VCs of the First World War 1915 The Western Front

by Peter F Batchelor

  When Smyth asked for volunteers every man stepped forward so he selected those he considered were the strongest ten men. It was then mid-afternoon and the Germans started to shell between the two lines; the smoke and debris caused by this shelling gave some cover to Smyth and his party as they climbed over the parapet. They took with them bandoliers of ammunition and two boxes, each containing forty-eight bombs, and made their way along a badly damaged trench barely 2 feet deep and full of British, Indian and German bodies, losing three men to shell-fire. Smyth’s group had crawled almost one-third of the distance before they were seen by enemy machine-gunners and riflemen who occupied slightly higher ground, and who immediately opened fire on them, inflicting further losses. Further across they had to wade chest-deep along a stream until Smyth, and his one remaining man, Sepoy Lal Singh, and one box of bombs reached a shell-hole close to their objective. Under covering fire from the men in front of them Smyth and the Sepoy dashed the last few yards. Smyth reached the trench safely but Lal Singh was mortally wounded. Miraculously Smyth was unhurt, though his tunic and cap were pierced by a number of bullets.

  Smyth stayed in the trench until dark while further German attacks were repelled, and then returned to the British parapet where his batman, Ishar Singh, awaited him. After a tot of rum from the CO he slept for a number of hours beneath the orderly room table. All the Sikhs in his party were killed or seriously wounded.

  Smyth was recommended for the VC and the citation was published in the London Gazette on 29 June 1915. Early in July he was selected to receive the Order of St George 4th Class (Russia); with this award was a letter from the Tsar which entitled him, among other things, to inspect girls’ schools in Russia. Nine of the men with him were awarded the Indian Distinguished Service Medal and one, Lance-Naik (lance-corporal) Mangal Singh, the IOM 2nd Class; Smyth always maintained these awards were inadequate.

  Smyth was presented with his VC at Buckingham Palace on 12 July 1916, which was the largest investiture of the war to date, where he was one of the few VC recipients able to walk unaided.

  John (‘Jackie’) George Smyth was born at Teignmouth, Devon, on 25 October 1893, the eldest of three sons of William John and Lillian May Smyth. His father worked for the Indian Civil Service in Burma.

  He was educated at the Dragon Preparatory School in Oxford from 1901 and during his time there was seriously ill for two years. Although not expected to survive, he recovered and returned to the Dragon School where he obtained an exhibition scholarship to Repton at the age of 14. His ambition was for a military career and he decided to try for the Indian Army where an officer could survive on his pay. Smyth lived with his mother and brothers at 177 Banbury Road, Oxford, while he was at Repton, rarely seeing his father who was serving in Burma. He went to Sandhurst in 1911, passing out ninth of his class, and in September 1912 sailed from England to join the 1st Green Howards (Yorkshire Regt), for one year’s attachment. Smyth then joined 15th Ludhiana Sikhs in Loralai, Baluchistan, and when war began left India with his battalion for France.

  In the last week of October 1914 the battalion incurred nearly 400 casualties near Rue Tilleloy and spent the rest of the winter in the areas around Festubert and Givenchy.

  On 28 April 1915 the 15th Sikhs were reduced to fewer than 400 of all ranks after an attack on enemy lines north-east of Ypres was halted by machine-gun fire, which caused almost 100 casualties in ten minutes. Smyth rejoined his battalion after his VC award and with it sailed to Egypt later in the year. He fought in the Senussi Campaign in the Western Desert from November 1915 to February 1916 when his battalion was reduced even further by another 200 casualties.

  The battalion returned to India to refit and with it Smyth served on the north-west frontier for nearly three years, being promoted to brigade major of 43rd Bde (16 Div.) in Lahore during 1918. In May 1919 two frontier tribes, the Wazirs and Mahsuds, rose up against the British and on 31 May Smyth won his MC when he helped to save a convoy of supplies that had been ambushed by Mahsud tribesmen. Smyth was recommended for a bar to his VC by his brigade commander, Brig.-Gen. Gwyn-Thomas. Capt. Henry Andrews of the Indian Medical Service won a posthumous VC at this action in the Tochi Valley for saving wounded men.

  Smyth returned to England and on 26 June 1920 was at the first VC reunion when 324 VCs were present. He was presented with his MC by the Duke of York at Buckingham Palace on 21 July 1920, together with brother Herbert ‘Bill’; all of them were so nervous that the citation did not get read. Smyth was married the next day at Brompton Oratory to Margaret Dundas.

  Smyth served in Mesopotamia and was Mentioned in Despatches before joining the Staff at Indian Army HQ at Delhi for four years. He was in England for the VC dinner and procession to the Cenotaph in November 1929 and was again Mentioned in Despatches for his part in quelling a riot in Peshawar city during May 1930 after his return to India. He taught at the Staff College, Camberley, for three years and was appointed brevet lieutenant-colonel in 1933; in 1935 in India he was second in command of 45th Rattray Sikhs under Lt-Col. Hyde-Cates. Smyth returned to England on leave six weeks before the beginning of the Second World War and on 1 February 1940 was given command of 127th Infantry Bde, 42nd East Lancs Div. His first marriage was dissolved and on 12 April 1940 he married Frances Read in Southsea.

  On 23 April he went to France with his brigade and was involved in the fighting prior to Dunkirk from where he sailed back to England on a destroyer on the last day of May. He was again Mentioned in Despatches.

  In June 1941 he returned to India and was operated upon at Quetta hospital for an internal abcess and while recuperating had to be evacuated from the hospital becuase of a severe earthquake, which caused his operation wound to reopen. Although not completely recovered, Smyth took command of 18th Indian (Dagger) Div. in October with the rank of major-general. He was transferred to the command of 17th Indian Div. in December and in early January 1942 he arrived in Burma to command this newly formed division. Smyth’s book Before the Dawn describes the two months after the Japanese invasion of Burma, during which period almost two brigades from 17 Div. were lost at the Sittang River. The result of these operations against the Japanese was that Smyth was deprived of his rank and retired from the service. He was not a well man and it required extensive care in England to restore his health. He became military correspondent for a number of newspapers and from 1946 was tennis correspondent for the Sunday Times. He entered Parliament in February 1950 as Conservative member for Norwood and was created a baronet (First Baronet, of Teignmouth) in 1955.

  Smyth did much to further the cause of ex-prisoners of war in the Far East and in 1956 he was one of the co-founders of the VC and GC Association. Smyth was also a broadcaster, an author, a playwright, and a journalist. He married twice; Margaret Dundas on 22 July 1920, with whom he had three sons and a daughter before the marriage was later dissolved; then to Frances Read on 12 April 1940. One of his sons, Capt. John Lawrence Smyth, 1st Bn The Queen’s Royal Regiment (West Surrey), was killed on 7 May 1944 at the Battle of Kohima. He was the author of more than thirty books, including The Story of the Victoria Cross and two volumes of autobiography, The Only Enemy: An Autobiography [1959] and a revised version, Milestones: A Memoir [1979]. He retired from Parliament in 1966, having been Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Pensions. Sir John Smyth died on 26 April 1983 at his home in Dolphin Square, London and was cremated at Golders Green Cemetery on 29 April. He was succeeded in his baronetcy by his grandson, Timothy John Smyth. His medals (including a replica of his VC, the original having been stolen) were bequeathed to the Imperial War Museum and are displayed in the Lord Ashcroft Gallery. The pavilion roof of the Commonwealth Memorial Gates at Hyde Park Corner bears his name along with other VC winners from the Indian Army.

  L.J. KEYWORTH

  Givenchy, France, 25/26 May

  At 17.30 hours on 25 May, the 24th Bn, London Regt (The Queen’s), 142nd Bde, 47th (London) Div., took over trenches just north of Givenchy in readiness for
an attack later that evening. At 18.30 hours, after a supporting artillery bombardment, the attack began. Advancing on a stretch of the enemy line known as the ‘S Bend’, the leading company reached its objective, points I4 to J7, with few casualties (see map on page 164). The supporting companies followed and within thirty minutes all were in the German front line but were unable to advance further as the enemy was holding the slightly higher ground south of I4 and from there were able to inflict heavy rifle fire on the attacking troops.

  The Battalion War Diary records: ‘6.45–9 p.m. Captured trench being consolidated. A severe bomb fight taking place all the time on the right flank.’ L/Cpl Keyworth of No. 9 platoon was in this ‘bomb fight’ and as he later informed a reporter: ‘I and my chums had already been “blooded” before we were engaged at Givenchy … for we had previously been in the neighbourhood of Festubert in a pretty tight corner.’ (This was at Aubers Ridge on 9 May when the battalion had over 100 casualties). Keyworth then described how half his section were shot down by enemy machine-gun fire before reaching the German line and when bombing in the enemy lines all the bombers were killed except him. ‘I had my duty to do, which was to throw bombs and do as much damage as I could’, he continued. ‘The bravery of my officers – poor Lt Chance died a glorious death, inspiring everybody with pluck – filled me with a “do or die feeling”.’ When his supply of bombs was exhausted, Keyworth was supplied with more by men behind him who continually implored him to lie down. For about two hours Keyworth remained on a parapet, throwing some 150 bombs, and although blinded with dirt on one occasion he survived unscathed, although pieces of shell brushed his ear and damaged a mirror in his pocket. The Germans for most of this time were only about 15 yards away.

  The captured trench was held through the night and the whole of the next day despite being under shell and rifle fire for much of the time until the battalion was relieved by 20th Londons during the evening of 26 May. The Queen’s moved into reserve dugouts at Windy Corner and then to billets in a tobacco factory at Béthune where 250 men paraded at roll call. After this action 142nd Bde was reduced in strength to 1,225 and was taken out of the line.

  The Battalion War Diary states: ‘ … the most noticeable feature of the operations was the retention of the captured trench by a few exhausted, and in many cases wounded, men after it had been subjected to a very heavy enfilade rifle fire’.

  Keyworth was recommended for the DCM for his actions by his company commander, Capt. Armstrong, but was actually awarded the VC, as published in the London Gazette on 3 July. The first Keyworth knew of his VC was when he read a newspaper containing the citation on 4 July.

  Leonard James Keyworth was born on 12 April 1893 at 22 Coningsby Street, Lincoln, one of two children born to James and Emma Keyworth. He attended Rosemary Lane Wesleyan and Municipal Technical Schools in Lincoln and after leaving school worked in the offices of Wm. Foster & Co., Engineers, and subsequently as a clerk for a firm of solicitors, Messrs Burton, Scorer & White, both of Lincoln. Keyworth was a keen sportsman and played both football and cricket, the latter for the Silver Street Cricket Club and also Rechabites Cricket Club with whom he won two medals. A member of the YMCA, he also sang in the choir at the United Methodist Church, Silver Street, Lincoln.

  Shortly after the outbreak of war he attempted to volunteer for service with the Lincolnshire Regt, but was not accepted, so with a friend he travelled to London and joined the 1/24th (County of London) Bn, the London Regt (The Queen’s), on 16 September 1914. The battalion was then stationed at St Albans, Herts, and when Keyworth joined it there in November he was billeted at 63 Heath Road. In late January the Queen’s moved to Hatfield where the men were billeted in the banqueting hall and covered tennis courts at Hatfield House.

  With 6th Bde, 2nd (London) Div., the battalion went to France on 16 March, the second complete Territorial division to arrive in France. Billeted near Béthune, the Queen’s first went into the front line on 25 April in the Rue de l’Epinette sector, north of Festubert. In its first engagement at Aubers Ridge on 9 May the battalion suffered over 100 casualties; on 11 May the 2nd Div. was renumbered 47 (London) Div., and on the 14th, 6th Bde became the 142nd.

  Keyworth arrived at Victoria station, London, early on the morning of 11 July, although his appointment at Buckingham Palace was the following day. He visited Lincoln on the 17th and at a ceremony that was also attended by Cpl James Upton VC, he was presented with an illuminated address and a purse of money. Both VC winners were later entertained by the Mayor at the Albion Hotel. Keyworth received a number of gifts during his stay in Lincoln from the various associations and clubs to which he belonged.

  Having returned to London, Keyworth rode with the Mayor of Southwark in a procession through the main streets of the Borough on 21 July, culminating with a presentation at Manor Place Baths of another illuminated address and a pair of binoculars. He appeared at a number of recruiting meetings including one at the Old Vic Theatre before returning to France to join his battalion.

  Near Givenchy, May 1915

  The Queen’s went into the front line during the Battle of Loos and held trenches between Loos and Lens for three days at the end of September. In early October the battalion was in trenches near Le Rutoir and was involved in operations to capture Hulluch. On 15 October a member of 5th Field Ambulance, based at Noeux-les-Mines, recorded in his diary: ‘ … steady stream of wounded, among whom is Lance/Corporal Keyworth VC … hit in the head ….’ Keyworth was moved to hospital at Abbeville and died at about 20.15 hours on 19 October without recovering consciousness. He is buried in Abbeville Communal Cemetery, Plot III, Row C, Grave 2. The London Gazette of 25 August announced the posthumous award of the Cross of St George 2nd Class (Russia).

  Keyworth’s name appears on the City of Lincoln War Memorial and also on the Great War Memorial in Silver Street Methodist Church, Lincoln. Silver Street Methodist Church was demolished in the 1960s, not having been used as a place of worship for many years, and the memorial vanished until it was discovered buried in a garden in the village of Cherry Willingham (near Lincoln). The stone tablet, bearing the names of sixteen men including Leonard Keyworth VC, was restored and on Sunday 25 November 2007 a service of re-dedication took place at All Saints Church, Lincoln. The bulk of the costs of restoration was provided by the Lincoln Branch of the Royal Lincolnshire & Royal Anglian Regimental Association. A wooden memorial, also recording his name, in St Mary’s Church, Newington, was destroyed by bombing during the Second World War. The Borough of Southwark raised a fund to perpetuate Keyworth’s name and in 1916 the money, £112 16s. was made over to the LCC and called ‘the Keyworth VC 1915 Memorial Prize Fund’. The organizing committee rules said that the interest from this fund should provide for two school prizes each year in each of five schools in the borough. The awards of books with special book-plates and gold-blocked covers were made annually and in 1916, when the first awards were made, Keyworth’s sister Lily made the presentations at three of the schools. Apart from a period during the Second World War, prizes have been given each year and on the occasion of the VC centenary in 1956, Lily Perkins (née Keyworth) presented the awards at Joseph Lancaster School. The Regimental Old Comrades’ Association presented each of the five schools with a framed and inscribed photograph of Keyworth in the same year.

  On 4 November 1919 Dantzig Street in London (originally Market Street) was retitled Keyworth Street; at later dates Providence Place, off Keyworth Street, was renamed Keyworth Place and an office block in Keyworth Street was named Keyworth Place. Faunce School, one of those in receipt of prizes, was renamed Keyworth School in 1951–2 after efforts by the Regimental OCA.

  Lily Millie Keyworth married William Perkins in 1921 and their only son was named Leonard James Keyworth Perkins. On the death of Mrs Perkins, her son Leonard offered his uncle’s medals to the Regiment and they were purchased for £460 in 1962.

  W. MARINER

  Near Cambrin, France, 22 May

  On 22 May,
less than a mile away from where the battle of Festubert was being fought, the 2nd KRRC (2nd Bde, 1st Div.) was holding the front line in the Cuinchy/Cambrin sector, south of the La Bassée Canal, an area much fought over in the preceding months. A violent thunderstorm was in progress during the night when No. A/2452 Pte Mariner of B Coy volunteered to try to silence an enemy machine-gun which had been responsible for many casualties to working parties.

  Mariner crawled through the British defences and the German wire to where the machine-gun was positioned, climbed the parapet and threw a bomb into the gun emplacement. He heard the cries of wounded men and the sound of the survivors retreating but some fifteen minutes later Germans started returning to the strongpoint, so Mariner, who had remained on the enemy parapet, climbed to the other side of the emplacement and threw another bomb into it with his left hand. Heavy enemy artillery fire was brought down near the wire protecting the German front line but Mariner lay down close to the parapet until the fire subsided. He then returned to his own trenches, and was almost killed by a sentry who thought he was a German. Mariner had been out of the British line for more than an hour and a half. An eye-witness account, written in the early 1990s by another KRRC soldier tells a slightly different story. Eighteen-year-old Jack Laister crawled out with Mariner and cut a gap in the German wire for him. Mariner had taken two bandoliers of Mills bombs with him and, after removing his tunic and shirt so as not to get snagged on the wire, commenced throwing bombs from the German parapet into the trench. Laister, who had by then managed to crawl halfway back to the British trench, described the scene: