William Cox – H.M.S Good Hope, The War Memorial, The Church Yard, St. John the Baptist’s Church, Bere Regis, 10/07/15.

Tags

Admiral Maxmillian Von Spee, Battle of Coronel, Battle of the Falkland Islands, Bere Regis, Dorset, First World War, HMS Good Hope, memorial, Military History, Rear Admiral Christopher Cradock RN, Royal Navy, St John the Baptist's Church Bere Regis, William Cox, World War One

William Cox – H.M.S Good Hope.

Every name on a memorial has a story behind behind it, but some names stand out more than others and different names stand out for different people. The name William Cox stands out for me in this Roll of Honour because he clearly served in the Royal Navy, were as those listed above him served in British Army units more familiar to me. I knew nothing about the H.M.S Good Hope; was William Cox lost at sea?

Ship’s Cook William Cox (347466), along side 919 officers and men, of the Drake Class armoured cruiser H.M.S Good Hope, including Rear Admiral Christopher Cradock, who was using the Good Hope as his flag ship, and four Midshipman of the newly formed Royal Canadian Navy, were killed in action at the Battle of Coronel.

Rear Admiral Cradock’s British Fouth Cruiser Squadron engaged the superior forces of Admiral Maximillian Von Spee’s German East Asiatic Squadron on the 1st November 1914, off the Chilean coast. By the end of the battle H.M.S Good Hope and H.M.S Monmouth had been sunk with the loss of all hands.

Although I could not find any further biographical information about Ship’s Cook William Cox, detailed biographies of Rear Admiral Christopher Cradock are available and he strikes me as a very interesting character. In 1904 he received a testimonial from the Royal Humane Society for jumping over board into Palmas Bay, at night, to save the life of a drowning Midshipman. In 1911 he received The Board of Trade Medal for Saving Life at Sea for his part in the rescuing of passengers from the SS. Delhi, which ran aground off Cape Spartel.

Admiral Maximillian Von Spee’s Squadron attempted to raid the Falkland Island on the 8th December 1914 and was surprised by a superior force of British warships, reinforced following the Battle of Coronel. Six German warships were lost following the Battle of the Falkland Island, including Admiral Von Spee’s flagship, which capsized with the loss of all hands, including the Admiral himself.

It is amazing what you can learning from researching only one name on a memorial…

Sources.

The Coronel Memorial http://www.coronel.org.uk/description.php 

The Roll of Honour: A Biographical Record of all Member of His Majesty’s Naval and Military Forces who have fallen in the War, Volume I, page 96. Available on-line at https://archive.org/details/rollofhonourbiog01ruvi 

The View from the Roof of The Keep Military Museum, Bridport Road, Dorchester, 07/07/15.

Tags

British Army, Castle, Devonshire and Dorset Regiment, Dorchester, Dorset, Dorset Regiment, flags, Military History, military museums, Museums, The Keep Military Museum, The Rifles, Union Flag, views

The view looking towards the junction of Bridport Road and Cornwall Road.

Heights have been something of a theme recently. The Keep is an impressive, in terms of its scale, Portland stone construction, dating from 1879 and, if you are willing to pay the admission price for the military museum that now occupies the building, you can climb the spiral stairs all the way up to the roof. Once informed by the ladies stationed at the entrance that I could go up onto the roof I thought to myself, “It would be rude not to!”

On the roof of The Keep.

The Keep Military Museum’s own website quotes a description of the building by the well know art and architectural historian Pevsner, who describes it in less than favourable terms: “The monumental gatehouse is a knock-down affair. Two round towers to the front, the archway between. Three storeys of long slit windows. Rock faced with a vengeance. Today it is a grade 2 listed building. The designer was probably Major AC Seddon R.E, head of the War Office Design branch at this time…The barracks behind were humble by comparison“. As somebody who grew up by the seaside, The Keep reminds me of the castle shaped plastic buckets and the resulting crenelated sand castles they produced.

The Keep is topped with two flags, the Union flag and the flag of The Rifles. In 1958 the Devonshire Regiment and the Dorset Regiment amalgamated to form the Devonshire and Dorset Regiment. In 2007 the Devonshire and Dorset Regiment was amalgamated with a number of other regiments to form The Rifles, which still has a Reserve Company [the Territorial Army as was] based Dorchester.

The flag of The Rifles.

The spiral staircases in the towers give access to the museums galleries on three floors and then you are invited carry on and step out onto the roof. It was a rather windy day and the situation was unique in my experience, in that the area of the roof is very large, but the battlements around it are very short. The two gentlemen working on the maintenance of the tower didn’t seem to mind climbing up even higher and out onto the scaffolding you can see on my photographs, but one of them did remark to me that, “It was a bit windy”.

The Keep is tall enough for you to get a unique perspective on a number of tree tops  and the comings and goings of the Bridport Road. The military museum itself is very interesting and, if you like heights, I would recommend a walk on the roof.

The Keep.

Souvenirs: Guide, Nothe Fort, Weymouth, 2012.

Tags

artillery, artillery pieces, Ben Ainslie, Fortifications, forts, guns, London Summer Olympics 2012, Military History, Museums, Nothe Fort, Nothe Fort Weymouth, Olympic Gold Medal winner, Olympic sailing, sailing, Sir Ben Ainslie, Souvenirs, Victorian., Victoriana, Weymouth

I witnessed a small, but significant, moment in the history of the Nothe Fort back in 2012, as Weymouth and Portland prepared to be the venue of the London 2012 Summer Olympic and Paralympic sailing. That was the year Sir Ben Ainslie won his Gold medal in the Finn Class sailing, his fifth Gold at five consecutive Olympic Games [not that I was in Weymouth or Portland for the actual sailing, I was only there for the final preparations].

The Ramparts.

The Fort operates on three levels; the ramparts on top, the gun deck/parade ground below and the magazine beneath that. You enter the Fort at the gun deck/parade ground level, through the barbican; the main defensive feature on the landward side of the fortification.

The gun deck is comprised of 26 casements, which once open plan and housed the “massive Victorian muzzle loaded guns“. Casement 22 contains a reconstruction of the Victorian gun deck, where an impressive collection of very proud looking mannequins manned artillery pieces that look so colossal you would think they were immovable. There were no partitions between the casements back then, so it was possible to move along the gun deck without having to go out onto the parade ground. The casements also contain the reception and shop, the canteen and some interesting displays about the building of the fort and films about the various guns that have been positioned there throughout its history.

The gun deck.

On the ramparts above you can see one of the 6 inch guns that made the Victorian muzzle loaded guns on the gun deck below obsolete by 1905 [there were three guns originally, but now there is only one, but you can still see the emplacements were they once stood].

One of the 6 inch guns on the ramparts.

The magazine.

In the magazine below the gun deck you will find a series of underground tunnels and rooms. One surprising feature of the fort is that a third of the magazine was converted into a nuclear fallout shelter for civilian use during the Cold War.

The Nothe Fort is a fascinating place were Britain has faced external threats both real and imagined; arguably the fortifications finest hour was during World War Two when it served as an anti-aircraft position protecting Portland and Weymouth harbours, a conflicted its Victorian architects could never have imagined. The Victorians were right about one thing however, the Nothe Peninsula offers great views of Weymouth and Portland, so it is worth the trek up there even if you are not interested in history, especially on a sunny day, like that day back in 2012.

Belts and braces.

Photo Archive: “The Escape” Pub Sign, Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre, Spilsby, 12/06/14.

Tags

Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre, Military History, Museums, Public houses, pubs, RAF, RAF Escaping Society, Royal Air Force, Second World War, signs, Whitbread, World War Two

Cheers!

To quote from the RAF Escaping Society Museum website, “The RAF Escaping Society Museum was first established in the mid 1960s at a Whitbread public house in Mabledon Place, off Euston Road in London. The pub – renamed The Escape – was in more of a student than a tourist area and attracted insufficient interest”; what a shame! But at least the sign has found a new home at the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre.

Cap Badges.

Tags

British Army, cap badges, Cecil Studios, Cecil Studios Hull, Hull, Hull City of Culture 2017, Military History, military insignia, old photographs, Photography, Physical Training Instructor, Prince of Wales's Own Regiment of Yorkshire, PTI, studio portrait., Yorkshire

Looking smart.

I have spent the last hour looking at cap badges on-line and I’m still not entirely sure which one this chap is wearing! I think it is the cap badge of the Prince of Wales’s Own Regiment of Yorkshire, created in 1958, with the amalgamation of two Yorkshire based Regiments and has since been amalgamated with two more regiments to form the Yorkshire Regiment. I can’t make out the Divisional insignia on his right sleeve, but I think the badge below depicted crossed sabres, the badge of the British Army’s physical training instructors.

Sadly, I haven’t been able to find out anything regarding, “Cecil Studios, Hull“.

Pulman Street and Evans Square Roll of Honour, Streetlife Museum of Transport, Hull, 29/11/14.

Tags

British Army, Coldstream Guards, East Yorkshire Regiment, Hull, Hull City of Culture 2017, memorial, Military History, Military Medal, Museums, Northumberland Fusiliers, Pulman Street Hull, Roll of Honour, Street Shrine, Streetlife Museum of Transport, Streetlife Museum of Transport Hull, World War One

This is one of three memorials now displayed at the Streetlife Museum of Transport. The two other Rolls of Honour or Street Shrines are rather large, Gothic, dark, wooden affairs, so this one stands out considerably in comparison, with its names clearly displayed in black and white. I became curious to know if I could find out anything about these men and their service in World War One, so I took this photograph on Saturday morning and I have spent my Sunday evening researching; largely with the aid of www.ww1hull.org.uk. 

Sergeant Albert Arksey MM and Bar (33399) gave his address as 23 Pulman Street when he joined the 11th (Service) Battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment on the 1st November 1917. By the 28th June 1918 he had won his Military Medal and was promoted to the rank of Sergeant. On the 6th September 1918 he was killed by a German sniper after only 10 months service. Arksey also appears on a list of railway employees, published by the National Railway Museum, who lost their lives in World War One, so we know that he worked as porter with the North Eastern Railway and that his death was reported in the North Eastern Railway Staff Magazine for November 1918 (page 208).

Corporal Gilbert Lupton (10453) served with the 4th Battalion of the Coldstream Guards and died on the 20th January 1918.

George Alfred Harman (7753) joined the 8th (Service) Battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment, one of the eight Kitchenner battalions raised in the August of 1914, and George William Yarrow joined the 11th (Service) Battalion known as the “Hull Tradesmen“.

Three of the men joined the Northumberland Fusiliers. George Holmes Ellis (5498) served in the 19th (Service) Battalion, the 2nd Tyneside Pioneers, raised in Newcastle on the 6th November 1914. George Borman (3881) and Harry Wright (242265) both served in the 4th Battalion, which was a Territorial unit originally based in Hexham. Harry Wright’s brother, Lance Corporal John Henry Wright (21725), died serving with the 7th Battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment.

The other names seem to have been lost to history, apart from C Smith, whose initial and surname are so common that my research discovered 607 possible Smiths.

Photo Archive: Keighley War Memorial, Keighley, 01/10/05.

Tags

British Army, Bronze, Keighley, memorial, Military History, sculpture, soldier, World War One

“In proud and grateful memory of those men of Keighley who gave their lives in the Great War and the World War in the defence of freedom and justice

Their name liveth for evermore“.

Photo Archive: Wreath, The Guards Memorial, Horseguards Parade, London, 21/11/10.

Tags

British Army, Coldstream, Coldstream Guards, Horseguards Parade, London, memorial, Military History, Poppies, Poppy Day, Remembrance Sunday, The Guards Memorial, World War One

“Honi soit qui mal y pense” (Shame on him who thinks evil of it).

This memorial wreath takes the form of The Star of The Order of The Garter, with poppies forming the Cross of St. George at its centre. The Star, as well as being the heraldic symbol of Britain’s highest order of chivalry, is the regimental insignia of the Coldstream Guards. The losses of all five Regiments of Foot Guards are commemorated as part of The Guards Memorial, alongside those of the units that made up the The Guards Division, who lost their lives in World War One and “in the Service of their Country since 1918″. The memorial faces Horseguards Parade, the large parade ground in Whitehall, where The Guards troop their colours to mark The Monarch’s official birthday every year.

My maternal grandfather was from Coldstream, the ancestral home of the Coldstream Guards, so I have always had a bias towards the Regiment (and that’s why you’re not looking at a wreath shaped like the cap badge of The Grenadier Guards). I’ve written about the Coldstream Guards memorial in Henderson Park in Coldstream before [Photo Archive: Henderson Park, Coldstream, April 2012] and this insignia has appeared in more unexpected places on my travels [Coldstream Guards Hassock, St. Mary’s Church, Beverley, 14/05/14].

Wojtek the Bear, Weelsby Woods, Grimsby, 2014.

Tags

2nd Polish Corps, bears, Carpathian Lancers, Grimsby, Military History, Poland, Polish Army, Second World War, Weelsby Woods, Wojtek, Wojtek the Bear

Wojtek The Bear.

If you have heard of Wojtek you will recognise this as an iconic image of the famous bear. If you haven’t heard of Wojtek you’re probably thinking, “What is that bear doing with an artillery shell?” My introduction to Wojtek was through a book by Aileen Orr entitled, “Wojtek The Bear: Polish War Hero“. In short, some Polish soldiers, regrouping in Iran after their released from Stalin’s gulags in 1942, adopted a bear cub as their mascot and called it Wojtek.

Wojtek grew up with the men of the 22nd Transport Company of the Polish 2nd Corps and by 1943 he was transporting artillery shells with them during the Battle of Monte Cassino, on the Italian Front. After the battle the image of a bear carrying an artillery shell became the insignia of the 22nd Transport Company.

In 1945 Wojtek ended his military career in a camp for displaced Polish servicemen unwilling to return to a Poland now occupied by Soviet troops. Wojtek retired to Edinburgh Zoo, where he was regularly visited by former Polish servicemen now settled in Britain. Wojtek died in 1963.

Although I haven’t found any evidence that Wojtek ever visited Grimsby, there is a regimental connection with Weelsby Woods. The Carpathian Lancers, the armoured element of the 2nd Polish Corps, in which Wojtek served, arrived in Grimsby in 1945 and made a camp in Weelsby Woods their home until 1947, when their demobilisation was complete.

It seems that Wojtek has become emblematic of the Free Polish struggle during the Second World War, despite being a Syrian brown bear!

You can read more about the statue on the BBC News website (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-15491945) or on the Grimsby Telegraph website (http://www.grimsbytelegraph.co.uk/Polish-soldiers-meet-Wojtek-bear-8210-Grimsby-s/story-13697691-detail/story.html).

A War Household or A Photograph of Photographs 17/05/14.

Tags

1940s House, British Army, British History, Ephemera, interior design, Military History, old photographs, Photography, pipe smoking, RAF, Royal Marines, Second World War, studio portrait.

A photograph incorporating twelve individual portraits, in a range of styles and frames, with enough space left for two vases of flowers and some interesting period features; how could I resist?
At some point the photograph has been cropped, cutting off some writing that was on the back; presumably a description of what we’re looking at [curses]. We have been left with the date however; July 1945.
Whoever took this photograph must have had a very stressful Second World War with the welfare of what looks like five soldiers, three airmen and a Royal Marine on their mind for the duration! I wonder how they’re all related?
Note the soldier who is so addicted to his pipe that he wont take it out of his mouth to have his photograph taken!
For those interested in interior design, note the textured wall paper, the rather bulky lock on the door, the bannister rail and the bakelite light switch.