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Bringing Uncle Albert Home

A Soldier's Tale

The History Press

Fragments from France

EARLY DAYS IN THE FOREST OF DEAN

This story starts in the late autumn of 1994. A career change meant that I found myself living with my aunt and uncle in Lydney, on the edge of the Forest of Dean. My wife commuted each weekend along the M4 to spend time with us, and, we hoped, to plan our new lives together. However, the new job was not going well. My new 'section' comprised in total: a desk with chair, a company telephone with directory, a 17-inch colour monitor without computer, an absent manager and me. Company politics had generated a post that wasn't needed after all: there was simply no work to do. I spent hour after hour, day after day, staring into space, wondering how I ever got myself into this mess. Relief finally came after an apologetic telephone call to my old company. They would take me back, 'but it might take a month or so to sort out'.

Although I had known my aunt and uncle since I was a boy, visits to Lydney had been both short and infrequent. During my stay, our conversation was relaxed; they did their best to help me through these difficult times. They knew I had an interest in history and the First World War in particular. One day, quite unexpectedly, my aunt quietly said, in her Forest accent, 'I had an uncle killed on the Somme'.

I had spent some years both researching the First World War and trying to put together the family tree. I was 'disappointed' to find that although many relatives had served in this war, all had survived, only to pass away before I was born or knew enough to speak to them about their experiences. Frequent springtime visits to the Ypres and Somme battlefields had allowed me to see the remains of those titanic battles, and to walk beside the gravestones of the thousands who fell. Yet as I walked there, I always wished there were one unique grave I could visit – of someone close, whose story I could tell to others.

My aunt, becoming as excited as I was, did her best to answer my ensuing barrage of questions. However, like the majority of people today, she only had memories of what she had been told: there was no one now alive who remembered her uncle as a living person. She remembered his name, Albert Edward, and he shared her maiden name of Turley. Albert's father, Moses, had built his own house, Old Furnace, and brought up his family in nearby Blakeney. However, she knew neither which regiment he served in nor when he was killed. She believed his name was on the war memorial plaque of All Saints' Church, Viney Hill, Blakeney.

Further conversations with my aunt and her elder brother, who had also spent his life in Blakeney, enabled me to piece together an all-too-common tragic story whose consequences had spanned much of the twentieth century.

Albert Turley was never talked about openly within the family as my aunt grew up – she had never even seen a photograph of him. They were simply told that 'he was under age and had run away to enlist with some friends, had got himself killed on the Somme, and broken his mother's heart'. Consequently, family members had been brought up with a deep distrust of the Armed Services.

However, there was much truth in this story. In November 1918, just after the Armistice had been signed, Albert's mother Mary had died. It was said she never recovered from the news of the death of her eldest son Albert. Knowing he would never come home, she had simply faded away, possibly succumbing to the Spanish flu epidemic prevalent at that time. Moses, now alone, had to bring up his children himself. In the 1920s, there was little work in the Forest for a mason, and certainly no money for luxuries. My aunt's father, Walter, had to give up a promising career as an artist to go down the local coalmine and bring another wage into the house. In 1939, Walter, having a reserved occupation, was exempted from military service in the Second World War. Similarly, Walter's own son followed his father into the mine, thus avoiding National Service. When my aunt married in the 1960s, there was concern in her family about my uncle, an RAF serviceman, then serving with the RAF in the Far East. The shadow of Albert's death on the Somme had been long indeed.

Returning to my empty office at the start of another week, I had the beginnings of an idea. I did not have much information – I had neither a regiment nor a regimental number – but it was possibly enough to find out where Albert Turley might be buried on the Somme. I knew the Commonwealth War Graves Commission handled both written and telephone enquiries from people who wished to discover details about relatives killed in either of the two world wars. The surname was uncommon, though not in the Forest of Dean, and I did have his full forenames. I knew that the Battle of the Somme was fought in 1916, between July and November. I hoped this would be enough.

I explained my situation to the Commission and was transferred to a kind lady who took down all the details I had on Albert. Minutes later she informed me that she had found him. The result was a surprise: 'Pte Albert E. Turley, 31327, killed in action 24/8/16, 3rd Worcestershire Regiment.' Blakeney was in Gloucestershire: how had he ended up in the Worcestershire Regiment? The next information was not what I had been hoping to hear: 'Place of Commemoration, Thiepval Memorial, Somme.' I thanked her, and put down the telephone.

Although I had read many histories about the Battle of the Somme, most had concentrated on the opening day of the offensive, 1 July 1916, when 60,000 British soldiers had fallen, for little gain. I had visited all the places concerned with this day, and knew the stories well. I also knew many significant dates associated with the capture of villages and woods as the battle progressed through the summer and into autumn. The date of 24 August did not tie in with any of these.

Having visited the Somme, I was also familiar with the Thiepval Memorial, a huge, multi-arched structure erected on top of the Thiepval Ridge. On it were inscribed the names of the 73,000 'missing' soldiers of the Somme. Being commemorated on this meant that Albert did not have a known grave. The Memorial covered the whole period and extent of the Battle of the Somme. As such, there would be no indication of the location or the circumstances of his death as can usually be inferred by the history of a particular cemetery.

Having found so much in such a short space of time, I was not ready to give up. My original notion to find the whereabouts of Albert's grave was now compromised. However, it would still be possible to take my aunt and uncle to see where he had served and was commemorated. I could also describe to them what had happened in that place. It would be the first time a member of Albert's family had made such a trip, or at least so we had thought at the time.

From the Commission, I now had Albert's regiment and regimental number. The next line of enquiry was to contact the Worcestershire Regiment Museum. I was put through to the archivist at the Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regimental Headquarters, and asked whether it was possible to find out anything about Albert Turley, or where the 3rd Worcestershire were on 24 August 1916 and what they might have been doing on that day. He advised me to write in, as finding such details might take some time.

That evening, I explained to my aunt and uncle what I had found out about Albert. They were saddened to discover he had no known grave, but curious to know why Albert had served with the Worcestershire Regiment: did this confirm the family story that he had run away to join up? Between us, we composed the letter giving all the details we had. The letter was posted; all we could do now was to wait for a response.

It was only a matter of days before the reply came. The enclosures included photocopies of pages from The History of the Worcestershire Regiment in the Great War and a letter, in which we were informed that it was not possible to give a precise enlistment date. However, the number 31327 would have been issued in late 1915 or early 1916. This was a surprise: the family story telling of Albert running away to enlist with friends would have been more credible had the date of enlistment been August 1914. At the start of the war, following the prevailing patriotic spirit, many young men ran away to enlist, having lied about their age. Late 1915 saw the effective introduction of conscription under the Derby scheme, as the supply of volunteers had slowed to well below that required to maintain (and increase) numbers of troops at the front.

The regimental history gave accounts for all the Worcestershire battalions. Highlighted were entries for the 3rd battalion for 24 August 1916. On this day, in conjunction with the 1st Wiltshire, the 3rd Worcestershire had been involved in an attack on Lemberg Trench (this was later found to be an error, and should have read Hindenburg Trench). This position was situated on the Thiepval Ridge in the infamous Leipzig Salient, immediately to the south of the village of Thiepval.

The account revealed that the attack by the 3rd Worcestershire was successful, and the position was taken and held. Importantly, casualties had been few. However, one of these few had been Albert Turley. Apart from the names of officers and men who had particularly distinguished themselves, no other soldiers' names were mentioned. The names of the casualties were not given.

Also enclosed was a copy of one of the printed maps and photographs from the book. Originally the map had been hand-drawn and details of the positions of the trenches and the dates when the 3rd Worcestershire held them had been added. Unfortunately, there were few topographical features noted on the map, apart from the location of the villages of Thiepval and Authuille. The photographs depicted scenes in the trenches in and around the Leipzig Salient. In these trenches were soldiers of the 3rd Worcestershire making the best of things. One particularly poignant photograph showed a group of survivors from the attack on 24 August.

My time in Lydney was nearing an end; I had the confirmation of the start date for returning to my old job. It was with great pleasure that I packed my few belongings and wished the few friends I had made in my new job goodbye. It was sad to leave my uncle and aunt, as by now they had become to me much more than relatives, but we had agreed to have a short holiday together. At Easter 1995, just after the opening of the Channel Tunnel, the four of us set out for France. Our destination was a small hotel in the town of Albert, the gateway to the Somme battlefields. We had just one full day to visit the area, and we were fortunate to have the best of the early spring weather.

It was the first time my wife and I had taken people to visit this area. As good tourist guides, our first visit was naturally to the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing. We arrived there at about 9 a.m.; there were no other visitors. The place was peaceful, with only the sound of birds and a gentle breeze in the new leaves of the trees in the Memorial grounds. The surroundings could not have been more perfect. We left the car and walked up the dew-soaked lawn towards the towering Memorial. We climbed the stairs to the stone of sacrifice and looked out westwards over the cemetery with its 600 white stones – 300 crosses for French soldiers and the same number of gravestones for British soldiers – almost all 'inconnu' or 'unknown'. Further westwards, the morning sun shone on the opposite side of the Ancre Valley. In this patchwork quilt of fields, woods and small villages, here and there a wisp of smoke from a chimney indicated the start of another day for the living inhabitants of the Somme battlefield.

The Thiepval Memorial was so vast that the register of 73,000 names inscribed on it ran to many volumes. After sorting through them to find the 'Ts', we found Albert's name and the appropriate panel reference. The Memorial has the potential for sixty-four such panels, based on sixteen square pillars. Even knowing the panel number, finding the correct one still took a few minutes. Over 20 feet up, at the head of the panel, stood the title 'Worcestershire Regiment'. It did not take very long to find 'TURLEY A.E.' among the many, many columns of names. We left my uncle and aunt there for as long as they wished – this was their private time, when there was no need for a tourist guide.

From here, I had planned to take them to the site of the Leipzig Salient to show them where Albert had fallen. Using only the copy of the hand-drawn map, I attempted to line this up with the parts of the villages of Thiepval and Authuille that I could see, and to find the site of Lemberg Trench. Only now, with the benefit of hindsight, do I realise I was in error by nearly a mile. Still, the sight of open fields, with little or no cover, sloping up to the Thiepval Memorial, gave an appropriate perspective for that attack long ago.

The rest of the day was spent looking around the other major sites of the Somme battlefield. Returning to the hotel, we were very tired. My uncle and aunt had been deeply moved by the sights they had seen and the stories I had told them. They would not forget their visit to the Somme, remembering one family member and the thousands of others who had fallen there.

A PHOTOGRAPH

This could have been the end of the story. In reality, it proved only to be the beginning. Years were now to pass; the millennium came and went. Technology too was moving on. The advent and growth of the Internet appeared to coincide with a surprising resurgence of interest in the First World War, partly due to the fact that its last veterans were passing on. The war had also entered the National Curriculum and many new books on the subject were being published. The quiet country roads in northern France again saw British tour parties in cars and coaches looking for lost relatives and visiting the former sites of bitter carnage.

At home, I surfed the Internet and the ever-growing number of sites relating to the First World War. One day I found a Book of Remembrance. Among the entries was one from a Canadian, who, in addition to leaving the name of a relative believed killed on the Somme, asked if anyone could help him in his researches. Thus was to begin a long series of electronic correspondences, starting from an old photograph and a name (ultimately, this led to a corner of a field on the Somme and another name on the Thiepval Memorial). Importantly, I became much more experienced in sourcing and using historical information.

One quiet day, I cast my mind back to the trip we had taken to the Somme with my uncle and aunt to see Albert Turley's name on the Thiepval Memorial. There had been for us no photograph of the soldier we had been looking for, but I suddenly remembered from my recent studies that most contemporary local newspapers ran obituaries for fallen soldiers – and many even printed a photograph, usually of the soldier in uniform. I cursed myself for not having thought of this sooner.

I had no knowledge of newspapers, past or present, from the Forest of Dean. I contacted my aunt, who remembered there used to be three such newspapers, which had been amalgamated some years before. I asked her to contact the present newspaper to discover whether a newspaper archive relating to the Blakeney area for the period of the First World War still existed.

The reply from the Forester was better than I could have hoped for: not only did such an archive exist, but also a microfilm had been taken of it and was freely available for viewing at the Cinderford Public Library. With no more than a hope that Albert's parents had submitted an obituary for him, we hurriedly planned our next visit to the Forest of Dean.

I will be forever grateful to the unknown lady who gave up twenty minutes of her allotted time on the microfilm reader that Friday morning in Cinderford Public Library. We had arrived there on a cold morning, without a booking. It seemed our trip would be wasted, but the librarian explained our situation to the lady, who kindly gave way. The librarian loaded the spools for the Dean Forest Mercury for August/September 1916, and we were away.

This local newspaper carried the major points of the war news but really concentrated on local stories. The quaint adverts for all sorts of remedies and patent medicines were mixed with others relating to auctions of farming implements. Life in the Forest of Dean didn't seem to have been changed much by the titanic struggle taking place in the fields of France, in the high summer of 1916. However, included in the first week's edition of the births, marriages and deaths were indeed obituaries of local soldiers killed in the war. As well as a long write-up, each carried a photograph of the fallen soldier. Our excitement grew in anticipation, as week passed by week with the turning of the microfilm reader-handle.

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Excerpted from Bringing Uncle Albert Home by David P. Whithorn. Copyright © 2011 David P. Whithorn. Excerpted by permission of The History Press.
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