Wendover Remembers, May 1916
On the Western Front, the fighting around Verdun developed into an attritional bloodbath. Italy was invaded by Austrian troops. Russia won a number of minor victories in the Carpathians. Fifteen leaders of the Easter Uprising in Ireland were executed by the British and thereby became Republican heroes and martyrs. At Jutland, 274 ships and over 7,000 sailors of the British Grand Fleet and the German High Seas Fleet fought for control of the North Sea. While the British lost more ships than the Germans, the German Fleet returned to harbour never to take on the British Fleet again during the remainder of the war.
Petty Officer Thomas Rogers, the son of Joe and Elizabeth Rogers of Bacombe Terrace, was killed in action on 31 May during the Jutland battle. Early in the morning of that day his ship HMS Queen Mary was struck by a salvo penetrating the main magazine. The ship exploded and sank in half a minute. Seventeen survivors were picked up from a total ship’s complement of more than 1,000.
George Brock fought at Jutland. His son, also George, lived in Wendover for some 40 years and has a collection of his father’s war memoirs. George Brock Sr served on HMS Marlborough and at Jutland witnessed gunnery action and attacks by a zeppelin and a submarine. The Marlborough was severely damaged by enemy gunfire, but managed to limp back to Grimsby.
Private William Fantham of the 1/5th Leicester Regiment, son of William and Jane Fantham of the Pack Horse, Tring Road, was killed on 8 May. His Platoon Sergeant wrote to his parents: “I take the privilege of writing these few lines to you over your son William Fantham. No doubt you have been informed before now that he was killed in action while performing one of the most dangerous duties that falls to our lot, that is, of mining fatigue. He was at work down a sap with other comrades when the Germans blew it in on them, burying him and another. I can assure you that all was done to get them out, but it was impossible to save them. What makes it seem harder is that they would have been out in about half an hour”.
On 6 May Private Walter George Deering, son of Walter and Sarah Deering of 1 Clay Lane, was killed near Vimy Ridge while serving with the 1st Wiltshire Regiment. George Deering enlisted into the Ox and Bucks L.I. in Aylesbury in 1914 and had previously been wounded in the head. A letter to his parents from a comrade in his platoon read: “He died as bravely as anyone could, when we were taking a German mine crater, being shot by German machine gun fire and his death was instantaneous”.
Both William Fantham and George Deering had been pupils at Wendover School and Mr Molineux, the headmaster, noted their deaths in the School Log Book.
He also noted an outbreak of measles in Wendover and the resulting poor attendance at school. The school celebrated Empire day by raising and saluting the flag. Shakespeare’s tercentenary was marked by special lessons in the upper school on his life and works. The Government introduced the “Fuel and Daylight Saving Scheme” and Mr E J Sharp adjusted the Church and Town clocks by one hour. The Bucks Herald of 13 May noted: “On Sunday, after evening service, the difference in time was manifest by a large number of persons visiting the hills”.
