The next day, 11 March, was spent in the same trenches and although orders were issued for the relief of the battalion this did not take place. Stephens again requested permission to advance but again he was refused. At 01.00 hours he finally received orders for an attack at 07.30 hours on 12 March. A German counter-attack began at 04.45 hours but this was easily halted by the battalion with very heavy losses being inflicted on the enemy. The proposed British attack was delayed twice, and was rescheduled for 12.30 hours, after a 30 minute artillery bombardment.
When the orders for the attack were first received Stephens requested that his battalion amend the direction of attack, with the battalion’s left flank anchored on a water-filled ditch which ran along the garden of a château and advanced at right angles to the River Layes but parallel to the many drainage ditches on Stephens’ front (see map on page 25). This request was refused, and consequently the attack was made diagonally over the drainage ditches and the troops were subjected to enfilade fire. A second enemy attack at 09.00 hours, much weaker than the previous one, was also stopped with little difficulty.
At 12.30 hours A and B Coys left their trenches for the assault on the enemy’s line, 400 to 500 yards away; they were met by a hail of fire from both field and machine-guns; many men fell and only a handful reached the protection of the Smith-Dorrien trench, 200 yards away. In the face of such fire Stephens stopped the attack. At 16.00 hours he was sent for by Brigade and ordered to make a second attack at 17.15 hours which was ‘to be pressed home at any cost’. He arrived back at the battalion minutes before the attack was due, just as a ‘small and inadequate’ British artillery bombardment was under way. C and D Coys were now ordered forward. C Coy, on the left, under Capt. Bridgeman charged, but under intense machine-gun fire only Capt. Bridgeman and four other ranks reached the Smith-Dorrien trench – these men were the only survivors of 11 and 12 Platoons who had led the attack.
D Coy, on the right, had an even more difficult task, as their front was blocked by uncut wire. (The History of the Rifle Brigade states it was their own wire but this seems very unlikely.) The wire had to be cut and instead of picking a number of men for the ‘suicidal task’, No. 9665 CSM Harry Daniels asked his friend, No. 3697 A/Cpl Reginald ‘Tom’ Noble, to accompany him as he had on many dangerous night patrols in the past. The two friends, now armed with wirecutters, shook hands before setting out; they managed to cover the few yards to the wire unhurt and, lying on their backs, began to cut the lower strands; this done they raised themselves to sever the higher wires and finally to a kneeling position to reach the highest of the wire. It was then that Daniels was hit in the left thigh and dropped to the ground; after a few minutes he heard Noble gasp. Daniels asked, ‘What’s up, Tom?’ to which Noble replied, ‘I am hit in the chest, old man’. Daniels managed to roll into a shell hole and apply rudimentary first-aid to his wound; he remained there for four hours before trying to return to the battalion’s trenches after dark when he was seen and picked up by his comrades. The attack, meanwhile, had been stopped by Stephens after a number of men had been shot down.
Noble died from his wounds the following day and is buried at Longuenesse Souvenir Cemetery, St Omer, Plot I, Row A, Grave 57. The battalion lost 12 officers and 365 other ranks at Neuve Chapelle.
The citation for both men was published in the London Gazette on 28 April 1915, and Daniels was presented with his VC by the King at Buckingham Palace on 15 May. Talking to a reporter after the investiture, Daniels, the only VC of that day, said that the King had questioned him about the action and also whether his wound had healed. He continued: ‘I shall not forget how the King looked at me when he spoke of poor old Noble. He looked most sympathetic. I could see he felt it.’ When he left the Palace Daniels motored to the Wood Green Empire where he was presented to Lady French at a special charity matinee.
Daniels’ tribute to Noble was, ‘The best chum I’ve ever had, the bravest man I’ve ever known.’
The thirteenth of sixteen children, Harry Daniels was born in Wymondham, Norfolk, on 13 December 1885. His parents William and Elizabeth had previously run a bakery and confectionery business in St John’s, Timberhill, Norwich, where most of their children were born, and after spending six years at Wymondham they returned to Norwich, where they lived in Eagle Walk, Newmarket Road.
Daniels’s mother died when he was four years old and shortly after his father also died, leaving six children under the age of fourteen. Harry and one of his brothers were placed in the care of the Norwich Board of Guardians and put in the Boys’ Home, St Faith’s Lane, Norwich. Harry was soon nicknamed ‘Spitfire’. He twice ran away from the Home, living on turnips for two days on the first occasion and being absent for two months on the second when he served as a cabin boy on a fishing smack. Daniels attended Thorpe Hamlet boys’ school before being apprenticed as a carpenter and joiner to Mr Hawes at Duke’s Palace Steam Joinery Works in Norwich.
While still an apprentice, Daniels heard that his eldest brother, William, who had enlisted in 1889, had been killed at Magersfontein, South Africa, while serving with the 2nd Coldstream Guards. This prompted Harry, a few months later, when he turned eighteen, to enlist in the Army. Telling no one, Daniels joined the Rifle Brigade on 31 January 1903 and after training at Gosport and Chatham went to India with the 2nd Bn in 1905. After a period in the band Harry took a gymnastics course at Lucknow. Promoted to corporal on 19 July 1909 and to sergeant on 21 December 1910, Daniels met his future wife, Kathleen Mary Perry, the daughter of a warrant officer in the Manchester Regt, at the 1912 Christmas dance at Calcutta. They were married at Calcutta on 21 January 1914. While in India Daniels won the regimental light-weight and welterweight boxing tournaments and was a prominent member of the battalion’s dramatic club. Further promotion followed on 10 October 1914 when Daniels was made CQMS and, while he was serving in France, he was promoted to CSM on 12 December of the same year.
Daniels read the news of his VC in a newspaper when he was recovering from his wounds at Hammersmith Infirmary. Daniels and his wife returned to his home city of Norwich on 10 June 1915. It was his first visit to the city for eleven years, and they were met at Thorpe station by the Lord Mayor, and driven to the Guildhall in a state coach. During his stay he attended various functions, including a reception at his old school. Before leaving to resume his military duties he was presented with a purse of gold by the Sheriff, Mr Frances Horner. Men of the Royal Engineers pulled the carriage in which Daniels and his wife travelled to the railway station on their departure.
He received his commission in July 1915, remained with his battalion and was awarded the Military Cross for services on 30 March 1916, almost exactly a year after winning the VC. The citation for his MC read:
Harry Daniels, Lieutenant, Temporary Captain Rifle Brigade; When a man of his patrol was wounded on the edge of the enemy’s wire, he carried him in some 300 yards under very heavy fire. On another occasion, when two successive patrols had failed to find a wounded corporal, Second Lieutenant Daniels volunteered to take out a third patrol, and brought in the corporal’s body.
In September 1915 the Lord Mayor of Norwich received a telegram saying that Lt Daniels had been killed in action. Regulation field postcards received by Daniels’ relatives in Norwich disproved this information and on 1 October 1915 a contradiction of his reported death was issued by the Press Association.
Promotion to lieutenant followed on 23 August 1916 and after further service with his battalion as Physical and Bayonet Training Supervision Officer he returned to England during 1917.
During the latter half of 1918 Daniels was a member of the British Military Mission to the USA. He attended the garden party for VC winners at Buckingham Palace on 26 June 1920 and was present at the Cenotaph in Whitehall on 11 November the same year. Also in 1920 he represented his country as a boxer at the Olympic Games at Antwerp. On 9 April 1921 Daniels was appointed a captain in the Loyal North Lancs Regt, and on 28 September became Assistant Provost Marshal at Aldershot. In
October 1925 he was Administration Officer to Beachley Boys Army Technical School, Chepstow, where he stayed until December 1929, achieving the rank of Brevet-Major on 1 July 1929. He retired from the Army on 26 April 1930 and became the manager of hotels in Woodbridge, Dovercourt, Abergavenny and Chester before rejoining the Army as a recruiting officer at Newcastle in December 1933. A year later he was given the rank of lieutenant-colonel. Daniels left the Army for good in 1942, taking up the post of resident manager of the Leeds Grand Theatre where he proved to be popular with artistes, staff and public alike.
In 1949 Mrs Daniels became terminally ill and as a last resort Daniels turned to an American evangelist, the nine-year-old Renée Martz, ‘The Wonder Child Preacher’. The administrations of this child were sadly unsuccessful and Kathleen Daniels died at her home in West Park, Leeds, shortly afterwards. It was reported that Renée’s father declared, ‘We do not look upon this as one of our failures’.
Invited to attend the coronation of Queen Elizabeth, Harry Daniels suffered a heart attack in London shortly before the event and was taken back to hospital in Leeds. In what was possibly his last letter, in October 1953, he wrote to Lt-Col. Victor Turner VC, of Ditchingham, Norfolk, telling him about his heart attack and that he was also suffering from pneumonia, and was therefore unable to attend a forthcoming reunion of the 2nd Battalion Rifle Brigade.
Lt-Col. Daniels died on his 69th birthday, 13 December 1953, at the Ida and Robert Arthington Hospital, Leeds. His medals and sword lay on the Union Jack-draped coffin during the funeral service at St Simon’s Church, Burley. The mourners included members of the management and staff of the Grand Theatre as well as military representatives, including Mr W.H. Butler VC and ex-Sgt R.W. Stone MM, who served with Daniels in the war. Cremation took place at Lawnswood Crematorium, Leeds and Lt-Col Daniels’ ashes were later scattered at Aldershot Officers’ Cricket Ground.
Daniels’ medals and decorations were exhibited at Leeds City Museum for a short period and were then passed to the Regimental Museum at Winchester. They comprised the Victoria Cross, Military Cross, 1914 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal with Palm, and Coronation Medals for King George V, King Edward VIII, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II. A cartoon of Daniels by Bruce Bairnsfather accompanied his medals.
A bronze plaque on a Portland Stone plinth was unveiled in November 1992 to all Victoria Cross holders born in Leeds and also those buried in Leeds. Harry Daniels is listed amongst the 11 names of First World War VCs and in total 17 men from The Indian Mutiny to The Second World War are commemorated. The plaque is located on the NW corner of The Headrow and Cookridge Street junction, very near the Leeds War Memorial now situated in Victoria Gardens after a move from the City Square in 1937 made necessary by a new traffic scheme.
A small commemorative plaque to his memory was placed in The Grand Theatre, Leeds, although the author can find no record of this today. A road in Wymondham, Norfolk, Harry Daniels Close, was named in his memory.
Cecil Reginald Noble was born in Bournemouth on 4 June 1891, the son of Frederick Leopold Noble, a decorator, and Hannah Noble. From early childhood he lived at Capstone Road, Bournemouth, and received his education at St Clement’s School in the town. Noble disliked his Christian name of Cecil and was known in his family as ‘Tommy’. When he enlisted in the Army in 1910 he used the name of Reginald Noble. He went to France with the 2nd Bn, Rifle Brigade, in November 1914 and in early 1915 the battalion was in the waterlogged trenches of the Laventie sector.
Mrs Noble was presented with her son’s VC by the King at Buckingham Palace on 29 November 1916. A memorial bronze plaque depicting Noble’s VC and the Rifle Brigade badge was placed in St Clement’s School in memory of Bournemouth’s first VC winner, the pupils having collected money for this.
On 18 October 1980 a housing development at 66 Surrey Road, Bournemouth, was officially named Reginald Noble Court. The block of 28 flats, run by the Royal British Legion Housing Association, offered sheltered housing accommodation for retired ex-servicemen and women, a fitting tribute to a brave man. Another road in Bournemouth, Noble Close, was named after him in March 1975. On 2 October 1995 Bournemouth Borough Council unveiled a blue plaque at 175 Capstone Road honouring Noble. A similar plaque was erected near the site of 39 Capstone Road honouring Frederick Charles Riggs VC MM, who was awarded a posthumous VC in 1918, making this road almost unique in that it was home to more than one VC winner; Valour Road, Winnipeg, Canada being the other. (See page 97). In 2000 a sculpture by Jonathan Sells was unveiled at Bournemouth International Centre including a scroll on which are the names of the three Bournemouth-born VC winners; Cpl C R Noble and Sgt F C Riggs of WWI and Lt Col D A Seagrim of WWII. In 1980 Noble’s VC was in the hands of his niece, Mrs Lloyd, of Esher, Surrey.
C.G. MARTIN
Spanbroek Molen, Belgium, 12 March
During the battle of Neuve Chapelle British GHQ ordered the Second Army to make an attack as soon as possible to prevent the withdrawal of more German troops from the Ypres area to bolster the enemy defence of Neuve Chapelle. They were mistaken in their belief that German prisoners taken in the Neuve Chapelle fighting had been suddenly transferred from Ypres, nevertheless the requested attack was delivered at 14.30 hours on 12 March by the 7th Bde, 3rd Division, around the German position at Spanbroek Molen, some 2,000 yards north of Wulverghem.
Lt. C.G. Martin 56th Field Company Royal Engineers volunteered to lead a small party of six bombers against a section of the enemy’s trenches which was holding up the advance. Before the raid began he was wounded by a bullet which penetrated the flesh near the hip; however, he made light of the wound and led the bombers towards the enemy trench. Here they delivered their ordnance with such speed and accuracy that the Germans were quickly driven out; Lt Martin and his men then occupied the trench and set about transferring the parapet and improving the position with sandbags, in readiness for the inevitable counter-attack. The Germans attacked within a short while, but the six bombers, inspired by the example of Lt Martin, drove the enemy back and continued to do so in subsequent attacks despite the overwhelming numbers of the enemy. The bombers held the trench for two and a half hours before orders arrived for them to abandon the captured post and join the general withdrawal. Their bombing had held up German reinforcements who were unable to advance until this section of trench was retaken. For this action Lt C.G. Martin was awarded the VC, and each of his six bombers received a DCM. Martin was twice Mentioned in Despatches during the First World War.
Cyril Gordon Martin was born at Foochow, China, on 19 December 1891, his father, the Revd John Martin, Vicar of Grandborough near Rugby, being then principal of the Church Missionary Society College in Foochow. His mother was the daughter of Judge Goldie of the Indian Civil Service. His mother died when he was still in his early childhood and he was sent to Bath, where he was brought up by his two aunts, the Misses Goldie, who resided at 12 Somerset Place. Martin went to Hamilton House School, Bath, later attending Bath College and Clifton College. He joined the Army on 23 December 1911, continuing his education at the Royal Military College, Woolwich, and becoming a lieutenant on 15 July 1914. Lt Martin landed in France with 56 Field Coy RE on 16 August 1914 and just ten days later his gallantry earned him a DSO, his award being among the first list of decorations gazetted in the war. On 26 August at Le Cateau, in the face of heavy fire, Lt Martin and his section had held an enemy post from which the British infantry had been driven out, until they could be relieved by more infantry. His citation appeared in the London Gazette on Monday 9 November 1914 (page 9108). He was wounded twice before winning the VC, being shot through the shoulder and bayoneted through the hand in the above action before the relief arrived. He was invalided home and only returned to the front a few days before the fight at Spanbroek Molen on 12 March 1915. His hip wound necessitated a return to England and later in October, during a recruiting march and demonstration in Bath, he was presented with a sword of honour by his fellow citizens.
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sp; From 27 October 1915 to 19 May 1916 he was (Temporary) Assistant Instructor at the School of Military Engineering. He never fully recovered from his wounds and was sent to Egypt, being attached to the Egyptian Army from 10 July 1916. He was promoted to captain on 26 June 1917 and on 20 August that year married Mabel, the only daughter of the late Major Edward Hingston RE at Chatham parish church; she later bore him two sons and a daughter. At this time he gained the uncommon Sudan Medal with two bars, for actions in the spring and autumn of 1917. The following year he was with the Egyptian Expeditionary Force in Palestine but attached to the Egyptian Army Public Works Dept, remaining attached to the Egyptian Army after the Armistice. He returned to England to attend the VC garden party at Buckingham Palace on 26 June 1920. From 15 July 1925 until 1928 he was based at the School of Military Engineering, Chatham, being promoted to major on 10 August 1928. The years 1929 to 1938 saw him serving on the north-west frontier of India, being Mentioned in Despatches twice, first in 1930 and again on 30 October 1931. On 6 May 1932 he rose to the rank of brevet lieutenant-colonel, later becoming Staff Officer RE 2nd Grade, Northern Command, in 1933. He was created CBE in 1938 while serving as CRE Wazirforce, and from 1938 to 1941 he was Deputy Chief Engineer Northern Command India, before going to Iraq to join what later became known as Paiforce. After a short tour in the UK as Commandant RE OCTU at Newark, he returned to India in 1943, to become Commandant, School of Military Engineering at Roorkee, finally being appointed Chief Engineer, Northern Army, India, in 1945; later that year he became ADC to King George VI.
Martin retired in 1947 and took up an appointment with the Forestry Commission. He attended the VC Review on 26 June 1956 and was present at the VC garden party given at Buckingham Palace on 17 July 1962 and at the banquet which followed, given by the Lord Mayor of London at Mansion House. The following day he joined the Third Reunion Dinner of the VC and GC Association at the Café Royal.
VCs of the First World War 1915 The Western Front Page 5
