VCs of the First World War 1914

by Gerald Gliddon

  After working for about one and a half hours Jarvis did finally manage to successfully fire the charges for the bridge’s demolition, which probably saved the lives of many British troops.

  In the same Sapper article quoted above Jarvis was later reported as saying:

  When I got out of my position I saw civilians and soldiers running for their lives, and dropping at the volleys from the Germans. I got into another street, where I found Sapper Neary. The Uhlans by this time were well in pursuit of us. Finding a party of the RSF, we kept together until we were joined by Lieut. Boulnois, RE, Cpl. C. Wiltshire, and Sapper Farmer. The officer decided we should make for Frameries to the south of Jemappes …

  Once at Frameries the group was joined by the section forage cart which was being pursued by a party of twenty Germans. However, owing to the Germans’ erratic fire the party was able to get away across open country towards Genly. That night they were fed well by a farmer’s wife and barricaded themselves in a barn. At 02.30 hours they returned to Frameries where they tore up stone setts from the road and barricaded the streets. However they were soon shelled out of their position and left for a place called Feignies, where they billeted in a theatre and took time off to entertain themselves with some musical instruments they found there.

  On the evening of 25 August they moved off again and ended up at Le Cateau. The battle began as an artillery duel between the two armies and the group had an enjoyable time watching the success of the British guns in positions 200 yards to their rear. They were then told by a brigade major to retire, much to their consternation; this was about 16.00 hours on the 26th. They then joined the great retreat to the Marne, a column of 6 miles in length, which was to cover a distance of 64 miles in two days.

  The 57th Field Company took part in the Battle of the Aisne in September and was in Vailly in mid-September assisting troops across the river. On the 17th, 18th and 19th the War Diary (WO 95/1403, NA) noted that they occupied a sandstone quarry at the top of a hill above Vailly and one can safely assume that Jarvis was one of those sappers who was to spend some time in this deep sandpit, which was made up of a series of tiers. Their work at this time was to support the infantry in cutting communications. By this time the Engineers were suffering from a lack of sleep and continuous exposure to rain and cold. On the 23rd the unit marched to Chasseney and two days later to Brunelle. On the 30th they built a pontoon bridge 250 yards upstream from the railway bridge. A short time later the Field Company began to travel northwards in order to take part in the fighting in Flanders.

  Jarvis must have been wounded at some time as there is an account of his being in hospital in November. His VC was gazetted on 16 November 1914 and he was presented with the decoration at Buckingham Palace on 13 January 1915. It is said that the winning of the VC was a ‘great surprise to him’. His deeds were written up widely in the British Press.

  In an edition of the Fraserburgh Herald dated 9 January 1917 there is a short article about him under the heading of ‘Fraserburgh’s VC – Grievance as to Pension’:

  Corporal C.A. Jarvis the first hero who received the VC in the present war, has over 17 years’ service to his credit. In ten months (November 1917) he would be entitled to the pension granted to men with 18 years’ service. A year ago (January 1916) he answered a call for volunteers for munition work, and as a skilled mechanic he has been so employed since. Last week he was suddenly presented by the civilian manager of the works where he is engaged with his discharge from the army. The effect of that is to deprive him of the opportunity of becoming eligible for his 18 years’ pension, and to render him liable to the provisions of the Military Service Act, if he does not remain employed on munition work. Jarvis feels so strongly about his treatment that he declares that he will leave his employment at the munition works to see whether the army will take him on as a conscript.

  Corporal Jarvis told a London Star representative:

  I want to know what I am discharged for? … I am 35 years old, perfectly sound, and perfectly ready to go out to the front again if I am wanted. I do not believe that the authorities are acting legally in discharging me in this way. I have the best possible character from my officers … I mean to expose the meanness of the practice, and see whether the public approves such treatment for the men who went through the first and heaviest fighting of the war.

  Charles Alfred Jarvis was born on 29 March 1881 at the Admiralty Buildings, Saltoun Place, Fraserburgh, Scotland. The buildings, now in private ownership, are known as the Coastguard Houses. Jarvis’ father was the coastguard and had married the eldest sister of Mr Alex Byth of Castle Street. Jarvis attended Carnoustie School, joined the Black Watch at the end of 1899, and served overseas. He left the army in 1907 and was a reservist until called up in 1914. At some point he transferred to the Royal Engineers.

  Jarvis must have had a connection with Essex as after he was awarded the VC he was given a public welcome in July 1915 at Woodford Green and taken for a ride on a fire tender. On 16 September he received another welcome, this time at Chelmsford, and was called upon to give a recruiting speech.

  Not much is known about his postwar life except that he was a labourer and a ‘bit of a loner’. He joined the LDV at the beginning of the Second World War and was on duty at Portsmouth Dockyard. He returned to St Monance around 1943. He died in the Royal Infirmary, Dundee on 19 November 1948, at the age of sixty-seven. On his death certificate his occupation was given as Admiralty labourer. He was buried at St Monance, near Cupar, Fife, plot 176, row G. The inscription on the stone not only mentions Jarvis but also Mrs Jarvis’s first husband who died in 1930. It can be assumed that Jarvis married her sometime between 1931 and 1951. Jarvis is also commemorated in Carnoustie where Jarvis Place is named after him.

  On 14 December 1947 his VC was sold, and again in July 1953, this time for £105. In October 1961 it was on offer for £600 from Baldwins the medal specialists. At the present time the decoration is owned by Birmingham Museum where it is part of a very fine medal collection.

  C.E. GARFORTH

  Harmignies, France, 23 August

  On 23 August the right flank of the 3rd Division rested on Harmignies, 5 miles to the south-east of Mons. It faced the German 17th Division of IX Corps which was attacking from the north-east.

  No. 7368 Cpl. C.E. Garforth was a member of A Squadron 15th (The King’s) Hussars who were part of the 3rd Division Cavalry Squadron. In a rearguard action on 23 August near Harmignies Garforth’s troop was almost surrounded and held up by a wire fence. Ignoring German machine-gun fire, he set about cutting the wire, which enabled his troop to gallop to safety.

  On 2 September at Dammartin, south-east of Senlis towards the end of the retreat from Mons, Garforth was involved in another incident that was to contribute towards his winning the Victoria Cross. This time he was out on patrol when it came under heavy German fire and was forced to return. Sgt. Scatterfield’s horse was shot and fell trapping its rider. Under heavy fire Garforth managed to pull the sergeant free from under his horse to a place of safety. The next day Garforth was involved in a third heroic incident. Again he was on patrol, this time at Meaux, to the south-east of Dammartin, when Sgt. Lewis’s horse was shot from under him. In order to allow his sergeant to get away from enemy fire Garforth drew the machine-gun fire on to himself for about three minutes and returned fire with his rifle.

  The War Diary of the 15th Hussars for the last week in August was lost and records were compiled from private diaries. The Diary (WO 95/1399, NA) lists the places where the cavalrymen took part in patrols and at La Hautemaison they took part in a small flanking action with German patrols. On the 5th they moved on to Chartres and again had a brush with German patrols. On the next day they were part of the Advance Guard and were involved in pushing back a German squadron. On the 7th, at Farmouties, they were involved in protecting the left flank of the division. The next day they moved on to Coulommiers and Rebais. At Bussorres, on the 9th, they had a quiet day and were still ad
vancing. On the 10th, as part of the Advance Guard again, they saw a little action near Bentry. On the 11th they acted as escort to the artillery near Dammard, on the 12th they again saw no action and were still acting as part of the divisional Advance Guard, and on the 13th, at Braine, they began their involvement in the Battle of the Aisne and reconnoitred towards Vailly where the British were to cross the river.

  Garforth’s VC was one of five to be gazetted on 16 November, all of them being among the first to be awarded in the war. The Battle of the Marne in early September was followed by the Battle of the Aisne in which Garforth took an active part, in particular in patrols at Vailly Bridge on 14 September. At the beginning of October the BEF moved north to Flanders and Garforth again took part in the fighting that preceded the First Battle of Ypres. On 13 October near Laventie, close to the La Bassée-Ypres line, Garforth’s luck ran out. Yet again he was on patrol, this time with Capt. A.E. Bradshaw, at the village of Bout Delville when they were suddenly surrounded and Bradshaw along with seven men were killed. Garforth held out until all ammunition was expended and was then taken prisoner.

  During his time as a prisoner of war Garforth was taken first to Hamelin-on-Weser, and then transferred to Bohmte. From there he made three attempts to escape and on each occasion reached the German-Dutch border, only to be recaptured. On one occasion his food ran out and he had nothing to eat for six days and became too exhausted to avoid the frontier guards. He was put on a diet of bread and water as punishment. On 19 March 1918 he was sent to Holland and repatriated to England on 18 November 1918. Two vessels arrived on that day at Hull with 2,000 POWs, one of whom was Cpl. Garforth. The men were met by Maj. Gen. Stanley von Donop who was in charge of the Humber Garrison, and he delivered a message of welcome from the King. The men ‘cheered lustily and sang the National Anthem’.

  Garforth was interviewed by a reporter from The Times and his remarks were published in The Times and the Yorkshire Herald on 19 November. From what he said it appears that the original dates of his winning the VC were not very accurate. This is not really surprising as he had been a POW for four years. From his remark and also from the War Diary (which cannot be completely relied upon) his VC action probably took place on 6/7 September. Garforth caught up with his regiment in Kerpen, near Cologne in Germany on 4 August 1919. A few weeks later he returned with the 15th Hussars to Kilkenny, where he served with them as a sergeant.

  On 19 December 1918 Garforth was invested with his VC by the King at Buckingham Palace.

  Charles Ernest Garforth was the son of a builder and decorator and was born at No. 19 Chaplin Road, Willesden Green, London on 23 October 1891. He spent most of his childhood in Harrow at the family home at Willow Cottage, Fairholme Road, Greenhill, Harrow.

  He attended Greenhill Council School and then briefly Bridge School, Wealdstone between 1906 and 1907. On leaving school he went to work at a local book shop at St Ann’s Road. He was an active member of the London Diocesan Church Lads Brigade and won his first medal, an award for keeping a tidy and clean tent, when in camp at the Eastbourne Redoubt Fortress.

  In 1908 he left the Church Lads and the following year joined the 9th TF Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment at the age of seventeen. Four years later he joined the 15th Hussars as a Trooper and trained at Aldershot before serving with them in Potchefstroom, South Africa. He returned to England with his regiment in 1913. In 1914 he was promoted to corporal, and on 16 August he left for France with the 15th Hussars. They went first to Rouen before moving north to Mons where he was to begin what was to be a very fine active fighting career but which was to last for less than eight weeks. A day after his VC was gazetted the Middlesex Education Committee, at their monthly meeting at the Guildhall, Westminster said that ‘All members would be interested and pleased to know that one of the boys educated at the Greenhill Council School, Harrow, had been among the first to receive the VC … they all felt it to be an honour to the county … It was decided that the achievement should be commemorated by being entered on the records.’

  In December 1918, the same month that Garforth received his VC, he was also presented with war savings certificates to the value of £160 and an illuminated scroll from the people of Harrow. In April 1919 he married Lilian, a girl whom he had known since he was fifteen and whom he had written to when a prisoner of war. On 11 November 1920 he attended the Armistice Service at the Cenotaph and the burial of the Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey. He was the first of twenty-two ex-members of the Church Lads’ Brigade to be awarded the VC. Garforth stayed on in the army until 1922 and left with the rank of sergeant when his regiment was serving in Ireland.

  During the rest of his long life he was never to lose his love of the regiment or his pride in having been one of the first VC holders of the First World War. He was also to attend many of the various functions to honour the recipients of the VC. Other gifts included War Bonds to the value of £110 from Southend Council on 21 January 1919 and an engraved clock from the London Diocesan Church Lads’ Brigade, 31 March 1919. In the early 1920s he and his wife moved to Chilwell in Nottinghamshire and he took a job with the security police at the local Ordnance Depot. He then left that job and worked for a while at Ericson’s (later to become Plessey) before returning to the Ordnance Depot for a second spell with the security police.

  In the mid-1930s Garforth took charge of a local warehouse and in the Second World War he became the Air Raid Precautions (ARP) instructor at British Celanese, Spondon. He finally retired in 1956 when he was sixty-five years of age. In 1959 he was present at Barnard Castle when Princess Margaret presented the 15th/19th Hussars with a new Guidon to commemorate their bicentenary. In 1968 he was back again with his regiment for a very special service and this time a tank in A Squadron was named Garforth VC after him.

  Famous though Garforth may have been as a VC hero, he did appear to have financial problems from time to time and in 1970 a special pension was confirmed on his behalf. At an earlier period, when he was for a time unemployed, his wife had written to the Headquarters of Scottish Command, seeking employment for her husband. She received a sympathetic reply but it did not lead to any action.

  The Garforths had lived in Long Eaton and Bye-Pass Road, Chilwell before moving into a caravan at No. 5 Lock Close, Ryland, Beeston. Charles Garforth enjoyed cycling, walking and gardening – right up to his death he could be seen pottering in his garden. He died on 1 July 1973 in his eighty-second year. Although he had suffered with heart problems and had also had bronchitis, his death in his sleep came as a surprise to his family. Apart from his widow, Lilian, he also left three children: Douglas (born 1922), Valerie (born 1923) and Sylvia (born 1928). A second son died aged six in 1926.

  His body was cremated at Wilford Hill (register number 102183) and his ashes scattered in the garden of remembrance, in a section known as the Southern Cemetery. On 30 August 2008 a stone to his memory was unveiled, paid for by local historians and enthusiasts. A bungalow now occupies the site of No. 5 Lock Close.

  His VC and medals were bequeathed by Lilian to the Imperial War Museum in 1985.

  F.O. GRENFELL

  Audregnies, Belgium, 24 August

  The 9th Lancers (The Queen’s Royal), a crack cavalry regiment, was well prepared for war and by 15 August had embarked for France. Among their officers, many of whom were old Etonians, were the Grenfell twins, Francis Octavius and Riversdale Nonus Grenfell. The twins were known throughout English Society circles and especially in the racing and polo worlds. They were over 6 feet in height, with dark hair and full moustaches. Francis was the older of the two by a few minutes. They were born in 1880 and were nearly thirty-four years of age when they set out for France. They were the youngest of thirteen children and their uncle was Lord Grenfell. There was a strong military tradition in the Grenfell family which was to be sorely tested in the war just beginning.

  On the eve of embarkation Francis wrote to his uncle, ‘that I have always been working for war, and have now got into t
he biggest in the prime of life for a soldier.’

  The unit arrived at Boulogne on the evening of 16 August and passed through Amiens and on to Maubeuge to the south of the Belgian town of Mons. They detrained the next day at Jeunot and moved to Obrechies. They were made welcome by French and Belgian civilians alike as they were the first Allied cavalry to arrive in the area.

  The 9th Lancers along with the 11th Hussars and 4th Dragoon Guards belonged to the 1st Cavalry Brigade which was one of four such brigades that made up the cavalry division. The 9th Lancers began by carrying out reconnaissance in order to try and make contact with the Germans and on Friday, 21 August they moved to the village of Harmignies to the south-east of Mons. The next day they moved to Thulin where they dug trenches to the south of the rail crossing. They were behind the left flank of the 3rd Division. It was not the sort of countryside at all suited for cavalry warfare, consisting as it did of small villages, coal mines, railways and wire, etc. They could hear firing to the north-east and were ordered to retire slowly, fighting a rearguard action.