Tag: First world war

Royal intervention for grieving mother

Brothers John, Alfred, Frederick and George Smith from Barnard Castle who were all lost during  World War I. The first son to be killed, Robert, is not on this photograph, so perhaps it was taken after he had died. Credit: Smith family

 

As we approach Remembrance Day (11th November), it seems appropriate to continue on the theme of the brave souls who perished while serving their country in war.

Claire Dunstan has been in touch to mention a memorial garden with benches that she remembers at the top of Broughton Road in the town of Malton. She says they were placed there as a tribute by school friends of the fallen men. I could find out very little about this small garden, so next time I am in Malton, I will go and have a look for myself (it is separate to the main Malton War Memorial at the junction of Horsemarket Road and Yorkersgate).

She also recalls: “There was woodwork by Mousey Thompson in the Green Man Hotel in memory of the Malton soldiers that never came home. Such a shame that it is shut now…the Mouseman furniture was paid for by family and friends.”

It makes me wonder what furniture it was and and in what form the soldiers were commemorated – presumably by having their names inscribed on the furniture? Perhaps there is someone reading this who knows the full story, and can tell us where that furniture ended up.

Claire used to live in the Welsh village of Llangwn which commemorated the 100th anniversary of the First World War in 2014 with a specially-written opera. According to the Llangwyn Local History Society, there were at least five sets of brothers from the area who served. One of the saddest stories involved the John brothers. In 1917, older brother Edwin John was shot at Lens in Northern France. His younger sibling, James, went to his aid but was killed while cradling his body.

The trauma experienced by families after such tragedy is hard to imagine, and similar stories will have been repeated time and again. But there can be few that are more poignant than the one to which reader Tony Eaton drew my attention. Tony first contacted me after reading my column mentioning the Pals Battalions a few weeks ago. This time he wrote: “On the theme of lost brothers…on the Barnard Castle War Memorial there are the names of five Smith brothers who died in World War I. There was a sixth son and their mother petitioned Queen Mary for help in having him brought home.”

Barnard Castle resident Margaret Smith suffered more than anyone should when she lost five of her six sons to WWI. Her story echoes the plot of the 1994 Steven Spielberg film Saving Private Ryan, where a group of soldiers are sent on a mission to locate James Ryan and return him to his family following the deaths of his three other brothers.

In our real life case, Private Robert Smith, 22, of the Durham Light Infantry, died on September 19, 1916, followed by Corporal George Smith, killed in action in November 1916, aged 26. Private Frederick Smith, aged 21, and eldest son John, 37, were killed in action in 1917. And lastly, Alfred, 30, perished in August 1918.

It was the local vicar’s wife, Mrs Bircham (not in fact the boys’ own mother) who was so moved by the tragedy that she felt compelled to write to Queen Mary, consort to King George V, on Margaret Smith’s behalf. She received the following reply from the Queen’s private secretary:

“I am commanded by the Queen to … convey to Mr and Mrs Smith of Bridgegate, Barnard Castle, an expression of Her Majesty’s deep sympathy with them in the sad losses they have sustained by the death of their five sons. He added that the Queen “has caused Mr and Mrs Smith’s request concerning their youngest son to be forwarded for consideration of the war authorities.”

With Her Majesty’s intervention, Margaret’s last remaining son, 19-year-old Wilfred, was allowed to return home to be with his mother. He went on to marry and have a family of his own, and died in 1968 at the age of 69. His descendants still live locally, and the war memorial featuring his five brothers’ names can be seen in the grounds of the Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle.

Do you have opinions, memories or ideas to share with me? Get in touch with me using the ‘Contact’ button on the top right.

This column appeared in the Darlington & Stockton Times on Friday 31st and the Ryedale Gazette and Herald on Wednesday 29th Oct 2025

Pals for all eternity

A photo taken by my dad in 1979 on our visit to the Somme battlefields. I’m not sure which cemetery it is, but it is possibly that of the Yorkshire Regiment. Please feel free to tell me if you recognise it.

Another photo taken on the same visit. Again not sure which cemetery but perhaps one of you know? Do get in touch if so.

When Brian reader contacted me about his quirkily-named relatives Rocious, Fera and Ellengor last week, he also posed a question about his family’s history of serving during World War I.

He explained how his forebears had joined up: “Albert and his brother John Elliott were both in the Northallerton Borough Band and in the 4th Battalion Yorkshire Regiment band. Rocious and two of his brothers were also in the Yorkshire Regiment, John Jackson and James Edward (killed in action in France in 1918).”

Brian posed the question: “What was the maximum number of people from the same family serving in the same regiment?”

I’m not sure if Brian meant what was the ‘permitted’ maximum of soldiers from the same family serving in the same regiment (if there was a limit), or whether he meant what is the ‘record’ for the most people from the same family serving in the same regiment. Large families were common in the early 20th century, so it was possible that the number could have been a pretty high.

However, my guess is that large families serving in the same regiment would only have been recruited before 1916. You might remember that back in 2019 I wrote a piece about my family’s 1979 visit to the battlefileds of the Somme in France when I was 12 years old. My young self failed to understand the significance of the ground upon which I walked.

When they launched their River Somme offensive on July 1st 1916, the British Army expected little German resistance after a sustained artillery bombardment the week before. They couldn’t have been more wrong, and within the first hour, almost 20,000 of the 120,000 allied troops lay dead, while 37,000 were wounded. The Battle of the Somme lasted 141 days and resulted in around 1.5 million casualties on both sides, yet enabled our troops to advance a mere six miles.

The awful death toll led to the military abandoning their recruitment strategy known as the ‘pals’ battalions. To encourage men to join up, the army had canvassed potential soldiers in groups from the same locality, from workplaces, towns, villages, sports clubs and practically any community with a common interest. They promised them that they could serve alongside their family, friends, neighbours and work colleagues (in other words, their ‘pals’), rather than the usual method of being assigned randomly to regiments. Entering the unknown with familiar faces next to you was far more attractive than being thrust into a war alongside total strangers. The drive was highly successful, with ‘pals’ battalions being established all over the country.

It’s worth remembering that most of the soldiers recruited from places like the North York Moors would be farmers and labourers who would never before have ventured far from their own homes. National Service didn’t come in until after the Second World War and so the training would have been extremely limited and the men would have little concept of the atrocities they were about to confront. Entering this scary and unfamiliar world would be easier if you had family and friends coming along with you.

Sadly, as men from the same places served side by side, so it meant they were killed side by side. It left gaping holes in the communities to which they belonged, and devastated families who had sent fathers, sons and cousins to fight. Certain areas suffered far higher losses than they otherwise would had they been assigned randomly to regiments. One of the worst affected was the East Lancashire Regiment, better known as the Accrington Pals. Of the 700 members who all came from in and around that Lancashire town, 235 were killed and 350 were wounded in the space of 20 minutes on the first day of the Battle of the Somme.

Following the carnage, the army reverted to more traditional methods of recruitment to avoid anything like it happening again. Therefore it is unlikely that a high number of people from the same family would have been enlisted to serve in the same regiment after that date.

I wonder if Brian’s ancestors were recruited through the ‘pals’ scheme to fight in WWI? And do you have relatives who joined up through the ‘pals’ scheme? I’d be interested to hear any interesting war stories, so do get in touch.

Do you have opinions, memories or ideas to share with me? Get in touch with me using the ‘Contact’ button on the top right.

This column appeared in the Darlington & Stockton Times on Friday 26th and the Ryedale Gazette and Herald on Wednesday 24th Sept 2025