List of land and sea forces (1917)

Post date: Jan 27, 2014 5:51:49 PM

The attached excel file transcribes the names listed in the Parish magazine of January 1917 as serving in land or naval forces. It contains 252 names as serving in land forces (of which 104 have an asterix denoting that they are serving "somewhere abroad"; one, Arthur Mires, is marked with a "p" to denote that he was held as a prisoner, although he in fact died in November 1915; 42 in sea forces and 25 on so-called Roll of heroes.

Note that it includes Elsie Blest and Ellen Bertha Keat in land forces, slightly separated, but not particularly highlighted. Elsie Blest worked in the hoppers hospital in 1915 and was reported in November 1915 as follows: "Miss Elsie Blest kindly responded to an appeal for help in the outpatients' department. Nurse Porter described her assistance as being invaluable. (Nursing is evidently Miss Elsie's metier, and she has recently gone to Flanders to work in the hospitals there. Our gratitude and good wishes go with her.)" Ellen Keat was Nurse Keat who had been the nurse of the Wateringbury and District Nursing Society .

Letters in italic type placed against a name in these Rolls have the following meaning: p=prisoner; m=missing; w=wounded; w w = twice wounded; s=sick or ill; r=recovered and returned to service; d=discharged. An asterix (*) before a name means now serving somewhere abroad. The Vicar requests that information as to errors and omissions be sent to him without delay.

The Wateringbury War Shrine², erected by Mr. and Mrs. T. Brocklebank, fills the doorway in the high boundary wall of the Place grounds quite close to the west end of the low churchyard wall. It was dedicated by the Bishop of Rochester on Nov.20th. A large number of parishioners, together with Col. Warde, M.P. and some of the convalescent soldiers from Barham Court¹ assembled in the road to take part in the function. School girls crowded in the churchyard, while the boys lined the roadside path to keep it clear for the Procession, which at 2.30 p.m. emerged from the church singing "0 God, our help in ages past." Mr. E. A. Smith conducting the hymns led the way, followed by the choir (several in khaki) and the sidesmen and churchwardens; then came the Bishop, attended by the Vicar, and preceded immediately by Mr. Richards carrying the Pastoral Staff. When all were in their places Mrs. Brocklebank unveiled the shrine by drawing aside the Union Jack which covered it, the Vicar meanwhile reading a few appropriate verses of scripture from Eccles. xlii. The Bishop then delivered an address, brief, practical and impressive, congratulating the country-side on its ready response to the call to arms, describing the features and the uses of the shrine, and making mention by name of the donors and the designers, and also of the compilers of the Rolls of names inscribed upon it. At the close of his address the Bishop formally dedicated the shrine, and added a dedicatory prayer. The Vicar followed with a Commemoration of the Departed and a number of other prayers, each one introduced by a versicle and a response sung by the choir. Then the people sang "God save the King," and the Bishop pronounced a Blessing. The hymn "Soldiers of Christ, arise" was sung in procession back to the church.

The shrine consists of two framed lists of names, one of the dead headed The Roll of Heroes and the other of the living headed The Roll of Honour, the names neatly inscribed by Mr. Herbert Green. Above there is a small coloured copy of Clark's picture called "The Great Sacrifice," surmounted by a plain wooden cross, and surrounded by the 10 flags³ of the Allies of the Entente. Beneath these is a ledge for flowers which are constantly renewed by Mr. Rogers, the head gardener, who makes use of any flowers sent to him by parishioners.

We are proud of our shrine because we are proud of our boys who have offered themselves willingly for King and country. Let everyone who passes by breathe a prayer for the living and for the dead.

The list of names printed herein is that which appears, differently arranged, on the War Shrine. The Roll of Honour includes all parishioners who are serving at home or abroad, and all the sons and sons-in-law of parishioners, whether their homes are in the parish or elsewhere; but it does not include the sons of those who have made their homes elsewhere. The Roll of Heroes includes a few of those whose memory still lives among us, though their people have no longer any connexion with the parish.

The Roll of Honour is divided into two sections. The first is a list of men in the Army and its allied services; the second, of those in the Navy and its allied services. In the first section an asterisk is placed against the name of everyone now serving out of England. In the Navy section this distinction need not be made.

The Vicar hopes, when the war is over, to be enabled to put up in the church a monument of all, whether living or dead, who served. The names will be arranged so as to indicate everyone's length of service, his ship or regiment, his rating or rank, and his war history. In the present lists an attempt to begin the record of individual war history is begun by the addition of letters in italics, the meaning of which is explained in a footnote. The Vicar begs the men and their friends to keep sending him the information necessary to make this record complete. He will also be glad to receive information to enable him from time to time to get the necessary additions made to the War Shrine, so as to keep it up to date.

Every man now on the lists will receive a copy of this extra number of the Parish Magazine, together with a copy of the November cover giving information of the National Mission in this Parish. We have no room to give an account of the Delivery of the Message which is now over; but we may just say that there is no doubt that it has given us all a lift-up. Especially encouraging was the Special Service for men on Sunday afternoon, when about 70 came together in Church. At the final evening service the Messenger summed up the Message in the opening words of our Mission hymn—

Sons of the Church, arise!

Shoulder to shoulder.

We are making up a little parcel to be sent to each of the men. It was originally intended to send the parcels with Christmas greetings, but the call of the National Mission has made that impossible;so they will be despatched with good wishes for the new year. Besides the papers mentioned above the parcels will contain a photo of the shrine, taken by Mr. Brocklebank, a copy of the Dedication Service which contains prayers suitable for private as well as for public use, and a little Red Book of Scripture arranged under different headings—the best thing of the kind we have come across—given by Mrs. Leney (Mrs. Livett's mother). At this season, when the fighting lines are almost stationary, our soldiers may be able to keep some of these papers and use them; the little Red Book might always be kept and used daily.

The parcel will also contain for every soldier a little present of a woollen scarf that may be folded up into a cap, and for every sailor the new game of Biff, a game which others as well as footballers will appreciate.

The cost of the parcels will be defrayed out of the proceeds of an entertainment which Mrs Southwell-Sander and Miss Dorothea Livett are getting up for this purpose. The Vicar or Miss Livett will be glad to receive a post-card from each recipient announcing its safe arrival.

NOTE.

This cover, printed as an Extra Sheet, December, 1916, is being sent to the men, with the following message on the front page :—

The Vicar and People of Wateringbury to our fellow parishioners and relations serving the Motherland and Empire by land and by sea, at home and abroad, send greeting; and good wishes for the coming New Year, the year of supreme trial and decision in the Great War. Buoyed up by our consciousness of your bravery and self-sacrifice and encouraged by the re-construction of our Government⁴, we assure you of our determination to make every sacrifice that may be demanded of us at home to play our part in the conflict of right against might, of liberty against tyranny, of justice and truth against organised hypocrisy, and to support you in fighting our battles abroad. We do not cease to pray for you and we ask you to pray likewise for us, thus creating a bond of Communion that shall never be severed, whether (as we earnestly hope) you may be permitted to return to us in the old country, or whether (if it be God's will) your graves create for us hallowed bits of England in some other land.—A HAPPY NEW YEAR. 1917.

G. M. LIVETT, Vicar.

Notes:

1. Charles Warde (born 1845 so over 70 years old at this time) was the long term tenant of Barham Court. During the war he established a military hospital at Barham Court to which wounded soldiers were sent direct from evacuation ships at Chatham. It had 36 beds and in all 530 patients passed through its hands. A photo of Colonel Warde and Mrs Warde in 1916 with war wounded at Barham Court is included in Joan Severn's book "The Teston Story". After the war Colonel Warde received a knighthood. One soldier staying at Barham Court wrote his war memoirs and these are at the Imperial War Museum- http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1030006499 and which is transcribed at J.G. Stennettt's War Memoirs.

2. For more about Wateringbury war shrine see Wateringbury Shrine (1916).

3. Presumably UK, (probably Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and India not separately shown), France, Russia, Belgium, Italy, Japan, Serbia, Montenegro, Romania (1916-18) and Portugal (1916-18). Greece, Brazil and U.S. only joined war on allied side in 1917.

4. Asquith had been replaced by Lloyd-George as Prime Minister on 10th December 1916.