Keep the Home Fires Burning - detailing wartime life in the towns and villages mentioned.

B.S. 1917 Dec. 22nd
Rifleman Herbert Flute, of the 1st Battalion, 3rd New Zealand Rifle Brigade, was killed in action on December 5th, and in a letter to his parents, Charles and Eliza Flute, of Astwood, his platoon sergeant, Sergeant P. Grant, writes;

“Please accept the deepest sympathy of myself and the boys of 15 platoon with you and yours in the great loss you have sustained by the death of your brave, dear son. Myself and his mates can but pray that in your grief you will be comforted and sustained by the grace and presence of our Heavenly Father. It will be some measure of consolation for you to know that your son was greatly respected by all his mates; also that in the testing time he proved his sterling worth. Ever think of him not as dead but as still living in the more immediate presence of God.”
Details of the circumstance were forwarded to his parents by a chum, Rifleman J. Fitch, who states that they were working in a trench when, about 8 o’clock in the morning, a shell came over and killed him instantly. His death came as a great blow, for his cheerful and willing nature had made him very popular. He and others who had been killed were buried in the cemetery behind the lines, with a wooden cross placed at the head of the grave. Aged 29, some six years ago Rifleman Flute had emigrated to Canada, and there he stayed for some 20 months, before proceeding to New Zealand to work with his brother. Enlisting on February 8th, 1916, at Trentham, New Zealand, he arrived in Britain for a period of training on Salisbury Plain in June of that year, and the following month was sent to the Western Front, where he would be wounded in the arm on September 15th. After treatment in the 2nd General Hospital, London, he then went to Hornchurch as a convalescent, before rejoining his regiment in France, to again take part in much heavy fighting. He would be remembered by his family in the following verse;

“Peaceful be thy rest, dear Bert,
’Tis sweet to breathe thy name;
In life we loved you dearly,
In death we do the same.

Too far away thy grave to see,
But not too far to think of thee;
As long as life and memory last
We will remember thee.
From his sorrowing father and mother, Astwood.”
(In January 1919 a handsome brass font ewer would be presented to Astwood Parish Church, to be inscribed; ‘To the Glory of God, and in loving memory of Herbert Henry Flute, New Zealand Rifle Brigade, aged 29 years, who gave his life for his country, Dec. 4th, 1917. Given by Madeline Boursy.’ However, the actual wording reads;

B.S. 1917 Mar. 24th

A telegram and letter have been received from those in charge of the hospital where, from wounds received in the abdomen on March 17th, Bombardier A.W. Hobbs, of the Royal Garrison Artillery, is lying dangerously ill. The son of John Hobbs, of Astwood, he enlisted shortly after the outbreak of war, and, having been through much savage fighting, has been in France for two years.

B.S. 1918 Feb. 2nd
Sergeant Herbert Hall, of the Royal Field Artillery, has been awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal;

“Near Jellebeke, on the 14th September, 1917, the enemy suddenly opened a heavy barrage on the road immediately behind the battery which at the time was congested with ammunition wagons. The road at once became blocked, and the leading team having suffered severely, were unable to move so that teams in the rear, which included one belonging to M battery, were unable to get forward to the only place of safety. The confusion was increased by the incessant rain of shells of heavy calibre. Sergeant Hall, with the utmost presence of mind, and disregard of personal safety, ran to the spot restored order and succeeded in clearing the road for the rear teams. He then took charge of the battery wagon of which the leading driver had been killed and three horses badly wounded, and finding the wagon badly damaged, unhooked it clear of the road, and got the personnel and horses away.”

(The son of Mr. William Hall, of Astwood, Sergeant Hall had been in the Artillery for 12 years before the war, and rejoined the colours from the Army Reserve in August, 1914.)