BEF Campaign on the Aisne 1914
Page 29
205. Major Anthony Drummond Boden’s name is commemorated on the La Ferté-sous-Jouarre Memorial. There is no record of a MacKenzie of the 3/RB being killed.
206. The Private Papers of E R Meade-Waldo. IWM Dept. of Documents, 76/227/1.
207. Private Diary of Major Bernard Gordon Lennox, Grenadier Guards Archive.
208. James Laidlaw Huggan is commemorated on the La Ferté-sous-Jouarre Memorial.
209. Ronald Francis Simson was 24-years-old and is buried at Moulins New Communal Cemetery, grave reference: 2. He was the first Rugby Union international to be killed in the Great War.
210. Harry Sherwood Ranken is buried at Braine Communal Cemetery, grave reference: A.43.
211. The name of William Ormsby Wyndham Ball is commemorated on the La Ferté-sous-Jouarre Memorial. He was 24-years-old.
212. Needham, The First Three Months, p.58.
213. Manuscript diary held in the Somerset Light Infantry Archive.
214. Needham, The First Three Months, p.60.
215. Robert Burton Parker was 35-years-old and is commemorated on the La Ferté-sous-Jouarre Memorial.
216. Needham, The First Three Months, p.61.
217. John Arkdeen Savage is commemorated on the La Ferté-sous-Jouarre Memorial. John Henry Stephen Dimmer was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions on 12 November 1914 at Klein Zillebeke in Belgium. Dimmer later achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel. He was killed in action at Marteville, France on 21 March 1918. His Victoria Cross is displayed at the Royal Green Jackets Museum, Winchester, England.
218. Needham, The First Three Months, p.62.
219. Cosmo George Gordon is buried at Vailly British Cemetery, grave reference: II.E.7.
220. The Private Papers of J G Stennett. IWM Dept. of Documents, 6655.
221. Dawson Warren is buried at Paissy Churchyard, grave reference: 1. Charles Edward Wilson is buried next to him.
222. Astil, The Great War Diaries of Brigadier General Alexander Johnston, p.26.
223. Lucy, There’s a Devil in the Drum, p.193.
224. Astil, The Great War Diaries of Brigadier General Alexander Johnston, p.27.
225. This man is probably Private 6080 R J Stagg, whose death is recorded by CWGC as 22 September 1914 and is buried at Vailly British Cemetery, grave reference: Sp Memorial 11. Gaskell may not have known at the time the man was still alive but died of wounds two days later. Captain Henry Clendon Collis Reynolds was 30-years-old and is commemorated on the La Ferté-sous-Jouarre Memorial.
226. Private papers of C H Gaskell IWM Dept. of Documents, 99/55/1.
227. Ibid.
228. Astil, The Great War Diaries of Brigadier General Alexander Johnston, p.27.
229. Synge, From the Marne to the Aisne, p.121.
230. Ibid.
231. Lieutenants James Adam Hamilton Fergusson, Evan Ronald Horatio MacDonald and Colin Landseer McKenzie were buried that evening in the same grave with Lieutenant John O’Connell on the ridge behind the HLI positions. The bodies were never recovered and their names are commemorated on the La Ferté-sous-Jouarre Memorial.
232. Lieutenants Geoffrey Russell Fenton and Raymond Montgomerie Henderson are commemorated on the La Ferté-sous-Jouarre Memorial. Second Lieutenant Robert Burton Benison is buried at Vendresse British Cemetery. Grave Reference: III.C.7. Major William Sarsfield is buried at Vailly British Cemetery. Grave Reference: II.C.11.
233. Private Diary of Major Bernard Gordon Lennox, Grenadier Guards Archive.
234. Major Billy Congreve – as he was in 1916 – was killed in action on 20 July l916 and is buried at Corbie Communal Cemetery Extension, grave reference: I.F.35. At the time of his death he had been awarded the DSO and MC, the posthumous award of the Victoria Cross was gazetted in October 1916.
Chapter 11
235. Osburn, Unwilling Passenger, p. 153.
236. Thomas Gilliat Meautys is buried at Vendresse British Cemetery, grave reference: III.J.10. He was 25-years-old.
237. Private Papers of C Rainbird. IWM Dept. of Documents, 02/39/1.
238. The officer in question was Lieutenant George Vyvyan Naylor-Leyland, aged 22, of the Royal Horse Guards. He died of wounds on 21 September 1914 and is buried in Vendresse Churchyard Cemetery, grave reference 1. He was the son of Sir Herbert Scarisbrick Naylor-Leyland and had been mentioned in despatches.
239. The Private Papers of Captain B J N Marden. IWM Dept. of Documents, 14292.
240. POW Report, TNA WO 161/95/98.
241. Ibid.
242. 1/West Yorkshire War Diary, TNA WO 95/1618.
243. The Private Papers of Captain B J N Marden. IWM Dept. of Documents, 14292.
244. Bridges, Alarms and Excursions, pp.96–7.
245. Cited by Van Emden in, Tickled to Death to Go, p.74.
246. 1/West Yorkshire War Diary, TNA WO 95/1618.
247. Cited by Sheffield in, The Chief – Douglas Haig and the British Army.
248. Frederick Coleman, From Mons to the Marne with General French, p.194.
249. Edmonds, Military Operations France and Belgium 1914, p.396.
250. Captain Robert Frank Hawes is buried at Vailly British Cemetery. Grave Reference: I.A.10. He was the first officer of the Leicesters to die in action in the Great War.
251. Lieutenant Charles Paterson, War Diary of the 24th (SWB). SWB Museum Archive. W.18.66.
252. The Diary of Major G Ward. SWB Museum Archive W.2.48.
253. Ibid.
254. The names of Major Glynne Everard Welby, Lieutenants Charles Cadwell Sills and George Prescot Blackall-Simonds are commemorated on the La Ferté-sous-Jouarre Memorial. George Simonds had only been with the battalion for five days before his death in action. Lieutenant John Cadwallader Coker is buried at Vendresse British Cemetery., grave reference: I.B.8.
255. The Diary of Major G Ward. SWB Museum Archive W.2.48.
256. Captains Douglas Miers, Allan Cameron, Lieutenants Napier Cameron, and John Crocket, RSM Burt and Private R Brown are buried at Bourg-et-Comin Communal Cemetery. Lieutenant Kenneth Meiklejohn is buried at Vendresse British Cemetery, grave reference III.C.4. The remaining men are commemorated on the La Ferté-sous-Jouarre Memorial.
257. Ewen James Brodie was killed at Ypres on 12 November 1914. His name is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial.
258. From an account found in TNA WO 95/1399.
Chapter 12
259. Astil, The Great War Diaries of Brigadier General Alexander Johnston, p.25.
260. Maze, A Frenchman in Khaki, p.65.
261. Private Diary of J V Hay. RAF Museum Archive, AC 78/22/1.
262. Interestingly, Lieutenant Kenlis Atkinson, 4 Squadron RFC, mentions in his diary account that during the evening of 16 September, ‘all guns of the 1st Army [I Corps] turned onto German position’. He was unable to observe this but Lieutenant R G Small reported the bombardment was a, ‘terrific and a beautiful sight’. Whether this was the first concentration of artillery on the Aisne is not clear.
263. The Private Papers of J L Mowbray, IWM Dept. of Documents, 82/16/1.
264. Gunners H W Fuller (D.9.) and J R Smith (D.7.) died of wounds on 26 September at Soupir Château and are buried at Soupir Churchyard Cemetery.
265. Sergeant Herbert William Shadbolt died of wounds received in this premature explosion on 4 October 1914. He is buried at Braine Communal Cemetery. Grave Reference: B.6.
266. The Private Papers of J L Mowbray, IWM Dept. of Documents, 82/16/1.
267. Private Diary of Major Bernard Gordon Lennox, Grenadier Guards Archive. The 1/Siege Battery War Diary records four rounds being fired at the trench on 6 October.
268. The Private Papers of J L Mowbray, IWM Dept. of Documents, 82/16/1.
269. I Corps War Diary, TNA WO 95/588
270. Osburn, Unwilling Passenger, p. 146.
Chapter 13
271. Major Hubert Dunsterville Harvey-Kelly was shot down and killed on 21 December 1916 whilst flying as Commanding Officer of 56 Squadron. He is buried
at Brown’s Copse Cemetery, Roeux – Special Memorial 7.
272. The use of the word ‘our’ infers that the British artillery was engaged in this action although it would appear that the action was entirely French.
273. I Corps War Diary, TNA WO 95/588.
274. Captain C H Darley, 3 Squadron, developed Pretyman’s photographic work and by early 1915 the squadron was photographing and mapping entire lengths of the German trench systems.
275. McCudden, Flying Fury, p.5.
276. Terraine, World War One and the RAF, RAF History Society, No. 12/1994.
277. War Diary of Lieutenant W R Read. RAF Museum Archive, DC/73/76/1.
278. War Diary of Lieutenant K P Atkinson found in TNA AIR 1/719/33/1/1.
279. Private Papers of Sir Henry Jackson. IWM Dept. of Documents, 95/06/17.
280. Haldane, A Brigade of the Old Army 1914, p.103.
281. War Diary of Lieutenant W R Read. RAF Museum Archive, DC/73/76/1.
282. Ibid.
283. The Private Papers of J L Mowbray, IWM Dept. of Documents, 82/16/1.
284. Cited by Dye in, No. 9 (Wireless) Squadron 1914–1914. Cross and Cockade International 35/2/2004.
285. The Moffat referred to in WO 161/99/91 by Private Burgess was probably 8412 Private Thomas Moffatt. Makae is probably a misspelling of ‘Mackie’ or ‘Mackay/McKay’.
Chapter 14
286. POW Report, TNA WO 161/95/40.
287. POW Report, TNA WO 161/98/526.
288. POW Report, TNA WO 161/95/40.
289. POW Report, TNA WO 161/98/526.
290. POW Report, TNA WO 161/99/91.
291. POW Report, TNA WO 161/95/99.
292. POW Report, TNA WO 161/95/61.
293. Ibid.
294. POW Report, TNA WO 161/95/98.
295. POW Report, TNA WO 161/95/98.
296. This was probably Major Arthur David Nicholson, the son of Major General Stuart Nicholson, the Colonel Commandant of the Royal Artillery. Nicholson died in captivity on 24 September 1915 and is buried at Cologne Southern Cemetery. Grave Reference: VIII.E. 18.
297. POW Report, TNA WO 161/95/21.
298. POW Report, TNA WO 16196/11.
299. Ibid.
300. POW Report, TNA WO 161/95/98.
Chapter 15
301. Casualties are defined as men who were killed, wounded or missing in action. Any man who failed to answer his name at roll call and was not confirmed dead or wounded was deemed to be missing until he was confirmed dead or a prisoner of war.
Appendix I
Order of Battle – British Expeditionary
Force September 1914
I Corps – Lieutenant General Sir Douglas Haig
II Corps – General Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien (after 17 August 1914)
III Corps – Major General W P Pulteney (formed in France on 31 August 1914)
Cavalry Corps – Major General E H Allenby
Appendix II
The Aisne Cemeteries
There are some twenty-six cemeteries north and south of the river Aisne which contain casualties of the 1914 fighting. Below, in alphabetical order, are the locations and references to some of the individuals mentioned in the text who are buried on or near the battlefield. The memorial at La Ferté-sous-Jouarre, although much further south, has been included as it commemorates so many of the Aisne dead of 1914. For more precise information on the location of each cemetery visit the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website at: www.cwgc.org.
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The Private Papers of AV Spencer.
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