Army terms - killed in action (from the book "Neath a Foreign Sky" by Paul Allen)
In Remembrance of:
- Rifleman George Henry Saturley
- Gunner Frederick Kay Potter
- Private James Dyson Whitaker
- Private George Taylor
- Private Robert Wise Fenwick
- Gunner Harry Sidney Thompson
- Private Charles Cecil Martin Lowe
- Private Arthur Graham
- Sapper Ambrose Edwin Stephenson
- Private John Wheatley Milne
- Private William Henry Harris
- Staff Quartermaster Sergeant Herbert Tose
- Able Seaman William Ernest Tose
- Driver John Henry Robinson
An ambiguous word use much in official documentation of the First World War,
‘Died’ covers the casualties that had lost their lives to other causes other than the much used ‘killed in action’ or ‘died of wounds’. Those that had ‘died during the war may have lost their lives to disease, the effects of gas, accidents, drowning, and in some extreme cases, the bullets of a British Army firing squad.
[As far as is known only one Scarborough born soldier, Private James Crampton, had been shot by firing squad, the story of this unfortunate man’s life and death is told elsewhere in my text]. Over seventy men of Scarborough had ‘died’ whilst on active service during the Great War, this is the story of just a few of those men.
Whilst the majority of the seventy of so British Regular Army units that had been stationed in India and Burma before the war had begun to make their way towards the fighting in France and Flanders, some units had remained behind to garrison the various British outposts that had been established in that country. Amongst these ‘outposts’ had been the so-called ‘Red Fort of Agra’. Situated on the right bank of the River Yamuna some two and a half kilometres to the north east of its more famous neighbour, the Taj Mahal, the nonetheless magnificent massive red sandstone fort had been built on a bend in the river during the fifteenth Century, and could be far better described as ‘a walled palatial city’. An outpost of the British Army for centuries prior to the outbreak of the Great War, there had also been a large British Military Hospital located within the Fort’s seventy feet high walls, where, during Monday the 17TH of May 1915, another Scarborough born soldier had died;
Attached to the 74TH Company of the Royal Garrison Artillery, 26497 Gunner Frederick Kay Potter. The youngest son of Ann and ‘foreman mason’ john Frederick Potter, Fred had been born in Scarborough at No.61 Oak Road during Saturday the 30TH of June 1883 and like Private Saturley, had also been a moustachioed ‘old sweat’ of the pre war British Regular Army. A former pupil of Falsgrave Parish School and Scarborough’s Central Board School, Potter had eventually enlisted into the Royal Garrison Artillery at Leeds during 1908 and had served for most of his military career in India. A veteran of nine years service in India and the North West Frontier, Potter had been taken ill two days before his death and had eventually succumbed on the date stated due to ‘acute gastritis’.
Little had been said in the local press of the demise of Frederick Potter. However, a photograph of the gunner had eventually been featured in ‘The Scarborough Pictorial’ of Wednesday the 22ND of September 1915. Apart from this, and the picture’s accompanying footnote which had said: ‘Gunner F.K. Potter, RG.A., late of 61 Oak Road, Scarborough, has died at Agra Fort from acute gastritis: the soldier’s demise had virtually gone unnoticed.
Following his death, the remains of Frederick Potter had been conveyed to a burial plot in the nearby Agra Cantonment. However, during the ensuing years Fred’s grave, along with those of over a thousand British servicemen that had died in India during the Great War, that had been buried in various cemeteries and cantonments in India had been considered by the Imperial War graves Commission as impossible to maintain in perpetuity’ and his [incorrect] name had eventually been commemorated on the Madras War Memorial at Chennai.
Although a native of Scarborough, for some reason Frederick Kay Potter’s name is not included on the town’s Oliver’s Mount Memorial. Nevertheless, elsewhere in the town his name is perpetuated on a badly neglected grave marker in Manor Road Cemetery [Section M, Row 7, Grave 1], which also bears the names of Fred’s father, Osmotherley born John Fawcett Potter, who had died in Scarborough on the 13TH of October 1898 at the age of fifty seven years, and his mother Scarborough born Ann Potter [formally Kay] who had died on the 7TH of September 1906 at the age of 61 years. The memorial also bears the name of Fred’s elders sister Elizabeth Jane Potter the wife of Frederick Kay [married Scarborough 1882], who had ‘died at Hong Kong, China’ on the 3RD of July 1890 at the age of 27 years. The memorial also has inscribed upon it the name of another of Fred’s sisters. Born in Scarborough during 1878, Ellen Potter had married Edward Josiah Wilson at Scarborough during 1904, and had eventually passed away at the age of sixty-eight years, on the 24TH of March 1947. [2]
The memorial also bears an inscription dedicated to the memory of Frederick Potter: ‘Tho’ across the sea, still remembered in heaven. Re-united’…
Two other Scarborough born soldiers are known to have died in India during the First World War:
9418 Private James Dyson Whitaker. A soldier in the 1ST Battalion of the Yorkshire Regiment, James Whitaker had also been a veteran of numerous years of service in the British Army. Wounded once in France, James had also been injured by a bullet whilst serving on India’s North West Frontier. Despite this he had died whilst stationed at Rawal Pindi, at the hill station of Cherat from the effects of ‘Spanish Flu’ on the 6TH of June 1918. Amongst over thirty non commissioned officers and men of the 1ST Yorkshire that had died from the effects of a ‘Flu’ that had wiped out over six million of the population of India in just three months during 1918, the remains of the former Scarborough Corporation labourer had been interred with those of his comrades in a cemetery at Peshawar that is now, according to the records of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission; ‘untenable to maintain’. The father of nine children, at the time of ‘Jim’s death, his widow, Alice Maud Whitaker [formally Cass] had been residing in Scarborough at No3 Hebden’s Yard in William Street.
44823 Private George Taylor. Also a soldier in the 1ST Battalion of the Yorkshire Regiment, George had been the only son of Sarah and ‘railway engine oiler’ Samuel Taylor, and had been born in Scarborough at No.27 Hibernia Street during 1889. Before the war George had worked for local grocer W.C. Land & Co. However soon after the outbreak of war George had enlisted at Richmond into the Yorkshire Regiment. Eventually posted to India and the 1ST Battalion, Taylor had remained in India throughout the remainder of the war and had died at the age of twenty nine years ‘after a long and painful illness’, like Private Whitaker, whilst stationed at Cherat, shortly after the end of the war, on the 27TH of November 1918. Amongst over seventy former pupils of Scarborough’s Gladstone Road Board School that had lost their lives whilst on a active service during the Great War of 1914-1919, George’s name can be found on the school’s bras plate ‘Roll of Honour’ that is located in the main hall of the present day Junior School.
In addition to Scarborough’s Oliver’s Mount War Memorial, the names of Privates James Dyson Whitaker and George Taylor are perpetuated in Pakistan [formally India] on the Karachi 1914-1918 War Memorial that contains the names of over five hundred British servicemen that had died in India during the First World War who had been buried in numerous cemeteries and cantonments on the continent that have now been found untenable to maintain.
Following Britain’s declaration of war on the 4TH of August 1914 the first of the Dominions that had rallied round the ‘Mother Country’ had been Canada. An extremely patriotic country and the home of many British born people, just days after the declaration of war Canada’s Prime Minister, Sir Robert Borden had called a special wartime meeting of the country’s parliament where he had said…’We are all agreed: we stand shoulder to shoulder with Britain and the other British Dominions in this quarrel. And that duty we shall not fail to fulfil as the honour of Canada demands’…and so Canada had gone to war.
A country without a regular military force at the start of the ‘Great War’, Canada had nonetheless soon mobilised its many so called ‘militia’ units [the equivalent of the British Territorial Army] to form thirty six cavalry and one hundred and six Battalions of infantry consisting of over 60, 000 officers and men. In addition, plans had been implemented for the forming of a series of numbered infantry battalions that would eventually be formed into the newly named ‘Canadian Expeditionary Force’ [C.E.F.].
Shortly orders had gone out across the length and breadth of Canada calling for volunteers to serve for the duration of the war with the C.E.F. and shortly thousands of recruits had descended on a newly built camp outside Quebec known as ‘Valcartier Camp’, which, by the end of 1914 had been the home of thirty two thousand budding Canadian soldiers.
The first troops to leave Canadian soil had been the 1ST Canadian Division. Consisting of around thirty one thousand officers and men the formation had left Halifax, Nova Scotia on the 3RD of October 1914 in a vast flotilla of transport vessels that had eventually arrived in Liverpool eleven days later. Sent to Salisbury Plain for further training, the ‘Canucks’ had spent the wettest winter then on record in tents on the Plain where they had existed in a sea of mud until proper huts had been erected.
Considered fit enough for war by February 1915, the first contingent of Canadians had landed in France at St Nazaire on the 16TH of February 1915 and after further training in France had eventually been posted to the Ypres Sector of Belgium in time to take part in the desperate fight that had been the Second Battle of Ypres.
Meanwhile, back in Canada a second infantry division had been raised and this formation had eventually landed in Liverpool during May 1915. By this time a permanent Canadian Depot in England had been built near Folkestone at Shorncliffe. Inevitably known as ‘Shorncliffe Camp’, this Depot had been home to almost every Canadian that would serve with the Canadian Expeditionary Force. Amongst the soldiers that had arrived there had been nineteen years old, 104739 Private Robert Wise Fenwick.
Born in Scarborough at No 117 Victoria Road on the 27TH of July 1897, ‘Bobbie’ had been the eldest son of Emma Constance, and ‘grocer’ John Robert Fenwick. [3]
A pupil of Scarborough’s Gladstone Road Board School between 1901 and 1910, it had been during the latter year that Robert and the remainder of the Fenwick family had journeyed to Liverpool where they had boarded the Allan Line steamer S.S. Tunisia. Destined for 'a new life' in Canada, the Fenwick family had left the shores of Britain on the 5TH of June 1910, and after a nine days crossing of the Atlantic had arrived at Quebec.
The family had eventually moved to the Province of Saskatchewan where they had lived and earned a living from farming for a number of years near the burgeoning city of Moose Jaw. Whilst there, on Monday the 26TH of July 1915, the before his eighteenth birthday, ‘Bobbie’ Fenwick had enlisted into the Canadian Expeditionary Force.
Officially still under the legal age for enlistment into the C.E.F., Fenwick had added two months to his age by reporting he had been born on the 22ND of May 1897. At the time of his enlistment Robert’s records show he had been five feet four inches in height, and had possessed a fair complexion, blue eyes and brown hair. His religion being recorded as ‘Church of England’.
Duly pronounced ‘fit’ for service with the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force, Fenwick had been sent to Valcartier Camp, where like all the other recruits from various part of Canada he had received the standard khaki uniform of the day along with a pair of boots and all the accoutrements thought necessary for ‘service abroad’. However at this early stage of his military career the young soldier had not received a Canadian Ross Rifle, which had initially been the standard weapon of the Canadian soldier.
The standard course of training at Valcartier had generally lasted around fourteen weeks, and by the end of this period Fenwick had been considered competent enough to be sent to England for further training before his eventual embarkation for service in France.
Fenwick had eventually arrived in England during October 1915 and had duly been posted to Shorncliffe Camp to continue his course of training. Taken ill shortly after a ten days spell of leave with relatives in Scarborough immediately before the Christmas of 1915. Taken ill during Christmas Eve, Fenwick had been admitted to the nearby Moore Barracks Military Hospital with a fever and ‘Flu like’ symptoms. Eventually diagnosed as suffering from meningitis, over the next few days the young soldier’s condition had taken a turn for the worse, the boy slipping into a coma from which, despite a valiant attempt to hold onto life, ‘Bobbie’ Fenwick had never recovered, the young soldier eventually succumbing during Tuesday the 11TH of January 1916 due to pneumonia.
The news of their son’s death had obviously at first been forwarded to his parents in Canada, however, by mid January the tidings had reached family relatives in Scarborough, who had relayed the news to the Aberdeen Walk office of ‘The Scarborough Mercury. The edition of Friday the 14TH of January 1916 had duly reported:
‘Scarborough Canadian dies in Hospital - News was received on Tuesday by his grandfather, Mr. John Fenwick, Roxby, Scalby Road, that Private Robert Fenwick, one of the Canadian Contingent now at Shorncliffe, had died from meningitis following upon pneumonia. Mr. J.R. Fenwick, his father, who was a grocer and tea dealer in Victoria Road, went with his family to Canada, and is now farming in Saskatchewan. Private Fenwick was in Scarborough on ten days leave just before Christmas. Two uncles reside in Scarborough, Mr Edward Fenwick and Mr. W.W. [William Wedgwood] Fenwick, Falsgrave Road. Private Fenwick was already the owner of land in Canada, where he promised to have a prosperous future. Deceased attended Gladstone Road School’…
The same newspaper had also contain an entry featuring the young soldier’s name in its ‘Births, Marriages, and Death’s’ column:
‘Fenwick—At Shorncliffe Camp Hospital, on the 11TH inst., Private Robert Wise [Bobbie] Fenwick, 48TH Battalion Canadian Contingent, eldest son of John R. Fenwick, late of Scarborough, now in Canada, and grandson of John Fenwick, Scalby Road, Scarborough’…
Shortly after his death the remains of Bobbie Fenwick had been interred in the burial ground that had been attached to the various Canadian Hospital’s that had been located at Shorncliffe throughout the war. Now known as ‘Shorncliffe Military Cemetery’ this burial ground holds the remains of over forty servicemen of the Great War, the majority of which had been Canadian [The cemetery also contains the graves of over eighty servicemen that had died during the Second World War]. ‘Bobbie’s final resting place is located in Section O, Grave 379.
Commemorated in Scarborough on the Oliver’s Mount War Memorial, a former pupil of Gladstone Road School Robert Wise Fenwick’s name can also be found on a large brass ‘Roll of Honour’ plaque located in the hall of the present day Junior School that perpetuates the name of over seventy former pupils that had lost their lives whilst on active service during the Great War of 9141-1919.
Also a former member of the congregation of Scarborough’s Holy Trinity Church, ‘Bobbie Fenwick’s name had also once been included on the church War Memorial that had contained the names of over twenty former Holy Trinity Churchmen that had also lost their lives during the war. Following the demise of Holy Trinity during the 1990’s, the whereabouts of this apparently once fine memorial, sadly, in 2008 is not known.
Two years after the death of Robert Fenwick, another ‘Scarborough Canadian’ had lost his life before he had reached the war in Europe. Born in Scarborough’s ‘Cemetery Lodge’ on the 28TH of August 1878, 1251434 Gunner Harry Sidney Thompson had been the fourth son of Jane and Leonard Thompson, a one time gardener and father of Scarborough’s Cemeteries.
A pupil of Central Board School, Harry like most youngsters had left school at the age of thirteen to become an apprentice draper with the local drapery firm of Hopper & Mason, whose departmental store had been located in the centre of Scarborough where Debenhams now stands. However, by the age of twenty Thompson had quit Scarborough to work for a time in the drapery trade in London’s West End. Nevertheless, by 1905 Harry had migrated to North America where he had lived for a period with brother Harold John Thompson in the city of Seattle, and also for a time for a time in Canada with eldest brother [born 1865] William Edwin. However, by the outbreak of war Harry had been residing in the U.S.A., in the city of Great Falls, Montana, where he had worked as a ‘salesman’.
Aged over thirty-six years at the start of the war, unmarried, and officially exempt from war service, Harry had nonetheless travelled over the border between Canada and the. U.S.A. to enlist into the Canadian Expeditionary Force in the Province of Alberta, in the city of Calgary, on the 11TH of February 1918. Aged thirty-nine years and seven months at the t, Harry Thompson had reputedly stood at a height of five feet two inches at the time of his enlistment, and had possessed a ‘clear’ complexion, blue eyes, and ‘fair’ hair. His religion being recorded as ‘Presbyterian’.
After a period of training at Valcartier Camp Thompson had been attached to the 78TH Battery of Canadian Field Artillery and had been considered fit for service abroad by April 1918. Duly posted to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Thompson had boarded a transport vessel that had been about to set sail for England when Gunner Thompson had been taken ill with a high temperature, acute abdominal pain, and vomiting.
Off loaded from the transport vessel and evacuated to one of a number of military hospitals that had been established in Halifax, where Thompson had been diagnosed as suffering from appendicitis and had duly undergone an operation to remove his inflamed appendix. However, whilst under the knife the soldier’s affected appendix had burst, and peritonitis had soon set in. Despite all the efforts of the attending surgeons and a gallant fight for life by Thompson, three days later, on the 16TH of April 191, the thirty nine years old, Gunner Harry Sidney Thompson had died from the effects of peritonitis.
The news of Harry’s death had eventually been included in ‘The Scarborough Mercury’ of Friday the 12TH of July 1918:
‘Death of Scarborough resident’s son - Taken ill when proceeding to the front’
‘Mr. Leonard Thompson, formally superintendent of the Cemetery, has been informed of the death of his son, Harry Sidney Thompson, of the Canadian forces, which took place after an operation for appendicitis at Halifax, where he was landed when on his way to the front.
Deceased, who was Mr. Thompson’s fourth son, and brother to the present superintendent of the cemetery [Leonard Hartley Thompson, born Scarboro 1869] left Scarborough some years ago, after serving his time with Messrs. Hopper and Mason. He went to London and later to the colonies. He was a single man of about forty years of age. His death took place in the latter part of April and he was buried at Halifax, Nova Scotia’…
Situated in ‘downtown’ Halifax at the junction of Queen and South Streets, the city’s Fort Massey Cemetery contains the graves of over eighty servicemen of the First World War [and 41 from the Second World War], these burials are located in a plot at the lower end of the Cemetery, where Harry Sidney Thompson’s final resting place can be found in Section S.E.G.156.
Unfortunately, for some reason, Harry Sidney Thompson’s name had been omitted from Scarborough’s Oliver’s Mount War Memorial. Nevertheless, elsewhere in the town Harry’s name is perpetuated in Manor Road Cemetery on a magnificently carved Celtic Cross Memorial that can be found in the centre of the path just after the tunnel leading under Manor Road. Indeed a masterpiece of the craft of the monumental mason’ this exquisite memorial also bears the names of Harry’s brothers: Alfred Basil, the youngest son of Jane and Leonard Thompson, who had died in Canada, in Vancouver, at the age of twenty five years on the 6TH of January 1905, William Edwin, their eldest son, who had died at Calgary on the 27TH of January 1915 at the age of fifty years, and Harold John, their third son, who had passed away in Seattle, U.S.A., on the 24TH of June 1925 at the age of 52 years.
The Memorial also bears the names of Harry’s parents: Jane Hartley had been born in Scarborough during 1839 and had married Leonard Thompson at Scarborough during 1862. The mother of five sons and five daughters, Jane Thompson had died at the age of seventy-one years on the 29TH of November 1910. Born at Scalby on the 26TH of June 1834, Leonard Thompson had begun his working life as a farm labourer, however always interested in gardening, he had eventually arrived in Scarborough during 1859 to work on a number of gardens in the then burgeoning South Cliff area of Scarborough until 1865, when he had been appointed as superintendent of Scarborough’s Cemetery. Barely able to read and write and never having had a drawing lesson in his life Leonard Thompson had nonetheless secured the contract of designing and laying out Scarborough’s ‘new’ Manor Road Cemetery. Considered a work of art in its day, people used to come from far and wide to enjoy the wonders of Mr. Thompson’s beautiful Cemetery, a far cry from to day’s drug and alcohol infested wasteland.
The superintendent of Scarborough’s Cemeteries for over forty-five years of his life, Leonard Thompson had eventually passed away peacefully as stone’s throw from his beloved Cemetery, at his home at No 27 Manor Road, on Thursday the 12TH of June 1930 at the age of ninety-six years. The funeral of Leonard Thompson had taken place during the afternoon of Monday the 17TH of June 1930, the remains of the old superintendent being interred with those of his wife in the first burial plot in Manor Road Cemetery. The occasion had been attended by a packed crowd of the most notable people of Scarborough’s society, including the town’s Mayor, Sir Meredith, and Lady Whittaker.
Part 2 - ‘Died at sea’
Faced with the prospect of a long drawn out war with heavy casualties shortly after the outbreak Britain had begun the process of bringing back to the U.K. over seventy veteran battalions of infantry and amongst these unit of veteran infantry, the 3RD K.R.R.C. had duly received orders to embark at Calcutta for the long journey back to England. However, during the voyage one of the Battalion’s soldiers had been struck down with Malaria and had eventually died whilst at sea on the 28TH of October 1914.
The son of John Robert and Eliza Ann [formally Cowburn] Saturley, 8949 Rifleman George Henry Saturley had been born in Scarborough during 1889 and had once lived in the town at No.64 Trafalgar Street West. A Regular Army soldier at the outbreak of war, Saturley had been stationed at Meerut in India with the 3RD Battalion of the King’s Royal Rifle Corps, which had been part of the Bareilly Brigade of the Meerut Division. [1]
Aged twenty-five years at the time of his demise, the remains of George Saturley had duly been buried at sea, and possessing no known grave but the sea, Rifleman Saturley’s name had eventually been included on the Holybrook Memorial at Southampton. Containing the names of almost 1,900 servicemen and women of the commonwealth land and air forces [the names of naval officers and men who have no known graves but the sea are commemorated elsewhere] whose graves are not known, this memorial is located in Southampton’s Holybrook Cemetery, which is located off Tremona Road, opposite the city’s General Accident and Emergency Hospital.
Born in Scarborough during 1879, 63686 Private Cecil Charles Martin Lowe had been the eldest son of Margaret and ‘foreman whitesmith’ Alexander James Lowe, who had lived for a number of years in the town at ‘Foundry Cottage’ in Vine Street. However, by the time of the outbreak of war Charles had been residing with wife Christiana Jane, and son Charles Cecil E. Lowe in Manchester, where he had enlisted into the army during 1916. Attached to the 24TH [Denbighshire Yeomanry] Battalion of the Royal Welch Fusiliers, by the 15TH of April 1917 Charles and the remainder of his unit had been aboard His Majesty’s Transport Arcadian, an 8,900 tons former cruise ship belonging to the Royal Mail Steamship Company that had been pressed into war service as a troop transport.
On that Sunday the former ‘cruising yacht’, along with its Japanese destroyer escort, had been steaming in the Mediterranean, about 26 miles to the north east of the islands of Milo [now Melos] with around three hundred British troops aboard destined for service in Egypt. Suddenly and without warning the Arcadian had been struck by a torpedo that had been fired by the German coastal mine laying submarine ‘UC 74’.
Mortally injured, the Arcadian had soon begun to settle in the water and the order had been given to ‘abandon ship’. For a brief while the old Arcadian [built in 1899] had righted herself, however, soon, with a great missing of steam and thunderous explosions from her bursting boilers, the Arcadian had slipped below the wave taking over tow hundred and seventy of her crew and soldiers with her.
Amongst the thirty five soldiers than had lost their lives with the Arcadian, the remains of Private Charles Cecil Martin Lowe had never been recovered, and his name had eventually been commemorated in Greece, on the Mikra Memorial. Located some eight kilometres to the south of the city of Thessalonika, the Mikra Memorial is located in Mikra British Cemetery and commemorates almost five hundred nurses, and officers and men of the British forces that had lost their lives in the many troop transports and hospital ships that had been sunk in the Mediterranean during the war of 19194-1918 who posses no known graves but the sea.
Just a month after the loss of the Arcadian another troopship the H.M.T. Transylvania, had also come under attack from a German submarine.
Completed just before the outbreak of war, The 14,348 tons Transylvania had originally been owned by the Anchor Line [Henderson Bros.] of Glasgow, however, during 1915 the large twin funnelled passenger vessel had been requisitioned for war service. Designed to carry over one thousand passengers, the War Office had nevertheless designated the capacity of the vessel to be 200 officers and 2, 860 men besides her crew of over 100 officers and men.
Carrying almost this number of troops and crew, along with a cargo of government stores, the Transylvania had left Marseilles for Alexandria on Thursday the 4TH of May. Escorted by two Japanese destroyers the Matsu and Sakaki, at around 10am that day the three ships had been steaming a zig zag course at fourteen knots, and had been about two and a half miles south of Cape Vado in the Gulf of Genoa when the Transylvanian had been struck in her port engine room by a torpedo fired from the German submarine ‘U-63’. Obviously mortally wounded, the Transylvanian’s Captain, Lieutenant S. Brennell R.N.R., had ordered his stricken vessel to the steered towards land some two miles distant.
Despite the rough seas that had been running at the time, the Matsu had gone alongside the stricken liner to begin off loading the large number of soldiers and nurses that had been aboard the Transylvania whilst the second Japanese destroyer had steamed around to keep the enemy submarine submerged. However, twenty minutes after the start of the rescue operation another torpedo had been seen streaking towards the Matsu, which had only saved herself from also being hit by a torpedo by going astern at full speed. This torpedo had gone on to strike the Transylvanian and the fate of the fate of the ship had thus been sealed, the ship sinking barely an hour after she had first been hit.
At the time that the first torpedo had hit the Transylvania most of the troops aboard had been mustered on deck and survivors would later recall how the men had been assembled in five ranks on the ship’s boat deck whilst the female nurses had been got into the lifeboats. Another survivor had told of one of the nurses calling out ‘give us a song boys’ to which the assemble troops had begun to sing ‘Tipperary’ and ‘Take me back to dear old Blighty’.
Many of the survivors of the sinking of the Transylvania had been taken into the Italian port of Savona where they had been cared for by the people of the town and the Red Cross until the 12TH of May when they had sailed from the town accompanied by the cheers and applause of thousands of Savona’s inhabitants, in another vessel to an ‘unknown destination’.
Amongst the twelve crew [including Captain Brennall] of the Transylvania, and twenty army officers and three hundred and seventy three other ranks that had lost their lives that disastrous day in May 1917 had been thirty five years old: M2/103663 Private Arthur Graham. Born in Scarborough at No. 3 ‘Hunter’s Balcony’, Oxford Street during 1883, Arthur had been the only son of Elizabeth and ‘general labourer’ George Graham. A former pupil of Scarborough Central Board School, Arthur had left education at the age of thirteen to become a labourer with Scarborough’s town council and had still been employed by the council at the outbreak of war in August 1914. Married in Scarborough during 1904, Graham had been the husband of Nellie [formally Braithwaite] and the father of Arthur Stephen Graham at this time, and had been residing in the town at No24 Brook Street, Scarborough. Following his enlistment into the army [at Scarborough] during 1916, Arthur had served in England with the Army Service Corps and had been on his way to his first posting, Egypt, where he would have joined the 906TH Motor Transport Company had he survived the sinking of the Transylvania.
Like those of Private Cecil Lowe, no remains of Arthur Graham had ever been recovered from the Mediterranean and his name had eventually been included on a Memorial that had been erected in Savona’s Town Cemetery that also commemorates the names of the other 274 officers and men of the British Army that had lost their lives when the Transylvania had gone down who posses no known graves but the sea.
Also commemorated on Scarborough’s Oliver’s Mount War Memorial, sadly Arthur’s name does not appear on any of the town’s surviving church, or school world war one memorial. Unfortunately, no news of the loss of the Transylvania is featured in any of the surviving editions of ‘The Scarborough Mercury’ of 1917, and as far as is known Arthur Graham’s name had not appeared in any of the newspaper’s extensive casually lists of that year.
Seven months after the loss of the Transylvania, another transport, the 9,588 tons former Royal Mail Steamship Aragon, had been lost. Having left Marseilles on the 17TH of December 1917, the Aragon had been laden with a cargo of military stores and around two thousand seven hundred troops destined for the war in Palestine the ship had duly arrived off Alexandria on the 30TH of December and that same day had been hit by a torpedo fired by the German minelaying submarine ‘UC-34’, as she had lain offshore waiting for orders to enter the port some ten miles distant.
Fortunately, the news of the loss of the Aragon had eventually been included in ‘The Scarborough Mercury’ of Friday the 1ST of February 1918, and had been accompanied with a graphic account of the sinking of her sinking that had been written by one of the survivors, army Chaplain Captain John Lawrence White, coincidentally, a former member of Scarborough’s Holy Trinity Church:
…’There was a terrific explosion on my side of the ship. The boat shook violently and listed somewhat. I put on my lifebelt and everyone made for their boat stations. There was no panic of any sort. Everybody was absolutely splendid. My station was on the poop deck, next to where we were struck, and when I got there that end of the boat was sinking quickly. All the women were saved and we cheered them as they went off in boats to the trawlers, which fortunately were near or hurrying to our aid. Rafts and boats were launched, and we waited orders on deck. When the water was well covering the deck we were told to leave. There was no need to jump. We simply walked into the sea’...
Amongst the vessels that had steamed to the assistance of the stricken Aragon had been the destroyer H.M.S. Attack, which had also been struck by a torpedo whilst rescuing survivors. The destroyer had been almost blown in two by the resulting explosion and had sank shortly afterwards, taking many of those survivors with her, plus ten of her own crew.
The chaplain and many survivors of the sinking of the Aragon, including a large number of female nurses, had eventually been picked up and landed at Alexandria. However, news of the loss of the two vessels had not been released until the beginning of 1918, when on the 7TH of January it had been announced in the House of Commons that ‘as a result of enemy operations two steamers were sunk in the Mediterranean on or about the 31ST of December’.
The official death toll resulting from the of loss of the Aragon had been four of the Aragon’s officers, including her captain; thirty seven years old Captain Francis Ames Bateman, plus fifteen crewmen lost, in addition ten army officers and over five hundred and eighty other ranks had been reported as ‘died at sea’. Amongst them had been thirty years old; 283274 Sapper Ambrose Edwin Stephenson.
Born in Scarborough at No.22 Seamer Street during 1887, Ambrose had been the youngest son of Elizabeth and James Stephenson, a labourer in Scarborough’s Seamer Road gasworks who had also lived for a number of years in the town at No.11 Beaconsfield Street. A worker in the town’s ‘West End Laundry’ by 1912, on Sunday the 12TH of May that year Ambrose Stephenson had been married at Scarborough’s South Cliff Congregational Church to Malton born [1886] Edith Severs, the youngest daughter of Sarah Jane and David Severs of Acombe. Soon after their marriage the Stephenson’s first child, Fred, had been born during late 1912. This birth had been followed by Irene in 1913, Kathleen in 1914, George 1915, and Victor in 1917.
By the outbreak of war the Stephenson family had been residing in Scarborough at No.2 Spring Bank. Obviously a married man with children and thus officially exempt from military service, Stephenson had nonetheless eventually enlisted into the army at Scarborough during late 1915 and had initially served as a Private [Regimental Number 7579] in the Territorial Force 1ST/2ND Northern Cyclists Battalion, a part of the Humber Defence Force that had been stationed for a time at Skegness. However, after a short period with this unit Stephenson had been transferred to the West Yorkshire Regiment [no.12705], with which he had served for a period on the Western Front as an infantryman before being once again transferred during 1916, to the Royal Engineers. Destined for service in Egypt with the R.E.’s 96TH Light Railway Operating Company, Ambrose had embarked in the Aragon at Marseilles on the 15TH of December 1917. The ship sailing two days later to meet a certain German ‘U-Boat’ off Alexandria.
Officially recorded as having died at sea on the 30TH of December 1917, no remains of Ambrose Stephenson had ever been recovered from the Mediterranean, and his name along with another 379 casualties of the loss of the Aragon, had eventually been included on a memorial located in a district on the eastern outskirts of Alexandria known as ‘Chatby’. Today the Chatby Memorial commemorates almost a thousand allied military casualties of the Great War that had lost their lives in the waters near to Alexandria who posses no known graves but the sea.
The day after the Aragon had been sunk another British Transport, H.M.T. Osmanieh, had struck a mine in almost the same spot as where the Aragon had sank. Once again there had been a heavy loss of life, over seventy-six officers and men having died on that occasion. These are also included on the Chatby Memorial.
Sadly, Sapper [the Royal Engineer’s equivalent rank to Private] Ambrose Edwin Stephenson’s name is not commemorated on Scarborough’s Oliver’s Mount Memorial. Nevertheless, a former member of the congregation of St. James Parish Church, his name [albeit incorrectly spelt as Private Amb. Stevenson] can be found on the Seamer Road church’s ‘Memorial of Remembrance’ that takes the form of a magnificently carved oak ‘Rood Screen’ that includes the names of the church’s fifty four casualties [including four civilian casualties of the German bombardment of Scarborough] of the Great War that had been dedicated before a packed congregation by the Bishop of Hull during the evening of Tuesday the 12TH of April 1921.
[Another memorial inside St James Church takes the form of a cover for the church’s font and bears the names of another thirty one servicemen and one teenage girl [Joan Waller who had been killed when a German bomb had fallen on her home in nearby Commercial Street] of the church that had lost their lives during the Second World War].
The Arras Offensive of 1917 had begun in a flash of glory on Easter Monday the 9TH of April with the Canadian Corps capture of Vimy Ridge. The ensuing twenty-five days of often needless slaughter had resulted in a dreadful daily casualty rate running at around four thousand men killed, wounded, and missing. To offset this appalling loss of life day and night thousands upon thousands of often young fresh-faced British troops had crossed the Channel as replacements for the enormous losses in that blood drenched sector of Northern France. Amongst those hordes of khaki clad men that had arrived at Port of Calais during those months had been twenty six years old, 39585 Private John Wheatley Milnes.
Born in Scarborough, at No. 5 Brunswick Street on Monday the 6TH of October 1890, John had been the younger of two sons of Jane [formally Nicholson] and ‘master mariner’ John Wheatley Milnes. A former pupil of Scarborough’s Central Board School, John, along with brother Harold Easton, had been a prominent player in this school’s football team and one or two other local teams during their younger days. However, by the outbreak of war John Milnes had been working in banking in Chiswick, Middlesex, where he had duly enlisted into the army during 1916.
Initially a driver in the Army Service Corps [regimental number: DM/2/232055], during late 1916 Milnes had been transferred to the 3RD [Reserve] Battalion of the Bedfordshire Regiment and had been stationed for a time at Felixstowe with this unit until the start of the Arras Offensive on the 9TH of April 1917, when he had been once again transferred at the start of May to the 6TH [Service] Battalion of the Bedfordshires which had been serving in France as part of the 112TH Brigade of the 37TH Division, and had been recuperating in the village of Berlencourt-le-Cauroy after having recently lost the majority of its men during an attack on the 27TH of April on an enemy held position known as ‘Greenland Hill’, and subsequent fighting around the infamous ‘Chemical Works’ near the equally gruesome village of Rouex.
[Of these actions the 7TH Battalion’s War Diary’ reports: ‘only 58 men actually came out of the attack’]
Feeling ‘unwell’ before landing at Calais on the 3RD of May, John Milnes had been transferred to the 30TH General Hospital located on the outskirts of Calais, where he had been diagnosed as suffering from Meningitis. Prescribed with a course of antibiotics, it had been at first believed that Milnes would pull through. However, during the night of the 4TH of May the soldier’s condition had deteriorated and by the dawning of the following day Milnes had expired. Aged 26 years at the time of his death, the news of her son’s demise had eventually been transmitted to Jane Milnes who had been living in Scarborough at No.19 Alma Square. The tidings had subsequently been reported in ‘The Scarborough Mercury’ of Friday the 11TH of May 1917:
‘Footballer’s death - A well-known Scarborough footballer, Private John Wheatley Milnes, whose mother resides 19, Alma Square, has died in France. He only went a fortnight ago, and on landing he was taken ill and died a few days later, paralysis having supervened. He was a well-known Scarborough footballer, having been a member of the Westwood Club, whilst he had also assisted the Scarborough Club, in which he had partnered his brother Harold as full back. Although a footballer he was not strong, and about two years ago he had pneumonia and pleurisy. He was 26 years of age, and a single man. He had been in the Motor Transport Service when he had joined the forces in October, and later was transferred to the Bedford Regiment. His brother Private Harold Milnes, of the Northumberland Fusiliers, has been wounded and is in hospital in England. He is progressing favourably’…
Officially recorded as having died on Saturday the 5TH of May 1917, following his demise, the remains of John Milnes had been taken to a civil burial ground on the southern outskirts of Calais now known as ‘Calais Southern Cemetery’, where the soldier’s body had been interred in Plot G, Row 2, Grave 1. Now containing the graves of seven hundred and twenty one World War One casualties, and a further two hundred and twenty four from the Second World War, Calais Southern Cemetery is located near to the old road between Calais and Dunkirk some three kilometres to the south of Calais.
Commemorated on the town’s Oliver’s Mount Memorial, elsewhere in Scarborough, John Milnes, a former member of the congregation of Vernon Road’s Christ Church, had also been remembered on a War Memorial containing the names of twenty men of the church that had lost their lives during the war of 1914-1919 that had been unveiled during a service that had fittingly taken place on Sunday the 11TH of November 1923. Taking the form of a cabinet in which is housed a crucifix. The doors of the cabinet open to reveal the men’s names inscribed on their inner surface. Following the demise of Christ Church during the 1970’s, this memorial has been housed in St. Mary’s Parish Church in Scarborough’s Castle Road.
Elsewhere in the town John’s name can be found in Manor Road Cemetery [Section O, Row 5, Grave 25] on a now broken and neglected cross entwined with an anchor memorial that also commemorates his Scarborough born parents: ‘Master Mariner’ John Wheatley Milnes who had died at the age of forty one on the 2ND of June 1898, and Jane Milnes who had passed way on the 7TH of May 1935 at the age of eighty two years.
Despite being wounded during the Arras Offensive, unlike his younger brother, 47871 Private Harold Easton Milnes of the Northumberland Fusiliers, had survived the war. Married shortly after his demobilisation during 1919, Harold had been the husband of Ethel Milnes, who is also commemorated on this memorial Ethel had died at the age 80 years on the 19TH of February 1964. During the following year, during May 1965, Harold Easton Milnes had also passed away, at the age of seventy-seven years.
Accidents as we all know can occur at all times, and a short while after the death of Private Milnes another young soldier of Scarborough, whilst serving in Flanders, had had the misfortune to fall from a motor lorry. Suffering with multiple injuries as a result of his fall, the grievously injured youngster had at first been taken to doctors at a nearby Regimental Aid Post who had attended to the boy as far as their limited equipment had allowed before he had been transferred by ambulance to a Base Hospital at Boulogne, where a few days later, during Wednesday the 15TH of August 1917, the unfortunate youth had passed away at the age of nineteen years.
Born in Scarborough during 1897, 32977 Private William Henry Harris had been the son of Elizabeth [formally Holmes] and William Arthur Harris, who had been residing in Scarborough at No.11 Nelson Street at the time of their son’s death. Another former pupil of Scarborough’s Central Board School, after leaving formal education during 1910 Harris had worked as a delivery boy for local grocer and tea dealer Mr. Charles Edwards, whose shop had been located in Seamer Road.
Still working for Mr. Edwards at the out break of war, William had eventually enlisted into the Yorkshire Regiment during 1916, and after training had joined the regiment’s 2ND Battalion at the start of 1917, which had been serving in France at this time with the 21ST Brigade of the British 30TH Division.
A veteran of numerous encounters with the enemy during the so called ‘German Retreat to the Hindenburg Line’ of 1917, and the two great battles at Arras known as the ‘First and Second Battles of the Scarpe’ [19-24 April], William Harris had also seen much action during the ensuing ‘Third Battle of Ypres, especially the Battle of Pilkem Ridge that had raged in Flanders between the 31ST of July and the 2ND of August 1917, where the 2ND Yorkshire Regiment had lost over two hundred officers and men killed, wounded, and missing, in action near an enemy position known as ‘Bodmin Copse’. Relieved during the night of the 3RD of August, the 2ND Battalion had then marched to Chateau Legard, where the Battalion had been treated to ‘unlimited supplies of hot rabbit pie’ before being moved to positions on the ‘slightly less muddy, but much more tranquil’ Meesines-Wytschaete Ridge sector of Flanders, where Private Harris had possibly suffered his accident.
The news of William’s death had reached Scarborough towards the end of August 1917. On Friday the thirty first ‘The Scarborough Mercury’ had reported:
‘Another young soldier killed - Official news has been received of the death at the front of Private W.H. Harris, Yorks Regt., on the 15TH August. A letter from his Quartermaster to the relatives at 11, Nelson Street, says he was killed by falling off a lorry. The official notice says he died of wounds. The sympathy of his comrades is expressed by the Quartermaster, who speaks of the trustworthiness of the young soldier and the regard in which he was held. Private Harris was 19 and had been out eight months. He was formally in the employ of Mr. Edwards, grocer, Seamer Road, and is the third soldier to be killed from that business. Another is a prisoner of war’…
Soon after his death, the remains of William Harris had been taken to a Cemetery located in the eastern suburbs of Boulogne in a district known as ‘St. Martin Boulogne’, known as ‘Boulogne Eastern Cemetery. Containing the graves of over five thousand casualties of the Great War, and over two hundred from the Second World War, William Henry Harris’s final resting place is located in Boulogne East’s Section 4, Row B, Grave 15.
A former member of the congregation of Hoxton Road’s Wesleyan Chapel William Harris’s name had been included on the Chapel’s War Memorial, which had also included the names of sixteen other members of the congregation that had lost their lives during the war of 1914-1919. However, since the recent demise of this chapel the whereabouts of this memorial is not known. Nevertheless, in Scarborough, apart from the town’s Oliver’s Mount Memorial the young soldier’s name is also commemorated on a memorial in Albemarle Baptist Church which also contains the names of a further sixteen casualties of the ‘Great War’ that had once been members of that church.
The same issue of ‘The Scarborough Mercury’ that had told of the demise of Private Harris had also featured the story of another Scarborough man who had died two days after the young soldier many thousands of miles away from his native shore:
‘Death in East Africa - The news has just been received officially of the death from black water fever at Dar e salaam, East Africa, of Staff-Quartermaster Sergeant Herbert [Bert] Tose, son of Mrs. Tose, 67 St. Johns Road, Scarborough, which took place on the 17TH of August. Quartermaster Sergeant Tose, a native of Scarborough, and well known in the town, was 25 years of age. He joined the Army Service Corps on the 5TH of October 1914, and after training in this country was shipped out to Africa at Christmas, 1915, and has remained there since then, undergoing many trials and hardships in the African campaign, but in his letters home he always maintained a cheerful tone. He leaves a widow and two children’…
Scarborough’s only known casualty of the war in German East Africa, Herbert had been born in the town at No.44 Falsgrave Road during 1892 and had been the third of five sons and three daughters of Jane and ‘master joiner/carpenter’ Edward Tose. [4]
A pupil of Falsgrave, and eventually Scarborough’s Central Board Schools, Bert had left education at the age of thirteen to work in the Gladstone Road warehouse of the local upholstery and furniture manufacturing company of John Tonks & Sons and had still been working for this Westborough based company at the outbreak of war in August 1914.
Married in the district of York during 1912 to Pickering born [1889] Sarah Jane Hesp, by August 1914 Bert had been the father of two daughters, Muriel born 1913, and Vera 1914, the family by this time residing in Scarborough at No.23 Wykeham Street.
Issued with the Regimental Number of S2/015487, following his enlistment into the Army Service Corps during October 1914 at Scarborough, Bert Tose had initially been sent for training with the 59TH Motor Transport Base Company of the A.S.C., which had been stationed at Aldershot, however, by late 1915 he had been transferred to the newly formed [October] 599TH Motor Transport Base Depot and Repair Company, which had duly embarked for service in East Africa by the Christmas of 1915. Initially landed at Mombassa at the start of 1916, Bert and the reminder of his unit had eventually been sent ‘up country’ to Nairobi, however, by September 1916, the Base Depot of the A.S.C had been situated in Dar es Salaam.
[A photograph of the then Private Herbert Tose appears in ‘The Scarborough Pictorial’ of Wednesday the 20TH of January 1915].
A particularly gruesome theatre of operations, where if the enemy did not get you disease did, the campaign in German East Africa [now Tanzania] is largely overlooked by the multitude of books about the Great war of 1914-1919 and is more often that not featured as a mere ‘sideshow’ of the war. However, following a German invasion of Kenya during 1914 a large force of mostly Indian and South African troops had been deployed to the country to expel the relatively small but highly skilled German led [by General von Lettow-Vorbeck] force of Askari troops that had largely lived off the land they had known well, unlike the South Africans and Indians, who had been led a merry dance across the large wastelands of East Africa.
British troops had eventually become involved the ‘war’ in Africa during 1916, and soon the Army Service Corps had also been deployed there. With supplies being on the whole carried on the backs of animals the A.S.C had accrued a large force of mules, oxen, horses and donkeys, however, the wastage of these animals, largely due to the Tsetse Fly had been enormous, over 28,000 beasts dying in one operation alone.
Over four thousand men of the Army Service Corps [often derisively known b y the remainder of the British Army as ‘Ally Sloper’s Cavalry’] had eventually served in East Africa by the time that an Armistice had been signed [nearly two weeks after the war in Europe had ended] at Abercorn Northern Rhodesia, on the 23RD of November 1918. Amongst over 270 of those men of the A.S.C that had lost their lives in the country between 1916 and November 1918 Herbert Tose is officially recorded as having died, from the effects of Blackwater Fever, on the same day that fellow Scarborian Private William Henry Harris had also lost his life on Wednesday the 15TH of August 1917.
A complication of Malaria, Blackwater Fever is caused by a heavy parasitization of the body’s red blood cells that if not treated properly results in failure of the kidneys, and eventually death. The disease according to ‘Wikipedia’ presents itself thus: ‘within a few days of onset there are chills, with rigour [shaking], high fever, jaundice, vomiting, rapidly progressive anaemia and the passage of dark red or black urine’. Inevitably with few medical interventions available at that time there had been little prospect of survival for Acting Warrant Officer Class 2 Herbert Tose and just a day after he had been diagnosed with Blackwater Fever the 29 years old had passed away having never seen his family during the whole of his two years of service with the army.
The remains of Herbert Tose had eventually been interred in a once German civil Cemetery in the Tanzanian town of Morogoro that today is kept by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission that is known as ‘Morogoro Cemetery’. Located some 195 kilometres to the west of Dar-es Salaam, this cemetery contains the graves of three hundred and eighty British casualties of the war in East Africa, thirty four three other men of the Army Service Corps whose graves are scattered about that of Herbert Tose, which is located in Section 4, Row B, Grave 15.
Commemorated on Scarborough’s Oliver’s Mount Memorial, in addition, Bert Tose’s name can also be found on a large gravestone in the town’s Manor Road Cemetery [Section M, Row 19, Grave 23] which also ears the names of elder sister Florence Gertrude, who had died at the age of nineteen years on the 4TH of December 1905, and Bert’s mother, Jane Tose, who had passed away at the age of sixty seven years, on the 20TH of January 1928. This memorial also bears the inscription:
‘We loved what God hath taken - A former member of the congregation of St John’s Road Primitive Methodist Chapel, Bert Tose’s name had probably also been comemortaed on this church’s ‘War Memorial’ which had been unveiled shortly after the end of the ‘Great War’. Sadly the whereabouts of the St John’s Road Chapel is not known.
In addition to the name of Herbert Tose, Scarborough’s Oliver’s Mount Memorial also contains of Bert’s elder brother, William Ernest Tose. Born in Scarborough on the 8TH of August 1891, William had served in the Royal Navy as an Able Seaman [Service Number M 22268] during the First World War, and had been a veteran of the Battle of Jutland. Demobilised during 1919 Tose had subsequently married Ida Simpson at St John’s Road Chapel on Wednesday the 14TH of May 1919. The father of Norman [born Scarborough 1920], William had died prematurely, perhaps as a result of the war, at the age of twenty-nine years at his home at No 63 St John’s Road, on Tuesday the 12TH of April 1921. The ex seaman’s remains being interred in Section K, Row 14, Grave 8 in Scarborough’s Manor Road Cemetery on the 16TH of April 1921. William’s widow, Ida Tose had never remarried and also died, some may say prematurely, at the age of fifty-three years during October 1944. Ida’s remains had subsequently been interred with those of her husband on the 10TH of October 1944, sadly the couple’s final resting place goes unmarked.
Another so called ‘sideshow’ the war in the Balkans has often been described as ‘something of a messy campaign’. The spearhead of a British and French force had begun to arrive in the Greek port of Salonika during September 1915, and by that Christmas the British force had been over 90,000 strong, along with 25,000 animals that had been landed solely to save the Serbian Army and persuade Greece to honour her treaty obligations to side with the Western allies in the war against the Austro-Bulgarian army, both of these aims had eventually failed miserably.
Inevitably, the Army Service Corps had also been drawn into this often ridiculous military affair, and living and working in a hostile country with bad main roads and hopelessly inadequate tracks had often faced many of the privations experienced by their comrades in the campaign in East Africa. Nevertheless, despite the often-appalling conditions the A.S.C. had continued with its task of supplying the British and French force in Salonika. Eventually awarded with the French Croix de Guerre, the A.S.C. had also been awarded with the title of ‘Royal’ during the war in Salonika that had ended with an Armistice being signed on the 29TH of September 1918. Two months later an extract of a British Dispatch dated 1st December 1918 from General Sir George F. Milne D.S.O. commanding in Chief of the British Force in Salonika, had been published in the ‘London Gazette’ of 22ND of January 1919, and sums up the gallant part played by the Corps during the three years of war in the Balkans.
The work of all branches of the Royal Army Service Corps deserves special praise. Their responsibilities include not only supplying the British Army requirements but those of the whole Greek Army and a very large part of the supplies for the other Armies in Macedonia. That in spite of the difficulties by sea and by land, the Supply and Transport services of forces extending from the Black Sea to the Adriatic has never failed for one day is a great tribute to the work of all ranks serving both with the British and the Serbian Army’…[5]
During the British Army’s operations in Salonika almost seven hundred officers and men of the Royal Army Service Corps had died whilst on active service. Amongst them had been: DM2/171191 Driver John Henry Robinson.
Born in Scarborough at No.20 Hoxton Road during 1884, John had been the only surviving son of Alice Maude and Frederick Robinson a signaller with the North Eastern Railway Company. [6]
Another former pupil of Scarborough’ Central Board School, Jack Robinson had left formal education at the customary age of thirteen to become an apprentice plasterer with the local building firm of John Jaram & Sons and had still been working with Mr. Jaram at the outbreak of war. Residing in Scarborough at No 9 Fairfax Street during August 1914, shortly after the outbreak of hostilities Jack had enlisted for service with the Army Service Corps at Richmond shortly after the German bombardment of Scarborough during December 1914 and had initially been posted to the Woolwich Depot of the A.S.C. for a period of military training before being transferred to the A.S.C.’s driving school located in the Western suburbs of London at Osterley Park. Eventually posted to the 779TH Motor Transport Company of the A.S.C., Robinson had served with this unit for a time in Egypt before being transferred during 1916 to the Salonika front.
Like Herbert Tose, Jack Robinson had in all probability been a victim of a bite of a female Anopheles mosquito that had injected the soldier with parasite that had eventually caused Robinson to experience the classic flu like symptoms of Malaria. Transferred to the British 21ST Stationary Hospital located near the Greek village of Sarigol, where, with very little in the way of an effective anti malarial treatment, Jack’s condition had unfortunately continued to deteriorate unabated until he had slipped into a coma from which he had never recovered. Driver Robinson had died shortly after his fellow Scarborian, during Monday the 3RD of September 1917.
The news of their son’s death had reached the Robinson’s Fairfax Street home by mid September and the tidings had eventually been included in a lengthy casualty list that had appeared in ‘The Scarborough Mercury’ of Friday the 28TH of September 1917:
‘Local man’s death in Salonika - News has been received from an officer of the death of Driver Robinson, from malaria, at Salonika. The officer wrote as follows:
I much regret to have to inform you of the death of your son, Private Robinson. He died on the 3RD inst. And was buried on the 5TH inst., in the English Cemetery. He was very popular amongst his comrades, and always did his duty in a quiet, unconscientious, and thorough manner. H e was one of my best drivers and is a great loss to the company. It may be of small comfort to you to realise that he died for his country just as much as he had been killed in action.
Driver Robinson was formally in the employ of Mr. Jaram as a plasterer. He was an only son, being aged 33, and single. His relatives live at 9 Fairfax Street, and formally lived at 18 Hoxton Road’…
The remains of Jack Robinson had been interred in a burial ground that had been attached to the 21ST Stationary Hospital, which today is known as ‘Sarigol Military Cemetery, Kriston’. Located in farmland some three kilometres from the village of Sarigol, Sarigol contains the graves of over six hundred and eighty Commonwealth casualties of the First World War and 29 war graves belonging to other nationalities. John Henry Robinson’s final resting place is located in Section D, Grave 550.
Commemorated on Scarborough’s Oliver’s Mount War Memorial, unfortunately Jack Robinson’s name is not contained on any of the town’s surviving school, or church war memorial. However, his can be found in Scarborough’s Manor Road Cemetery [Section M, Row12, Grave 33], on a collection of three very faded pieces of sandstone that also contain the names of Jack’s parents, Frederick Robinson who had died at the age of seventy five on the 29TH of October 1918, and Alice Robinson, who had passed away on the 21ST of February 1934, at the age of eighty one years.
[This badly weathered memorial also bears the barely legible name of a son in law of the Robinson’s possibly named ‘Neil’?, who had died during October?]
[1] A photograph of George Henry Saturley appears in ‘The Scarborough Pictorial’ of Wednesday the 11TH of November 1914.
[2] For some unknown reason Gunner Frederick Potter is commemorated in India by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission as ‘Francis K. Potter’. Steps are being taken to rectify this error. In Scarborough, the town’s Oliver’s Mount Memorial does contain the name of ‘F.H. Potter’, a name which despite extensive enquiries, does not relate to any casualty of the First World War belonging to Scarborough and district. In fact the only casualty of both World Wars with this name recorded by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission belongs to an Australian born officer, Lieutenant Frank Hales Potter of the Australian Machine Gun Corps, who had been killed in action during the 3RD of November 1917. Could this in fact be the incorrectly spelt name of Scarborough’s F. K. Potter?
[3] Born in Scarborough during 1872 John Fenwick had married Emma Constance Wise [born Malton 1873], at Malton during late 1895. By the time of the 1901 Census the couple had been residing in Scarborough at No.44 Norwood Street with children Constance May, born Scarborough 1896, Robert Wise, 1897, Elsie, 1898, and Edgar, 1900.
[4] Married in Scarborough during 1883 Edward and Jane [formally Shaw] Tose had been residing with the remainder of their family at this address at the time of the 1901 Census. At the time their family had consisted of forty five years old Runswick Bay born Edward Tose, forty years old Jane, Florence Gertrude, aged 14 years, Percy, 11 years, William Ernest, 9 years, Herbert, 8 years, Lillian, 6 years, Ella May, 4 years, and Arthur aged 3 years, all had been born at Scarborough.
[The fifth son, Alfred Tose, had died at the age of five years during 1893].
[5] Extracted from: Army Service Corps 1902-1918, Michael Young, Pen and Sword 2000.
[6] Living at this address at the time of the 1891 Census, Malton born Alice Maude Consitt and Irish born Frederick Robinson had been married in Scarborough during 1873 and had been parents of seven children; Frederick Consitt, born Scarborough 1879, died 1881, Annie, 1879, Lilly, 1880, Alice, 1881, John Henry, 1884, Gertrude, 1886, and Ada, 1888.