Missing But Not Forgotten: Men of the Thiepval Memorial-Somme

By Ken Linge and Pam Linge

Stories offering insight into the lives of 200 of the 72,000 men who went missing in action at the Battle of the Somme in France during WWI.

The Thiepval Memorial commemorates over 72,000 men who have no known grave; all went missing in the Somme sector during the three years of conflict that finally ended on 20 March 1918.

The book is not a military history of the Battle of the Somme, it is about personal remembrance, and features over 200 fascinating stories of the men who fought and died and whose final resting places have not been identified. Countries within the UK are all well represented, as are the men whose roots were in the far-flung reaches of the Empire and even foreigners. The stories that lie behind each of the names carved into the memorials panels illustrate the various backgrounds and differing lives of these men. The diverse social mix of the men young and old, gentry to laborers, actors, artists, clergy, poets, sportsmen, writers, and more is something that stands out in the book. Despite their social differences, what is most apparent is the wide impact of the loss for over fifty widows, around 100 children left fatherless and over thirty families mourning more than one son. Ranks from private to lieutenant colonel are expertly covered, as well as all seven winners of the Victoria Cross.

These captivating stories stand as remembrance for each man and to all the others on the memorial. They are meticulously organized so the book can be of use to visitors as they walk around the memorial; as a name is viewed, the story behind that name can be read.

Praise for Missing but Not Forgotten

“This book specifically explores what is known about the lives and service of 200 of those men. The men selected aptly represent the wide variety of those who fought in the epic conflict, from laborers to gentry, from humble Tommies to VC recipients. Photographs, diary entries and other accounts bring at least a few of the sobering ranks of names to life.” —Your Family History

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Sep 30, 2015
• ISBN: 9781473870765

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

‘MISSING’

One hundred years after the start of the Great War the Commonwealth War Graves Commission currently records 1.1 million British and Commonwealth servicemen and servicewomen who died during the conflict. People may be surprised to know that only 56 per cent of those have a marked grave. The remainder, some 470,000, have no known grave and their names are inscribed on over 100 different memorials across the globe. Collectively they are the Missing.

During the war, many others would also have been officially classified as missing at some time. Subsequent investigations would have revealed that some had survived and were being treated in one of the military hospitals or had been captured by the enemy and were prisoners of war. For others their death would have been confirmed and with that the knowledge that they had the dignity of marked graves.

For some of the missing it is true that no trace of their body has ever been found. This is particularly so for sailors who were lost at sea when their vessel was attacked or sunk. In land based forces the effects of shelling in some cases vaporised bodies or buried men sheltering in dugouts in such a way that their bodies could never be retrieved. In a letter to the father of Robert Dillon, of the Lancashire Fusiliers, Captain James McAllister initially wrote I understand he was coming along the trench with some other servants when a shell came and burst right in the trench. He and another man were the unfortunate ones. In a subsequent letter in answer to a request for more information he gave an unusually frank response, I am sorry to say I have no further information regarding the death of your son. Of course the official minds at the War Office would record him as missing – that is all they know of the case. They have had no notice of his burial because (it seems brutal to speak to you like this) none was necessary. There is one consolation about this however, for you cannot possibly picture him as lying out suffering. The only way you can remember or picture him is as you saw him last.

Where bodies were found their comrades were keen to ensure that they were given the dignity of a decent burial. There are many examples of letters to next of kin reporting that this had taken place. Of course, the practicalities of the day to day fighting influenced whether this was in one of the organised cemeteries behind the lines or in a more rudimentary location such as a shell hole or abandoned trench.

Many of the isolated locations were subjected to later bombardment as the fighting ebbed and flowed across the same ground. Even some of the organised cemeteries suffered the same fate during subsequent German advances and retreats.

Another consequence of the changing battlefront was that ground gained by the Allies revealed bodies of men killed in previous attacks who had remained in what had been No Man’s Land. Such an example was highlighted in the Salford Reporter in November 1916, following the discovery of bodies of Lancashire Fusiliers killed in Thiepval Wood on 1st July 1916. Thirty two of the bodies were identifiable and were accordingly buried in marked graves. Even this resting place was not secure as by the end of the war only eight of the graves could be found.

Often bodies were found but without any means of identification. In these circumstances the grave marker would state that he was ‘unknown’. The problem of proof of identity was also a factor in the post war battlefield clearances. Dedicated recovery teams scoured the area a number of times and thousands of bodies were recovered and reinterred.

At the same time there was a programme of cemetery concentration, which meant that bodies were exhumed from some of the smaller scale cemeteries and reinterred in large cemeteries in the area. Where nothing was found that could provide a definitive identification, then the body now lies in a grave with a headstone marked ‘A Soldier of the Great War’ and ‘Known unto God’. Where other information, such as date of death, rank or regiment, could be determined then these might also appear on the headstone.

In the Somme area there are some 50,000 such graves which represent around 50 per cent of those who are missing.

Despite such numbers, it is a tribute to the work undertaken by the recovery teams that a number of hitherto unidentified bodies were positively identified.

As far as the families of casualties were concerned, they were told by the War Office that the individual had been ‘killed in action’ or ‘died of wounds’ or was ‘missing’ (perhaps adding ‘believed wounded’or ‘believed killed’.)

In the first two cases it was unlikely that there would be any further official clarification unless a mistake had been made and news of the death was premature! Such mistakes did happen in the so called fog of war. Private Ernest Tuttle of the Sherwood Foresters was reported killed in action on 3rd July 1916. After receiving the letter from the War Office, followed by others from his captain and at least one comrade, an article was published in the Worksop Guardian on 14th July 1916, together with an appropriate In Memoriam notice from the family. A month later his mother, to her obvious delight, received a letter from Ernest, who was by that time in a prisoner of war camp, stating that he was quite well. The Worksop Guardian carried the news under the headline, HE WAS LOST AND IS FOUND.

In the case of the missing, the War Office was at pains to explain that the term did not necessarily mean that the soldier is killed or wounded. He may be an unwounded prisoner or temporarily separated from his regiment. Any further information received will be at once sent on to you. It therefore needed some further positive information in order to provide clarity as to the individual’s fate. It required them somehow to return to their unit, to turn up in hospital, to be included in the prisoner lists, or for a body to be found and identified. Without any of these then the status stayed as missing. The War Office did investigate each case as far as they could but, as time passed and no new information came to light, eventually they had to reach the conclusion that the man had died on or around the time that he was first reported missing. It was not uncommon for this official process to take a year.

Some idea of the anxiety being felt can be drawn from the letters in local and national newspapers as the Battle of the Somme progressed. Families expressed their understandable frustration at not knowing what had happened to their loved ones. The sense of frustration was increased by the feeling that the authorities were hiding the truth for some unknown reason. Surely the War Office must know what had happened to their soldiers, so why did they not pass on that information? Whatever it was it could not be any worse than being told the person was dead!

A letter written by the father of Rifleman James Victor Scott, to the Territorial Service Gazette in June 1917, gives an insight into the feelings of the families of the missing. He noted that, The anguish of waiting day after day for months for some news is heartrending. Even the killed in action report cannot always be accepted as authentic… Unfortunately, many cases, where Killed in Action has been received, can only have one meaning, owing to established proof of the fact, or the receipt of the hero’s belongings. But, when nothing but oblivion confronts one, there seems little reason to hope; or at any rate, to keep on trying to find out what happened. Take the case of my son… In his last letter to me he said he was fit and well. Those words have burnt themselves into my mind. Since then all is blank. First I received a report that he was missing after an engagement in France on Nov. 13, 1916. A while afterwards two letters which I wrote to him were returned to me with the word wounded pencilled on the envelope Some months later I received a report that he was killed in action on Nov. 13, 1916.

Now, if he had been blown to pieces – I have a harrowing struggle to write the words – surely no one would have written those notes wounded. If, on the other hand, he was seen wounded, and could not be picked up by our men, he must either have been captured by the enemy, or else his poor body must have been found later, to justify the report killed in action, following that of missing. Comrades must have seen him; yet not a single detail can I get; nor has even a particle of his property been returned to me.

My case, with variations, is like that of thousands more. Where are our loved ones – or where are their bodies? Surely they are worth more consideration than is afforded by a mere printed form? The authorities ought to be able to tell us more. We can face the worst news, provided it settles the matter finally.

James’s body was never found; he remains missing.

The true emotional impact of the uncertainty can, thankfully, only be imagined. It is understandable that some next of kin, particularly mothers and wives, never accepted that their son or husband was dead and, until their dying day, believed that they had lost their memory and would eventually return home once they had recovered from their trauma induced amnesia.

In a small number of cases this did happen. Private Wilfred Churchill of the King’s Own Scottish Borderers was reported missing in action on 15th July 1916. His parents’ anxiety was heightened when a soldier wrote to say that he had seen Wilfred fall. Despite inquiries at the War Office, nothing else was heard until Wilfred wrote from a hospital in France in late November 1916, apologising that he had not written sooner as he had been suffering from shell shock. This had resulted in a complete loss of memory after he was one of a group of men who were buried by a shell explosion. Other mothers and wives would have taken heart when they read about Wilfred in the newspaper.

Whether an individual is in a marked grave or still missing can be the result of a minute difference in circumstances. Fred Roker, a private in the Lancashire Fusiliers, was killed by a sniper on 12th October 1916. At the time he was acting as orderly to Lieutenant William Aubrey Fortescue, who was also killed at around the same time. Both men were reported to have been buried later that same evening. In the spring of 1934 five bodies were exhumed from a small area to the north of Lesboeufs. Three of the bodies were found to be from the Lancashire Fusiliers but the regiments of the other two could not be determined. The names of two of the Fusilier bodies were confirmed from the identity discs that they had been wearing; one was William and the second was John Noon. The third Fusilier did have some effects on his body but these were not specific enough to establish an identity. This body, or either of the other two, could have been Fred’s but we will never know. If he was one of these three unknowns it is fitting that he now lies buried close to his officer’s grave, which is in Plot I, Row 8 in London Cemetery, next to High Wood.

In the absence of that identification Fred is still classified as missing.

In their post war work the (then) Imperial War Graves Commission recognised that the deaths of all service personnel, whether or not marked by a named gravestone, had to be commemorated. In a letter to the father of Percy Birch, confirming that his grave had not been found, the Commission staff wrote: … you can be assured that his name will receive permanent commemoration, as it is the intention of the Commission to erect memorials to those officers and men whose graves cannot be found. The dead who have no known resting place will be honoured equally with the others. Percy’s story appears later.

Although there are over 100,000 missing from the fighting in Belgium it is not surprising that the largest concentration of the missing is in France, where around 212,000 names are inscribed on twenty memorials. A third of those names are on the Thiepval Memorial.

CHAPTER TWO

THE THIEPVAL MEMORIAL

Of the British Memorials to the missing Thiepval is the largest, with the greatest number of names, and was the last to be completed. It is both a Battle Memorial and a Memorial to the Missing. As the former, it bears witness to the Anglo-French offensive on the Somme in 1916. As the latter, it now commemorates over 72,000 men from British and South African regiments and corps who have no known grave, and who fell on the Somme Front from July 1915, when the British Third Army was formed to take over the Front from the French, to 20th March 1918, the eve of the German offensive.

The choice of Thiepval as a location was dictated partly by the nature of the site and partly by historical associations. Standing forty five metres high on an open ridge just south of Thiepval village, the Memorial can be seen on the skyline from many parts of the battlefield. Other places had been suggested, including straddling the Albert to Bapaume road at Pozières; but these were rejected.

Sir Edwin Lutyens’s design is a massive stepped arrangement of intersecting arches that culminate in a towering central arch twenty four metres high. Construction work began in 1929 and the Memorial was completed in early 1932.

Clad in brick, the Memorial’s sixteen piers are faced with white Portland stone on which the names of the dead are engraved; other dressings are of Massangis limestone. The original facing bricks came from the Pérenchies Tile works near Lille. Over 10 million bricks and 100,000 cubic feet of stone were used in the construction, at an estimated cost of £117,000 (around £6 million in today’s money).

When the work was nearing completion, it was decided that an Anglo-French Cemetery should be made in front of the Memorial to symbolise the joint efforts of the two armies during the war. On the base of the Cross of Sacrifice in the cemetery is the inscription:

That the world may remember the common sacrifice of two and a half million dead there have been laid side by side soldiers of France and of the British Empire in eternal comradeship.

Each country provided the remains of 300 of its soldiers. Of the 300 Commonwealth burials in the cemetery, 239 are unidentified. The bodies were found between December 1931 and March 1932, from as far north as Loos and as far south as Le Quesnel; but the majority came from the Somme battlefield of July to November 1916.

A number of the identified burials are of men who were originally commemorated on the Memorial, such as:

Captain Alfred Henry Wellesley Burton, 7th Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment, who was killed on 23rd October 1916. His body was initially buried north of Lesboeufs and was exhumed on 4th January 1932 and reinterred in grave I.F.7.

Second Lieutenant John Littlejohn, 2nd Battalion, West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales’s Own), who was killed on 26th October 1916. His body, initially buried north of Lesboeufs not too far from Alfred Burton, was exhumed on 22nd December 1931 and reinterred in grave I.C.10.

Both men’s names are still visible on the Memorial, Alfred on Pier and Face 1C and John on 2A.

It was originally planned to have the official unveiling ceremony on 16th May 1932. This had to be postponed following the assassination of the President of the French Republic, Paul Doumer.

The inauguration finally took place on the afternoon of 1st August 1932 in the presence of the Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VIII) and the new French President, Albert Lebrun.

The ceremony was widely covered in the national newspapers of the day. It was also broadcast by the BBC to listeners in Britain and across the Empire. In Australia, for example, it was the first major overseas event to be rebroadcast from a shortwave transmission.

By 1932, the post war optimism for the future had dissipated and it was only six months later that Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany.

Seven years later the Second World War began and by 1940 Thiepval was again under German occupation. During this time the Germans respected the Memorial and the structure remained sound. The village was liberated by British forces on 3rd September 1944.

Post war inspections revealed problems with the brickwork. The original bricks were not engineering bricks and their inferior quality meant they had begun to flake. The disposal of rainwater from the numerous flat roofs was also causing problems. It was therefore recommended that the Memorial be completely refaced and this work was carried out between 1952 and 1955, during which time the drainage system was also improved.

More work was carried out in the 1960s; the low forecourt walls were rebuilt and reduced in height to a continuous low horizontal instead of gentle steps down from the basement level of the Memorial. The circular wall around the rond point was replaced partly by hedge and partly by a new curved seat. At the same time a monumental staircase was built from the eastern terrace down to the Anglo-French Cemetery below to replace the previous temporary wooden structure.

The brickwork continued to be a problem and in 1970 it was decided to reface the Memorial for a second time. An English Accrington ‘Nori’ sand-faced engineering brick was chosen. Work on the refacing started in 1973 and was completed by 1975. Maintenance work continues and the Faces are cleaned at regular intervals.

THE LAYOUT OF THE MEMORIAL

Face B on Piers 1 to 4 and Face D on Piers 13 to 16 are smooth, recognising that names carved there would be extremely difficult to read.

Similarly, the increased size of the lettering used on Face A on Piers 1, 8, 9 and 16 and Face C on Piers 4, 5, 12 and 13 reflects the distance from which they have to be viewed.

The names on the Faces are grouped by regiment or corps (there are 137 different regiments and corps listed), by rank and then alphabetically within each rank.

The battalions of the London Regiment (with 4,303 names) and the South African Infantry are divided; but all other regiments are shown without sub-division.

The other regiments with over 1,500 recorded names are: Northumberland Fusiliers (2,917); Royal Fusiliers (2,484); The King’s (Liverpool Regiment) (2,135); Middlesex Regiment (1,920); Manchester Regiment (1,863): Royal Warwickshire Regiment (1,768); West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales’s Own) (1,747); Lancashire Fusiliers (1,685); King’s Royal Rifle Corps (1,640); and Durham Light Infantry (1,582). Thus, approximately one third of all those commemorated are from these eleven regiments.

Pier and Face 1A is interesting as it commemorates men from the Royal Navy, Royal Marines and Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, these three totalling 791 men. It also features the Cavalry and Yeomanry Regiments (Household Cavalry, Cavalry of the Line, Reserve Cavalry and Yeomanry). In total, 105 men are commemorated from thirty four individual regiments.

Other regiments and corps also feature a small number of men. The Labour Corps (one) is on Pier and Face 5C, while 4C features a number of support arms: Army Chaplains’ Department (two); Army Service Corps (four, there are a further six on 5C), Army Veterinary Corps (one), Army Ordnance Corps (one); General List (nine); as well as the West India Regiment (one). In addition, 4C also includes sections relating to the Royal Army Medical Corps (132) and the South African Infantry (830).

It is hardly surprising, given the need to compare the details of all the casualties with the known burials, that a small number of omissions occurred. Where it was discovered that men should have been commemorated on the Memorial, the details were verified and their names were added to the Addenda Panels. Initially these were on one column of Pier and Face 4C, with a few names added elsewhere; more recently the names were included on eight panels set into the walls of the western terrace.

THE MEN

Initially the sixteen piers were inscribed with 73,357 names. At the time of the inauguration the registers recorded the particulars of 73,077, the graves of some having been identified in the interval between the carving of the Faces and the printing of the first registers. In the following years other bodies were discovered and identified (including Burton and Littlejohn mentioned earlier) as the woods were cleared and farmers returned to the land.

A century after the start of the war the Memorial commemorated 72,195 men.

NUMBER OF NAMES COMMEMORATED

There can still be occasions when a name should receive commemoration elsewhere. The most recent example is David Harkness Blakey MM, a sergeant in the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, who went missing on 1st July 1916 during the fighting near Thiepval. For over ninety seven years David’s body lay undisturbed until it was discovered (not far from the Ulster Tower) during road widening work in late 2013. In October 2015 David was given a full military burial in the presence of members of his family.

Within the registers new names have been added and other names, such as David’s, deleted. Names are only physically removed from the Memorial itself when remedial work is required on a particular Face. The most recent work was undertaken early in 2014, when twenty four stone panels were replaced.

Although the Memorial covers the period from July 1915 until 20th March 1918, approximately 90 per cent of those commemorated died during the Battle of the Somme (July to November 1916). This includes some 12,400, or almost two thirds, of those killed on 1st July 1916. Amongst the men commemorated there are over 2,800 officers, the highest ranking amongst these being twelve lieutenant colonels.

As well as representing the various military ranks, the men are drawn from all sectors of society: the gentry to the worker (most types of employment are represented), sportsmen, musicians, artists, politicians, writers - all are here. Many individuals were connected through schools, universities, or employment as well as geographically, given the number of Pals battalions involved in the early battles.

The recorded age range is from 15 to 53, with an average of 25 years. Whilst many of the men were new to the Armed Forces, for others the war followed a period in the Territorials or the pre war Regular Army. A number had served in the Boer War or on service around the Empire. Many individuals of British birth were employed in the far flung regions of the Empire but returned to answer their Country’s call.

Although the Memorial only commemorates men who served in the British and South African forces, amongst them are native born Canadians, Australians and Americans who enlisted in these forces.

Whilst each individual represents a separate loss to family and friends, there are many examples of multiple loss. Several sets of brothers are commemorated, some of whom were killed on the same day and with the same regiment; whilst others had differing dates of death and service.

GALLANTRY AWARDS

Over 1,100 of the men were recipients of gallantry awards.

This includes seven holders of the Victoria Cross and their individual stories feature later under the appropriate Pier and Face.

CHAPTER THREE

BIOGRAPHIES

As mentioned at the start of this book, it is not written as a military history but as a remembrance of these men as individuals. Although from many different backgrounds, they came together as part of the Armed Forces and have stayed together in their commemoration as the ‘Missing of the Somme’.

We have selected the biographies in this chapter to illustrate their diversity. We can only provide a small number and space means that they have had to be summarised to a greater or lesser extent. A full version of each biography can be viewed at the Thiepval Visitor Centre.

Throughout we have used contemporary information, such as newspapers, so that the information is not affected by modern interpretation or hindsight. Similarly, all quotations have been included with the original spellings and punctuation.

For ease of use the individual biographies have been ordered by Pier, with at least four from each inscribed Face.

Where possible we have highlighted the number of siblings and children as an indication of the wider impact each man’s death would have had on his immediate family. We have also included references where we know that close relatives died on military service.

Each individual biography is as important as the others and, as a collection, they stand as a remembrance of all of those commemorated on the Memorial.

The unwritten question at the end of each biography is:

What might have been had they lived?

PIER 1

ALFRED FREDERICK MAYNARD

LIEUTENANT, HOWE BATTALION, ROYAL NAVAL DIVISION, ROYAL NAVAL VOLUNTEER RESERVE.

Died on 13th November 1916, aged 22, during an attack on Beaumont Hamel.

Alfred was one of six children of William John (Durham Probate Registrar) and Annie Maynard (née Smith) of North Bailey, Durham. The family later lived in Dorset.

Educated at Seaford and Durham School, he then went to Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Throughout all of this time he was a keen sportsman and a member of the school and college cricket, hockey and rugby teams. He also played cricket for Durham County. In one particular match he scored eighty nine in what was described as a beautifully free fashion and then took a one-handed catch on the boundary, for which even the dismissed batsman showed his appreciation. On the rugby field he played occasionally for the Harlequins and in the 1913/14 season he was one of the forwards in the England team that played against each of the home nations, although he was not selected to play against France.

He graduated in 1914 but was absent on active service so could not attend to receive his BA. He was commissioned in the RNVR in October and took part in the evacuation of Antwerp and the raid on the Suez Canal. In 1915 he served on Gallipoli and was wounded in the leg. He later served in two positions on the staff in Egypt and had temporary command of his battalion at Mudros. He then took command of A Company of Howe Battalion in France in April 1916.

He was killed between the second and third German lines.

In sympathising with Mr and Mrs Maynard, the battalion commander wrote: I knew him to be not only a zealous officer, but one in whom the greatest confidence might well be placed.

A plaque at Twickenham Stadium commemorates the twenty seven Rugby Internationals who lost their lives during the war. Alfred and six others are commemorated on the Memorial. The stories of two of those, Richard Thomas [7A] and Horace Wyndham

Reviews for Missing But Not Forgotten

[atticusfinch1048 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Missing But Not Forgotten – Dedicated to those who have no Known GraveMissing But Not Forgotten compiled and written by Pam and Ken Linge is one of the best homage’s to those who died on the Somme with no known grave. On the famous Thiepval Memorial there are 72,000 names of those who paid the ultimate sacrifice and are remembered on the many panels. This book gives short biographies of some of those men on the Thiepval Memorial and have done this in conjunction with the Thiepval Project. The authors have asked for their royalties from this book to be given to the Royal British Legion and the ABF The Soldiers’ Charity.The book is easily set up in to chapters so that you can understand the definition of what ‘Missing’ meant and explains that at some point in the war they were classified as missing. That investigations show that some of those classified as missing, were found to have survived, or being treated in Military Hospital or were Prisoners of War.There is also an explanation of the Thiepval Memorial; in that it is the largest British Memorial anywhere in the world and that it is also a Battle Memorial as well as a Memorial to the Missing. It explains why the location of the memorial and who designed it, how and what it is built it. The cost of the memorial was around £117,000 roughly £6 million in modern money.The most haunting part of this book are the short biographies of those on the memorial along with their picture. Looking at their pictures and biographies just reminds you how young and brave those men were, and we owe them a great deal. Besides the soldiers it also explains there would have been well known figures such as those in the Footballers Battalion, cricketers and other sportsmen.This is a wonderful book, a book that honours the dead and remembers the missing, well researched and well written. A fantastic reference book and memorial to a deadly campaign.