Half hidden by the side of the less
used North East gate and path to the churchyard and in the shadows of
the overhanging branches of the yew and other trees is the Farningham
War Memorial. It takes the form of a roughly shaped square base,
superimposed by a cross, all hewn from Aberdeen granite. It bears the
stark and simple inscription in bronze capital letters:-
"To the Glory of
God in memory of the fallen and a thankoffering [sic] for Victory
to
our arms and for the safe return to this Parish of all who served in
the Great War."
1914-1918 1939-1945
Unlike the majority of war
memorials, Farningham does not list its fallen soldiers, sailors or
airmen on its base. To find these names one has to enter the church of
Sts Peter and Paul where on the south wall there is a brass tablet
inscribed:-
Parochial Roll of Honour of those killed in the Great War 1914 - 1918
Wm.
Hyde Eagleson Gordon Lt
Gn Hldrs [Lieut. Gordon Highlanders]
James Wm.
Barrell
Gilbert Johnson
Barton R.N. [Royal Navy]
Robert Henry Mills
Wm. Ernest Couchman
R.G.A. [Royal Garrison Artillery]
Herbert Drury
R.M.L.I. [Royal Marine Light Infantry]
Fredk. Walter Dunmall
Frank Arthur Seaker London [London Regiment]
Alfred Thomas Wingate
Edward Jeffery
Mcn. Gn. Sec. [Machine
Gun Section] (Corps)
George Wm. Gregory
)
Samuel Edward Stevens
) K.R.R. [King's Royal Rifle Corps]
Walter Fredk. Turner
Thomas Wm. Moore
Glos. [Gloucestershire Regiment]
Hugh Alan Smith
Middx. [Middlesex Regiment]
Herbert John Spier
Queens [Royal West Surrey Regiment]
Walter Ephraim Spier
E. Surrey [East Surrey Regiment]
Cornelius Wm. Tallett
Herbert Thurnall R.W.K. [Royal West Kent Regiment]
Wm. Edward Whiffin
Almost immediately facing, on the
opposite wall, is the Second World War memorial in carved stone with
the reminder:-
To the Glory of God and
in the memory of
those from this Parish
who gave their lives in the War
1939 - 1945
W.A. Donnelly R.A.F.
C.J. Dunmall
M.N.
T.E. Hill R.A.F.
J.M.
Moseley A.T.S.
O.A. Moseley R.N.R.
P.
Nixey,
D.S.O., R.A.F.
W.H. Wansbury
R.A.F.
W.H. Hotchkiss, E.A.5.,
R.N.
Also in one of the darker corners of
the Church, a stone tablet inscribed thus:
In memory of Lietenant
O.A. Moseley RNR of HMS
Charybdis killed in action
October 1943 +++ Junior
Commander J.M. Moseley
ATS died January 1945.
This tablet is erected
by their father
* * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * *
All the names, as can be
seen, are listed in a rough alphabetical order and are grouped within
the particular branch of the services to which they belonged. In
addition to the two memorials within the Church and the granite cross
outside, there are four CWGC memorial headstones in their standard
Portland stone format in the extensive churchyard to the four
following servicemen who presumably died here in the United Kingdom:-
"624684 Private S.R. Gregory of the Labour Corps who died 18th
November 1918 aged 18."
Sidney Robert Gregory was the younger son of Mr and Mrs
William H. Gregory of No.4, London Road, Farningham, who had already
lost a son in 1916 on the first day of the Somme Offensive. To judge
from the age of young Sidney and the strong possibility that he was a
very fit recruit it is more than likely that he died in the influenza
pandemic of 1918, both determining factors in his illness and death.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * *
"915704 Aircraftsman F.W.
Shearmur,
Pilot U/T RAF who died 21st December 1940 aged 20. In
loving memory of our dear son Frank. RIP".
RAF recruit LAC Francis Walter Shearmur was the Volunteer
Reservist son of Mr Francis Charles and Mrs Lily Shearmur of Green
Street Green. He was under training to be a pilot when almost
certainly he was killed in a flying accident under the great pressure
to reduce the shortage of trained pilots in 1940.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * *
"7631343 Craftsman A. Wilson REME
who died 1st November 1944."
Arthur Wilson of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers died in
this country but his next of kin are not given by the CWGC.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * *
"Flight Lt. B.C. Hanson W/Op/Air
Gunner who died 1st July 1947 aged 35. In everlasting
memory of the very dear son of Charles and Daisy Hanson".
Basil Charles Hanson was, as recorded, the son of Mr Albert Charles
and Mrs Alice Daisy Hanson of Swanley. Fl. Lt. Hanson 122968 had been
a service officer for some time, probably throughout the War, and was
flying with 242 Squadron when he died. 242 Squadron started life as a
fighter squadron in the Battle of Britain and later as a Spitfire
squadron in North Africa.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * *
Now that more than ninety
years have elapsed since the end of the First World War and sixty
since the peace of the Second World War the remembering of these names
has become unceasingly more difficult. So in the sprit of family
history research short biographical details of these names will serve
as a reminder of their commitment. These very short biographical
sketches are listed here in the order which they appear on the
memorials starting with the First World War and ending with the Second
World War. No claim is made here for their completeness or their
accuracy as it is well known that this is almost impossible but they
are offered here for the generations to come. Any corrections or
amendments would be welcome.
Acknowledgement is made here to the definitive history of
Farningham by Hilary Harding, Farningham and its Mill, as a
beginning to this study and some of the family names it contains.
Advice has been sought from others including my son, Alaric, of Editorial
Intelligence.com
Frank Bamping, January 2008
* * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * *
William Hyde Eagleson Gordon,
was a Lieutenant, remarkably enough in the 8th Battalion of the Gordon
Highlanders. He was the son of Major Archibald Alexander Gordon, CBE,
MVO, JP, and Mrs Maude Gordon of Monksbarn, Maugersbury, Stow-on-the-Wold,
Gloucestershire, and Dunbrae, Farningham. He was born at The
Old Mill, Coalstoun in East Lothian. He was educated at Haileybury
and Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. At the time that the Great War
broke out he was still studying for Holy Orders which he abandoned and
joined up straightaway on the 20th December 1914.
The 8th Battalion of the Gordon Highlanders was among the
vast number of new battalions raised for Kitchener's New Army. After
recruit training he was commissioned on the 10th January 1915 as a
lieutenant. The new force crossed the Channel via Southampton to Le
Harve and reached Boulogne on the 10th May. On the 17th by route march
through Flètre and Meteren they reached Bailleul. Here as part of the
9th Division they arrived for trench duties on the relatively quiet
Armentières front for further training.
It was then transferred with the 26th Brigade as the
whole 9th Division together with five other divisions were to take
part in the new allied Artois-Loos offensive. Despite a shell shortage
and the first use by the British of the unpredictable weapon - gas,
advances were made on the first day, the 25th September.
The difficult country of mines and slag heaps was
overcome and progress was made beyond Loos towards Lens. The Gordon
Highlanders took the Hohenzollern Redoubt. The word somewhat
exaggerates its importance and significance. It was in fact an
extensively entrenched area prepared for all-round defence. Several
more days of heavy fighting elapsed before the 8th Battalion marched
back to the comforts of Béthune somewhat reduced and without Lt.
Gordon. They had lost 17 officers and "about 500 ranks". The
Battle at Loos went on until October 9th.
Lieutenant Gordon was one of the casualties who was taken
back to a rear hospital where he died from his wounds on Thursday 30th
September 1915 aged 22. He is buried in the Etaples Military Cemetery,
in the Pas de Calais, in grave I.B.17 along with 11,000 comrades.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * *
James William Barrell
was the son of James and Deborah Barrell of 49, High Croft Cottages,
Swanley. James, aged 25, joined the Royal Navy, his number upon
joining up early was 237068 and in a short time he became a leading
signalman, a significant achievement.
His last posting was to HMS India. This ship was
one of a number of lightly armed fleet auxiliaries used for North Sea
patrols and anti-submarine sweeps.
HMS India was in action on the 26th July, 1915,
with our submarines and scored a success in sinking a German
"G" Class destroyer. Continuing on patrol off the Norwegian
coast, HMS India, the auxiliary cruiser with leading signalman
Barrell aboard was itself torpedoed and sunk on Sunday 8th August,
1915.
Sailor James Barrell is recorded on Panel 10 of the
Chatham Naval Memorial, on the hill in Town Hall Gardens, Chatham,
Kent.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * *
Gilbert Johnson Barton
was born in Maidstone, the son of William and Catherine Barton, who
later lived in Chatham. He was already at sea during the outbreak of
the First World War as he was a regular able seaman aged 30 with the
early service number RFR/CH/B/5356.
On the morning of Tuesday the 22nd September, 1914, he
was aboard HMS Cressy, an elderly 12,000 ton cruiser, in the
company of HMS Aboukir and HMS Hogue. This 7th cruiser
squadron was patrolling 20 miles off the coast of neutral Netherlands,
unaccompanied by destroyers, when they came under attack from German
submarine U9 commanded by Lt. Otto Weddigen.
It first successfully sank the Aboukir and whilst Cressy
and Hogue were picking up survivors the same U-boat sunk the Cressy
followed by her sister ship the Hogue.
Each cruiser had a complement crew of 800 officers and
men. The whole episode was swiftly over. Able seaman Barton was among
the many from the three cruisers who did not survive. He is remembered
and recorded on Panel 2 of the Chatham Naval Memorial overlooking the
Medway Town in the Town Hall Gardens. In all from the three ships 62
officers and 1400 men were lost, among them 25 officers and 536 seamen
from HMS Cressy.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * *
Stoker 1st class Robert Henry Mills,
K/23500, was the son of Robert and Alice Mills of 1, Button Street,
Swanley Junction. Part of the information supplied by the CWGC for
Stoker Mills includes his designation as H.M. S/M. which is taken to
mean that he was a submariner. He died on Sunday the 16th September,
1917, aged 20, almost certainly in action in the North Sea. He is
recorded on the Chatham Naval Memorial.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * *
Gunner William Ernest Couchman, 74318,
was the son of Jesse and Ruth Couchman of 2, Holt Place, Farningham.
According to the records of the CWGC they list a memorial to Gunner
Couchman in the South Eastern part of the churchyard of St Peter and
Paul but in spite of very careful searching one cannot be found there.
William Couchman is listed as belonging to the 23rd Heavy
Battery of the Royal Garrison Artillery who died on Sunday the 3rd
of March, 1918, aged 24.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * *
Private Herbert Drury, CH/18765, was a
member of the Chatham Battalion of the Royal Naval Division of the
Royal Marine Light Infantry. His relatives and place of birth are not
given in the records. However, he must have been sufficiently well
known in Farningham for the memorial committee to have included his
name on the memorial. Most likely he was the son of Joseph and Eliza
Drury of Crockenhill and aged 33 when he died.
Following the hiatus and the need for the British Army to collectively
catch its breath on the Western Front during the Winter and Spring of
1915 several ideas to progress the War were being discussed. Near to
home, a landing in Sleswig seemed attractive but eyes were already
focused on the Near East and the warm-water seaway through to their
ally, Russia.
Thus the Dardanelles/Gallipoli project presented itself in an
half-hearted manner. By scraping around for sufficient arms to
interpolate, one whole English division, the 29th of
regular soldiers originally from India, as well as native Indian
regiments, together with the Anzac forces forming in Egypt and the
whole Royal Naval Division were collected together. France also found
enough soldiers from Home and overseas to make a further contribution.
The whole panoply assembled on the offshore island of Lemnos making
its base in the town of Mudros from the 18th March onwards.
Operations started on the 25th of April with detachments
from the RN Division making a feint attack by landing in the Gulf of
Saros in the region of Bulair, before withdrawing. They then joined
the main landings with the 29th Division on beach
"Y".
Later on the 27th April the RN division was added to the
main forces to the south of the peninsular. During the 28th
and 29th four battalions of the RMLI (namely the Chatham,
Deal, Nelson and Portsmouth) were sent to support the exhausted ANZAC
troops. On May 2nd the Chatham and Portsmouth were again in
action reinforcing the 4th Australian Brigade.
By May the 25th it was in action at the Kereves Ravine and
again on the 3rd June it made a concerted attack on the
Achi Baba fortifications in the centre with the 29th and 42nd
Divisions on the left and the French Army on the right. Fighting
continued throughout June until a stalemate set in by July and August.
The RN Division was still in action until the whole sorry adventure
dragged slowly to a conclusion with the evacuation from December to
January 1916.
One can with relative safety at this distance in time say that Private
Drury was in action throughout the Campaign and that at some point
between April and June he was seriously wounded. He could have been
first withdrawn to Mudros, to a base hospital there, or direct to the
vast and permanent camp with its better equipped six British hospitals
established at Alexandria in Egypt.
In one of these hospitals Private Drury died on Tuesday,
8th
June 1915. He was buried in grave M 122 of the Chatby War Cemetery
which is situated along the main road out of Alexandria to the East.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * *
Private Frederick Walter Dunmall,
703480, was a member of the 1st/23rd Battalion
of the London Regiment who died on Sunday, 9th of December,
1917, aged 30. He was the son of the then late Mr and Mrs Jeremiah
Dunmall of Farningham.
If any part of the Western Front could have been considered to have
been a quiet sector, Arras in 1917 could have been named. It formed a
hinge between the Northern Picardy fields of Ypres and the Somme
plains to the south. The German positions in the Artois woods were
well established and were intended to be at the centre of the allied
Nivelle offensive timed for February 1917. But a tactical withdrawal
by the Germans in mid March and various changes in the allied high
command put the attack back to April 9th.
Throughout April into May attacks went in from South African, New
Zealand, Australian and Canadian forces, but only minor gains were
made. The achievement of reaching the Vimy Ridge by the Canadians was
considered a success at the attrition rate of 150,000 allied men
against 100,000 Germans. And thus the months lingered on with the
allies pitting themselves against the Hindenburg Line till the end of
1917.
Private Dunmall's London Regiment was in the line and suffered as
badly as any. He is listed among those missing in action on the Arras
Memorial with others from the Regiment carved on Bays 9 and 10 of the
beautifully designed Lutyens Memorial.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * *
Corporal Frank Arthur Seaker, 553454,
was in the 1st/16th Battalion of the London
Regiment also known as the Queen's Westminster Rifles. He died on
Thursday, the 16th of August 1917 aged 23 years. He was the
son of Mr William and Mrs Charlotte Seaker of 46, Highcroft Cottages,
at Swanley Junction.
The Third Battle of Ypres opened on the 31st of July, 1917,
after meticulous preparations having been learned through the
experience of three years of attempting to breakout. Still little
progress was made in the face of well prepared defences. High ground
around Pilckem Ridge was reached before the troops were overwhelmed by
bad weather. A new attempt to widen the salient commenced on the 16th
August with better, drier ground which is sometimes referred to as the
Battle of Langemarck.
It was in such a "push" on the 16th the word
euphemistically used throughout the War of the Western Front, that
Corporal Seaker died or as the other term commonly used was "lost
without trace".
Corporal Seaker is recorded and commemorated on Panel 54 of the famous
Menin Gate Memorial, situated on the eastern side of the town of Iper.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * *
Rifleman Alfred Thomas Wingate, 5358,
belonged to Company D, of the London Regiment, as the First Surrey
Rifles. He died on Thursday the 21st of December 1916, aged
26. He was the son of Mr William Henry and Mrs Ellen Wingate of No 2,
Bridge Cottages in Farningham High Street.
Whilst the vast Battle of the Somme is usually considered to have been
fought over from the 1st July until the 18th
November 1916, the final attack centred on the River Ancre petered out
with something of a whimper. However, well into December minor actions
of all sorts took place all along the front under the soubriquet of
straightening the line which produced casualty lists of 2,210 a month.
Far to the north of the Somme battlefield, in the Ypres salient where
the front bulged into Belgium the German 4th Army exerted
pressure to reduce the salient. It took the form of continuous
bombardment with the heaviest of the artillery shells falling on the
town of Ypres, which became a completely shattered landscape, and
inflicted some 70,000 casualties in the year.
When the London Regiment was withdrawn from the Somme battlefield it
was sent North to the Ypres front in October. Its portion of the front
included the village of Zillebeke, where the front line ran through it
for much of the time. It was here that Rifleman Wingate must have been
looking forward to a quiet 1916 Christmas. It was not to be. He is
recorded as having died and been buried in one of the very many
British cemeteries which are to be found in this part of west
Flanders. He is in the Woods Cemetery, Zillebeke, in plot III grave
A.II.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * *
Private Edward Jeffery, 71226, of the
89th Company of the Machine Gun Corps died on Tuesday July
the 31st 1917 aged 21. He was the son of Mr Frederick and
Mrs Sarah Ann Jeffery of No.4, Bath Cottages, Swanley Junction.
It is generally thought that the best and superior marksmen in the
infantry regiments were recruited to the relatively newly formed
Machine Gun Corps.
By 1914 machine guns were in use by all armies, some requiring a six
man crew but others only three. They were employed on all the war
fronts but particularly the Western. It is therefore somewhat
difficult to say precisely in what action Private Jeffery was
involved. However, on the 31st of July 1917 it was the
opening day of the Ypres offensive.
This Third Battle of Ypres also became known as Passchendaele, the
great battle of attrition to be fought by the BEF. It was on the
commencement of this Battle, which cruelly dragged on until the 6th
November, and was to cost the BEF some 310,000 casualties, among them
Private Jeffery who is buried in grave XLIII G19 of the Tyne Cot
cemetery in western Flanders.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * *
Rifleman George William Gregory,
S/15358, was in the 1st Battalion of the Rifle Brigade. He died on
Saturday, 1st of July 1916. He was 23 years old and the son of Mr and
Mrs William H. Gregory of No. 4, London Road, Farningham.
Rifleman Gregory at 0730 a.m. on the 1st of July 1916 was
in the distinguished company of 750,000 (27 divisions) others who
climbed out of their trenches on the Western Front. There were 58,000,
or one third, who did not live to see another day. Along a 30
kilometre line stretching from north of the Somme River to between
Amiens and Péronne was the battlefield which gave its name to the
disastrous events which followed.
The task of the 1st Battalion of the Rifle Brigade of the
11th Brigade of the 4th Division was to attack the Redan Ridge but
were initially held up by the Ridge Redoubt and the
"Quadrilateral" until 10am by which time they overcame the
obstacles only to have to retreat in the face of a counterattack. The
rest of the day was involved in close quarter fighting along their
first line trenches.
All their efforts took place between the villages of
Serre and Beaumont Hamel. At the end of the first day the whole 4th
Division had suffered severely with 5,752 casualties, one of whom was
Rifleman Gregory who is buried in the Serre Road Cemetery No.2 in
grave plot IA 33.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * *
Rifleman Samuel Edward Stevens,
R/43245, was a member of the 11th Battalion of the King's Royal Rifle
Corps. He died on Tuesday the 25th of September, 1917. He was aged
just 23 and the son of Mr William Henry and Mrs Mary Ann Stevens of
Maplescombe Farm Cottages.
The medium sized Belgium town of Iper (Ypres) has become
imbedded in the history of the British Army of the First World War. It
was for over three years from the beginning in 1914 until late 1917
the centre of the salient in the frontline. In an effort to break the
German will the last great battle of attrition was launched on the
31st of July 1917 which became known as the Third battle of Ypres.
The British 2nd and 5th armies together with a French
army corps, totalling some 15 divisions supported by 3,000 artillery
pieces opened fire on an 18 kilometre front. Thrown against a German
defence line in depth it produced little headway. The bombardment
however broke up what little was left of the drainage system of the
low lying terrain, and several days of rain did the rest.
Fresh thinking by the 20th September produced small gains
which on the 26th to the fourth of October established the British
army on the ridge of high ground to the east of Ypres.
Rifleman Stevens was among the 310,000 casualties who
bought this advance with their lives. He is buried in Plot III of the
Bard Cottage Cemetery in Western Flanders together with 1,500 of his
comrades.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * *
Rifleman Walter Frederick Turner,
57492, was in the 18th Battalion of the King's Royal Rifle Corps who
died on Sunday the 27th of October, 1918. He was around 35 years old
and the son of Benjamin and Emma Turner of Swanley Village.
Quite when and where and in what action Rifleman Turner
was wounded and taken prisoner is extremely hard to say. The premier
regiment of the KRRC had been in every action on the western front
throughout the Great War.
The personal details and records on Rifleman Turner
are also sparse, certainly the CWGC has no record. But the Absent
Voter's List for the Farningham Polling District lists a "Walter
Frederick Turner" living at number 3, Button Street. The entry
is, however, completely anomalous as unlike over one hundred others on
the List there is no service arm attributed to him.
One can only speculate about Rifleman Turner's origins.
What is safe to say is that he died in Germany, place unknown, and
that he is buried in the large southern cemetery in the City of
Cologne in plot XIII grave E18. All 1,000 British prisoners who died
in Germany and were buried in the 183 cemeteries throughout the
country were brought to Cologne for re-burial in 1922, together with a
memorial to the 25 officers and men who died in Germany and whose
grave sites are unknown.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * *
Private Thomas Moore,
8721, was an early recruit to the 8th Battalion of the Gloucestershire
Regiment. He died on Monday the 3rd of July, 1916, aged 25. He was the
son of Mr and Mrs H.E. Moore of 15, High Croft Cottages, Swanley
Junction.
The Battle of the Somme had been in progress for three
days when it can be established that Private Moore was in action as
part of the 57th Brigade of the 19th Division in General Rawlinson's
4th Army. The 19th Division was initially in reserve near the town of
Albert from which they moved forward on the 1st July.
From the beginning Private Moore's Gloucestershire
Regiment was involved in keeping up the pressure for a general advance
from the captured Schwaben Höhe towards the village of La Boiselle
which was captured on the 3rd of July by the 8th Battalion after 302
casualties.
During this dogged fighting Private Moore was found to be
missing upon roll call and is assumed to have lost his life on the 3rd
July. He is listed on the famous monumental Thiepval Memorial,
designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, on the road from Albert. His name
appears with so many others, on a Pier and faces 5a and 5b.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * *
Private Hugh Alan Smith,
95386, of the 1st Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment died on
Wednesday the 23rd of October, 1918. His records do not immediately
reveal who his next of kin were but it is possible from other sources
to say that with some probability they lived in the heart of
Farningham.
By the autumn of 1918 the first signs of the impending
and coming collapse of Germany could be seen or recognized. On August
8th an allied offensive opened from Amiens which by the 15th forced
the collapse of the German 2nd Army. On the 21st a new offensive
opened from Albert followed quickly by another allied assault in the
shape of the Scarpe offensive. The fearful Hindenburg Line was
breached in places on the 2nd of September, and on the 27th and again
on the 29th which by the 5th October all the positions had been
cleared.
All along the Western Front the allies had opened
successful offensives. With the end of the War in sight Private Hugh
Smith was killed in action as part of the advancing BEF. He is buried
in the Romeries Communal Cemetery in grave III D4.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * *
Private Herbert John Spier
M.M., L/10035, of the 1st Battalion of the Queen's Royal West Surrey
Regiment and 100th Brigade. He died on Wednesday the 26th of September
1917 aged 30. He was the son of Mr James and Mrs Sarah Spier of No. 2,
Mary Villas, Farningham.
As the fighting around the outskirts of the Ypres salient
dragged on throughout the summer into the autumn of 1917, one battle
after another seemed endless. In one such action on the 25th September
when fighting to the North of the Menin Road the 1st Battalion was
forced back by just 200 yards. In another action which started on the
26th September 1917 it became a battle for Polygon Wood and the high
ground to the east of the bulging salient. These actions, despite the
worsening rain, culminated in gaining the infamous Passchendaele
Ridge, some ten kilometres east in the November. It was these
continuous offensive actions which cost the BEF about 310,000
casualties and the credit of Haig. Private Spier who had been
awarded the Military Medal during his service on the Western Front was
not to respond to roll call on the 26th September. He was recorded
missing. With no known grave he and his fellow missing soldiers are
listed on the Tyne Cot Memorial Panels 14 to 17 and 162 to 162a, in
the Village of Zonnebeke in Western Belgium.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * *
Private Walter Ephraim Spier,
38119, was in the 8th Battalion of the East Surrey Regiment. He died
on Friday the 25th of October, 1918, aged 29. He was the son of Mr
James and Mrs Sarah Spier of No. 2, Mary Villas, Farningham.
With the end of the Great War almost within sight, three
British Armies opened the Scarpe Offensive which followed up the
retreating German armies, who were still quite capable of offering
resistance. Private Spier must have been in good spirits and getting
over the loss of his older, decorated brother Herbert in the previous
September, 1917, who had been a private in the Royal West Surrey
Regiment.
Private Spier was not to see the end of hostilities as
he, along with another 9,000 Commonwealth soldiers who fell between
the 8th August 1918 and the Armistice, and who were later found to be
missing are remembered on the Vis-en-Artois Memorial in the Pas de
Calais.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * *
Listed on the memorial within the
Church is one
Cornelius William Tallett
of the Royal West Kent Regiment. In spite of such a distinctive name
and a clear indication of his belonging to the RWK Regiment Mr Tallett
remained an enigma. There is absolutely no record of him as such in
the files of the CWGC. Neither does he figure in the complete indexes
of the History of the Regiment. However a continuing search of the
CWGC files revealed a Private W. Tillett with a regimental number
G/6554 belonging to the 8th Battalion of the RWK without a next of kin
or age at death. Upon cross checking with the Regiment's Roll of
Honour it too lists a Private W. Tillett with the same number. In
genealogical research one needs corroboration from other independent
documentary sources. And this comes in the September quarter of 1885
Register of Births for England and Wales showing that a Cornelius
William Tallett was registered in Steyning, Sussex. By consulting the
National Census of 1901 one finds a large family of Talletts living at
29, High Cross Cottages. One of them is a William aged 16 who was born
in Portslade, Sussex. For some unknown reason by then he had dropped
the use of the family name of Cornelius. So Cornelius William on the
memorial is now clearly identified as the son of Mr and Mrs Peter
Tallett of High Cross Cottages.
The 8th Battalion was one of the new battalions raised in
1915 and intensively trained at Shoreham, Worthing and Blackdown. In
September 1915 they concentrated at Aldershot as part of the 24th
Division.
The same year they landed in France for a forthcoming
offensive (which became known as the Loos) by the 1st Army. The 8th
Battalion was allotted to the 11th Corps to support an advance at the
centre with La Bassée on the left and Lens to the right.
After September, the 8th Battalion was never far from the
action. Of the 800 men who went into action, only 250 remained
effective when the Battalion was withdrawn.
During a respite in the rear at St. Omer they received
large drafts of replacements and re-equipment during early 1916. In
March the Battalion arrived back at the front, still part of the 24th
Division, to a point near Bailleul where it stayed for the next three
months. Its task as seasoned soldiers was to provide large working
parties for raiding. During one of these events on Sunday 18th June
1916, Private Cornelius William Tallett died and was buried close by
in the Bailleul Communal Cemetery Extension in Northern France.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * *
Private Herbert Thurnall,
No. L/10099, of the 1st
Battalion Royal West Kent Regiment died on the Sunday morning of the
18th April, 1915, at the aged of 22. He was the son of Mrs Henrietta
Thurnall of 3, London Road, Farningham. Like so much of the
information available of deceased members of the armed forces of the
First World War there is a conflict of information as to Private
Thurnall's regimental number which is given as L/10079 in the Royal
West Kent Regiment's Roll of Honour.
One may speculate whether Herbert Thurnall went off to
war early with his comrades and found himself mobilized on the 4th
August 1914 and embarked aboard SS Gloucestershire for France
on the 13th, all 22 officers and 450 men, or was one of the
replacements raised after the virtual decimation of the BEF by being
in action continuously throughout 1914/15 at Mons, the Marne, the
Aisne, La Bassée and Neuve Chapelle. Either way the 1st Battalion was
definitely in the line from November 1914 to March 1915 at Ypres [Iper]
where the salient had formed.
At 7.00pm on April 17th the 1st Battalion as part of the
13th Brigade of the 5th Division launched the famous attack on Hill 60
and its capture. Without wishing to diminish the significance of the
name Hill 60 it was in fact a man-made spoil heap from the
construction of the nearby railway line. But once the enemy had
recovered from its loss submitted it to a day long bombardment. It is
this action which ensured that the name of this prominence became
almost a legend. However, Herbert Thurnall was among those who did not
survive; after Roll Call on Sunday the 18th he was posted missing.
Today he is remembered on the Menin Gate Memorial in Iper on Panels 45
and 47 along with his fellow comrades from the Queen's Own Royal West
Kent Regiment who were lost without a trace.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * *
William Edward Whiffin
is listed as Private 240213 of the 5th Battalion Royal West Kent
Regiment. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission record that his
parents were William and Alice Whiffin of Beesfield Farm, Farningham.
We also know that Whiffin is a well established family name in North
West Kent over very many years.
From the reading of the records it would appear that
William Whiffin was probably a territorial. The 4th and 5th Battalions
of these territorial soldiers sailed from Southampton for India on the
29th October 1914.
Meanwhile the mixed British/Indian forces in Mesopotamia
[Iraq] were in action fighting Turkish forces in a river war along the
Euphrates and Tigris rivers. In August 1915, 200 officers and men
volunteers from the 1st/5th Battalion back in India sailed up the
River Tigris with others to attempt the relief of Kut-el-Amara.
Among the casualties from actions of all kinds, as well
as from illnesses, is Private William Whiffin who was recorded
originally on Panel 29 of the Basrah Cemetery which is now on the
re-erected Memorial at Nasiriyah. His death at the age of 22 is listed
as occurring on Sunday, the 31st of December 1916.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * *
In Flanders Fields
In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
Col. John McCrae
* * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * *
Flying Officer William Archibald Donnelly,
129159, was the son of Mr and Mrs Michael Joseph Donnelly of Bridge
Cottage, High Street, Farningham.
He was an early Volunteer Reservist recruit to the RAF
and was promoted rapidly through the ranks to Flying Officer. His
rôle in the aircrew was that of Air Bomber with the unenviable task
of lying prone in the nose of the aircraft during the run-up to the
target.
During the dark days of 1943 William Donnelly was posted
to the RCAF 428 Squadron in Group 6 based at Middleton St. George, in
Durham. On the night of the 24/25th June, 1943, the target for the
night selected was the manufacturing complex of Wuppertal in the heart
of the Ruhr. Wuppertal was a sprawling city which included Elberfeld
and Barman. The crews of a mixed force of Lancasters, Halifaxes,
Wellingtons, Stirlings and Mosquitos comprising 630 aircraft in all
were briefed over the target. The Mosquito pathfinders marked the
target well but even so 5.4% of the attacking aircraft were lost.
Among aircrews was F.O. Donnelly flying in a Halifax
which came down in friendly Holland on Friday, 25th June, 1943.
William Donnelly died aged 31 and is buried in plot EE Grave 25 of the
Woensel War Cemetery, Eindhoven. He is in the company of nearly 700
others who lost their lives in raids over Germany together with some
British soldiers who died in the 79th and 86th army general hospitals.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * *
Thomas Ernest Hill
was the son of Albert and Eleanor Hill and was married to Lillian
Margaret of Brockley. He was also a Sergeant, 1397469, of the RAF
Volunteer Reserve which supplied the backbone of the RAF wartime
aircrews at the age of 23.
Sergeant Hill flew with 102 Squadron of Group 4
throughout the War. This Squadron had the unenviable name of suffering
the third highest losses in Bomber Command and the most losses
expressed in percentages within the Group. From the outbreak of War,
102 aircrews flew in Whitleys but converted to Halifaxes when they
became available. They rotated and flew from six of the well-known
bases in East Anglia.
On the night of the 16/17th June, 1944, 32 aircraft set
out to attack the synthetic oil plant at Sterkrade/Holten in the
Northern Ruhr. Once over the target, thick cloud was encountered which
made for difficulties in identifying and attacking the plant. On the
return journey the bomber stream passed close to the Bocholt beacon
where the controller had wisely held back most of his available night
fighter force. 22 of the 162 Halifaxes were lost - 13.6%. Hill's
bomber must have been disabled as it neither crashed in Holland nor
made it back to base. So one assumes it went down in the North Sea.
Sergeant Thomas Hill is recorded and remembered on the RAF Runnymede
Memorial in Surrey.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * *
Oswald Anthony Moseley
was the elder son of Lt. Col. Oswald Herbert George Kerr and
Margherita Mabel Moseley who lived at Fairacre, Dartford Road,
near The Folly, in Farningham. Lieutenant Moseley is designated
RNR in the records which infers his direct entry into the Royal Navy
from the mercantile service as a junior officer aged 26.
It is not known whether his first ship was HMS Charybdis,
a ten 5.25 inch gun light anti-aircraft cruiser or not. From the war
records it is early listed as part of Force "Z" of the 10th
cruiser squadron in the Mediterranean which with many other ships were
involved in the well-known "Pedestal" convoy to raise the
seige of Malta in August 1942.
Subsequently it was withdrawn back to its Gibraltar base
from which, between the 8th and 13th of November 1942, together with
HMS Scylla and Sheffield as a cruiser squadron, part of
a large allied fleet, they covered the "Torch" landings in
North Africa.
Later whilst still actively patrolling in the North
Atlantic and Home waters it was part of a small force attempting to
intercept enemy convoys off the north coast of Brittany. During the
night of the 23rd of October 1943 it was attacked by German torpedo
boats T23 and T27 who were operating out of Brest and Cherbourg. The Charybdis
was hit by two torpedoes at 01.45, some 18 miles (33Km) NE of Roscoff.
At 02.30 the ship capsized and sank with the loss of 464 men. There
were 107 survivors but Lt. Moseley was not among them. He is
remembered on the Plymouth Naval Memorial which is situated centrally
on the Hoe which overlooks the Sound. His name is on Panel 84 in
Column One.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * *
Peter Nixey
was the 6ft. 4inch husband of Margaret and son of Dr and Mrs R.F.
Nixey of the Lincoln Kennels on the London Road. Peter Nixey also held
the rank of Squadron Leader, 42257, and was holder of the DSO when he
died on Saturday 20th June 1942. It was every intention on the night
of the 19/20th June for 194 aircraft to set out to bomb Emden but
unfortunately the early flare force wrongly identified Osnabrück as
the target which two thirds of the force bombed instead. Osnabrück is
some 80 miles from the fellow north German coastal town of Emden. It
only pointed up the problems in the early days of the air war of night
navigation. Nine aircraft were lost from the mixed force of
Wellingtons, Halifaxes, Stirlings, Hampdens and Lancasters.
Peter Nixey started flying early in the war with 214
Squadron of the RAF with which they flew in Wellingtons from June 1940
onwards until later transferring to four engine Stirlings and
Fortresses. His rank and decoration point to his being an experienced
pilot of probably one of the giant Stirlings that flew to North
Germany but did not return. The aircraft came down over Holland where
22 year old Squadron Leader Nixey is buried in the Ommen Cemetery in
the central Netherlands.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * *
Joyce M. Moseley
of the A.T.S. was the daughter of Lt. Col. Herbert George Kerr Oswald
and Margherita Mabel Moseley of Fairacre, Dartford Road,
Farningham. She went to France early in the War and was back in
England by 1940. The inclusion of Driver Moseley's name on the
memorial indicates that both she and her family were well-known in
Farningham, but now are all long gone.
However, in spite of very extensive research and trawling
through all the records of the now superseded Women's Royal Army Corps
it has not been possible to give a definitive answer to her decease.
Even the beautiful leather-bound Books of Remembrances containing all
the italic hand-written names do not include Miss Moseley's.
Records of the members of the Auxiliary Territorial
Service and the Women's Royal Army Corps are still held by the
Ministry of Defence which can only be released to proven next of kin.
Joyce Moseley would appear to have died in the first quarter of 1945
in Westminster aged 27.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * *
Cecil James Dunmall
was the son of Cecil and Dorothy Dunmall of Farningham. He went to sea
at the early age of 17 aboard the M.V. Empire Star registered
in Belfast in 1935. This was his maiden voyage in this relatively
small merchant navy ship in the rôle of a steward. The Ship sailed
from Liverpool on the 20th of October, 1942, and proceeded
independently, bound for East London with 19 passengers and 1,055 tons
of cargo, government and general stores.
Three days out on the 23rd she was attacked, torpedoed
and sunk by U 615 at 48.14 North, 26.22 West. Captain and Master
Selwyn Norman Capon, 29 of the crew, six gunners and six passengers
were lost, among them young Cecil Dunmall. Some 45 other members of
the crew, three gunners and 13 passengers were rescued by H.M. Sloop Black
Swan.
U 615 working with "wolf pack" Wotan
came under repeated aerial attack by U.S. aircraft and was damaged. It
was in the process of being scuttled on the approach of USS destroyer Walker
during which action Kapitan Ralf Kapitzky and three of his crew were
lost but USS Walker saved 43 other U-boat crew members.
Young Cecil Dunmall remained missing and is recorded and
remembered on Panel 45 of the Mercantile Marine Memorial to merchant
seamen on Tower Hill in the City of London. Designed by Sir Edwin
Lutyens in 1928.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * *
William Henry Wansbury
was the 23 year old son of Mr William Jones and Dorothy Wansbury who
lived in Swanley. He was RAF recruit No. 626655 who after basic
training became AC1 Wansbury Aircraftsman First Class, who as far as
can be ascertained was a ground crew tradesman.
His journey to the Far East set out in the dark days of
1943. Aircraftsman Wansbury did not return from Asia in 1945.
It is quite possible that he died as a Japanese prisoner
of war. He is buried in grave 4A3 of the Ambon War Cemetery on the
Indonesian Island of the same name. It was constructed on the site of
the former prisoner of war camp where many of the captives died.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * *
William Henry Hotchkiss
was the only son of Mr Arthur and Mrs Elizabeth Hotchkiss of Swanley.
Their talented and good scholarly son went straightaway into the Royal
Navy at age 19. After further basic training he joined the crew of the
Prince of Wales after its completion on the Mersey in 1941. It
was the ultimate in the then battleship design with a displacement of
35,000 tons, a speed of 29 knots and a crew of 1,612.
She sailed to Newfoundland with Churchill aboard to meet
Roosevelt for the signing of the Atlantic Charter. On return she was
in action in the North Atlantic against the Bismarck with still
100 civilian shipwrights aboard.
Later in 1941 HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse
had been despatched to Singapore under the code name Force Z. After
the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour on December 8th 1941 the Pacific
area was left somewhat lacking in capital ships.
With reports that Japanese landings were being made in
Thailand and at Kota Bharu in Malaya, Force Z sailed at 17.35 on
December 8th to interdict these Japanese landings and supply lines.
Force Z had only four destroyers in company, as the then new aircraft
carrier HMS Indomitable was not available owing to damage
sustained during working up in the Caribbean, which left the whole
force very vulnerable. It was sighted by a Japanese submarine at 13.40
hours on the 9th December. With its cover blown it was tracked
thereafter and followed by Japanese aircraft. One of the Australian
destroyers had to turn back for Singapore as it was short of fuel.
Continuing the patrol the two capital ships came under
aerial attack and the Repulse was sunk at 12.33 hours on the
10th followed by the Prince of Wales at 13.20 off Kuantan in
Malaya. 513 men from the Repulse out of a company of 1,309 and
327 out of the company of 1,612 in the Prince of Wales were
lost; in spite of gallant efforts by the destroyers to pick up
survivors. In this action on Wednesday 10th December, 1941, electrical
artificer C/MX 76240, 22 year old William Henry Hotchkiss was not
among them. He is recorded on Panel 48/3 of the Chatham Naval
Memorial.
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