Vicar's review of War (1915)

Post date: Jan 24, 2014 3:49:13 PM

Extract from Parish Magazine May 1915

A REVIEW—AND A WARNING.

It is my intention to send a copy of the Parish Magazine this month to every man whose name is on our Wateringbury roll of soldiers and sailors. Six months ago I sent to all who were then on foreign service, and I should have sent to them again before this had I not had a long and somewhat serious illness, which began just when I was endeavouring to go round and cheer up their relatives here at home. During all these months my chief trouble has been my being unable to follow their fortunes by land and sea, and to take my share in anything that has been done in the village in connection with the war. After taking a course of brine baths at Droitwich—(the waters there are highly saline, containing 2 and a quarter lbs of dissolved salt in every gallon—a splendid tonic for wounded soldiers)—I was permitted to return home just before Easter, and was glad to take a small part once more in the Church services on Easter day; but I am under orders to "go slow" for some time in order not to retard complete recovery. I need say no more about myself, but I should like to express my appreciation of the efficient way in which my colleague, Mr. F. M. Richards, seems to have carried on the work in church and parish during my absence, and also of the congregation's recognition of his efforts by giving him an "Easter offer" of about £20. I am very grateful to Mr. H. Crawford also, for the help he has constantly given to Mr. Richards.

What has been going on during my absence? Most of it seems to come under the head of "funds." First of all, an ambulance car has been presented to the Red Cross Society and sent to the front. Mr. Fred. Leney⁵, by a happy coincidence, being appointed chauffeur. The car is a Humber⁶, '07 model given by Mr. Lemmens. It required a good deal of alteration and repair to fit it up for its purpose this was done by the Red Cross people at a cost of nearly £90. The money was raised by entertainments in which the children of Wateringbury Vicarage, Barming Rectory, Clare House, Malling, and a Belgian family, visitors in the village, took part. It consisted of a fairy play, of which word and music were written by Miss Hambly, the governess at the Vicarage—so that the whole thing was a home production—followed by patriotic tableaux or living pictures, representing the colonies bringing their gifts to Britannia, the entente cordiale, the four allies (with their national anthems), and peace. This entertainment was given four times in the Church Rooms and once at Penshurst, Lord Hardinge's place. (The school children were invited to attend a preliminary performance as a treat, and another performance was given at the Howard de Walden Institute, turned into a V.A.D. Hospital, for entertainment of the wounded soldiers.)

The Red Cross has also benefited by gifts in goods or in money to the value of nearly £60, including Wateringbury Women's Work (value £33), the proceeds of a Choral Society Concert (£5), a Church Collection (£12) and Sunday School prizes (£3). This last item means that the children give up their prizes at Christmas, asking that the value of them might be given to the Red Cross.

The National Relief Fund has received about £30 from Wateringbury, apart from any subscriptions that have been sent up privately. The sum includes a Church Collection of £25 and the value of the children's prizes in the Day Schools. The boys have also collected and sent up two tons old newspapers!

The Day Schools have collected 15s. for the Y.M.C.A. "Recreation Huts" for our soldiers in camp home, and the girls are still collecting for Queen Mary's Fund for Work for Women, while the school staff are contributing to a fund raised by the teachers of the Maidstone district for the support two Belgian teachers' families.

A sum of just over £100 has been collected for the support of two or three Belgian families who have been quartered in the village by the Belgian Relief Committee. Capitaine Soudan, who comes over occasionally for a few days' leave, gives us most interesting accounts of the war of the trenches.

[section dealing with prayers omitted]

A sign of this seriousness is the abandonment by the Gardeners' Society of their summer show. It is usually held on August Bank Holiday, but no one knows now what the country may be in for by that time, and it is well that the show should be given up this year. We are extremely thankful that up to the present we have had very few casualties among our Wateringbury men. So far as I have learnt, our "roll of honour," even including the wounded, contains only seven names. Two men have laid down their lives: Bert Potter³, who went down in H.M.S. Aboukir in September, and Lance-Corporal Robert Arthur Head, 6th Dragoons, who was killed at Messines, November 1st. The following have been wounded. William Latter, 15th Hussars, was wounded at Ypres, Nov. 5th; he is now at Longmoor Camp. Henry South, Royal West Kent Regiment, was wounded on or before April. 24th, i.e., after the 'Hill 60' affair, and is now in Stationary Hospital at Rouen. He writes home to say "stopped one in the leg—but don't worry." Fred. Newman, of the Royal West Kent, has been very unlucky: he was first slightly wounded soon after he went out on Dec. 6th; again at Neuve Chapelle in March; and a third time, dangerously, at Hill 60 on April 17th ; he is now in the Royal Nations'. Orthopaedic Hospital in London. Charles James King, Rifle Brigade, wounded in the jaw at Neuve Chapelle. March 15th, now out of hospital, but still an invalid. Early in the war Sergt. Alfred Cray, 20th Hussars, was wounded in the hand.

We cannot help fearing that there is a long and serious struggle before us¹, and that we shall not get through with it till every available man, every man of suitable age and medically fit, has taken his place in the ranks. Lord Kitchener seems to be satisfied with the progress of recruiting up to the present (it is possible that the supply of equipment could not have kept pace with larger numbers), but he has recently let it be known, through Lord Derby, that in the future there will be no limit to the need for recruits. Sooner or later every available man in every class of life will be wanted, and will feel the call. Undue pressure is no use. Ours is a volunteer force⁴—a citizen army—and every true citizen will come to feel the call—the force must be, and will be, within him. True words are those recently written, by an American correspondent at the front in appreciation of our citizen army. He speaks of "the thrill an American gets rubbing elbows with this volunteer British Army." He does not forget Tommy Atkins, but he is appraising the man he calls John Bull: "The world has never before seen another army like this English one; men who can be counted almost in millions; each man his own man's man; each man doing his duty because something within him had forced him to do it; each man playing to the grandstand that lies within himself and to the little gallery in his castle back home." These are good words. The little gallery at home (mother, sister, wife, or "best girl") won't force a man's conscience but, as soon as he feels its call, as every Englishman certainly will, the little gallery will applaud and encourage him and back him up with all its power.

I want to take this opportunity of publishing the names of those of our young men at home who have already felt the call and have offered themselves but have been rejected on medical grounds. Otherwise their staying at home might be misunderstood by those who would not know the facts. If the list is not complete I should like to have the names that I unknowingly omit. This is it, so far as I have learnt at present:—

Leonard Smith, Frank King, Frank Collins,

William Randall, Henry Hodge, Benjamin Stevens,

George Underhill, George Martin, Harry Latter.

George Wells, Thomas Head,

Hubert King, Henry Allen,

I should also like to give the names of three men who have been discharged for the same reason:- Walter Curd, William Evans and George Hawes².

A movement is on foot, promoted by Lord Harris, Vice-Lieutenant of the County, to form in every village a Unit of Kent Volunteer Fencibles for home defense. The force is to be composed of men who are above the maximum age (39) or are medically unfit for joining the Regulars or Kitchener's Army. I recently saw a force of this kind drilling one Sunday afternoon in Herefordshire, and the men presented a most creditable appearance. Somehow or other every man may do "his bit" in these strenuous times.

G. M. LIVETT

April 30th.

Rainfall—April, 1in., 13pts.

Notes

1. In 1905 the German General Schlieffen stated to the Kaiser that a future war "will be a national war which will not be settled by a decisive battle but by a long wearisome struggle with a country that will not be overcome until its whole national force is broken, and a war which will utterly exhaust our own people, even if we are victorious". Schlieffen could have added that the coalition aspect, i.e. the competing alliances, would prolong any war. (quoted by Hew Strachan in "The First World War.")

2. I suspect this was related to the white feather campaign which had started on 30^th August 1914, when 30 women with white feathers went on to the streets of Folkestone with white feathers which they gave to able-bodied men not in uniform. By 1916 the government was issuing badges to certain workers and honourably discharged wounded men. During the Boer War it had been found that many volunteers were physically unfit for service so since then school medical services had been improved to try and remedy the situation. Medical standards inevitably were compromised during the duration of WWI.

3. Bert Potter ( Stoker 1c (RFR Ch. 2622), 284614) is on neither Church nor school memorial (he lived in Snodland) but vicar covers him here as he was married to a girl from a Wateringbury family, the Woolgars. H.M.S. Aboukir was an obsolete cruiser (built 1910) which had played a minor role in the Battle of Heligoland Bight on 28 August 1914; it was patrolling in North Sea on 22 September with 2 other cruisers (H.M.S. Cressy and Hogue when all 3 were sunk by U-9 with the loss of nearly 1,500 lives. It was manned mainly by reservists.

4. The advantages of a volunteer force were that soldiers served a longer time than on a conscript army. However, a conscript army was a cross section across society whereas recruitment to the British army was dominated by the otherwise unemployed (pay was less than an agricultural labourer's) who were often physically weak and less educated than a cross-section of society. In this situation command in the British army was more centred around direct orders rather than the German system which was more objective (see Adrian Gilbert's Challenge of Battle pp. 26/27).

5. Fred Leney (Frederick Barcham Leney) born in Maidstone in 1876 was the eldest son of Augustus Leney and grandson of Frederick Leney (1818-1881) the founder of Frederick Leney & Sons the Wateringbury Brewery. Fred seems to have had limited interest in the business. He died in 1921 in a fishing accident in Galway, Ireland.

6. Probably a Beeston-Humber a photo of which can be seen at http://www.humberregister.org.uk/history.htm .