To find out more information about the Bishop’s Stortford War Memorial and the individuals honoured on the memorial, please follow the link below to the roll of honour, compiled by Stewart Norton and Martin Edwards:
https://www.roll-of-honour.com/Hertfordshire/BishopsStortford.html
Bishop’s Stortford in the First World War
By Sarah Turner , David Clare and Carolyn Downing‘Many men from Bishop’s Stortford were wounded in the First World War; a resident of the New Town area remembers a man who lived in Tuckers Row who had had his toes blown off, and made his own shoes to fit, and a grocer in the area who had a bad arm from wounds he received. Charles Cockman came back to Bishop’s Stortford in 1919 to live with his mother, and he only received dental treatment in 1922. Many soldiers carried visible wounds, missing arms, legs, or coughs from doses of gas in the trenches, and it is hard to escape the long term effects of the war when you walk around the Apton Road cemetery; people were still dying from their wounds in 1922.’
Brazier Charles Herbert
At the outbreak of war on August 4th 1914 the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) was a small professional army of around 100,000 men. The reservists (old soldiers) were recalled from civilian life and the Territorial Army was mobilised to support them.
Charles H Brazier, aged 19, volunteered for overseas service with the Queen’s Westminster Rifles. By September 1914, his Battalion had been mobilised and were training at Leverstock Green in Hertfordshire, preparing for departure to Belgium. His brother Robert, a member of the Hertfordshire Territorial Unit – ‘C’ Company (Bishop’s Stortford) was also preparing to go to war. The brothers were some of the first Bishop’s Stortford men to arrive on the continent.
The Queen’s Westminster Rifles (1/16th County of London) Battalion spent the whole war on the Western Front. They were initially stationed in the Ypres area, fighting in fierce engagements on the Aisne and then north at Hooge. In mid 1916 the battalion, as part of the 56th Division, was stationed on the Somme, being involved in the long drawn out battle there. In 1917 they fought in the Battle of Arras, before returning to the Ypres area, for the third battle of Ypres. They remained around Ypres until the Armistice.
November 11th 1914 – Rifleman Brazier arrives in Belgium.
November 20th 1914 – (Ypres Area)
‘Being in the trenches is not so bad as one would think. Of course it is very cold and we are smothered from head to foot with mud and are not able to wash, so naturally we look a bit grubby, but none the more for that we are very happy and are going to do our best’.
A letter is received from a stretcher bearer to Rifleman Brazier’s parents of Market Square – Rifleman Brazier wounded and in hospital.
15th September 1916– Frederick Maddocks, Charles’ cousin, dies at the front – hit by a shell whilst trying to bring in a wounded comrade. He is commemorated at the Thiepval memorial to the missing in France.
November 18th 1916- Corporal Robert – reported missing in action on the Somme.
‘Lance Corporal Robert William Brazier whose parents Mr and Mrs A. R. Brazier of Market Square, Bishop’s Stortford, have received official information that he is posted as missing from November 18th’
December 1916- Rifleman Charles Brazier home on leave (after his battalion’s heavy engagement in the Battle of the Somme)Charles’ football teammate and employee of his father, Richard Cocke dies on 1st July 1918 from shrapnel wounds received in action.
Charles Brazier survived the war – having been on active service abroad since 1st November 1914. His brother Robert was presumed to have been killed in action after being reported as missing on November 18th 1916 on the Somme, he has no known grave, and is commemorated at the Thiepval memorial to the missing in France and on Bishop’s Stortford’s war memorial. Frederick Maddocks his cousin is also commemorated on the Thiepval memorial. Like Charles, John Chapman….. survived the war and both returned to play football for the town’s rebuilt side, a team that had lost many young men in France.
Handscomb Herbert – Herbert was a Rifleman (A/204548) in the 14th Battalion of the King’s Own Rifle Corps and was the brother of Albert. He was killed in action on the 2nd of April 1918 aged 33 and is buried in Foreste Communal Cemetery, Aisne in France, Special Memorial 12. Herbert was born and enlisted in Bishop’s Stortford, the son of J. Handscomb of Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire but was resident in Histon, Cambridgeshire.
Joscelyne, Clement Percy – Clement was a Second Lieutenant in the 3rd Battalion, attached to the 11th Battalion of the Suffold Regiment. He died of wounds on the 10th of October 1917 aged 32, and is buried in Dozingham Military Cemetery, Plot XII, Row J, Grave 18. Clement was the son of Fanny and the Late Clement Joscelyne, of Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire and husband of Rosamond Joscelyne of The Old House, Ruislip, Middlesex. Volunteer from Buenos Ayres.
Reed Bertie
Although many people believed that the war would be over by Christmas 1914, it soon became clear that the war would be a protracted one and volunteers would not be enough to keep the war effort going, by mid-1915 the number of volunteers was dwindling, but men were needed. At the beginning of the war the army had strict specifications about who could become soldiers. Men joining the army had to be at least 5ft 6in tall and have a chest measurement of 35 inches minimum. By May 1915 soldiers only had to be 5ft 3in and the age limit was from 38 to 40. In July 1915 the army agreed to the formation of ‘Bantam’ battalions, composed of men between 5ft and 5ft 3in in height.
In 1916 the Military Service Act was passed which imposed conscription on all single men aged 18 to 41, with exemptions for those in essential war time employment, those deemed medically unfit (although those who had been rejected before could now re-apply, Herbert Kitchener of Middle Row did just that – and at the third time of trying was accepted into the army in 1917 – despite a cough which turned out to the TB that killed him), religious ministers, and conscientious objectors. By 25th May 1916 the Act was amended and married men would now be conscripted. Conscripts would make up the majority of the army that marched to victory in 1918.
Bertie Reed, a married man of 5ft 3 inches was conscripted into the army in 1916, at the age of 29. By this time, he and his wife had three children, one a newborn baby. They were living at 28 Middle Row.
May 30th 1916-Bertie is ‘called up’ to join the East Kent Regiment ‘the Buffs’. His Regimental Number is 10212.
August 22nd 1916-Bertie is transferred to ‘A’ Company of the Machine Gun Corps. His Regimental Number is changed to 45654. He is part of a Vickers Machine Gun team. Somewhere in France Bertie meets up with his brother James.
August 13th 1917- Bertie’s brother-in-law Percy James Webb, of the 6TH Battalion East Kent Regiment is killed in action at Arras.
September 1st 1917-Bertie is in England, having been’ wounded in France’.
September 27th 1917-Bertie passes the board in transport duties, and is put in charge of his own team of horses taking ammunition to the front. Bertie may have got this job because he was experienced with horses, having looked after the horses at the Plume and Feathers Public House, as his first job as a boy.
October 21st 1918-Bertie is promoted to Corporal
February 1st 1919- Bertie is selected for retention in the armed forces in France.
February 2nd 1919- Bertie is promoted to the rank of Sergeant, and joins the army of occupation on the Rhine.
December 31st 1919-Bertie is transferred to the army reserve with A1 health; he keeps his great coat from the army for the cold winter.
Sapsford Ralph
January 26th, 1917- Ralph joins the Royal West Surrey Regiment, one day before his 18th birthday, his regimental number is 63696.
November 27th, 1917- Ralph’s father John is wounded in his left hand and has part of two of his fingers amputated. He remains in the army. It is a relief that it is his left hand, as he is a carpenter by profession.
Ralph is seriously wounded – a gunshot wound to the face/lower jaw. March 26, 1919-Ralph is discharged from the army as he is no longer fit for service because of his injuries. His wounds are serious enough to trouble him for the rest of his life. His food has to be mashed before he could eat.
June 14th 1919- Ralph is awarded the War Badge for services rendered in the First World War.
Ralph Sapsford carried his injuries with him all his life.
Sell Clarence James
A few days after war was declared, Clarence Sell, and a group of his friends, some his team-mates from the Bishop’s Stortford football club, including William ‘Billy’ Spriggs, Stephen Davey and probably Frederick Fuller, William Flogdell and William Sylvester, went to Hertford to enlist ‘for the duration’ of the war. Sell’s Service No. was 12126 and Davey’s Service No. was 12124; they probably stood next to each other in the long queue waiting to enlist. They joined in the 6th Bedfordshire (service) Battalion, a Battalion raised in August 1914 specifically for the duration of the war, as a part of ‘K1’ – Lord Kitchener’s first call to arms for 100,000 men to fight.
After over ten months of intense physical and specialist training the 6th Bedfordshire’s boarded wooden troop trains at Ludgershall Station, near Andover and set off for Southampton on the July 30th 1915. At 6.30pm that evening, they boarded “the Empress Queen” troop ship and sailed for France, arriving at Le Havre at 7.30am the following morning. Once the Battalion had disembarked and gathered supplies, they marched to No. 5 Camp on the outskirts of the town, before heading to the front line. The Battalion served entirely on the western front.
1st July 1916 – the Battle of the Somme begins –the 6th Beds are in reserve on that day, but their battle began a few days later – the battalion received horrendous casualties and were nearly wiped out.
July 10th, 1916 – Clarence James Sell dies at a casualty clearing station in Meaule, from wounds received in action earlier that day.
Clarence James Sell died from wounds received in action around the village of Contalmaison during the Battle of the Somme, an engagement that nearly wiped out the 6th Beds. He is buried in the Meaule Cemetery. His twin sister Clarice never married, whilst his younger brother Reginald continued his interest in the Bishop’s Stortford Football Club, becoming the Honorary Secretary in the 1920s. Of his friends from Bishop’s Stortford, Frederick Fuller was reported missing in action on 15th July 1916, attacking Poiziers, in the same battle as Sell, his team mate Stephen Davey was killed in action by shellfire on July 18th 1917, having been wounded and out of action in 1916 with ‘heart problems’ (sometimes a symptom of shell-shock) and Caryl Davey died on December 8th 1917 in Palestine. William Sylvester was killed in action on October 23rd 1918. Arthur Searle survived the war. William Flogdell and ‘Young’ Saggs (Harry) were wounded, but survived the war and returned to Bishop’s Stortford.
Sawbridgeworth
Leslie Richard Kempthorne served on a submarine: the Splendid. Built at Chatham Dockyard and launched on 13th January 1942, it was only in service for 16 months. Splendid was based in Malta and in her short career sank 9 enemy vessels. On 17th April 1943 Splendid left port to patrol the waters off Naples and Corsica. On 21st April she was detected by the German destroyer Hermes and damaged by depth charges. She was forced to surface and surrender. The crew scuttled her before abandoning ship to prevent her capture. Thirty crew were picked up by the destroyer, eighteen men were lost with the ship. Leslie Kempthorne was amongst those who lost their lives. His death was reported on 2nd May. He is commemorated on the Chatham Naval Memorial and of course on the WWII plaque in St. James’s Church.
