Kilby received his MC on 24 September 1915 and was then recommended for the DSO for ‘consistent good work, making some very useful reconnaissances’. The report cited one example: on the night of 5/6 September Kilby went along the tow-path towards Embankment Redoubt with another officer and obtained valuable information about the German defences. However, the DSO recommendation was overtaken by the events of 25 September.
Kilby is commemorated on the Loos Memorial to the Missing at Dud Corner Cemetery. In 1919 a memorial designed by Sir W.J. Tapper was placed in St Nicholas’s Chapel, York Minster; it was inscribed with details of Kilby’s deeds and awards and contained a bust of him surmounted by the family coat-of-arms. It was an appropriate place for a memorial as Kilby had been stationed at nearby Strenshall earlier in his career and had made frequent visits to the cathedral in his study of architecture; his family has also provided two Lord Mayors of York. A memorial to Kilby is also to be found in the Garrison Church, Whittington Barracks, Lichfield. His name is also listed on a war memorial in St Cuthbert’s Church, Peasholme Green, York.
Captain Kilby was assumed to be a prisoner of war after being wounded and his mother Alice enlisted the help of a family friend (who was a Dutch citizen) in order to communicate with a senior German official about her son’s situation. Eventually information was received from Germany that Capt. Kilby had died and had never been a prisoner of war.
On the death of his father, Kilby’s VC, the tunic he had been wearing when he won his MC, and a portrait of him were willed to Mrs Kilby for life, then to his daughter, Dorothy Alice Howlett.
Kilby’s body was eventually found on 19 February 1929 and interred at Arras Road Cemetery, Roclincourt, Plot III, Row N, Grave 27. His tunic, with an obvious bullet hole, together with a number of other items, was donated to the regiment by his sister and held in the regimental museum. His medals are held by the family.
R.P. HALLOWES
Hooge, Belgium, 25 September–1 October
The 4th Bn, Middlesex Regiment (8th Bde, 3rd Div.) was involved in one of the subsidiary operations that took place simultaneously with the opening of the Battle of Loos on 25 September. The battalion was moved forward into Sanctuary Wood on 18 September. The plan was for the 8th Bde to attack the German positions north of Sanctuary Wood from the Ypres–Menin road at a point opposite ‘Stirling Castle’; a single company of the 1st Royal Scots Fusiliers (9th Bde) was to attack on their right to straighten their part of the line, and two battalions from the 7th Bde (3rd Div.) were to attack the area around Hooge Château (see map on page 179); these attacks were an extension of the 14th Div.’s attack on Bellewaarde Farm. The frontage of attack allotted to 8th Bde was 1,500 yards, and the assault was to be made by the 2nd Royal Scots and the 1st and 4th Gordon Highlanders, with the 2nd Suffolks and 4th Middlesex being held in reserve.
The 8th Bde moved into the trenches in preparation for the assault on the night of 23 September. Shortages of material caused serious problems, especially the lack of wire-cutters. The British bombardment began at 03.30 hours, and was followed at 04.19 hours by the exploding of two mines under the German trenches opposite the 2nd Royal Scots. Two further mines were fired thirty seconds later in the same location. At 04.20 hours the attacking troops went forward. The 4th Middlesex War Diary states that at about 10.30 hours they were informed ‘that the front line was giving way, partly on account of artillery fire and partly from lack of bombs’. The battalion bombers were in the process of assisting in the detonation of the brigade’s supply of bombs when orders came to send a party of bombers, with two supporting platoons, to bomb up the communication trenches and relieve the 4th Gordon Highlanders who had been driven out of their earlier gains at Fort 13 in the German lines. Throughout the day successive companies of the 4th Middlesex were sent forward to reinforce or relieve other regiments. All night long the Middlesex men were engaged in repairing and rebuilding trenches in order to maintain a continuous and defensible position just north of Sanctuary Wood.
On the night of 26/27 September 2/Lt Hallowes noticed two wounded men lying out in the open. Regardless of the danger he left the trench and, despite coming under fierce rifle fire, coolly superintended the removal of the two wounded Royal Scots men to a place of safety. He had just returned to the trenches when the Germans began to shell the area heavily; it was one of four severe bombardments the 4th Middlesex were to endure in the six days before 1 October. The enemy had gauged the range very accurately and Hallowes, fearing that some of his men might falter, climbed onto the parapet to shout encouragement and put fresh heart into them. He did this on more than one occasion, as Pte W. Corner of B Coy reported later, saying: ‘Lt Hallowes … seemed to be everywhere, giving encouragement’. More than once Hallowes also made a daring reconnaissance of the German positions, and when his men’s supply of bombs was running short he made his way back under very heavy shell fire and brought up a fresh supply.
For six days Lt Hallowes set a magnificent example to his men, showing an almost total disregard of danger, but on 1 October he was mortally wounded. The Battalion War Diary ends its entry for this period with: ‘The conduct of Lt R.P. Hallowes was an example to all. He showed great coolness and resolution on this and previous occasions. When mortally wounded he still went on encouraging his men, his last remark being, “Men, we can only die once, if we have to die let us die like men – like diehards”.’ His death was the more tragic for the fact that he did not die from enemy action but was killed accidentally by a bomb dropped in the trench by one of a carrying party of another regiment. Hallowes was awarded the VC posthumously, for deeds carried out on the 25 September.
Rupert Price Hallowes was born on 5 May 1881, at Redhill, Surrey, the youngest son of Frederic Blackburn Hallowes FRCS and Mary Ann Taylor, daughter of the Revd W. Hutchinson, the rector of Checkly, Staffordshire. Hallowes was educated at Conyngham House School, Ramsgate, and at Haileybury College. He was a keen shot and took part in the Ashburton Shield at Bisley in 1896 and 1897, representing his College. Before the war he was an Instructor for the Boy Scouts at St Peter’s, Port Talbot Troop, and was assistant secretary for the Boy Scouts Association for many years.
He was gazetted second lieutenant in the Artists’ Rifles on 17 November 1909. When war broke out he was assistant manager of the Mansel Tin-Plate Works at Aberavon. He re-enlisted in the Artists’ Rifles as a private on 5 August 1914. He went to France on 27 December, later gaining a commission from the ranks, and trained at the Cadet School at Blendacques near St Omer, before joining the 4th Bn, the Middlesex Regiment, as temporary second lieutenant in April 1915. He won the MC on 19 July at Hooge when, as enemy troops advanced down a communication trench towards his position, he climbed out of the trench and, standing in the open, fired at the enemy, killing and wounding several of them. He also assisted in making a block dug-out in a communication trench and helped rebuild a demolished parapet that had been blown in by shells, all the time under heavy bombardment, and during the night he kept in touch with supporting troops and brought up supplies of bombs. His MC was gazetted on 6 September 1915 and he showed modesty about the whole affair. Later, Hallowes’ gallantry at Hooge from 25 September until his death on 1 October earned him the VC, which was gazetted on 18 November.
The Mansel Tin-Plate Works paid the full cost (£400) of a new receiving ward and X-ray room at the Aberavon General Hospital in his memory, the money being raised by the Works’ staff and employees; the Boy Scouts Association installed complete x-ray apparatus in the new purpose-built room. Hallowes’ was the first VC to be awarded to the Middlesex Regt in the First World War; it was also the second VC to be awarded to an officer who had been trained for his commission at the Cadet School at Blendacques. He is buried at Bedford House Military Cemetery, Zillebeeke, Plot XIV, Row B, Grave 36. His Victoria Cross is displayed at the National Army Museum, Chelsea.
A.A. BURT
Cuinchy, France, 27 September
The 1/1st Herts Regt, 6th Bde, 2nd Div.
, was not in action on 25 September, the opening day of the battle of Loos, but the following day were brought in to relieve half of the line held by 1st King’s (Liverpool) Regt astride the Cambrin–La Bassée Road. On 25 September an attack was ordered for 17.00 hours which was dependent on the effects of a British release of poison gas on the enemy. As machine-gun fire was opened on a patrol of the Herts no attack was launched. The front trenches were crowded with men assembled for the proposed attack when they were subjected to minenwerfer (a large high explosive mortar) fire. One of these large projectiles landed in a trench but did not explode: No. 1665 Cpl Burt ran to the bomb, held the fuse with his foot, pulled it out and threw it over the parapet; he probably saved the lives of nearly twenty men in that section of trench. Burt had no way of knowing if the bomb would explode and he could easily have taken cover behind a traverse instead.
For this selfless act of courage he was awarded the VC, which was gazetted on 22 January 1916, and he was invested with his medal by the King at Buckingham Palace on 4 March 1916.
Alfred Alexander Burt was born at Port Vale, Hertford, on 3 March 1895 and was only five months old when the family moved to 19 Nelson Street. His parents had lived in Hertford for over twenty years. One of a large family, Burt was educated at Cowbridge Road School and when he left there he worked as a gas-fitter for the Hertford Gas Company. Ten days before the war began he obtained another job at Basingstoke but, as a member of 1/1st Herts, a Territorial battalion, he was mobilized on 4 August 1914.
With his battalion he trained at Stowlangtoft and Rougham Park, near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, as part of the East Midland Bde, East Anglian Div. In November the battalion went to France and joined 4th (Guards) Bde, 2nd Div., with whom Burt saw action at Cuinchy in February and Festubert in May 1915. The battalion was attached to 6th Bde, also in 2nd Div., on 19 August 1915 and before the battle of Loos Burt was promoted to L/Cpl.
Pupils of his old school, Cowbridge County Council School, made a collection and presented Burt with an inscribed silver cigarette case. They then gave three cheers and sang ‘For he’s a jolly good fellow.’ On Easter Monday 1916, some 3000 people gathered in the grounds of Hertford Castle to witness the presentation of an illuminated address, gold watch and chain, and a voucher for £100, gifts from the townspeople of Hertford. Burt graciously accepted the gifts and told the audience, ‘I only did what many other British soldiers have done, but I was very fortunate to be recognized.’ At that time two of his brothers were in the armed forces and no fewer than forty of his mother’s relatives were also serving their country. He re-enlisted with his battalion as his initial period of service was completed and served on the Western Front for the remainder of the war, being discharged from the Army in 1919 with the rank of sergeant.
In 1925 Burt moved to Chesham, Bucks., and was the licensee of the New Inn, Waterside, where he stayed until just before the Second World War when he moved to 175 Chartridge Lane, Chesham. He attended many of the VC gatherings through the years and met Canon Lummis on 27 June 1956 on the occasion of the VC Centenary Review when, Lummis noted, Burt was in a wheelchair. Burt was reported to be an invalid from the early 1950s and in a letter to Canon Lummis in April 1957, he wrote that he was recovering from a serious illness.
On 8 May 1962 Alfred Burt was admitted to Tindal General Hospital, where he died on 9 June. Shortly before, he had received a letter from the Queen’s private secretary expressing the Queen’s sorrow at not having been able to meet him on her visit to Buckinghamshire on 6 April. He was cremated at a private ceremony at Garston West Herts Cemetery, Watford, on Thursday 14 June and his plot was marked by a small iron plate under a cherry tree. Burt left a wife, son and daughter. Mrs Jenny Newton, Burt’s daughter, presented her father’s medals to the Hertfordshire Museum in August 1979.
H. CHRISTIAN
Cuinchy, France, 18 October
Among the brickstacks in the area to the south of the La Bassée Canal, a 23-year-old regular soldier, Pte Harry Christian, won the VC.
His battalion, the 2nd Bn, King’s Own Royal Lancaster Regt, 83rd Bde, 28 Div., had completed a tour of duty at the Hohenzollern Redoubt on 6 October, and moved out to a rest area. But on 15 October the 83rd Bde returned to the line in the Cuinchy sector and the 2nd King’s Own took over a stretch of front line trenches from Hanover Street north to the La Bassée Canal (see map on page 18). The Regimental History states, ‘the whole area was a maze of trenches, shell craters, communication trenches, saps and sidings. Several large craters in front of the lines had been occupied and connected with trenches.’ Two companies held the firing line and in one of these, holding a mine crater with a small party of men, was No. 10210 Pte Christian. On 19 October the Battalion War Diary records that the enemy destroyed about 50 yards of parapet on the left of the line, ‘killing 4 ORs and wounding or injuring by burying 6 ORs’. Much of this damage was caused by minenwerfers, a very large type of enemy trench mortar. The bombardment forced Christian and the men with him to withdraw from the crater. During their withdrawal he realized that three of his party were missing and he returned to the crater even though it was still under fire, to look for them. He found the missing men, all of whom had been buried by the explosions; one at a time he dug them out and carried them back for medical attention. He then found himself a vantage point from where he could see the flight of the minenwerfer projectiles and could warn his comrades of their approach, giving the troops a chance to find cover.
Christian was awarded the VC for most conspicuous bravery although the award was not gazetted until 3 March 1916; the citation states 18 October as the date of the action but the Battalion War Diary specifies 19 October. He received his medal from the King on 18 September 1917.
Harry Christian was born at Wall Thwaite, Pennington, near Ulverston in Lancashire on 17 January 1892 and received his education at the National Schools, Ulverston. After a number of farming jobs he enlisted in the Army at Lancaster in November 1909 and was serving with 2nd Bn, King’s Own, at Lebong, India, at the outbreak of war. He arrived in France on 16 January 1915. He was wounded and briefly returned to England on 17 July 1915.
His battalion left France and sailed to Egypt, landing in Salonika in December 1915. In September 1917 Christian went home on leave and an investiture was held at Ibrox Park, Glasgow, where some 80,000 people assembled inside the football ground to give the King a rousing welcome. Following a mixture of decorations and awards – the loudest applause being reserved for a female munitions worker who received the OBE – it was Christian’s turn; he was carried on a invalid chair from a tunnel beneath the main stand by two St Andrew’s ambulancemen, one of whom held open Christian’s greatcoat while the King pinned on the medal. The applause was reported as ‘deafening’ as Christian was carried away from the dais. He had contracted malaria in Salonika and an attack had struck him down minutes before the ceremony.
Christian later returned to his battalion in Salonika and served with it for the rest of the war, being stationed north of Lake Doiran in Macedonia when the war ended. He was discharged from the Army on 4 April 1922 and for forty years was the landlord of the Park Hotel, Egremont, Cumberland, where he was described as ‘a model landlord’. He retired in 1963 and lived at 1 Dent Road, Thornhill, near Egremont, where in later years he was looked after by his niece, Mrs Farran. Harry Christian died in West Cumberland Hospital on 2 September 1974 at the age of 82 and was buried at Egremont Cemetery. A memorial plaque positioned on a private house bearing the names of men who served from the hamlet of New Mill, not far from Egremont, includes the name of Harry Christian. His medals were purchased by the King’s Own Regt in 1974.
T. KENNY
Near La Houssoie, France, 4 November
No. 17424 Pte Thomas Kenny of the 13th Durham Light Infantry (DLI), 68th Bde, won the 23rd Div’s first VC at the age of thirty-three, while attempting to save his officer near La Houssoie in the vicinity of Erquinghem. On 2 November, in very wet weather, the 13th DLI relieved the 12th DLI i
n trenches near La Houssoie; the trenches were inundated and the parapets and dug-outs were caving in. On the night of 4 November Lt P.A. Brown was superintending a working party engaged in improving the wire defences. Thick fog covered no-man’s-land and at 21.15 hours Brown, accompanied by Pte Kenny, went towards the enemy parapet. They lost their direction in the fog and found themselves close to the enemy lines; some Germans, who were lying in a ditch in front of their parapet, opened fire, shooting Brown through both thighs. Despite being heavily fired upon Pte Kenny crawled through the mud for more than an hour, carrying his wounded officer on his back, searching desperately in the fog for the way back to his lines. He refused to go on alone although repeatedly told to do so by Lt Brown. Nearly exhausted, he came upon a ditch which he recognized and making his officer as comfortable as he could, he went to fetch help. Finding an officer and a few men of the 13th DLI in a listening post, he guided them to where Lt Brown lay. A hostile party then attacked the rescuers, opening heavy rifle and machine-gun fire and throwing bombs from a range of 30 yards. The officer from the listening post, Capt. White, ordered the rescue party to go on with the wounded Lt Brown, while he held the enemy off with a rifle. With some assistance Pte Kenny had succeeded in bringing his officer safely to the British lines, but tragically Lt Brown died before he could be carried to the dressing station. Nevertheless Kenny’s selfless courage earned him the highest award for valour. His VC was gazetted on 7 December 1915, the citation stating that ‘Kenny’s pluck, endurance, and devotion to duty were beyond praise’.
VCs of the First World War 1915 The Western Front Page 25