by James | Mar 4, 2018 | Uncategorised
Today we remember Eric George Palmer who was killed in the Great War 101 years ago this day.
Eric is remembered on the Bourne War Memorial and also at Fins New British Cemetery.
Eric was born in Higham Ferras, Northamptonshire. He was the 2nd son of Charles Simpson Reginald Palmer, a Grocery and Produce Merchant and his wife Mary Matilda Joll.
Eric was originally intended to work at the office of Morgan and George, Solicitors of Wellingborough when he received his call up to the 3rd Battalion Northamptonshire Regiment.
He was posted to the 2nd Battalion Northamptonshire Regiment and saw action in France.
Eric was killed in action on the 4th March 1917 and is buried in Fins New British Cemetery.
From the 1st March the Battalion had moved to Asquith Flats. On the 4th they attacked the enemy on the Moislains Ridge. thjey had met their objectives and came under repeated counter attacks. During this day 7 officers and 235 other ranks were listed as casualties of this action.
The Northampton Mercury for Friday 16th March reported the sad news of the death of Lieut. Palmer with much regret in Wellingborough where is was very well known and popular. His father was the Vice-Chairman of the Wellingborough Board of Guardians and prominently associated with the Wesleyan Church.
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission adds the following memorial;
In memory of Lieutenant E G Palmer, 3rd Battalion. attd. 2nd Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment who died on 4 March 1917 Age 21. Son of Reginald and M A Palmer, of The Haven, Bourne, Lincs. Remembered with honour, Fins New British Cemetery, Sorel-Le-Grand
by James | Feb 17, 2018 | Uncategorised
Today we remember Langtoft man, Abraham Warn who lost his life 101 years ago today.
Abraham was born in Langtoft in 1877, 6th child born to William Warn, a cottager with his 2nd wife Martha Coddington.
Abraham’s father passed away before 1901, where Abraham can be found living with his mother in Langtoft. He worked as a farm labourer in Langtoft before enlisting in the army with the Prince of Wales’ own West Yorkshire Regiment.
Abraham was serving with the 2nd/5th Battalion Yorkshire when the battalion was mobilised for war in January 1917.
Private Abraham Warn, 202055, 2nd/5th Bn, Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales’s Own, who died on 17 February 1917.Age 37
Son of Martha Warn, of Gray’s Cottage, Langtoft, Peterborough, and the late William Warn. Remembered with honour, Thiepval Memorial.
Abraham is one of the 8 men commemorated on the Langtoft village memorial.
by James | Feb 8, 2018 | Uncategorised
Today we remember the 100th anniversary of the death of John Tom Haines, commemorated on the Bourne Memorial and also on the Thiepval Memorial to the missing of the Somme.
John Thomas Haines was born in Spalding in 1883.
The son of John William Haines and possibly the step son of Suzannah Jane Blood.
By 1901 he was living in Bourne and in 1911 can be found in Dyke.
John enlisted in on the 8th February 1917 in Bourne and served in the 7th Battalion (Alexandra Prince of Wales Own) Yorkshire Regiment, and also the 13th Battalion, although “Soldiers died in the Great War” lists him as Yorkshire Hussars.
He was killed on 8th February 1917, aged 34. Commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial.
by James | Feb 2, 2018 | Remembrance
Today we remember the centenary of the sad death of William Stanley Lynn of Edenham, who died on the 2nd February 1918, after serving with the 8th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment.
William was born in the spring of 1896 in Edenham to Thomas Lynn, a blacksmith, originally from Newton on Trent and his wife Mary Bates of Aslackby.
Thomas and Mary were married in 1894. Mary already had a son, Ernest Tom Bates, who was born in 1885.
Thomas and Mary probably started their married life in Aslackby where their first Daughter Kate was born in 1892. Their second child, a son named Joe Gibson Lynn, was born in Sibsey in 1895. the family eventually settled in Edenham and their final three sons were all born here.
William Stanley Lynn, 1896, Edwin Harry Lynn, 1897 and Thomas Walter Lynn, 1899.
In 1901 the family were living on back Lane in Edenham, Thomas having his own blacksmith’s business. By 1911 William has found employment as a farm labourer, the family still living in Edenham.
On the 2nd September 1914 William enlisted into the Army in Bourne and joined the 8th Battalion Lincolnshire regiment. After his initial training he was posted to France on the 10th September 1915 as the first posting for the 8th Battalion. The Battalion first saw action in the battle of Arras being stationed in Bois Hugo at the start of the attack.
The battalion also saw action in the Battle of the Somme and were present at the battles of Albert, Bazentin Ridge, Flers-Courcelette, Morval, The Capture of Gueudecourt, Transloy Ridge, and then onto the Battle of the Ancre.
1917 saw the Battalion in action in the German retreat to the Hindenburg Line and were fighting in the battles around Arras before in July being moved to Ypres in preparation for the Battle of Passchendaele.
On the 13th July 1917, William Lynn reported to the medical officer with a complaining of shortwindedness, sharp pain over the left chest and a cough. He was sent to the 50th Field Ambulance and then on to the 55th Casualty Clearing Station. Thence the 55th General Hospital in Boulogne. After being shipped home he was admitted to Springburn Woodside General Hospital in Glasgow on the 27th July 1917. He was diagnosed has having contracted Tuberculosis of the Lungs and was eventually discharged from hospital on the 6th August.
William was subsequently confirmed for discharge from the army on 29th August 1917 as being medically unfit.
William eventually succumbed to the aftereffects of T.B on the 2nd February 1918 aged 21.
- Commonwealth War Graves Commission:
- In memory of Private William Stanley Lynn, 11891, 8th Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment who died on 2 February 1918 Age 21
Son of Thomas Lynn of Edenham, Lincolnshire
Remembered with honour, Edenham (St. Michael and All Saints) Churchyard
by James | Jan 3, 2018 | Remembrance
Today we commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the death of Stoker, 1st Class, Joseph Henry Stennett of Bilingborough, who was lost at sea on the 3rd January 1918, when the H.M. Submarine G8 went missing.
Joseph was born on the 12th August 1895 to William Stennett, a journeyman butcher, from Billingborough and his wife Alice Doughty from Kirton, Lincolnshire.
The couple were married in 1888 and made their home in Billingborough where in 1890 their first child, Alice Maud was born. They later moved to Horbling where Joseph was born in 1895 and then Urania Fanny was born in 1905. The young family also sadly lost two other children before 1911.
By 1911 Joseph was working as a baker’s assistant in Donnington and living with the Pattern family.
Joseph joined the Navy in July 1914 and signed up for a period of 12 years, this was one month before the war was declared. On the 21st July Joseph was posted to HMS Victory II, a shore station based at Crystal Palace and Sydenham, for initial training and remained here until the 27th December 1914 listed as a stoker. Following this initial training period he was posted to HMS Inconstant, as stoker 2nd class. HMS Inconstant was an Arethusa-class cruiser and was designed to lead destroyers into battle, launched on the 6th July 1914. HMS Inconstant joined the 1st Light Cruiser Squadron at Rosyth in February 1915. Joseph was promoted to stoker 1st class on the 2nd August 1915, staying with the ship until 7th December 1916. H.M.S. Inconstant and Joseph saw action during the Battle of Jutland.
On the 8th December 1916 Joseph was posted to HMS Dolphin a shore station near Gosport that was a submarine base and used as a training facility, he remained here only for a short period and on the 3rd January 1917 was posted to HMS Lucia.
H.M.S. Lucia was a german ship captured in September 1914 and then refitted as a submarine supply ship on the Clyde in 1916. During his period with the Lucia she was stationed on the Tees, at the South Bank, Middlesborough and the Lucia was working as a supply vessel for the 10th Submarine Flotilla. Joseph was posted onto H.M. Submarine G8, a G class submarine launched in 1917 for long range work with a crew of 31, she was attached to the 10th (Tees) Flotilla as a submarine hunter in the North Sea but Jospeh, for Naval accounting purposes was still attached to HMS Lucia.
Although working as part of the 10th Flotilla, G8 spent most of 1917 working out of Scapa Flow, her patrols were North of Shetland to Norway, Skagerrak, Kattegat and Horns Reef.
Jospeh Stennett left the Tees on G8, from the Lucia, on 27 December 1917, leaving with the submarine G12 and the destroyer HMS Medea, bound for Kattegat and then ordered to start her return to base on the 3rd of January, their mission was to hunt for two armed German steamboats.
G8 never returned from her patrol and was officially declared missing on the 14th January 1918. The cause of her demise remains unknown officially but it is believed she hit a mine, going down with all hands just off the coast of Denmark near Jutland.
The position of a wreck that was found in 2011 was on part of Route Blue, a narrow gap in the German defensive minefield that guard the entrance to the Baltic. This is believed to be the G8 and the dive team confirmed that the diesel engines were not running and the electric engine was on slow with the periscope raised indicating that she was hunting for her pray, below the surface when she hit a mine. Although the conning tower was raised the rest of the wreck has been untouched and left as a war grave.
Commonwealth War Graves Commission:
In memory of Stoker 1st Class Joseph Henry Stennett K/22930, H.M. S/M. “G8.”, Royal Navy who died on 3rd January 1918 Age 22.
Son of William and Alice Stennett, of Horbling, Billingborough, Lincs.
Remembered with honour, Portsmouth Naval Memorial
Joseph Stennett is also remembered on the War memorial in the Church in his native village of Horbling, Lincolnshire.
Photo courtesy Eric Gray
H.M.S. Lucia and H.M. Submarine G8 in the Tees.
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