By the end of the first day of July, 22nd Battalion of the Manchesters had suffered ten officers and 120 other ranks killed, eight officers and 241 men wounded, with another 111 men missing.12 Among those killed included Captain Bill Bland, a promising scholar who had, before the war, turned down the offer of a professorship at Melbourne University to enlist; Lieutenant ‘Gommy’ Gomersall, a former grammar school boy and chartered accountant; keen scientist and Captain Frank Earles’s former school mate, Lieutenant Roy Mellor; Lieutenant William Brunt, the journalist who had recently been promoted from the ranks; Second Lieutenant Joseph Nanson, a fine all-round athlete and former quarry worker; Sergeant Frederick Knowles, and Corporal William Gee.
Captain ‘Worthy’ Worthington was wounded, but survived the war to return to the cotton trade in Manchester. Captain Earles also survived, and joined the 18th Manchesters. After receiving serious wounds to his lung at Bapaume in October 1916, he was shipped back to hospital in England. In a hospital at Rouen, Charlie’s father, Captain Charles Edward May, had met the wounded Second Lieutenants George Ryall and Marcus Woodhouse. Others included Second Lieutenant John Wood, older than most but who had already served in the Dominions, Second Lieutenant ‘John’ Cotton, who had been a railwayman, and the former civil servant Lieutenant John Prince. Dr ‘Doc’ McGregor lived to 1965, Second Lieutenant ‘Frankie’ Harrison played cricket for Cheshire and Major Frank Boyd Merriman continued his distinguished legal career, was elected to the House of Commons in 1924 and elevated to the peerage in 1941. Another who was wounded was the political journalist Captain Charles Mostyn Lloyd, who later covered the Versailles Peace Conference and became editor of the New Statesman.
Charlie’s batman, Arthur Bunting, survived the Somme and after May’s death was transferred to the service of Captain H. F. Jones. In April 1917, Bunting was captured at Vimy Ridge and taken as POW to Dulmen Camp in Germany and then to Melmes in East Prussia (now Lithuania). While a prisoner, he was grateful for food and cigarettes sent from England, and recorded that Maude was particularly generous. He lived to see the Armistice in November 1918, but became a victim to the Spanish influenza pandemic that was sweeping across Europe in December. To mark her thanks for his devotion to duty, Maude gave Effie, his wife, a carriage clock inscribed with the words, ‘To Private A. Bunting in recognition of his devotion to Capt C. C. May, 22nd Battalion, Manchester Regiment, Killed in Action, July 1st 1916 near Mametz, France.’
Sergeant Richard Tawney also survived, having lain severely wounded in no-man’s land for thirty hours, but he managed to drag himself back to safety. In 1917 he was medically discharged from the Army and returned to England where he taught economics. In 1924 he was appointed the economic adviser to the first Labour government.
The total count for British and Commonwealth troops on 1 July 1916 was 19,240 dead and 35,493 wounded.13 On the evening of the second day, when General Sir Douglas Haig entered these events in his own diary, he wrote, ‘the total casualties are estimated at over 40,000 to date. This cannot be considered severe in view of the numbers engaged, and the length of the front attacked.’14 By November 1916, the end of the Battle of the Somme, these figures had climbed dramatically: it is recorded that the total casualties of British and Commonwealth troops was 419,654, of whom 95,675 were killed or missing. Total French losses were 204,253. The estimate for Germans lost was 465,000.15
Although it had been Bunting who after his captain’s death had collected Charlie’s belongings, including these diaries, it was Captain Earles who very probably arranged for them to be shipped back to England. Just before the first big assault, Charlie had asked Earles, who he had known before 1914 and who was now alongside him, whether, if he died, he would visit Maude at home in Essex and take care of their daughter. Frank fulfilled his promise, and more. Three years later, on 19 May 1919, he married Maude, with four-year-old Pauline in attendance, and proved to be a loving husband and stepfather.
In July 1920 a ceremony watched by hundreds took place in the centre of Manchester, when the King’s Colours were presented to the 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st and 22nd Battalions of the Manchester Regiment. It is not known how many survivors of the original Pals were able to take part in this parade.
The desire to consecrate a chapel in memory of the regiment was such that, in 1936, Lord Derby agreed that the Derby Chapel in Manchester Cathedral should be re-dedicated to the regiment. A committee was formed to raise funds and, in memory of the fallen, donations of furniture and other gifts were received from the regiment and the public.ix The Cathedral Honorary Architect was Hubert Worthington of the 16th Battalion, and brother of Tom Worthington, or ‘Worthy’, of the 22nd Battalion. The chapel, where the Regimental Colours now hang beneath its elaborately carved timber roof, was inaugurated the following year.
… No braver or more determined men ever faced an enemy than these sons of the British Empire who ‘went over the top’ on the 1st July 1916. Never before had the ranks of the British Army on the field of battle contained the finest of all classes of the nation in physique, brains and education. And they were volunteers, not conscripts. If ever a decisive victory was to be won it was to be expected now.
Captain Wilfred Miles, The Official History of the Great War, 1925
Charlie May: Other Writings
May’s short stories, written between 1912 and 1916, are typical of their time – mostly charming whimsical tales of lost love, chivalry and derring-do. Some are set in New Zealand, and a few later ones were written in France. His poems are lyrical, with a romantic, Edwardian feel.
Short Stories
All for the Love of a Lady
The Awakening of Archibald
Better Man than her Lover
Beyond the Line: A Tale of ‘No Man’s Land’
The Blacksmith of Broken Cross
At Buddacombe
By the Lake Track
Captain Latimer
Commandant of the Passes
A Deal in the Calico
The Den of the Katipo
The Edge of the Precipice
Fireman’s Jealousy: A Real Life Romance
General Knowledge
Home Tales from the Antipodes
In the Train
The Intruder
Jimmy: A Tale of a Young Lieutenant who did his Duty on the Outpost of Empire
The Little ‘Pilot’
The Luck of the Sandemans
A Meeting of Fortune
The North Sea Lights
The Old House
The Other Side
Paradise, a New Zealand Love Story
The Poem: A Story of the Trenches
The Reaper
The Repayment
Sawney
Miss Simplicity
On the Skipper’s Road
The Southerly ‘Buster’
Steam Strategy
Stepping Stones: A True Tale of Macclesfield and Australia
The Story of the ‘Vittoria Affair’
The Vincible Bower
The Whaler
When Dalgleish Came to Canvey: A Stirring, Smuggling Yarn in which a Maid Proves to Be
The Wooing of a Grenfell
Poems:
White Cloud: a poem of New Zealand
The Tale of Hiram Carord
To the Unenlisted
Picture Section
Charles Edward May. An electrician, he was a pioneer inventor of the electric fire alarm, which much later was installed on the Queen Mary for her maiden voyage in 1936.
The steamship Westmeath, in which the May family sailed in 1883 from London, Gravesend – via Plymouth, St. Vincent, Hobart and Auckland – to Port Chalmers, South Island, New Zealand.
Port Chalmers harbour, Dunedin. This photograph, taken by the Burton brothers in 1880, shows the shipping in Otago Bay at the time.
Princes Street, Dunedin, in 1885, also taken by the Burton brothers. The town’s name was contrived by linking Dundee and Edinburgh, from which many
settlers originated.
The contraption known as the May-Oatway Fire Alarm, which soon became a success.
The May family at home in Leytonstone, London, in about 1905.
From left to right: Lillian, Charles Edward, Susan, Charlie.
The bridesmaids at the wedding of Lily May in London, 1909.
On the left is Maude Holl, with Charlie beside her.
Trooper Charlie May in the King Edward’s Horse, while at a summer camp.
Captain Charlie May outside his tent during training on Salisbury Plain, autumn 1915.
Private Richard Tawney. This picture was taken by Edwin Hadley in Grantham, 1915. He had a flourishing business photographing the soldiers training in nearby Belton Park.
Captain Alfred Bland, whose death ended a promising academic career.
Lieutenant William Gomersall, who was a Yorkshireman before he moved to Manchester. Immediately after receiving a commission, he took a course at Sandhurst before rejoining his battalion.
Private Arthur Bunting. Charlie May’s widow, Maude, generously cared for him after he was taken prisoner, regularly sending him food parcels.
Maude with Pauline after her christening in Didsbury Parish Church, Manchester, 1914.
Photographs of Maude and Pauline in a leather-bound case, which Maude had posted to Charlie, referred to by him on 24 March 1916.
Maude, Pauline and Charlie, who is perhaps at home on leave in February 1915.
During the war Maude moved from Manchester back to Essex.
‘My dear, dear girlie … what joyous times have been ours in other summers.’ Maude.
Pauline, aged about four, with her teddy bear, c.1918.
Three of Charlie May’s seven pocket books, in which his diaries were meticulously written each day.
‘Our camp in the Bois’, a ‘vile’ sketch by Charlie May. ‘Its only excuse for existence is that it will serve as a slight record of four happy days.’ (19 May 1916)
In the 1st Army of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, Captain Charles Edward May, seated, at camp at the Imperial School of Instruction at Zeitoun, Egypt, 1915.
Designed by Sir Herbert Baker, Dantzig Alley British Cemetery is on the road between the villages of Mametz and Montauban.
Charlie May’s headstone, at Dantzig Alley British Cemetery, where 220 men of the Manchester Regiment are buried. May was killed near by at Bucket Trench.
Frank Earles in the early 1920s, the horrors of war now behind him. While in hospital he met Thomas Lipton, a merchant and champion yachtsman, who offered him a job.
Pauline, a family friend and Maude in the forest of Fontainebleau, to the south of Paris, where Frank was working in 1922 for Lipton’s Tea.
After Pauline’s wedding to Harry Karet in London, 1950, the bride and groom depart for their honeymoon near Calais, France.
Footnotes
Prologue: ‘A pippy, miserable blighter’
i On 28.10.15, the 21st and 22nd Manchesters moved from Grantham to No. 3 Camp, Canadian Lines, Lark Hill. On the 4th November they paraded for a final inspection by Lord Derby, the honorary colonel, and soon afterwards received a telegram of good wishes from the King George V.
ii The 23rd (or 8th City) Bn, Manchester Regt, was raised as a bantam battalion of men whose height was below the normal regulation minimum of five foot three inches. On this same evening a concert was given by sergeants for officers, which included a performance by ‘a musical quartet and scenes from Shakespeare’ (Sgt Richard Henry Tawney, 7.11.15).
iii A ‘Miss Guillet’ attended the wedding in 1909 of May’s sister Lillian as a bridesmaid.
iv The 22nd (or 7th City) Bn was now commanded by Lt Col. Paul W. Whetham.
v May had been transferred to the command of B Coy, having at first commanded A Coy. He clearly lost a wager on the result of the match.
vi Maj. Frank Boyd Merriman; 2nd Lt Orric Joures Knudsen.
vii 91st Bde, then a unit of the 30th Div.
viii Adelaide, Countess Brownlow, the lady of Belton House, near Grantham, where the battalion was in training.
ix The battalion shouldered arms at twelve noon and marched to Amesbury railway station, where trains had been assembled. It de-trained in Folkestone at 6 p.m.
x The Leas is a flat expanse of public garden along the summit of the cliffs at Folkestone.
xi Meaning in perfect health.
xii The men were billeted in unoccupied lodgings in Marine Parade on the seafront where they had ‘a very uncomfortable night without food or fire’ (Tawney, 11.11.15). The officers stayed in the Devonshire House Hotel.
xiii Capt. Donald Murray; Lt David Stanley Murray.
xiv A cheval glass mirror is one in which the glass is mounted on side-swivels inside a frame.
xv Most likely a family friend who lived in Folkestone.
Chapter 1: ‘And all because it is war!’
i ‘We [have] had wretched weather since our departure from England, but were lucky to have a very easy crossing, the sea being fairly calm – the only thing to mar it was the rain, which didn’t half come down, and made me feel sorry for the men as the whole battalion was huddled together on the deck’ (Lt William Ellis ‘Gommy’ Gomersall, 14.11.15).
ii After disembarking at Boulogne the battalion marched up a hill for a night under canvas at the ‘rest camp’ at Ostrahove. With no boards in the tents, the rainwater was able to flow through in streams.
iii 2nd Lt Hugh Stapleton (‘John’) Cotton joined the colours after the initial records of each company had been made; Lt Reginald Walter Bowly, nicknamed ‘Bubbles’.
iv Adjutant, Capt. John Edward Townsend.
v The following morning the battalion marched down into Boulogne to board a train. The journey for most, via Etaples and Abbeville, was in cattle trucks labelled ‘32-40 hommes ou 6 chevaux’. There were no ordinary passenger carriages available, except first-class, which were reserved for officers.
vi The battalion’s medical officer, Lt George Barbour McGregor.
vii ‘The rear was brought up by May and the Doctor mounted, and for the remainder of the march I followed in the car, the big headlights showing up all the derelicts, who were whipped on and spurred by May’s wonderful personality … We threw a searchlight over the remains of a worn-out battalion. They were willing to lie down anywhere and die, but May pushed them up and on, and up and on they went, staggering through the mud, desperate and lost souls … The last of our merry troupe got in about 11.30 and just fell like logs in the stables and barns which constitute their billets’ (Capt. Albert Edward ‘Bill’ Bland, 13.11.15).
viii The location was Brucamps, at which the transport and machine-gun sections under Maj. Charles Moubray Allfrey had already arrived. It is unclear why May so often refers to Brucamps in his diaries with such a bitter memory.
ix The officers were fortunate to be billeted in the farmhouses. ‘I am extraordinarily happy, simply bursting with riotous spirits. We are living like lords at the rate of 1/- a day. The one thing lacking is shell fire. I shall not achieve the real thrill till I get within the sound of the guns and the phut-phut of the rifle and the glorious ping of the bullet that whirrs past like a singing whipcord. This is not blather. I mean it’ (Bland, 13.11.15).
x 2nd Lt Joseph Armitage Shelmerdine; Lt John Franklin Prince.
xi ‘This ruined shell-battered church, with gaping holes in the roof and only the tumbledown walls standing. But I shall never forget the service and its beauty, away over here amongst a land of strangers and so near the common enemy’ (Gomersall, 14.11.15).
xii ‘The battalion receives orders at the last moment from the Brigade which receives orders at the last moment from Headquarters, to occupy a certain area … The battalion marches into or nearly into its appointed village, the Interpreter follows exhausted on a bicycle, O.C. Companies ride on and around and do their best with no French on their tongue tips, while the battalion stands and shivers and pretends to be happy. Then the various companies are march
ed … to various cosy nooks or draughty corners, and after considerable adjustment involving much marching … settle down. Then the Officers look around for the said rooms in the said houses, and are quite glad to shed their packs in the first handy place that offers … While the Officers are securing their billets, the men clear the village of cigarettes and chocolate. They can always find enough French for that!’ (Bland, 5.12.15).
xiii During the march from Pont-Remy to Brucamps the guides lost their way.
xiv The French Army had raised twelve regiments of Chasseurs à Cheval, to form a light cavalry unit.
xv References to: The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas, Micah Clark by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Sir Nigel, also by Conan Doyle, a swashbuckling story set during the Hundred Years’ War.
xvi Capt. Thomas Ryland Worthington.
xvii ‘On Saturday the CO agreed that three officers a day may be allowed to go [to Amiens]. On Sunday was published a Divisional Order, forbidding any officer or man to journey thither except on purely Regimental business. To make it the more tantalising, on Saturday morning the whole battalion went along the Roman Road that links us to the said city, and we reached a spot where it lay visibly two miles away – and then about-turned and marched home again, our tongues hanging out of our mouths, our bones turned to water’ (Bland, 23.11.15).
To Fight Alongside Friends Page 22