VCs of the First World War 1914

by Gerald Gliddon

  In Néry Civilian Cemetery there is a memorial to the men of L Battery where seven of them are buried in a single grave. Also buried here is the chief hero of the day, Capt. Bradbury, along with Brigade Major Cawley. At Verberie, a few miles away is another memorial and grave to L Battery where five men are buried. In the same French cemetery lies the body of Col. Ansell, commander of the 5th DG.

  Three men from L Battery were to be awarded the VC: Capt. Bradbury (25 November 1914), BSM Dorrell and Sgt. Nelson (both on 16 November 1914). There was some delay over Bradbury’s award as Brig. Gen. Briggs, his commanding officer, was unaware that the medal could be awarded posthumously as, indeed, those for Dease and Wright had been. Darbyshire and Osborne whom the Press had expected to receive the award were given the Médaille Militaire instead, a less prestigious award.

  The guns of L Battery were partly repaired by I Battery, assisted by men of the 2nd DG, before being sent on to the Ordnance Department at St Nazaire on 3 September. L Battery was then sent home for a refit to Woolwich and there was controversy about who should have been awarded the VC. The L Battery survivors (according to Canon Lummis’ files) thought that Dorrell should not have been given the award but that Gunners Darbyshire and Osborne (Gunner Herbert Darbyshire ‘C’ Battery 251st Bde died on 8 May 1917 and is buried in Warlincourt Halte Cemetery (IX, H, 6)) should have been. However, as the Canon reminded us it was Dorrell and Nelson who were firing the gun at the end of the action and surely they did deserve the VC for such heroism? There was also controversy when L Battery was amalgamated with I Battery for a time. In 1926 the battery was, however, re-named L (Néry) Battery, RHA.

  There was an official commemoration in 1954 at Néry and at various times additional memorials have been erected. One interesting inscription is the one that states, ‘The Battle of the Marne was won at Néry.’ If any reader is keen to visit the village of Néry I advise them to go in late August in order to feel the atmosphere of the harvest season. Tailby’s epic ride is described in full in an article in the Cavalry Journal and Lt. Arkwright’s diary entry is also in print in full. It is a fascinating incident and one which inspired several artistic reconstructions which were so popular between the world wars and which are now regaining their former appeal.

  Edward Kinder Bradbury was born at Parkfield, Altrincham, Cheshire on 16 August 1881. He was son of His Honour the late Judge Bradbury and Mrs Bradbury. He was educated at Marlborough College, and then entered the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. He joined the Royal Artillery in May 1900 when he was nineteen. He was made a lieutenant in April 1901. Between January and October 1902 he served with the Imperial Yeomanry taking part in the South African War and was present at the operations in Cape Colony. He gained the Queen’s Medal with two clasps. During 1905 and 1907 he was a member of the King’s African Rifles and was made up to captain in February 1910. At the start of the First World War he went to France with the BEF and was to earn undying fame at Néry on 1 September 1914.

  Before the war Bradbury had been a keen fisherman and used to spend his leave in County Cork fishing and hunting. Bradbury’s name is the first of the eighteen VC holders from the First World War commemorated in the Royal Artillery Chapel in Woolwich. His medals are kept in the Imperial War Museum.

  George Thomas Dorrell was born at 23 G Street, Queen’s Park Estate, Paddington, London, on 7 July 1880. He was the son of a cab driver, who eventually lived at 70 Kilburn Park Road, Carlton Vale, London. On 2 December 1895 he was attested Gunner with the Royal Horse Artillery and gave his age as nineteen when he was only fifteen, and he joined at Woolwich the following day. He served in South Africa in 1899 and received Long Service and Good Conduct Medals. He was promoted Bombadier Royal Horse Artillery (RHA) on 2 January 1900. He was made corporal on 31 May 1900 and on 18 July he was made up to sergeant. He served throughout the second Boer War (1899–1902) and received the Queen’s Medal with six clasps and the King’s Medal with two clasps. On 2 December 1908 he was made battery quarter master sergeant (BQMS) with the RHA and battery sergeant major on 29 November 1911.

  In August 1914 he went to France with L Battery and the BEF and was later awarded the Mons Star with clasp. During the action at Néry he became senior officer after the L Battery officers were either killed or wounded. He was commissioned from the ranks on 1 October 1914, the same month he married his wife, Lucy. The couple were to have three children. His VC was gazetted on 16 November. He was promoted to full lieutenant, RFA on 9 June 1915, and to temporary captain on 2 May. On 25 September 1916 he was appointed acting major while in charge of A/122nd Brigade RFA and as acting major while commanding B/190th Brigade RFA on 19 March 1917, the day before he was mentioned in despatches. In 1921 he retired from the regular army with the rank of lieutenant colonel and served for a further term with the Territorial Army. He was a company commander in the Home Guard between 1940 and 1945. He was made a Member of the British Empire (MBE) in 1925. He became brevet lieutenant colonel and in 1956 he was present at the Néry Day celebrations at Hildesheim, Germany. He was one of fourteen veterans from the First World War who had travelled from Britain to attend the ceremonies. Three of these men had been wounded and captured at Néry. Alongside Dorrell at the Battery’s march-past stood Mrs D. Nelson, the widow of Acting Major Nelson. During the ceremonies she presented her late husband’s VC to the Battery. Dorrell handed over Capt. Bradbury’s VC on behalf of Maj. A.J. Creudson, MC, a nephew of Bradbury, who was unable to attend the ceremony. In 1970 Dorrell celebrated his ninetieth birthday but died six months later on 7 January 1971. His home was at No. 30 Bray Road, Cobham, Surrey. His wife, Lucy, had died on 13 September in 1969.

  He was cremated at Randalls Park in Leatherhead on 15 January 1971. A gun carriage and two trumpeters were provided for the service by the King’s Troop RHA and L (Néry) Battery was in charge of the military arrangements for the service. The procession formed up in the cemetery car park and travelled half a mile to the crematorium at Randalls Park. The ‘Last Post’ and ‘Reveille’ were both sounded. His grave reference is 9382 and his ashes were scattered in plot P-9, K-7. His name is listed on the RA Memorial in the Royal Artillery Chapel, Woolwich. After the service Dorrell’s medals were presented to Capt. C.B. Daw on behalf of L (Néry) Battery to whom they had been bequeathed. L (Néry) Battery now held all the VCs won at Néry on 1 September 1914. These medals are now in the care of the Imperial War Museum.

  David Nelson was born at Deraghland, Co. Monaghan, Ireland on 3 April 1886. He attested as a gunner on 27 December 1904 and was posted on 22 December 1905 – his number was 34419. He was made a bombadier with L Battery on 18 May 1910 and corporal on 7 January 1911. On 5 August 1914 he was promoted to sergeant, the rank he held at Néry. After the battle was over his wounds began to bleed again and he was assisted into an ambulance with four other men and taken to a temporary field hospital at Baron. In the hospital were about eighty British soldiers, four French and twelve German. At about 17.00 hours on 2 September the enemy arrived in the village and the Allied hospital patients were made prisoners of war. The Germans also helped themselves to the hospital food. The next day the contents of the hospital were packed up into French farm carts before being evacuated to Germany. A couple of days later Nelson decided to try and escape. He succeeded and met up with a French patrol riding near the hospital. He was lent a horse and reported to the French General Plailly and told him of the situation at the hospital at Baron. The French officer promised to send a relief the next day. Nelson then went on a 30-hour journey in motor ambulances to Dinan where he was operated on in order to remove a piece of shrapnel touching his right lung.

  Nelson was commissioned from the ranks on 15 November 1914, the day before his VC was gazetted, and posted to Shoeburyness Gunnery School in January 1915. In October 1916 he was appointed temporary captain and then acting major in command of D Battery, 59th Battery in March 1918. He died of wounds at 58 CCS at Lillers on 8 April 1918 and is buried in the Lillers Communal Cemetery (No. V, A
, 16). In 1971 his widow was living at No. 34 Cowper Street, Ipswich. Nelson’s VC and medals are held at the Imperial War Museum and his name is listed on the VC memorial in the Royal Artillery Chapel at Woolwich. He is also commemorated with two memorials in Ballybay, one in the Presbyterian church and the other in the church hall.

  W. FULLER

  Near Chivy, 14 September

  The retreat from Mons demoralized the men of the BEF who were getting fed up with continuously retreating from the enemy. They would much rather stand and fight. They were to have their wish fulfilled after the German Army crossed the River Marne to the north of Paris in early September. The Germans were pushed back across the river and then pursued to the valley of the River Aisne where they had already made defensive positions.

  On 14 September, the 3rd Infantry Brigade of the 1st Division was acting as a reinforcement on the left of the 1st (Guards) Brigade in conditions of mist and torrential rain. Their adversary was the right flank of the German 25th Reserve Infantry Brigade, which was advancing in a south-easterly direction towards the village of Vendresse, between the hamlets of Chivy and Troyon. These small hamlets were little more than a collection of buildings, which today are even smaller. Soon the mist lifted and two artillery batteries numbered 46 and 113, in a position to the south-west of Vendresse, were able to check the German advance with accurate fire. Once the advance was slowed the 2nd Welch Regiment and 1st South Wales Borderers of the 3rd Brigade moved north-west against a high ridge which sheltered the village of Chivy. The SWB’s progress was impaired by dense woods but the 2nd Welch had a simpler task as they approached through open ground and dug themselves in on the south-eastern slopes of the Beaulne Spur. Beaulne was a small village to the south-west of Chivy. The SWB were to the rear of the Welch Regiment between Chivy and Beaulne.

  The enemy began to counter-attack on the right of the British line and successfully drove the 2nd Brigade and 1st (Guards) Brigade of the 1st Division back from the sugar factory near Troyon to the west of Chivy. The Germans thus exposed the right of the 1st Cameron Highlanders, who were with the 1st (Guards) Brigade upon whom the Germans were then able to turn a devastating machine-gun fire. Later in the day, however, the 2nd Welch were able to capture over a hundred prisoners as well as a machine gun.

  In a newspaper account dated 24 November 1914 L. Cpl. Fuller of the 2nd Welch described the events of the morning of 14 September:

  We were supposed to be the advance party for the South Wales Borderers, but instead formed a bit to the left and made an advance ourselves. We marched from a wood in the direction of a ridge, and on the way we came across a wire fence.

  Instead of waiting to use our wire-cutters, Captain Haggard pulled one of the posts out, and we continued our advance to the top of the ridge.

  On reaching that point we saw the enemy and Captain Haggard and myself and two other men who were in front, started firing. On proceeding a little further we were faced by a Maxim gun. There was a little wood on the top and a hedge about 50 yards long. It was not long before the men on Captain Haggard’s left were both shot, and the man on the right was wounded.

  The Aisne battlefield

  At the same time Captain Haggard was struck in the stomach, and he fell doubled, the shot coming out through his right side. Thus I was the only one uninjured. Our company was met with such an enfilading fire that the right part of the platoon had to retire back and make an attack towards the right.

  That left Captain Haggard, myself, and the wounded man below the ridge, and it became necessary for me to carry Captain Haggard back to cover.

  This was done by him putting his right arm around my neck, while I had my right arm under his legs and the left under his neck. I was only from 10 to 20 yards behind him when he was shot, and as he fell he cried ‘Stick it, Welch!’

  With the shots buzzing around us I bandaged him, the while our fellows were mowing down the Germans, and Captain Haggard asked me to lift up his head so that he could see our big guns firing at the Germans as they were retiring from the wood… .

  Haggard, in charge of B Company, had made a solo advance to the top of the ridge and on seeing the German Maxim, which had already caused much havoc, he shouted out to his men to, ‘fix bayonets’. Haggard then shot and killed three Germans who were serving the gun but not surprisingly in view of the odds he was soon hit. The air was full of rifle and machine-gun bullets and shrapnel shells were bursting among the Welshmen.

  It was some time before Fuller was able to set off to try and rescue his wounded captain and he risked being killed by shrapnel, rifle or machine-gun fire. Fuller dressed his officer’s wounds as well as he could, and then removed his kit to make it easier for him to lift Haggard’s body. Even then they had to wait for about an hour as conditions were too hazardous. Finally they set off when enemy fire slackened. Eventually an officer, Lt. Melvin and a private called Snooks came to Fuller’s assistance and the three men got Haggard to a barn which adjoined a farmhouse that was being used as a dressing station. This was about three quarters of a mile from the spot where Haggard had been wounded. The barn, used as a temporary hospital, was later flattened by German shelling. In his account Fuller also mentions two other officers, Lt. the Hon. Fitzroy Somerset and Lt. Richards, being treated there before they were taken away by ambulance. Here Fuller helped with the patients but also became temporarily responsible for sixty women and children from the neighbourhood who were sheltering in the farmhouse. This building was soon to be destroyed along with the barn and the other farm buildings.

  It seems that Fuller was almost an orderly to Capt. Haggard and spoke of him with the highest regard and admiration. It was a great shame that Haggard’s wounds were so serious. He had been shot in the stomach at about 10.30 hours on the 14th and died the next day at 16.30 hours. His last words were ‘Stick it, Welch’, a phrase he had always used to encourage his men in times of danger and on the march. He was buried at night in Vendresse and the burial service was read by Col. Morland of the 2nd Welch. On the same day Fuller was promoted to the rank of lance-corporal and to sergeant in early 1915. ‘Stick it, Welch’ was later used as a motto displayed on the front of the Maindy Barracks in Cardiff.

  A few days later during the night of 20/21 September according to the Official History, the posts of the Welch and South Wales Borderers of the 3rd Brigade were withdrawn from their advanced positions at the head of the Chivy Valley and moved to a less exposed position on a spur to the south of the village. Free access to the valley was therefore available to the enemy but any German advance would lead them into trouble especially with British artillery. On the 25th the Welch assisted the SWB in repelling an enemy attack – this is the last mention of their involvement in the Battle of the Aisne.

  Capt. Mark Haggard was a nephew of Henry Rider Haggard, the novelist who lived in Ditchingham near Bungay in Suffolk. Mark came from Kirby Bedon a couple of miles from Ditchingham. On 18 September, three days after Mark died of his wounds, his uncle wrote the following in his diary:

  I have just heard over the telephone from my daughter Angie that her brother-in-law, my nephew Mark Haggard, died of wounds on the 15th. It is a great shock for I was very fond of him. He was a good officer and a very gallant man. He said before he left that never would he live to be taken prisoner by the Germans. Well, he has not lived. All honour to him who has died the ‘best and the greatest of deaths’. But his poor young wife, whose marriage I attended not a year ago! [Mark had married Doris Elizabeth Vaughan, a daughter of Colonel J. Edwards Vaughan of Rheola, near Neath.]

  A week later Rider Haggard wrote again in his diary:

  I have heard more details of Mark’s death, supplied to his mother by an officer of his regiment, Lieutenant Somerset, who was in the next bed to him at the hospital in France. [That is, the barn near Vendresse.]It seems that he got ahead of his men and killed three gunners serving the gun, he was charging with his own hand and was then struck down …

  A few weeks later Fuller h
imself was to be wounded on 29 October in the Battle of Gheluvelt in Belgium. In a Welsh newspaper he described what happened: ‘We were advancing across a mangold field when a shrapnel burst hit a comrade named Tagg, an officer’s servant, who was wounded in the leg. I stopped to bandage him up, and was just getting a safety pin to hold up the bandage when over came half-a-dozen shrapnel shells in succession.’

  Fuller was wounded in his right side and a bullet travelled up his body and lodged behind his neck. He was sent home and was taken to Manchester Hospital. When he returned to Swansea, his home town in South Wales, he went into the local hospital for an operation where the bullet in his body was discovered. He kept it as a souvenir.

  On 7 November Henry Rider Haggard wrote more about his nephew in his diary: ‘In the papers appears a statement from Lance-Corporal Fuller, who, it seems, carried Mark back from the trenches. He describes him as “a brave man and a fighting soldier from his head to his feet.” He adds, “He never complained of his wounds. Always he said he was alright.”’

  Fuller’s VC was gazetted on 23 November and although Swansea was not his birthplace he was claimed by the people as their own VC. He was, in fact, the first Welshman to win the medal in the First World War. He lived at Charles Court, which was in the front of Jones’ Terrace. On the 23rd Fuller had been spending the evening at the opening of the Free Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Club at the Albert Hall in Swansea. He was unaware of the impending award and naturally became ‘the hero of the evening’. In the rush to congratulate him his bandaged right arm was slightly injured. He still had a month’s sick leave to spend at home but was also called upon by the authorities to help with recruiting. When asked about his heroic act, Fuller told a local reporter, ‘What I did anyone else would have done in my place.’