THROUGHOUT the centenary of the First World War, we have been remembering the soldiers from the Loughborough area who lost their lives while serving their country. ‘Your son fell nobly doing his duty’
Here, with the help of Marigold Cleeve and a small number of researchers from the Loughborough Carillon Tower and War Memorial Museum, we look back at more of those who made the ultimate sacrifice in September 1917.
Howard Cyril Barrow
Howard Cyril Barrow was born in 1894 in Loughborough and baptised at Holy Trinity Church on 25th July 1894.
He was the elder son of George Richardson Barrow and his wife Sarah Caroline (née Allibone) who were married at All Saints Church, Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, on 5th April 1893.
Howard’s father was a draper and in 1901 the Barrow family, including Howard’s widowed grandmother Sarah Allibone lived at 10 High Street, Loughborough.
By 1911 they had moved to 11 Gregory Street and Howard’s father was a traveller for a draper while his mother was a dressmaker. Howard had one brother Gerald, eight years younger than himself. Another sibling had died in infancy.
Howard attended Miss Bagnall’s School in Loughborough, and in 1903, aged eight, he joined Loughborough Grammar School.
In 1908 his school report said that he was weak in mathematics and geography, but not idle. In April 1910, after seven years at the school, he left aged fifteen years and ten months, to work in a bank in Liverpool. By 1911 he appears to be back living at home in Loughborough, and still a bank apprentice.
Howard was working in Barclay’s Bank in Barnsley, Yorkshire, when he enlisted with the York and Lancaster Regiment. He obtained his commission as a temporary 2nd Lieutenant with the York and Lancaster Regiment on 8th October 1915 and was gazetted on the 22nd October 1915. He entered the theatre of war in France on 22nd September 1916 when the battalions of the regiment, after the Somme Offensive, had been sent to the relatively quiet Loos sector.
At some point between September 1916 and September 1917 he was promoted to Lieutenant, attached to a Machine Gun Corps, and given charge of a battery.
Howard was killed in action on 20th September 1917, aged 23, on the first day of the Battle of Menin Road Bridge, sometimes called the ‘Battle of Menin Road’.
It was the third British attack of the 3rd Battle of Ypres, for which more artillery had been brought into the Salient. Howard’s body was never found and he is remembered on the Tyne Cot Memorial, Zonnebeke, Panel 154-159 and 163A.
Howard’s parents, George and Sarah Barrow, received a letter from his commanding officer, which said: ‘Your son fell nobly doing his duty and I am sure he would not have wished to die better. Up to the very last moment he was encouraging his men in their duties, and with his personal courage he was a great example to his men.
“Please accept on my behalf and on the behalf of all of his brother officers, who deeply regret his loss, our most deep sympathy. He was well-liked by his men who in losing him have lost a good comrade in danger’.
Howard has no known grave and is remembered with the York and Lancaster Regiment on Tyne Cot Memorial in Zonnebeke, Belgium, Panel 154-159.
His name is also on the Carillon and on the Holy Trinity Church Memorial (now in All Saints Church with Holy Trinity) in Loughborough. He is also commemorated on Barclays Bank Memorial and in their Books of Remembrance (both at Barclay’s Bank Group Headquarters, 1 Churchill Place, Canary Wharf, London) and on the memorial in St. Mary’s Church, Barnsley.
He is further remembered on Loughborough Grammar School’s Roll of Honour and the Modern Languages Building at Loughborough Grammar School was named the Barrow Block in his memory.
Everard Clarence Harvey.
Everard Clarence Harvey was born in Loughborough in 1893 and baptised on 6th August 1893 at All Saints Church, Loughborough.
He was the son of Benjamin Harvey and his wife Eliza (née Tabb) who were married at St. Botolph’s Church, Shepshed, on 28th December 1895. Everard’s father was a framework knitter and in 1891 the Harvey family lived at 12 Oxford Street, Loughborough. Everard had two brothers John and Albert and two sisters Elizabeth and Jane.
After Everard’s father died in 1898, aged 40, Everard’s mother moved to 44 Derby Road, Loughborough, with her three youngest children and became a beer house keeper. Everard’s sister Jane acted as barmaid. By 1911 Everard, now 18, had secured employment at the Empress Works as an electrical pattern maker.
Everard enlisted at Leicester on 20th January 1915, giving his address as 124 Ratcliffe Road, Loughborough. As Private 2566 (later re-numbered as Private 419325) he was posted to the 2/2 (Reserve) North Midlands Field Ambulance of the Royal Army Medical Corps and sent to Watford for training. In April 1916 he was sent with his Field Ambulance to Dublin during the Easter Rising. On 6th June, in Dublin, he was given 168 hours detention for neglect of duty. Not long after this Everard must have been granted leave as he married Nellie Adcock in Loughborough in the summer of 1916.
After the end of the fighting in Dublin the 2/2 Field Ambulance had been sent to the Curragh for further training until the end of the year. In January 1917 they returned to England and after a brief stay in Gillingham, Kent, left Southampton for France on 23rd February 1917 on the SS Southwestern Miller cargo ship.
From the Gare des Marchandises, Le Havre, the 2/2 Field Ambulance travelled by train to Bayonvillers, Somme. From there, on 8th March, they marched to Proyart, south of Albert, and took over the Divisional Main Dressing Station and the Divisional Rest Station from the 1/3 Northumbrian 1st Field Ambulance.
When away from the trenches a field ambulance’s role was to keep the fighting men fit and healthy. This was achieved by setting up Divisional Rest Stations [DRS] and baths (usually sited in a brewery where up to 50 men could be bathed at a time in the large vats). They were also allocated special tasks such as providing treatment for scabies, trench foot, and other ailments.
When in the trenches the field ambulance’s role was similar to modern day emergency ambulance services: to collect and transport patients to someone with specialised knowledge or to specialist equipment, whilst monitoring them, and treating them if necessary to ensure their condition remained stable. Before transport the casualties were usually seen at an Advanced Dressing Station (ADS) or Post (ADP) for bandaging and morphine injections as appropriate.
By 17th March the 2/2 Field Ambulance had extended the accommodation available at Proyart to 7 Adrian huts, 2 houses, 1 store tent, 2 marquees and 2 Indian tents allowing room for 650 lying cases and 1000 patients if sufficient staff were available. The number of casualties passing through the 2/2nd Field Ambulance was often quite high. During the period 23rd-29th March, for example, 468 casualties (sick and wounded) were admitted. After treatment 136 were discharged to duty while 334 were transferred to Casualty Clearing Stations for evacuation to Base Hospitals.
On 10th April the 2/2 Field Ambulance took over the Advanced Dressing Station in the church at Bouvincourt from the 2/1 North Midland Field Ambulance and also took over the Advanced Dressing Posts at Hancourt and Roisel.
On 14th April the right Advanced Dressing Post was moved from Hancourt to Bernes. On 24th May the 2/2 Field Ambulance was instructed to prepare for a move to Léchelle. The site at Léchelle about five miles from the front line was prepared and the move took place on 30th May. On 24th August there was another move to the Royal Engineers Camp on the Bouzincourt-Aveluy road.
On 1st September the unit left the camp for Beaucourt, entrained for Godevaersvelde, marched to Watou and took over the hospital and billets there. On 15th September they moved from Watou to Hilhoek and took over the V Corps Rest Station. On the following day many sick were admitted and at 6.00pm there were 998 patients in the hospital.
Everard was killed in action, aged 24, on 26th September 1917, during the Battle of Polygon Wood (a phase of the 3rd Battle of Ypres, or Passchendaele).
He was one of three members of the 2/2 Field Ambulance killed that day. Several others were wounded and gassed.
Everard was buried in Bridge House Cemetery, Langemark-Poelkapelle, Grave A. 19. He is remembered on the memorial in the former St. Peter’s Church building, Loughborough, and on the Carillon.
Everard’s widow was married again in 1920 to John Thomas Brooksby and their daughter Betty was born in 1927.
Herbert Sidney Bellamy.
Herbert Sidney (or Sydney) Bellamy was born in 1891 at Mile End Road, Fletton, Huntingdonshire, and baptised on 17th April 1891 at the Church of St. Margaret of Antioch, Fletton.
He was the son of John Bellamy and his wife Elizabeth Ann (née Brown) who were married at Whittlesea (now Whittlesey), Cambridgeshire, in 1882. Herbert’s father was a brick burner and brickyard labourer and in 1901 the family was living in Station Road, Wavendon, Buckinghamshire. By 1911 they had moved back to Cambridgeshire and were living at 5 King’s Drive, Whittlesea. Herbert, now aged 21, was a clay digger in a brickyard.
Herbert had one sister Rose Ellen who married Bertie Hackett, proprietor of the Beacon Restaurant, 55 Baxter Gate, Loughborough, in 1915.
Two other siblings Elizabeth and John had both died aged four before Herbert and his sister Rose were born.
Herbert appears to have enlisted in Whittlesea in 1915 but his precise date of enlistment is unknown as his service records have not survived. As Private 16247 he served with three battalions of the Suffolk Regiment, the 11th (Service) Battalion (Cambridgeshire), then the 8th (Service) Battalion and finally the 12th (Service) Battalion (East Anglian). His dates of transfer between the three battalions are also unknown but his medal record indicates that he was not sent to France until after the beginning of 1916.
The 11th Battalion firstly trained at Cherry Hinton, Cambridgeshire, and moved to Ripon, Yorkshire, in June 1915 and then to Sutton Veny, Wiltshire. Herbert would have trained with this battalion.
The battalion landed at Boulogne on 9th January 1916 and Herbert is likely to have been with them. The battalion concentrated with the 34th Division at La Crosse east of St. Omer.
The 8th Battalion had gone to France on 25th July 1915 so Herbert must have been transferred to this battalion at some point in France during 1916 or 1917.
In 1916 the battalion was in action on the Somme in the Battle of Albert capturing their objectives near Montauban, the Battle of Bazentin Ridge including, the Battle of Delville Wood, the Battle of Thiepval Ridge, the Battle of the Ancre Heights playing a part in the capture of the Schwaben Redoubt and Regina Trench and the Battle of the Ancre. In 1917 they took part in the Operations on the Ancre including Miraumont and the capture of Irles and they fought during the German retreat to the Hindenburg Line and in the 3rd Battle of the Scarpe (May 1917) before moving to Flanders.
The 12th Battalion crossed the Channel to Le Havre from Southampton on 6th June 1916 and concentrated near Lillers.
They were in the front line near Loos and were later in action at the Battle of the Ancre on the Somme. In 1917 they saw action during the German retreat to the Hindenburg Line, the capture of Fifteen Ravine, VillersPlouich, and Beaucamp, and the raid on La Vacquerie in April and early May. Again, Herbert would have been transferred to this battalion at some point in France.
The battalion’s war diary recorded that batches of reinforcements joined the battalion in May, June and August 1917 and that the June batch included 18 men who had previously served with the Suffolk Regiment. It seems likely, therefore, that Herbert may have been transferred from the 8th Battalion to the 12th Battalion in France in June 1917 before the 8th Battalion left for Flanders.
From 3rd to 18th July 1917 the 12th Battalion did a lengthy trench tour at Villers Ghislain
In August and September there were front line trench tours at Gonnlieu, east of Gouzeaucourt, with intervals in reserve or support at Vaucelette Farm.
Herbert was killed in action at Gonnelieu during enemy shelling on 26th September 1917, aged 27.
He was one of 99 Ordinary Ranks from the battalion killed that month. His body was never found and he is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial Pier & Face 1c & 2a. Herbert is also remembered on the war memorial in Whittlesey.
Herbert’s parents moved to Loughborough to be near their only surviving child Rose Hackett after 1917.
Herbert’s mother died in 1928, Rose Hackett died the following year, and Herbert’s father died in 1932, all in Loughborough.