Wendover Remembers, July 1916
WENDOVER REMEMBERS – JULY 1916
July 1916 was the blackest month in the history of the British Army. The Battle of the Somme began on 1 July and on that day there were 58,000 casualties of whom 19,000 were killed. The attacks at Fromelles and Pozieres, both associated with the Somme offensive, took place later in the month. The Somme battle lasted 141 days. It aimed to break through the German lines, but it became a long drawn-out conflict of bloody attrition. Taking both Allied and German figures, there were one million casualties.
July was also a black month for Wendover. Six of its young men were killed on the Western Front. They were all involved in the Somme battles. Four of these soldiers served with the Bucks Battalion. Cecil Dell, aged 21, of Wellwick Farm, and Stewart Wood, who was 18 and lived before the war in the Miller’s Cottage, were killed at Fromelles on 19 July. Both were with the 2nd Bucks Battalion. It was not until the end of the year that their deaths were confirmed to their parents. Charles Warner of Coldharbour and Reg Woodward of Aylesbury Street, both 17 years of age, were with the 1st Bucks Battalion and they were killed during the attack at Pozieres.
Charles Henry Caudrey enlisted in the Ox and Bucks L.I. but was later transferred to the 1st Hampshire Regiment. He was killed on the first day of the Somme near Beaumont Hamel. His parents, Charles and Emma Caudrey of Back Street, were first informed that Charles had been wounded only to receive the news, four months later, that he had died. Harry Simmons, aged 24, of Peartree Cottage, Back Street, served with the 16th Middlesex Regiment and died of wounds on 2 July. Harry was the only son of William and Fanny Simmons. Before the war he had managed Mr Lee’s draper shop in Aylesbury Street.
In addition to these casualties, several Wendover men were wounded during July. Dr Woollerton heard that his son, Lieutenant E.N. Woollerton, had received a shrapnel wound in his left shoulder and was in hospital in France. Tom Harris of Chandos Place was in hospital in Liverpool after being wounded in France. Harry Payne, son of Joseph Payne of Sydney Terrace was reported to be a prisoner in Germany.
Young Bertie Scott of the King and Queen enlisted in the 2/1st Bucks in November 1915, one month before his 15th birthday. He led a chequered army career being confined to barracks for misdemeanours on three occasions. Bertie was sent to France on 25 May 1916 and was wounded. By July he was desperate to return home and asked his mother to send his birth certificate as proof that he was under-age. He was discharged on 28 August, then aged 15½. Later in the war Bertie joined the Royal Marines.
In the School Log Book, Mr Molineux noted that in three days during July the children had collected one cwt of Foxglove leaves. These, with the leaves and roots of Deadly Nightshade previously gathered, were sent to drying sheds in Beaconsfield for use in the manufacture of the drug Atropine. Atropine was used to treat nerve damage suffered by troops gassed in the trenches on the front line. The money earned by the children from the sale of these herbs was donated to the Prisoners of War Fund.
