Kenrid Davey – An ANZAC from Sevenoaks

Posted on by Matt Ball

Following my appeal for information relating to any of the Sevenoaks Anzacs, I was pleased to hear from Keith Davey, a great nephew of Kenrid Davey, who was one of six men I had listed from the Sevenoaks area who had emigrated to New Zealand before the outbreak of war.

image003Kenrid Horace Davey

Kenrid Horace Davey was born in Riverhead in late 1888, the son of David Davey and his wife, Elizabeth, known as Lizzie. The 1891 census shows the family living on Chipstead Lane with David working as a plumber and painter; Kenrid was one of six children then living at home. By 1901, the family were living at The Old School House in Chipstead.

Leaving for New Zealand

There is a Horace Davey, aged 24 listed on the passenger list for the Ionie, which departed on 23 May 1912 for New Zealand. It’s possible that this is Kenrid and interesting to note that both George Marshall and Arnold Jarvis were also on board. Like Kenrid, both George and Arnold emigrated and later fought, serving with the AIF, but unlike Kenrid who survived, they are remembered on the Sevenoaks war memorial. It is interesting to speculate that they knew each other and were making the trip together.

Kenrid’s service records show that was working as a butcher when he enlisted and was 5’4″ tall, weighing 155 pounds. He gave his next of kin as his father who by then was living at Saint William’s Villa, Dunton Green, while his nearest relative in New Zealand was his older sister, Phyllis.

He embarked from Wellington on 9 October 1915 as a Rifleman in 1st Battalion, New Zealand Rifle Brigade bound for Suez and served in Egypt for the remainder of 1915 before leaving for the Western Front the following year. He was wounded in his left arm by a shell on 10 September 1917 at Ypres and was invalided to England two weeks later.

His papers show a largely exemplary service record with just three disciplinary incidents: being AWOL for 2 hours in November 1916 (lost 14 days pay), trotting a horse on a cobbled road in January 1917 (lost 7 days pay) and for being without his helmet in March 1917 (lost 8 days pay).

Kenrid returned to New Zealand and died in 1968. His brother, Keith Davey’s grandfather, Sidney Charles Davey, also served having enlisted on 29 August 1914 and joined the Royal Engineers, eventually being promoted to Lieutenant.

image002Sidney Charles Davey

Keith also mentioned that several cousins of Kenrid and Sidney had also lived in the Sevenoaks area and fought during the war, including Horace James Taylor, a cousin through their mother Lizzie’s sister, Emma, who had married Alfred Taylor.

A Cricketing Cousin

Horace Taylor was born in Sevenoaks on the 26 December 1895 and his father, Alfred, would have been well known in the town as a harness and saddle maker. The 1911 census shows the family living at 50-52 London Road (which was also known as Belgrave House) with Horace and his younger brother Alfred listed as being at school and their older sister, Millicent, recorded as an assistant school teacher.

Screen Shot 2015-09-10 at 14.54.50Horace James Taylor

Both boys attended Sevenoaks School as day boys; Horace could have attended any time between 1904 – 1912  and according to the Sennockian (1922) he left the school in 1912 and became a bank clerk.

Horace enlisted in late August 1914 when he was nineteen, joining the West Kent Yeomanry and saw service with them at Gallipoli and in Egypt before going on to serve in Palestine and France. He served as a Private, albeit holding the rank of corporal for two brief periods. By June 1918 Horace had returned to England to attend a cadet course, and he spent the remainder of the war working at the Larkhill Reception Camp in Wiltshire.

He is named on the Sevenoaks School’s Honour Board, in the 1914 Roll of Honour and on the roll of local serving men in St Nicholas’ Parish Church. His brother, Alfred, also saw service having joined the London Regiment (2nd Battalion) on the outbreak of war, but in 1916 was transferred to the West Riding Regiment (13th Battalion). Both brothers survived the war.

Horace was known for his interest in and talent for cricket, first displayed at School when he played in the First XI 1910 – 1912. He was later a member of the Kent County side between 1922 – 1928. Horace married Doris Austin in Tonbridge in 1935 and lived on until 1961.

Research has shown a further link with one of the men named on the Sevenoaks war memorial. In January 1916 Horace and Alfred’s sister, Millicent, married their former fellow pupil, Arthur Thompson, son of the Sevenoaks Post Office Superintendent.

imageArthur Herbert Thompson

Arthur was killed later that year in the September during the Battle of the Somme. The Sevenoaks School Quarterly obituary speaks of “his young wife, whose courage under her cruel loss has taught us all a lesson of endurance and faith”. Arthur’s brother,  Sidney Ernest Thompson, had died on 25 September 1915 and is buried at Greatness cemetery, Sevenoaks.

My thanks to Keith Davey and Sally Robbins, Archivist at Sevenoaks School, for their invaluable help with this post. Please do get in touch if you have a link to any of the other Sevenoaks Anzacs or men named on the war memorial.

Herbert Terry DCM: ‘A splendid example of courage’

Posted on by Matt Ball

A letter recently appeared in the Sevenoaks Chronicle from David Terry appealing for information regarding his grandfather, Herbert William Terry. David referred to an article, which I had seen, regarding his grandfather which had been printed in the Chronicle during the war and later reproduced as a ’75 years on’ item in the 1990s. Other than that I knew little about Herbert and so emailed David to see if he had any further information and if I could help him in his research.

Luckily David has family photos and newspaper clippings that helped us reveal Herbert’s story and research revealed that Herbert’s service papers had survived intact and I was able to send these to David.

Herbert was born in Sevenoaks in 1887 to Arthur Jasper Terry (1861 – 1916) and his wife, Margaret Eliza nee Spavins (1857 – 1946). The 1901 census shows the family living on Hartslands Road with Arthur working as a gardener and thirteen year old Herbert described as a ‘cyclists boy’, possibly for the Post Office.

Herbert was twenty seven and working as a gardener when he enlisted shortly after the war began at Maidstone on 7 September 1914. His service papers show that he was 5ft 6 ½ with a dark complexion, blue eyes and black hair. He initially joined the 7th Battalion, Royal West Kents and was later transferred to 9th Battalion in July 1915 and then in August of that year to the 8th. Herbert had married Mary Maria Mercer (1894 – 1966) in early 1914 and his first son and David’s father, Arthur Bertram Mons Terry, was born later that year, to be followed by five other children.

imageHerbert with wife, Mary and eldest son Arthur, who was also given the name of Mons

According to his papers, Herbert did not leave for the Front until 1 October 1915. His papers show an unblemished record (apart from one instance of slightly overstaying his leave which led to his forfeiting one days pay) and that he was promoted to Lance Corporal then Acting Corporal and finally to Corporal in the autumn of 1916.He was promoted to Sergeant the following year and was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal in early 1918. According to the citation in the London Gazette of 17 April 1918 he received the medal

‘For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. He was one of a party which entered the enemy’s trenches and captured two prisoners. He has continually done excellent patrol work and has set a splendid example of courage and good leadership during a long period’.

Some months before this on 24 July  1917, Herbert sustained a shell wound to his left leg, which was subsequently amputated. Herbert spent some time in a hospital in St Albans recovering from his operation and was honourably discharged in September 1918.

imageHerbert in hospital in 1917

At the time the Chronicle noted that

‘Mrs Terry of Bushes Road (now Prospect Road) received the news that her husband, Sergeant Herbert Terry, had his left leg blown off in the recent fighting’

After the war, Herbert worked at the Sevenoaks Telephone Exchange as male supervising telephonist, for many years being in charge of the night staff. He retired after thirty years’ service, with another profile in the Sevenoaks Chronicle and recalled how the night staff had once consisted of himself and one assistant, having since grown to more than twenty. He also recalled hectic nights during the Second World War

‘with 80 copies of the war communique to write out in between the passing of air-raid warning messages to exchanges and civil defence units throughout the area’.

Herbert enjoyed a long retirement and died in 1976 aged 89 and is buried in Greatness Cemetery. If any reader remembers Herbert or his family, I know that David Terry would be very interested to hear from you.

Cedric Gordon, An Undaunted Hero

Posted on by Matt Ball

Of the five Gordon brothers who fought in the First World War, two are remembered on the Sevenoaks War memorial. Donald Jervis Gordon was the first to be killed, dying on the third day of the battle of the Somme in 1916. Donald was a Lieutenant in the Border Regiment.

Captain Donald Jervis GordonDonald Jervis Gordon

His younger brother, Bernard Vernon, was killed later that year in December 1916, in a flying accident in Northumberland whilst serving with the Royal Flying Corps.

Second Lieutenant Bernard Vernon GordonBernard Vernon Gordon

The remaining brothers who fought were Thomas Milford – a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers, Edward Basil and Cedric Foskett Gordon. During the course of my research for the book, a family friend of Cedric, David Lambourne, contacted me with information about him, including Cedric’s obituary and recently one of Cedric’s nephews, Martin Gordon, wrote to me from Australia, having been pleased to find the photograph of his uncle that David had sent me and which is now displayed on my ancestry page for Sevenoaks as well as in the War Memorial Gallery on this site.

Cedric lived to the ripe old age of  89, dying in Sevenoaks in 1979. Like his brothers Donald and Edward he was educated at Lancing College, were he excelled in sports. In 1910, he was commissioned into the North Staffordshire Regiment. He was sent to France on the outbreak of war and was wounded twice. In 1915 he was awarded the Military Cross for leading an attack on a village.

imageCedric Gordon (on right)

His second injury was the most serious and resulted in his losing a leg. You might be forgiven for thinking that this would be the end of his war service but Cedric joined the Royal Flying Corps and continued his wartime service as an observer and air gunner on the Western Front. He was subsequently awarded the Croix de Guerre in 1917, was mentioned in dispatches four times and awarded the military class of the OBE in 1919.

According to another nephew,  quoted in his obituary, Cedric was shot at during one flight with the bullet shattering his wooden leg. On landing, he was said to have found the stray bullet in his pocket and was confined to bed until the camp carpenter had made him a new leg.

imageCedric, on left, having lost his right leg

After the war, and having gained his pilot’s licence despite his wooden leg, Cedric was sent to Russia with British forces to aid the White Russians in the Crimea in their fight against the Bolsheviks. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and received the Order of St Ann and the Order of St Stanislas from the Russians. After leaving Russia, he flew in Palestine, where during one flight for reconnaissance work, he was forced to land in the desert and was, according to his obituary ‘picked up by a band of friendly Arabs’.

Cedric later worked for British intelligence in mainland China, before returning to England and taking command of the RAF Bloom Centre. During the Second World War, he was eventually put in charge of the South East Air Training Corps and was also a member of the Home Guard.

On his retirement, he returned to Lancing College, where his brother Edward was a Master, to become Bursar. Later in life he became well known in Sevenoaks for his involvement in the local scouting movement.

imageCedric Foskett Gordon

Cedric’s nephew, Martin Gordon, wrote to me with his memories of his uncle:

He lived in a big house with grounds in Sevenoaks. He had big vegetable gardens, a large pig, called Mr Pig, and even a little wood on a hill. He had a little MG which he used to drive my sister and I into town with – we stood up in the boot. He never married and lived with his sister Kathleen. She affectionately called him “Beast” and he had a similarly uncomplimentary name for her, which I can no longer remember. He was a wonderful man- we lived near London, but we drove over to visit about once a year when I was a child, and it was always one of my favourite days of the year.

To my shame, I never quizzed him about his life. All I can remember is that he was a pilot in World War I and he lost a leg. He still had the trench coat he was wearing when he was wounded, with a hole burned in it – he showed it to me. He said he also fought in Russia after the war for the RAF. One of the things he told me was that when he was in Russia, he was shot down and had to walk through the snow back to base. I have recently been able to check the facts, and this is what actually happened:

On 23 December 1919 the plane he was in was hit and they had to make a forced landing behind enemy lines. He and the pilot burned the plane and set off walking through the winter snow. You can imagine how cold it was, Christmas time in Russia! And they didn’t get back to base until the next day. I can’t imagine how he did that with one leg.

Martin Gordon is investigating his uncle’s service in Russia and I am continuing to research the service of all of the brothers who fought during the war and who gave so much to their country.