After 9 years and 54 issues, this is my last effort as the Editor of The Downsman. It has been a great experience, with both highs and lows, bright ideas and speling misstakes.
When I was asked in 1997 to take on the magazine I did not realize that I was letting myself in for such a long haul. However I have really enjoyed being involved. Editing the magazine has led myself and Geraldine to meet and become friends with lots of people within the Parish and I am proud to have been associated with what, I think, has become a very successful magazine.
Success though, is not just about the Editor, the magazine needs support from the community and the number of people who have contributed over the years is amazing, too many to list all the names, but I would particularly like to mention Bill Chorley and Ted Cox who have hardly missed an issue since they first sent in an article. The magazine also needs to be printed and put together. Brian Hansford has printed every issue and led a team of volunteers who have collated and put together 54 issues, upwards of 680 copies each time with 40 to 50 pages on average – more than 1.5 million pages – and hardly any upside down!! Finally, the work described above would all come to nought if the magazine never reached its readers and therefore enormous thanks must go to the members of the Home Watch and the other people who have delivered The Downsman in all sorts of weathers. And behind all this is Gill Martin chasing our advertisers for their money.
The production of The Downsman has been a true team effort and I would like to express my sincere thanks to all those involved that have supported me over the years.
5th Battalion, Dorsetshire Regiment
Approximately 1,663,000* British servicemen, the overwhelming majority from the army, were classified as wounded in the Great War. A precise figure will never be known, neither is it possible to break this total down into categories of critically wounded, severely or slightly wounded. What may be said with a degree of accuracy is that the majority sustained their wounds while serving on the Western Front. Another uncertainly that needs to be identified concerns those who were wounded in action and died from their injuries before being recovered from the battlefield. I have not seen any statistics indicating how many soldiers succumbed under these terrible circumstances and, I can only surmise, their numbers were included in the totals deemed to have been killed in action. Numerous accounts touching on the awful suffering endured by those who were struck down during the course of an advance litter the pages of history and many a veteran was haunted to the end of his life with memories of pitiful cries coming from the wounded as life slowly ebbed from their broken bodies.
Thus, I now come to a brief account relating to the death of Lance Corporal Thomas Latta, serving with the 5th Battalion, Dorsetshire Regiment, and who died from his wounds on the 7th of October, 1916. It is almost certain that he was engaged in actions similar to that which claimed the life of Private Lionel Thorne, profiled in the previous issue of The Downsman, but though most severely wounded he did survive sufficiently long enough to be evacuated to one of the large military hospital at Etaples and I will now present an interpretation as to how he reached his final destination in life.
It is almost certain that he was first taken to a Regimental Aid Post and thence to an Advanced Dressing Station. As to how he reached the former can only be a matter of conjecture; he may have been recovered from the battlefield by a stretcher party, or he may even have reached the Post by himself, or supported by less badly wounded colleagues. On arrival at the Advanced Dressing Station a more detailed examination of his injuries would have taken place and it was at such stations that, quite literally, life or death decisions were made as to whether further evacuation to a Casualty Clearing Station would be beneficial or not. The hard pressed Medical Officers working in the Regimental Aid Posts and at the Advanced Dressing Stations rendered as much aid as possible, sometimes undertaking major surgical procedures that in some cases involved the amputation of shattered limbs. For those who were considered beyond reasonable help, Morphia to ease their pain was about the best that could be done and, surely, these temporary posts must have witnessed countless scenes of great emotion as nurses and padres moved amongst the dying, rendering as much succour and comfort as humanly possible to those in their final hours of life. And, it is worth emphasising, that due to their proximity to the front line neither the Regimental Aid Post or the Advanced Dressing Station were havens of safety.
But, for Lance Corporal Latta, the decision was made to send him by ambulance (frequently horse drawn) to a Casualty Clearing Station and it would have been from one such station that he was transported to Etaples, probably in the reasonable comfort of one of the many special ambulance trains. Lying 27 kilometres south of Boulogne, Etaples and its environs was the scene of huge concentrations of reinforcement camps and a myriad of depots serving the forces needs, some of which gained a terrible notoriety for their hard and punishing discipline. It was an area, however, sufficiently far from the fighting to leave the camps impervious to attack, other than from the air while the town was well served by excellent road and rail facilities which linked it to the main battle fronts. During 1915, the first of at least six large hospitals was established in and around Etaples; the forerunner being No. 23 General Hospital which opened its wards in the June. I have, as yet, not identified the hospital where Thomas Latta died, but at the time of his admittance No. 6 British Red Cross, No. 7 British Red Cross, No. 28 General and No. 46 Stationary hospitals were in operation.
Although huge strides were made in the treatment of wounded servicemen, bacterial infections claimed the lives of thousands before they were able to progress towards a full, or partial recovery. Sir Alexander Fleming’s pioneering work in the development of penicillin was still over a decade away and it would be well into the Second World War before its full potential would be realised in the prevention of wound infections.
To close this profile, I suggest that Thomas Latta must have been a soldier of above average qualities as promotion from the ranks of private was not overly common. Born, according to his service records, in the village his parents lived at 91 Dean, Woodcutts and I much suspect neither was able to visit his grave in Etaples Military Cemetery. Today this cemetery, which was laid out to the design of the renowned architect Sir Edwin Lutyens, is the largest Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery in France with serried rows of graves contained the dead from both world wars. Naturally, the majority of headstones name those whose lives were lost in the Great War and when the last interments from this conflict came about in September 1919, no less than 11,409 servicemen, including 656 Germans, had been laid to rest.
By comparison burials of those killed in the Second World War are few; 122 in total but of which only 81 could be identified. Situated in the Pas de Calais, the cemetery lies some three kilometres north-north-west of the town and on the western side of the main road leading to Boulogne, Thomas’s grave being located in plot XVI, row E, grave 10A.
* This figure has been taken from The Longman Companion to the First World War written by Colin Nicholson and published by Longman in 2001. As indicated in my text, it is not a definitive total and I have seen other statistics for the period showing over 2,000,000 being categorised as wounded.
Postscript. I am extremely conscious of the fact that when preparing these profiles I am not able to comment greatly on contemporary life in the village. However, I have been given sight of the Parish Of Handley – Vestry Book 1848 which has an account of the Easter Vestry Meeting of May 1st, 1916, held at the Old School. Proceedings commenced at 7.30 p.m. under the direction of the vicar, the Reverend Ernest Hasluck (see the Downsman of June 2005 for a profile of his son, Lieutenant Sidney Hasluck killed the previous year at Gallipoli) with his curate the Reverend A.R. Turing Bruce, Messrs E. Crocker (churchwarden), F. Adams, M. F. Coombes, Charles Sheasby (sidemen) and Hammett present. Quoting directly from the records, the meeting was summed up as follows; ‘Mr. Crocker presented the accounts which were passed as correct. It was decided that the deficit on the year of £5 14s 10p should be liquidated by Special Contributions. Thanks were given to the Church Wardens and the Sidesmen for their service during the year, also to the Choir, Mrs Cartwright, Miss Adams for their voluntary work for the church.
2. The outgoing Church Wardens, Colonel Cartwright and Mr. Crocker were re-elected and Messrs Adams, Coombes, Sheasby and Widgery were elected Sidemen.
3. Mr. Crocker was appointed to keep the churchyard in order.
4. It was decided to publish the collections each Sunday by means of Offertory Sheets attached to the notice board.
5. Mr. Hammett undertook to raise money to pay the Organ Blower for the choir practices and if possible to defray the expenses arising from the purchase of new choir books and church music.
6. It was pointed out by Mr. Adams that certain stones in the tower required replacement. Any repairs necessary were postponed for 6 months. The vestry door was to be oiled.’
These minutes were approved at the next Vestry meeting, held on 16th of April, 1917.
Go ahead or what? Some places are quite satisfied to twin with villages in France, not so for Woodcutts! No indeed, we believe that if something is worth doing, it is worth doing well. We don't need George Bush, we don't even need American oil. How would he cope in the Andes anyway. He does have a ranch, but the house I was brought up in had a range, so what. If you are wondering what this is all about, I will divulge, 'Alpacas', not to be confused with 'backpackers'. Most of the latter have two legs, while the former have four. If you have never seen one, they are like long necked, overgrown sheep with a distinct similarity to poodles (the dogs) that have been partially trimmed for the show ring. This is where the similarity stops, because when an alpaca is trimmed or rather shorn, it yields a fleece of very high quality wool, far more valuable than even the very best sheep's wool. What has this to do with Woodcutts? I hear you ask. The answer is that our latest immigrant from Australia (Tim by name) has brought some of these creatures with him. He lives in one of the cottages here, while his livestock occupy the grass fields in front of his home. If you want to see what an alpaca looks like, it is anticipated that a coach service will be laid on daily from the village of Sixpenny Handley and it is rumoured that the cost will be within most peoples pockets.
The Alpaca, a relation of the llama and a native of South America and of the Andes must find it strange here as we don't have many mountains in Woodcutts, but they seem to have settled in all right. It is possible the natives (of Woodcutts) find them strange, and I can't help wondering what the late 'Laird' would have said about them. Although being the shepherd that he was, a canny Scot as well, I am sure he would have been quite satisfied when he realised how many 'wee drams' could be purchased for each fleece.
Whatever, we the inhabitants of Woodcutts welcome Tim and his alpacas and wish him well.
Now we must turn to the more indigenous subjects of our ecological niche. Firstly the snowdrops, what a magnificent display this year, we had to wait nearly a month longer for them than in the last few years but haven't they done us proud? From the start of the new millennium we have seen a number of them in flower for Christmas and the New Year, but not this year. In fact the end of January to the beginning of February was the real start, but they have made up for the lateness by there longevity.
Primroses in the wild are much later too, but they also seem to be making amends by their colour and numbers of flower heads. Celandines were six weeks later this year and much fewer in number, but there is still plenty of time for them. The lack of early flowering has of course been matched by the lateness of the insects arrivals. For the last years, we have seen butterflies in January and February, obviously in small numbers but they have been there, mainly in the form of rather grubby, over-wintered red admirals, with the occasional freshly painted non vintage brimstone, followed by the odd peacock. This year I saw my first butterfly outdoors, it was a solitary peacock, yesterday, Wednesday 15th March. Within minutes I then saw my first bumble bee, followed by some honey bees, but I am sure that they would not have had much luck looking for nectar. The day had been the hottest day of the year so far, with a temperature some 4°C above the previous few days, but it has reverted again today, with the warm sunshine giving way to dark, threatening clouds which continually trying to send snow flurries over us.
Insects are not the only members of the animal kingdom affected, frogs and toads have been seen about, but me amount of spawn to be seen is fairly limited overall. Of the larger animals, deer, hares and rabbits in our neck of the woods seem to be still increasing in numbers. The rabbit numbers are still high despite myximitosis being obviously about.
Bird numbers seem to be high too especially the rooks. When a buzzard gets too close don't they make a shindig. Yesterday, while in the back garden I heard one heck of a noise from them, on looking up I saw them wheeling around in huge numbers just above roof height, in vain I looked for the buzzard that I assumed they were seeing off. The only foreign member of the pack was a magpie, what he was doing there I have no idea, but the noise wasn't for him. I believe he just had a identity problem.
After a few minutes the racket stopped and I walked to the front of the house. To my amazement I found the reason for the outcry on the front lawn. A single rook remained, but in the clutches of a bird of prey.
I could not believe my eyes. The rook was fighting valiantly for its life, while what I think was a 'goshawk' was hanging on for all its worth with its talons to its opponents legs. Its tail was fanned and its wings spread, as if to cover and weigh down its opponent, moving occasionally to hammer the rook's back with its beak. This was something I had to photograph, I ran in for my camera and on my return the two were still in the same place. I moved to within eight strides of them. They both obviously saw me but it was stalemate. I quickly took photos and then noticed our cat, Bic moving towards the fight. I am sure he was not wanting to take part, simply wanting to be a front row spectator. As he approached, the goshawk, completely oblivious to my presence, became agitated and the rook took advantage and catching its opponent off guard pulled free and winged into the trees nearby. The original chase must have been very exhausting for the goshawk, which then flew laboriously away, to disappear behind the trees.
Rooks are of course regular visitors as are a great number of tits. From where I sit at the computer, next to an upstairs window, I am in sight of the next-door neighbours garden, bird table. Regular visitors there include great, blue, long tailed and coal tits together with chaffinch, greenfinch, sparrows, the occasional robin and on the lawn beneath, picking up what the smaller birds drop blackbirds and thrushes. The best I have left to last, these are a pair of greater, spotted woodpeckers, who arrive mid to late afternoon every day. They don't stay long but they are very busy while there.
Also from where I am sitting, I can see clearly a grand old ash tree of perhaps one hundred and eighty summers. The three main branches to the south west have now parted company with the mother tree. Presumably this aspect encouraged more growth and eventually this told and to balance the tree these very large limbs broke off.
At some earlier stage of life, a much smaller branch had detached itself from the main bole, just over half way up. Over the years new bark has grown around the wound (see photograph) but leaving the centre to rot. This must have made the ideal nest site for woodpeckers and was presumably excavated by them. However last week the local rooks were paying particular interest to this tree, in so much that considerable numbers visited it, taking turns to investigate the hole. What they were finding there I know not, perhaps hibernating insects or some form of caterpillar or maggot.
While on the subject of trees, I have great pleasure in reporting the felling of some forty eight Leylandii. Normally I would not enthuse over tree felling, but these, planted in 1976 as a garden hedge had never been trimmed and had simply grown. That is, they had continued until they reached a height of eighty feet.
Being on the southern side of the vegetable garden, they not only kept sun and warmth from the vegetables but also provided nesting sites and cover for most of the wood pigeons in the area. They in turn helped in the consumption of the crops grown there. Even country lovers have their limits, these trees had to go and will be replaced with something much more appropriate.
Hopefully by the time you read this, we will be enjoying much more spring like weather and flowers will be blooming, trees will be in leaf, birds nesting and butterflies on the wing and we will be back to the springs of the end of the last millennium.
2007 heralds the centenary of the scout movement, locally it is a very special year for us, as it will be our 50th anniversary I have been asked to write a lead up history of the early years.
In September 1954 whilst at choir practice at St James Church Alderholt members were discussing the formation of a scout troop, which was meeting for the first time that evening. Six members of our choir had been invited to form the initial patrol. I asked them if I would be allowed to join them but was told that I would have to wait to a later date.
I thought, blow that for a game of soldiers, so when they left the church I followed but at a distance so that they couldn't see me. I watched them all file into Mr Arthur Kings house and after they had been inside for 5 minutes or so I banged on the door and Mr King appeared. I said I want to join your scouts, thankfully he said "come on in". There began my so far lifelong membership of the Scout association.
In 1956 I moved home to live at Woodcutts and it wasn't long before I was enrolled at Sixpenny Handley School. After the first day I had got to know some of the lads and I started to ask around where the local scout troop met for their meetings. To my horror I discovered that there wasn't one, after a few days deliberation, being young and naïve I thought heck the only thing to do is to start a troop myself.
Over the next few days I invited the boys at school to come and join me, eventually I ended up with a list of five. Ray Churchill, Chris Bagg, Chris Day, Ian Adlem and Michael Maidment. Next I wrote to my old scout master Mr Raison at Alderholt, to enquire if he would help me, he wrote back that if I held weekly meetings he would come over once a month to test us on what we had learnt (this must had been quite difficult for him as he only had an old auto cycle - sadly Sid is no longer with us).
So was born the 1st Woodcutts Boy Scout Group although for a year we were to remain a subsidiary of 1st Alderholt. Our first meeting was held on a Friday night in my stepfather’s very large coal shed, as we got to the longer and warmer evenings we erected a flag pole on Woodcutts Common still meeting there on a Friday evening. continued in Aug06 issue