Journal, Lincolnshire Free Press, Lincolnshire Lancaster Association magazine.
A Nation of Shopkeepers goes to War
Born into a family tradition as shopkeepers, Robert Lenton spent his early years in High Street, Market Deeping where his mother and father, John and Violette (nee Raven) ran a grocer’s shop with his grand father next door.
Deepings Heritage, Courtesy of the Coates Collection, Wisbech
Having lost a brother, Leonard, as a small child, Robert had five sisters with traditional Victorian names, Florence, Constance, Rhoda, Olive and Miriam. At some point between 1902 and 1911, they moved to a grocery and drapery store, a house with ten rooms in the Market Place and here John was the manager. Robert enlisted in 1914 in the Leicestershire Regiment, Private 14695 later Private 167464 of the Labour Corps. He entered France on 29th July 1915 and was wounded at Trônes Wood on July 14th 1916.This was an action fought by the British Fourth Army and the German Second Army during the Battle of the Somme. The wood had dense undergrowth which
retarded movement, made it difficult to keep direction, trees were brought down by shell-fire, becoming entangled with barbed-wire and strewn with German and British dead. The British attacks were part of preliminary operations, to reach ground from which to begin the second British general attack of the Battle of the Somme, against the German second position from Longueval to Bazentin le Petit on 14 July. The German defenders fought according to a policy of unyielding defence and immediate counter-attack to regain lost ground, intended to delay the Anglo-French advance south of the Albert–Bapaume road and give time for
abroad by October 1916. 'He is full of praise for the hospital authorities and nurses from the field dressing station all along the line to the convalescent wards' according to the Grantham Journal 7th October 1916.
reinforcements sent to the Somme front to arrive. The Lincolnshire Free Press reported, 'Private H Lenton, son of Mr J. B. Lenton, grocer, is reported wounded. This is all the information obtainable at present.' Admitted to the Metropolitan and American Hospital for English Soldiers, he was patched up and placed in Class B for Garrison duty
Awarded the British Medal, the Victory Medal and the 1915 Star, Robert married Florence Trude Harrison daughter of Samuel in 1923, they had two children Janet and Anthony. Robert died in 1972 aged 77, his death recorded in Peterborough.
Robert Henry Lenton (1895-1977)
Sources: Census Returns, Military Records (National Archives Crown Copyright), Grantham Journal and Lincolnshire Free Press.
"No wonder England is a great country if the women are like that!"
Granddaughter of Robert and Rhoda Lenton of Deeping St James and cousin of Robert, wounded at the Battle of Trones Wood, Lilian Lenton spent many of her school holidays in Deeping St James. Born in 1891 in Leicester to Isaac and Mahalah, Lilian fostered an ambition to be a dancer.
BBC
After leaving school she left for London to train but her plans changed having heard Emmeline Pankhurst speak she decided that on reaching 21 she would join the Women's Social & Poiitical Union (often referred to as the Suffragettes).
Home Office Records, National Archives
Almost immediately, Lilian was involved in a serious episode of window breaking on 4th March 1912. She was one of 200 arrested and was sent to Holloway Prison for two months. Unrepentant, on release she became involved in a sustained arson campaign with Olive Wharry, famously setting alight the tea pavilion in Kew Gardens on 19th February 1913. Remanded in custody, Lilian went on hunger strike and was force fed. She became seriously ill when food entered her lungs and she contracted double pneumonia and pleurisy. She was released under the Government's 'Cat & Mouse Act' which allowed prisoners to be released if
they refused food and became ill. They were under supervision and were to be re-arrested when they recovered. Lilian escaped and evaded capture until June 1913 when she was arrested in Doncaster and charged with setting fire to Blaby Railway Station in Leicestershire. Held at Armley Prison and released under the Act, Lilian escaped to France on a private yacht. On her return she was rearrested at Paddington Railway Station. Hunger strike and release on Christmas Day 1913 followed with a similar episode in 1914. With the outbreak of War, the Suffragette movement under the orders of Mrs Pankhurst ceased their campaign. The War would give women opportunities that would transform their lives. Against the direction of the War Office, Elsie Inglis formed the Scottish Women's Hospital
Committee sent to France just three months after War commenced. An Auxiliary Hospital was set up in 1915 and in April 1915 a group went out to Serbia on the Balkan Front. In total, Elsie arranged for 14 medical units to serve in France, Serbia, Corsica, Salonika, Romania, Russia and Malta including doctors, nurses, cooks, ambulance drivers, orderlies and relief workers. In 1916, Elsie Inglis and 80 women were sent to support Serbian soldiers fighting in Russia, Lilian Lenton was one of those women. One Government official was heard to say, "No wonder England is a great country if the women are like that." For her work in Serbia, Lilian was awarded the French Red Cross Medal. Following the Russian Revolution in 1917, Lilian visited the country with fellow suffragette, NIna Boyle. Later she worked for the British Embassy in Stockholm after which she became a speaker for Save
The Children. She was Secretary for the National Union of Women Teachers until 1953. Two years before her death in 1972, as Treasurer of the Suffragette fellowship, she unveiled a memorial in Christchurch Gardens Westminster dedicated to all women who fought for the vote. Lilian's indomitable nature showed through in a BBC 1 Documentary in 1968, "I was extremely pleased when we got the vote, but disgusted at the curious terms on which we got it. Men got the vote at 21, all men. Women at 30 and then only if they were householders or the wives of men householders. Personally I didn't vote for a long time because I hadn't either a husband or furniture although I was over 30."
Lilian Lenton (1892-1972)
Sources: Census (National Archives), Spartacus Educational, BBC 1, Elaine White and various articles.
Military honours for the one Mayes who didn’t return home The coming of the railway in 1849 transformed life in the village of ‘St James Deeping’ as the station was wrongly named. More people were travelling to the area and staying overnight and for holidays and the Railway Tavern, run by George and Fanny Mayes at the turn of the century would have been a thriving business.
Previously a Publican and a fishmonger at the Railway Inn, number 84 Church Street, the couple raised six boys. Fanny died in 1900 and George in the later part of 1911, at which time his eldest son, Albert a cab proprietor who had helped his father at the Tavern, took on the business with the help of his younger brother, Ernest.
Rose Cottage, Frognall, courtesy Joy & Ian Baxter
At the outbreak of War, Albert and William, known as Willie, a farm labourer, both joined up on the same day as part of the R.F.A 3rd Lincolnshire. Albert became a Gunner. Frederick, known as Fred, aged 19 and an apprentice to Mr Feneley, Baker & Grocer of Church Street, Deeping St James, enlisted in the 6th Northamptonshire Regiment. A picture in the local paper featured the three boys all home together in January 1916, Fred by this time had become a Sergeant and was home from the trenches in Flanders. Sadly only seven months later the Stamford Mercury, August 18th 1916 reported on the military funeral of Sergt. Fred Mayes aged 21; ‘Sergt. Mayes was wounded in the head by a rifle grenade at the front on April 22nd and died in the Beaufort War Hospital on Friday. The coffin, covered with the Union Jack and several beautiful wreaths including
one from his comrades in arms, was carried on the shoulders of Lance Corporal F. Fowler D.C.M (Distinguished Conduct Medal) and five other soldiers preceded by a firing squad of the Royal Defence Force under Sergt. T Besant and Corp. Errington. The chief mourners were Mr G Mayes (brother) and Miss Mayes (Aunt), Driver A Mayes R.F.A, Mrs G Mayes (sister-in-law), Mr L.A Mayes (uncle) and Miss L Mayes (Aunt). Crowds assembled to pay their last tribute. Sergt. Mayes father who has been dead for some years was also a soldier and fought in the Egyptian and Zulu Wars. The Rev. S. W Skene officiated. Three volleys were fired at the graveside and trumpeter W. Simpson 2nd Northants played the last
post.’ The Peterborough Advertiser of the same date contributed that Fred’s death had been a release as he had been in terrible pain. In 1882 George Mayes had been one of the soldiers to occupy Egypt to protect the rights of the Suez Canal, the majority shares of which had been bought by the Disraeli Government. The canal became of strategic importance to the British Empire during the First World War and was controlled by British troops. On Albert’s discharge from the Army he moved to Rose Cottage, Frognall with Ernest. They were robust country men with
ruddy complexions and their carrier’s business prospered taking produce and poultry by horse and cart to the markets in Spalding and Peterborough and in the days before bus travel, conveying passengers as well. The boys owned a landau, a horse drawn two wheeled carriage with a hood that could be raised or lowered according to the weather, known as a fly, pictured above left. This was hired to take passengers on journeys such as to the station at Tallington or at Helpston.
Albert Mayes 1890Frederick Mayes 1895-1916 William Mayes 1897-
Sources; National Archives, Stamford Mercury, Lincolnshire Free Press, Peterborough Advertiser
Family show courage in the face of adversity
Mulligan family in the garden in the Waterton Arms 1912/13 left to right Herbert (Father Stephen), Agnes (Aggie), Mary Elizabeth, Wilfred (Bill), Andrew Robert (Bert/Pat), Joseph, John, Laurence (Loll)
The Mulligans became a large local family in Deeping St James, originally from Ireland, forced to these shores with the Irish potato famine.
Laurence lived in this cottage next to the Waterton Arms
John, born in Wicklow in 1843, became a soldier going through the Indian Mutiny and receiving a medal for valour. He married Mary Jeffs in Titchmarch, Northamptonshire in 1876, moving to London soon after where they had a grocery shop in Lambeth. Coming to Peterborough in 1891, they opened a general store in Walpole Street , by which time their family had grown to seven, one of which, little Charles had died in infancy. With three more children the family moved to Granville Street but Mary became a widow when John died in 1896. More sadness followed when her daughter Ethelreda died aged 16 in 1908. Shortly after Mary had moved to Deeping St James and was landlady of the Waterton Arms. It was here that she lost her daughter Mary in an horrific cycle accident in the following year. In 1911, Mary was helped at the Waterton by her son Laurence, aged 17.
Derek Able
In November 1914, living and working in the City at 6 Aldermanbury, Laurence joined the Royal Medical Corps attached to the 9th Battalion London Reserves Regiment as Private 3347. The Peterborough Standard reported in August 1915 that Laurence with the Queens Westminster Rifles was gassed at Hill 60. Worse was to come. In June 1916, Mary received news that Laurence had been badly wounded, the Mercury reported on June 16th that he had been shot in both shoulders and badly shot in the leg which meant that it had to be amputated. Writing home he said; ‘After 14 months the Huns have hit me at last; bear up, I am going on well, wounds not serious and hope to soon be sent to England.’ Sent initially to the Royal Hospital Chelsea, he was then sent home to the Waterton Arms to recover. He was discharged in September 1917 with a pension of 27shillings and 6 pence for 9 weeks reducing to 19 shillings and 3pence.
Laurence took up employment at Baker Perkins. The Peterborough Advertiser reported in 1919 ‘In aid of the Discharged and Demobilised Soldiers and Sailors Federation, Mr Payen the proprietor of Pictures has given two special entertainments this week. A branch has been formed for the Deepings. The headquarters are at the Waterton Arms and Mr H Burton is Chairman, Mr T Baxter is Secretary and Mr L Mulligan is Treasurer.’ He helped the Quoits Club win the championship in 1921 and in 1934 married District Nurse Phyllis Lanham in Spalding. They made their home in a cottage next to the Waterton Arms with their family of two. Laurence died aged 62 in 1956. Mary’s son John became a Lino type machinist for a printers in Peterborough, leaving to work in Paris in 1903 and returning in 1906. He continued in the print trade and in 1911 was living in Camberwell, London. Later that year he married Mary Gorman in Kettering. They had a son, John who
was born in Wandsworth in 1913. Following the death of his first wife, John married Mary Martin in 1915 in Lewisham. From the family home in Colliers Wood he was called up in September 1918 becoming Private 182566 in the Machine Gun Corps training Battalion. On his discharge at the end of the War, John returned to London, buying a lino type on hire purchase and working for a newspaper. He moved back to Deeping St James for his son’s health where he became a potato merchant engaging his brother in London to sell the potato‘s he bought locally. As reported in the Stamford Mercury 1924 the business failed due to difficult seasons and John’s inexperience. The family moved to Yorkshire and John died in February 1963 aged 79 years.
Laurence Mulligan (1894- 1958) John James Mulligan (1883-1963)
Sources: Margaret Barratt, Peter O’ Duffy and Gerry Mulligan, Peterborough Advertiser, Stamford Mercury, National Archives
Deeping boy emigrates to Australia via Gallipoli The watering holes of the Deepings had provided the backdrop to Leonard Penney’s early life. In 1895 he was born to Edith Penney, daughter of Arthur and Betsy, butchers and landlords of the Crown & Anchor Public House, Bridge Street Deeping St James. Edith worked as a waitress for her mother and in 1903 married George Barsby and left for the Vine Inn, Market Deeping.
Courtesy Ian Baxter
But this was not the life for Leonard, he had stayed living with his Grandmother in Deeping St James until 1912 when, hearing there was plenty of work in Australia, determined to strike out for a better life and lied about his age to sail from London on the Rangatira, bound for New Zealand.
Previously The Crown & Anchor, Deeping St James
Courtesy Ian Baxter
He had worked as a labourer on his arrival in the Antipodes enlisting in 1914 in the 3rd Australian Infantry as Private 770. A brown haired lad with brown eyes and a sallow complexion, he sailed on the Euripides to Egypt. The letter that he wrote home to his mother from Menta Camp Egypt was published in the Stamford Mercury on March 15th 1915 ‘Deeping man calls Turks a scraggy lot …You will see by the papers that the Turks made an attack on Egypt, but they did not suceed in crossing the Suez Canal. I think they found the uselessness of trying to take Egypt with such force that is now on the Canal, at any rate they got a severe handling by the troops there.
The prisoners that were captured were a scraggy lot and if they are all like that in the Turkish Army there is not much to be afraid of…I hope we are not kept in Egypt all the time. I want to have a smack at the Germans.’ In May 1915 he sailed for Gallipoli and from there he wrote to his Mother, the letter again was published in the Stamford Mercury. ‘We left Egypt some time ago and sailed to a place called Limbros, an island about four hours sail from the Dardanelles, and anchored there, until the attacking force was gathered. Then we set sail from there for the Gallipoli Peninsula and landed under heavy fire about 5 o’clock on Sunday morning of 27th of April. My word, it was a landing too, I can tell you. The navy was bombarding heavily and the Turks were replying with machine guns and artillery fire. As we neared the beach we saw that the Turks were strongly entrenched, having been there for about 7 months waiting for us to come, but there was no stopping us; although as we came in they opened a heavy and
murderous fire on small boats. As the transports could not steam close to the shore we embarked on destroyers and from them to small boats before reaching the beach. We had to jump from the boats into the water up to our waists, and the order was given to fix bayonets and charge. We soon routed the Turks from their trenches and followed them for a mile and a half to two miles inland. We had a fair amount of casualties. But not so many as expected. Well now come to the most unfortunate part of the affair for myself. After nine days hard fighting I have had the misfortune to stop a bullet in my left eye. The eye was completely destroyed, and my eye was taken out on board a hospital ship bound for Egypt. I was unlucky, but at the same time I must consider myself fortunate, for the bullet came through the parapet of the trench, before striking me, which considerably deadened the force of it, and as a result did not go through my head but stopped at my eye. Do not worry about me I am right as rain with the exception of a
lost eye. ..I do not know if the military authorities will consider me unfit for service now, I hope not I want to have another cut at the unspeakable Turk.’ This opportunity was not open to Leonard, he worked at the Royal George Base depot store Alexandria before embarking to sail to England in September 1916 where he worked at No 7 Camp Perham Downs. He was promoted to acting Sergeant from Corporal but after a spell of sickness in 1917 he reverted to Corporal. Transferred to Weymouth Camp en route to Australia where he remained at Battalion headquarters until he was discharged on May 14th 1918. Awarded the 1914/15 Star, British and Victory Medals and the Australian Anzac medal, Leonard married Maud Wilkins in 1919 an settled in New South Wales. St Nazaire.
Leonard Penny (1895- )
Sources: National Archives of Australia, Stamford Mercury
Every picture tells a story The Smith family have formed a dynasty in the Deepings; brothers Philip Cornelius and Stephen both served in the First World War. Their nephew, Philip Herbert, also served. He was born in 1896 and the eldest son of their brother Herbert.
The three brothers were all sons of Philip and Ann (nee Todd) Smith of Market Deeping, but it was in Nottingham that Herbert, a van driver, married Selina and brought up a young family in 11, Grainger Street. By the 1911 census, however, the family had moved back to live in High Street, Market Deeping where Herbert, now 38 years of age, worked as a coal merchant. Son Philip Herbert now had four younger sisters: Maud, Annie, Elsie and Clara. And at the age of 15 he had taken up an apprenticeship as a wheelwright. This career was relatively short-lived as Philip H enlisted at some point probably well before 11th November 1916 when the Peterborough Advertiser reported that “Pte. P H Smith of Market Deeping, son of Herbert Smith was wounded.� His grand- daughter, Mrs Elaine White, knows that he served in France and kindly provided us with these photographs. From them it became clear that he served in two theatres of war: the Eastern and the Western Front.
Philip Herbert Smith (A)
Philip (centre front) (C)
In his newly- issued tropical uniform along with his sun helmet resplendent with the stag emblem of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, Philip was setting off for war. This studio portrait (Photograph A) has a picture of his sweetheart, Ethel Inkley Lenton, superimposed in the top left corner. The uniform means that he would have been going to Egypt, Palestine, Mesopotamia (Iraq), Salonika (Greece) or Gallipoli. Only two Warwickshire Regiments served on the Eastern Front (the 1st Garrison Battalion and the
Philip (top left) in the Pioneer Corps (B)
9th Service Battalion) and it is most likely that he was part of the 9th Service Battalion. As we do not know the date of his enlistment, he was possibly sent off with the whole battalion or as part of reinforcements to the battalion already serving on the Eastern Front. The battalion served in Gallipoli as part of the 39th Brigade, 13th Division and after January 1916 they were moved to Egypt, much depleted by casualties and in need of rest and reinforcements. By February they were up to full strength and were sent to Basra, Mesopotamia where they strengthened a force being assembled to relieve a besieged garrison at Kutal Amara. The battalion served and fought there until 1918 when they were sent to Persia. In the second photograph (B), Philip (back left) is still in the Warwickshire Regiment but the crossed axe and the wording both denote that it is a Pioneer battalion and the uniform is that of the Western Front. This photograph was taken after January 1918 because of the number of inverted
chevrons on the left cuff of the Lance Corporal (front left). The only Royal Warwickshire Battalion converted into a Pioneer Battalion was the 14th, formed on 5th October 1918, just 5 weeks before the Armistice. A pioneer battalion was devoted to doing various types of labouring work: men with experience in construction or general labouring or men who had lost fitness in the trenches or recovering from wounds. They were issued with extra tools and equipment but they kept their rifles and ammunition to defend themselves. The last photograph (C) is an interesting one apparently showing different regiments and differing nationalities. A puzzle still to be solved! A thorough search of the Medal Rolls Index leaves us with Philip H Smith, Private 49119 of the Lincolnshire Regiment and afterwards Private 27166 of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. There is no record of the Lincolnshire number so that suggests after enlistment he was
sent immediately to the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. The medal card gives no details of his areas of service. Fortunately Philip (known to his family as Bert) survived serving on both fronts and in March 1920 he married his sweetheart Ethel who was the eldest daughter of another Deeping dynasty, Samuel and Mary (nee Hales) Lenton of Eastgate, Deeping St James. The couple raised three children: Fred, Betty and Connie. Around 1934 they moved to Sutton on Sea, Lincolnshire and here, Bert, always artistic, became a sign writer on commercial vans and shops alongside his job as a painter and decorator. In 1941 they moved to March and at one point he was a salesman for Betterware. He could be often heard practising the organ and singing in preparation for playing in the Chapel in Station Road. When he died in 1980, aged 85, he was living in Victoria Road, Louth.
Philip Herbert Smith 1896-1980
Sources: Elaine White, Ancestry, Peterborough Advertiser, Steve Bramley and Graham Caldwell.
Snow blindness was Philip's lasting memory of Russia.
The North Russia Campaign was part of the Allied intervention in Russia after the October Revolution in 1917.The intervention brought about the involvement of foreign troops in the ensuing Civil War on the side of the White Army who were fighting the Red Army, the Bolsheviks. This campaign lasted from the final months of World War 1 in 1918 through to 1919.
Back Row: Prudence, Elsie Front Row: Herbert, Philip Cornelius Smith, Phylis, Catherine with baby Winifred, Stephen
Philip Cornelius Smith, native of Market Deeping, father of seven, played a part in this when he rejoined his Battalion in October 1918 having been seriously wounded when a bullet had pierced his body near to his heart in December 1917. Having been hospitalised in the City of London Military Hospital, he went home for a weeks break in March 1918. His eventual dispersal papers of 26th July 1919, age 43, however, give Russia as his theatre of war. He had served in Kiev, in the Marine Barracks, Murmansk and he had embarked for Archangel. His grand-daughter, Margaret Fovargue, daughter of Prudence, remembers him complaining of snow blindness from the Russian campaign.
Philip Smith senior
Philip had enlisted on 8th December 1915 at Peterborough aged 39 as Private 28151 Yorkshire Regiment, later he was posted to the 6th and then 7th Lincolnshire Regiment, as often happened as Regiments were supplemented due to losses at the Front. Born in 1876 to Philip and
Ann (nee Todd), one of seven, three of whom had died in infancy, Philip had as a young lad lived in Deeping Gate where his father, by occupation was a brewer's labourer. He was also a lay preacher at the Deeping St James Baptist Chapel. Sadly Ann died in childbirth and she was buried with her son Isaac on 14th February 1887 in Market Deeping. Sarah Jane, September 1878 and Kate 4th October 1879 are also on the headstone. Philip Cornelius and his family lived in High Street, Market Deeping. Philip ran his own business, P Smith & Son, Coal Merchants and General Carters. Married to Catherine Allen of Brigstock, Northants in 1895, Philip had started married life in Kirby Muxloe Leicestershire where Prudence, Edith and Elsie were born.By 1911,
there were three more sons and another daughter; Walter, Herbert, Stephen Lines and Phyllis. Having survived the war, Philip lived until the age of 73 and was buried in Market Deeping cemetry on 6th June 1949. His estate was administered by son, Henry who was a hardware branch manager. All of Philip's military docments have survived but often written in pencil and difficult to decipher. His family photograph is courtesy of Mrs Ann Yates, grand-daughter of Philip Cornelius and daughter of Stephen Lines Smith.
Philip Cornelius Smith (1876-1949)
Sources: Military Records: National Archives, Parish Records and Census Returns.
With the wind in your face there's no finer place than messin' about on the river
Messing about in the river on his boat The Enterprise (pictured) is what local lad, Edward liked doing best. One of the large family of plumber, Joseph and wife Fanny it was unsurprising that when Edward Plowright signed up, he chose the Navy becoming Able Seaman RN S/27751 in 1913. Present at the 1914 Review at Spithead on the Goliath, one of 59 battleships in front of George V, he was in service on Hannibal in the North Sea, then saw action on the Dogger bank on Lawford and the Galloper Light, whilst stationed at Lemnos, Greece he assisted in the evacuation of troops from Galipoli and was part of a landing party sent to destroy stores etc. By May 1915 Edward Plowright was part of the Channel Fleet taking part in raids on the Belgain Coast,
wounded when his fingers were crushed with one of the guns whilst in action. In 1916 he suffered the severe cold of a Baltic winter. Summer of 1917 back with the Channel fleet bombarding the Belgian coast prior to the attack at Passchendaele and then in 1918 with a flotilla escorting American troops across the Atlantic. With local boys, Leiutenant Stanton, George Charity and Francis Rowland Wade, Edward was also involved in the Raid on Zeebrugge. Later his ship escorted surrendered German ships to Scapa flow after the Armistice. On leave at time of the dedication of the St Guthlac's War Memorial on
December 1st 1920, Edward, a staunch member of the Church, attended the service but he fell ill and was sent to Stamford Hospital where he died, aged 25, on 17th April 1921 diagnosed with cerebrospinal meninigitis. Sympathy for the family was offered by Commander A.Sholto-Douglas of HMS Wryneck 'He was a good lad and his death is very much regretted by all on board.' The Parish magazine said "His influence was always used on the side of what was good, clean and right, but this did not prevent him from enjoying jokes and jolity as much as anyone."
Younger brother Horace known as Frank, born 1897, fared better. He enlisted as Private 43717 in the Nottinghamshire Regiment and was wounded in the arm in September 1916. Awarded the Victory and British Medal, he married Alice Archer in Wandsworth in 1922. Their deaths were both recorded in Canterbury, Alice in 1975 and Horace in 1986.
H. F Plowright (1897-1986)
E. Plowright (1895-1921) Sources: St Guthlac's Parish Magazine, Naval records: National Archives
Face to face with the enemy The one Prisoner of War about whom we do have detailed evidence is Percy Goff from Eastgate, Deeping St James. Percy had enlisted in 1915 and had become Private 17342 in the 6th Battalion of the Northamptonshire Regiment. Percy wrote in his diary on 1st December 1918 “I came to France three times, the third time I was taken prisoner on the last German offensive of 23rd March 1918. Was in France for 3 months and then taken to Alsace and was working on the roads steam rolling till 15th November when the gates of the camp were thrown open and we were set free to go where we wished and eventually we landed on the French lines on the same date.”
Postcard from Prisoner of War camp in Germany
Within the first 6 months of the war, 1.3 million prisoners were captured and held in Europe. By the end of the war, between 8 and 9 million men had been prisoners at some point, including about 191,000 British troops. Most survived but not all. How many men from the Deepings are included in those statistics? We know for certain that at least 5 survived their ordeal but that 3 died in captivity. There may well be others we do not know about.
Percy was injured twice and it was as a wireless operator in the Northamptonshire Regiment that he returned to France on 24th July 1917. He remembered it being a dangerous job as they would often come under fire from Germans aiming to put the aerials out of action. On 23rd March 1918 he was on a 3 mile ridge of high ground on the Belgian border when a communication came through instructing them to retreat but to leave a wireless operator and a few guns behind to hold the Germans back. Percy was in that small group left behind. They stood their ground for as long as possible but realised, when they were running out of ammunition, it was better to surrender than be killed.
A wounded British soldier and a German prisoner in conversation. Imperial War Museum Q7826
The German officer in charge could speak very good English – before the war he regularly came to Boston on the ships and knew where Percy had come from. All countries involved in the war were anxious to demonstrate how well they treated their prisoners, but this did not always match the reality. As a prisoner, Percy had to carry injured German soldiers on stretchers to the ambulance station, before he was taken to a prison camp near Stendal in Germany. He sent a postcard from that Stammlager (camp for ordinary soldiers) on June 6th 1918. Prisoners were allowed to send one letter per month if they were well behaved. We do not know whether he stayed at that camp until his release or whether he was moved as he had recorded in his diary that
he worked on the roads in Alsace (France). He remembered that food in the camp was scarce as it was for both the German Army and the civilians too. Hard black bread and raw beetroot were his daily diet Percy never ate beetroot again! On release, Percy would have been sent back to one of the reception centres in England: Dover, Ripon South or Canterbury. Next of kin would be notified by postcard and he would have been kept there for no more than 48 hours. Interestingly, he received a letter from King George in 1918 (B) welcoming him back to the “old Country” after “the miseries and hardships” he had endured “with so much patience and courage”. Unfortunately we know less detail about the actual capture and imprisonment of these other prisoners from the Deepings: Charles Paine, Trooper in the Royal Horse Guards and from Market Deeping, was captured on 4th August 1917 at Drinsburgh. Albert Hare, Private 28452 of the Lincolnshire Regiment and from Deeping St James, was captured at Ypres on 11th August 1917. CWH Merchant, Private 21341 of the Lincolnshire Regiment and formerly from Deeping Gate, was captured on 9th August 1917.
Percy Goff
Albert Mews, Private 201956 of the Lincolnshire Regiment and from Deeping St James,
was captured on 14th April 1918 and repatriated on 18th December 1918. These captures are close together and at a time when the respective armies had time to think about how best to treat and house their prisoners. It may well be other Deeping men were captured at different times and possibly some of them may have been in prisoner exchanges. Three men were captured and sadly died in captivity. Their deaths came not long before the Armistice and at a time when 70,000 Germans surrendered in just less than a month. Lance Corporal Bertie F Loakes, Lance Corporal 3/9802 of the 2nd Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment, died on 9th August 1918. He was buried in the Niederzwehren Cemetery. David Compton, Private 30918 of the 2nd Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment, died on 16th September 1918. He was also buried in the Niederzwehren Cemetery, close to Bertie Loakes. Matthew Frisby, Private 52109 of the 2nd Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment, died on 20th October 1918 and was buried in Berlin in the South Western Cemetery. Between 1922 and 1923, the graves of Commonwealth servicemen who died all over Germany were brought together into four permanent cemeteries: Niederzweheren and Berlin were two of those four cemeteries.
Percy Goff (1895-1984)
Letter from King George Sources: Commonwealth War Graves Commission, The Genealogist, The Imperial War Museum, Mrs Andrea Kirby: photographs, letters and personal memories.
Pridmore - from the Kings Head to the Kings Shilling
The Kings Head in Market Deeping was home to the Pridmore family, Thomas and Alice whose son John, on marrying Lucy Huffer, purchased the farm opposite High Locks in Deeping Gate where their family of six were born.
John born in 1885, and known to his family as Jack, enlisted in Peterborough for the Hampshire regiment. Later, possibly after being wounded he transferred to the 1st Battalion Northumberland Fusilier's and was given a new army number, 56060. He also served with the labour corps with the number 37227. The 1st Battalion War Diary for 18th September 1918 reads 'The action during the operation took place south of Arras near the Hindenburg Line following a quiet day. Intense German gas bombardment opened at 3.30pm on the batteries behind. At 4.00pm the barrage opened on our front line and wood just south of Havrincourt. At 5.00pm they attacked on the whole left of our front and on our right and left. Casualties during the
Arthur Pridmore
operation; Officers killed nil, wounded 3. Other ranks killed 7 wounded 40.’ Jack was one of those to be killed. Commemorated on the Vis-en-Artois memorial to those who fell in the 1918 advance in Picardy and Ardois, where 9,832 names are remembered. In the cemetery lie over 1,700 British and Canadians who died in the capture of this sector on August 27th 1918. Arthur, know affectionately by his sisters as Dolly
enlisted on 9th September 1914 with the Empire Royal Bath Fusiliers, a division of the Northumberland Fusiliers Whyteleafe (17th company).This was the same regiment as his brother Jack had joined. Aged 22 and a half, Dolly was 5'11" and weighed 12st 6lb. He was posted to Duchans on 12th September 1914. On 22nd May 1915 he was discharged as no longer fit for war service, he had served just 256 days.
Arthur had diabetes and coupled with his war injuries he died in January 1916 and is buried in Deeping St James cemetery. Both boys are commemorated on the Maxey Church War Memorial.
John Pridmore (1885-1918) Arthur Pridmore (1892-1916)
Sources: Milly Broughton, War Diaries
Family of fishermen loose two
William Robinson and Betsy (nee Bingham) of 15 Bridge Street, Deeping St James had a family of 13. Starting family life in Church St then moving up river, William was an expert fisherman and with his wife and sons, William and John, would take their catch of live eels, packed into boxes for an early start to Stamford in the morning. On arrival in Stamford they prepared for their customers on the steps of Browne’s hospital.
It is possible that all of the brothers sons served in the War but records are only available for John, Thomas and Henry. John was driver 801012 for the Royal Field Artillery, on the casualty list in 1917 but on discharge followed in his fathers footsteps becoming a Water Bailiff. All fishing tickets could be bought from him at his house. A Stamford Mercury report of November 1930 tells of a record breaking Pike weighing 171/2 lbs recently taken from the Welland by Mr John Robinson of Deeping St James. John was a member of the Deeping Angling Club with their HQ at the Three Tuns.
Thomas attested via the Derby scheme (men who voluntarily registered under this scheme would be only called for service when necessary) at Market Deeping in 1915 to the Army Reserve and was mobilised with a group of approx. 30 men on 27th January 1916 appointed to the Lincolnshire Regiment. Posted to the 2/5th Battalion he was allocated service number 4577. In February 1917 he was given the number 241362 and embarked with the 2/5th Lincolns 177 Brigade 59 th (2nd North Midland) Division at Southampton arriving at Le Havre on 23rd February as a member of C Company. He was reported missing or killed in action during an attack on
Cologne Farm on 11th April of that year. The War Diary for that date reports; ‘3.00 am Patrols reported the Quarry and ground in Cologne Farm to be clear of the enemy and orders for attack were at once issued to company commanders. The artillery support was cancelled. A heavy engagement ensued as these places were found to be strongly held. 4.30 am The attacking troops retired to the original line held….Other ranks killed, wounded and missing 254. 8.30 pm Inter company reliefs. A Coy by D Coy, C Coy by B Coy. A&C Coys suffered most casualties in the attack and were formed into a composite company in reserve. 9.00pm Situation unchanged. Our lines were continuously shelled by the enemy by Field
Artillery and also by 15cm Howitzers. We suffered a few casualties. 1 man killed, 5 wounded. Attempts to establish a post at L.5.e.5.1 were met by heavy m.g and rifle fire. A German post at L.5.a.9.5 was found to be strongly wired and held.’ Thomas is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial Pier Face 1. Brother Henry was Private 28142 in the 7th Lincolnshire Regiment. According to a report in the Peterborough Advertiser on June 9th 1917 he was wounded along with his brother in law, Lance Corporal Spooncer (Walter) of Langtoft who married Sally Ann Robinson in 1912. Henry was killed in action on March 23rd 1918 and is buried in the Sailly-Sallisei Cemetery, Somme, France. Thomas and Henry are both commemorated on the Deeping St James War Memorial.
John Robinson (1893- ) Thomas Robinson (1894-1917 Henry Robinson (1898-1918)
Sources: Stephen Bramley, Dorothea Price, Nancy Titiman, National Archives, Stamford Mercury, Peterborough Standard
The Silver Thimble is pressed into action!
Initially all ambulances used in the war were drawn by horses. They were often slow, got stuck in the mud and sometimes with the noise of battle, the horses would be startled, panic and men would die needlessly.
Initially all ambulances used in the war were drawn by horses. They were often slow, got stuck in the mud and sometimes with the noise of battle, the horses would be startled, panic and men would die needlessly. To remedy this problem the Government appealed to the public for their cars and turned them into ambulances. The gentry responded by sending their chauffeurs to drive them as they didn’t want other men to drive their precious cars- remember the automobile was only introduced at the tail end of the 1800’s. This was unsuccessful as well as the altered cars did not meet Red Cross
of daily life, every home had one! They collected a vast number of silver thimbles to help the wounded and the sick.
standards and the chauffeurs were not medically trained and had to be enlisted in the Army some were too old or unfit for this. It was left to the redoubtable lady, Miss Elizabeth Hope-Clarke to solve the problem. Along with the veterans she organised a National Silver Collection asking each household to donate a silver thimble. In the days when darning and sewing and embroidery was part
Also this captured the imaginations of individuals, breweries, trade unions, worshipful companies charities etc who made donations. Queen Alexandra herself became patron of the Fund. By 1915 the first ambulance Elizabeth purchased was put into use in France. So successful was this first ambulance that a whole fleet was purchased by 1916 and to Red Cross Standards. This initiative was later honoured with two thimble shelters opposite Kensington Palace.
'A very gallant officer who died on St George’s Day'
The Zeebrugge Raid took place on 23rd April 1918 - an attempt by the Royal Navy to block the port of Bruges-Zeebrugge used by the German Navy as a base for U-boats, a threat to Allied shipping in the English Channel, by sinking older boats scuttled there for this pupose.
The attack was led by an old cruiser, refitted for the purpose, HMS Vindictive, with two ferries and two old submarines, filled with explosives to blow up the viaduct connecting the Concrete Mole (built in 1907 to shelter the harbour from the sea) to the shore. Vindictive was to land 200 Marines (all of whom had volunteered for hazardous service) at the entrance to the Bruges Canal to destroy German gun positions. The signal for attack from Admiral Keyes was 'St George for England' and the reply from HMS Vindictive was ' May we give the dragon's tail a damned good twisting.' Vindictive went alongside the Mole in a smokescreen, as this suddenly cleared, the Germans were faced with a hostile ship looming out of the smoke at point blank range. The Germans put
up star shells and penetrated the ship's side below the upper deck, the senior officers of the storming parties taking the full blast. The landing party set off, 'Over you go, Royals!' The objective of sinking the block ships, albeit some say in the wrong place, was achieved but not without heavy losses estimated at 24 Germans but 384 Brits wounded and 188 lost . One of which, Lieutenant Stanton, died in Dover five days after the Raid. Surgeon-Commander McCutcheon RN wrote, "Stanton was unconscious, due to a dangerous wound of the skull, and his servant, severely wounded in the right arm and scalp, had his arm around his master's neck and shoulders. He informed me he was all right himself, but that Mr Stanton was pretty bad and he was trying to keep the heat in him. The
incident to my mind, typical of the loyalty and affection existing to such a great extent in the Royal Marine Corps between officers and men." Robert Stanton was born in 1896, the oldest son of local Doctor and his wife Annie,bought up in the family home in Church St. later Stamford Rd. Market Deeping, boarding at Barton School, Wisbech St Peter and later at Cambridge University where he served in the Officer Training Corps. He had been appointed to a commission with the Royal Marines Light Infantry in 1915 , served in Greece and the Dardenelles, being posted to the 4th Marine Battalion in February 1918.
Funeral, the congregation including in Marine uniform, Pte R Vincent, for two years servant to Lieutenant Stanton. The Vice Admiral Sir Roger Keyes sent a wreath of red roses 'In proud and grateful memory of a very gallant officer who died on St George's Day.'
Lieutenant R.G.O Stanton RMLI (1896-1918)
A large concourse of people lined the street from the Market Place to the Cemetry and the Church was filled for the
Sources: Military records and Census returns, National Archives. Peterborough Standard and Advertiser, Globe & Laurel, official publication of the Royal Marines
Stormtrooper Stephen strikes out for the New World
Stephen would have been a fairly early volunteer. Conscription was not introduced in Canada until 1918 and by the end of that year at least half the CEF was made up of British born men. Still single at this time, Stephen’s next of kin was given as Clara Smith of Market Deeping, whom his father had married in the same year that Stephen emigrated. As Stephen only set sail to England in November 1916 it is interesting to note that the Peterborough Advertiser (2nd December 1916) reported that he was on leave in Market Deeping: ‘Pte Stephen Smith, youngest son of Mr Philip Smith of Market Deeping is on a visit to his father. He left home and went to Canada eleven years since and on the outbreak of war joined the Canadians and came over with them to England.’ This was probably prior to being posted to the Western Front as part of the 11th Battalion.
Stephen Smith and Mary Alice Shotbolt (courtesy of Stephen McKendry)
Stephen Smith, born in 1885, was the youngest son of Philip and Ann Smith (nee Todd). Philip was a farmer and carter (a waggoner) and lost his wife in childbirth in 1887. Brought up by his father, there were three elder brothers: Herbert, Philip Cornelius and Walter and four sisters: Lizzie, Ruth, Martha and Emma.
At the age of seventeen, Stephen had become a coal hawker, taking his horse and cart selling bags of coal door to door while living at home with his father and his sister, Ruth, aged 20. At the turn of the century, life was tough for the people of the Deepings and when a speaker from the Canadian Embassy came to encourage young men to emigrate, the idea appealed to Stephen and in 1906 he set sail from Liverpool on the Victorian.
Once in Canada, Stephen settled at 633 Langside Street, Winnipeg, Manitoba. He worked at several different jobs and was employed as a teamster (a driver of horses) when he signed up on February 24th 1917. He joined the 184th Overseas Battalion of the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force, number 874271. The battalion was based in Winnipeg and had only begun recruiting in the winter of 1915-16, so
It is therefore possible that he saw action at Vimy Ridge and at Passchendaele where the Canadian troops earned an exceptional reputation. Even the German troops called them “storm troopers”. He may also have seen action during one of the final battles at Amiens on August 8th 1918 where the Canadian troops spearheaded the offensive. Stephen did not leave the Army until 1919, so he may have been part of an occupational force. However on 8th October 1919, he married Mary
Alice Shotbolt. She was 33 and the daughter of a retired farmer’s wife, Emma, living in North Road, Bourne. Stephen took his bride back to Canada with the intention of homesteading. On Christmas Day 1923, their first child, Leonard Stephen was born and by 1923 they were farming in Springfield, Manitoba. He and his wife came to visit England two years before his death on November 13th 1954 at the age of 69. A Canadian newspaper reported: ‘Stephen Smith, 71 of South Transcona, died suddenly on Saturday at his home. Born in Market Deeping, Lincolnshire, he came to Winnipeg in 1906. He served in England, France, Belgium and Germany with the 184th Battalion in the First World War. He had farmed in Springfield, Man. District for 34 years. He was a member of the Transcona Memorial United Church and a member of the session for the past 15 years. Surviving are his wife, Alice, three sons, Leonard S, Bernard and Fred, two daughters, Dorothy and Mrs Gladys Whittington, eight grandchildren and three sisters, Mrs W Gillett, Mrs J Blessett and Miss E Smith. Funeral service will be held on 2pm Wednesday in Transcona Memorial United Church with Rev. S Thompson officiating. The burial will be in Transcona Cemetery Church.’
Stephen Smith 1885-1954
Sources: Ancestry, Peterborough Advertiser, Museum of Canada, Stephen McKendry (Canada).
There is some corner of a foreign field that is forever Deeping
Alfred lived with his parents, Alfred and Annie and several sisters in the old thatched house that stood on the site of 28 Eastgate. Deeping St James. The farmyard was on the opposite side of the road where there was also a paddock and a field leading down to Back Lane.
Alfred was quite handsome with dark hair and a luxurious Edwardian moustache. Much loved by members of his family, he was popular among the young men of the village spending evenings in the pub or the Institute playing billiards or dominoes. The young men who volunteered or were later conscripted into the Forces from 1914 had all been at school under the same Headmaster, Mr Jennings, whose own hard work ethic, discipline and dedication to duty was an inspiration to all.
Alfred Arthur Swift (right) and Fred York
Belonging to a long established family of butchers and cattle dealers he had to learn his trade from his father. All the dogsbody jobs would be his lot. All animals had to be ‘moved on the hoof ’ so it is not surprising that in the 1901 Census, Alfred is listed as a Drover. He was then twenty years old and familiar with all the villages en route to the various cattle markets at Peterborough, Stamford, Bourne and Spalding. Luckily for him he was a good walker with an easy gait. In the 1911 Census he was listed as a butcher. No one in the family ever
mentioned this so he may have been working temporarily for his uncle. Alfred was conscripted in 1916 and became Private Swift 2nd Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment. There were several letters that Alfred sent to his sister Mrs Charles Feneley, all written in pencil and some very badly rubbed and difficult to decipher, they are about family matters but some have local interest ‘Brocton Camp, Staffordshire It is a bit different being here than at home but better than being at Lincoln. We get plenty of good food. There are about 8 miles of huts so there are plenty of soldiers.’ ‘July 16th 1916 I have now arrived in France. We had a very nice journey and quite enjoyed the ride and the different sights which we had never thought to see. We are under canvas which is quite a nice change…There are several of us Deeping young men here. I came across with young Sam Lenton from Horsegate…Tell Mrs Mulligan I have not heard where Joe is.. I asked Doll to send me something to eat and some cigarettes. We can get plenty of tobacco. We don’t get much to eat when
we are in the trenches. I am writing this letter while I am in the dug out. It is a place I never thought I should ever have been as there is hardly any room to turn around.’ ‘August 5th 1916 I am quite well except for a cold which you cannot wonder at as the weather has been very bad lately. Poor old Matt Frisby. I bet he will make a trouble of it when he has to come out. Things begin to look more lively now that the other nation has come in on our side. How is Percy Jennings getting on? It makes it very bad in the trenches when it is raining as it is up to your boot tops in water in some places then you get cold from it. We are still on the guns and shall soon have had three weeks now. It is a bit dangerous at times but we have to keep our eyes open.’ ‘October 8th 1916 I am well but we are having rather a tough time. The weather is very stormy and it has been raining for several days which makes it bad in the trenches. Did Doll tell you about Mr Webb getting wounded? I was with him the night before and quite enjoyed his company. He got four of his fingers blown off with a bit of shrapnel while he was having his breakfast. One thing he will be out of danger for a bit. We have
young Henfrey from Horsegate out with us and see him every day which makes it a bit better. Fancy Waterhouse buying Worsdall’s farm, they are getting quite big people. I bet old Worsdall would not half swear about that. What will Joe and Matt say to that, they will have something to talk about. Hoping to see you all sometime before too long. I remain your loving brother Alt.’ The Stamford Mercury of November 10th 1916 reports that numerous friends of Mr Swift heard with regret that he had received notice that his son died in hospital, as a result of wounds received at the Front. Ironically, by the time the paper was published Mr Swift himself had died. He was already suffering from bronchitis when the shock of Alfred’s death caused a relapse. Alfred was Nancy Titman’s uncle. Her daughter Marion has been to Heilly Station Cemetery at Merincourt-L’Abbe on the Somme in France. She found that Alfred was buried in a quiet spot in a grave he shares with another soldier.
Alfred Arthur Swift 1881-1916
Sources: Nancy Titman, Stamford Mercury
It shouldn’t happen to a Vet
Officer training an army remount on the Home Front copyright IWM (Q30927)
Not just men but horses, mules and pigeons were called to action at the outbreak of the war. The professional body providing the medical care for these animals was the Army Veterinary Corps and it had been doing so since 1796. They dealt with battle injuries, debility, exhaustion, mange and gas attacks. Interestingly, dogs used by regiments for tracing the wounded on the battlefield and as messengers were not the responsibility of the AVC.
SS Orcoma. Ancestry
Unloading horses at No 5 Veterinary hospital, Abbeville, France. 1916. Copyright IWM (Q10295)
As war broke out the 364 AVC Officers (Regulars and Reserves) were reorganised to provide a mobile veterinary section as part of each division that went abroad. Each unit was responsible for evacuating sick and wounded animals back to the nine base hospitals that were set up, mainly on the Western Front; in Egypt there were camel hospitals with AVC officers with specialist knowledge of camels! During the war the AVC handled 2.5 million equine admissions and 80% of these horses were treated and returned to active service. By 1918 almost half of the vets in the country were serving in the AVC and the non-commissioned ranks had risen from 934 to 41,755. It was then that it became the Royal Army Veterinary Corps.
According to the Grantham Journal of November 14th 1914, both William Kellett Townson and his brother, Harry Wells, left Bourne to enlist in the AVC (Territorial) as Lieutenants.
Harry, following his education as a boarder in Ulverston, Lancashire, spent some time in the Falklands, as he is recorded arriving in Liverpool on board a ship from Port Stanley in 1912.
They were born in Liverpool where their father, William Wells Townson, was also a vet and when he died in 1902 his will described him as a proprietor of the Angel Hotel in Bourne. He left the handsome sum of £7,470 to his wife Annie.
The depletion of veterinary services in the Deepings would have had an effect on the care of local animals, although many local horses would have been acquired by the Army Service Corps Remounts.
William Kellett married Ethel Payne of Thurlby Grange in Bourne in 1907 and at the time of the 1911 Census, they had set up home in Church Street, Market Deeping where William was a vet with an assistant, Roger Stow. They had one domestic servant and a gardener.
Townsons's house in Church Street (E. Parkinson)
Troops of the AVC at No 10 Veterinary Hospital at Abbeville, France.1916. Copyright IWM (Q551)
By September 1915 William was promoted to Captain. The Peterborough Standard of March 17th 1917 reported that “Capt. W.K. Townson M.R.C.V.S. of the AVC is specially mentioned for war services.” In October 1918 he applied for his medal but there is no record of his serving overseas, however care was needed for the animals before they were shipped abroad and he was stationed at the number 1 Veterinary Hospital in Aldershot during that October. (Many horses were trained at Aldershot.) His home address was given as Lincoln Road, Peterborough and in the 1919 Kelly’s Directory he was listed as having a practice there. Relatives remember him looking after horses for the Bertram Mills Circus at a later date!
William died in 1959 in Peterborough and probate was granted to his widow, Ethel of 194, Broadway. There are no details of Harry’s military service yet found, but interestingly he was in the Falklands by 1916 where he married Frederica Daisy of Hill Cove. In December 1919 he and his wife sailed from Port Stanley to Liverpool via New York on the SS Orcoma with their two sons, William Haig (3) and Robert (1). Immigration records suggest that Harry would return to the Falklands and that his wife and children would go to Scotland to live. The couple both died in 1971 in St Austell, Cornwall. Records show that William’s assistant, Roger Stow, must also have volunteered. On January 17th 1915, he was AVC (Special Reserve) and by 1916 he was Lieutenant and by 1918 Captain. He had initially been in the Royal Field Artillery. At the end of the war he was living in Redhill, Surrey.
William Kellett Townson 1881-1959 Harry Wells Townson 1886-1971
Sources: Ancestry (Military & Emigration records), The Genealogist, Peterborough Standard, 1914-18.net and Army Medical Service Museum website.
‘Agent for absolutely everything’
Son, Mike Vergette, Deeping racehorse trainer and owner who experienced success at the Grand National
George Vergette was born to George and Fanny (nee Smalley) in 1887 at Market Deeping, and after his schooldays at Cranleigh, he worked on his family’s farms, of 628 acres, at Market Deeping and Langtoft.
Having married Edith Rees in 1916 in London, George joined the Army in the same year and was assigned to the famous Ninth (Scottish) Division in France, becoming a 2nd Lieutenant. His knowledge of working with horses was
Cranleigh School
a great asset to him, and he took part in the attack on the 5th Army in 1918 in which the Division especially distinguished themselves. George was wounded in this battle,
when he acted as wagonline Captain to the battery, where his speed and quickthinking saved his guns from being captured. In 1918 George was awarded the Military Cross, having served 17 months on the Western Front. He had been wounded three times and he was invalided home, where he and Edith (known as Dorothy) brought up a family, continuing to work the family farms with his brothers until agriculture became unprofitable, when he took a number of jobs. The late George Fitzwilliam with characteristic kindness, insisted on keeping him on as a tenant in a small farm at Maxey. Vergette’s letterhead at the time revealed his determination and sense of humour:
‘George Vergette: Agent for Everything’. A devoted parent to Robert (b. 1919), George (b. 1920), Nicholas (b.1923) and Dorothy (b.1926), the children were bought up on military and kennel discipline, but, it was said, better-mannered and nicer children could not be found anywhere. Vergette was a Parish Councillor, Market Deeping representative on South Kesteven Rural District Council, Sidesman at St Guthlac’s Church, member of the PCC, chairman of the Conservative Association and a Freemason.
and it was while giving a lesson that he died suddenly from a heart attack, aged 49. At his well attended funeral, in accordance with his wishes, a pair of stirrups was placed on his coffin, which was drawn on his brother’s farm wagon. In front hung two horseshoesshaped wreaths. Among the mourners were his shepherd and groom. After his burial, the Chief Huntsman of the Fitzwilliam Hunt sounded the ‘Gone Away’.
George Vergette 1887-1936
His great passion remained horses and hunting with hounds, and he was active with both the Cottesmore and Fitzwilliam Hunts. He also ran a riding school,
Sources: St Guthlac’s Parish Magazine, Forces War Records, WW1 Medal Rolls, 1901 Census, British Army WW1 Service Records, ancestry.co.uk
Deeping Signalman sees service on the Somme and is mentioned in dispatches James Deeping Railway Station provided the first job for Albert Virgin after he left the Kings Royal Rifles in 1912. He had just married Clara Brockway the daughter of a builder in Cheriton, Folkestone and got this job with the London & North Eastern Railway Company as a Signalman living in one of the station cottages.
Albert was originally from Lincolnshire, born to Fields and Mary Virgin in Eastville in 1888. Fields had a family of five and worked as a gardener when they were young at Wyberton and South Cockerington. Albert had enlisted in 1904/5 and became Private 7564 serving in India. While there he visited Almora which had a lasting impact on the young Albert, as he was later to name his house after the City. Located on the southern edge of the Kumaon hills, it is the shape of a horse saddle hillock surrounded by thick forests of pine and fir trees. Flowing alongside are the Koshi and Suyal rivers and the snow capped mountains of the Himalayas can be seen in the background. 'These mountains are associated with the best memories of our race. Here therefore must be one of the centres not merely of activity, but more of a calmness of meditation and of peace'. According to the 'Kings Royal Rifles Chronicle',
Albert was a runner of some note finishing first in Battery Sports held at Shorncliffe Camp on three occasions in 1911. As a signal man, Albert moved throughout the area, baby Albert was born in Sutton le Marsh and Rosemary was born in a railway cottage at Werrington Bridge. He was recalled to to the Kings Royal Rifles in 1914 while living in Glinton. As Lance Corporal 13/50473 Albert (known on his Army Records as Horace) served at the Somme. He was mentioned in dispatches on recovering a wounded Gurka soldier and bringing him back to his trench. He, himself was wounded in the back and returned to England. In 1918, Albert and Clara, now living on the corner of Towngate in a house now occupied by the pumping station, had their twins Frank and Florence christened at St Guthlac's Church Market Deeping. Albert was still Lance Sergeant in 2nd Kings Royal
The 1914 Star, British War Medal & Allied Victory Medal
Rifles attached to the 51st Rifle Brigade but was shortly after transferred to the Royal Engineers as Sergeant 355373. On being discharged he was kept on as a Reserve and his number was changed to 100262. In 1920, the family moved to New Row (now 1,Orchard Close) naming the house Almora. There were a further six children, including two sets of twins, Peter and Anthony born in 1924 and David and Crystal born in 1923, little David dying at just 8 days old, Walter born in 1920 and Alan born in 1929.
Locals have memories of Albert cycling to work each day until he retired and of watching the greyhound racing at the back of the Three Tuns. In 1934 he stood for Deeping St James Parish Council but was not elected. Eventually he moved away but later returned to the area and died in 1974 in Johnsons Hospital in Spalding and is laid to rest with his wife Clara in Deeping St James cemetery.
Albert Horace Virgin (1888-1974)
Sources: Alan Virgin, Elaine Nixon, photographs Yvonne Flatters
The sister behind the brother behind the gun Twins Florence and Walter Hare responded to the call to serve their country. Walter volunteered in August 1914 and Florence later enrolled in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps whose slogan was “The Girl behind the Man behind the Gun.” Walter fell in the Battle of the Somme just a month before his 19th birthday.
Copyright Imperial War Museum (Q6824). Non commercial license.
Walter Hare 1914
Walter and Florence were born on 31st August 1896 in Deeping St James to Walter and Susan Hare where Walter (senior) worked for a poultry dealer on a farm. By 1911 they had moved to Council Cottages in Towngate, Market Deeping and had a family of seven children. Enlisting in Stamford on his 18th birthday, 31st August 1914, Walter was one of the earliest recruits from the Deepings – just 20 days after Lord Kitchener’s call, “Your King and Country Need You”. He was not tall at 5 feet 3½ inches high (minimum height had just been lowered to 5 feet 3 inches), neither was he 19 (the original age to enlist) but with his brown hair, grey eyes and his bright and cheerful disposition, he was accepted by the recruiting sergeant. He was now Private 8334 of the 3rd Battalion the Lincolnshire Regiment. Posted to Grimsby, he trained on the Home Front until 1915 when on 21st July he landed in France as
He became Driver 108065 in the Army Service Corps but there is no surviving evidence of his service. He survived the war, marrying Carrie Bell in 1927 and raising 2 children.
part of the 1st Battalion. He served in France as a signaller in the 21st division, 62nd Brigade for almost a year before returning for home leave between May and June 1916. That was the last his family would see of him. After days of heavy bombardment of the German lines and believing that it had been successful, the “Great Push” began on July 1st.
On the third day at 9am the Lincolnshire troops left their trenches and rushed towards the enemy between Birch Tree and Shelter Woods. They came under heavy artillery rifle and machine gun fire and although successful, 3 officers and 34 men fell. Walter was one of those who fell on that day along with Private Charles Rudkin (1117 Lincolnshire) of Halfleet, Market Deeping. Poignantly his mother (by then a widow) wrote to ask if there were any of his belongings to be returned but his body, like many others, was never identified. He is commemorated on the Thiepval memorial (Pier and Face Ic) as there was no known grave for him. He is also on the memorial in St Guthlac’s Church, Market Deeping.
Ancestry military records. Letter from Mrs Hare
Walter’s twin sister, Florrie, enrolled and by June 1919 was serving in France as a WAAC (Women’ Army Auxiliary Corps) No 12158. We do not have the date of her enrolment but it would have been 1917 or later (the WAACs were formed in that year) nor do we have the reason for her enrolment. Was it in response to her twin’s death, or to her younger brother’s enlistment? Was it in response to the call to serve or to give herself some independence? Whatever the reason, it was a bold move to make. Wearing a khaki skirt (no more than 12 inches above the ground) and a tightfitting cap, she might have served as a cook, clerk, waitress or as a cemetery gardener. About 7,000 WAACs served on the Western Front and were often close to the Front Line with its dangers. Florence survived her service and also went on to raise a family. We are grateful for the photograph and information given by Mrs Janice Bloodworth (nee Hare), their niece.
Walter Hare (1896-1916) Florence M Hare (1896-1969) George Albert Hare (1898-1969)
It is possible that his younger brother, George Albert, had already joined up before Walter’s death. Florence Hare 1962 (Courtesy of Mrs J. Bloodworth ) Sources: Mrs Janice Bloodworth (niece), Ancestry Military records, Imperial War Museum and Peterborough Advertiser.
‘No greater love has any man than to lay down his life for another.’ Son of William and Rose (nee Newborn) Plowright, William started his working life a stones’ throw from his family home in Halfleet, Market Deeping as a gardener at Elm House in Church Street. But at the age of 25 in 1912, William and his brother, Edward left for a new life in Canada on The Virginian.
Shortly after their arrival in Canada, Edward married Alice Munro at York, Ontario but their marriage was to be short lived as Edward died of pneumonia and heart failure in 1918 in Brighton, Northumberland, Canada. William, known as Bill, however, enlisted in 1915 in the Number 5 Canadian Field Ambulance Medical Corps as Private 1716. Three members of this Corps were to die in battle and all would be considered real heroes. The memoirs of Fred Noyes who served in the same Corps tell the story. ‘Rookie soldiers arrived at Exhibition camp to be turned into war-ready soldiers. It took ten days to be issued with uniforms which were ill fitting, their red army boots ‘a cross between a moccasin and a sponge.’ In the first five months Bill would have been trained in infantry drill, stretcher drill and First Aid treatment. Food was initially a problem and one night almost the entire unit fell ill from a bout of severe food poisoning.
Canadian positions at Vimy Ridge
Training camp Valcartier, Quebec
Elm House, Market Deeping where William was a gardener
Eventually they were considered ready and were packed off on the Northland, a ship of the White Star line. Early on they were forced to evacuate their quarters and lived in appalling conditions in the ‘glory hole’. By the time they reached Newfoundland nearly everybody was seasick. The weather however did improve and they were treated to an on-board concert! On arrival in England they were packed into trains, doors locked and no latrines, so the men had to take advantage of the open windows. Journeying through the rolling green hills of the English countryside, the men arrived in Kent, transferring from Sandling Camp to Otterpool, where they were required to write their wills. On September 2nd 1915, they
Canadians at Vimy Ridge
were given a final inspection by Kitchener and the King. The unit disembarked to Le Havre and were greeted with a treat of wine and cognac and to a cheeky dockworker who shouted to them, “Are we downhearted?” to which they retorted, “No” and came the prophetic reply,” Well you bloody well soon will be.” Bill and his unit were told they were soon departing for the firing line as a big battle was about to begin. They had been issued with gas masks. Some made the mistake of souvenir hunting at the front and were lucky to escape with their lives. They experienced the harsh winter of 1915/16 which left many with chesty coughs. However their billets at Mont Noir were great - the place even had a wine cellar. The regiment was inspected by King George and the Prince of Wales on October 27th and
Christmas was celebrated with gusto; roast sirloin of beef, boiled potatoes and green peas and after dinner entertainment. Shells landed in the village on December 29th and the morgue which had only just been finished that day was soon filled to capacity. In 1916, Bill was relocated with the rest of the regiment to Remy Siding. On July 1st The Battle of the Somme began and was referred to even by the Germans as a ‘blood bath’. Bill carried on his duties as a stretcher bearer, usually a couple in each trench ferrying the wounded to the various First Aid Posts.’ On April 29th 1917 (according to a letter written by the Chaplain by William’s father now living at 5, Cranmore Cottages, DSJ, reported in the Grantham
Journal) Bill together with three other soldiers had just bought in a wounded soldier on a stretcher to Vimy First Aid Post (where soldiers from the great Battle of Vimy Ridge were probably being treated) when a shell came through the upper wall, tearing down the cement, a piece of which hit Bill on the head, killing him instantly. He is remembered with honour on the Ecoivres Military Cemetery Mont-St Eloi and on the plaque at St Guthlac’s, Market Deeping. Vimy Ridge was a significant battle for the Canadians, they eventually claimed victory against all odds and expectations.
William Newborn Plowright 1887-1917 Edward Pesnette Plowright 1886-1918
Sources: Nicola Allen, Stretcher-Bearers at the Double by Frederick W Noyes (1937) Toronto printed and bound by Hunter-Rose Company Ltd. Grantham Journal, Ancestry.com
Gallipoli claims Deeping lad turned Welsh hero
James was born in 1886 to Edward and Ann Wright. Strictly speaking he should have been called James Doughty because Edward was born out of wedlock to Sarah Ann Doughty of Marholm who later married a John Wright, as a consequence of which Edward was known by the name of Wright. In 1881 Edward and his family lived in the "Wapentake of Ness", a division of Lincolnshire that included the Deepings. In 1891 they lived in Cranmore, Deeping St James, and in 1901 they lived in Stowgate, Deeping St James.
Edward and Ann produced solely sons, eight in all, of whom James was the sixth. By 1901 James was lodging with and working as a plough-boy for Richard Ward of Deeping Bank Farm. Something attracted him to Flintshire in North Wales to work as an Agricultural Labourer, lodging with George and Emily Pickford at 17, Marsh Cottage, Sealand. On the 1911 census for that household, in the ‘Nationality’ column James was marked ‘English’! James enlisted in nearby Shotton in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers as Private 11859. His training commenced on Salisbury Plain and continued in Blackdown, Hampshire. Departing overseas as a LanceCorporal he disembarked Mudros (a small Greek port on the Greek island of Lemnos). They were on their way to Gallipoli. After serving in Helles the Fusiliers returned to Mudros before embarking for Gallipoli. They landed at Anzac Cove, a point named by the General in charge of the Australian and New Zealand regiments already there. From August until December, in atrocious
winter conditions, they attacked and attempted unsuccessfully to dislodge the Turks whose defences were well established on the high ground. There followed what were collectively known as the Battles of Sulva which included Sari Blair, Russell’s Top and Hill 60. James survived the fighting and his Battalion was evacuated back to Mudros in a well planned retreat on the night of 20th December 1915. James found himself again in Gallipoli in the first week of January before returning to Mudros. On 16th January the Fusiliers departed for Egypt, initially for rest and recuperation in Port Said and then on guard duties in the Suez Canal Zone. Three weeks later his Division were ordered to Mesopotamia, which then was an area encompassing modern-day Syria, Iraq and
He is also remembered on Memorials in Deeping St James and Tongue End. In 1933 it was discovered that the salts in the soil at Amara, which is in Iraq, were causing the headstones to deteriorate. They were removed and replaced with a screen wall engraved with the names. Footnote; why was Turkey involved?
Kuwait and parts of Turkey and Iran. Again they were attacking the Turks but the Division lost more manpower to malaria than the enemy gunfire. Eventually the Turks were in retreat, but unfortunately during the Battle of the Dahra Bend James was wounded. On 2nd March 1917 Corporal James Wright died of his wounds in the Amara Base Hospital. He was buried in the Amara Cemetery, one of 4,621 marked with headstones.
In July 1914 the Ottoman Empire (Turkey) signed a Defensive Alliance with Germany as a protection from Russian aggression. In November 1914 Russia declared war on Turkey and invaded. Later that month the Ottoman Empire declared a Holy War on France, Russia and Britain, encourage by the alliance with Germany. This concerned the allies as the situation threatened the Suez Canal and supplies of oil from the Middle East. When in September 1918 the Turkish soldiers were eventually defeated this precipitated the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
James Wright 1886 - 1917
Sources: Peterborough Advertiser, Stamford Mercury, Lincolnshire Free Press, Dorothea Price, Nancy Titman, British Army 1WW Service Records, ancestry.co.uk