Four Brave Brothers

Frederick Walter and Percy Holliman

Thursday 24th August 1916: The four eldest sons of Mr and Mrs Ernest Holliman of 300 High Street North, Dunstable all joined the army to fight for their country, and two have paid the ultimate price. The family lived at Houghton Regis for twenty years before moving to Dunstable, and the father is well-known as a platelayer on the London and North-Western Railway. The youngest of the brothers, Private Percy Holliman, was only 17 years old when his unit was mobilised in August 1914. He was among those sent to the Dardanelles last summer with the 5th Battalion of the Bedfordshire Regiment and died on the 26th September from the effects of wounds received at Suvla Bay. Before the war he worked for a coal merchant at Dunstable. The next brother, 20 year old Private Frederick Walter Holliman, died on August 3rd of wounds received fighting with the Bedfordshire Regiment in France, where he had served for a year and ten months. He was previously employed at Chantry Farm, Houghton Regis. The two older brothers are Driver Jack Holliman, aged 23, who has been in France since 1914 with the Royal Field Artillery, and Private Joseph E. Holliman, aged 24, a regular soldier who completed his term of service last February and re-enlisted. He was invalided home from France last year following an attack of enteric fever, and has since been based at Landguard Camp.

Source: Luton News, 24th August 1916

Houghton Regis V.A.D. Hospital

Houghton Regis, c.1910 [Z49/1024]

Tuesday 26th October 1915: The Voluntary Aid Detachments for Bedfordshire have all been asked to reply to a questionnaire concerning their activities. The response from Houghton Regis  V.A.D. 46 gives a good example of the scope of a detachment’s work:

The Hospital was opened on January 13th 1915 and has been working without interruption up to the present time. The daily average attendance of members is 7, who are on duty two at a time from 7.30 a.m. to 9.30 p.m. The number of patients passed through this Hospital is 195 – the average number of days that patients were retained in the Hospital was 10 days. The Hospital has received a Government Grant of 3/- per day per occupied bed since March 1st and also a Mobilization Grant of £10.0.0 from the British Red Cross Society.

One member has undertaken Special Service at Home, and has been nursing at The Nursing Home, 3 Mandeville Place, Manchester Square West for three months. No members of this Detachment are serving abroad and at present none have volunteered for Special Service, as the Detachment is a small one, and has only been started a year and a half.

A Working Party was formed last winter, to which most of the members belonged, and several large parcels of garments for the sick and wounded were sent to the Depot at Bedford. The members have also done a great deal of needlework for our own hospital.

No Members of the Detachment are working abroad and none have attended at the County Hospital. Night duty was undertaken by the Members from January until May, but as only slight cases of sickness are admitted, it was not found necessary to continue this, and an orderly is now on duty at night.

There were six beds in this Hospital when it was opened, but the number was increased to nine after few weeks, and arrangements are now being made to add five more beds in case they are required for wounded during the winter.

K. M. Baker, Commandant

Source: WW1 Nursing Records [WW1/NU3]

Fatal Accident to Dispatch Rider

Swan Hotel, Leighton Buzzard c.1885 [Z1130/72]

Friday 17th September 1915: An inquest at Houghton Regis heard today of the death of Acting Sergeant Thomas J. W. Hubbard of the Royal Engineers following an accident at Leedon on Wednesday night. Sergeant Hubbard had attended a party at the Swan Hotel, Leighton Buzzard at which the Signals Section had been the guests of their commanding officer Captain Howe and his wife. As he returned to Houghton Regis a tyre came off his motorcycle and he was thrown onto his head, receiving fatal injuries. Dr. Kenneth John Aveling of the Royal Army Medical Corps said he was called to the V.A.D. Hospital at about 10.30pm on Wednesday and found Sergeant Hubbard in bed suffering from pressure on the brain resulting from a haemorrhage caused by a skull fracture. It was a hopeless case and the patient died the next morning.

Quartermaster Sergeant Instructor James Finmore, R.E. described how dinner at the Swan had been followed by a concert at which Sergeant Hubbard had sung “Cheery-O”. The men had been taken to and from the party on motor lorries, with the exception of those who had their own machines and the Sergeants. As he returned to Houghton Regis about a mile from Leighton he saw Sergeant Lefevre off his machine; he stopped and found Sergeant Hubbard lying unconscious beside the road. The injured man was placed on the second lorry which was standing by and taken to Houghton. Sergeant Hubbard knew the road quite well and was perfectly sober. Sergeant John Lefevre said Sergeant Hubbard had passed him on the way from Leighton; some way further on he came across the man and his bicycle in the road. He spoke to Hubbard and shook him gently but got no response, so he made him as comfortable as possible. He believed Sergeant Hubbard’s light went out as he was approaching the corner and with the thick dust of the road and the tyre coming off it was impossible to control the machine.

Police Inspector W. G. Purser had examined the road at the accident spot. In the thick dust he could see the track of a motor cycle which had lost a tyre. The bends in the road were not dangerous and Sergeant Hubbard had passed both. A verdict of “Accidental Death” was returned. The dead man was 31 years old and had previously  ridden professionally for the B.S.A. Co. He leaves a widow and three children at West Ham.

Source: Leighton Buzzard Observer, 21 September 1915

Inquest into Motorcycle Death at Houghton Regis

Army lorries at Houghton Regis, 1915 [Z1130/63/39]

Tuesday 27th July 1915: The adjourned inquest into the death of Second-Lieutenant Hugh Anthony Bertlin at Houghton Regis resumed today. It had been hoped Lieutenant Smith, who was also injured in the motorcycle accident which killed his fellow officer, would be able to attend but the court heard that he could not do so as he was in London to undergo an operation. Lieutenant John Aveling of the Royal Army Medical Corps stationed at the Dunstable Signalling Depot, Houghton Regis, said that he was called to attend Lieutenant Berlin after the accident. He found him unconscious and seriously injured and took him by ambulance to the military hospital at Luton. The resident medical officer at Warden Military Hospital stated the Berlin never rallied or recovered consciousness before he died at 2 a.m. on Monday 12th July. A post-mortem examination showed extensive head injuries. A motor horn battered beyond recognition was produced and the witness stated that these injuries could have been caused by coming into contact with the motor horn.

Frederick Percival Jones, an automobile engineer of Montserrat House, High Street North, Dunstable, said he was driving a 16-20 h.p. Sunbeam car from Luton to Houghton Regis. He knew the road well and was fully aware of the dangerous turning at Houghton. He sounded the horn several times and also used a siren. On rounding the corner he saw the motorcycle about 2 feet 6 inches from the path on the wrong side of the road. He immediately turned his car off the road onto the gravel frontage of the Chequers Inn on the near side of the road, hitting the palings in front of the inn. The motorcyclist appeared to lose control and ran straight into the off side of the car. The horn was at Mr. Jones’ right shoulder, which was where the dead man collided with the car, and he assumed this caused the injury. With the help of some soldiers he took the injured officer to Houghton Hall. Mr Jones said he was travelling at about 10 or 12 mph but eased his pace at the bend, a necessity for a car of that size. He had owned the car for five years and it was in good order. Measurements of the road showed that the car was half on the road and half on the gravel in front of the inn, leaving plenty of space for the motorcycle to pass through.

William Hamson, the landlord of the Chequers was in the taproom when the accident occurred. Going outside he saw two men and a motor bicycle lying in the road. He called out three soldiers who had been playing bagatelle in the public house; they helped him to get Lieutenant Berlin into a car to be taken to Houghton Hall. He took the other injured man into his house. The road was very wide at that point and the car was on its proper side, but he had not heard a hooter or horn. Lieutenant George Harold Williamson of the 2/5th Sherwood Foresters told the Court that the car had passed him going towards Houghton Regis and was travelling very fast round the bend. He estimated the speed at 30mph. After the accident he examined the car’s tracks and said they were in the centre of the road as they came round the bend and continued there for some way before swerving into the near side. He also heard no horn or hooter. Lance-Corporal George Linstead of the Royal Engineers saw the accident from the Chequers and said both the motorcycle and the car were travelling very fast, with the car in the centre of the road. In his opinion anything over 10mph was too fast for that bend.

Police Inspector Frederick Janes went to Houghton Regis on 14th July and saw William Hamson who pointed out three large bloodstains in the centre of the road. The road was 77 feet wide at that point between the fence of Chancery Farm and the Chequers Inn. It was an extremely dangerous corner as drivers of vehicles could not see each other until almost “on top of each other” due to the bends in the road. There was no warning post at the bend. He believed safety would be much improved if a 9 foot tall hedge was cut down to improve visibility. The municipal engineer and borough surveyor of Dunstable, William Fawcett Wilkins, had also taken measurements. Opposite the Chequers outbuilding there were 11 feet clear between the marks of the car’s offside wheel and the grass at the side of the road and 13 feet 9 inches of roadway. Mr. Jones’ counsel pointed out that there was no doubt that the motorcycle was on the wrong side of the road, and that Mr Jones could not have been driving at a very fast speed or the accident would have been even worse and would probably have killed both the motorcycle passenger and the car driver. After considering the matter for quarter of an hour the jury returned a verdict of “accidental death”. The jurors also noted that the hedge which impeded visibility should be cut and a warning post erected.

Source: Luton News 29th July 1915

Glass Thrown at a Soldier in Houghton Regis

Houghton Regis Baptist Church [Z1130/63/15]

Monday 19th July 1915: Leslie Bird, aged 15, pleaded guilty at the Luton Divisional Sessions today to throwing a piece of glass to the danger of the public on Sunday July 11th. Lance-Corporal Vaughan and Lance-Corporal Kelly of the Royal Engineers were working along a footpath near the Houghton Regis Baptist Chapel just before 8 o’clock in the evening when some boys were rather cheeky to them. Lance-Corporal Kelly spoke to them, and as Lance-Corporal Vaughan turned round he was struck on the nose by a piece of glass, causing it to bleed. Bird admitted throwing the glass and said he was sorry it hit the soldier. The Chairman of the Bench expressed regret that a soldier who had already been wounded fighting for his country should be wounded by a silly, dangerous trick at home; while fighting at Ypres Lance-Corporal Vaughan had suffered two broken arms, six wounds in a leg, three broken ribs, and had the top of a finger blown off. Bird was fined 8 shillings with 7 shillings costs as a warning to other boys. His mother said it “was a lad’s action, though he ought not to have done it”.

Source: Luton News 22nd July 1915; Leighton Buzzard Observer 27th July 1915

Tragic Death of a Young Officer at Houghton Regis

Houghton Hall, c.1905 [Z1130/63/49]

Tuesday 13th July 1915:  An inquest opened this morning into the death of Lieutenant Hugh Anthony Bertlin in a terrible motor accident at Houghton Regis on Saturday. Second-Lieutenant Berlin was riding a motorcycle to Luton but just outside the village he collided with a motor car driven by Mr. P. Jones of Dunstable. Second-Lieutenant J. R. Smith who was riding pillion on the motorcycle was seriously injured. After the crash the two officers were taken to Wardown Military Hospital. Lieutenant Bertlin was diagnosed as a hopeless case and his parents were summoned to come at once; he died at 2 a.m. yesterday morning without ever recovering consciousness. He had suffered a fracture of the base of the skull, severe scalp wounds, and cuts and bruises to the face and body. Lieutenant Smith suffered a fractured wrist, cuts and bruises, but is making good progress. Mr. Jones was not hurt in the accident.

The dead officer’s father gave evidence of identification at the officer. Anthony Bertlin, a civil engineer living at Ealing Green, said that his son was aged 24 and had been living in Canada at the outbreak of the war. He joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force in October and came to Britain in March. He was gazetted lieutenant in the Royal Engineers on 10th April and had been stationed at Houghton Regis for ten days. He reported that his son’s sight was good - he was able to read flag-signalling at a distance of two miles - and he was used to riding a motorcycle. The Coroner adjourned the inquest for two weeks, by which time he expected Lieutenant Smith to be sufficiently recovered to give evidence. Lieutenant Bertlin’s funeral is to take place tomorrow afternoon. He will be buried in the village churchyard at Houghton Regis with full military honours. 

Source: Luton News, 15th July 1915