First World War and connections

The Imperial War Museum is asking people to contribute family memories of the First World War. Next August sees the 100^th anniversary of Britain declaring war on Germany leading to this country’s participation in a struggle that would kill over 800,000 Britons. The “Great War” continues to exert a powerful hold on our collective imagination and anyone like me in their 50s will also most have known one who had direct experience of the war. I met several people who were involved. Horace Barks from Ipstones who I knew at the end of his life of public service as an Alderman on Stoke Council when I was a young Councillor. Horace who died in 1984 left a vivid memoir of his time on the Western Front which is currently in the archive of Hanley Library. He was wounded at Loos in 1915. An old man I had a conversation with on a bus in York in 1977 was in the “ Sheffield Pals” and luckily avoided the First Day of the Somme by catching pneumonia “ the best days work I ever did” he told me. The ancient I talked to in Cromer church in the late 80s who achieved absurdly early promotion to the Deputy Town of the town at 16 because all the men were at the front. He recalled looking out of his office window one day in 1917 to see the harbour crammed with ships of all size during the height of the war. Mr Stafford born in 1900 had the misfortune to have been involved in both World Wars as a young officer in the Australian forces in 1918 and then as a Colonel captured by the Japanese at the fall of Singapore. One should also not forget the contribution that women made; my Great Aunt Betsy who worked in Hanley at a factory cleaning out the toxic substances from gas shells, the effect of this war work had a catastrophic impact on her health for the rest of her life. My grandmother Cawley witnessed a Zeppelin raid over Shelton in 1916.

And then there were the people who did not come back. Five relatives were killed between 1914-18 in the Sherwin family- my mother’s side.  Sgt Harry Cartwright, Pt Hamlet Nixon, Pt George Mitchell, Sgt Albert Reece and Sgt James Sherwin.

The picture is of my grandfather Bill Sherwin who is seated. His brother Jim Sherwin standing was a Sergeant in the East Yorkshire Regiment and was killed in July 1915 in Belgium. One thing I know about him was that was he was an excellent guitarist, note his big hands, who earned extra money from his day job as a telephone engineer by playing in the pubs of Hanley and Shelton. His brother Bill was in the Middle East in what is modern day Iraq. He claimed to have seen Lawrence of Arabia and gave a cigarette to a dying Turk. He was later badly wounded and caught Malaria which shortened is life. He died in 1958 when I was three.

Baghdad 1917 and 2003

I have only a vague memory of my grand father who died when I was 3 in 1958. He was a First World War veteran. He did not fight on the Western Front, but spent his war service in the Middle East in what is now Iraq. In 1914-8 the area was called Mesopotamia and part of the collapsing Ottoman Empire. He did say of his time in the 7th Battalion North Staffs that he was present at the fall of Baghdad in March 1917. I came across an account of the Staffords as they were given the honour of leading the Allied Forces into the City. It is certain that the account has a familiarity to the eyes of modern soldiers

“On the morning of the 12th, greatly to our joy, we were chosen to be the first Battalion to march in and commence the searching of the city. Every available man paraded, just about 300, and at mid-day we marched away from our bivouac as smart a battalion as was anywhere to be found. We entered the city by the north-gate—the Bab-el-Muadham—over which the Union Jack was floating in the breeze, and led by Lieut.-Col. J. W. Ley on his pony, Blue Boy, we marched down Khalil Pasha Street (now New Street) towards the centre of the town. Vast crowds of men, women, and children pressed upon us on all sides, clapping their hands in rhythm and chanting " AUah-il-AUah ! "Arriving at the top of " Bridge Street " we turned to our left into the Jewish quarter, and commenced searching houses, each Company being allotted several streets. The procedure was as follows : The street to be searched was cleared, and pickets were posted at intervals. The Company Commander and Platoon Officers with escorts went into the houses and searched them for arms,ammunition, hidden Turks, or loot.”

86 years after this event more or less to the day another allied force entered Baghdad. It is 10 years since a mainly American led coalition embarked upon the invasion of Iraq. I ,like a million others, took part in the February  mass demonstration in London against the onset of the war. I have no doubt a decade on that the 2003 war represents the greatest blunder in British Foreign Policy since Munich in 1938. I am sure supporters of the war will point to  the downfall of the odious Hussain regime, the creation of a semi autonomous Kurdish state in the north and freedom, although whether that includes Gays, Christians and women is a moot point. It seems to me the main gainer from the war was Iran ironically which  it is claimed does or is close to having weapons of mass destruction.

Do you remember March 1991?

• Good news for the local economy was the confirmation of a new headquarters for the Irish dairy company Kerrygold at Barnfield which would safeguard the future for the concern in Leek, along with the jobs of the 300 workforce. The cost of the undertaking was £7.5 million. The headquarters was opened by the European Commissioner for Agriculture Ray McSharry, assisting him chairman of the Irish Dairy Board Dr Noel Cawley- no relation. The new facility would have the facility to supply 25% of the UK market for pre packed hard cheese and 15% of processed cheese and be ideally placed for good access to retail outlets in the UK and Europe.

• Other good news was news of a major contract to wire the Channel Tunnel won by Thomas Bolton of Froghall. An order for £1.5 million had been placed by the French Government and had been won by the Staffordshire company beating off stiff competition from others including a French company. The contract required Bolton's to supply the cable by the autumn. Work on the tunnel had begun in 1988 with the work competed in 1994. It cost £4.6 billion to build an over run of 80% in the amount originally budgeted. At the peak of construction over 15,000 were employed on the Tunnel. It should be noted that Bolton's involvement in this project completed a notable double as the company had supplied the copper cable for the laying of transatlantic telegraphy cable in the previous century.

• Leek's last foundry closed in March 1991 Sneyd Engineering based in Sneyd Street. The firm specialised in non ferrous castings having been founded as Goodwin Brothers early in the century. It became Sneyd Engineering just before the Second World War. The demise of the company prompted one correspondent to refer back to the War in a subsequent letter “ The war brought a great increase in business, at one period it seemed that half of Leek's skilled machinists were making bronze bearings for the Bailey Bridges, whilst the other half were making gun barrels up at the “Daimler”

• A Tudor Hall long thought to be demolished many years before was rediscovered in the structure of the Red Lion Inn in Market Square. Workmen carrying out repairs found the remnants of Leek Hall. The Red Lion was established as a coaching Inn in 1767 when the incorporation of the early structure into the Inn must have taken place. Chief conservation officer John Leech considered the discovery one of the most important archaeological finds in Leek. It appears that the front of the hall was removed when the Red Lion was built and a second floor added with a flat roof. It had been long thought that the hall built by William Jollife in 1627 had been demolished to make way for the coaching Inn

• The year had begun with the successful prosecution of the First Gulf War when the army of Saddam Hussain had been ejected from Kuwait and pursued back across the Iraq border. A local soldier Steven Tatlow in the 1^st Staffords visited a local school -Valley Primary in Oakamoor- to thank the children for writing. He had received many letters from the kids which had very helpful to him and his colleagues whilst waiting for the final assault and during the days of conflict. Of course no one knew that the second Iraq conflict would occur exactly 12 years later

• For the past year Mr Terence Howell of Hill Top Farm, Brown Edge had been battling to win the right to sleep with his chickens. There had been complaints of the mess that littered the site, but Farmer Howell was determined to assert the right to live by his “feathered friends” “ If I lived on the site it could be tidied up, but if the Council wants war then war it shall have”, he added belligerently