Owing to the bright moonlight the enemy saw us advancing. When we were 400 yards from our objective (FOSSE 8) they put up Very lights and kept up a continuous rifle fire on us from our right front – this grew heavier as we got nearer.
The fire was so intense that the attack was held up 70 yards from the slag heap. D Coy and part of C Coy manned the British front line. During this time the Germans started bombing down one of their communication trenches towards the British in their advanced positions. 2/Lt A.B. Turner of the 3rd Bn, 1/Royal Berks, was attached to the 1st Bn and, as the Germans bombed toward them, Turner volunteered to lead a fresh attack when the regiment’s bombers could make no headway against the enemy grenade-throwers down Slag Alley. Turner, virtually single-handedly, drove the German bombers back 150 yards, throwing his bombs incessantly with ‘dash and determination’. The Germans, driven back by Turner’s fusillade of bombs, replied in kind; however, he was not hit by bombs but by a rifle bullet that struck him in the abdomen. Capt. Frizell, temporary commander of the 1/Royal Berks, wrote to Turner’s father explaining how his son was helped back to the dressing-station but as it was impossible for him to stay there he was sent back to the collecting station on a stretcher. Sadly Turner died of his wounds at No.1 Casualty Clearing Station at Chocques, near Béthune, on 1 October 1915. The notification of the circumstances for which Turner was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross appeared in the London Gazette on 18 November 1915. It ended: ‘His action enabled the reserves to advance with very little loss, and subsequently covered the flank of his regiment in its retirement, thus averting a loss of some hundreds of men.’
Alexander Buller Turner was born at Thatcham House, which had been home to generations of Turners, in Thatcham, near Newbury, Berkshire, on 22 May 1893. His family had military links and his middle name, ‘Buller’, indicated that his mother was descended from Gen. the Rt Hon. Sir Redvers Henry Buller VC, who gained his award in the Zulu War in 1879. Turner’s father was Maj. Charles Turner of the Royal Berkshire Regt. Alexander Turner was educated at the Preparatory School, Parkside, East Horsley, and joined the 1st Bn, Royal Berkshire Regt, as a second lieutenant on 22 June 1915. He was wounded two months later on 15 August. Having recovered from his injury, he rejoined his regiment, but going back to the 1st Bn, rather than to the 3rd Bn to whom he had originally been commissioned. On 28 September, in the Battle of Loos, 2/Lt Turner gained his VC.
His VC was originally sent by post to his father, Maj. Charles Turner, but subsequently it was presented to Maj. Turner personally by King George V at Buckingham Palace on 16 November 1916. Retained by his family for many years, his Victoria Cross is now displayed at The Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment (Salisbury) Museum, Salisbury, Wiltshire. His brother, Lt-Col. Victor Buller Turner, who was only 15 years old when his older brother died, won a VC himself twenty-seven years later, on 27 October 1942, while serving in the Western Desert with the Rifle Bde. Later he became the Clerk of the Court and Adjutant of the Queen’s Bodyguard of the Yeoman of the Guard. He lived with his two brothers, Capt. C.B. Turner RN (Retd), and Brig. Mark Turner RA (Retd), and their sister, Miss Turner, at Ditchingham, near Bungay, Norfolk.
Alexander Buller Turner’s name appears on the War Memorial at Thatcham, Berkshire. He is buried at Chocques Military Cemetery, France, Plot 1, Row B, Grave 2.
A.J.T. FLEMING-SANDES
Hohenzollern Redoubt, France, 29 September
The fighting in and around the Hohenzollern Redoubt was continuous. The Germans were in control of some parts of the strongpoint, while other parts were held by the British. The 2/East Surreys were given the task of clearing up the confusion at the redoubt and attacking ‘Little Willie’ (see map on page 186), which threatened any British consolidation in the redoubt.
The 2/East Surreys were threatened by German bombers moving up ‘Little Willie’, and the battalion bombers were forced back behind a new barrier (marked ‘Y’ on the map) which they had erected behind the original barrier (at X). The German progress was halted by men of the 2nd Bn, led by 2/Lt Jannson, who led his men out of the trenches and, lying in the open, poured enfilade fire at the Germans in their trench, inflicting heavy casualties on the enemy but suffering badly themselves.
At this critical point some troops on the right of the redoubt began to retire, thus leaving exposed the right flank. The 2/East Surreys had fought hard in the redoubt for some thirty-six hours and by the afternoon of 29 September their trenches were crowded with dead and wounded and they were running short of bombs. The hard-pressed men in the redoubt were themselves faltering when 2/Lt A.J.T. Fleming-Sandes and a party of 2/East Surreys arrived, having been sent up with a supply of bombs. At this point the Germans launched a fresh attack and Fleming-Sandes scrambled on to the parapet and began to hurl bomb after bomb at the Germans, by now just 20 yards away. The enemy withdrew from his furious onslaught and bullets and hand-grenade fragments flew around Fleming-Sandes. His right arm was broken by a rifle shot but he continued to throw bombs with his left until he was again shot, this time in the face. He was soon evacuated to hospital. The defenders had been inspired by his courage and recovered their spirits; they successfully held the redoubt and the neighbouring trenches until they were relieved at 07.00 hours on 1 October. Fleming-Sandes had, by his example, steadied the men around him and saved the situation. His Victoria Cross was gazetted on 18 November 1915.
Alfred and Grace Fleming-Sandes’ son, Alfred James Terence (known to his friends as ‘Sandy’), was born on 24 June 1894 at their home in Northstead Road, Tulse Hill Park, London. His education began at Dulwich College Preparatory School, and continued at King’s School, Canterbury, where he was monitor and house-captain. When war broke out he enlisted as a private in the Artists’ Rifles on 5 August 1914, sailing for France with the 1st Bn on 26 October that year. He received a commission in France on 9 May 1915 and served with his new unit, the 2/East Surreys, until he was wounded in action on 29 September at Loos when winning the VC.
He received a great reception when he visited his old school after recovering from his wounds. He was decorated by King George V at Buckingham Palace on 15 January 1916. He was not passed fit for active service again until 1918 when he returned as a lieutenant and was Mentioned in Despatches. After being demobilized in 1919 he received an appointment in the education department of the Sudan Government. Fleming-Sandes was then seconded to the political service in 1924, becoming Assistant District Commissioner at El Nahud. He was called to the Bar at Grays Inn in 1927 and was next a district judge in the Sudan Civil Service. He gained rapid promotion and was awarded the Order of the Nile 4th Class in 1932, the year he became a Provincial Judge. He also married Dorothea May, daughter of Mr and Mrs William Weeks of Sandown, Isle of Wight, in the same year. The ceremony took place on 27 August at Newchurch, Isle of Wight. In 1935 he became a judge in the Sudan High Court.
During the Second World War he was given a commission as ‘Bimbashi’ (major) in the Sudan Auxiliary Defence Force, a kind of Sudanese ‘Home Guard’, which he accepted on 23 July 1941. From 1942 to 1944 Fleming-Sandes was Judge Advocate General of the Sudan Defence Force and was Acting Chief Justice of the Sudan on occasions. He retired in 1944 and from 1945 to 1958 was chairman of the Pensions Appeal Tribunal for England and Wales.
Fleming-Sandes was on parade at the VC Centenary Review held by Queen Elizabeth II in Hyde Park on 26 June 1956 and he attended the first and second dinners of the VC and GC Association, held at the Café Royal, London, on 24 July 1958 and 7th July 1960 respectively.
‘Sandy’ Fleming-Sandes of Redway, Dawlish Road, Teignmouth, Devon, died suddenly of natural causes at 23.20 hours on Wednesday 24 May 1961, at the White Horse Hotel, Romsey, Hampshire, aged sixty-six years and eleven months. He was cremated privately at Torquay crematorium on the 30th. He bequeathed his VC and medals to his wife for her lifetime, and directed his trustees to offer them, after her death, to the East Surrey section of The Queen’s Royal Surrey Regiment. Th
is was duly done and his Victoria Cross is now displayed at the Queen’s Royal Surrey Regiment Museum, Clandon Park, Surrey. A friend, Mr G.R.F. Bredin, in a letter to The Times, described Fleming-Sandes as, ‘modest and self-effacing almost to a fault, his life was one of complete devotion to the task in hand. His standards remained inflexible, were they those of professional performance or personal conduct.’ He closed by referring to Sandy’s ‘unostentatious devotion to duty and personal example’, qualities that earned him the VC in 1915.
S. HARVEY
‘Big Willie’ Trench, France, 29 September
The men of the 1st Bn, York and Lancaster Regt (83rd Bde, 28th Div.) moved towards Loos on the 26 September and, like other reinforcements arriving at the front, they were required to relieve the exhausted troops who had made the initial attacks of the Battle of Loos. Orders were received to take up trench positions near the Hohenzollern Redoubt. The trenches were hopelessly congested and the battalion was obliged to occupy some reserve trenches.
A and B Coys, commanded by Capts Forster and Buckley, were sent forward to support British troops in the Hohenzollern Redoubt who were being attacked. The two companies arrived at ‘Big Willie’ trench at about 05.00 hours on 29 September. The enemy held several sections of trench in the area, which enabled them to launch bombing attacks via communication trenches at the British-held sections. At 06.00 hours the Germans made a major bombing attack just as A Coy was advancing up ‘Big Willie’ trench to relieve the Buffs (East Kent Regt) in Dump Trench (see map on page 186); the Buffs had already begun to leave their positions. The enemy had observed the progress of the troop relief from slag heaps on the left of Hohenzollern Redoubt and chose this moment to send their bombing parties along every possible approach in an effort to recapture Dump Trench.
The British troops were closely packed in a narrow trench and, aware of the risk to them, Capt. Buckley led B Coy’s bombers out of the trench to launch a bombing counter-attack in the open. A Coy and the remnants of the Buffs also attacked, but at high cost to themselves. The shortage of bombs was critical and No. 8273 Pte S. Harvey, of the 1/York and Lancs, volunteered to fetch fresh supplies. The communication trench was blocked with casualties and reinforcements so Pte Harvey ran backwards and forwards across the open from ‘Big Willie’ trench to the old British front line, under intense fire, to fetch bombs. He succeeded in bringing up thirty boxes of bombs for his comrades in A and B Coys over a period of thirteen hours, before he was wounded in the head. For his courage he was awarded the Victoria Cross which was gazetted on 18 November 1915, the official citation making it clear that it was ‘mainly due to Harvey’s bravery that the enemy was eventually driven back’.
Samuel Harvey was born at Basford, Bulwell, Nottinghamshire, on 17 September 1881 but soon after his family moved to Vernon Street, Ipswich, Suffolk, close to the docks. He was a small man, only 5 feet tall, but he joined the York and Lancaster Regt in 1905 and sailed to France with the original BEF in 1914. He won his VC near the Hohenzollern Redoubt, and the first his mother heard about it was when he sent her a cigarette card on which his portrait appeared. Pte Harvey was transferred to the 3rd (Home Service) G Bn, Northumberland Fusiliers, as No. 31198 on 7 October 1916. He was decorated by King George V at Buckingham Palace on 24 January 1917. He was wounded in action three times.
After the war Samuel Harvey, nicknamed ‘Monkey’ because of his sense of humour and love of practical jokes, returned to Ipswich. His post-war years were tragic; he scratched a living as an odd-job man, residing at a series of addresses in the town. He dug people’s gardens ‘muttering “dig that trench, etc.” all the time he was digging’. For a time he was an ostler at the Great White Horse Hotel in Ipswich and was well known to Canon Lummis, then a curate in Ipswich and later a vicar in the nearby parish of Kesgrave. Lummis described Harvey as ‘a very rough diamond’.
Harvey married Georgina Brown, a widow from Kesgrave, and lived in Adelphi Place, Ipswich, though she predeceased him and his sisters knew nothing of the marriage. He attended the VC garden party at Buckingham Palace on 26 June 1920 as well as the British Legion VC Dinner at the House of Lords on 9 November 1929. He ended up living at the Salvation Army Hostel in Fore Street, Ipswich, largely forgotten. As he grew older he became absent-minded.
In August 1953 the British Legion took an interest in the 72-year-old VC winner, after a newspaper report described his lucky escape when a length of guttering fell 30 feet from the roof of the Salvation Army Hostel. Two years later he injured his hip in a fall and was left unable to walk. He was taken to London in a wheelchair to meet Queen Elizabeth II at the VC Centenary Review on 26 June 1956, escorted by hospital porter Mr E.J. Crawford of Ipswich. By this time Samuel Harvey had lost his VC. Mr Crawford believed it had been stolen, though the family suspected he had absent-mindedly left it somewhere and it had been ‘picked up’.
Samuel Harvey’s last sixteen months were spent at a former workhouse, Stow Lodge Hospital, Stowmarket, where he died on 24 September 1960, aged 79 years; a miniature replica of the Victoria Cross was discovered under his pillow. He was given a military burial in Ipswich Old Cemetery, some 200 mourners attending his funeral. The service on 27 September was conducted by the Revd C.P. Newell of St Peter’s Church, Ipswich, with television and press cameramen recording the scene. Many old soldiers and members of various Associations attended and a squad of the York and Lancaster Regt was present. Major A.M. Acheston, York and Lancaster Regt, and the Revd Newell made a plea for the return of Harvey’s lost VC so that it could be placed in the Regimental Museum. As well as the VC, Harvey was also awarded the Legion of Honour and the Russian Cross of St George 1st Class, and held the 1914 Star and the War and Victory medals.
Originally, he was buried in a pauper’s grave in the public communal plot in Plot X, Division 21, Grave 3. Samuel Harvey, thanks to the efforts of author Chris Matson and the Suffolk Branch of The Western Front Association, raised funds for a proper headstone.
On 29 September 2000, Samuel Harvey’s resting place was marked with a headstone, 40 years after his death and 85 years to the day, after his heroic VC action.
The ceremony was carried out in the presence of The Worshipful the Mayor of Ipswich and the Mayoress; relatives of Samuel Harvey; representatives of his former regiment, The York & Lancaster Regiment. Members of the Western Front Association, who helped raise funds for the memorial, were also present. The Honour Guard, dressed in First World War uniform, comprised of members of The Association for Military Remembrance ‘The Khaki Chums’ and music was provided by The Community Wind Band and bugler Bramwell Scott of the Salvation Army sounded The Last Post and Reveille.
O. BROOKS
Near Loos, France, 8 October
The Guards Division was called upon to re-enter the trenches at Loos on the night of 3/4 October. By this time the 21st and 24th Divs had been withdrawn from the battle for reorganization and refitment, and were replaced by the 12th and 46th Divs. The recalling of the Guards coincided with the first of the more determined German attacks launched near the Quarries and against the Hohenzollern Redoubt on 3 October. The enemy were repulsed at the former but their possession of Fosse 8 exposed the British troops to enfilade fire, forcing them out of part of the Hohenzollern Redoubt. The expected German attack came on 8 October after a heavy bombardment lasting three hours, the enemy infantry assaulting the front held by 2nd Guards Bde at about 15.15 hours. The main thrust was aimed against a narrow salient in the line just south of ‘Big Willie’ trench, where the track leading from Le Rutoire to the Loos–Haisnes road crossed the trenches (see map on page 187). The German intention was to drive the British out of these trenches, thus straightening the line south of ‘Big Willie’.
The 3rd Bn, Grenadier Guards, was holding an advanced trench and were almost surrounded by the attacking German battalions (from the 97th, 55th and the 77th Infantry Regiments); two of the 3rd Gren. Guards companies were bombed out of their position, their own bombers having exhausted their
bomb supply, and were forced to retreat to a second position in the rear. This could have resulted in an enemy lodgement in the British line. However, the 3rd Bn, Coldstream Guards, who were on their immediate right, managed to save the situation. Despite being hard-pressed themselves, with some Germans having gained a brief foothold in one of their advanced saps before being bombed out by No. 3 Coy, supported by No. 1 Coy, they came to the aid of their fellow Guardsmen. On his own initiative, No. 6738 L/Sgt O. Brooks, 3rd Coldstream Guards, followed by six bombers and a section of rifles, began bombing down the captured trench lost by the Grenadiers. Fierce fighting ensued, lasting some three-quarters of an hour, and ended with L/Sgt Brooks and his men regaining possession of the 200 yards of trench lost earlier. The estimated expenditure of bombs by the battalion during the afternoon was 5,000. The Germans made a last attempt to gain advantage from the fight, assaulting the trenches of the 3rd Coldstreamers, but were repulsed. L/Sgt Brooks was awarded the Victoria Cross for his swift action, the citation praising ‘his absolute fearlessness, presence of mind and promptitude’.
Oliver Brooks, ‘Olly’ to his friends, was born towards the end of 1889 at Bloomfield, Paulton near Midsomer Norton, a mining village in Somerset. He was the youngest of six sons born to Joseph and Mercy Brooks who, by the time of the 1891 census were living in Gladstone Street, Welton, a hamlet adjoining Midsomer Norton. He worked in the Somerset coal pits where, as a boy, he drew coal-trucks harnessed by a chain around his waist. He joined the Coldstream Guards on 17 April 1906, serving for seven years before being released to the Reserve on 17 April 1913. He was a manager of a cinema/theatre at Peasedown, a mining village near his home. He was mobilized at the outbreak of war in 1914, and went to France with the 3rd Coldstream Guards as part of the BEF. In July 1915 he was promoted to lance-sergeant and then to sergeant the day after the action which won him the VC. The award was gazetted on 28 October and on 1 November 1915 Brooks was taken to meet the King on a hospital train at Aire Station, France, on which King George V was being treated after a bad fall from his horse. Despite being confined to bed, the King was determined to invest Brooks himself. Brooks knelt on the floor of the saloon and bent over the prostrate monarch but the King could not manage to get the pin through the thick khaki. A week later Brooks appeared in an advertisement exhorting the virtues of Fry’s chocolate.
VCs of the First World War 1915 The Western Front Page 22
