Richard Porter
Battlefield Guide
Personal Stories
Click on a link below to read a personal story:
Sgt David Blakey: His remains were discovered on the Somme Battlefield in November 2013.
'Jackie': The mascot baboon of the 3rd South African Infantry Regiment.
Sgt David Harkness Blakey
Sgt David Harkness Blakey, MM, of the 11th Battalion, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, was killed aged 26 on the First Day of the Battle of the Somme on 1 July 1916.
Many of those who were killed during the Battle of the Somme are classed as missing. Their remains were found but never identified or they had completely disappeared. They are commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial.
Remarkably in November 2013 David Blakey's remains were found and subsequently identified, 97 years after he was killed in action.
His remains were found during work to widen a road near the Ulster Tower Memorial. Bizarrely his remains were actually found just beside Connaught Military Cemetery where he has now been laid to rest.
Identifying fallen First World War soldiers is difficult as ID tags were commonly made from compressed fibres, which rapidly decomposed.
But a home-made metal identity tag believed to have been created by his wife with “18634 Sgt David Harkness Blakey MM of the R Innis Fus” etched on it helped to confirm his identity, along with the discovery of a “Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers” cap badge.
Born in Felling, Gateshead, on November 9 1889 to coal miner Henry Blakey and his second wife Isabella, David Blakey became a miner at Stargate Colliery near Ryton. After marrying Sarah Kendall in October 1908, they settled in her home town of Winlaton. They had a son, Henry, who was killed in service in 1940, and two daughters, Vivian Winifred and Isabella.
A skilled rugby player, Blakey enlisted in January 1915 in the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, which ran a series of recruitment adverts in the Gateshead press. By 1916, he had been promoted to the rank of sergeant, serving with D Company, 11th Battalion.
On the first day of the Battle of the Somme, the battalion formed part of the 109 Brigade of the 36th Ulster Division and assembled at the edge of Thiepval Wood. Blakey was among scores who died that day. And in subsequent letters to his wife, it emerged he had last been seen seriously wounded in No Man’s Land.
Three generations of his family attended Connaught Cemetery in October 2015 for the burial, which was arranged by the Ministry of Defence's joint casualty and compassionate centre.
Among the relatives were his granddaughter Helen Coleman, 77, his great-granddaughter Jackie Coleman, her daughter and Sgt Blakey's great-great granddaughter Emma Coleman, 16, Mrs Coleman's sister Gill, 40, and her two sons and Sgt Blakey's great-great grandsons James, 13, and Jack, nine.
Police officer Jackie Coleman, 51, from Alnwick, Northumberland, said: "I was amazed that he was found after all these years.
Six pallbearers from the Royal Irish Regiment carried Sgt Blakey's Union flag-draped coffin into the cemetery where hundreds of fallen soldiers are buried. Sgt David Blakey can be found at Grave Reference: Plot V. Row A. Grave 13 in Connaught Cemetery near the Ulster Tower on the Somme Battlefield.
'Jackie' the Baboon
Mascot of the 3rd South African Infantry Regt
Approximately 16 million animals served in the First World War. They were extensively used for transport and sometimes communication. There is a clear distinction between animals used for work and those kept as pets by the soldiers. Cats, dogs, fox cubs and monkeys were amongst the most popular. The animals provided much fun and comfort in and out of the line.
One British infantry officer thought he had come across the perfect pet until he was told he could be executed for stealing military property. He had taken a liking to a canary that was being used by the Royal Engineers to detect poisonous gases in underground tunnels.
Some regiments even promoted a pet to become the units official mascot. This is the case for ‘Jackie’ the much loved pet of Private Albert Marr.
The baboon was discovered by Albert Marr on his farm in Pretoria, South Africa, a few years before the outbreak of the First World War and the two very quickly became attached to each other. The animal turned out to be exceptionally intelligent and took so readily to training that when Marr joined the 3rd South African Infantry Regiment he took along his companion as well. The friendly baboon was an instant success with the soldiers, and it wasn’t long before he was made the regimental mascot. As a result he was issued with rations, a pay book and a specially made uniform.
Private Jackie was the perfect recruit. On the parade ground he was always smartly turned out and every time he saw a passing officer he would stand to attention and give a very correct salute. He was also very proficient at lighting cigarettes for his comrades in arms. The two inseparable friends first saw action in Egypt, early in 1916, Albert was wounded in the shoulder by an enemy bullet. Until the stretcher bearers arrived, Jackie, beside himself with agitation, attempted to do what he could to comfort the wounded Marr, by licking the wound.
Many of those who survived the hell of the trenches wrote in their memoirs, describing Jackie as though he was almost human, we, of course, will never know what Jackie felt, when he was in the midst of the nightmare that was Delville Wood or Passchendaele, nor afterwards in the desperate fighting round Kemmel Hill. Up to now he and Albert had come through the war almost unscathed.
In April 1918 both privates were injured together. It happened in the Passchendale area in Belgium. The brigade had come under heavy fire and, as the air filled with the sound of deafening explosions, Jackie could be seen trying to build a fortress of stones around himself for protection. He never finished it – suddenly a shell exploded close by and a splinter of hot metal hit him in the right leg, partly severing it. The same shell also wounded his master. Both soldiers were rushed to a British casualty clearing station where the baboon’s leg was amputated by a Dr RN Woodsend who later wrote an account of the incident:
“We decided to give the patient chloroform and dress his wounds. If he died under the anesthetic perhaps that would be the best thing. As I had never given an aesthetic to such a patient before, I though it would be the most likely result. However he lapped up the chloroform as if it had been whisky and was well under in remarkably short time. It was a simple matter to amputate the leg and dress the wounds as well as I could.”
It was the end of active service for Albert and Jackie, with the war drawing to a close. They received much publicity in the newspapers such as the Times.
On 5 May 1919, Jackie and Albert were on the last leg of their long journey home to Pretoria.
Jackie had been officially discharged on 26 April. On his arm Jackie wore one gold wound stripe and the three blue service chevrons, indicating three years frontline service.
After the war Jackie and Marr took part in many parades, they were both lent to the Red Cross by the War Office and the South African Government for the purpose of collecting money for sick and wounded soldiers. Between them they raised over 2,000 Rand. At one Red Cross fete in Leicester, for example, Jackie charged 25 cents for a handshake and 50 cents for a kiss. Much of the money the pair made was from postcards depicting Jackie and Pte Marr. Jackie was able to live out his days in peaceful retirement on the farm until his death in 1921.
Pte Horace Iles
(Boy Soldier & Leeds Pal)
At the beginning of the Great War many young men volunteered their services to fight for their country. The chance of adventure was so strong that many of them were as young as 16 or even in some cases as young as 14. They would willingly lie about their age to enlist and they would often lie about their true identity as well. We will never know the true scale of how many of these boy soldiers fought and often died in the First World War, although it is estimated that around 250,000 young men joined up under age.
At the recruiting offices such as army barracks and town halls the young men were asked their age. The very young were often questioned further about their claim to be 18 or 19. Some of the young boys would be honest and actually say they were 16 to which a recruiting Sergeant may answer “well go to the back of the queue there`s a good lad and see how many birthdays you can have by the time you see me again in a few hours time”, one young man was told to come back tomorrow when he would be 19 not 16.
On declaration of war the British Army was under pressure to swell their ranks. Pre-war the army would have an annual turnover of around 30,000 men and with the outbreak of war they were on some instances accepting around 30,000 men per day. Enlistment age for military fit males was between 19 and 31 years (18 to join and 19 to serve overseas). It was very clear that the army recruiting Sergeants and the army itself were turning a blind eye to the underage eager volunteers. The subject was brought up many times in Parliament with the government being accused of accepting these boys because it gave them the numbers they needed for the army and thus avoiding the complicated and very unpopular subject of conscription.
The army knew from experience the younger the soldier the more likely they are to follow out orders without question where as the older and wiser man is more likely to question orders that seem the outcome could almost mean certain death.
The excited young men were now in the army and would do generally one of two things; go back to tell their parents what they had done to which some received a good hiding by their mother or father or not tell them at all and just disappear when the time came for them to begin their training. Can you imagine the embarrassment of a young recruit who had told his mates he was in the army and he was going off to fight the Germans, only to be sent home because his parents went to collect him.
The parents of the boys were not the only adults to be disgusted with the blatant under age recruitments. The Liberal MP Arthur Markham spoke out in Parliament about this outrageous situation that was being accepted by the government. Harold Tennant, the Under Secretary of State for War was at the receiving end of Markham`s rants. Tennant was happy to turn a blind eye to the illegal enlistments because as far as he was concerned the young men had written 18 or 19 on the attestation papers and that then in his eyes made it all legal.
After a year of war the number of men enlisting in the army dropped, the recruiting Sergeants went out looking for young men on the streets. They approached anyone they thought should be in the army. They would literally shame boys into joining and still they didn’t care how old they were.
One 17 year old was told he would be 19 by the time they walked around the corner and walked into the recruiting office. Some young men like Horace Iles were given white feathers by girls who had brothers or fathers that had been killed in the early battles, the white feather was the symbol of a coward.
Mothers and fathers of boy soldiers would go to the barracks of the regiment to which their sons were serving and ask for their underage sons to be returned. In a case where the boy was still in Britain it would be the decision of the commanding officer of the battalion whether or not he could be returned and if the boy was in France for example it was the decision of the Commander in Chief. In some cases the CO`s would ask the boy soldier do you want to go home or do you want to stay with your mates and fight, often the answer was stay and fight. Many CO`s would not pursue a case of an underage soldier because they needed all the men they could get, so the answer would be a no certainly if no evidence was available to proof a soldier was underage.
Some parents could not find their son because many boy soldiers lied about who they were. The father of Cecil Withers put an advert in a national paper: Cecil Withers – All`s well. Will not apply for discharge if you send full address; past forgiven – Father. After seeing the advert Cecil contacted his family and they kept their word.
On the 1st July 1916 many of the boy soldiers went over the top some had already seen action at Loos but for the majority it was their first battle. Around 20,000 British soldiers were killed and around 40,000 were wounded. Around 2,500 boy soldiers became casualties 500 being killed. As the battle continued into the rest of summer, autumn and winter many more underage soldiers perished, their loved ones would only receive a telegram if their true identity could be confirmed.
Of the estimated 250,000 who enlisted around 120,000 became casualties. Some are buried under the wrong name or perhaps the wrong age. At the same time we should acknowledge the fact that many thousands survived the war and returned home to their mothers and fathers.
One of the thousands of boy soldiers was Horace Iles. He was a big lad, well developed for his age possibly from his manual work as a blacksmith`s assistant. When he enlisted in the Leeds Pals on the outbreak of war in 1914 he had no difficulty in lying about his age. There is a story that someone handed him a white feather on a Leeds tram. What we do know is that his father had been a military man, serving with Lord Roberts in the Afghan war. Horace was wounded in a German barrage of the trenches on 22nd of May 1916, he was hospitalised in France then given 7 days home leave. This was the last time his family saw him. Arriving back at the front in time for the 'Big push', he was killed alongside many of his Pals shortly after 7.30am on the 1st of July 1916. Horace`s body lay on the battlefield until the next spring, after the Germans had withdrawn back to the Hindenburg Line.
Horace Iles
Private Horace Iles 1784, 15th Bn West Yorkshire Regiment, Leeds Pals was killed in action 1st July 1916.
Horace is buried close to where he fell in Serre Road Cemetery No1, Grave Ref: I E 39
The Yorkshire Evening Post, Saturday July 1st 1916 reported, "German Defence Broken On 16-Miles Front". The reality was unfortunately very different. The people back home were desperate to hear news about their loved ones. News of the Leeds Pals and their fate eventually found its way back home through word of mouth, letters and articles printed in the papers.
Horace's family didn’t learn of his fate until a letter his sister Florrie had written to him on the 9th July was returned unopened marked 'KILLED IN ACTION'.
My Dear Horace,
Just a line or two to thank you very much for the card which mother gave me yesterday it is very pretty. I am so glad you are alright so far but I need not tell you what an anxious time I am having on your account, I only hope you have the good luck to come back safely and my dear boy I don’t care how soon.
We did hear that they were fetching back from France all under 19.
For goodness sake Horace tell them how old you are, I am sure they will send you back if they know you are only 16.
You have seen quite enough now just chuck it up and try to get back. If you don’t do it now you will come back in bits and we want the whole of you. I don’t suppose you can do any letter writing now but just remember I am always thinking of you and hoping for your safe return, So no more this time only my love.
Your loving sister Florrie
Ps. Did you know Roy Mason had been wounded, Shot in the leg, He is now in Manchester Hospital.
Horace Iles in his uniform
Horace Iles newspaper 'Casualty List'
Accounts of the Leeds Pals can be found in the well researched book 'Leeds Pals' by Laurie Milner. The following are a few accounts from the book:
Just before marching into the trenches, the Pals paraded for inspection in a courtyard at Bus-les-Artois. Private Robert Henderson was redistributing a deadly load of primed grenades when two of them went off, killing him and wounding fourteen other men. One of them, 'Peggy' Hewitt, suffered more than fifty wounds and was to spend almost the rest of the war in hospital.
Private Clifford Hollingworth, 'D' Company explained the tragic incident:
"We were in a court yard in Bus-les-Artois prior to going up. That was your parade ground because we couldn't parade in the village street, and we were all in ranks and Henderson, a chap that had joined us from Gallipoli, he joined us when we were coming from Egypt. He was a nice lad, was Henderson, and from what I gather, you know them water buckets that horses have. They had grenades and bombs in them and he was taking one out of his, it triggered off. Course they were all primed were these. Mills bombs and rifle grenades, and of course once you trigger one off the whole lot goes.
No 5 Mills bomb
So off course he was killed and all the chaps round about him were thrown on their backs. I was thrown on my back and I was hit on the nose, just bits of shrapnel. So we lost thirty five men that night before we went up."
Private Robert Henderson is buried in Bertrancourt Military Cemetery, Grave Ref: Plot 1. Row E. Grave 9
Private Arthur Pearson, 'C' Company:
"In our sector we were deputed to lead the attack on the German lines. My own platoon (No 10, C Company) was first 'over the lid'. We got into our trenches about midnight on Friday and then for seven hours had to wait for the signal, all the time being subjected to a hellish and uninterrupted bombardment from every variety of that wide range of powerful ordnance which the enemy have used so well in this war. But the men stood firm through it all, and though, if anything, the storm of fire had increased, there was no flinching when shortly before half-past seven in the morning the order came to 'Get over'."There was neither confusion nor haste when the signal came.
The men clambered out from the trenches into the metal-swept open ground, and in a line dead straight and true made steadily forward, as if on parade, for the enemy. Men fell rapidly under the deadly fire, but the remainder swept on, and shortly the second and third lines came over to fill up the gaps. My hand was badly smashed, and I laid in a shell hole."
Faced by a hail of artillery and machine gun fire, and without any officers to lead the attack ground to a halt. The wounded and unwounded sheltered in shell holes.
Private Arthur Pearson, 'C' Company:
"I came across some of our company in a shell hole. There would be about eight of us under a sergeant. Here we huddled, sheltered from the bullets but battered by shrapnel. First one man got hit, then another and if they could crawl they struggled back to the trench. Someone slithered into it head first. He (Pte Joe Collinson) lifted him side up and immediately recognised him as a lad in his own Company.
He was moaning, and Joe said "Where are you hurt, Puss?" His name was Cathrick, Pte Harry Cathrick (1). He died in Joe's arms shortly afterwards. He placed him on the side of a shell hole so he would be found. He then decided he must crawl his way back to his line as best he could, by way of one hole after another. Joe flung himself into a second shell hole where his knee hit a bayonet, causing a second wound. Crawling out of there and aiming for the next hole, he came across a ghastly sight. For in front of him lay the lower part of a man's body, and a little further on was the remainder. Turning away, he scrambled into a nearby crater. There sheltering from the overhead threat were two more Pals, one looking little more than a youth. After a short stay with the two men, Joe decided to make a final bid to reach the comparative safety of the trench, from where he was taken to a field dressing station. Thence to England.
(1) Pte Harry Cathrick is buried in Serre Road Cemetery No 3, Grave Ref: Row D. Grave 11.
We can only wonder if Horace Iles was killed instantly or died as he lay wounded like so many in a shell hole, whichever he was certainly too young to sleep forever!