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

B.S. 1914 Dec. 19th

Extracts of letters sent home by Mr. Hew Brooke Rickards, the son of the Rector of Tyringham-cum-Filgrave. He is in France attached to the 2nd Legion Etrangers of the French Army, and writes home;

“November 17. I am very sorry not to have written for such a long time but I have not had a spare minute since my last letter. … Two days ago we got orders to go and occupy a village on the most advanced point of this line (of course I am forbidden to tell you whereabouts we are). We had to creep in at night as the village is still being bombarded by the Germans and there is not a house standing in the place. It has been taken and re-taken five times and now the Germans are trying to get in again. We were there two days until last night before we got relieved, and we were not allowed to sleep the whole time, as both nights the Germans attacked. The night before last they bombarded a house, or rather the remains of a house, where a lot of us were. Shells were flying about all over the place and we were very lucky to get off with only two wounded. I was in a room when a shell hit the wall and the whole thing fell on our heads, one man getting his arm smashed. Then the infantry attacked our barrier across the road, but after a bit they retired. After that I was “sentinelle” nearly all the night, and I’ve never been so cold in all my life. However, all bad things come to an end. We are now resting in trenches, so I’m taking the opportunity of writing. I must stop now as I’ve got to go and get food and things. We can’t light fires as the Germans drop shells on us if we do.”

November, in the trenches. “I have just received letters and parcels from you with chocolate and cigarettes. The chocolate is as good food as you can get when eaten with bread, and when things don’t go quite right one has to go without food at all for a bit. … Just as I was starting this letter I was sent to take a paper to one of our lieutenants, and when I got half-way the Germans started shelling the trench, and one shell burst about 5 yards from me, luckily doing no harm though I didn’t wait to see if there were any more! … (Next day). I am continuing this this morning, because last night I was interrupted by an attack from the German artillery. We had seven wounded, one of whom, poor fellow, died this morning. it’s a lovely day and very clear, so the artillery have already started on both sides. I have just come back after having taken the night’s report to headquarters about three miles away, across the most awful bogs, etc. I am writing this sitting in a little hole dug in the ground in the trench beside our Captain. … We hope to get sent to a town on the second line in four or five days for a rest, as life in the trenches is pretty tiring after a time.”

November. “I have just got your letter. Receiving letters is what I look forward to most; they are the link between one’s ordinary life and this kind of existence. … I don’t think anybody not on the spot can imagine what this war is like, and one can’t conceive the suffering it is causing. You’ve only got to see one or two who have been wounded by shells to make you realize it. However, things seem to be going very well … the fighting here sometimes seems to be that between two armies who are tired out. We got back this morning at six o’clock after six days in trenches where the cold was beastly as it was freezing with a wind all the time, so you may imagine it was not any too sultry lying in a trench all day long! Thanks awfully for the things you have sent, the “shetland” is a ripping thing and I could not do without it.”

December 3rd, in the trenches. “I am writing this in semi-darkness at 7 o’clock in the morning having got up with much energy (?) at 3.30, sorted the letters and parcels, and carried the despatches down to head-quarters. I then went to the kitchen where I am great pals with the cook, and drank a cup of excellent hot coffee followed by - the height of luxury - 2 cups of chocolate made from the scrapings of ordinary chocolate boiled in water - its really not half bad. Yesterday afternoon I walked about 10 miles with orders about our re-victualling and did not get back until 7 o’clock, when my friend the cook gave me an excellent dish of macaroni! We have been 5 days in this trench and hope to get relieved at 4 o’clock to-morrow morning. I am afraid the French have made rather a mistake with the Legion. They have taken all these ‘volontiers’ without asking any questions, and certainly a large quantity of German spies have enlisted under a false nationality and have since deserted into the German lines with far too much information. … We have had some bitterly cold weather but it is now much warmer. We have had quite a lot of snow so that the roads and paths in the woods are something awful, especially when I have to follow them in pitch darkness at 4 o’clock in the morning carrying the night’s reports to head-quarters. Yesterday I met an awfully nice man (Lieutenant -----). He speaks perfect English and has the appearance of a typical English sportsman-squire. He is a very keen golfer and has played a lot in Scotland, so we had a most animated discussion on links, etc. One of our “compagnie” took a prisoner the other night, a very decent sort of fellow who, like most of the rest, desires nothing more than to return quietly to where he came from! … I have not received any more parcels, or any of the things you say you have sent off recently. I’m afraid a great number get lost or stolen in the post. … I should like to be with you at Xmas, the thought of plum pudding is horribly appetising!”

(In February 1915 he would return home with other Englishmen of the regiment, and after being given a commission in the Royal Field Artillery hopes to return to the front.)

B.S. 1915 Aug. 21st

Private T. Hawkins, of the 6th Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry, was wounded in the right shoulder and head on July 30th, in the severe fighting at Hooge, near Ypres. He has been admitted to the Norfolk War Hospital, Thorpe, Norwich, and is going on well. He is the youngest son of Mr. T. Hawkins, the butler at Tyringham House, and has a brother who is also serving in the forces, being stationed at Aldershot with the 1st King’s Dragoon Guards.

B.S. 1916 May 27th

At the age of 52, Mrs. Emily Hawkins died on Tuesday, May 23rd, having about a year ago undergone an operation for a malignant internal growth. An Australian by birth, in her native country 32 years ago she had married Thomas Hawkins, who, having been in the service of Mr. and Mrs. Konig for some six years, is now the house steward at Tyringham House. The couple had three daughters, and two sons, one of whom is in the 5th Dragoon Guards, and the other in the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry. The funeral of Mrs. Hawkins will take place at Tyringham at 3p.m. on Saturday.

B.S. 1916 July 15th

Dated June 10th, 1916, Mr. F. A. Konig, of Tyringham House, has received a letter from Private J. Lyman, of the Royal Bucks Hussars. He is serving with the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, and the following is an extract;

“I am enjoying very good health out here up to now, but the heat is getting terrible. We are at present about 150 miles south of Cairo and 12 miles from the Nile out on the desert, with no shade only in our bell tents. We get the extreme heat of the sun with a change every few days of strong winds and sand storms. The record heat we have had was 121 degrees in the shade, and it is scarcely ever under 110 in the middle of the day. I often think of the interesting lectures you gave us before I enlisted, but never thought I should come out here to see things for myself. We camped within two hundred yards of the Pyramids last autumn and I had a good look round but could not climb them as it was out of bounds. I first saw fighting on the 12th and 13th of last December, which was not very nice, against the Bedouins and Sennussi tribes. We were at it again on Xmas Day, and also on two later occasions. I was at Solum and saw the sailors whom the Duke of Westminster rescued with the armoured cars, the account of which I suppose you saw in the papers. Those tribes were most barbarous, as they would mutilate our fellows who fell into their hands and take off all their clothes so we could not tell who they were. On one occasion they dug up our dead after we had gone and stripped them and left them lying on the top of their graves, and we found them there some weeks later and buried them again.”

B.S. 1916 July 15th

At the village of Icklingham, in Suffolk, on Tuesday, July 4th the lifeless body of Lieutenant Charles Oliver Paget Pemberton, of the Territorial Defence Corps, was found by the side of the river near to his billet. There was a bullet wound in the mouth and a revolver lying at his feet, and it was a pathetic story of depression through physical disability which was told to the deputy coroner for the Liberty of Bury St. Edmunds and a jury, who investigated the circumstances leading to the officer’s death. Captain Percy G. D. Winter, of the 403rd Royal Defence Corps, said that he had last seen the deceased alive at 10.30 on Tuesday morning. He was billeted with him, and when he failed to arrive for lunch he and Lieutenant Challice made a search, and found him lying by the side of the river. There was blood on his arm, and life was extinct. He had known Lieutenant Pemberton since October 1914, and had never heard him threaten to kill himself. In fact his temperament was very jovial, but he was worried that he could not fulfil his duties due to his bunions. Indeed, this had much depressed him, and it was the witness’s opinion that the deceased had not been accountable for his actions for the past few days. Police constable Edward Sladden, stationed at Icklingham, said that at about two o’clock on Tuesday afternoon he had been called to the Water Garden, at Icklingham Hall, and there saw the body of the deceased, who was lying on his back. There being no sign of a struggle, a bullet wound was evident to the mouth and also at the back of his head, and of the six-chambered revolver lying at his feet, five chambers were loaded, with a cartridge case in the sixth. He then removed the body to the laundry at the Hall. Dr. E. Glasier said that he had been consulted about three weeks ago by Lieutenant Pemberton, who suffered from rheumatoid arthritis. His feet were distorted, making it painful to walk, and he seemed very worried that this disability would affect his work, thus increasing the load on the other officers. A verdict of “Suicide whilst of unsound mind” was returned. Lieutenant Pemberton was buried with full military honours in Icklingham churchyard on Thursday last week, and there was a large congregation to pay their respect. Covered by a Union Jack, the polished oak coffin was preceded to the church by a firing party with arms reversed, and following were the bereaved widow and relatives, and the officers and a large contingent of men of the 402nd and 403rd Companies Royal Defence Corps. As the cortege entered the church the organist played Holloway’s “March Funebre,” and then, as the coffin was being removed to the churchyard, the Dead March in “Saul.” At the graveside, at the conclusion of the service the firing party, numbering about 40, rose smartly to attention, and fired three volleys. Four buglars of the Royal Defence Corps then sounded the “Last Post,” while the firing party remained with glittering bayonets fixed, presenting a very impressive spectacle. Floral tokens were sent by Mrs. Pemberton and other relatives, and the officers, N.C.O.’s and men of the 402nd Company Royal Defence Corps. The late Lieutenant Pemberton had been well known in the Newport Pagnell district, where for 3 years and 8 months - from March, 1910, till November, 1913 - he had held the responsible position of resident agent for the Tyringham Estate. His genial and kindly disposition won him the high regard of all who knew him, as testified on the eve of his departure from Tyringham when Mr. F. A. Konig, whose interests he had served so well, presented him with a beautifal malacca cane with heavy gold mount. The tenant farmers on the estate gave him a clock, the household and estate servants a solid silver cigarette box, and the Newport Pagnell Unionist Club an inkstand with an inscribed silver plate. On volunteering for service, during the early days of the war Lieutenant Pemberton was appointed to the command of the Bournemouth Company of the National Reserves, and later had the honour of commanding the “Old Brigade,” who formed the guard of honour for the King on his visit to Aldershot.

B.S. 1916 Sep. 30th

Private Alfred Clench, of the Australian Imperial Force, was killed in action during the heavy fighting on the Somme on the night of August 6th. A high explosive shell hit him on the head and breast, and he died two minutes afterwards. His father being in the employment of Mr. T. B. Smith, at Home Farm, his parents have lived at Tyringham for 12½ years, and regarding the death of their only son the chaplain to the Australian force writes;

“It was on the night of 6th August we entered the trenches exposed to shell fire. . . Please accept my profound sympathy with you in this great trial. Your grief must be softened by the thought that your boy gave his life nobly in doing his duty to God. . . . Praying the God of all consolation to console and strengthen you.”.

A letter of sympathy has also been received from Private Raymond H. Dorrough, of the same regiment. He was wounded in the engagement, and saying that it was in the trenches on the Somme that Private Clench was killed, continues;

“We were digging a new firing line ready for a charge. We had been out about eight hours and had just finished the first part when we got orders to stand to ready in case Fritz attacked us. About 20 minutes after we got the order passed along that Arthur was wounded. When he got it he only said ‘I am hit’ before he went unconscious and he never spoke again. I hope you will not feel Arthur’s death too much, because I am sure he would be more happy if you did not worry.”

Having been in France for little more than two months, Private Clench was aged 21, and had left England on the 18th June, 1914, to take up farming in Western Australia. After joining up he was then sent to Egypt in September, 1915, but whilst there had the misfortune to suffer many illnesses, as well as undergoing a serious operation for appendicitis.

B.S. 1917 Aug. 11th

Lieutenant Hew Brooke Rickards, R.F.A., attached to the Royal Flying Corps, has been posted as missing since July 28th. He was returning with others from a bombing raid on enemy aerodromes and railway stations when they were attacked by a large force of German machines, and Lieutenant Rickards was last seen chasing a German machine at a considerable distance over the enemy lines. When war broke out he was studying in France, and although he initially joined a French artillery regiment, he was subsequently transferred to the R.F.A. and later the R.F.C. Lieutenant Rickards is the only son of the Reverend W. Brooke Rickards, formerly rector of Tyringham cum Filgrave, but now rector of Sanderstead, Surrey.

B.S. 1918 May 25th

Private Fred Gubbins, motor transport driver, Army Service Corps, died of pneumonia on May 13th at Lindi, German East Africa. Before joining up on July 31st, 1916, he had been employed by Mr. F.A. Konig, of Tyringham House, for over 17 years as electrician and chauffeur. On joining the Forces, his first duties were on the East Coast, but later he was sent on draft to German East Africa, where he had been for about nine months. Aged 41, he leaves a widow and two children.

(A memorial service would be conducted on Friday evening, May 24th, by the Reverend C. Escritt, at Tyringham Church. As well as Mrs. Gubbins, also attending the service would be Mr. Hawkins, the deceased’s greatest friend, Mr. and Mrs. Konig, and many people from the surrounding area, with every house in the village represented.)