The Guards Division 1918 (from the book "Neath a Foreign Sky" by Paul Allen)
In Remebrance of;
- Private Alfred Ernest Nendick
- Private James William Normandale
- Private Robert Arthur Nendick
- Private Arthur Webster
- Private Frederick George Metcalfe
The resumption of Fourth Army’s operations on the Somme on the 15TH of August had never materialised and on the 23RD of August the onus of the B.E.F.’s operations in the Somme Sector had been placed squarely on the shoulders of the men of Sir Julian ‘Bungo’ Byng’s Third Army.
Positioned just to the north of Fourth Army and the decimated city of Albert, Third Army had consisted of three Corps [from right to left]; V Corps [comprising of the 21ST and 38TH Division], 1V Corps [37TH, 42ND, and the New Zealand Division], and V1 Corps [Guards, 2ND, and 59TH Divisions] in all comprising of eight Divisions of infantry, with a further five in reserve. In addition, at Byng’s disposal for the new assault there had been one hundred and fifty six precious tanks, along with ten squadrons of aircraft belonging to the Royal Air Force.
Scheduled to begin on Wednesday the 21ST of August, the offensive, to be later named as the ‘Battle of Albert’, would be mounted on a ten miles front to the north of the River Ancre between the old Somme battlefield of 1916 and the Arras battlefield of 1917 and would be relatively free of shell holes and old trench systems. As tanks were to be used Byng had planned to begin his assault without a preliminary artillery bombardment, the main thrust of his attack coming from Third Army’s centre between the villages of Moyenneville and Ablainzeville, Zero Hour being fixed for 4-55am.
Almost inevitably, there had been a thick fog shrouding the battlefield on the morning of the 21ST. Amongst those waiting nervously to go into action had been the officers and men of the Guards Division. An officer belonging to the 3RD Battalion of the Grenadier Guards would later write;
‘In the original ‘line up’ I was left out. We were over officered and so, for the scheduled attack, young officers were chosen amongst those who had not been ‘blooded’; I was to remain with details. Later the Commanding Officer [A.F.A.N. ‘Bulgy’ Thorne D.S.O.] decided to have a reserve officer with Brigade Headquarters and so I got as far as our jumping off positions, and was able to see my company ‘off’…[1]
‘It was one in the morning when we reached the line. It had been a lovely moonlight night, then it had showered, and in the very early morning, a thick fog wrapped the earth as in cotton wool.
The men, who had had what little sleep they could, took their ration of rum, and breakfast, consisting of tea and bacon, at 3am, and finally at 4-30am fixed bayonets and stood to arms.
There was no artillery preparation as a prelude to this battle—only a curtain of fire due to come down and precede our advancing waves at Zero Hour—so that there was a real lull before the storm.
The night had been exceptionally quiet. With battle at hand it assumed as usual an ominous silence. And quite right too—the day had something to reveal’… [1]
Belonging to the 2ND [Guards] Brigade of the Guards Division, the 3RD Grenadier Guards had been held in reserve whilst the remainder of the formation, 1ST Battalion Scots Guards, and 1ST Coldstream Guards, had launched 2ND Brigade’s attack at Zero Hour. However, ninety minutes after Zero the 3RD Grenadiers orders had been to pass through the Guards second objective to attack the third, a section of the enemy’s line running along rising ground to the east of the railway line running between Arras and Albert. Eighteen tanks had been allotted to the Guards; some had never arrived due to the thick fog and a heavy British barrage of smoke. Lieutenant Carstairs once again takes up the story;
‘ Six minutes to five and one felt the proximity of the hour like a near presence. Suddenly a gun, like the mighty slamming of a door in a sleeping house, broke the stillness. The hour arranged by friend and man had come and hell stepped up on to the earth. Every one of the myriad guns crowding the area behind took up the signal and belched forth fire and noise. The battle had begun. Our objective lay south. The battalion fell in and marched down a road parallel to the enemy lines until they reached a certain point, where they left faced. I went a short distance with the company and saying goodbye, stood and watched the men as they quickly mixed with mist’…
Whilst the fog had shielded the Guards as they had advanced the thousand yards towards their first objective, it had made the going difficult for the few tanks that had made it to the start line, some of them losing their way in the thick shroud. However, later on the fog had lifted, exposing the attack to enemy artillery and the inevitable accompanying hail of German machine gun fire. Surprisingly, the Guards had reportedly received ‘few’ casualties during this stage of the battle, and by midday had secured all their objectives, including Moyennville, the 3RD Grenadier Guards taking a chalk pit to the south east of the village, whilst a platoon belonging to the battalion had advanced as far as the outskirts of Courcelles, where they had made contact with troops belonging to the 3RD Division, that would eventually take the village.
By noon on the 21ST V1 Corps had attained almost all of its objectives and had been positioned along the Arras—Albert railway line where they had come under intense artillery fire. At this stage of the battle it had been intended for tanks and the cavalry to take over from the infantry to exploit the situation, none had appeared, and the Corps had move no further forward that day.
Farther south, the initial advance of 1V Corps had also gone well, the Corps leading three divisions arriving at their first objective on time. However, the two divisions that should have passed through these formations had been denied the cover of an effective creeping barrage and could make no appreciable advance towards the Arras –Albert railway in the face of heavy artillery fire.
On the extreme right of the attack V Corps had been faced with the difficult task of crossing the Ancre and had had no specific objective other than to prolong the advance of 1V Corps on its left by a bout a thousand yards near Beaucourt, and exploit any success by crossing the Ancre between Hamel and Miraumont. Starting an hour after the other two Corps, Fifth Corps had captured the village of Beaucourt shortly after 6-30am that day, but had soon come under the same intense artillery fire as its neighbours which had held up the crossing of the Ancre under the cover of fog by units belonging to the 21ST and 38TH Divisions until that afternoon. Nevertheless, once the fog had cleared these units had been forced to withdraw due to the intense enemy artillery fire. So had ended the first day of the approach to the Hindenburg Line.
The following day very little had happened in Third Army, Byng devoting the day in making preparations for a further advance to be made the following day. Haig had obviously been displeased with his Corps Commander and had written in his diary;
‘The Third Army is halting today. I cannot think this is necessary. I accordingly issued an order directing the offensive to be resumed at the earliest moment possible’… [2]
[That same day to the south of Third Army, Rawlinson’s Fourth Army had resumed operations on the northern bank of the Somme, the 18TH [Eastern] Division capturing the town of Albert].
Following Haig’s intervention, on the 22ND of August Byng had amended his battle plans so that all three of his Corps would advance along the entire Third Army front in a pincer movement to outflank the strongly held Irles—Achiet le Grand position. On the right, V Corps was to pass the notorious Thiepval village from the south, whilst V1 Corps would capture the village of Gomiecourt in a night operation. If all had gone well the intention had then been for 1V Corps to advance on the village of Achiet le Grand, where it would then combine with V1 Corps in an advance to the east.
Zero Hour for the Gomiecourt operation had been set for 4am on the 23RD of August. Within an hour the 3RD Division had captured the village, the Corps remaining divisions had launched their attack an hour later with the objective of capturing the line Hamelincourt—Boyelles—Boiry Bequerelle. The task of taking the two latter villages had been assigned to the 56TH [London] Division, whilst the capture of Hamelincourt had been handed to the Guards Division. Amongst the attacking force, Lieutenant Carstairs had subsequently recorded;
‘Attack and counter attack, and the third day the offensive continued. The Intelligence Officer had been detailed to guide tanks, and as that was to keep him occupied all night, I was sent for to take his place. I went down the road over which the Battalion had marched two days before and reached Battalion Headquarters at about 2-30am. I found all the Company officers with the Commanding Officer poring over a map.
At 4-00am we ‘went over’. Our jumping off position was this side of a single track railway which the Boches were shelling intermittingly. Four o’clock was before dawn so the battle began by moonlight.
At 4am our barrage came down and on the other side of the railway Hunland flashed and blazed [like a storm on a stage splendidly exaggerated] as shell after shell screeched closely overhead and pitched and burst on the ground beyond. The next minute we were engulfed in the German counter barrage. Thunder and lightening concentrated on one spot! I was showered with dirt, which hit me like spray from a wave breaking against the side of a ship. I slipped into a slit [trench] and found myself jammed against two private soldiers. It was very shallow and from the waist up we stood exposed. It seemed impossible to remain unhit’…
In the second wave of the Guards attack, the 3RD Grenadier’s together with the 1ST Scots Guards and three tanks had been given the task of capturing Hamelincourt and an old British trench system known as Hamerville Trench’ located some seven hundred yards to the east of the village and had not been scheduled to begin their assault until twenty minutes after Zero. Whilst waiting for the order to ‘go over’ Carstairs’s position had been hit by shellfire. Whilst his companions had been wounded the Lieutenant had been little more than dazed and confused by the experience, and had duly gathered himself together to follow the remainder of the battalion;
‘Hoisting myself out I went along to get the other men up and over, but the first group ten yards further on paid no attention to my command. All were casualties. An officer wounded in the back and five men killed and wounded’…
Carstairs had continued his journey and had eventually rejoined his unit in Hamerville Trench, the ruins of Hamelincourt falling to the 1ST Scots Guards by noon, whilst the 1ST Battalion of the Coldstream Guards had pushed on to within a few hundred yards of the village of St Leger, having made a total advance of early 5,000 yards that day. Later that broiling hot afternoon the 2ND Guards Brigade had been ‘leapfrogged’ by the 3RD Guards Brigade.
Consisting of the 1ST and 4TH Battalions of the Grenadier Guards, 2ND Scots, and 1ST Welsh Guards; Carstairs had watched elements of the 2ND Guards Brigade go into action…’in the afternoon we hailed the First Battalion Grenadier Guards as it passed by in artillery formation. We followed the progress of its men—now spectators of, instead of participants in a battle…on they went, over a mile or so of country, until they reached the foot of a ridge where, the battalion extending, the men could be seen charging up the slope to the hectic measure of a mass of machine guns’… [1]
Sent to protect the right flank of 2ND Guards Brigade, and to capture the heights to the south of the village of St Leger by 5-45pm on the twenty third the First Grenadiers had taken all their objectives and many prisoners to boot, the casualties incurred during this operation being considered as ‘not heavy’; one officer killed, two others wounded, whilst the ‘other ranks’ had lost somewhere in the region of forty men.
At 4am on the 24TH the 1ST Battalion’s C.O. [Major Bailey] had received orders to take the village of Mory in conjunction with an attack to be made on the right flank by the 2ND Division. By daylight the Battalion’s three leading Companies [No’s 2, 3, and 4] had been formed up for the attack in a position in front of the village known as ‘Mory Switch Trench’ [The Battalion’s fourth ‘King’s Company’ being held in reserve at a position known as ‘Iscariot Work’]. Facing the Guardsmen had been thick belts of uncut barbed wire, which they had been told they would have to work their way through the gaps ‘as best they could’. The Regiment’s historian reports the subsequent action;
‘ As soon as the attack started, some thirty prisoners were taken; they were in positions outside the wire, and surrendered without firing a shot. A shrapnel barrage had been put down by our artillery, but it was placed too far in advance to be of any real assistance, and as the attack developed the Germans opened an intense machine gun fire from Mory Copse and Hally Copse. It soon became evident that, until some advance was made on the right, there was no possibility of the attack succeeding and even if it did succeed there seemed little prospect of the 1ST Battalion retaining the position it had gained, unless the Second Division could keep pace with them. Nothing could be done until the situation on the right developed, and the difficulty of the position was increased by the fact that all communication with the leading companies was cut off for the remainder of the day’…[3]
Throughout the remainder of the twenty fourth the surviving 1ST Grenadiers, taking cover wherever they could find shelter had been subjected to a veritable hail of sniper and machine gun fire coming from enemy positions hidden within Mory Copse and by the fall of night the battalion had suffered over one hundred and fifty casualties.
Having suffered the least casualties the previous day, on Sunday the 25TH of August the advance had been renewed by Captain Pulteney Malcolm’s King’s Company and Lieutenant Edward Gerald Hawksworth’s No 3 Company, together with eight tanks;
‘At 4-30am the attack started. A very thick mist covered the ground, which made it difficult for the tanks to find their way. Lieutenant Hawkesworth started off with No.3 Company supported by one tank, but when he reached the neighbourhood of Bank’s Trench the tank broke down, and when the fog lifted he found he had only forty men quite unsupported. Unfortunately, at this point he was badly wounded, and therefore ordered his men, who were without an officer, to fall back on to Mory Trench.
The King’s and No.4 Companies moved up Mory Switch supported by one tank, while another worked on the southern flank. The fog was still thick, and as the first tank advanced it was suddenly engaged at very close range by a stray machine gun post. Amour piercing bullets were used, and the engine and water jacket were penetrated. It was therefore necessary to find the other tank, which could be heard working in the fog, and after an unsuccessful attempt to get it going in the right direction, it eventually succeeded in moving forward at 8-30am supported by the King’s Company and a platoon of No.4 Company. But soon afterwards the fog lifted, and the tank was immediately put out of action. Germans in bodies of fifty and one hundred could be seen standing about in Bank’s Trench, but as the King’s Company and a platoon of No.4 Company were close by, Lord Gort [the C.O. of the 1ST Grenadiers] did not give the order to engage these hostile parties with machine gun fire, until he could ascertain if they were prisoners surrendering or not. After a lapse of five minutes fire was opened on them, and they disappeared into their trenches.
Meanwhile the enemy opened a very heavy and concentrated machine gun fire on Mory Switch, and disabled the tank with field gun fire’…[3]
Eventually driven out of their newly won positions by the intense machine gun fire coming from three sides, the 1ST Grenadiers had been forced to withdraw from Mory Switch to safer ground to the south west of the village of Mory, where the remains of the Battalion had ‘reformed’. At 4pm that afternoon, when, following a severe artillery bombardment, the Germans had mounted a counterattack that had been met by the Guards and elements of the 62ND [2ND West Riding] Division, which after desperate fighting had driven the enemy back. The Guards together with the 62ND Division had then relaunched the advance and had regained some lost ground, the 1ST Grenadiers retaking Mory Switch Trench. This is where the First Battalion’s assault had ended that day. That night the unit had been relieved by the 2ND Battalion of the Grenadier Guards, the sorely depleted Battalion withdrawing to the village of Boiry St Martin.
Casualties amongst the First Grenadier during those three desperate days had, inevitably, been heavy. Of the eighteen officers who had begun the operations on the twenty third, thirteen had become casualties, of the 489 ‘other ranks’ that had gone into action that day two hundred and fifty eight had subsequently been reported as killed in action, wounded, or missing. Amongst those who had lost their lives during Sunday the 25TH had been thirty-two years old; 27630 Private Alfred Ernest Nendick.
A soldier in Captain Malcolm’s King’s Company, Alfred had been born in the North Yorkshire village of Flixton on the 10TH of March 1886, and had been the eldest of eight children of Margaretta and ‘labourer’ Thomas Alfred Nendick. Although born on the outskirts of the town, Nendick had, nonetheless, spent much of his life living off Scarborough’s Victoria Road at No. 16 Mill Street. A former pupil of Gladstone Road Primitive Methodist School and the Central Board School, Alf had begun his working life at the customary age of thirteen, when he had become a ‘groom’ in the Durham Street stables belonging to local cab owner George Blades. However, by the outbreak of war in August 1914, Nendick had been residing with the remainder of his family at No.2 Lower Albion Street, and had been employed as a butcher by the firm of Rines and Outhet, which had been located in Scarborough’s main street, at No.45 Westborough. [4]
Alf Nendick had escaped military service until 1916. At the beginning of that year the British government had introduced conscription with the issue of a Military Service Act which in effect had ordered all single males between the ages of eighteen and forty one to offer themselves up for military service, though with numerous exemptions [to be administered by local tribunals] that included war work, hardship due to family or business commitments, ill health, or conscientious objection. On Sunday the 5TH of April 1916 Alf had, nevertheless, been married at Scarborough’s Register Office to Lincolnshire [Gainsborough] born Alice Mary Farmery, the nineteen years old eldest daughter of Mary Elizabeth and Frederick Farmery.
Now a married man [living at No.28 Britannia Street], Nendick had been exempt from military service, however, due to low recruiting figures, during May a second Military Service Act had been introduced in Britain extending compulsion to married men, though like its predecessor, it still exempted men from Ireland. Shortly after the introduction of the new scheme Alf Nendick had received notification to report to the Cavalry Depot situated in Burniston Road, where, on Thursday the 2ND of November 1916, he had duly been enlisted into the ranks of the British Army.
According to Alf Nendick’s service record at the time of his enlistment he had been aged thirty years and eight months, and had stood at a height of five feet eleven and three quarter inches. Very little else is recorded in his ‘descriptive report’ other than he had possessed a chest girth [when fully expanded by two and a half inches] of thirty five and a half inches. It also states in his record that Nendick had expressed a preference for service with the Army Service Corps, accordingly, typical of the idiosyncrasies of the armed services, he had duly found himself being posted to the Grenadier Guards, the premier infantry battalion of the British Army. [5]
A survivor of the eighteen weeks of purgatory at the Guards Training Depot at Caterham, Nendick had subsequently been posted to London’s Chelsea Barracks, where he had joined the 5TH [Reserve] Battalion of the Grenadier Guards. Alfred had remained on public duties in London until October 1917, when he had been placed in a draft of battle casualty replacements destined for service on the Western Front with the 1ST Battalion of the Grenadier Guards, which at this time had been attached to the Fourteenth Corps of Fifth Army, which had recently [9TH of October] been heavily involved in the Battle of Poelcapelle, which had taken place in Flanders on the 9TH of October 1917, in the action known as the ‘Third Battle of Ypres’, the bloodbath burned into the mind of the British public known as ‘Passchendaele’.
Like all Guardsmen arriving in France, Nendick had initially gone to the Guards Divisional Base Depot at Harfleur, where he had carried out further training whilst his unit had completed its current tour of the trenches in the Ypres Sector. However, Nendick’s period of relative safety had come to an end at the beginning of November, when he had been posted to his battalion, which, by this time, had been ‘resting’ after having taken part in the First Battle of Passchendaele [12TH of October 1917].
A survivor of three hundred and six days of service on the Western Front, Alf had been involved in the operations at Bourlon Wood during the Battle of Cambrai [20TH of November-3RD of December 1917], and by the start of 1918 Nendick, and the remainder of the King’s Company [at this time commanded by Lieutenant John Arthur Lloyd] had been in trenches in the Arras Sector, near to the village of Boiry Becquerelle. However, by March the 1ST Battalion had been moved to the north east of the nearby village of Boisieux-St-Marc, where during Wednesday the 27TH of March Nendick had endured the same intense artillery bombardment that had fallen on 1ST Grenadier’s positions that had snuffed out the life of fellow Scarborian 28945 Private John Darley Denton. [6]
Relieved from the front line that same night by the 1ST Welsh Guards, the 1ST Grenadiers had moved into the support trenches behind the front for a period of short lived rest, however, by the dawn of March the thirtieth the unit had been back in the front line where the enemy’s machine gun fire that day had been described as ‘very active’. Later that morning the Germans had put down a heavy artillery and ‘Minenwerfer’ bombardment onto the Guards trenches. Ponsenby describes the situation;
‘The barrage increased in intensity later and extended to the back area. Shells fell with considerable accuracy on the front trenches, and the whole battalion had a terrible time’…Shortly the intense artillery and mortar fire had been complemented with heavy machine gun fire and fourteen aircraft that had dropped bombs behind the Guards positions. This had gone on for three hours. One could quite rightly, much like the Germans, have assumed by this time that the Guards had totally demoralised by their experiences…’but in this they were mistaken. The 1ST Battalion remained unmoved. Shattered, covered in earth, deafened by the constant explosions, dazed by the spectacle of maimed and mutilated men, the Grenadiers hung grimly on to their line, though in some places the trenches were totally obliterated’…[3]
Probably in the belief that no one could have survived the onslaught that had gone on throughout the day, during that afternoon the enemy had launched an infantry attack which had been met by a withering fire from the Grenadiers that had ‘completely staggered them’. ‘To their dismay they found that not only was the First Battalion waiting for them, but that the men were shooting coolly and accurately, in spite of the shelling to which they had been subjected. The attack was stopped…they never succeeded even in reaching the wire’…[3]
Fighting had continued for the remainder of the thirtieth and by the end of the day the 1ST Battalion of the Grenadier Guards had lost around eighty officers and men. Although deadbeat by the end of the battle, the Battalion had never given up their positions to the enemy and had remained in the trenches near Boisleux-St Marc until they had been called into action during August 1918.
Alice Nendick had received official notification of her husband’s death on Wednesday the 18TH of September 1918. Two days later, ‘The Scarborough Mercury’ had reported;
‘Grenadier Guard killed - News has been received by Mrs. Alfred E. Nendick that her husband, Private Alfred E. Nendick, 1ST Batt. King’s Company Grenadier Guards was killed in action in France on August 25TH. Deceased, who was 32 years of age, was the eldest son of Mr. and Mrs. T. Nendick, 2 Lower Albion Street. He had been in France since October last. Prior to joining the colours in November 1916, he was employed by Messrs Rines and Outhet. He was almost a lifelong member of Gladstone Road Primitive Methodist Church, where for many years he served as Sunday School worker, Christian Endeavour secretary, and Assistant Society Steward’…
Amongst the one officer and thirty five men of the 1ST Battalion of the Grenadier Guards who had lost their lives during the 25TH of August 1918, by the time that the above notification had appeared in the ‘Scarboro Casualties’ listing in the local press, the remains of Private Nendick, and a number of his fellow Guardsmen, had been interred in a small battlefield Cemetery known as ‘L’ Homme Mort Cemetery No.2. However, after the Armistice the soldier’s remains, along with those of eighteen other British servicemen, had been re-interred in the much larger Honourable Artillery Company [H.A.C.] Cemetery located near to Ecoust-St-Mein, a village located between Arras, Cambrai, and Bapaume. To be found a short distance to the south of the village, on the west side of the D 956 road to Beaugenatre, Alfred Nendick’s final resting place is located in Section 4, Row F, Grave 19 of the H.A.C. Cemetery, the soldiers grave being flanked by those of twenty five years old fellow 1ST Battalion Grenadier Guardsman; 18189 Lance Corporal James Wylie, who had also lost his life on the 25TH of August, and Yorkshireman; 52451 Private Ernest Albert Hollingsworth, who had been killed in action on the 27TH of August 1918 whilst serving in the neighbourhood with the 5TH Battalion of the King’s Own [Yorkshire Light Infantry], their graves are numbered 4/F/18 and 4/F/20 respectively. [7]
[The son of William and Jane Normandale, 24420 Private James William Normandale had been Baptised [with brother George Stanley] in St Mary’s Parish Church on the 12TH of October 1881. although badly wounded during the 25TH of August whilst serving with the 1ST Battalion of the Grenadier Guards, following hospitalisation in a Sheffield Hospital Jim had been invalided from the army and had eventually returned to Scarborough where he had lived with wife Caroline Elizabeth in the ‘bottom end’ of the town at No.71 Longwestgate until his untimely death [probably as a result of his wounds], at the age of forty four on Monday the eighteenth of January 1927. The remains of Jim Normandale had subsequently been buried in a ‘common grave’ in Scarborough’s Manor Road Cemetery
[Section M/ Row 11/Grave 12], unfortunately the former Grenadier Guardsman’s final resting place is unmarked].
Apart from the Oliver’s Mount Memorial, the name of Alfred Ernest Nendick is not included on any of the town’s surviving church or school memorials. A life long member of the congregation of Gladstone Road’s Primitive Methodist Chapel, Alf’s name may have been included on a memorial belonging to this church. However, built during 1881, the Gladstone Road Chapel had closed its doors for the last time following the evening service of Sunday the 26TH of January 1964 and any memorials which had been in the chapel had, presumably, been taken away for safe keeping, and despite extensive enquiries the author has been unable to locate their whereabouts. [8]
Alfred’s name can, nevertheless, be found on a gravestone in Scarborough’s Manor Road Cemetery [Section V/ Row 20/Grave 9], which also contains the names of the Guardsman’s parents. Born in the village of Flixton during 1859 Margaretta Nendick had passed away at the age of seventy three years on Saturday the 1ST of October 1932 at her home at No.5 Raleigh Street. Situated on the corner of Raleigh Street and Gladstone Street, the house had also seen the demise of Alfred’s Willerby born father, Thomas Alfred Nendick who had passed away at the age of seventy seven on Tuesday the 2ND of November 1937.
This memorial also bears the name of Alfred’s younger brother Frank Dennison Nendick. Born in Scarborough [1891] Frank had served during the ‘Great War’ as a gunner [Regimental Number 117323] in the Royal Garrison Artillery. Following his demobilisation in 1919 he had returned to Scarborough to become the proprietor of a dairy business located in Prospect Road until his retirement during 1947. A well known local preacher for over twenty eight years in the St Sepulchre Street Primitive Methodist Chapel, Frank had also been the leader of a popular singing quartet which had sang at many meetings in and around Scarborough. A life long bachelor, Frank Nendick had died ‘following a long illness’, at his home at No.2 Alma Square on Thursday the 23RD of May 1957, at the age of sixty five years. Frank’s remains had been interred with those of his parents on the 27TH of May 1957.
Although not commemorated at the site, the cremated remains of Alf’s sister, Ada Bessey Nendick, had been strewn at the Manor Road grave site on the 31ST of July 1968, following her death at the age of 75 years, on the 26TH of July 1968, whilst those of the Nendick’s third daughter Catherine Annie, had been scattered amongst those of her husband James Herbert Lee [died 25/06/62, remains scattered 29/06/1962] on the 9TH of January 1984, following her death at the age of eighty six on the 30TH of December 1983.
Following the death of her husband, for a short while Alice Nendick had continued to live in Scarborough at No.28 Britannia Street. However, by the beginning of the 1920’s she had been residing with her in-laws at No.32 Gladstone Street, and eventually No.5 Raleigh Street, where Alice had remained until the early 1930’s, when her name disappears from the town’s Electoral Rolls.
One of two men with the surname of Nendick included on the Oliver’s Mount Memorial, Alf’s name is featured with that of; 235938 Private Robert Arthur Nendick. Born in Scarborough during 1891, Robert had been the son of Mary and Matthew Nendick. Bob had enlisted into the Army at York during 1915 and had originally served as a private [Regimental Number 2999] in the 1ST/1ST Alexandra, Princess of Wales’s Own Yorkshire Hussars Yeomanry. However, by 1918 he had been attached to the 1ST/5TH Battalion of the Prince of Wales’s Own [West Yorkshire Regiment]. Having survived wounding in October 1917,during the Third Battle of Passchendaele, Nendick had had the cruel misfortune of being amongst the thousands of servicemen who had died as a resulted of contracting the dreaded ‘Spanish Flu’ that had ravaged the Western Front, and the remainder of the world in the latter stages of the war. Obviously weakened by war service, Nendick had succumbed to the effects of the deadly disease at the age of twenty seven at the 42ND Casualty Clearing Station the day after the war had ended on Tuesday the 12TH of November 1918. Bob’s death had been featured in the ‘Births, Marriages, and Deaths column of ‘The Scarborough Mercury’ of Friday the 22ND of November 1918;
‘Nendick—Died in France, on the 12TH November, of Influenza, Robert Arthur, dearly loved eldest son of Matthew and Mary Nendick, 16, Cambridge Street, Scarborough, aged 27 years and 11 months’…
The remains of Robert Nendick had been interred in Northern France in a Cemetery known as ‘Douai British Cemetery’. Located about 24 kilometres to the north east of Arras and close to the large town of Douai, this Cemetery is located on the outskirts of Douai at the side of the D125 road to Lens. Robert Nendick’s final resting place is located in Grave 10 of Section B. A former member of the congregation of Scarborough’s St Saviours Church, Robert Nendick’s name can be found on the church’s ‘Triptych’ War Memorial, which lists the names of twenty two members of the church that had lost their lives during the 1914-18 war, and a further twelve during the Second World War.
[The archives of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission record the date of Robert Nendick’s demise as the 11TH of November, whilst ‘Soldiers died in the Great War’, and the family have recorded the 12TH of November; I have also chosen to record the latter].
Having captured over five hundred prisoners, three field guns, and fifty eight machine guns during two days of often bitter fighting, 3RD Guards Brigade had lost nineteen officers and five hundred and seven other ranks. During the night of the twenty fifth the Brigade had been relieved in the front line by the men of 1ST Guards Brigade, who had spent that night consolidating their positions.
Monday the 26TH of August 1918, had marked the start of the Battle of the Scarpe 1918. That day Third Army’s orders had been simple; ‘The three Corps on the right were to continue their advance eastwards, whilst the left Corps, inclined south eastwards in conjunction with the right of First Army’…[2]
By noon the piles of rubble which had once been the villages of Wancourt and Guemappe had been taken, so too had the more important Monchy-le-Preux, the scene of much desperate fighting during the spring of 1917, Monchy had finally been captured by men of the 3RD Canadian Division. North of the River Scarpe the British line had been pushed forwards in the direction of Rouex.
Originally ordered to mount an attack on St Leger Wood that day, ‘due to their exertions the previous day’ the Guards Division’s operation had been postponed until the following day. However, during the day it had been found that the Germans had abandoned St Leger Wood, and later that afternoon 1ST Guards Brigade had established outposts along the eastern edge of the wood, where they had awaited the dawning of the twenty seventh, and the beginning of their advance.
Consisting of 2ND Grenadier Guards, 2ND and 3RD Coldstream Guards, and 1ST Irish Guards, three battalions belonging to 1ST Guards Brigade had formed up in darkness in readiness for the attack to be made that Tuesday morning. Their objective had been the capture of a strongly defended enemy position known as ‘Bank’s Trench’ that had formed a ‘blunt salient’, which had extended into the British line of advance, the point of the Guards assault being the closure of this bulge, thus dividing the enemy’s forces, so that ‘touch between them could not be made’. On the right of the assault had been the men of 2ND Grenadiers, whilst on the left had been 2ND Coldstream, each formation being responsible for a frontage of around fifteen hundred yards, the third Battalion, 1ST Irish Guards, had been held in reserve.
Zero Hour had been fixed for 7am. The historian of 2ND Coldstream Guards takes up the story…
‘As soon as our barrage came down at 7am the leading company [No. 4 Company, [Lieutenant C.E. Espin] advanced, followed by the supports [No.2, Captain L.W.G. Eccles, M.C.] and [No. 3, Lieutenant G.F.B. Handley, M.C.] at two hundred yards distance and by the reserve company [Captain E.J. Watson – Smythe’s No.1 Company] four hundred yards in rear of the supports. The enemy was evidently expecting the attack, for he immediately opened upon our men a very heavy fire with deadly effect. In a short time the right was held up, the centre got somewhat further forward when it was also checked; the extreme left made most progress and captured many prisoners. One Company of the Coldsteam reached the final objective, but without sufficient support, and being heavily counter attacked, on its exposed left flank it had to withdraw. Nor could the situation be restored by companies in support or reserve who were soon absorbed into the fighting line, while the Germans, moving up machine guns under cover of their trenches, effectually swept the ground and brought the attack to a standstill’…
Faced with an impossible situation the Coldstream had been forced to withdraw, but not before the surviving one hundred and forty members of the battalion had inflicted fearful casualties on their enemy, and taking a large number of prisoners to boot.
‘In these circumstances the left and centre were withdrawn to St Leger reserve [trench] which was close to, and joined Bank’s Trench, and which was then occupied by a company of the Irish Guards, though still partly held by the enemy. Owing to the heavy casualties suffered by the Coldstream, two companies of the Irish Guards were ordered up to make good the line of St Leger reserve, reinforcing our right group and protecting that flank. The 2ND Battalion Grenadier Guards on our right had an equally heavy task to perform, and they also found themselves engaged in heavy fighting’…
Despite the apparent hopelessness of their task, that same afternoon the Guards had once again taken up the fight…’At 7pm an intense barrage was put down on the hostile position for ten minutes, and the moment it lifted the Irish Guards and our men on the right rushed in and immediately captured it. The garrison consisting of one officer and ninety three other ranks, surrendered with their machine guns’…
The capture of Bank’s Trench’ had, inevitably, not come cheaply. By the end of the day’s fighting 1ST Guards Brigade had lost twelve officers killed, and a further eighteen others wounded, whilst the losses amongst the other ranks had amounted to one hundred and seven men killed in action, five hundred and twenty four wounded, and a further one hundred and nine men had been listed as missing in action. The losses to the 2ND Battalion of the Coldstream Guards had amounted to three officers killed, and seven wounded, whilst one hundred and eleven men had been reported as killed in action, and a further one hundred and eighty nine had been wounded. Amongst the latter had been twenty one years old 20124 Private Arthur Webster.
Born in Scarborough at No.6 Durham Cottages on the 21ST of April 1897, Arthur had been the eldest son of Margaret and Arthur Webster, a labourer, and a well-known player in the town’s football club. A pupil of St Mary’s Parish School, and Mr. John Brewin’s Friarage Board School. Like the majority of children at that time, during the summer of 1910, Arthur had turned his back on formal education at the age of thirteen, to become an errand boy to local butcher, Mr. William Greenley, of No.16 Bar Street [by the outbreak of war Webster had been working for the Argenta Meat Company Ltd, which had been located in Scarborough at No.54a Newborough. [9]
Like his father, Webster had been a keen footballer, and by the outbreak of war had been a player in a number of minor league local teams, including Scarborough’s formidable ‘North End United’. By August 1914 Arthur had been aged seventeen and also like Arthur senior had stood at almost six feet in height.
Under age at the beginning of hostilities, during June 1915, shortly after his eighteenth birthday, Webster had enlisted into the army at Scarborough’s Central Recruiting Office [located in St Nicholas Street]. Obvious Guards material Arthur had endured, and passed the rudimentary medical, and had duly sworn allegiance to King and Country for the duration of the war under a ‘short service’ [for the duration of the war] contract which had ensured that at the end of hostilities he would be discharged from the army ‘with all convenient speed’…
Another survivor of the ‘make or break’ regime of Caterham, Arthur had passed out of the Guards Depot during October 1915 and had duly been posted the 5TH [Reserve] Battalion of the Coldstream Guards. Situated at Victoria Barracks at Windsor, the 5TH Battalion’s primary role had been the provision of drafts of replacements destined for service on the Western Front with the four other battalions of Coldstream Guards. However, whilst waiting to go ‘over the water’ the men had not remained idle, and had continued to train and make preparations for war. In addition, although there had been a war on, the Battalion had continued to provide the guard at Windsor Castle, albeit without the scarlet tunics and bearskin caps of pre-war days. Arthur Webster had taken part in these various activities until January 1917, when he had been placed in a draft of replacements for the many casualties, which had been incurred by the 2ND Battalion during the Battle of Morval [25-28 September], when the Guards Division, after particularly ferocious fighting, had taken the village of Lesbouefs.
By the time that Webster had joined the unit, the 2ND Coldstream had still been ‘on the Somme’ and had been ‘resting’, albeit whilst assisting in the construction of a light railway, near Rancourt. Subsequently involved in the German retreat to the Hindenburg Line [14 March—5 April], Webster had had also taken part in the Third Battle of Ypres, notably the Battle of Pilckem Ridge [31 July—2 August], the Battle of the Menin Road [[20—25 September] the Battle of Poelcapelle [9 October] and the First Battle of Passchendaele [12 October]. Like Private Nendick, Webster had also been a veteran of the Battle of Cambrai [20 November –6 December 1917], when during the snow filled night of the 26TH/27TH November he and the remainder of 1ST Guards Brigade had been holding the line in front of the village of Fontaine Notre Dame preparatory to the ill fated 2ND Guards Brigade assault on the village before the dawn of the 27TH of November which had cost the Guards dearly [amongst the casualties had been Scarborough’s Private John Wright [Lancaster]] for precious little gain.
By the beginning of August 1918, the 2ND Battalion of the Coldstream Guards had been in the Arras Sector, in the trenches near the ruined village of Ransart, where although held in reserve, on the first of the month, the Battalion’s War Diary records the Battalion having lost one ‘other rank’ killed, and two others wounded. Throughout the remaining few days of his life Arthur Webster had spent his time in this area, either in support, or the front line trenches at nearby Hamelincourt, where, according to the unit’s War Diary the 2ND Coldstream had lost men on a daily basis to the customary sniper and artillery fire. Gassed whilst serving in this sector, Webster had duly been evacuated for treatment in England. However, by the 23RD of August, Webster had returned to his unit in time to parade at 7pm that evening to route march with the remainder of the Battalion to reserve trenches at Boiry. Two days later the unit had relieved the 1ST Welsh Guards in the front line trenches at St Leger, at 7am the following day the Battalion had begun its assault on ‘Bank’s Trench’. [10]
Grievously wounded by shrapnel during the battle, Private Webster had initially been evacuated to the Battalion’s Regimental Aid Post where he had given basic medical treatment by the unit’s overstretched Medical Officer, who had eventually tied a label, describing the soldiers injuries, and the treatment already administered, to the soldier’s jacket before Webster had been transported to the 46TH Casualty Clearing Station located near the village of Fillievres.
Following extensive surgery at the C.C.S., Private Webster had survived his injuries until Thursday the 12TH of September 1918, when the twenty one years old had succumbed to complications caused by pneumonia. By this time Arthur’s parents had merely been informed that their son had been wounded, the day after his demise the news of his wounding had appeared, in ‘The Scarborough Mercury’ of Friday the thirteenth;
‘A wounded Coldstreamer - Mr. Arthur Webster, 15 Eastborough, has received the news from the Lieutenant of the unit that his son, Private Arthur Webster, of the Coldstream Guards, was badly wounded in an attack on the 27TH of August and was conveyed to the Dressing Station. Further tiding are anxiously awaited’…
Soon after the above had appeared in the local press, the Webster’s had received word that Arthur had died as a result of his injuries. The ‘Mercury’ of Friday the twentieth of August had reported;
‘Died from wounds - Private A. Webster, Coldstream Guards, 15a Eastborough, has died from shell wounds in the back. He was 21 years of age. He was gassed early in the year and returned to France on the eve of his 21ST birthday. Prior to joining up he worked for the Argenta Meat Co’…
Long before his demise had been reported in Scarborough’s premier newspaper, the remains of Private Webster had been interred in the burial ground that had been attached to the 46TH C.C.S.. Located some forty four kilometres to the west of Arras, and fourteen south west of St Pol, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission maintained burial ground known as ‘Fillievres British Cemetery’ can be found about a kilometre to the south of Fillievres, on the road [the D 340] to Frevant and contains the graves of eighty one servicemen of the Great War who had died in the 46TH C.C.S., and the 6TH Stationary Hospital between June and November 1918. Arthur’s final resting place is located in Section A, Grave 21.
Only three Guardsmen [including Private Webster] belonging to the 1ST Guards Brigade are interred at Fillievres, whilst the nearby Croisilles British Cemetery contains the graves of sixty other casualties belonging to the Brigade, most of whom had lost their lives during the attack on ‘Bank’s Trench’ on the 27TH of August. Amongst these can be found [in Section 3, Row C, Grave 16] one belonging to 21282 Private Frederick George Metcalfe.
Reportedly born in Scarborough, according to the records of ‘Soldiers died in the Great War’ Metcalfe had enlisted into the Guards at Winchester whilst living at the time at Wood Side in Hampshire. Also a soldier in the 2ND Battalion of the Coldstream Guards, unfortunately, Private Metcalfe’s name does not appear in the casualty lists included in the surviving issues of ‘The Scarborough Mercury’ of the time, and the author has been unable to unearth any further information regarding this soldier. His name is also not included on the Oliver’s Mount Memorial.
No further news regarding the demise of Private Webster had appeared in the local press until exactly a year after the soldier’s death, when his parents had inserted the following epitaph in the ‘Births, Marriages, and Deaths’ column of ‘The Scarborough Mercury’ of Friday the 12TH of September 1919;
‘In every loving memory of a dear son and brother, Private Arthur Webster, Coldstream Guards. Died of wounds September 12TH 1918. Beloved son of Arthur and Margaret Webster, 15 Eastborough. From his loving Mother, Dad, Brother, and Sisters’…
Apart from the Oliver’s Mount Memorial, in Scarborough, the name of Arthur Webster is commemorated in column six of the large ‘Roll of Honour’ located on the north interior wall of St Mary’s Parish Church, which contains the names of 156 former members of the Parish who had lost their lives during the war of 1914-19.
Regarded by many as the finest British Army formation that had served on the Western Front, the Guards Division had continued its advance towards the ending of the war at the start of September 1918. By the time that the guns had stopped firing on the 11TH of November the formation had reached Maubeuge, almost where the war had begun four blood soaked years earlier. Shortly afterwards, on the 22ND of November 1918, His Majesty King George the Fifth, had granted Privates in the Foot Guards the distinction of being named ‘Guardsmen’ as a mark of his appreciation and pride of the splendid service rendered by the Brigade of Guards during the the war.
Soon the Guards had been ordered to cross the Rhine, and had crossed the frontier onto German territory on the 11TH of December 1918. At the beginning of 1919 the Guards had begun to make their way back to Blighty, and by the 29TH of April the whole of the Division had been back on British soil.
Amongst over fourteen thousand fatalities that had been sustained by the six regiments of Foot Guards [including Guards Machine Gun Regiment] during the Great War [11], Privates Webster and Nendick [along with the other men of Scarborough who had lost their lives whilst serving with the Guards] are commemorated on the Guards Memorial, which stands guard over London’s Horse Guards Parade. Consisting of a large Portland Stone cenotaph, this memorial had been unveiled by the Duke of Connaught on the 16TH of October 1926, and also consists of five bronze figures. Made from guns captured from the Germans during the war each figure represents a regiment of Foot Guards [modelled by Sergeant R. Bradshaw M.M. of the Grenadiers, Lance Corporal J.S. Richardson of the Coldstream, Guardsman J. Mc Donald of the Scots, Guardsman Simon McCarthy the Irish, and Guardsman A. Comley belonging the Welsh Guards]. The memorial also bears the inscription;
‘To the glory of God. And in the memory of the Officers, Non Commissioned Officers and Guardsmen of His Majesty’s Regiments of Foot Guards who gave their lives for their King and Country during the Great War 1914-18 and of the Officers, Non Commissioned Officers, Men of the Household Cavalry, Royal Regiment of Artillery Corps, Royal Army Medical Corps, and other units while serving with the Guard’s Division in France and Belgium 1915-1918, fell with them in the fight for the world’s freedom’…
[1] Lieutenant Carroll Carstairs M.C.; A generation missing; The strong Oak Press Ltd; 1989. Born in Philadelphia on the 20TH of March 1888 Carroll Chevalier Carstairs had enlisted into the British Army at the outset of the war as a ‘temporary Canadian’, and had initially served on the Western Front as a Temporary Lieutenant with the Royal Field Artillery. A veteran of the Battle of Loos during 1915, Carstairs had subsequently been posted to the Grenadier Guards during November 1915, to serve with the regiment’s 5TH [Reserve] Battalion at London’s Chelsea Barracks. Eventually posted to the 3RD Battalion during August 1916, he had served with the battalion until the 4TH of November 1918 [by which time he had been rewarded with the Military Cross for an act of bravery carried out at Bourlon Wood in November 1917], when he had been badly wounded. Reportedly crippled for life, Carstairs had nonetheless returned to the U.S.A. to become one of the country’s leading authorities on modern painting. Carroll Carstairs had died suddenly at the age of sixty in Doctor’s Hospital, New York City, on the 2ND of October 1948.
[2] Official history of the War; Military operation France and Belgium 1918; Vol 4; Brig General Sir James Edmonds; H.M.S.O.
[3] Volume 3, The Grenadier Guards in the Great War 1914-1918; Lieutenant Colonel The Right Honourable Sir Frederick Ponsonby; McMillan; 1920.
[4] The Nendick family had been residing at this address at the time of the 1901 Census, and had consisted of Thomas Alfred, 41 years, employed as a ‘general labourer’, born Willerby, Margaretta, 41 years, Alfred Ernest, 14 years, employed as a groom, Charles William, 13 years, George Henry, 12 years, all these had been born at Flixton. There had also been five Scarborough born children Frank Dennison, aged 9, Lucy Ellen, 10 years, Ada Bessey, 7, Catherine Ann, 3 years, and Florence Augusta, aged 1 year.
[5] A copy of Alfred Nedick’s service record had very graciously been supplied to the author by the Grenadier Guards late Regimental Archivist, Captain [retired] D. Mason.
[6] Born in Scarborough during 1885, the life and demise of Private Denton is featured in ‘Der Kaiserschlacht’; Part 2 of Chapter one1918 ‘Till the boys come home’.
[7] The only officer of the 1ST Battalion of the Grenadier Guards to lose his life during the 25TH of August, twenty-four years old Captain Pulteney Malcolm had initially been reported as missing in action, however, the remains of the Commanding Officer of the King’s Company had later been found on the battlefield. The only son of Lt. Colonel P. Malcolm M.V.O. D.S.O., and Mrs Pulteney Malcolm, the Scottish born officer had initially joined the King’s Own Scottish Borderers at the very beginning of the war in August 1914, transferring to the Grenadier Guards the following year. Wounded three times during his service with the regiment, he had also, for a time, been the Adjutant of the Household Battalion at Windsor, and had served with this Battalion on the Somme during 1916 [For more details regarding this unique unit the reader is referred to chapter dealing with the Arras Offensive of 1917 and the death of Scarborough born Lance Corporal John Stanley Morrison]. Captain Malcolm’s remains are interred in Plot 1 Row A, Grave 1, of L’ Homme Mort British Cemetery at Ecoust-St- Mein.
[8] For many years the site of a Scarborough Corporation Car Park, in 2007 the site of the former Gladstone Road Primitive Methodist Church has been turned into the Office Headquarters of Yorkshire Coast Homes.
[9] Married at St Mary’s Parish Church on Tuesday the 2ND of February 1897, Arthur and Margaret [formerly Wiley] Webster had had their son baptised in the church on the 15TH of May 1897. By the time of the 1901 Census the family had still been residing at No.5 Durham Cottages and had consisted of Arthur Webster, aged 29 years, employed as a ‘general labourer’, Margaret, aged 28, Arthur, 3 years, and Dorothy, aged 4 years, all had been born in Scarborough [the Webster family had been augmented in 1902 by the arrival of son Robert, and in 1905 by daughter Alice].
[10] National Archives; Catalogue Reference: WO/95/1215.
[11] 648 officers and 13,333 other ranks killed, 1,020 officers and 29,332 other ranks wounded amongst the five foot guards regiments, whilst the Guards Machine Gun Regiment had lost 21 officers killed, 47 wounded, whilst the other ranks had lost 187 men killed, and 290 wounded. Statistics supplied by my dear friend John Masters of Sittingbourne, Kent. Cheers John!