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 [Royal West
Kent Regiment]
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.
17th January 2016. Information supplied by Kyle Tallett.
William Tallett was christened William, and the Cornelius crept in
during childhood, also our family name is TULLETT but all were
illiterate. William (Cornelius) was born in Portslade in Brighton. He
was the son of Peter and Jane from Highcroft Villas, Swanley. He was a
pre-war territorial with the 5th Battalion R.W. Kent's. He did not go to
India with the battalion in 1914, instead he went to the 3rd Battalion
guarding the Medway. In Sept 1916 he went to France with a draft bound
for the 6th Battalion, but on arrival was posted with this draft to the
17th Bttn Middlesex Regt. He was killed in action 2nd Dec 1917 and has
no known grave and is on the Louverval memorial. He left a wife and 4
kids, he was living at Bath Villas. He is also on the Swanley Memorial.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * *
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. Oswald Herbert George Kerr
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.