WW2 F/Lt Anthony Gobbie DFC – 42G pilot graduate – settled in the USA - eventually.

Anthony Francis Gobbie was born in London on November 24th 1919 the son of Francis J Gobbi and Evelyn Mary Marshall, Anthony was the middle one of three siblings, his two sisters were Marjorie and Evelyn. Francis Gobbi is thought to have been of Italian extraction – his father Fidele had been a cabinet maker in Islington in the 1880s.

At the age of 18 years Francis was working as an Audit Clerk for a Chartered Accountant. He served in WW1 with the 21^st Reserve Battalion, Kings Liverpool Regiment and was awarded the Military Medal for bravery in the field. Between 1915 and May 1917 he was stationed in England during which time he married Evelyn Mary Marshall in November 1916. He subsequently returned to France as a signaller with 55^th Division Royal Field Artillery.

In 1928 Francis Gobbi made a business trip across the Atlantic to the USA and his family followed soon after. In July 1932 the Gobbi family returned briefly from America destined for Chadwell Heath, East London. Subsequently Francis Gobbie, vice-president of London and Lancashire Indemnity Company of America, dealing in motor vehicle insurances and family, now with an 'e', emigrated to Weathersfield (possibly Wethersfield, Connecticut?), USA in August 1932.

It seems that the Gobbie family prospered in New England and it is understood that Anthony Gobbie attended Harvard University for a year before returning to England as the outbreak of war loomed, arriving sometime around July 1939. Anthony's RAF service number 655545 suggests that he had initially followed in his father's footsteps and joined the British Army before, as with a number of his RAF colleagues on course 42G, Anthony Gobbie transferred to train as a pilot. As the USA entered the war immediately following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour Anthony re-entered the USA ,not in a business suit, but wearing his RAF 'blues'.

Anthony Gobbie graduated as a pilot on 5^th August 1942 having completed his advanced training at Maxwell Field, Montgomery, Alabama and was commissioned in the rank of Pilot Officer. Unlike his friends and colleagues P/O George Stone, P/O Geoffrey Snow and P/O David Sumsion who were retained in the USA as instructors, P/O Tony Gobbie returned to the UK (initially aboard the Awatea? then the Queen Mary?) to complete his training and conversion to heavy bombers.

P/Os Snow, Gobbie?, Stone, Sumsion, Maxwell Field, Ala.  August 1942

It seems that Anthony's sister Evelyn was also drawn to the Air Force. The London Gazette records her commission to the rank of Assistant Section Officer (equivalent to the RAF rank of Pilot Officer) effective 28^th October 1942.

F/O Anthony Gobbie became operational during the 'Battle of the Ruhr' and on 19^th November 1943 the London gazette published the citation for the award of Acting F/Lt Gobbie's DFC:- 

'F/Lt Gobbie has participated in very many sorties, including attacks on Berlin, Hamburg, Peenemunde and targets in the Ruhr. He has displayed skill, courage and determination, qualities which have earned him many successes. On recent occasions, against Leipzig and Kassel respectively, his efforts in the face of extremely adverse weather were worthy of the highest praise.’

The night the Gazette was published -18^th/19^th November 1943 Anthony Gobbie and his 57 Squadron crew, were operating Lancaster JB418 for the operation against Berlin:-

f/e Sgt J A Hemmings

nav F/O A E W Gardner DFC

b/a P/O R W Newcomb

w/op F/O T Scott

m/u Sgt T Pool

r/g F/Sgt F J Lambie

Their aircraft was shot down about 11 km from Dresden, at Bärnsdorf. 

F/O Alfred Gardner DFC from Norbury, Surrey and P/O Richard Newcomb were killed, but their crew-mates survived to become prisoners of war.

A/F/Lt Anthony Gobbie was held at Stalag Luft 1 just outside the town of Barth, Western Pomerania, to the north-east of Rostock. The proximity of the camp to the town reputedly saved Barth from Allied aerial bombing throughout the war. Having been promoted to F/O in February 1943 and subsequently elevated to A/F/Lt Anthony Gobbie's promotion to F/Lt was effective from 5^th August 1944, two years to the day after his graduation.

When Stalag Luft I was liberated by Russian soldiers on the night of 30th April 1945 there were almost 9,000 Allied airmen imprisoned there – over 7,500 of whom were USAAF personnel.

Following repatriation to England, Anthony Gobbie yet again crossed the 'pond' on the Queen Elizabeth from Southampton to New York in 1947 and migrated to Florida where he married Lorraine Albin in Broward County in 1953. It seems that both of Anthony's sisters, Marjorie and Evelyn also moved to Florida after the war.

Anthony Gobbie passed away in Dade County Florida on 26^th December 1976, aged 57.

1933 school photograph identified.

Another minor mystery solved thanks to to good people of Southall, (thanks especially toYvonne), who via their Knowhere message board identified young Jimmy Ives's primary school.  John, Mabel and James moved from Peckham to Southall around 1933 taking Jim away from Woods Road School to complete his primary education at.....

Beaconsfield Road Primary School.  Jim is second from left, front row. 

The photo was taken by R W Crane, Bounds Green Studio, New Southgate, N11.  The houses in Beaconsfield Road can be seen in the top left hand corner of the photograph.  Google maps' street view from Oswald Road confirms that the rear elevation of the school has changed little over the past eighty years.

If anybody recognises any of the other pupils or teachers, please let me know.

Can anybody identify Jim's school uniform below?

RAF MRES investigates loss of 115 Squadron Lancaster LL648 January 1947

'Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armies in the Field. Geneva, 27^th July 1929.

Article. 3. After each engagement the occupant of the field of battle shall take measures to search for the wounded and dead, and to protect them against pillage and maltreatment.
Whenever circumstances permit, a local armistice or a suspension of fire shall be arranged to permit the removal of the wounded remaining between the lines.

* * *

Article. 4. Belligerents shall communicate to each other reciprocally, as soon as possible, the names of the wounded, sick and dead, collected or discovered, together with any indications which may assist in their identification.

They shall establish and transmit to each other the certificates of death.

They shall likewise collect and transmit to each other all articles of a personal nature found on the field of battle or on the dead, especially one half of their identity discs, the other hall to remain attached to the body.
They shall ensure that the burial or cremation of the dead is preceded by a careful, and if possible medical, examination of the bodies, with a view to confirming death, establishing identity and enabling a report to be made.

They shall further ensure that the dead are honourably interred, that their graves are respected and marked so that they may always be found.
To this end, at the commencement of hostilities, they shall organize officially a graves registration service, to render eventual exhumations possible, and to ensure the identification of bodies whatever may be the subsequent site of the grave.

After the cessation of hostilities they shall exchange the list of graves and of dead interred in their cemeteries and elsewhere.' 

 

* * *

There is no question that Germany sought to meet its obligations to dead Allied airmen under articles 3& 4 of the Geneva Convention during the Second World War. Lists of Allied aircrew killed on operations over enemy territory, received from German sources, were sent through to the Air Ministry in London by the International Red Cross Commission. Telegrams normally listed a number of crews and included date, aircraft type and what befell the crew members - with their identities if known, or stated as unknown if not. The crash location would not be given, nor burial particulars.

The IRCC telegram would be followed up with a 'Totenliste' (death list) confirming the information and perhaps adding a burial place. Occasionally aircraft were lost without trace, often airmen could not be identified.

As you may be aware (if you have read 'Does Life Hold Any More in Store') the 'missing' information was reported back to next-of-kin, updated as confirmation of casualties was received from the IRCC. For the families of many airmen whose deaths had been presumed but not confirmed would still hold out some hope that their boy had not been killed until the war's end and beyond, as was the case with Jim's m/u Harold Johnson. Harold's name had not appeared on the 'Totenliste' – by mistake, oversight - perhaps his dog-tags were not found. His family were still uncertain as to his fate until final correspondence passed between them and the Chief of Air Staff, Ottawa in March 1949.

After the war the RAF Missing Research and Enquiry Service sought to investigate losses of aircraft all over Europe and identify remains of deceased airmen and, in a majority of cases, to arrange for re-burial in War Graves Commission Cemeteries. Invariably the MRES investigation teams were faced with the task of sorting through haphazard burials, sometimes with two or three bodies to a grave and many unknown airmen.

The Ives crew were not the only casualties to be taken to Doberitz-Elsgrund for burial after the 30^th January Berlin raid. 115 Squadron Lancaster LL648 was also shot down in the target area.

* * *

On 22^nd January 1947 F/Lt Angus M Dixon, an investigation officer with 4 MREU, visited the Berlin District of Johannisthal as part of the investigation into the remains of aircrew buried in Doberitz-Elsgrund cemetery. His trip into the Russian occupied sector was 'to investigate the fate of the crew of Lancaster II, LL648'.

F/Lt Dixon interviewed eye-witnesses to the crash of a large RAF bomber on the late evening of 30^th January 1944. Policeman Herr Matthai was on duty at Johannistal police station when he saw and heard an aircraft explode at an altitude he thought to be about 15,000ft. Matthai believed that it had been hit by flak. The main part of the aircraft and the four motors fell about 2km north-west of Johannistal in a small wood known as Honings Heide. Other pieces of debris from the aircraft were recovered over a 2km long swathe. The aircraft burned for some time after hitting the ground.

The following morning a lieutenant from Doberitz aerodrome arrived with a party of men and recorded the numbers from the engines and told Herr Matthai that it was an English bomber – a Lancaster. The policeman's statement was corroborated by the head gardener from the local cemetery Herr C Grunberg.

The wreckage of the Lancaster was taken to Doberitz aerodrome after eight days. At the time of the investigation 'there were no identifying particles' to mark the scene of the crash.

The body of one of the members of the Lancaster's crew was found, dressed in full flying clothing, in Sudest Allee about 1km north-west of Johannistal. Another body was discovered at Baumschulenweg New Cemetery (2km north-west of Johannisthal) and five more had fallen in the adjacent Baumschulenweg Old Cemetery.

 

Herr Matthai had been detailed to search the bodies, which he did on the morning of the 31^st January. He remembered finding a photograph of 'a woman with two children standing on a step' – Mrs Beer & children?, another airman wore a ring (P/O Gladwell was also married), 'others had a selection of gum, chocolate, soap etc.' The lieutenant from Doberitz airfield took the collected articles away with him.

Although Herr Matthai recalled that all the crew were wearing flying clothing, he remembered one man in particular as wearing an Irvin flying jacket, his uniform had a single wing brevet with a rank insignia of 'three stripes and a crown on his sleeves'. He was a 'large, dark man' – most likely to have been F/Sgt Todd.

 

All were wearing parachutes but none were opened, none of the bodies had been burnt. F/Lt Dixon concluded that the concussion of 'the explosion of the aircraft either killed the crewmen outright or rendered them unconscious with death ensuing as a result of the impact with the ground.' Herr Matthai also recounted that no identity discs were found but one of the men had a leather name tag on his tunic but he could not remember the name.

A truck came to collect the seven bodies which were taken to Doberitz for burial.

F/Lt Dixon could find no witnesses who were at the burials and so it was not possible to confirm whether the Hicks crew had been afforded 'military honours or Christian rites' when they were interred. 

 

That only one RAF aircraft crashed in the vicinity of Johannistal that night was confirmed by Herr Matthai, Herr Grunberg – the gardener, Town Clerk - Frau Capito and Herr Gieszminn – cemetery caretaker - all saw the wreckage the next day. The three gentlemen each saw seven bodies and were told by the German Lieutenant that the aeroplane was a Lancaster. F/Lt Dixon concluded that it was reasonably certain that this was the wreckage and crew of LL648 as stated in German documents and that all the crew had been killed. This was despite a previous IRCC telegram mentioning two crews having been involved.

When bodies were exhumed at Doberitz-Elsgrund Cemetery the investigation team was assisted by about 50 men from the surrounding villages who acted as diggers – none of whom had been present at the burials.

Despite their reputation for accurate record keeping and thoroughness the German searches had overlooked that some of the crew's dog-tags were present.

When the remains were exhumed over 4^th, 6^th and 7^th December 1946 - NZ421388 F/Sgt Todd, was identified by his identity disc although the 'T' was indecipherable and was read as Z412388 A W ODD. The two other bodies in the shared grave (plot 1, row 4, grave 8) were identified as F/O Moore and an A/G whose service number was 1803778.

126822 F/O A W Beer DFC was identified by his name on his shirt collar (officer's shirt) and on a handkerchief. The two other bodies in the grave (plot 1, row 5, grave 5) were unidentified, one completely unidentifiable, the other had been wearing a dark blue sweater, possibly RAAF issue – which may have been P/O McLoughlin.

Sgt A E Elms was identified as having been buried in grave plot 1, row 5, grave 10 – identification was made by his name and service number marked on his braces.

P/O Farquharson's identity disc with the remains in grave; plot 1, row 7, grave 14 was partly decomposed but could be read as '404170 QUHARSON'.

A/F/Lt H G Hicks was identified by his identity disc and his name and number on his shirt collar – grave: plot 1, row 7, grave 13.

The remains of neither P/O McLoughlin nor P/O Gladwell could be positively identified.

'It seems reasonably certain that these two officers are buried here, since according to the witnesses the seven crew members were taken away together to Doberitz and five of these have been positively identified there.'

During the investigations in connection with the Hicks crew the remains of several other airmen were encountered - F/O Moore, A/G 1803778; the body in plot1, row 5, grave 11 with initials LDA and a laundry number on his Australian issue khaki shirt; the remains interred with F/O Beer, one unidentifiable and one with a dark blue sweater.

'It would seem that these bodies were buried with several other crews which accounts for their scattered locations. For this reason one cannot adjudge unknown bodies lying beside a known one to be members of the same crew.'

Hence the reason for so many fallen airmen of the Second World War who have no known grave – their remains could not be positively identified.

The bodies of the Hicks crew were re-interred at the Berlin 1939-1945 War Cemetery:-

DOBERITZ-ELSGRUND                        BERLIN, HEERSTRASSE

Plot: Row: Grave:                                      Plot: Row: Grave:

1  7 14                          P/O Farquharson      5  J 16

1  7 13                          F/Lt Hicks                   5  J 18

1  5 10                          Sgt Elms                     7  E 2

1  5  5    (1^st body)      F/O Beer                     7  F 21

1  5  5    (2^nd body)     unidentified                 7  F 22

1  5  5    (3^rd body)      unidentified                 7  F 23

1  4   8   (1^st body)      F/Sgt Todd                  7  D 26

1  4   8   (2^nd body)     F/O Moore (207 Sqn) 7  D 27

1  4   8   (3^rd body)     Sgt Parker (44 Sqn)    7  D 25

1  5   11                       P/O Anderson (466 Sqn) 7  E  3

The bodies of the Ives crew were also re-buried at the Heerstrasse Cemetery:-

DOBERITZ-ELSGRUND                       BERLIN, HEERSTRASSE

Plot: Row: Grave:                                      Plot: Row: Grave:

1  5  14   (1^st body)                                            7  E 10*

1  5  14   (2^nd body)     Sgt Cornes                   7  E  9

1  6  14   (1^st body)      Sgt Savage                   7  F 16

1  6  14   (2^nd body)                                             7  F 15*

1  6  13    (1^st body)                                             7  F 14*

1  6  13    (2^nd body)                                            7  F 13*

*Suggested collective registration for the four (4) missing crew members of Lancaster ND360.

Carefree times in RAF Bomber Command - USA 1942 -Arnold Scheme 42G - Part 2

Having previously posed the question - whereabouts in the south-east of the USA were they? Is it a lido or the beach? Florida (possibly), Georgia (more probably) or Alabama (probably not)?

I'll now give the answer – which was pretty much in the query itself - the location for the photo was the Lido Beach Casino, Sarasota, Florida. The key to the identity of the place is in the Art Deco design by architect Ralph Twitchell - those distinctive towers. 

 

The City of Sarasota acquired the Lido site, a stretch of beach, from the John Ringling Estate, transferred to the city in a deal to settle 'delinquent taxes' of approximately $35,000. Federal funds were secured from the Works Progress Administration for construction of the casino which opened on 23^rd May 1940 - the official opening took place on 28^th December. The complex was constructed for around $250,000

The modern architecture would have seemed home from home to the pilots u/t based at Carlstrom Field, Arcadia as their accommodation had been newly constructed in the modern style of Miami architect Stefan Zachar.

Between 1926 through to his death in 1978 Ralph Twitchell made a significant contribution to Sarasota's architecture. The Art Deco style of the Lido Casino reflected the modern influences which contributed to Twitchell's work from the late 1930s. The strong geometrics of the clean stuccoed buildings were made all the more striking by giant sea-horse reliefs.

Construction of the Casino complex started in 1939 – the accommodation including a 'junior olympic-sized' swimming pool, the Sunset Ballroom, Hawaiian Lanai dining rooms, the Bathers Grill, Castaways Bar, Cocktail Loggia, Casino Ballroom, Marine Lounge, Coquina Grill and 39 cabanas. The ballrooms were graced by famous bands and Hollywood celebrities, events ranged from athletic events to beauty pageants.

Twitchell's ethos for the design of the Sarasota Beach Lido had been 'in the spirit of democracy to welcome all visitors to America. Young and old, rich and poor will find attractions here which they can afford and enjoy.' Just a year after the Lido's grand opening the USA was pitched into the Second World War and soon young servicemen from the UK were enjoying the delights of the complex during their recreation time away from their training bases – Sarasota, Arcadia and others within easy range of the Lido.

I recommend you spend a moment to look at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URYFZ1L7JDI which gives a flavour of the place. Look again at the photo of Jim and his colleagues – on the beach in front of the cabanas of the Lido Beach Casino, Sarasota.

On January 20, 1969, the City Commission voted to demolish the casino. One of those working on the demolitions opined:-

'A real piece of history wasted, it was the hardest building I had ever worked on. It was hard as a rock. If they would have left it, it could have stood for 500 years.'

Incidentally - the date of Ralph Twitchell's death in Sarasota in 1978 - 30^th January – the 'sly day'!

Any ideas on the identity of the 'more mature' pilot cadet? Let me know.

LCDRHQ WW2 Staff Newsletters - news of former colleagues - 1944

 

At London Civil Defence Regional HQ newsletters were compiled regularly throughout the war with news of how former colleagues were getting on in the armed forces. Newsletter No 8 was issued in March 1944 and started with a 'special message' :-

“We are honoured on this occasion in being able to include a special message for you all from the Chief Administrative Officer Mr A S Hutchinson CVO.  Mr Hutchinson says:- 'Since the beginning of 1941 more than 50 of you have left London Region to join the Forces. Before the end of the war, some of you, in offensive operations against the enemy, will have been called on to endure even greater hardships and dangers than you endured in the Battle of London : others will look back on that battle as the time of their greatest effort.

To all of you, your friends and comrades in Civil Defence, preparing now for the possibility of renewed demands upon them, send their remembrances and wish you the best of luck and a speedy and victorious return.'”

“Jimmy Ives, who has now been in the RAF two and a half years, was seen a few weeks ago in Exhibition Road surrounded by feminine members of the staff. After that he seems to have been submerged, because we did not see him again. We remember noticing he had a very red face, though whether that was the campaigning or the company we do not know.”

We had a long visit from W G Poulter, who is now Flying Officer. He has been for several months in the Arizona Desert instructing American Fighter Pilots. He is now in Fighter Command in this country and his address is the Queens Hotel Harrogate. The day before he left the States he married a charming American blonde.”

The next newsletter (#9) was circulated six months later – reporting tragic news:-

“Now as regards those of you who have gone from us to serve in offensive operations, we have first to report the sad news of the loss of Jimmy Ives while on a bombing raid over Germany and A E Clifford who was killed in action while serving as a Captain with an Anti-Tank unit.”

Jim Ives was, of course, already dead  by the time Newsletter #8 was circulated.  His former workmates at LCDRHQ would not learn of his demise until Lilian's letter, written to him mid-February, was returned to in May.

Alma Coombs had sent a copy of both newsletters to colleague Cecil Gardener (who was still convalescing at home) with a covering letter dated 17^th November 1944. Alma's reaction to the news of Allan Clifford's death is redolent of the time -  

'Rather bad luck about Alan isn't it, I suppose we have to expect these things now although they still come as a bit of a shock, lets hope its all over soon.'

If anyone can tell me anything at all about Captain Allan Clifford or F/O William G Poulter please contact me here or via the website contact button.

WW2 casualty Joan Fieldgate - commemorated on Southall County School memorial board, buried in Germany.

In researching the various people mentioned in these pages their personal stories are rarely as expected. One of the names on the Southall County School Memorial board - Joan Fieldgate – posed some problems in tracing what had happened to them. Joan had no CWGC entry as a civilian casualty nor did she appear to have served in the armed forces.

Much of the information I have found in researching cousin Jim's story has been of the 'well, I never knew that!' variety - Joan's story falls into that category. Joan had been just as much the adventurer as any of the other ex-pupils of Southall County School who became casualties of the Second World War - a volunteer for the Children’s Overseas Reception Board. She died in hospital at Ravensburg,Germany on 9^th October 1941, aged 27 years.

'Evacuation Escort Dies In Germany

LONDON, Nov. 2.—AAP.

The death has occurred in Germany of a children's overseas evacuation escort. Miss Joan Fieldgate, who was taken prisoner while returning from Australia. The ship in which she was travelling was torpedoed. She spent many months in an internment camp, where she became ill. She was taken to hospital at Ravensburg. Her (step-) mother, living in Middlesex, said that letters from her daughter revealed that she had suffered hardships after the torpedoing, but was fairly comfortable in Germany. Her daughter mentioned that she had received hundreds of letters from friends made in Adelaide and elsewhere in Australia.'

Joan Louise Fieldgate was born in Gillingham in July 1914, her father worked as an electrician at Chatham Dockyard, mother died shortly after Joan’s brother Ivan’s birth in August 1918.

Their father worked abroad in Hong Kong between 1920 and 1924 leaving Joan in the care of her father’s parents and Ivan with their mother’s family. Father subsequently remarried and the family was reunited back in Gillingham. Several work moves eventually took the family to West Drayton with Joan attending Southall County School from 1926, progressing to a student teacher position at the County School between 1931 and 1932.

In the autumn of 1932 Joan attended the Avery Hill Teacher Training College, Eltham, graduating with a teaching diploma in 1934 and obtaining a post as an art teacher at an elementary school in Hillingdon. At the outbreak of the Second World War Joan volunteered as an escort to take evacuee children for the Children’s Overseas Reception Board from England to Australia. 

Joan was skilled in making clothes and very interested in fashion. On her initial escort voyage in the ‘Nestor’ she enjoyed a long layover visit in Cape Town where she made contacts in local fashion houses with a view to possible future employment.

Having safely delivered their charges in Australia the escorts were due to sail an easterly route to the south of Chile, thence north to cross the Atlantic, However, Joan intended to follow-up her fashion leads in Cape Town and embarked on the ‘Port of Wellington’, a cargo vessel making a westerly voyage. Ten days out the ’Port of Wellington’ was attacked by ’the Pinguin’, a German commerce raider, accompanied by the ‘Storstad’, a tanker accommodating prisoners which received crew and passengers from the ‘Port of Wellington’ including Joan Fieldgate. While on board the ‘Storstad’ Joan contracted tropical dysentery as a result of the poor living conditions.

The ‘Storstad’ returned to Bordeaux from where the prisoners were taken to Southern Germany, reaching Liebenau in mid-March 1941. By September Joan was very ill and was admitted to a hospital at Ravensburg where she died on 9^th October 1941. She was buried in an unmarked grave. A few months later there was an exchange of prisoners and the remainder of Joan’s group returned home.

Liebenau had before the war been been an asylum for Germans adults and children with mental and physical disabilities. In October 1940 Liebenau was designated by Heinrich Himmler as an internment camp for civilian women and children of countries with whom Germany was at war – many of whom were British passport holders. From this point numerous of the asylum inmates were euthanised to make way for internees whom, it was hoped, may have future 'bargaining' potential.

'The Accidental Captives: The Story of Seven Women Alone in Nazi Germany'

by Carolyn Gossage - includes a brief account of the sad demise of 'Julie' – 'a British escort for a group of English refugee children being evacuated to Australia. …..she arrived at Liebenau in April 1941, but was taken ill shortly after her arrival, and was then misdiagnosed. Before the error could be rectified ….her patient's case of dysentery had reached the point of no return and within six months Julie was pronounced dead. News of her death quickly spread through the camp and with it the realisation that Julie was, in fact, a peripheral victim of the war from which the women of Liebenau felt relatively removed and isolated.'

Another book - 'Who Will Take Our Children?: The British Evacuation Program of World War II ' by Carlton Jackson - also includes references to Joan's demise.

Joan Louise Fieldgate is commemorated by an inscription on her mother Louise's gravestone in Gillingham (Woodlands) Cemetery, Kent, England.

Sincere thanks to Joan's brother Ivan for telling me about his vivacious elder sister.

Centenary of the outbreak of the Great War - A tale of two brothers

John Ives and his elder brother James began the War doing the same job at the same place.

Alfred De Rothschild the owner of Halton Hall, near Wendover, Bucks offered his estate to the War Office for military training. The 21^st Division, one of the components of Lord Kitchener's Third New Army, was concentrated in the vicinity of Tring, Hertfordshire in the autumn of 1914 and occupied Halton Park before the onset of winter drove them into local billets.

The Ives brothers lived in the village of Long Marston about six miles from Halton Park via Wilstone and Aston Clinton.  The construction of huts must have been an attractive employment opportunity for local carpenters and the brothers worked on the project from 1914 onwards - they would earn a bonus of half-a-crown for every hut completed. James and John specialised in cutting match-boarding and held the record for the greatest number of boards sawn in a day. They were apparently among the last remaining carpenters of 2000 men who worked on the construction of Halton Camp, which, by 1916, accommodated nearly 20,000 infantrymen in wooden huts and tents.

 

Subsequently Johnny Ives went across to France to build huts there and James joined the army.

 

Johnny Ives in RFC uniform

John spent three and a half years in France, including 12 months serving in the Royal Flying Corps. There his woodworking skills were employed in repairing and converting a single-seat aeroplane into a twin-seater so that his CO could ‘take a certain duchess for a spin’.

James joined the army in 1916 and in the spring of 1917 was attached from the Hertfordshire Regiment to the 'D' Company 8^th Lincolnshires Regiment. On May 22^nd 1918 ‘tidings’ came from the War Office that Private Ives had been killed on or about 31^st July 1917 in Belgium during the third Battle of Ypres.

A letter from the 'British Red Cross and Order of St John Enquiry Department for Wounded and Missing', dated 21^st February 1918 confirmed that it was likely that Private Jas. Wm. Ives 235254, D Coy. 8^th Lincolns was dead.

‘With reference to your enquiry regarding the above, I write with deepest regret to inform you that we have just received the following sad report from Pte. J H Dunn, 43324, D Coy. 8^th Lincolns, a prisoner of war, who reports as follows:-

‘The last time I saw Pte. Jas. Wm. Ives was early in the morning, say 8 o’clock; he was wounded, tried to get back, but I think, well most sure, he was sniped and killed.’

We fear his conclusion is probably correct as had Pte Ives survived we feel certain that he would have been heard of long before this.

Yours faithfully,

For the Earl of Lucan’.

On 8^th July 1917 8^th Battalion Lincolnshires, a component of the 63^rd Brigade together with 8^th Battalion Somerset Light Infantry; 4^th Battalion Middlesex Regiment; 10^th Battalion York & Lancaster Regiment; 63^rd Machine Gun Regiment and 63^rd Trench Mortar Battery; joined the 37^th Division, part of the Second New Army, to later take their part in the Battle of Pilckem Ridge in the Third Battle of Ypres.

The Third Battle of Ypres was a series of small battles which became synonymous with the slaughter of the Western Front. The intention for the opening stage of the battle was to take objectives in and around the village of Pilckem, a few miles to the north of Ypres. The village was situated near a ridge which gave a commanding view of the British line and so it was important that it was taken both to deny the enemy their excellent vantage point and to give the British an observation point across the German rear, which would give them a significant tactical advantage.

The Allied artillery bombarded the German lines with more than four million shells between July 16^th and the 31^st in preparation for a forthcoming advance. The attack was to begin at dawn on 31^st July. The action commenced at 3.50am in mist and heavy rain and by the end of the day, with most of the objectives having been taken, allied casualties numbered 15,000.

The History of the Lincolnshire Regiment records the following:- 'At 3.50am on 31^st July, the attack began. 'D' Company of the Lincolnshire being detailed to form the defensive flank on the right of the 4^th Middlesex from June and July Farms. The right company of the Middlesex advanced and gained its objective, and, at 4.30am two platoons of the supporting company went through to reconnoitre and clear Bab Farm. It was at this stage that the leading platoon of the 8^th Lincolnshire, then engaged in forming the defensive flank, was drawn into the fighting. Some stiff close-quarter fighting then ensued, and heavy casualties were inflicted on the enemy, but the attackers were hard-pressed. Again and again they tried to send runners back for assistance but they were shot down. Runners sent forward from the reserve company also failed to reach the attackers and the brigade narrative ends the account of the gallant party of Middlesex and Lincolnshire with the words: “This party fought it out where they were until they were all either killed or wounded”.'

Pte Jas Wm Ives, D Coy 8th Lincolnshire