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A veteran of the South African War, in 1915 Major B. Swannell, of the Australian Contingent, was killed in the Dardanelles. He had been born at Cowper Cottage, Weston Underwood, and in his younger days was one of the best known Rugby footballers in the Midlands, playing first for Olney, and then Northampton.

After three unsuccessful attempts to enlist, in May 1915 Mr. Reginald Paybody was passed for service with the East Anglian Division of the Royal Engineers. Previously he had served for 7 years as a sergeant in the London City Territorials. He was the son of Mr. and Mrs. A. Paybody of Weston Underwood, and of his three brothers Edwin was in training with Kitchener’s Army. However, after volunteering Sidney had been rejected as medically unfit.

Late of the Royal Engineers, in the second week of August 1915 Lieutenant Colonel W. Grenville Bowyer, the Deputy Lieutenant of Bucks, was ordered by the War Office to report for duty in London, and duly travelled from his home at Weston Manor on the morning of Thursday, August 19th. Since the outbreak of the war he had raised the North Bucks Special Constables, and apart from being Chairman of the Emergency Committee he was also Chairman of the Recruiting Committee.

A letter in April 1916 addressed to the editor of a local newspaper;

“Dear Sir, During the winter months the village of Weston Underwood has shown its sense of public spirit and patriotism by organising a fortnightly whist drive with a minimum entrance fee of 6d. The amount thus realised, viz., £5 10s., has all been sent to swell the funds of the Red Cross and St. John Ambulance. It is now proposed to carry on as long as possible a similar effort in favour of our County Regiments, the Bucks Battalion and Bucks Yeomanry. May I through your valuable paper suggest that other villages and towns interested in the regiments should follow the example of Weston Underwood, and thus help to send those many comforts which our brave men sorely need at the Front? I have been asked to collect money for the Bucks Territorial Units Comforts Fund in the villages of Lavendon, Cold Brayfield, Olney, Newton Blossomville, Clifton Reynes, Emberton, Sherington, Chicheley, Hardmead, Astwood and Weston Underwood, by concerts, whist drives, or any form of entertainment. The comforts are to be extended to the Bucks Yeomanry. I shall be glad to receive moneys for the above, and will acknowledge the same from time to time in your columns. Yours, &c.,

EVA M. BOWYER.

Weston Manor - Olney, Bucks, 13th April, 1916.”

Well known as a bird fancier, in the first week of January 1917 Mr. W. Andrews won several prizes at the Northampton Hand-in-Hand Cage Bird Society Show, including first for British goldfinch, and first and very highly commended for chaffinch.

(In 1919 at the Llanelly Cage Bird Society Show he would win 1st and 3rd prizes for ‘mules and hybrids,’ amongst other awards.)

At Weston Underwood, during the winter of 1917/18 a fortnightly whist drive was held in aid of the Red Cross Fund.

GEORGE EDWARD WENTWORTH BOWYER

Following an operation in a London nursing home, on the morning of Tuesday, November 30th 1948 Lord Denman - the Rt. Hon. Sir George Edward Wentworth Bowyer M.C., first Baron Denham of Weston Underwood and first baronet - died aged 62. Born on January 16th 1886 he was the eldest son of the late Lt. Col. W.G. Bowyer of Weston Manor, and after an education at Eton and New College, Oxford, was called to the Bar by the Inner Temple in 1909, subsequently practising on the Midland Circuit. In 1910 he joined the Buckingham Battalion of the Oxon and Bucks Light Infantry (Territorials) and as a Captain, being mentioned in despatches, fought on the Western Front during World War One, being awarded the Military Cross for gallantry on the field. On the evening of Thursday May 6th 1915, whilst in the trenches, near Ypres, when commanding the Wolverton Company of the Oxon and Bucks Light Infantry Territorials he was hit in the shoulder by a piece of rifle grenade, but fortunately the fragment missed the bone. Having on the Saturday arrived at the London Hospital, he was then transferred to the Military Hospital in Hampshire, and returned to France in 1916 as Adjutant of the 2nd Battalion of the county regiment. In this capacity he remained until early 1918, when recalled for special service at the Admiralty. In 1918, the year before his marriage to the Hon. Daphne Freeman-Mitford, he entered politics, and was returned with a clear majority as the Coalition Conservative Member for North Bucks. Conscientious in his duties, he took a great interest in the welfare of ex servicemen, as in his response to the following letter of February 1925;

“Dear Sir,

As a regular reader of your esteemed paper, will you kindly allow me a little space to protest against some of the treatment that is being meted out to ex-Servicemen. We are offered work by the L.M.&S. Railway in the carriage and waggon works at Wolverton. Then we have to undergo a medical examination which is far more severe than that we had to pass to find out if we were fit to stand the strain and hardships of modern warfare. Then, because of a slight defect that we have received in the service of our country, we are turned down as unfit for work.
When I look back and call to mind those grim scenes when we hung on to the line in Flanders, doing our little bit to save the railways of England from being put under new management, I wonder if it was worth our while.
I was discharged from the Army A1. Naturally I am led to consider why I am not receiving a pension. But, sir, pensions are not for the able-bodied. All we ask is to be allowed to work. I venture to say, without fear of contradiction, if we were needed again for the firing line the category of unfit for work would soon be revoked to one of fit to fight.
Hoping this may catch the eye of our worthy M.P., who is always ready to champion the ex-Serviceman’s cause, and of those who have a real sympathy for us.

Yours faithfully,

EX-SERVICEMAN.

Stony Stratford, Feb. 3.”

To this came the reply;

“SIR, I hasten to reply (as far as I can do so) to the letter from “Ex-Service Man,” which appeared in your issue last week. That letter evokes my deep sympathy. Very many similar cases have come to my notice, and I want “Ex-Service Man” to know that I have once more written off to the London, Midland & Scottish Railway Company, and have done my best to try and prevail upon them to give work to those splendid ex-Servicemen, who, whilst drawing no pension, are to-day finding their war disabilities so terrible a handicap.

I am, Sir,

Your obedient service,

GEORGE BOWYER.

House of Commons,
10th February, 1925.”

Followed by;

“SIR, - I have now had a reply to the letter which I wrote on the 10th February last (a copy of which you were good enough to print in your issue of some weeks ago) to the General Manager of the L.M.&S. Railway Coy. Unfortunately, however, my request for permission to publish this letter has been refused. I can, therefore, merely say that the terms of the letter are entirely sympathetic, and that I only hope that “Ex-Service Man” and others will, in future, meet with better treatment.

Your obedient servant,

GEORGE BOWYER.

House of Commons,
11th March, 1925.”

From 1918 until 1937 he would contest and win seven elections, all with substantial majorities. Being knighted in 1929, in 1935 he was appointed as Comptroller of His Majesty’s Household, and following the outbreak of World War Two joined the Home Guard Directorate at the War Office, where he remained until the end of the war. Keen on hunting, during the summer he played cricket for the village and other local clubs, whilst in other activities he was president of the Olney branch of the British Legion. He had three children - a daughter and two sons - but since his eldest son was killed in action during World War Two, whilst serving with the R.A.F., his younger son, the Hon. Bertram Stanley Mitford Bowyer, born in 1927, would succeed to the barony in 1948, at his father’s death. With the coffin borne from The Manor in a farm cart drawn by two horses, with many notables present the funeral was held at Weston Underwood Church on Friday, December 3rd 1948, and at the entrance to the church the two standards of the Olney Legion branch were held aloft.

Writing in the Times on Monday, December 6th 1948 ‘J’ would pen this fitting tribute;

“The motto of George Bowyer - the name I think, by which his old friends will still remember him best - should have been “I serve.” Whether it was an intimate friend, a constituent, or just an acquaintance that needed his help he was always available, and there must indeed be many who, on looking back, will gratefully remember the leg up which they owe to his kindness. In politics, in his business, and in sport, he will be greatly missed by his friends in all walks of life, and not least by some of the humblest.”