Tring Remembers Passchendaele - The casualties

Flower Bed at the Entrance to Tring's Memorial Garden

See The Tring Men who died at Passchendaele

See Pictures of Tring's Memorial Garden

Dan Hill's Talk on the Hertfordshire Regiment

Last night Dan Hill, of the Herts at War group gave a most informative talk on the role of the Hertfordshire Regiment in the First World War. In particular he gave a detailed analysis of the events at St Julien on 31st July 1917, during the battle at Passchendaele. After the unsuccessful attempt to break through the German lines every officer, and 75% of the men were dead, wounded or missing. He also spoke about the erection of a war memorial on the battle field on the 100 year anniversary of the battle.

His talk ended with a very interesting film of the Hertfordshire Regiment in camp in October 1917.

It should be noted that the Herts at War group plan further talks on the First World War and details will be posted on their web site, if you are note already on their email list.

WW! War Memorial at Tring - Information wanted

Ian Pettigrew asks "Whether any of your readers has any information about any of the individuals listed in the WW1 section of Tring Memorial." 

He has put the developing piece of work online so you can see what he has already done. If you have any information, including relevant family photos and memorabilia, please let him know at webmaster@gerald-massey.org.uk 

War Memorial, New Mill Baptist Church, Tring

First World War Memorial, New Mill Baptist Church

I recently visited the New Mill Baptist Church, Tring, when they were celebrating their newly refurbished church hall, I used the occasion to take the above photograph of their war memorial. For other pictures I took of the church (inside and outside, with some other memorials and gravestones) see Pictures on Geograph.

Click on picture for more information on the Baptists in Tring.

The Street Memorials of St Albans Abbey

Military

The St Albans Arc and Arc Society have issued the following announcement:

St Albans

"The new edition of The Street Memorials of St Albans Abbey Parish, original book by Alice Goodman, this new edition by John G E Cox and Ann Dean, is now available. It has been updated and now contains information about all but one of the soldiers commemorated on these memorials.

The book is currently on sale at the Abbey's bookshop and the Tourist Information Office at the Town Hall, priced £9. It is also available at the SAHAAS library on Wednesday and Friday mornings at a discounted price for members of £8."

I have put it on my list to get a copy the next time I am in St Albans - but due to my current "overload" position it may be some time before I can find time to publish a review.

Latest on Hertfordshire Regiment Memorial on the Western Front

Headlines from Herts Mercury, 18 August 1917

Herts at War announce that so far over £3000 has been raised for a memorial on the River Steenbeek in the small village of St Julien (Sint Juliaan), Belgium at the site of the Hertfordshire Regiment's attack on 31st July 1917. On that day 479 of 620 men that started the advance were either killed, wounded or captured in a little over two hours.

Albert Arthur Darrah, photographer of Rickmansworth,

Photographers

Finch's Avenue

Janet has provided an interesting post card of Finch's Avenue, Croxley Green by a photographer, Albert Darrah, of Rickmansworth, which I had not previously come across. A quick search online showed several post cards by him were on sale on ebay - most in the same series - with captions in handwriting. Another card,almost certainly latershows Rickmansworth war memorial. It turns out that before the First World War Albert was employed to make photographic emulsions (who for??). It is only after he had fought in the war that I find supporting evidence for him as a professional photographer. Unfortunately there are no postal dates for any of the cards I have traced and it would be very useful to know if the cards with somewhat crudely written captions were produced before or after the War. Let me know if you have a date-able card by this photographer.

See Full Details so far.

"Lost" Hertford War Memorial web site has been found.

The Hertford War memorial was restored and rededicated in 2001 and Tracy Turner set up a web site with a lot of useful information about it and the names on it. I set up a page linking to it the same year, but Tracy stopped updating her site in 2002. In 2009 I discovered that it had disappeared, and the URL I had given no longer worked, apparently because the web site had been deleted.

Jonty has just emailed me to say the site is now on the WayBack archive. ...

Tracy's Hertford War Memorial Web Site

I have also updated my Hertford page to include information on the site.

Remember the Childwickbury Fallen

Military

Childwickbury, St Michaels, St Albans

I was delighted to see that there is a project to remember the fallen who worked on the Childwickbury Estate. 

A permanent memorial is proposed with 16 names from the First World War, and 6 from the Second World War. 

Christine Aitken is also planning a book Childwickbury in Wartime and she would love to here from you if you have a relative who worked on the estate, or with the Childwickbury Stud.

More Information

I have also added a post card picture of "The Rosary" to my online collection of pictures of Childwickbury

Photographs of Beds & Herts War Memorial & in India 1923/4

I have just posted details of an interesting photobook  relating to the 2nd Battalion, Beds & Herts Regiment, in India in 1923/4. It contains a history of the regiment (I have quoted the section about the First World War, which identifies the V.C.s) together with many photographs of the officers and men in India.

More details with larger resolution pictures

WW1 Plaque Unveiled at Tring

The People of Tring 

dedicate this plaque in honour of the sacrifices made by those who served in World War 1, 1914-18

and in all later conflicts

Lest We Forget

4th August 2014

We Thank You

Full story, with pictures of procession and service at the War Memorial, and recent pictures of the Memorial Gardens, will appear later

British Schools Museum - First World War Exhibition

The School Front - Exhibition Display

Schools

On Thursday I visited the British Schools Museum at Hitchin with a party from the Genealogy Group of the Tring U3A. I had previously visited the Museum in 2010 and have added a report of the latest visit to the earlier report.

The visit was well timed as the Museum had just opened an exhibition on the First World War. Only days earlier they unveiled a war memorial in one of the classrooms with the names and regiments of the pupils who had lost their lives in the conflict. In addition the book Remembered with Pride, by Jean M Handley has been published - and gives detailed biographies and war time histories of the casualties. 

Military

Read My report on the Museum and the Exhibition

(which includes details of the book, which can be brought from the museum)

The Museum Web Site

New Names for the Wheathampstead War Memorial

I have just received the following message:

Good news about the Folly memorial windows! Through the work of Terence Pankhurst and his wife in Wheathampstead, they have identified 4 names which are currently missing from the main war memorial in the village These names will be inscribed on a plaque, to be added to the current war memorial  The names listed on the Folly Methodist Chapel Memorial Windows, which are missing at the moment from the main one, are as follows:

Sidney Bandy,

Francis George Gray,

Murray Walter Harrison.

Cyril John Pearce is to be added to the war memorial although he was technically not a soldier at that time.

WW1 Memorial Window from Folly Methodist Chapel, Wheathampstead

This memorial window can currently be seen as part of the Keeping the Home Fires Burning exhibition (until 16th November 2014) at the Museum of St Albans. 

The names are: 

S. Bandy, C. Carter, F. Gray, M. Harrison, H. Izzard, H. Lawrence, G. Minal, A. Munt, A. Odell, C. Pearce, G. Upton-Robins & H. Wilson.

Click here for the story of how this web site helped in the window finding its new home.

More Details about the Herts Regiment War Memorial

The following comes from the HertsatWar newsletter:

We are incredibly proud to announce that our plans to create the first and only memorial to the Hertfordshire Regiment in the Great War on the Western Front have now been approved by the Belgian Government with a location and date agreed for the placement of this unique memorial.

St Julien, 1917

The Hertfordshire Regiment lost almost 1,000 officers and men throughout the course of the Great War, many of whom were natives of the county they so bravely represented. The single worst day for the ‘Herts Guards’ (as they were affectionately known) was their ill-fated attack at St Julien near Ypres, in a battle that today we know as ‘Passchendaele’. On 31st July 1917, the Herts attacked at around 10am with 620 men, and two hours later less than 100 returned. Every major town and village in Hertfordshire lost a man in the attack that day, some lost many more.

Site of planned memorial at Steenbeke

The planned memorial will stand on the site that the attack commenced, on the river Steenbeke on the outskirts of St Julien, and will not only commemorate those who fell that day, but all of those who fought with the Herts Guards throughout the Great War. The memorial will be unveiled on 31st July 2017, exactly 100 years to the day that the attack took place, in a ceremony involving descendants of those men who fought on that ground a century earlier.

In order to place this monument to our county’s fallen, we must call upon the generosity and spirit of remembrance of today’s Hertfordshire Residents. We aim to raise £5000 to build and dedicate the memorial and we are kickstarting this campaign with a huge Quiz Night on Friday 9th May 2014, to be held at Stevenage F.C’s Broadhall Suite. The event will be a ticket only quiz and raffle evening with all funds raised going towards our £5000 memorial target.

For tickets and further details please email heather@hertsatwar.co.uk and to find out more about the memorial visit www.hertsatwar.co.uk/memorial.

A Memorial for the Herts Regiment on the Western Front

The Belgian Government have granted permission for Herts at War to place the very first Memorial to the Hertfordshire Regiment on the Western Front. 

War Memorials

Military

The memorial will be placed just outside the village of Sint Juliaan, north of Ieper (Ypres) and will commemorate the Regiment's infamous attack on 31st July 1917 but will also stand as a tribute to all who served in the 'Herts Guards' throughout the four years and six days that they spent on the Western Front.

A Charity event is being held on 9th May to raise money to pay for the memorial. See http://www.hertsatwar.co.uk/memorial

Improved Pictures of Hunton Bridge (Abbots Langley)

Langleybury School, Hunton Bridge, circa 1905

Churches

Abbots Langley

I have reorganized the pages for Hunton Bridge (which includes Langleybury) and rescanned all the old postcards images so that they are now available at a higher resolution. This includes pictures of St Paul's Church, Langleybury, the War Memorial (as it was in the 1920s), and the Hunton Bridge Village School.

War Memorials

The War Memorial at Hunton Bridge

A First World War Exhibition at Bushey

Clay Hill War Memorial, Bushey

Herts at War

Bushey Museum and the Bushey Academy are putting on an exhibition between the 4th and 24th August, 2014, based on the war time experiences of the people who lived in Bushey. It will include a display of work on the First World War by students of the Academy. Details are given on the BusheyWorldWarOne web site. 

A sign to appear on houses in Bushey during the Exhibition

An interesting idea is to display this sign on houses in Bushey where a soldier who died in the First World War lived. Perhaps other areas could take up the idea, perhaps even including the name of the soldier.

Bushey is famous for the number of artists that lived there. In the 1880s Hubert Herkomer, a Bavarian artist, opened an Art School in the village. Over a period of twenty years it was attended by about 600 international students. A number settled in the village and during the First World War they contributed to life on the Home Front and by serving overseas. Some examples of their work are given on the BusheyWorldWarOne web sit. There is an archive page with biographical details of some of the casualties, including Lieutenant Arthur Langton Airy (a Herkomer student) and Bertram Prewett, a renowned Bushey bell ringer, and further contributions relating to Bushey at the time are welcome. 

War Memorials

Bushey

In addition there is an appeal for help if you have information (photographs, letters sent home from the front, etc.) relating to anyone remembered on the Bushey war memorial at Clay Hill or the Church war memorials at St James, St Matthew, St Peter, St Paul, and the Bushey Methodist Church.

I go to Hertford (First World War, etc)

Military

Yesterday I drove over to Hertford for a meeting of some of the people actively working towards remembering the way the First World War affected us all. It was a very stimulating meeting and over the next few months (at least) there is likely to be more emphasis on war related matters. I was pleased to see that quite a few people are working on the Home front - how the war affected everyday life in Hertfordshire. Because so many men went to the Front the result was that women played a far bigger part in running the country and this had a big effect (including Votes for Women) after the War.

Herts at War photo of meeting

War Memorials

A lot is being done on War Memorials and a Roll of Honour. One of the problems is what names should be included. I discussed this a few days ago in connection with Hemel Hempstead and  it was pointed out that the Haileybury War Memorial contains many hundreds of names of pupils who went to the school but who have no other connection with the county. (This suggests a question, which was not raised at the meeting - of exchanging information with other areas - as there must be Hertfordshire pupils who are recorded on war memorials outside the county.) There is also the problem of people who were never recorded on a war memorial but perhaps should have been. This is a difficult question - what about someone whose lungs were badly damaged in a gas attack, never recovered sufficiently to work, but died of related complications decades later. It was clear that drawing the line as to who to include was difficult and there was some discussion about how records should be preserved in the longer term - especially when later research suggests corrections and update might be necessary.

It is clear that many readers of this Newsletter, and the main Web Site, live outside Hertfordshire - in some cases on the other side of the world - will have family information on soldiers and sailors who died - including photographs of named individuals, and also groups. As a result I said I would encourage such people to make digital images, etc., available to that their relative's sacrifice can be properly recorded.

It is clear that there will be many events, articles and booklets published, information released on CD for use in schools, etc, and where appropriate I will publish details here. I also hope to be able to say that the book The London Gunners come to Town will be available in digital form for any historians carrying out relevant research.

Hertford

I also took the opportunity to walk round Hertford with my camera - a took pictures of the War Memorial, the Museum (including various military exhibits), and some other features of old Hertford - and I will post details once the pictures have been uploaded.

Hemel Hempstead War Memorials

Unveiling Hemel Hempstead War Memorial

Following further contacts with Herts at War I have dug deep into my computer archives and recovered a summary listing of the Hemel Hempstead War Memorials that I made in 1995 when I was writing the book The London Gunners come to Town. In addition to the Hemel Hempstead Town memorial the listing includes names from the following memorials: St Mary’s, Apsley; Boxmoor Roman Catholic Church; John Dickinson & Co., Apsley (employees from Apsley & Nash Mills only); St Mary’s, Hemel Hempstead; Holy Trinity, Leverstock Green; Marlowes Baptist Church; St Johns’s, Boxmoor and St Paul’s, Hemel Hempstead.

I have also copied the relevant text from the book which describes how the names were chosen to go on the memorial, together with the names from the St Paul's memorial (which no longer exists).  I have added some notes which suggests why some names must have been left off the memorial. I have also added the original pictures from the book (which appear at a much higher resolution than they do in the printed version) and a press advert about the names to go on the memorial. For details, and the original listing (pdf) see The Hemel Hempstead War Memorial.

War Memorials

As there will be further new material relating to War Memorials I have created a page (and mini-logo) to provide relevant background and links - but at present it is merely a draft page which needs to be "populated" with links to the many pages which mention war memorials on the web site.