Funeral of Leighton Buzzard Soldier

Beaudesert Boys’ Council School 1913 [Z50/72/21]

Wednesday 14th November 1917: The funeral of Company Sergeant Major Walter Dennis Toe was held at Leighton Buzzard this afternoon. His coffin was covered with a Union Jack and carried on a gun carriage, and Royal Engineers from Dunstable provided a firing party. Three volleys were fired over his grave at Vandyke Road Cemetery and the Last Post was sounded. “Dennis” Toe was just 20½ years old and the youngest of six brothers serving in the army in Egypt, France and England. Their late father, Frank Toe, served for 22 years in the Kings Rifle Regiment before becoming a postman in Leighton Buzzard. Dennis Toe joined the Northamptonshire Regiment early in 1914 and was sent to France eighteen months ago. He was awarded the Military Medal for gallantry at the Minament Trench in February and was offered a commission, which he refused.  He was severely wounded in the head in August, and died in St. George’s Hospital, London on Saturday following an operation. Among the tributes placed at his grave was a shield sent from his old school inscribed “Beaudesert School salutes one of its heroes”.

Source: Leighton Buzzard Observer, 20th November 1917; Luton News, 15th November 1917; Rollof Honour Leighton Buzzard 

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

Death of a Crimean War Veteran

Royal Oak, Friday Street, c.1925 [WL800/2]

Thursday 5th July 1917: The funeral has taken place today of Leighton Buzzard’s last remaining veteran of the Crimean War, who has died at the age of 82. George Wilson, of 85 South Street, enlisted on Midsummer’s Day 1844 in the 46th Regiment, now the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry. He was sent first to St. Helena and then to the Crimea. By the time he was twenty had spent two winters in the trenches at Sebastopol, where he suffered hardships from lack of suitable food and clothing which exceed any that British soldiers have to endure in the current war. Although a piece of shell took the heel off one of his boots and another knocked a pipe out of his hand, he was never wounded, though he suffered sores from lying on hard ground. He was present at the Battle of Inkerman where he helped to bury the dead.

After the Crimea he went to India where he helped to put down the Indian Mutiny. He was among the soldiers who relieved Lucknow; he also attended the consecration service at the infamous well at Cawnpore, into which the bodies of women and children killed during the mutiny had been thrown. He was discharged after twelve years’ service. In 1882 he became the landlord of the White Swan Hotel at Hockliffe, and  later of the Royal Oak in Friday Street, Leighton Buzzard. He and his wife had seven children (four of whom are still alive) and celebrated their golden wedding two years ago. His wife’s grandfather fought and Waterloo and four of her brothers were in the Army. Two of his sons-in-law are serving as Sergeant-Majors, and four grandsons and four nephews are serving in the Forces. One of his grandsons was badly wounded at Gallipoli. Despite poor health for the last year or so he remained bright and alert, and had been following the present war with interest. Once he became unable to read the newspapers he had the whole of the war news read to him daily.

Mr. Wilson’s funeral was attended by a large number of people. The local police and a detachment of Royal Engineers from the Dunstable Depot led the funeral procession. The body was carried from the house in South Street to the Cemetery. on a gun carriage drawn by six horses, and was covered by a Union Jack onto which Mr. Wilson’s medals had been pinned.

Source: Leighton Buzzard Observer, 3rd and 10th July 1917

Father Sees Son Buried in France

Drawing of Bailey Hill Methodist Church 1898 [MB2274a]

Saturday 16th June 1917: Pioneer Manning, of Frederic Street, Luton, was recently present at the funeral of his twenty year old son Pioneer Harry Manning of the Royal Engineers which took place behind the lines in France. The chaplain who carried out the service has written a letter of sympathy to the young man’s mother, in which he explains that her son was brought in suffering from gas poisoning and could not be saved, although everything possible was done for him. Harry Manning enlisted in the Bedfordshire Regiment in August 1915 and went to France in April last year. He was wounded twice during the Battle of the Somme. In January he transferred to the Royal Engineers and served with them in various parts of the Western Front. Just a week before his death he was transferred to the same company as his father, who was able to see him after he was gassed but before he died. Before the war he worked for a hairdresser in High Town Road, Luton and was a member of the Bailey Hill Church Choir. He was expecting leave when he was killed. His father is now at home on leave, but will return to France tomorrow.

Source: Luton News, 14th June 1917

Accidental Death of a Luton Soldier

Rifleman Augustus Tennyson Bruton

Saturday 15th April 1916: Rifleman Augustus Tennyson Bruton of the King’s Royal Rifle Corps has been buried today at East Hyde Churchyard. Rifleman Bruton’s coffin was carried on a gun carriage covered by the Union Jack. Men from the Royal Field Artillery Training Camp at Biscot and a firing party from the 2/4th Leicestershire Regiment. Full military honours had also been accorded as his coffin was taken from the hospital at Warrington where he died to the station, and wreaths were sent by the hospital staff. Twenty one year old Rifleman Bruton had formerly been a scholar and chorister at East Hyde Church. He had worked at the Luton Hoo garden for four years, and before enlisting he was employed as gardener by Mr. Brown of Highfield, Luton.

The young man died from injuries sustained due to a most unfortunate accident. He had joined the army in November 1915 and was sent to Andover for training. After nine weeks he was sent to France. He was resting after six days in the trenches when the accident happened. He was one of a party receiving bombing instruction on March 2nd when a bomb exploded while the instructor was holding it. Rifleman Bruton’s left foot was badly injured. After five days in hospital in France he was repatriated to the Lord Derby War Hospital at Winwick, Warrington. On April 9th, as he was busy with his duties at church as Parish Clerk of East Hyde, Mr. Bruton received an urgent telegram summoning him to his son’s bedside. With the help of the Vicar and Lady Wernher the parents were taken by motor car to Bedford, where they caught an early train to Warrington. They were able to be with their son for his last hours, before he died at 8 p.m. on Monday 10th. His body was returned to Luton on Thursday,

Source: Luton News, 20th April 1916

Funerals of Two Crimea Veterans

Funeral Cortege of Joseph Harding [Bedfordshire Times]

Thursday 20th January 1916: The number of Bedfordshire’s surviving veterans of the Crimean War and the Indian Mutiny has now dwindled to a tiny remnant, following the funerals this week of two of their number. Joseph Harding of Lansdowne Cottages, Bedford Road, Kempston, died on Thursday 13th at the age of 79 and was buried with full military honours on Tuesday. He was carried to his last resting place by men of the Bedfordshire Regiment who had been wounded in France, with the Band of the 2nd Bedfords at the head of the procession. He was known as a “cheerful, entertaining, and genial old man”. About twenty years he was badly injured falling from a tree and had been unable to work since. Mr. Harding enlisted in the 38th South Staffordshires at the age of 17 and was sent to the front almost immediately, serving through the Indian Mutiny and and Crimean war, and being present at the taking of Lucknow. He served in the same regiment as another Bedfordshire veteran, George Smith of Sun Street, Biggleswade, who also fought in the Crimean campaign and the Indian Mutiny. Both men, with other veterans from the county, had the privilege of attending the Coronation of King George V.

When it was recently mentioned to Mr. Harding that the boys at the front were having a rough time he replied: “They’ll never have worse times than we did in the Crimea. They have never had their hair cut away from the ground before they could get up in the morning, but we have”. He recalled spending time in hospital, saying “Florence Nightingale was an angel. I remember recovering consciousness, and the first thing I knew was that Florence Nightingale was putting a teaspoonful of brandy to my lips”. He was discharged from the army due to heart disease and was granted a pension of five pence a day. Of his fourteen children only six now survive. Two of his four sons served in South Africa, another has been in the trenches, and the fourth has been attested under Lord Derby’s scheme; two of his grandsons have also fought in the trenches.

Another veteran, Mr. Samuel Cooper of 84, Iddesleigh Road, Bedford, died the day after Mr. Harding at the age of 82. Mr Cooper was born at Cotton End in 1833 and enlisted in the 3rd Buffs in his 19th year. When war broke out with Russia he volunteered for service and was transferred to the 42nd Royal Highlanders (The Black Watch). He went East in 1843 and remained for some time at Scutari before becoming one of the first to arrive in the Crimea, where he took part in the battles of Alma and Balaklava. In the trenches before Sebastopol he was wounded by a piece of shell and saved from death only by the purse he was wearing. While engaged in quarrying at Camp Kamara a large stone fell on his big toe, causing an injury from which he suffered off and on for the rest of his life. He returned from the Crimea in 1856 and was sent out to India the following year where he took part in the suppression of the Mutiny and was present at the capture of Cawnpore and Lucknow. After nearly 11 years in the Army he was discharged in 1862. After 12 months in the Bedfordshire Police he served for over twenty years in the Metropolitan Police. After his retirement from the police he opened the West End General Stores in Iddesleigh. His funeral took place yesterday, also with full military honours.

Sources: Bedfordshire Times, 21st January 1916; Biggleswade Chronicle, 28th January 1916.

Funeral of a Luton Hero

Friday 15th January 1915: Private Harry Gray, the son of  Mr Walter Gray of 2 Beech Road, Luton, was buried at Luton today. He died in Edinburgh Military Hospital on Sunday from a bullet wound to the head received while serving with the 2nd Battalion of the Bedfordshire Regiment on 18th October, having born the sufferings of the past three months with heroic fortitude.[1] The house surgeon at Deaconess Hospital, Edinburgh described Private Gray as “just splendid”. He had undergone three operations while at the hospital, for all of which he declined the use of anaesthetics. He appeared to be recovering and was sent to a convalescent home, but grave symptoms developed and he was sent back to hospital. His mother and sister were present when he died.

The 23rd Battalion of the County of London Regiment provided full military honours for Private Gray’s funeral, with a firing party, trumpeters, and bearers. Two hundred members of the battalion marched in the procession. They were accompanied by the band of the 5th Battalion of the Lincolnshire Regiment. Unfortunately it was not possible to find a gun-carriage to convey the coffin. The procession, with the band playing the Dead March, left Beech Road just before three o’clock. A large crowd gathered and lined the route through the centre of town. At the military headquarters the guard turned out with fixed bayonets. As the coffin was lowered into the earth three volleys were fired over the grave and the firing party stood with fixed bayonets while the Last Post was sounded.

Private Gray had served with the Royal Garrison Artillery for 12 years, spending almost the entire period on foreign service. About 12 months ago his period of service expired and he was attached to the 1st Beds Special Reserve. He was called up on August 8th and in mid-September fought in the retreat towards Paris. On October 17th his rifle was smashed in his hands by a German shell but he was unhurt. The next day he received his fatal wound.

Source: Luton News 14th and 21st January 1915

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[1] 18th October was the day on which the 2nd Bedfords suffered their first casualties of the war while advancing on the village of Geluwe. The newspaper first gives the date Private Gray was wounded as 17th October but later makes it apparent it was on the 18th.