Sevenoaks WW1

Stories of the men buried in Sevenoaks

Posted on June 2, 2016November 10, 2016 by Matt Ball

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission estimates that there are 300,000 war graves and memorials in the UK.

The Commission lists five graves at St Nicholas, Sevenoaks, which I’ve written about in an earlier post and it seems a timely moment to write about the sixteen First World War graves at Greatness Cemetery. The Town Council has produced a booklet which shows the location of these graves at the cemetery (and which also shows the graves from the Second World War).

Six of these men are remembered on the town war memorial and I’ve written about them in my book. Their stories are included below along with the other ten.

Some of these men were evacuated home to Sevenoaks and died from their wounds. Others were taken ill unexpectedly or died accidentally, not having left the UK. Others were billeted here and died from their wounds or disease and were buried locally rather than returning to their homes for burial. Three of the deaths occurred after the end of the war.

As ever, I welcome any comments that can add to our knowledge of these men, especially from family members.

Commonwealth War Graves and others at Greatness Cemetery

Sapper James Galligan, 6659 1st Field Company, Royal Engineers

1882 – 4th November 1914

James Galligan was from St Helens, Lancashire, the son of Peter and Elizabeth. The 1911 census records him as a 29 year old at home with his wife, Sarah Ann and two young sons: William aged four, and Peter, four months. James served with the No.1 Co West Lancashire Company of the Royal Engineers. He is recorded as dying of natural causes at the Amherst Arms, Riverhead, (now a Harvester) near Sevenoaks. There does not appear to have been a report of his death in the local paper but he was the first soldier to be buried at Greatness Cemetery. He is remembered on the Roll of Honour in his home town.

Harry McCarthy, Private 14889, 2nd Battalion, The Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry

1893 – 6th April 1915

Harry McCarthy was born at Shinecroft Cottages in Otford, the third of nine children of John Richard McCarthy, a railway worker, and his wife, Sarah Ellen. Prior to the outbreak of war, he was listed as being a laundryman on the 1911 census. By that time the family was living in Moor Road, Sevenoaks.

The Sevenoaks Chronicle recorded Harry’s funeral in some detail

“ A most impressive spectacle was witnessed on Saturday at Greatness Cemetery, when, with full military honours the mortal remains of Pte H McCarthy, 2nd Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry, were laid to rest in the site which has been set aside by the Sevenoaks Urban District Council for the burial of natives and former residents of Sevenoaks or inhabitants of the town who have taken part in the Naval and Military Expeditionary Forces of the Crown.

Deceased, who was only twenty one years of age…enlisted, leaving a situation on the railway at Erith in September last. After some six months training he was drafted to the Front on 11th Marchand took part in the battle of Neuve Chapelle where he was wounded in the spine. McCarthy was taken to a hospital at Boulogne and then to Folkestone where he expired on Tuesday last”.

Harry’s coffin was covered with the Union Jack and borne from his home in Moor Road on a gun carriage by a team of six horses and preceded by the band of 5th Kings Own Royal Lancaster Regiment, which played the Dead March from Saul and Chopin’s Funeral March.

According to the Kent Messenger:

“The treble singers with Mr Neave and Mr Meeks of St John’s Church Choir sang the hymn “On the resurrection morning” at the graveside, after which a firing party from the 2nd 5th King’s Own Royal Lancashire Regiment fired three volleys over the grave and the “Last Post” was sounded”.

Private Thomas Unsworth, 3916 2/5th Battalion The Loyal North Lancashire Regiment

1896 – 9th May 1915

The Sevenoaks Chronicle reported details of the inquest into Private Unsworth’s death on Friday 14th May 1915. According to John Bellows, a fellow soldier in the same regiment, the two men had decided to cycle to Oxted together. Bellows was riding behind Unsworth when he saw him fall as his bicycle slipped on the road, which, despite being fairly straight and flat, was greasy because of the soft tar. Private Unsworth was dragged about ten yards by the bike before two men of the Royal Army Medical Corps picked him up; they carried him to a nearby house where an ambulance was sent for and he returned to Sevenoaks.

Grave of Thomas Unsworth

Unsworth was admitted to the Hospital at Cornwall Hall where he was examined by Dr Mansfield. In his testimony to the inquest the doctor stated that Unsworth was concussed and unconscious, having a bruise on his forehead and one on the back of his head. Private Unsworth never regained consciousness and died from a haemorrhage caused by his fall in the early hours of the following morning.

The funeral was held with full military honours and the coffin was conveyed to the council offices by B Company of Private Unsworth’s regiment, where it was transferred to a gun carriage and carried to the cemetery. Three volleys were fired and the Last Post sounded as he was laid to rest.

Private George Francis Fitzwalter Benest, 2877 2/4th King’s Own (Royal Lancaster Regiment)

1896 – 25th May 1915

George Benest was born in Bebbington, Cheshire, in 1896. He was the son of George and his wife, Gwitha. He enlisted at Ulverston, most likely in August 1914, and was based in Sevenoaks with his regiment when he died at Tonbridge Hospital. He is remembered on the war memorial at Broughton-in-Furness.

Ernest Edward Mitchell, Leading Stoker, K/13729, HMTB 11, Royal Navy

2nd April 1886 – 13th March 1916

Ernest Mitchell was born and grew up in Beckenham, the son of William, a bricklayer and his wife, Laura. Ernest married Lilian Charlotte Tolhurst on 11th November 1908 at Wandsworth and the couple went on to have four children, Ernest, born 1906, Dorothy Ellen, born 1909, William Louis, born 1915 and Alfred James, born 1917.

Grave of Ernest Michell

His records show that he was working as a printer’s machine minder when he joined the Royal Navy on 2nd April 1909. He served first on the Nelson and then the Jupiter and the Prince of Wales before becoming a Stoker on 24th January 1912. Ernest was serving on HM Torpedo Boat 11 when he was killed as a result of enemy action.

Regimental Serjeant Major Ernest Alfred Bence, L4803 2/9th Middlesex Regiment

1879 – 29th April 1916

Ernest Bence was found dead by his colleague, Company Sergeant Major Henry Charles Thorn, on 29 Aril 1916, having apparently shot himself with his revolver. According to newspaper reports, Thorn had gone to see if Serjeant Bence was coming for his dinner at around 14.30. No one had heard a shot being fired but he testified that his fellow Sergeants had been in the mess and there was generally a lot of noise. The inquiry heard how Bence had recently been arrested for a disciplinary offence but nothing had yet been proved; his conduct was generally good and if he had been found guilty, the punishment would have been light, not more than a demotion to Sergeant.

The Sevenoaks Chronicle carried a detailed report of the Inquest

Lieutenant Quarter Master W R Shepherd had known Serjeant Bence well and gave evidence to the inquest that Bence had been practicing cleaning his revolver recently, and some cleaning materials were found on the scene. His body had been discovered lying on his back with his head underneath the bed and a bullet wound to his left breast. His revolver was lying on a table with its butt toward the bed and had been issued to him at the end of March as part of his kit. According to the newspaper

It seemed from the position of the chair and the body that the deceased had been “fiddling” or “playing” with the revolver. It was not customary to have it loaded but the deceased had only been issued with ammunition recently…Before deceased was a Company Serjeant he was a Colour-Sergeant and they did not carry revolvers. Deceased was a thorough man and a good soldier, but he did not think he would understand a revolver.

Second Lieutenant Bryan reported that within the last 10 days he had been together with the deceased practicing revolver shooting when, after firing off several rounds, Serjeant Bence had reloaded his revolver when it had suddenly gone off and hit the ground yards away ‘the pull-off being very light’.

Serjeant Bence’s widow, Annie Maud Wywne Bence, who resided at the Drill Hall at Staines, stated that she had last seen her husband when he had visited Staines a fortnight before his death when he had appeared in his usual health, with nothing appearing to trouble him, his usual disposition being “happy and bright”.

Dr Brown who examined the body stated that the deceased had died from syncope as a result of internal bleeding, having shot himself, at the table at very close range.

An open verdict was recorded and Serjeant Bence was buried with full military honours at Greatness.

George Bernard Taylor, Private G/12547, 7th Battalion, The Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment

1889 – 26th July 1916

George Taylor was the son of William, a house painter and his wife, Mary of 4, Cobden Road.

The 1911 census shows George working as a gardener, while a few years later his service papers show that he was working as a plumber when he enlisted in 1916. He was confined to barracks for five days for ‘Improper conduct on the line of march’, while stationed at Fort Darland in Kent. He arrived in France that June, joining his Battalion on 6th July.

George Taylor’s grave on the hundredth anniversary of his death

On 13th July George received a gunshot wound to his left leg, resulting in fracture and gangrene. He was evacuated from France to the 1st Birmingham War Hospital, where he died as a result of his wounds on 26th of July 1916. He was buried at Greatness Cemetery and the Kent Messenger carried an account of the funeral in its edition on 5th August. The 2/7th Devon Regiment provided a firing party and funeral bearers.

George Taylor is the only man buried in Greatness to have died from wounds sustained during the Battle of the Somme.

Henry Ramsdale, Private G/13035, 3rd Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment

1875 – 17th October 1916

Henry Ramsdale was born in Sevenoaks to Silas, a coal seller of Cobden Road and his wife, Sarah. By 1891 the family had moved to Bethel Road and Henry was working at the local laundry. He married Clara Jane Pickering in 1900 and the 1901 census shows the couple living on Golding Road and both working in the laundry. Ten years later and the couple are living with their five daughters on Sandy Lane.

Grave of Henry Ramsdale

Henry enlisted in Sevenoaks and joined the Royal Sussex Regiment. His service records have not survived but the Kent Messenger reported that, having enlisted in June 1916, he was sent to France in September and was taken ill while crossing, being sent to hospital in Calais on arrival. He stayed for four days before being sent to hospital in Birmingham but was discharged and returned home, dying shortly after. The paper recorded that he had never been a strong man and there had been surprise when he was passed fit for active service.

Private Herbert Thomas Lloyd, 2439 Dorset Yeomanry (Queen’s Own)

1892 – 30th January 1917

Herbert Lloyd was born in Westerham, to George and Elizabeth. The Sevenoaks Chronicle reported in its 2nd February edition that Private Lloyd was a shoeing-smith who had recently transferred from the West Kent Yeomanry to the Dorset Regiment. He had died of a cerebral haemorrhage. A military funeral was held and three volleys fired over his grave. It is likely that he is the Herbert Lloyd remembered on the war memorial at Hastingleigh.

Major Edward Stigant Carruthers, Royal Engineers

1866 – 16th May 1917

Edward Carruthers was born in Chatham in 1866. An Inspector of Works with the Royal Engineers, he had returned to Sevenoaks in May 1917 to attend the funeral of his late father, who had died aged 86. The funeral was held in Chatham and, after returning to Sevenoaks, Major Carruthers was taken ill and died suddenly that evening at his home, The Laurels, on St John’s Road. The funeral was held on the Saturday when, according to the Chronicle, large bodies of men from the Essex Yeomanry and the Hertfordshire Yeomanry followed the cortege to Greatness Cemetery, preceded by a firing party, and the band playing Handel’s Dead March.

Frederick George Dobson, Private 13169, Royal Army Service Corps

1874 – 7th July 1917

Frederick Dobson appears to have been born in Margate in 1874. His army pension records show that he was working as a hotel porter when he first enlisted with the army in 1895 aged twenty, going on to serve as a Gunner with the Royal Artillery. He served in India and had a good service record until he was invalided out of the army in 1901 on health grounds. He reenlisted in 1915 when he was nearly forty one and was sent to France and served with the Army Service Corps.

Frederick reported sick in 1916 and was diagnosed with a gastric ulcer and discharged as unfit for further active or home service. He died the following year, aged forty three and is buried in Greatness cemetery.

Serjeant Arthur Sidney Piper, 200044 Queen’s Own (Royal West Kent Regiment)

1876 – 28th August 1918

Arthur Piper was born in Hildenborough, the son of John and Charlotte. Arthur served as a territorial from 1908 and had been employed as a railway guard for several years. During the war he served in India from March 1917 until January 1919.

How the Sevenoaks Chronicle reported Arthur’s funeral

Described in his obituary as a popular NCO in the Territorials, he was demobilised only months before his death. Arthur was killed in an accident during the routine shunting of trains at Shoreham station. The inquest reached a verdict of accidental death but how it was caused remained unknown.

Gunner John Thomas Fisher, 83338 Royal Garrison Artillery

1881 – 17th October 1918

John Fisher was born in Spitalfields, the son of John and Annie. He was married with three children and working as a clerk when he enlisted in May 1916. During the war, John served at home with the Anti Aircraft Artillery. He had been a patient at the Cornwall Hall Hospital with pneumonia since September 1917. Gunner Fisher had lived at Clerkenwell, London and was survived by his wife and family.

Reginald Frederick Sudds, Lance Corporal 204838, 1st Battalion, Devonshire Regiment

1896 – 16th December 1919

Reginald Sudds was the third son of Edward, a coachman and his wife, Annie, who lived at 46, Cobden Road. By the time he was fifteen, Reginald was working as a bottle washer in a local brewery.

He appears to have enlisted in 1915, first with the Royal West Kents and later serving with the Royal Devonshire Regiment, where he reached the rank of Lance Corporal. He served in the Dardanelles as part of the Gallipoli campaign, and then in Egypt. He died in December 1919 not of wounds but of an unspecified disease contracted while abroad, and was buried in Greatness Cemetery.

Private William Fuller, L/14263 Queen’s Own (Royal West Kent Regiment)

1889 – 5th July 1920

William Fuller was the second son of Mr & Mrs John Fuller of Chatham Hill Road, Bat and Ball. William had enlisted in September 1906 and his records show that he was 18 years and 9 month, being just over 5’4 tall with grey eyes and brown hair.

His records note that his conduct was indifferent, while also recording that he was hardworking. Numerous drunken incidents and absences appear on his conduct sheet throughout his years of service.

William was sent to France with the Expeditionary Force on 13th August 1914. He returned home after forty six days, on 29th September and did not return to the Front until two years later in September 1916. After the war, he sought to reenlist and, despite his previous conduct, it was noted on his application that he was

A very smart and intelligent man; has previously served 13 years Colour Service and wishes to reenlist to complete 21 years service in order to qualify for a pension.

Grave of William Fuller

He was stationed at Maidstone and died at the Fort Pitt Military Hospital in Chatham of pneumonia. A private rather than a military funeral was held, in accordance with his family’s wishes.

Corporal George Thomas Slade 9656 Queen’s Own (Royal West Kent Regiment)

1893 – 1920

As yet, I have not been able to find much information relating to Corporal Slade. He served with the 2nd Battalion Royal West Kents from 1915 in Asia.

Knole at war – stories of the estate workers

Posted on March 19, 2016September 25, 2016 by Matt Ball

Knole, the imposing Sevenoaks seat of the Sackville family, has long played a role in the life of the town and did so during the First World War. Lord Sackville served with the Army, seeing action in Gallipoli, Palestine, Egypt and France, while his wife was an ardent fundraiser for wartime charities, and daughter Vita worked with the local VAD. The estate also played a role as a military camp and training ground from 1914-1918. The house has always been an employer of local people and I wanted to investigate what impact the war had on the staff and the running of a great estate.

In 1916, the Kent Messenger reported that before the war there had been 71 employees on the estate, now reduced to 52. The paper noted that when the Derby Scheme had been introduced, Lady Sackville ‘did her best to get all the employees to attest, and all within age did so’. However, this reported attitude contrasts with Lady Sackville’s later letter to Lord Kitchener, which bemoaned the loss of so many staff from the estate. She wrote

“I think perhaps you do not realise Lord K, that we employ five carpenters and four painters and two blacksmiths and two footmen and you are taking them all from us.”

Bombardier William Robert Copper

Three of the men on the Sevenoaks War Memorial were employed at Knole before they enlisted. According to his obituary, William Robert Copper (1883-1917), a bombardier with 24th Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery, had worked at Knole for six years before joining the army. He was a keen cricketer and played regularly for nearby Godden Green, where many of the workers from the estate lived and where he is also remembered on the village war memorial.

Thomas Edmund Pattenden (1877-1918), a sergeant with 1/5th Battalion Royal West Kents, worked as a wicket porter at Knole, living on site with his wife, Florence, and their two children Doris and John.

Thomas spent most of the war in India, where he died and was buried in Jubbulpore Cantonment Cemetery in 1918. His widow continued in his role as wicket porter at Knole until the 1930s. Thomas’s grandson, Ian, has spoken about his grandfather for the Knole Stories project.

Oliver Older (1878-1916) was born in Sevenoaks and, after working in London for some years, had returned home and was working as a groom at Knole before serving with the 6th Battalion, Royal West Kents. Oliver died of his wounds in October 1916 and is buried at Heilly Station Cemetery, Mericourt-L´Abbe, France.

A fourth man on the memorial, William Goss Hicks (1882-1917), was headmaster at the Lady Boswell School, and son of the butler at Knole, William Hicks senior.

On 1 July 1916, in an article entitled The National Importance of Knole, the Kent Messenger reported the case of Adin Clifton Jeffery (1878-1940), works foreman at Knole, before the West Kent Appeal Tribunal, which heard the cases of men who were appealing against the decisions of their local tribunal. George Saer represented the Knole Estate for Lord Sackville with Mr Knocker, of well-known Sevenoaks solicitors, Knocker & Foskett.

How the Sevenoaks Chronicle reported the story

According to the report, Jeffery had been in post for five years and his father had held it for thirty years before him. The Tribunal heard that he had tried to attest under the Derby Scheme but had been rejected because of an enlarged heart. Jeffery’s solicitor stated that he had attempted to go before a Medical Board but had been unable to get an appointment.

The tribunal heard that Knole contained 365 rooms and its roof covered approximately 7 acres, with, as Jeffery testified, 17 baths and 40 lavatories, as well as several sets of heating apparatus, all of which had to be kept in working order. Further evidence was given of the scale of Knole and the work required to maintain the estate

…some part of the roof of Knole had to receive attention every day, and the antiquated drainage system required constant attention. In addition to the house, there were nine farms on the estate, two being in hand. Fifty tons of firewood per week were being cut for the troops, and about 7000 fir trees had been cut for the Government during the past eighteen months.

The case was made that no replacement would know the workings of the estate like the defendant

It would not be possible for anyone to pick up in a few months the ramifications of the dainage system, of which the only plan was 150 to 200 years old, and that was useless, as there had been additions from time to time.

Mr Knocker emphasised the national importance of Knole and said that the appeal was not in Lady Sackville’s interest, but for the nation.

Colonel Atkinson, military representative at the tribunal, suggested that the medical board were overworked and although he noted that it was only by a small majority that Jeffery had been allowed to appeal his case to this hearing, he was prepared to agree that Jeffery was doing essential work and, in view of his age, would not press for him to serve. Atkinson expressed his opinion that all the employees at Knole had done splendidly.

The court ordered that the case should stand over under regulations until Jeffery was called up when he would have seven days to appeal again.

Adin Jeffery continued to work at Knole until his death, aged 62 in 1940, when he was working as steward. The Sevenoaks Chronicle noted in his obituary that he had been a keen member of the town Choral Society and sang in the choir of the Vine Baptist Church for nearly 40 years. He had died suddenly, collapsing in his chair, while going about his normal duties. According to the paper,

It was fitting to say that he loved the great house of Knole. It was a joy to him that he dwelt under its roof, and he found continual happiness in serving it, and the members of the family residing there, whom he honoured. Often he said that he hoped to end his days at Knole, and it was given unto him to continue his service to the last moment of his life within its walls.

In a mark of the esteem in which he was held, Lord and Lady Sackville, Eddy and Bertram Sackville West all attended his funeral and sent flowers, as did Vita Sackville West.

The case of another Knole employee, Edwin Thomas Harding, aged 45, of Upper Park Lodge, Knole, who had been employed for two years, came before the Sevenoaks Tribunal in 1918. Again appealed for by Lady Sackville, on behalf of her husband, he appealed on the grounds of the risk to the house from fire breaking out. It was pointed out that

with the exception of the butler, who was 68 years of age, he was the only man about the house during the day who understood the fire appliances.

This case divided the tribunal panel. The Chairman and one other felt that they had taken other men from Knole and that considering the treasures that were in the house they ought to give consideration to the appeal. However, another panel member, Mr White, took the view that it would be a public scandal if they exempted him, because there were plenty of men engaged outside the house if they were wanted in case of fire and the local fire brigade could attend within five minutes.

Harding himself testified that he did everything that was necessary in the house when a man’s work was required and spent his whole time in the house, being the only one who understood the fire appliances and able to attend to them if he should be required.

A query as to whether there had been any attempt to replace him was met with the reply that there were now no men in the garden excepting very old men and boys. The gardeners now, in common with other head gardeners, had to dig instead of supervising.

It was proposed that two months exemption be given but an amendment was moved by Mr White and a fellow panel member that no exemption be given but that he should not be called for 56 days. This was carried by three votes to two, leaving Mr White to remark that

…he recognised that Knole was a sort of national treasure-house, but it was the larger national interests they had to study and that was the Army.

The risk of fire in the house was a real one, as demonstrated in December 1918 when Lord Sackville’s son-in-law, Harold Nicholson, was awakened by smoke and managed to raise the alarm and put out the blaze with the help of the night watchmen and tradesmen. The paper reported that the fire was thought to have been caused by an overheated hearth and

There is no doubt that Lord Sackville as well as his son-in-law had narrow escapes, the beam (that had caught fire) being the main support of his Lordship’s bedroom floor.

Private Leonard Edwin Harding

Harding’s son, Leonard Edwin (1899-1991), had served with the Royal Fusiliers from March 1917. The Chronicle reported in May 1918 that he had been missing since 24 April. However, Leonard Harding survived the war and long after, living to be ninety-one.

The Kent Messenger carried news in March 1917 of how one former Knole gardener had been injured on service at home. Driver William Smith of the Royal West Kents, son of Mrs Smith of Godden Green, had been badly injured by a kick in the face from a mule at Kennington, near Ashford. According to the paper, his teeth were knocked out and his face so badly cut that it had to be sewn up.

Later that year, in September 1917, it was reported in the ‘Our Boys’ column of the Sevenoaks Chronicle that Private John W Potter had made a surprise visit to his parents. Potter had worked with his father for five years in the Blacksmiths Forge at Knole and had joined the army in November 1916 aged 19. Putting his training to good use, he had been selected for ‘flying machines repair work’ and was employed in the Royal Naval Flying Corps workshops.

Charles Tye of Godden Green was another member of the Knole staff, who had been employed as a tradesman before joining the Royal West Kents. According to the Kent Messenger in August 1918, Private Tye had been in France for about fifteen months and his wife had just received word that he had sustained serious injuries to his shoulders, thigh and one of his legs, and was being treated in hospital.

Men from all parts of the Knole estate served during the war, some paying the ultimate price. The tribunal records also offer a fascinating glimpse of how Knole, its owners and their remaining staff were perceived. They, like others in the town and across the country, were required to make sacrifices.

Though the War Office had taken many of the men from Knole, it was overreaching itself when William Reynolds of Back Lane, Godden Green, received his enlistment papers. Reynolds had been in the army in his younger days and had seen service in India. However, aged 67, the Chronicle reported that ‘He treats the matter quite as a joke’.

Fundraising and friendship – Belgian refugees in Sevenoaks

Posted on February 13, 2016February 20, 2016 by Matt Ball

How we respond to a refugee crisis is one of the biggest questions of our own time and so I have been curious as to how Sevenoaks responded the last time the country saw a significant influx of refugees – how did the town cope, what did the refugees do, how was life altered?

The presence of significant numbers of Belgian refugees from 1914 onwards is a lesser known fact of the war in the public consciousness but there is plenty of evidence available to help answer these questions.

In 1914, the Sevenoaks Chronicle reported, in its Friday 16 October edition that

Since the fall on Antwerp, the Belgian refugee has really begun to make himself felt as part and parcel of London’s population; we may fairly add, of Sevenoaks population too.

Over the next few weeks and months, the paper highlighted how local people were engaged in raising money and collecting clothes for the refugees already in their midst. On 23 October, the Chronicle reported a whist drive being held in the Weald for the destitute Belgians Fund, while Mr Frank Robinson let it be known that the cinema was admitting Belgian refugees and soldiers in to the mid-week and Saturday matinee for free, to see such films as A Sporting Chance and the patriotic Your County Needs You.

The same edition of the paper carried names of some of the first refugees to arrive as well as those Sevenoaks residents who had opened up their homes to receive them. Madame de Chauvaux-Marlier, together with her four children and two other adults were staying at Bulimba, the grand residence of the Hemmant family, Mdme Chainage-Rooms of Liege was staying at Ashgrove with her children, and Mrs Hawkes, an English refugee from Insterburg, was staying at 10, Eardley Road, her husband being interned at Spandau fortress.

List of refugees published 23 October 1914

J S Richardson, Secretary of the Working Committee of the Sevenoaks War Relief Fund (who was later to be killed on active service and is remembered on the town war memorial) wrote to the paper asking for those hosting or otherwise responsible for any refugees in the town, to register them by completing a form to aid in the compilation of a national register.

A letter also appeared in the paper from Mr Swanzy, Chairman of the Urban District Council.He appealed for more means to deal with the “present and future needs of the Belgian Refugees in Sevenoaks”. Swanzy noted that

Were it not for the brave resistance of the countrymen of these exiles France would probably now be completely over-run by the common enemy and the prospects of the Allies very different to what they are to-day. Try to imagine what we would feel, if, like these people, we were fugitives with no means of livelihood for the future. In most cases they have the terrible certainty that their homes are wrecked and they stand stripped of practically everything.

We cannot exploit the sorrows of our guests. They are here in our midst, representative of every class, members of the aristocracy, tradesmen, artisans and country people. All alike in having lost everything.

The paper also recorded the number of wounded Belgian servicemen who had arrived in Sevenoaks and the surrounding district, noting that “some of them are really in an awful state of depression, through the loss of the greater part of their families and homes”.

Belgian soldiers were accommodated at the local VAD hospitals, including Cornwall Hall and St John’s and the names of many were listed.Thanks to the Cornwall Hall archive, we know what some of these men looked like, however, although a handful were named in the albums, no surname was given.

List of wounded Belgian soldiers in St John’s VAD hospital, published 23 October 1914

According to the Chronicle

At the Cornwall Hall, one soldier was of a regiment which went out 1,400 strong and got cut up by the Germans, only 300 managing to get back to the Belgian lines. He was one of the 300, and he tells how he went over the German trenches in which it was estimated there lay between nine and ten thousand dead Germans. Another tells of how he fell into German hands but managed to escape. He had a terrible wound in his hip and a broken arm.

Photos from the Cornwall Hall archive

At St John’s Hall, there were 33 Belgian patients under the Commandant, Miss Lambarde

The Chronicle again

The patients at this excellent hospital are all Belgians and, in spite of their great troubles, they can be heard happily singing to the tune of a gramophone. Some of them are playing cards, while others eagerly scan the contents of a French journal. The nurses…are doing excellent work, and are very grateful for all the gifts that have been sent, but we understand that all types of dried grocery and perhaps meat would be most acceptable. At this hospital it has been necessary for three operations to be performed, but the patients are progressing favourably.

The paper also carried the story of how one young Belgian soldier had not seen his brother since the start of the war and had thought him missing or injured, but discovered that he was also in Sevenoaks and was able to be reunited with him.

The generosity of the people of Sevenoaks even came from abroad. Bessie Styles, a young woman, formerly of Seal near Sevenoaks, who had emigrated to America, wrote to the vicar of St Mary, Kippington, asking for him to publicise the fact that together with her sister, Florence, she had collected £9 10s 4d from American donors, including one German who undertook to aid her collection. She asked that the generosity of her donors be publicised locally to reassure them that funds raised had reached the intended recipients and so the Rev Thompson had her letter published in the Chronicle in December 1914.

Bessie Styles wrote home about the fundraising for Belgian refugees amongst her American friends

A few weeks earlier the Chronicle sent an undercover reporter to chat informally to some of the wounded soldiers and refugees, who, he noted had begun to have “picked up quite a serviceable smattering of English and are now able to make themselves understood”.

Taking into account the many fundraising events, appeals for food and clothing, all of which were well responded to by local people, the paper concluded

Neither in the hospitals nor in the circles of private families throughout the land do we believe that the brave Belgians are being better treated than here in our own town.

This certainly seemed to echo the sentiments of many of the new Belgian residents. On Christmas Day 1914 at the Cornwall Hall hospital, Dr Mansfield was presented with a framed drawing by the Belgian soldiers, which had been drawn by one of the patients, George Dubois. Mrs Mansfield received a small silver stamp box and Mr Fred Keisen addressed the assembled, first in French, then English

For the first time in our lives and in consequence of the grave events which are taking place at the present moment in our beloved country, we are on this holy day which commemorates the birth of our Saviour, far from our homes and families. Although this festival has not in Belgium the significance which characterises it in England, it is for us a day of great joy, for we are always at this season of the year in the bosom of our family. Our grief is great but great is your kindness, for it is in these cruel moments that you have done for us all that was humanly possible to soften our exile, and we thank you very sincerely.

Belgian refugees remained in the town for the duration of the war. They were found homes, supported with food and clothing, helped, where possible, into employment and the people of Sevenoaks maintained the generosity of spirit and fundraising that had welcomed the very first arrivals.

In July 1916 the Sevenoaks Belgian Refugees’ Fund (which had been set up to coordinate relief) published its regular report. The report stated that since its foundation the Fund had “entirely supported or partially assisted over 80 persons” – and individuals had been assisted in a variety of ways, including one disabled soldier, crippled with rheumatism for whom electrical baths had been prescribed. The man had been sent, together with his young family, to Tunbridge Wells to receive this treatment for two months, in the hope that he would be able to work as a chauffeur.

There were some discordant notes. The same report noted King Albert’s request that his countrymen should be found employment rather than forced onto charity and the Fund recorded that

…we have attempted to comply with His Majesty’s request. In this, to our great regret, we have found ourselves hampered by the refusal of several Sevenoaks workmen to permit a Belgian among them.

Though in general, the evidence points to the respect and welcome that Belgian refugees received in Sevenoaks. As ever, news was anxiously awaited of local men serving with the forces and one report from a local soldier highlighted the reciprocal nature of care between the two nations. The Chronicle reported that Percy Ellman, nephew of local resident, Alfred Ellman, had written home to say

My battery was gassed and we lost temporarily a 47 gun. I got lost after the ‘scrap’ for two days but I found a real good Belgian Samaritan, who gave me rest and food and told me he was only returning the kindness shown to Belgian refugees in England.

Support for the refugees in the town continued unabated until the Armistice. The Chronicle reported that many Belgians joined with townspeople in services at the Catholic church to mark the end of the warThere is little evidence to suggest how and when the refugees and wounded servicemen left the town after the end of hostilities. Possibly some kept in touch with their host families and friends they had made. The arrival of so many refugees in the town in the early days of the war was perhaps a stark reminder of the reality of war and how communities are easily displaced, forced to flee with what they could carry. The people of Sevenoaks rose to the occasion, welcoming those who had fled their country and supporting them throughout their stay.

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: