Douglas Bridgewater
17 Nov 2014
Henley-in-Arden had a population of 1,200 in 1911 which made it possible for most inhabitants to know each other, and eased research. Pictures showed a largely deserted High Street, in which the North Warwickshire Hunt could meet outside the vicarage (now Barclay’s Bank), and from which two of its many pubs – The White Horse and The Bear – have now disappeared. St John’s Church lost its spire in 1910.
In 1909 The War Office scheme for Voluntary Aid was introduced to assist the Territorial Army Medical Services. 6,000 civilians volunteered within its first year. Henley had two VA Detachments - one for men, the other for women – both instructed by Dr Ernest Nicholson, the local GP. The latter (1871-1933) had attended Arden House School, run by his father, in Henley before going to Haileybury, Clare College Cambridge, and St Thomas’ Hospital London where he qualified in 1900. Henley’s Public Hall & Institute opened in 1908, with a seating capacity of 430 – and a rifle range. These facilities were used as a hospital for other ranks throughout the Great War. On 6 August 1914 the two VADs, numbering 28 men and 19 women, gave a demonstration, in which the local boy Scouts acted as the wounded.
The first wounded soldiers from various regiments, including the Cameron Highlanders, arrived via Birmingham on 21 November 1914. There were 22 beds, but the number had increased to 40 by 1916 when an extension also created an operating theatre. In addition, 30 beds were available in Wooton Hall, then owned by the Guinness family. In an age before antibiotics, Dr Nelson was convinced that fresh air helped heal wounds. An 8 bed open air ward was built in four days, being the first such facility in the UK. Until the hospital closed in April 1919, 1,500 war wounded were treated, with only two deaths, by 30 VAD nurses and 30 auxiliaries – mainly women as the men were conscripted – all unpaid volunteers.
Haldane’s Army reforms included the 1907 Territorial Force Act. In Warwickshire the Territorial Army comprised the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th Battalions of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, the Warwick Battery of the Royal Horse Artillery, and the Yeomanry. The latter dated back to 1794, had served in the Boer War, and had squadrons at Birmingham, Kineton, Leamington and Stratford-on-Avon – which included a group of volunteers from Henley (notably Sgt Major Harris and his three sons). All volunteers had to attend 40 training days in their first year ( reduced to 20 in the second and subsequent years) and a fortnight’s camp held from 1909 onwards. They were paid at full army rates during camp. All units were mobilised by telegram sent out at 6.30pm on 4 August 1914, ie several hours before war was declared. Warwicks Yeomanry served in East Anglia, Egypt 1915, then as an infantry unit at Gallipoli, and as a machine gun unit in Sinai and Syria. Kitchener realised that the war would not be over quickly and stipulated that recruits should serve for three years. His famous poster encouraged 300,000 men to volunteer in August 1914, with a further 700,000 by the end of that year. The Royal Warwicks formed 3 Battalions at Warwick and another 3 in Birmingham (The Pals). The latter 4,500 were largely middle class as only non-manual workers were encouraged to volunteer. Conscription was introduced in January 1916 for unmarried men aged 18-41 (later increased to 52).
180 Henley men served in WWI forces, of whom 29 died. John Horsely, a local groom and married for 14 years in 1911, volunteered for the Yeomanry and served at Gallipoli. He returned to become a member of Henley’s fire Brigade and died in 1941. His son Geoffrey was conscripted into the Royal Berkshire Regiment in 1917, but was severely wounded and discharged in 1919. He married in 1926, lived in Coventry and died in 1963.
Harry Hawkes was a Henley butcher who had served – as had his father – with the Yeomanry. His son, Percy (1891-1973), was a Serjeant in the Yeomanry when he served at Gallipoli; he was transferred to the Labour Corps after being wounded, and was discharged in April 1919. His younger brother, Jack, a bank cashier in 1911 and a member of the VAD, joined the Yeomanry in 1914 and served in East Anglia as a riding instructor. Commissioned into the Leicestershire Regiment, he went to France in June 1918 and died of wounds in September. Arden Cottrell attended King Edward’s School, Birmingham, where he was in the Officers’ Training Corps. He was commissioned in May 1915 into the Royal Warwicks, and went to France a year later. An Acting Captain, he won the MC in 1917 at the Battle of the Somme but was badly wounded and taken prisoner in June 1918. He died in August and was buried in Cologne. At the time of his death he was engaged to Marjorie Hawkes, the younger sister of Percy and Jack.
The three Huggards were brothers. Leslie (1892-1960), son of a Henley postman, joined the Coldstream Guards before 1911. One of the ‘Old Contemptibles’, he was wounded at Mons in 1914. He was wounded again in 1915. He married in 1918 and became a Police Constable in Henley. Cyril (1894-1923) joined the East Yorkshire Regiment in 1911. He landed at St Nazaire in 1914 but was seriously wounded soon afterwards and repatriated to England where his right arm had to be amputated. He married in 1915 and was discharged in 1916. Gordon (1897-1952) enlisted in the Royal Warwicks in 1914 and was commissioned into the Oxford & Bucks Light Infantry a year later. In 1918 he transferred to the RFC as a Flying Officer and in the early 1920s was serving with 31 Squadron RAF at Mhow in India.
Gerald Sladen was not a Henley man but, as a Captain in the Rifle Brigade, was transferred to be the Adjutant of the 8th Royal Warwicks, and commanded the Battalion in France from 1915. He was much decorated in 1916 with a DSO in January, MC in June, and a bar to his DSO in July. That autumn he was promoted Brigadier General in command of the 143rd Infantry Brigade. He was awarded the CMG on 1 January 1919 and a CB later that year when he retired from the Army. Gerald and his wife, son and two daughters lived at Hillfield, Liveridge Hill, Beaudesert during the war years, but on retirement moved to Kenya where he died in 1930.
At the other end of the spectrum was Samuel Elvins (1895-1956) of Solihull, a gardener, who enlisted in 1915 in the Royal Warwicks. He arrived at Etaples in May 1916 and a year later was blown up in a trench and buried. He was extricated, hospitalised in England and sent back to the trenches despite suffering severe shell shock. He was repatriated again and discharged in March 1917 when he was issued with a Silver War Badge (issued to those discharged with wounds to avoid female civilians giving them White Feathers). Dr Agar of Henley then employed him as a gardener but, unaware of Samuel’s war record, wrote to the District Tribunal suggesting he should join the Army. The Tribunal agreed, but his records were eventually located and he was not called on to re-enlist.