The Darkness and the Thunder

by Stewart Binns

  Sir Stanley Brenton von Donop, 56: commissioned into the Royal Artillery, he played a key role in the Great War, having been appointed Master General of the Ordnance in 1913. He became the target for much of Lloyd George’s criticism during the Shell Crisis of 1915. He stood down in 1916, when he was given the minor role of General Officer Commanding Humber Garrison.

  Maurice Hankey, 39: British civil servant who became the first Cabinet Secretary as Secretary to the War Council under H. H. Asquith from November 1914.

  James Louis Garvin, 48: from humble origins in Birkenhead, J. L. Garvin became an influential British journalist. In 1908 he became editor of the Observer.

  Sir John Lavery, 60: society painter. Lavery was appointed an official artist in the Great War and was a close friend of the Asquith family.

  Lady Hazel Lavery, 30: painter, and John Lavery’s second wife. Her likeness appeared on banknotes of Ireland for much of the twentieth century.

  Eustace Henry William, Tennyson-d’Eyncourt 48: British naval architect and engineer.

  Thomas Gerald Hetherington, 48: joined the Royal Flying Corps on its formation in May 1912 and was then attached to the Royal Naval Air Service for experimental work.

  Sir Charles Carmichael Monro, 56: British Army general during the Great War. He went to France at the start of the war and played a vital role in the 1st Battle of Ypres. After the failures of the Gallipoli campaign, General Ian Hamilton was dismissed as Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force and replaced by Charles Monro in October 1915. Monro oversaw the evacuation of the forces from Gallipoli.

  Sir Edward Carson, 62: Irish unionist politician, barrister and judge. He was leader of the Irish Unionist Alliance and the Ulster Unionist Party between 1910 and 1921. In May 1915 Asquith appointed Carson Attorney-General when the coalition government was formed after the Liberal government was brought down by the Shell Crisis.

  Major General Sir Ernest Swinton, 46: British Army officer who was a leading figure in the development of the tank during the Great War. He is said to have coined the word ‘tank’ as a code name for the first tracked, armoured fighting vehicles.

  Nellie Hozier, 28: daughter of Colonel Sir Henry Montague Hozier and Lady Henrietta Blanche Hozier and sister of Clementine Hozier, Winston Churchill’s wife.

  Violet Bonham-Carter, 29: daughter of H. H. Asquith, and Winston Churchill’s closest female friend.

  Field Marshal Frederick Rudolph Lambart Cavan, 10th Earl of Cavan, 56: British Army officer and Chief of the Imperial General Staff. He had retired from the army in 1913 but was recalled at the start of the war and was appointed commanding officer of the 4th Guards Brigade.

  General George Jeffreys, 1st Baron Jeffreys (second creation), 38: British military commander and Conservative member of parliament. He saw action in Africa and in the Boer War as a young officer, and went to France with his battalion at the start of the Great War.

  Edward Grigg, 1st Baron Altrincham, 37: British colonial administrator and politician. At the start of the Great War, Grigg enlisted in the Grenadier Guards. Serving in France, he distinguished himself in combat before his transfer to the staff in 1916.

  Field Marshal Sir William Robertson, 56: British Army general who served as Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS) – the professional head of the British Army – from 1916 to 1918.

  Archibald Sinclair, 26: soldier, politician and later leader of the Liberal Party. He served on the Western Front during the Great War and rose to the rank of Major in the Guards Machine Gun Regiment. He served as second-in-command to Winston Churchill, when, after he had resigned as First Lord of the Admiralty, he commanded the 6th Battalion of the Royal Scots Fusiliers on the Western Front.

  Private Isaac Reid: in his book published in 1919, A Private in the Guards, Stephen Graham gives his account of what happened to Private Reid: During the battle of Neuve Chapelle, ‘Private X’ was dazed by shellfire, and ‘straggled in later, unable to give an account of himself’. ‘Serjeant Major Y’, a dour martinet who ‘through army training, had become the sort of man who presented every fault in the worst possible light’, reported him as a deserter; a court martial took the serjeant major’s testimony against the confused account of the private, and he was sentenced to death. His fellow soldiers know the sentence is unjustified, but some of them are commanded to form the firing squad. And not a man has mutinied. Such is the force of the discipline. The mutiny has only been in the heart. ‘Serjeant Major Y’ became a marked man, sent to Coventry and forced to drink alone. When he was mortally wounded at Festubert, no one would give him a drink of water, though he kept asking for it. He is buried apart from the other eighty soldiers who fell in the battle.

  Graham’s account of ‘Private X’ has been verified as Reid’s story and that the CSM concerned, ‘Serjeant Major Y’, was Shropshire soldier James Lawton, an acting CSM, who gave evidence against Reid. Lawton was badly wounded by shell splinters at Festubert on 16 May 1915 and died the following day, aged thirty-five. However, the story of him being shunned by his peers has not, so far, been verified.

  The Estate: The Stewart-Murrays, Dukes of Atholl

  John (‘Iain’) James Hugh Henry Stewart-Murray, 7th Duke of Atholl, 74: Chief of the Clan Murray and Commander-in-Chief of the Atholl Highlanders, Europe’s only private army.

  John (‘Bardie’) George Stewart-Murray, Marquess of Tullibardine, 44: eldest son of the 7th Duke; veteran of the Boer War and Conservative MP for West Perthshire and Commander of the Scottish Horse.

  Lord James (‘Hamish’) Stewart-Murray, 36: veteran of the Boer War and a major in the Cameron Highlanders.

  Lord George (‘Geordie’) Stewart-Murray, 42: veteran of the Boer War; a former ADC to Lord Elgin, Viceroy of India, and a major in the Black Watch.

  John William Dunne, 40: son of Irish aristocrat General Sir John Dunne; powered-flight pioneer.

  Lady Katharine (‘Kitty’) Stewart-Murray (née Ramsay), 40: wife of ‘Bardie’; accomplished musician and social activist.

  Lady Dorothea (‘Dertha’) Stewart-Murray, 50: the 7th Duke’s eldest child, married to Harold Ruggles-Brise, a career soldier.

  Lady Helen Stewart-Murray, 48: the 7th Duke’s second child, she lives at Blair Atholl and acts in the place of her deceased mother, Louisa, the Duchess of Atholl, who died in 1902 in Italy.

  Lady Evelyn Stewart-Murray, 47: the 7th Duke’s third child, and youngest daughter. Emotional problems in her childhood led her parents to send her away to be cared for by a governess; she now lives in Malines, in Belgium, in the company of a companion.

  Jamie Forsyth, 59: butler, Blair Atholl Castle.

  John Jarvis, 56: butler, Eaton Place, London.

  Eileen Macallum, 9: illegitimate daughter of Bardie Stewart-Murray, the Marquess of Tullibardine. Eileen’s mother is thought to be a ‘Lady Macallum’.

  David Tod, 59, born in Edinburgh: businessman and sculptor and friend of Lady Helen Stewart-Murray.

  Mrs Maud Grant, 54: widow and resident of Glen Tilt on the Blair Atholl Estate.

  Dougie Cameron, 23: first footman, Blair Castle household.

  John Inglis, 41: factor, Blair Atholl Estate.

  Matthew White Ridley, 2nd Viscount Ridley, 40: British Conservative politician and owner of Blagdon Hall, Northumberland.

  Charles Sorley, 21: British poet of the Great War. Sorley spent six months in Germany from January to July in 1914, having enrolled at the University of Jena. He returned to England and volunteered for military service, and was killed in action near Hulluch, where he was shot in the head by a sniper at the Battle of Loos.

  Thomas Scott-Ellis, 8th Baron Howard de Walden, 4th Baron Seaford, 36: a British peer, landowner, writer and patron of the arts. He was also a motorboat racer who competed in the 1908 Summer Olympics. He was second-in-command of the Westminster Dragoons, and a veteran of the Boer War.

  Marc Armand Ruffer, 56: At the outbreak of the Great War, he was head of the Red Cross in Egypt.

&n
bsp; Hussein Kamel (Prince Hussein): Sultan of Egypt from December 1914 to October 1917, during the British protectorate over Egypt.

  The Pals: D Company (Burnley Company), 11th Battalion, East Lancs, ‘Accrington Pals’

  John-Tommy Crabtree, 43, born in Harle Syke: steward, Keighley Green Working Men’s Club. Formerly a weaver; retired cricketer and renowned fast bowler for Burnley Cricket Club.

  Tommy Broxup, 24, born in Burnley: weaver.

  Vincent (‘Vinny’) Sagar, 18, born in Padiham: weaver.

  Nathaniel (‘Twaites’) Haythornthwaite, 18, born in Sabden: weaver.

  Michael (‘Mad Mick’) Kenny, 26, born in Colne: collier.

  Catherine (‘Cath’) Kenny, 23, born in Nelson: weaver.

  Mary Broxup, 23, born in Burnley: weaver.

  Dame Katherine Furse (née Symonds): Founder of the English Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) force, in 1909 Furse joined the Red Cross Voluntary Aid Detachment, attached to the Territorial Army. On the outbreak of the Great War she was chosen to head the first Voluntary Aid Detachment unit to be sent to France, and was later in charge of the VAD Department in London.

  Henry Hyndman, 73, born in London: radical activist and leader of the British Socialist Party.

  John Harwood, 68, born in Darwen: cotton entrepreneur, President of Accrington Stanley Football Club, Mayor of Accrington, founder of 11th Battalion (Service) East Lancashire Regiment (Accrington Pals).

  John Howarth, 39, born in Accrington: manager, Burnley Football Club.

  Jimmy Dowd, 23: born in Armagh, Ireland: weaver.

  James ‘Jimmy’ Severn, 56, born in Bow, London: retired soldier, training NCO, 11th Battalion, East Lancashire Regiment.

  Frederick Arnold Heys, 27, born in Oswaldtwistle: solicitor, Lieutenant, D Company, 11th Battalion East Lancashire Regiment.

  Raymond St George Ross, 32, born in Lancaster: analytical chemist, Captain, D Company, 11th Battalion East Lancashire Regiment.

  Arnold Bannatyne Tough, 25, born in Accrington: dentist, Lieutenant, D Company, 11th Battalion, East Lancashire Regiment.

  Andrew Muir, 56, born in Maryhill, Scotland: retired soldier, training NCO, 11th Battalion, East Lancashire Regiment.

  George Lee, 53: born in Widecombe, Devon: retired soldier, training NCO, 11th Battalion, East Lancashire Regiment.

  Richard Sharples, 65, born in Haslingden: solicitor and territorial soldier, Colonel and CO, 11th Battalion, East Lancashire Regiment.

  George Nicholas Slinger, 49, born in Bacup: solicitor and territorial soldier, Captain and Adjutant, 11th Battalion, East Lancashire Regiment.

  John Norton-Griffiths, 45, born in Somerset: known as Empire Jack or Hell-fire Jack. He was the son of John Griffiths, a clerk of works at St Audries Manor Estate, West Quantoxhead. He was elected to Parliament in 1910 and was until 1918 the Conservative Party’s MP for Wednesbury, Staffordshire. Using his experience as a successful engineer, Norton-Griffiths formed the first units of the Royal Engineers Tunnelling Companies in early 1915. By incorporating his second given name, ‘Norton’, he changed his name to Norton-Griffiths by deed-poll in 1917.

  George Henry Fowke, 52: joined the Royal Engineers in 1884, and saw service in the South African War at the Defence of Ladysmith, where he was mentioned in despatches. At the outbreak of the Great War, he was appointed to the post of Brigadier General Royal Engineers in the BEF, the senior engineering advisor. In 1915 he was made Engineer-in-Chief and oversaw the formation of the Royal Engineers Tunnelling Companies, after a proposal from John Norton-Griffiths.

  Robert (‘Ducky’) Napier Harvey, 48: with ‘Hell-fire Jack’ Norton-Griffiths, he is regarded as the father of Great War mining operations and was appointed Inspector of Mines in January 1916.

  Arthur Wilmot Rickman, 41: Lieutenant Colonel, CO, 11th Battalion, East Lancashire Regiment.

  Chrystal Macmillan, 44: Scottish Liberal politician, barrister, feminist and pacifist. She was an activist for women’s right to vote and for other women’s causes.

  Sydney (S. F.) Barnes: English professional cricketer who is generally regarded as one of the greatest ever bowlers. Barnes was unusual in that, despite a very long career as a top-class player, he spent little more than two seasons in first-class cricket, representing Warwickshire and Lancashire. He preferred to play for league clubs in the Lancashire, North Staffordshire, Bradford and Central Lancashire leagues, where he could earn a living as a professional. Barnes played for England from 1901 to 1914, taking 189 wickets with one of the lowest Test bowling averages. In 1911–12 he helped England win the Ashes when he took thirty-four wickets in the series against Australia. In 1963, Barnes was named by Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack in its hundredth edition as one of its ‘Six Giants of the Wisden Century’.

  Casualty Figures of the Great War

  Estimates of casualty numbers for the Great War vary greatly: from 9 million to over 15 million. Military casualty statistics listed here include 6.8 million combat-related deaths as well as 3 million military deaths caused by accidents and disease and deaths of men while prisoners of war. The figures listed below include about 6 million excess civilian deaths due to war-related malnutrition and disease, which are often omitted from other compilations. The civilian deaths also include the Armenian Genocide (1915), but civilian deaths due to the Spanish flu (1918–20) have been excluded. Also, the figures do not include deaths during the Turkish War of Independence (1919–22) and the Russian Civil War (1917–22).

  Allied Powers

  Central Powers

  Neutral nations

  Combined casualty figures

  In addition to New Commonwealth troops listed below, Britain recruited Indian, Chinese, Native South African, Egyptian and other overseas labour to provide logistical support in the combat theatres. Included with British casualties in East Africa are the deaths of 44,911 recruited labourers. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission reports that nearly 2,000 workers from the Chinese Labour Corps are buried with British war dead in France.

  Colony Military deaths

  Ghana (1914 known as the Gold Coast) 1,200

  Kenya (1914 known as British East Africa) 2,000

  Malawi (1914 known as Nyasaland) 3,000

  Nigeria (1914 part of British West Africa) 5,000

  Sierra Leone (1914 part of British West Africa) 1,000

  Uganda (1914 known as the Uganda Protectorate) 1,500

  Zambia (1914 known as Northern Rhodesia) 3,000

  Zimbabwe (1914 known as Southern Rhodesia) >700

  Ireland

  In 1914, the whole of Ireland was part of the United Kingdom, and 206,000 Irishmen fought for Britain during the Great War.

  Location of War Graves

  In March 2009, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission produced the following statistics for the resting places of the British dead in the Great War. The figures include all three services:

  Buried in named graves: 587,989; no known graves, but listed on a memorial to the missing: 526,816, of which buried but not identifiable by name: 187,861; remains not recovered, therefore not buried at all: 338,955.

  The last figure includes those lost at sea. Thus, about half are buried as known soldiers, with the rest either buried but unidentifiable, or lost.

  Glossary

  Adrian helmet

  The M15 Adrian was a helmet issued to the French Army during the Great War. It was designed to offer protection from shrapnel. Steel blue in colour, it was introduced in 1915 and served as the basic headgear well into the 1930s. The design was created by French General August-Louis Adrian.

  Ammonal

  Ammonal is an explosive compound of ammonium nitrate and aluminium powder. The composition of ammonal used in the Great War was two-thirds ammonium nitrate, one fifth aluminium and the rest trinitrotoluene (TNT), with a trace of charcoal. Ammonal is still used as an explosive in quarrying and mining.

  Artois, 2nd Battle of Artois

  The 2nd Battle of Artois began on 9 May 1915 and lasted until 1
8 June. Under the command of French general Philippe Petain, the French 33rd Corps attacked the German lines and forced the defenders back towards Vimy Ridge. But the attack was not supported quickly enough, nor was their adequate artillery support and the Germans regained their ground. The British attacked towards Aubers Ridge, but the assault ended in failure.

  AWOL

  Being AWOL (Absent Without Official Leave) is deemed to be an act of desertion where a duty is deliberately not carried out or a post is abandoned.

  Back-to-back houses

  Back-to-back houses were (although a few still exist) rows of terraced house where the parallel houses shared a rear wall (or in which the rear wall of the house directly backed on to a factory or other building). They were built for factory and mill workers and were dark and lacked ventilation and internal sanitation. Most of these were pulled down during the twentieth century, but some have survived, notably in Leeds and Birmingham.

  Band of Hope

  The Band of Hope was founded in 1847 by Reverend Jabez Tunnicliff, a Baptist minister in Leeds. It was a temperance movement dedicated to warning children about the dangers of alcohol. Famously, adherents ‘signed the pledge’, promising to refrain from drinking alcohol.

  Bantam battalions

  In 1914 Alfred Bigland, MP for Birkenhead, incensed that men below regulation army height (5 foot 3 inches) were being refused as volunteers, pressed the War Office for permission to form a ‘bantam’ battalion of men who failed to reach this requirement but were otherwise perfectly capable of serving. About three thousand men – many of whom had previously been rejected – rushed to volunteer. These first bantams were formed into the 1st and 2nd Birkenhead Battalions of the Cheshire Regiment (later redesignated the 15th and 16th Battalions). The height requirement was lowered, but there was still a minimum height, of five foot.