For Love and Courage
Page 39
EWH on home leave cutting the children’s hair at Brook Hill.
Ethel and the ‘Chugs’ on the steps at Brook Hill, 1915, taken by EWH. Left to right: Mary, Bob, Meg and Betty.
Meg with two of the family dogs on the same occasion, 1915.
Lieutenant Colonel Edward William (‘Robert’) Hermon, posthumously awarded the D.S.O.
‘Buckin’ – Private, later Lance Corporal, Gordon Offord Buxton, EWH’s ‘soldier servant’ and former manservant.
EWH pursuing his love of sailing, off the Isle of Wight, before the war.
Betty looking for her dog with Bob, Mary, Meg and their ponies.
EWH at Aldershot with King Edward’s Horse in 1911.
Troopers of KEH cleaning kit at Aldershot, 1911.
Cartoons sent by EWH to Ethel from La Vie Parisienne entitled ‘Them & Us’, contrasting the coarse Germans with the sophisticated French!
Cartoon sent to Ethel by EWH before the birth of Ken.
This photograph of Ethel riding sidesaddle was sent to EWH in France.
EWH admiring one of the puppies while on home leave from France.
Ethel Hermon after the war with Betty, Bob, Mary, Meg and Ken on their ponies, taken in the drive at Brook Hill, circa 1920.
Mary Hermon’s wedding to John McKergow, taken in the garden of Brook Hill, July 1929. Bob Hermon (far right) gave Mary away; best man Peter Haswell, Royal Scots Greys (far left); Meg Hermon (seated, second left); Una Hermon, Victor’s daughter, is the child bridesmaid.
Brook Hill House taken in the 1950s.
The four-leaf clover sent to EWH by Ethel, 11 August 1916, and found in his breast pocket after he was killed.
(Top left) The bill from what would prove to be EWH and Ethel’s final stay at the Berkeley Hotel, London. (Top right) The scroll sent to Ethel commemorating her husband’s sacrifice in the war. (Above) The telegram from the War Office informing Ethel of her husband’s death. (Right) Verses from Lt. Colonel John McCrae’s ‘In Flanders Fields’, found in Ethel’s Bible after her death.
British troops helping with the threshing near Franvillers, September 1916. EWH was billeted in Franvillers at this time, after having had his first experience of the trenches on the Somme.
British soldiers in billets, Vermelle 1916. EWH wrote to Ethel that Vermelle was ‘the most perfect example of a ruined village you can see. Everything is destroyed and not a bird or a cat or sign of life of any kind.’
Souchez, at the foot of Hill 119, late 1916. EWH described the village as being ‘like the ruins of Jerusalem, it hasn’t one stone upon another’.
The ruins of the cathedral at Albert, September 1916; EWH was billeted there during this time.
Fixing scaling ladders in trenches on the day before the Battle of Arras, 8 April 1917.
Scene on the road beside the Scarpe at Blangy at Arras, a few days after EWH’s death on the first day of the fighting, April 1917.
A British tank passing through Arras on its way into action, April 1917. EWH wrote to Ethel about the new weapon: ‘it’s the very first thing in which we have gone one better than the Bosche.’
Battle of Arras: the cavalry resting beside the St. Pol-Arras Road, April 1917.
Artillery moving up through Arras.
A 9.2 inch howitzer in action at Arras.
Battle of Arras: the scene on newly won ground near the Feuchy crossroads with 18 pounders in action and a tank in the background, April 1917.
Battle of Arras: an 18-pounder quick-firing field-gun moving up into position.
Battle of Arras: an advanced dressing station during the battle, showing horse ambulances and German prisoners of war being used as stretcher-bearers.
A temporary cross marks EWH’s grave at Roclincourt cemetery, 1917. Shortly afterwards ‘Buckin’ planted primroses and box shrubs round the grave.
Marble headstone at Roclincourt CWGC cemetery, 2008
Roclincourt cemetery in 2008.
Lieutenant Colonel Edward William (‘Robert’) Hermon D.S.O.
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