Leighton Buzzard Casualties

North Street, Leighton Buzzard c.1911 [Z1306/72/12/6]

Sunday 6th October: The tide of the war appears to have turned in favour of the Allies and there is real hope that victory is in sight; however, the toll of those killed and wounded continues to rise. Second Lieutenant Vivian Willis, of the Leighton Buzzard solicitors firm W. G. and V. V. Willis, has been wounded while serving with the Tank Corps. He had a lucky escape when a piece of shell flattened a whistle and a watch in his breast pocket and passed down his side, wounding him in both arms and the right thigh, side and hand. He is in hospital at Epsom and is expected to make a complete recovery.

Leading Seaman Frederick Brazier of 3 Friday Street was badly burned in the face, arms and body while serving on a naval ship three weeks ago. He is in hospital at Deal and although the burns are healing it has now been discovered that he has a broken left arm. He has served fifteen years in the Navy and was home on leave from the Mediterranean just a few weeks ago. His wife visited him in hospital and found him cheerful. The son of another resident of Friday Street, Private Harold Butcher of the Suffolk Regiment, is convalescing from the effects of gas. He served for six months in France before being sent to Palestine two years ago, and had only returned to the Western Front within the last three months.

The families of two soldiers now known to have been killed in action have undergone very different experiences, with one enduring a long wait and the other a sudden loss. Private Joseph George Jordan, the husband of Mrs Daisy Jordan of Ivy Cottage, Vandyke Road has been missing for virtually a year. She has finally been notified by the War Office that he is believed to have been killed on or soon after 9th October last year.[1] Mr. and Mrs. George Day of 27 Hockliffe Road have heard that their nineteen year old son, Trooper Cyril George Day, was killed on 5th September, only three weeks after arriving in France.

Sadly enemy action is not the only cause of death for soldiers serving in France. Private Alfred Joseph Dudley, whose parents live in North Street, joined the Army two years ago, and as his fitness only fell into the Class B1 category he was placed in the Royal Army Medical Corps. Service with the Field Ambulance appears to have been too much for his constitution, which was never strong, and he has died of dysentery. He leaves a widow and a three year old daughter.

Source: Leighton Buzzard Observer, 8th October 1918

[1] The Commonwealth War Graves Record for Private Jordan gives his date of death as 9th October 1917. He is commemorated at the Tyne Cot Memorial, indicating that his body was never found.

Luton Doctor Awarded Military Cross

Dr. Robert Daniels Bell [Luton News]

Monday 4th February 1918: Luton has been delighted to hear the news that well-known local doctor Robert Daniels Bell of Dunstable Road, who was last heard of a year ago while he was home on leave from Egypt  has been awarded the Military Cross. Captain Bell was serving with the Royal Army Medical Corps on Christmas Eve when the brigade to which he was attached was severely bombarded. He was kept hard at work attending to the wounded, while gas shells burst around him. He took off his gas mask to give better attention to a bleeding soldier, but was gassed before he could put it on again and himself became a casualty. He is now at home and progressing excellently. His brigade took the unusual course of recommending him for immediate honours.

Source: Luton News, 31st January 1918

News of Heath and Reach Soldiers

Heath and Reach, 1905 [Z1130/57/4]

Friday 13th July 1917: Private James Baker, aged 23, who died of wounds on Tuesday, has been buried with full military honours in the cemetery at Heath and Reach. Private Baker was wounded and advised by his officer to go to the dressing station, but insisted on staying to attended to injured comrades in greater need. However when he returned to the battlefield he received another wound which after seven weeks of acute suffering caused his death. He was treated in Leeds Infirmary, where he had one leg amputated and underwent three further operations. Despite the best efforts of the doctors he finally succumbed to his injuries. Private Baker was attached to the 7th Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps and had been serving in France as a stretcher bearer for eight months. He was awarded the Military Medal for his gallantry.

Mrs A. Hines of Thomas Street in Heath has heard that her husband Private A. Hines has been hospitalised in France with an injured back. He and five others were with a labour party of the Queen’s West Surrey Regiment when a shell exploded nearby, burying all six men. Only Private Hines escaped alive. A third Heath man, Private W. Kenny of the Bedfordshire Regiment, has been discharged from the army. After active service in Egypt he suffered a nervous breakdown and has since spent several months in hospital in Scotland.

Source: Leighton Buzzard Observer 10th and 17th July 1917

Luton Doctor in Egypt

Bute Hospital ward 1913 [Z1306/75/5/3]

Monday 15th January 1917: News has reached us of Dr. Robert Daniels Bell, a respected Luton medical man. Before the war Dr. Bell had a practice in Dunstable Road, and also worked with the Bute Hospital, the Children’s Hospital, and the Luton Union House. For the past year he has been serving in Egypt the Royal Army Medical Corps. While home on leave Dr. Bell has told the Saturday Telegraph:

“I saw a lot of the Luton boys. They were among the pluckiest, the cheeriest, and the most determined out there, despite the fact that the lads I saw were probably wounded or invalided. Several of them recognised me, and they all asked me how Luton was getting on. They had been away a very long time. I am afraid the soldiers who get out to places like Egypt and Mesopotamia are not so much thought of as those nearer home. It is believed that they have an easy time of it, but in those tropical climates they have a lot to put up with. It is a hard existence in the desert, and I hope those at home will show as great kindnesses to our lads out there as to those elsewhere, for they deserve it.”

 Dr. Bell has decided to continue his work with the military, but does not yet know whether he will be sent back to Egypt or to France. On entering his second year of service he will receive promotion to the rank of Captain. He has also expressed his thanks to his colleagues in Luton who will continue to carry on his medical practice in his absence, although “very much overworked”.[1]

Source: Luton News 11th January 1917

[1] Dr. Bell entered medical practice at Dunstable Road in 1906/7. For his second term of service he was sent to France, where he was gassed  later in 1917. He was mentioned in dispatches and after the war was awarded the Military Cross for gallantry and distinguished service in the field in March 1918. By the time he died in the 1930s the practice was based at Liverpool Road and was served by four doctors; in the late 1930s it moved to a purpose built surgery at 163 Dunstable Road. The surgery was renamed Bell House Medical Centre in 2002 in honour of Dr. Bell. [History of Bell House Medical Centre]

Royal Army Medical Corps Deserter Tried

Horse drawn ambulances of the R.A.M.C. moving along High Street, Bedford 1914 (z1306/12/5/20 Bedfordshire Archives)

Friday 15th December 1916 It is reported that an actor named Hugh McNagel was brought up in Bedford on the charge of being a deserter of the Royal Army Medical Corps. McNagel had been with the R.A.M.C. on the battlefield in France. He has been identified by a Lance-Corporal as having deserted his regiment in June. McNagel has pled guilty, stating that there were documents proving he had deserted in order to join a combatant Irish Regiment, and requested these be given to the escort. This was agreed to and McNagel was given over to a military escort.

Source: Bedfordshire Standard 15/12/1916

Bereavement for Another Luton Family

Informal group at a military camp, c.1914. Men wearing RAMC badges.

[Z1306/12/9/3]

Saturday 6th November 1915: Another young Luton man has fallen at Gallipoli. Twenty year old Joseph Edward Betts of Ashton Road joined the Royal Army Medical Corps two years before the war began. As a private in the Eastern Mounted Brigade Field Ambulance he trained at the Grove Road depot where the Brigade has its headquarters. He sailed for the Dardanelles on August 8th but never made it ashore. His commanding officer, Major Archibald, has written to Private Betts’ mother describing his last moments:

“He was killed by a bullet in the head. It hit him as he was getting on the deck of the ship to the landing lighters. His comrades did not hear him make a sound, and did not know he had been hit until they were ordered to fall in, when they found they could not rouse him. We brought his body to this place today, and a chaplain has just taken it ashore for burial … I cannot say how grieved I feel at the loss of such a promising young life. He was greatly beloved by all of us, and we all mourn the loss of a faithful and trusty comrade”.

The Betts family also have a younger son, Claude, who enlisted in the 1/5th Battalion of the Bedfordshire Regiment. As Claude is only 17 years old[1] his mother has requested that he should be kept in England until he is older; he has been sent to the 3/5th Battalion which is currently stationed at Newmarket.

Source: Luton Times 5th November 1915

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[1] The newspaper report give his age as 15 but other records show that William Claude Betts was born in 1898. He survived the war. 

A Heroic Doctor

King George greets wounded officers at a field hospital (Wellcome Images)

Copyrighted work available under Creative Commons Attribution only licence CC BY 4.0

Friday 23rd April 1915: Lieutenant Ernest Pipkin Stratford, R.A.M.C., M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P. of No.8, British Field Ambulance, Lahore Division of the Indian Expeditionary Force died at Bourne End on Tuesday from general septicaemia following a shell wound, and has been buried today with full military honours. Dr. Stratford was the only son of a highly respected old Leightonian, Mr. Samuel Pipkin.[1] He was born in 1876 and educated at Marlborough School, then Emmanuel and Downing Colleges, Cambridge, and St. Thomas’s and St. Mary’s Hospitals. After qualifying he worked as a medical officer to the West Ham Hospital for diseases of the nervous system. He saw service with Bethune’s Mounted Infantry in the South African War and reached the rank of Captain before being invalided home after the relief of Ladysmith. At this time who adopted his mother’s maiden name by deed poll.

Dr. Stratford volunteered early in the present war, working first as one of the surgeons at Netley Hospital, then as a surgeon specialist at the Bournemouth Hospital for Indian troops. At his own request he went to the front in charge of a British Field Ambulance. He had rigged up an impromptu hospital for the wounded in the village school near Neuve Chapelle. On 17th March shells began to fall around the school; many of the wounded men were killed but the doctor and his colleagues stuck to their work. The house next door caught fire and he and others went in to bring out the wounded. Another shell burst in the room, blowing Dr. Stratford through a wall. Part of the shell struck a finger on his left hand, but he took little notice of this minor wound. That night he performed several operations but there were no gloves to protect his hands and he contracted septic poisoning. After some days in hospital near Dieppe Dr. Stratford was invalided home. He appeared to be recovering but became suddenly ill on Tuesday and died at midnight. He leaves a widow but no children.

Sources: Leighton Buzzard Observer and Linslade Gazette 27th April 1915; St. Thomas’ Hospital Memorial List

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[1] Samuel Pipkin appears to have been a self-made man. Born in 1847, he appears on the 1861 census as the son of a brewer’s journeyman in Leighton Buzzard. In 1873 he married Emma Stratford but Emma died in 1876 soon after her son’s birth. In 1881 the widowered Samuel was boarding in the house of a schoolmistress with his 6 year old daughter Kate and 4 year old Ernest and working as an insurance auditor. He subsequently married the schoolmistress and became an insurance manager. At the time of his son’s death he was living at Westbourne Terrace in West London. 

Red Cross Cars for the Front

A Red Cross Train, France (H. Septimus Power)

(Imperial War Museum, available under IWM Non Commercial Licence)

Monday 19th April 1915: Mr. Arthur Brown, Mr. C. R. Clay and Mr Rupert Plummer left Luton today to drive three new Red Cross cars to the battlefield. The cars will be used to convey wounded soldiers to hospital trains from as near to the firing line as it is possible for them to reach. The number of Red Cross vehicles in use in France now amounts to 400 cars, 78 touring cars, 32 motor lorries, 21 motorcycles, 8 travelling kitchens and 5 travelling workshops. There are around 560 drivers, with 430 being paid and the others volunteers. The military authorities supply the Red Cross with petrol and tyre, and provide billeting for the men.

The cars taken out by our Luton men are 20 h.p. Colonial type Napiers with a specially high clearance; each car is able to carry the driver and six passengers. Including equipment and spares the outlay amounts to £700 per car. The car driven by Arthur Brown is the gift of his family, Mr. Clay bought his own car, and the car driven by Rupert Plummer was purchased by his father, Mr. Matthew Plummer. The cars remain their own property, but it is unlikely there will be much left of them to bring back. Cars in the fighting area have a short life as they are constantly driven over extensively damaged roads and within the fire zone. The three drivers are all giving their services voluntarily, and will be expected to remain with the Red Cross for at least six months. Mr. Brown volunteered for this work early in the war, and as an expert motorist has already been providing the military authorities with valuable service.

It is expected that the drivers’ work in France will be directed by the officers of the Royal Army Medical Corps. The hoods fitted to the cars enable them to be closed right in, and when necessary they will have to live and sleep in their cars. They will form part of 25 vehicle convoys which typically have three or four cars of this type for patients who are able to sit up, with the rest of the convoy made up of stretcher ambulances. 

Source: Luton News, April 22nd 1915

Bedford Boys in France

Group of men and women at military camp, c.1914. Men appear to be medical corps. [Z1306/12/9/3]

Tuesday 16th March 1915:  Private J. Craig of Bedford who is serving with the Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps has written to tell his friend Harry Harvey of the Foundry United Cricket Club that they are having the time of their lives in France:

“We have been very busy, night and day, and not much convenience to drop a line. I am in the best of health, and having a good time and getting on fine. We are getting it a bit lively round here now, and there is likely to be a lot of excitement, but that is just what we like – better than being idle and nothing to do, as previously. Never had such a time in all our lives. If we manage to get through it, which I think some of us will, we shall have plenty to talk about, and hope to have some good times together again. I think we shall be home again within a very few months, to give you a hand with the machines, etc., for the next war! Lots of old Bedford boys are around here; I came across some of them the other day, but could not stop for many minutes, but it was quite a treat to see some of them. We are living well and plenty to smoke (thanks to the “Beds Standard” Tobacco Fund) so nothing to grumble about. When we run short I will let you know.”

Source: Bedfordshire Standard 19th March 1915

Missing Horses

RAMC band marching in Bedford 1914 [Z1306/12/5/41]

Sunday 9th August 1914 (Luton): Since the war started the army has been commandeering the horses it needs from the town. Requisitioning parties have been at work all week, and have not always shown much regard for the owners' feelings. A local doctor had his horse seized from outside his door: its hooves had been branded even before it was moved away from the house. 

Some organisations have been more successful than others. The Royal Army Medical Corps found itself in particularly difficulties. Representatives of the RAMC had been round the town and sourced all the horses they needed but had not actually requisitioned them. When they went back to claim the horses they found other parts of the army had got there first. In the end the RAMC were forced to leave town without the animals they needed.

Source: Luton News 13th August 1914