Aristocrats Go to War: Uncovering the Zillebeke Cemetery

by Jerry Murland

The Great War of 1914–1918 was a tragedy which was experienced by individuals, communities and whole nations In Great Britain it was remembered and commemorated at each of these three levels. For many individuals who had suffered the loss of loved ones in the conflict, a pilgrimage to the battlefield cemeteries and memorials was the only way of finding closure and consigning the dead to memory. Apart from the Baroness de Gunzburg who made the journey to see her son’s grave when the bells were hung in the new church, exactly how many of the other relatives of the Zillebeke churchyard men made the journey is impossible to tell. But some would have undoubtedly made the journey and possibly travelled with organizations such as the British Legion, Salvation Army and the YMCA. Between November 1919 and June 1920 the Salvation Army conducted over 5,000 relatives to France and Belgium while the YMCA assisted some 60,000 people to make the pilgrimage up to the end of 1923. However, for the very poor, such as the Siewertsen family, even these subsidized travel arrangements would have been beyond their means.

  For the more affluent families the cost of travel would not have been an issue and I would be most surprised if the Zillebeke churchyard was not visited after the war by Evelyn St George and Henry and Anna Lee Steere. Continental travel was a pastime that individuals such as Lady Elizabeth Congleton would have been quite familiar with, so a relatively short journey to Belgium with other family members would have been easily accomplished. We know that Constance Rising travelled widely between the wars, and again, it is unlikely that she did not visit her husband’s grave.

  A number of regimental associations organized their own visits to coincide with the unveiling of battlefield memorials. Typical of this was the Household Cavalry party that travelled to Ypres for the Household Cavalry Memorial ceremony at Zandvoorde on Sunday, 4 May 1924. Arrangements were made with Thomas Cook to convey the group and organize the travel arrangements. Regimental funds were made available to assist those who were unable to afford the £3 to travel third class (£4.15s for First Class). Lady Sarah Wilson and Regy Wyndham’s sisters and mother, Lady Constance Wyndham, may well have been in this party. The memorial to all the Household Cavalrymen who fell between 4 August and 31 December 1914 was unveiled by Field Marshal Earl Haig and was erected on the spot where the body of Lieutenant Lord Worsley was found after the war. The memorial is said to have been paid for by Charles Worsley’s father, the Earl of Yarborough. Standing in front of the memorial today the battlefield visitor can look out over the ground that was defended by 7 Cavalry Brigade on the morning of 30 October 1914. Behind are the names of Gordon Wilson, Norman Neill, Regy Wyndham, Alexis de Gunzburg, Howard St George and William Petersen which are amongst the host of names inscribed on the stone column. Be there early on a cold October morning and you can almost hear the sounds of battle.

  From the Zandvoorde Ridge it is a short journey across to the Menin Road which still runs along its original 1914 course. Just east of Hooge, where the road bends slightly, is a spot which was known by the troops as Clapham Junction. The memorial to the men of the Gloucestershire Regiment is here, very close to the point where Robert Rising crossed the Menin Road with the 1st Battalion on his way to Zwarteleen on 6 November 1914. A similar memorial on the N365 road between Wytschaete and Messines was unveiled in May 1924 by Albert, King of the Belgians and remembers William Gibson and the London Scottish. The memorial is in the form of a large St Andrew’s cross which is on, or very near, the site of the l which marked the point where the battalion made their charge on 31 October 1914. Present at the ceremony were relatives of those men who fell in 1914 and very possibly the Gibson family was there also.

  By far the largest of the memorials in the Ypres Salient is the Menin Gate which was designed by the British architect Sir Reginald Blomfield and officially inaugurated on Sunday, 24 July 1927. Blomfield’s design combines the architectural images of a classical victory arch and a mausoleum and contains enormous panels into which are carved the names of the 54,896 officers and men of the British and Commonwealth forces who died in the Ypres Salient area and who have no known graves. Alfred Schuster has his name here as does the Hon Arthur O’Neill and Cabby Dawes, Regy Wyndham’s troop sergeant.

  In 1939 a new group of visitors arrived at the memorials and cemeteries around Ypres. This time it was the soldiers of a second BEF who saw first hand the sacrifice made by their fathers in the ‘war to end all wars.’ One young Royal Engineers officer, who was later to become better known as the writer and poet, Anthony Rhodes, recorded his visit to the war graves at Ypres with a poem he entitled ‘Repetition’.8

  ‘Dirty grey of the day at a Flanders dawn

  Breaks down on the graves where old Englishmen born

  For the earth of old England store up their infinite days

  Never knowing their sons in similar ways

  Will shatter themselves, their marrow and rust

  In search of a similar dust’

  Perhaps it was just as well that the men who lie in Zillebeke churchyard would be ‘never knowing’ that despite their sacrifice, the generation they hoped would enjoy a lasting peace was about to take up the gauntlet once again.

  Appendix 1

  Other Burials at Zillebeke

  Lieutenant Colonel Arthur de Courcy Scott: 1st Battalion, The Cheshire Regiment

  Grave: H.3.

  Arthur de Courcy Scott is one of only two officers with a headstone at Zillebeke who was not a casualty of 1914. The 1st Battalion Cheshire Regiment (1/Cheshire) spent October 1914 on the II Corps front until 7 November when it arrived in the Ypres sector just in time for the Prussian Guard attack on 11 November. The battalion was still desperately short of experienced officers and Scott was transferred from the 2nd Battalion to be its new commanding officer in late November 1914. This appointment, from all accounts a popular one, was to last less than six months.

  On 4 May 1915, 1/Cheshire was resting in dugouts under the ramparts that surrounded Ypres. At 8.45 am the Germans released a gas attack on the British line enabling the German forward troops to take over a substantial portion of the now abandoned British positions on the lower slopes of Hill 60. The Second Battle of Ypres had begun and 1/Cheshire was rushed up to help fill the gap in the line. Arthur De Courcy Scott was killed two days later on 6 May. The regimental history recorded his passing thus:

  ‘The regiment suffered a very severe loss when Colonel A de C Scott was killed. ‘Bro’ Scott was much loved by all ranks. His abilities were of a scholarly type, all too rare in our service.’

  Born in 1866, Arthur de Courcy Scott was the son of Major General Alexander de Courcy Scott of the Royal Engineers. He was educated at Wellington College from 1879 until 1883 after which he entered Sandhurst as a gentleman cadet. In 1885 he was commissioned into the Cheshire Regiment, joining the 2nd Battalion in India. His marriage to Phyllis Katharine Wilson came comparatively late in life and took place in Madras during October 1905. Scott was 39 and his young bride was 20. Two years later Rosalind Enid was born and in 1907 Phyllis gave birth to their son, Herbert.

  12647 Lance Corporal Neil Thomson: 11th Battalion, The Royal Scots

  Grave: J.1.

  Neil Thomson was killed on 9 December 1915 whilst his battalion was at Dickebusch providing ‘large fatigue parties under brigade orders’. This could have been anything from digging trenches or erecting and repairing barbed wire defences to unloading and transporting stores. Well aware that this type of activity was carried out during the hours of darkness, gunners on both sides would target likely communication routes and assembly areas behind the lines opposite with high explosive shells in the knowledge they were bound to hit something eventually. Neil Thomson was a victim of this random shell fire. The 11th, 12th and 13th Battalions were raised in August 1914 in Edinburgh, with the 11th and 12th being allocated to the 9th (Scottish) Division. They moved to France in May 1915 and first saw action at the Battle of Loos, where the 11th Battalion was almost wiped out. The Thomson family farmed Crosscroes Farm at Fauldhouse, West Lothian. />
  13239 Private William Stewart: 11th Battalion, The Royal Scots

  Grave: Special Memorial 2.

  William Stewart was born at Harwich in 1896 where his father worked as a boatman for the Customs and Excise Service. His parents, William and Susannah Stewart, returned to Scotland with their five children at the turn of the century where William was employed as a second class boatman at the port of Greenock. His work with the customs service included ‘rummage’ duties as part of the prevention of smuggling by ships and their crews arriving from foreign ports by searching vessels for contraband. During this period the family lived at 2, Wemyss Bay Street. It is probable that on the outbreak of war in August 1914 the 19-year-old William was also working with his father as a boatman before enlisting in the 11th Battalion, Royal Scots. By December 1915 William was in Sanctuary Wood where the battalion was ordered to supply working parties to repair trenches. He was killed on 16 December 1915 when his working party was shelled.

  27611 Corporal Charles Coyde: 15th Battalion (Central Ontario), Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF)

  Grave: C.4.

  Charles Coyde was born on the island of Guernsey in November 1892 and was the only son of Charles and Isabella. In 1901 the family were living at 41, Upper St Jacques Road, St Peter Port but by 1914 the address had changed to Queen’s Road. His father worked as a market gardener and his mother was employed as a housekeeper. Charles worked initially as a commercial traveller but in June 1914 he left Southampton on the SS Ascania for Quebec. On arrival in Canada Charles found work as a lumberjack in the Quebec area before enlisting on 9 September 1914 at Valcartier.

  The battalion embarked at Quebec on 3 October 1914 aboard the SS Megantic, disembarking in England on 14 October 1914. Four months later on 14 February 1915, they landed in France becoming part of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Brigade, 1st Canadian Division. The 15th battalion was initially in the La Bassée area before moving north to the Salient. In June 1916 the battalion was involved in the battle for Mount Sorrell, the low ridge between Hooge and the crest line of Hills 62 and 61. As a vantage point it rose approximately ninety feet higher than the shallow ground at Zillebeke, affording any occupying force excellent observation over the Salient and all approach routes. Possession of the ridge was a great prize and at 6.00 am on 2 June 1916 German artillery began a massive bombardment of the Canadian positions. Just after 1.00 pm German engineers blew up four mines and attacked the ridge. By the end of the day the ridge had been taken and the Canadians driven back over half a mile. A Canadian counter-attack the next day, which included the 15th Battalion, was unsuccessful and it was not until ten days later that German forces were pushed off the ridge back to their original line. Although eventually successful, it had been a costly engagement for the Canadians. Between 2 and 14 June, Canadian forces lost over 8,000 men.

  On 3 June the 15th Battalion and other units of the Canadian 3 Brigade were in position at 3.27 am and awaiting the signal to attack, however by the time the attack began at 8.55 am there had already been numerous casualties from German artillery targetting the Canadian assembly positions. The 15th Battalion war diary also reported several shells from their own artillery dropping short onto Canadian lines. The battalion war diary takes up the story:

  ‘Upon the signal being given the officers and men behaved most courageously immediately getting out, forming line and rushed forward in the face of a perfect hell of artillery and machine-gun fire. It did not seem possible that anything could live through it. The right of the line was held up by a thick hedge and before a way was found through it, the first line was all shot down … it soon became apparent the objective could not be reached. Accordingly the men fell back to the starting point.’

  It had been a costly day for the men of the 15th Battalion, the official casualty figures recorded eleven officers and 297 other ranks as killed, wounded or missing. It is not possible to pinpoint exactly when Charles Coyde was killed; he could have been one of the casualties sustained before the attack began or he may have been killed during the attack itself. However, his body was recovered and buried at Zillebeke.

  445160 Private William John Croft: 24th Battalion (Victoria Rifles), CEF

  Grave: B.3.

  John Croft was an 18-year-old tailor’s apprentice when he enlisted in July 1915 at Chatham, New Brunswick. The battalion left Canadian shores on the SS Cameronia and arrived at Devonport on 20 May 1915. Four months later, after a further period of training in England, the Victoria Rifles landed in France on 16 September. On the evening of 7 June 1915 the battalion was transported to a point close to Vlamertinghe and were en-route to the trenches in the vicinity of Maple Copse:

  ‘On the way to the front line from Ypres, the Battalion was harassed severely by enemy fire. At approximately 11.45 pm, ‘B’ Coy., under Lieut. C S B White, was passing in single file along the road in front of the church in Zillebeke when a heavy shell burst in the midst of No. 5 Platoon, no warning preceding it, as the sound of its approach had been drowned by the noise of a field battery clattering hurriedly towards the front. When the shell burst, the company commander was hurled into the roadside ditch, but soon recovered his feet and dazedly sought his men. For a moment it seemed that No. 5 Platoon had disappeared, but eventually, from a carnage of torn and riven bodies on the road, Lieut. G V Walsh and Company Sergeant-Major L A Sewell reported themselves unwounded. Lieut. Walsh was suffering from severe concussion, but was able to report the disaster and summon assistance from the rear … Twelve men lay dead on the road, including two of ‘B’ Company’s Signallers, and eleven severely wounded lay amongst them. Arms and legs were strewn around and in the darkness the nightmare task was to separate the wounded and dying from the dead.’

  One of those who could be still identified from the carnage was William Croft.

  65891 John Carron Sime: 24th Battalion (Victoria Rifles), CEF

  Grave: D.4.

  John Sime was born in 1897 at Crail, a small village on the east coast of Scotland. James and Catherine Sime, together with John and his three sisters, lived at 5, Temple Crescent. James Sime was a successful butcher in Crail and the family employed a servant. Nevertheless John decided against joining his father in the family business and emigrated to Canada with his cousin Hugh Sime. Travelling on the SS Scotian they arrived at Halifax, Nova Scotia in February 1913. John enlisted in Montreal in October 1914 a month after his 22nd birthday, his occupation is noted on his attestation papers as ‘bank clerk’. Along with William Croft, John joined the 24th Battalion and on 7 June 1916 he was with 5 Platoon when they were hit by the high explosive shell by the church at Zillebeke. He was buried with William Croft in what remained of the shattered churchyard across the road.

  438053 Sergeant Walter William Davison: 52nd Battalion (New Ontario), CEF

  Grave: B.5.

  Walter Davison was a stenographer who, before he enlisted in December 1914, worked at the Grain Exchange at Fort William. Canadian born and unmarried, he lived at 331, Bathurst Street with his parents, John and Rachel Davison who ran a small grocery business. The 52nd Battalion was raised in northern Ontario during the spring of 1915 with its mobilisation headquarters at Port Arthur. The battalion landed in France on 20 February 1916 and three days later joined 9 Brigade of the 3rd Canadian Division. Just over three months later, the battalion was part of the Canadian Mount Sorrel action and on 7 June 1916 was ordered to relieve the 43rd Battalion in the trenches at Maple Copse:

  ‘Battalion rested during day. 3.00 pm orders received to move to the relief of 43rd Bn. Then occupying trenches extending from Maple Copse to Gourock Rd … This relief successfully carried out and completed by 1.30 am. Draft of 20 OR reinforcements reported with transport. A shell bursting where rations had been dumped inflicted several casualties amongst the men of this battalion and must have made a direct hit on 438053 Sgt. Davison, Orderly Room Clerk, reporting for duty, as no trace of him could afterwards be found. His death was a severe blow to Orderly Room Staff.’


  Despite the rather grim account of Walter’s death in the war diary, some remains must have been found and later buried in the Zillebeke churchyard.

  568 Sapper Charles Preston Ilsley: 6th Field Company, CEF

  Grave: H.2.

  Charles Ilsley graduated from McGill University in 1915 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering. In February of that year he travelled from Ottowa to Montreal to enlist in the 6th Field Company. Over half the volunteers were from Queen’s University, Montreal, the remainder travelling from all over Canada to enlist. The Company left Canada on the SS Northland on 24 April 1915, arriving five days later at Avonmouth. By 15 September they were in France deployed in the Kemmel sector as 2nd Canadian Division Engineers. The Company moved into the Zillebeke area in March 1916. Charles Ilsley’s death on 23 March was the work of a German sniper:

  ‘Another one of our splendid lads, Sapper ‘Red’ Ilsley, of Section 2, was killed by a bullet at 8.00 pm while loading material at Bull Dump in Maple Copse on the 23rd. Sapper Ilsley was buried in Zillebeke churchyard alongside a cross that marks the grave of Lieutenant [sic] Gordon Lennox, killed in 1914.’

  Born in September 1892 in South Dakota, Charles Ilsley was 24yearsold when he was killed. He left a widow, Adelia Blance Ilsley.

  Lieutenant Frederick Johnston Watson: 43rd Battalion (Cameron Highlanders), CEF

  Grave: F.3.

  Born in Arbroath in 1888, Frederick Watson studied Law at the University of St Andrews from 1908–9 and was admitted to the Glasgow Institute of Chartered Accountants in 1912. In November 1912 he sailed on the SS Cassandra for Montreal and on the outbreak of war in 1914 was working in Winnipeg with Messrs Riddell, Stead, Graham and Hutchison. He initially enlisted in the Winnipeg Rifles but was soon commissioned into the 43rd Battalion which was formed on 16 December 1914. In June 1914 the battalion sailed for Devonport on the SS Grampian, ultimately joining 9 Brigade of the 3rd Canadian Division. By February 1916 the battalion was in France and four months later it was engaged in its first action at Mount Sorrel. Lieutenant Frederick Watson was killed in action on 10 June. The battalion war diary for that date records his death: