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

W.E. 1914 Nov. 6th

Pioneer F. Bleason, of the Royal Engineers, is the son of Mr. A. Bleason, of Gayhurst, and has written this letter to his sister at Northampton. He is attached to the Signalling Company, and was in charge of a field telephone which broke down near a monastery. He went to see what had happened, and in his letter says;

“I had not gone 200 yards when hell was let loose. Talk about run, I went back to that Monastery as hard as I could go. It appears that about 300 had broken through and attacked us in the rear. The front had to fall back, and the Germans had surrounded the headquarters. I was trying to get the Artillery, when I heard a deep hoarse shout, and with that and the shots it was lively - like standing between a cocoanut shy and a shooting gallery both doing a roaring trade. I saw a rifle pointed at me round a doorway and a German shouting something, so I put my hands up. I could not offer any resistance for I had left my rifle behind.”

Continuing the story, he said that the Germans took 24 prisoners and put a guard over them. “Then our artillery started shelling the place so they took us down a cellar.” Private Bleason next went to sleep, but was aroused by someone shouting “Put your hands up, Josie - the sweetest music I had heard for a long time. The Somersets, Essex, and Inniskillings had got them on the run and regained all the ground.” He then adds that they took 400 prisoners and killed a lot. He said that during his captivity the Germans had treated them well, and given them biscuits, cheese and jam, which they had captured. Pioneer Bleason is now billeted in a “kind of public house,” and has a mouth organ, and “could not feel better.” Aged 22, he has served for six years, and his brother, Mr. A. Bleason, is shortly to go to the Front with the Northants. Yeomanry.

W.E. 1914 Nov. 13th

A letter from Mrs. Blanche Carlile;

Dear Sir, - I have received a notice both from the Red Cross Society and St. John Ambulance Association, that an idea has got about, clothes and hospital requirements are not wanted, that there are plenty.
I have been asked to state that this is not the case, the need is greater than ever, the wounded were in hundreds, now they are in thousands.
My husband writes from the British Hospital base at Boulogne, and begs me to make the great need known, and send all we can through St. John Ambulance and the Red Cross, who are doing such noble work.
Sheets, pillow slips, blankets, night shirts (both helpless and otherwise), flannel jackets (preferably not red), belts, socks, slippers, bandages, dressing gowns, vests, and drawers (woven), singlets (flannel), warm bed socks etc.
I will gladly forward any one garment, and add it to parcels going or money to buy them, if your readers will help me.

B.S. 1914 Dec. 19th

No further information has been received regarding Lieutenant Colonel Henry Osbert Samuel Cadogan. He is the brother of Mrs. Carlile, of Gayhurst House, and has been reported missing since October 30th. Born the son of the Reverend Edward Cadogan, of Wicken, he joined the Royal Welch Fusiliers from the Militia in 1888, and served with the 1st Battalion throughout the Hazara Expedition in 1891. Promoted to Captain in 1896, he was with the 2nd Battalion in the China Expedition and Relief of Peking in 1900, becoming Adjutant of the 2nd Battalion from 1900 to 1904. Serving in 1906 as Assistant Commandant Indian Mounted Infantry School, the following year he was promoted to Major, and from 1908 to 1909 acted as Station Staff Officer and Commandant at Kasauli.

Regarding the action in which he was last seen, the following is an extract from a letter to the Vicar of Carnarvon, taken from the Manchester Guardian;

“The Old First Battalion got a severe shaking at Ypres. The sergeant-major, two staff sergeants, and three colour sergeants are in England wounded, three colour sergeants are wounded in Germany, the other two colour sergeants, Craven and Sullivan, cannot be traced yet. The Commanding Officer and adjutant were with the Battalion all through till the last day. They bore charmed lives, did splendid work, and were the talk of the Division. They simply laughed at the shells. Two hundred and fifty of our fellows were left in a position in the trenches when the troops on the left and right retired without letting us know and our fellows were surrounded. What happened to Col. Cadogan and Lieut. Dooner no one can find out. I fancy they were wounded and prisoners. … The Welch Fusiliers made a forced march of 110 miles in three days and two nights. We were so close to the Germans at Ypres that we dare not strike a match to light a fire for fear of revealing our position. … We have had some very heavy fighting and very little rest. We held Ypres for 63 hours until reinforcements came, and we were complimented by Sir John French.”

B.S. 1915 May 29th

From Gayhurst House, for general publication on May 25th Mrs. Carlile writes regarding her brother;

“With reference to the notices that have been in the daily papers re Lieutenant-Colonel H.O.S. Cadogan, 1st Batt. Royal Welch Fusiliers, no reliable information has been received since October 30th, when he was reported missing at the battle of Zandvoorde, near Ypres.”

(Aged 46, Lieutenant Colonel Cadogan was killed in action on October 30th, 1914. He left a widow, Evelyn, and is buried in Hooge Crater Cemetery.)

B.S. 1915 Sep. 11th

From the War Office, Mr. and Mrs. Freshwater, of Gayhurst, have received a communication informing them that their son, Trooper Will Freshwater, of the Royal Bucks Hussars, was wounded in action at the Dardanelles on August 21st. He is now in hospital on Imbros Island, in the Aegean Sea, and from his letters it seems that he had a miraculous escape. One bullet went through his pack, a second grazed his face, and a third tore away the flap of his tunic pocket. A fourth wounded him in the left forearm.

B.S. 1915 Oct. 16th

Private Alfred Plumpton, of the 5th Oxon and Bucks Light Infantry, was killed in action on the Western Front on September 25th, 1915, aged 21. Born at Old Buckenham, Norfolk, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Plumpton, of Hart’s Farm, Wymondham, for three years he had been underkeeper on the Gayhurst Estate.He is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial.

B.S. 1916 Apr. 1st

A letter to the editor;

“Dear Sir, - Will you kindly allow me space in your paper to thank all those who have sent walkingsticks for the wounded in the Hospitals.

The following have been received and forwarded to the St. John and Red Cross:-

Gayhurst, March 24, 1916.”

B.S. 1918 Aug. 3rd

Great interest was taken in the wedding of Sergeant W. Freshwater, the younger son of Mr. and Mrs. F. Freshwater of Gayhurst, and Miss Violet Calladine, which recently took place at Stony Stratford. The bridegroom was home for the first time after nearly four years’ of service with the Bucks Hussars in Egypt, Gallipoli and Palestine, and apart from his many exciting experiences during that time, on the voyage back his vessel was torpedoed. After the wedding ceremony a reception was held at the residence of the bride, with a brief honeymoon then being spent in London, since Sergeant Freshwater had to return to the front two days afterwards.

B.S. 1918 Sep. 28th

Aged 24, on September 11th, Private James Lyman, of the 2nd Battalion, Oxon and Bucks Light Infantry, died of severe wounds only a few minutes after being received in an advanced dressing station. Two very sympathetic letters have been received from the Roman Catholic Chaplain with the Brigade, who conducted the funeral service in the absence of a Church of England Chaplain. From the employment of Mr. Cox at the Dairy Farm, Gayhurst, Private Lyman had joined the army on March 18th, 1916, and went to France the following July. Born at Stoke Goldington, he was the fifth son of Mrs. Lyman, of Gayhurst, who has six other sons serving, and was a resident of Newport Pagnell.

(In November, the ribbon of the Military Medal awarded posthumously to Private Lyman would be sent to his mother by the Colonel, who wrote;

“I knew him well and he was a good soldier, and a credit to his regiment and to himself.”
Major General C. Pereira, C.B., C.M.G., Commanding the 2nd Division, B.E.F., also wrote, congratulating Mrs. Lyman on the bravery of her son.)