Private, 20702, 1/5th Royal Warwickshire Regiment. Killed in action 22 August 1916. Formerly 0060, Huntingdonshire Cyclist Battalion. Born Winwick, enlisted Old Fletton, resident 187, Fletton Avenue, Old Fletton, Peterborough. Commemorated on Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France. Panels 9a/9b/9d. See also Old Fletton, Huntingdonshire

Additional information by Derek Smith

Harry was not the first of the Fallen to have their name spelt incorrectly on the Fletton Memorial. Quite why he is given the wrong name is unknown, but Joseph is definitely Harry.

Harry was born to Walter and Mary Elizabeth Bright in 1894 at Winwick, Huntingdonshire. Walter was a farm worker. In 1901 the family was living in Willow Hall Lane, Thorney, with Walter working on the Willow Hall Estate. Unfortunately Walter died in 1902, leaving Harry fatherless until Mary remarried William Spreckley in 1905. William , a railway labourer, had two children from a previous marriage. On his union with Mary he also inherited five Bright siblings. Mary and William then proceeded to consummate their union with three further children, all twelve of them living at the six roomed 14 Duke Street, Fletton. Of the five sons, John had already fallen, Arthur would die at Passchendaele, Harry died on the Somme.

At the outbreak of the war in August 1914, Harry, working as a brickyard labourer, was probably an existing member of the Hunts Cyclists, given his low regimental number of 489. At the outbreak of war in August 1914, his Battalion, the 1st/1st was ‘embodied’ and posted to its war station at Grimsby. AS he was serving with the 1/1st Battalion, Harry had signed the Overseas Service Declaration, but at the start of the war, the Hunts Cyclists were used for home defence, principally in fear of a German invasion. Without his service records, we do not have a detailed account of Harry’s movements. We do know that Harry and his unit moved to Filey in 1915, where Harry found love and married local girl Jane Johnson in the third quarter of that year in Scarborough. They subsequently had a child. Following Harry’s death, Jane remarried John Holmes in July 1922. She passed away in September 1941.

The Hunts Cyclists were never posted overseas, but provided drafts to other units, principally to the territorial battalions of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. One quarter of the men from Fletton who died on the Somme, served with the Warwicks.

We do not know when Harry was posted to his unit, the 1st/5th Warwicks, but we do know that it wasn’t prior to 1916, as Harry’s Medal Index Card doesn’t entitle him to a 1914/15 Star. The 1st/5th were mobilized at the start of the war, after further training at Chelmsford, they landed at Le Harvre on the 22nd March 1915.

The original entry on Harry’s effects statement has him as attached to the 1st/5th, indicating that his time with the Battalion was very short, as the paperwork transferring him hadn’t come through. Subsequently ‘attd’ is struck and ‘formerly’ of the Hunts Cyclists is written in by another hand. Harry’s effects statement also, unusually, gives a range of date of death from the 22nd-24th August 1916.

During that period the Battalion were in the line, just outside Ovillers in the centre of the Somme battlefield. There were no attacks or patrols, just what the Army called at the time ‘trench wastage’. Four ‘other ranks’ died, one of whom was Harry.

Harry’s body was not recovered, or was lost in the next two years of fighting. A local newspaper reported his death as follows:-

Acting Major. 112th Battery, 24th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery. Died of wounds 2 November 1918. Aged 31. Born 1886, son of Company Serjeant Major William Stewart and Hannah Ironside. Husband of Ellen, father of three children; his son Edward was born after his death. Buried in LE CATEAU COMMUNAL CEMETERY, Nord, France. Plot 3. Row B. Grave 2.

William spent a year as a young man in the Royal Artillery Hospital in Woolwich but this did not halt his rise through the ranks and when he was killed, nine days before the Armistice, he was Acting Major and expected to be gazetted to Colonel in 24 Brigade, the Royal Field Artillery. He was awarded the Military Cross in 1915, the Bar to the Military Cross in January 1918 and the Distinguished Service Order in September 1918, weeks before he was killed, aged 31. His Commanding Officer, Brigadier General de la Forge, wrote to Ellen, his widow: ‘I know that just before his death a report had come to the effect that all objectives had been gained in the attack which he was covering with his guns, and so he will have died happily.’ She re-married in 1924. He was awarded The Distinguished Service Order (D.D.O.), the Military Cross (M.C.) and Bar, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.

External biograohy of William Stewart Ironside

Corporal, 295251, 2/4^th London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers). Killed in action near St. Julien 21-09-17, aged 25. Formerly 36, 5^th Bedfordshire Regiment. Born Peterborough, enlisted Old Fletton, resident 147, Fletton Avenue, Old Fletton, Peterborough. Commemorated on Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres, Panel 52. See also Old Fletton, Huntingdonshire

Additional information by Derek Smith

The Battle of Passchendaele was still in abeyance when Corporal Horace Nicholls was killed on 21st September 1917. Preparations were in place for The Battle of the Menin Road, the third part of the main battle, which was due to start on the 25th September. One of those preparations was to establish a start line for the attack. A start line is a position in front of the enemy, giving the attacker the best possible chance of advancing to an objective.

To do this Horace and his battalion, the 2/4th London Regiment left camp on the 18th of September to establish a position to assault enemy defensive pillboxes around the Winnipeg Crossroads, just outside of St Julian. They had been practicing the attack since the 8th September.

Their assault went in at 5.40am on the 20th September. Within 30 minutes all objectives had been taken. The 2/4th pushed through the captured positions, established a defensive line and dug in. Throughout the rest of the 20th, the 2/4th beat off many counter attacks mainly by using keenly directed artillery fire. However counter fire was intense, the battalion history recording ‘shellfire severe, less than one hundred rifles remaining ‘

On the 21st the history recorded that all ‘the new trenches dug were obliterated and many more casualties occurred’. The battalion was relieved that evening, it had suffered 60 killed, 176 wounded and 29 missing. Horace was one of the missing, his body was never found.

His parents appealed for news of Horace in the local paper: ‘Mrs. Nicholls and family, 147, Fletton Avenue, would gratefully receive any information from any of his comrades regarding him on that date’. They heard nothing until on the 27th July 1918, the family was officially informed that Horace, notified as missing, was now confirmed as killed.

Horace was 26 when he died. Before the War, he had worked as a Legal Clerk for Buckle and Co based in Priestgate. He was also a Territorial Force soldier, serving with the Hunts Cyclists. Immediately on the outbreak of war he volunteered for overseas service, but first the Hunts Cyclists were sent on coastal defence duties around Filey, North Yorkshire.

Duties couldn’t have been too arduous, as Horace found love. On the 29 Apr 1915 at St. Paul's, Buttershaw, Horace married Florence Emily. They set up a home in Filey, she was to become his widow just two years later, receiving his £15 gratuity and £17 savings, £11 of which were for the benefit of their child.

Horace was well known locally as a comedian. He also performed as part of a local concert party, the ‘Dandy Pips’. Sadly history leaves no surviving performances.

He had two brothers, both served. His elder brother Albert served in France at the outbreak of the war and was discharged after suffering from Trench Fever an extremely unpleasant disease caused by the faeces of body lice . He then re-joined for home service with the Royal Garrison Artillery, Younger brother Percy, lost his leg on the Somme in August 1916 whilst serving with the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. All three brothers had served with the Hunts Cyclists.

Horace was remembered by his family on the memorial, pictured, in Fletton Cemetery. His is remembered on the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing, the Filey War Memorial, and in our Church, St Margaret’s.

Private 56665, 17th Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers. Killed in action 31 October 1918. Born Stanground, Northants. Resident Filey, Yorks. Joined Great Eastern Railway November 1916, Engine Cleaner, Peterborough. Enlisted 1917 in Peterborough, Northants. Buried in VICHTE MILITARY CEMETERY, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium. Plot III. Row A. Grave 7. See also Liverpool Street Station, London and also Old Fletton, Huntingdonshire

Additional information by Derek Smith

Reginald was born in the third quarter of 1898 to Bertha and John West. Bertha and John married on 11 July 1898 so again, we may be witnessing a rush to the Altar Rail. In the 1901 census Reginald is registered as the grandson of Thomas and Ellen Shepherd. His mother, Bertha, is elusive in the 1901 census, John died in late 1900. Bertha remarried James Thoroughgood Bird on 11 August 1902. They had their own child together, Dick, born 16th May 1911. In 1911, Reginald appears as the stepson of James and the son of his mother. James was a brick yard worker, Reginald was still at school with the family living at 34 Duke Street, Old Fletton. Subsequently the family moved to 181, High Street next door to Bertha's parents who lived at 183.

Reginald’s father James enlisted on the 12 December 1915, being posted to the 13th Battalion Loyal North Lancashire Regiment, a home service Battalion based in Blackpool, on 28th August 1916. His service was entirely in the UK until his discharge, because of a pre-existing back disorder, on 17th December 1817. He was granted a gratuity of £35, but his appeal for a permanent pension was rejected. The appeal would have been on the basis that if he was accepted for service with a pre-existing condition, and discharged for the same condition, his service must have worsened it, despite his discharge medical stating it hadn’t. He probably had a good case, but a brickyard worker had no recourse to a lawyer. In 1939 Dick and James, father and son, lived together in The Bungalow, Stilwell, London Road. Dick was single and a bricklayers labourer and James appears never to have re married and is still recorded as incapacitated.

Reginald’s military career began on 27th May 1914 when he joined the Hunts Cyclists aged 15 years and 7 months. He remained in the Cyclists, on home defence duty, for two years, during which time he had an operation for a dental issue. He was also confined to barracks for 7 days starting on 18th January 1915 for refusing the orders of a Corporal Elliot.

Reginald’s time with the cyclists finished on the 3rd April 1916 when he was discharged for being a single man and not having signed the Imperial Service Order rendering him liable for service overseas. This discharge seems a little harsh given that Reginald was only 17, too young for conscription and 19 months away from being sent overseas.

From his death gratuity of £7.10 we know that Reginald was conscripted in February 1917 but not before having married Betsy Killingbeck of Filey in the October 1916. Reginald was the second man from Fletton to marry a girl from Filey, the other being Harry Bright.

We do not have Reginald’s records for the second part of his military career, but he is unlikely to have been sent to France prior to December 1917 because of his age. Indeed, given the losses at Passchendaele, the British Government had been refusing to send replacements to France, insisting that the Army had enough men. After the losses caused by Operation Michael, the Government relented and released the drafts. It is possible that Reginald entered France in April 1918.

Reginald was the last man from Fletton to die under fire in the Great War. The British, having broken the Hindenburg line, were now pushing the German Army back on all fronts, With the Germans in retreat, Reginald’s Battalion, the 17th Lancashire Fusiliers, was tasked with taking Vossenhoek in Belgium. This was a Brigade operation with Reginald and the Fusiliers in the centre. The attack started through a smokescreen created by the artillery, then pressed on through ‘considerable machine gun and artillery fire’. The initial objectives were taken and the attack resumed at 08.49. The ‘enemy used tracer ammunition which gave their positions away’ and the attack again took all its objectives.

Given that there was a wide belief that the war was won, it is amazing to see the tenacity of the attack. The Battalion took 150 prisoners, 30 machine guns, 1 trench mortar, 2 ambulances and ‘casualties to the enemy were extremely heavy’. The Battalion’s casualties were 10 dead, one of whom was Reginald.

Reginald left all his death gratuity and savings to his widow, Betsy. Bertha was spared her son’s death, as she had died, aged 36, on 22 December 1916. Reginald’s body was recovered and he is buried in Vichte Military Cemetery where his grave bears no inscription. He is remembered there, on the Filey War Memorial, the Liverpool Street Memorial and in our Church, St Margaret’s.

Sergeant (Air Bomber) 943302, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. Died while flying in an Avro Lancaster I, serial number W4777, that Took off from Linholme at night on a training night cross country exercise and carshed north-east of Selby, Yorkshire, the plane being completely destoyed. 12 July 1943. Buried in FILEY (ST. OSWALD) CHURCHYARD, Yorkshire. New ground. Row H. Grave 7.S.

Other crew members were Eastlake M. G. (Sgt), Lloyd H. A. (Sgt), Peck G. H. (Sgt) and Tremear J. H. (F/O).

Photograph Copyright © Simeon Grundy 2021