Aristocrats Go to War: Uncovering the Zillebeke Cemetery Read online

  This book is dedicated to my granddaughter Grace So that she and her generation will continue to remember

  First published in Great Britain in 2010 by

  Pen & Sword Military

  an imprint of

  Pen & Sword Books Ltd

  47 Church Street

  Barnsley

  South Yorkshire

  S70 2AS

  Copyright © Jerry Murland 2010

  ISBN 9781848841529

  eISBN 9781844685301

  The right of Jerry Murland to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the Publisher in writing.

  Typeset in 11pt Ehrhardt by Mac Style, Beverley, E. Yorkshire

  Printed and bound in the UK by the MPG Books Group

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  Contents

  Foreword

  Acknowledgements

  Vitai Lampada

  Introduction

  Chapter 1 Zillebeke Churchyard

  Chapter 2 Reform and Reorganization

  Chapter 3 Officers, Gentlemen and Public School

  Chapter 4 From Mons to Ypres

  Chapter 5 The Clash of Arms

  Chapter 6 A Very Gallant Officer

  Chapter 7 Holding On at All Costs

  Chapter 8 The Fire Brigade

  Chapter 9 Play Up and Play the Game

  Chapter 10 The Last Stand

  Chapter 11 After the Battle

  Appendix 1 – Other Burials at Zillebeke

  Appendix 2 – Summary of 1914 Deaths

  References

  Bibliography

  Zillebeke churchyard cemetery.

  The church window donated by Mrs Evelyn St George in memory of her son, Howard Avenel Bligh St George.

  One of the two bells donated by the de Gunzburg family in memory of Alexis George de Gunzburg.

  Richard Long Dawson, killed in action on 20 November 1914.

  The original metal nameplate that was placed on Dawson’s cross at Zillebeke churchyard. Note the bullet hole and the incorrect date of death.

  Dawson’s grave at Zillebeke in 1919. The ruins of the church are in the background.

  Baron Alexis George de Gunzburg who was killed in action on 6 November 1914. His naturalization papers were rushed through to enable him to go to war with the 3rd Cavalry Division.

  The ruins of Zillebeke Church 1919. After four years of fighting the church and village were reduced to rubble.

  The interior of Zillebeke Church November 1914.

  John Lee Steere’s grave marker at Zillebeke 1920.

  The plaque erected in memory of Alfred Felix Schuster.

  The Household Brigade Memorial at Zandvoorde in the final stages of its construction in 1924.

  Howard Avenel Bligh St George in the dress uniform of the1st Life Guards. He was killed by a sniper on 15 November 1914.

  Lady Sarah Wilson who was running a hospital at Bolougne at the time of her husband’s death.

  Gordon Chesney Wilson, taken at Windsor in 1911. Wilson commanded the Royal Horse Guards until his death on 6 November 1914.

  Men of the 1st Battalion The Gloucestershire Regiment.

  Caricature of Robert Rising drawn while the regiment was stationed in India.

  The Gloucestershire Regiment Memorial at Clapham Junction, Ypres.

  1st Battalion The Gloucestershire Regiment at Bordon in 1914 Back Row: (L-R): 2/Lt.R Grazebrook, Capt.W Temple, 2/Lt D Baxter, Lt.J Caunter, Middle Row: 7th from left, 2/Lt.W S Yalland, Front Row: ANO, Capt.R Gardner, ANO, Capt.J O’ D.Ingram, ANO, Lt.Col.A C Lovett, Brig.Gen.H Landon, ANO, Maj.A J.Menzies, ANO, Capt.R E Rising, ANO, Capt.G M Shipway.

  Sandhurst 1901. Cadets under instruction at the Riding School. This was the last year that cadets at the RMC would wear the blue serge uniform and forage cap. The author’s grandfather is in the second row, second from right.

  Old Etonians at Sandhurst in 1913. John Lee Steere is standing third from the left in the front row, leaning against the wall with his arms folded.

  His Majesty the King reviewing Sandhurst cadets in July 1913. Present amongst the invited guests are the parents of John Lee Steere.

  Grenadier Guards of the 1st Battalion parade prior to leaving for France with the BEF in August 1914. The battalion was all but wiped out at Ypres in October 1914.

  William Sinclair Petersen. Killed on 6 November 1914.

  Norman Neill, the Brigade Major of 7 Cavalry Brigade. Killed on 6 November 1914.

  The memorial to the 157 Glenalmond old boys who were killed in the Great War. Petersen’s name is amongst them.

  Postcard written by John Lee Steere from the Zillebeke trenches ten days before he was killed in action on 17 November 1914.

  John Henry Gordon Lee Steere.

  Carleton Wyndham Tufnell.

  John Lee Steere’s cousin Cholmeley Symes-Thompson.

  Harry Parnell, the 5th Lord Congleton, at New College Oxford in 1911.

  Harry in the dress uniform of the Grenadier Guards in 1913.

  One of the less serious student pranks that Harry Parnell was involved in during his time at New College.

  Walter Frederick Siewertsen.

  Michael George Stocks.

  L-R Major Lord Bernard Gordon Lennox standing with his brother-in-law Major Beckwith and his elder brother Lord Esme Gordon Lennox. Bernard was killed on 10 November 1914, the same day Michael Stocks was killed serving with Number 4 Company. Esme was wounded at Zandvoorde but survived the war, as did Major Beckwith.

  Alfred Felix Schuster at New College Oxford, pictured sitting in front of Frederick Murray Hicks. Hicks was commissioned in 1914 and survived. Alfred was killed on 20 November 1914 at Hooge.

  William Gibson in London Scottish dress uniform. Gibson was a territorial soldier from Ilford who lost his life on 11 November 1914.

  The Brown Road today, looking much the same as it did over ninety years ago. It was along this road that the Grenadier Guards held the line on 6 November 1914.

  Hon William Reginald Wyndham circa 1912.

  Second Lieutenant Wyndham at Fulford Barracks, York in 1897 soon after being commissioned into the 17th Lancers.

  Mounted on Wengy, one of the two horses he took with him to France in October 1914.

  The memorial to the war dead of the London Scottish in the drill hall at Horseferry Road, London. William Gibson’s name is amongst them.

  The Menin Gate at Ypres shortly after its inauguration in 1927.

  Robert Rising’s name on the village war memorial at Ormesby St Margaret, Norfolk.

  The memorial to Cholmeley Symes-Thompson at St Michael’s Church, in the Oxfordshire village of Finmere.

  The name of Howard St George commemorated on the Newbold Pacey war memorial in Warwickshire.

  The Ivan Mestrovic wood carving ‘De
scent from the Cross’ bought by Evelyn St George in memory of her son.

  Foreword

  There is still a huge interest in the First World War, some ninety years after its end, as it fades into history with the death of the last British survivor. This book records the tragically short lives of some of those who took part.

  No one who has seen the cemeteries in Belgium and northern France can be the same afterwards. It is extraordinary and humbling to see what remains of those four years when so many young men fell while fighting for their countries. The rows of graves and headstones in the beautifully tended enclosures show the extent of the losses.

  Among the dead that Jerry Murland writes about is my ancestor William Reginald ‘Regy’ Wyndham. We know that Regy was a humorous, easy-going man, a good horseman, fond of riotous jokes and adored by his family – someone who loved life. What else can there be to say of such an early death? Who knows what might have happened to him had he lived?

  Such is the sadness of war. But this book has revived Regy and its other subjects, bringing them back to life of a kind – a life made by the imaginations of those who read of it. To have achieved this shows how worthwhile a project Aristocrats Go to War is.

  Max Egremont

  Acknowledgements

  I am very grateful to Lord Egremont for agreeing to write a foreword and for giving permission to use extracts from Regy Wyndham’s letters and diary. I must also register my thanks to my editor, Jon Cooksey, for his encouragement and faith in a book that grew from a discussion we had in his kitchen. Rebecca Jones at Glory Designs in Coventry has produced some excellent maps from my sketches and I must thank her for her patience and understanding in the face of my many revisions.

  This book would not have been possible without the enormous number of individuals who have assisted me with the research and preparation. In particular I must thank the Lee Steere family who welcomed me into their home and gave me full access to the papers and effects of John Lee Steere. I am grateful to both His Grace the Duke of Richmond and Gordon, and to Rosemary Baird for assistance from the Goodwood Archive and to Bernard, David, Michael & Andrew Gordon Lennox for permission to print extracts from Lord Bernard Gordon Lennox’s diary. I am also indebted to Janine Heaney nee Siewertsen for her assistance with gathering information on her great uncle, Walter Siewertsen.

  In the course of my research I have visited numerous archive collections and the help and assistance I have received on every occasion has been outstanding. I must thank the staff at: the National Archives at Kew, Alison McCann at the West Sussex Records Office, Elaine Mundill at Glenalmond College, Jennifer Thorp at New College, Oxford, Penny Hatfield at Eton College, Dr Anthony Morton at Sandhurst, Rita Boswell at Harrow School, Eleanor Whitney at the Westminster Archive, Carole Standeven at Minstead, Colonel Seymour at the Grenadier Archive, Guardsman Gareth Goodwin at the Coldstream Archive, Mrs Sue Cole at Charterhouse School, Clem Webb at the London Scottish Archive, Adam Green at Trinity College, Cambridge and John Lloyd at the Household Cavalry Archive.

  I must also record my thanks to Tom Waterer and Paul Webster who spent three days with me walking the ground at Ypres in March 2009 and to Pastor Odile Denorme at Zillebeke for allowing me access to the church tower to photograph the bells.

  The author and publishers wish to thank the History Press for their kind permission to quote from The Crofton Diaries. We are also grateful to the following for permission to reproduce photographs: the Lee Steere family, Janine Heaney, Goodwood Collection, New College Archive, Petworth House Archive, The Household Cavalry Archive, The Queen’s Royal Lancer’s Regimental Museum, Grenadier Guards’ Archive, Coldstream Guards’ Archive, Soldiers of Gloucestershire Museum, London Scottish Archive, Glenalmond College, Charterhouse School and Harrow School. In all instances every effort has been made to trace the copyright holders where any substantial extract is quoted. The author craves the indulgence of literary executors or copyright holders where these efforts have so far failed.

  Finally a big thank you to my wife Joan for putting up with the disruption to family life that writing a book of this nature often creates.

  Vitai Lampada

  There’s a breathless hush in the Close tonight

  Ten to make and the match to win

  A bumping pitch and a blinding light,

  An hour to play and the last man in.

  And it’s not for the sake of a ribboned coat,

  Or the selfish hope of a season’s fame,

  But his Captain’s hand on his shoulder smote

  ‘Play up! play up! and play the game!’

  The sand of the desert is sodden red,

  Red with the wreck of a square that broke;

  The Gatling’s jammed and the Colonel dead,

  And the regiment blind with dust and smoke.

  The river of death has brimmed his banks,

  And England’s far, and Honour a name,

  But the voice of a schoolboy rallies the ranks:

  ‘Play up! play up! and play the game!’

  This is the word that year by year,

  While in her place the School is set,

  Every one of her sons must hear,

  And none that hears it dare forget.

  This they all with a joyful mind

  Bear through life like a torch in flame,

  And falling fling to the host behind

  ‘Play up! play up! and play the game!’

  Sir Henry Newbolt (1862–1938)

  Introduction

  The last great battle of 1914 took place in Flanders and much of it was within sight of the spires of the ancient walled city of Ypres. By its conclusion many of the British Regular Army battalions that had taken part in the retreat from Mons and fought on the Marne and the Aisne had been reduced to little more than cadres. More significantly, the experienced core of officers and NCOs that fell in those grim days of October and November were an enormous and irreplaceable loss to the raising and training of the New Armies already answering Kitchener’s call to arms back in Britain. By December 1914 the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) was all but gone; their epitaph encompassed in the words of Brigadier General James Edmonds in the Official History of 1914:

  ‘The old British Army was gone past recall, leaving but a remnant to carry on the training of the New Armies; but the framework that remained had gained an experience and confidence which was to make those armies invincible … If they had done naught else, the men of the Expeditionary Force would have done far more than could have been expected of their numbers.’1

  The focus of this book is on the lives of eighteen men who are commemorated in the small churchyard cemetery of Sint-Catharinakerk at Zillebeke and who fought in the first battle of Ypres as part of the BEF in 1914. The cemetery, often referred to by battlefield guides as the ‘Aristocrats’ Cemetery’, is noted for the proportionally high number of individuals from the families of the aristocracy and landed gentry who are buried and commemorated therein. I have always been drawn towards the social history of the Great War and the lives and circumstances of those who took part in it and while this book is not intended as another history of the First Battle of Ypres, in order to fully appreciate the impact of the business of war on the individual it is necessary for the reader to have a broad understanding of the chronology of the battle itself. To this end the circumstances that brought each of the eighteen officers and men to Ypres in October 1914 have been placed in the context of the fighting that was taking place at the time.

  Needless to say, there is often a direct correlation between social status and the amount of research material available. Thus those who were born into aristocratic or well-known families tend to have a wealth of family history already in existence, albeit sometimes difficult to track down. The same is true of military records; researching an officer is generally a more straightforward task than that of trying to piece together the movements of a soldier in the ranks. The death of an officer is usually recorded in the regimen
tal war diary and in the case of the early Great War deaths they may also have an entry in databases such as the Bond of Sacrifice. But for many soldiers serving in the ranks it is only possible to build up a picture if their actions have been recorded. This may be as a result of wounds received or gallantry in the field but even then an element of luck is required. Additional family information can be obtained from census returns or where a surviving family member still exists, but for the purposes of telling their battlefield story a certain amount of conjecture is impossible to avoid. Such is the case with Private Walter Siewertsen, Lance Corporal James Whitfield and Private William Gibson. The exact circumstances of their deaths were not recorded in the respective war diaries or in any of the regimental histories; thus we can only speculate how they died in the light of what was happening around them at the time.