The Bedfordshire Regiment in the Great War |
|
Herbert Charles Kendall (1883 to 1918) (My Great Grandfather)
Herbert (Bert) Kendall, circa spring 1915, outside the Heath and Reach Weslyan church, Bedfordshire. Herbert's pre war life. Herbert Charles Kendall was born on 11 December 1883 at 10 School Lane in Kettering, Northamptonshire. He was known locally as Bert, his family being:
By 1901 Herbert was a 'Stone Cutter', later a 'Stonemason' and eventually a 'Stonemason Journeyman' who worked for Cox's Stonemasons (who are still on St. Peters Avenue in Kettering today). His brother Jack was a noted amateur performer and actor and Herbert himself enjoyed performing light opera, notably Gilbert and Sullivan. Whether they performed together or not is open to speculation!
Herbert's service in the Great War Herbert enlisted into the army very early in September 1914, aged almost 31. He went to the newly opened Recruiting Office in Leighton Buzzard and initially served in D Company (Dunstable and Leighton), of the 5th Battalion of The Bedfordshire Regiment.
Once recruitment swelled their ranks, a reserve battalion was formed and, because he was just over the standard age limit for overseas service, Bert was transferred into the 2nd/5th (Reserve) Battalion. In early 1915, the age parameters were changed and Herbert was moved back into the 1st/5th battalion, where would see 3 years of service. The Battalion started its training in Romford, but was stationed at Bury St Edmunds from September 1914 until Easter Monday 1915, after which they marched to Norwich. Following a brief stay there, they marched to St Albans for their final training, and it was whilst stationed here that they conducted their 'Farewell to the County' march in July 1915, before being sent overseas. They sailed from Devonport, Plymouth on Monday 26th July 1915, and Herbert's Medal Index Card shows he entered the war on Tuesday 10th August 1915, landing on the Island of Mudros, the British entry point to the Gallipoli peninsula. Herbert served in Gallipoli in the Machine Gun Section of the 1st/5th Bedfordshire Battalion, 162nd Brigade, 54th Division from September 1914 until wounded in October 1915. The Battalion acquitted themselves with noted gallantry and lost almost 50% of their number in their attack along the Kiretch Tepe Ridge 15th August 1915 but were involved in no other major offensive actions in Gallipoli. From 29th September to 2nd December, the Battalion was posted into the North ANZAC Sector to hold the line opposite Sandbag Ridge and Hill 60. During October 1915 scenes of the bloodiest hand to hand fighting were recorded during repeated night raids on a Turkish outpost in No-Man's Land called 'Bulgar Bluff'. The position fell and was retaken repeatedly over the weeks, during which time Herbert was wounded in the stomach. Battalion strength in the War Diary was recorded as 256 on 31st October, having lost over 800 soldiers since landing in August - less than 200 would be left by the time they were evacuated from the peninsular. On 30th October 1915, Herbert was operated on in No. 5 Canadian Stationary Hospital, Cavalry Barracks, Arbassia (Alexandria, Egypt) by Lt-Col. Etherington and returned to his Battalion some months later, after convalescing. 1916 was an uneventful year, spent mostly in rebuilding the shattered Battalion and defending the desert outposts around the Suez Canal. 1917 saw the campaign resume and something around this time appears to have returned Herbert home. Although unspecified, this appears to be an adverse reaction to an operation and could have been the result of an illness, injury or wound. When fit for active service again in January 1918, Herbert was transferred into the Lewis Gun section of the 7th Battalion, The Bedfordshire Regiment of the 54th Brigade, 18th (Eastern) Division in France. He spent a brief period in the dreaded, uncomfortable Houlthulst Forest sector, north of Ypres, during the depth of winter. Within days or a few weeks at the most, his battalion moved from the northern most sector of the line to the southern most sector, as a result of the British army taking over a new part of the Western Front from their French allies. On 21st March 1918, the German army launched a massive offensive against the thin, overstretched line of General Gough's Fifth Army. Herbert and the 7th Battalion were involved in the heavy fighting during the opening phases of "Operation Michael", and stubbornly held the Crozat Canal in the area south of St Quentin, between Mennessis and Jussy. Late in the morning of 23rd March, the ever shrinking 54th Brigade was ordered to fall back onto a ridge east of Faillouel, which they held between 1pm and 4pm. On receiving further withdrawal orders, they were caught in the village by the rampant German forces that had already broken through around Jussy to their north and taken the village, all but destroying the 11th Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers in the process. By the end of 23rd March, the entire Brigade could muster around 400 men from its initial strength of 2,500, but fought on. Herbert Charles Kendall falls in action, 23rd March 1918
After enduring 3 and a half years of war in 6 different countries, Herbert was killed in action Saturday 23rd March 1918, around Faillouel, as the Bedford's stubbornly fought their way out of German encirclement during the desperate British defence. A full narrative of the battle including maps and photographs of the battlefield today can be seen here. Herbert was 34 years old, and left a wife and 4 children. His Service Papers were destroyed during the Blitz of WW2 and he is one of many thousands of soldiers who has no known grave. He is commemorated on Panels 28 & 29 of the Pozieres Memorial to the Missing of the Fifth Army, the Kettering War Memorial, and is remembered by his Great Grandson every day. Although unconfirmed, I believe he may lie in the Grand Seracourt cemetery, 8km south-west of St. Quentin, as around a quarter of the cemetery appears to be the final resting place of unknown soldiers from the 54th Brigade who were killed in that battle on that day. During his service Herbert earned 3 Campaign Medals; the 1915 Star, Victory Medal and British War Medal, although they were returned when issued, so were never received by his family. The only memento of Herbert that has survived - apart from the photograph - is an Army Issue Field Compass (see below) that found its way to Herbert's Great Grandson (Steve Fuller) in 2005 - 90 years almost to the week after Herbert himself found it amongst the debris on a battlefield in Gallipoli. 90 years on from Herbert's first battle ... A few weeks after the 90th anniversary of Herbert's first battle - on the 25th September 2005 and completely out of the blue - I received an email from a man called Lee who claimed to have something that belonged to my Great Grandfather. My heart skipped a beat; it turned out that he had undertaken research for a lady who wanted to find out about her ancestor in the Great War and she had given him a few WW1 items in gratitude for his help. Amongst those items was a Compass from the war. He had spent the best part of a year trying to locate a relative of the man who had found it on a battlefield in Gallipoli and written his name on its case. 90 years on, the writing was still legible and the Compass and case still in superb condition. The original owner was Lt A.F. Harding, who I just so happened to have included a quotation from in my battle write up on the Kiretch Tepe Sirt action of 15th August 1915. Lt Harding, it seems, served in the 11th London's, lost the compass in the action and it was picked up by a Private the following day - 16th August 1915. On its case was inscribed: 'Found by Pte H.C.Kendall 4400 M.G.S. 1st/5th Beds Regt on One Tree Hill Gallipoli Peninsula August 16th 1915'
Well, you could have knocked me down with a feather! That Wednesday Lee and myself met up at the National Archives in London and he gave me this most treasured of possessions! Two six foot plus men fawning over a 90 year old compass with tears in their eyes must have looked rather bizarre to onlookers! And there we sat chatting about it, Herbert Kendall, Lieutenant Harding and various other subjects until research called us back to the archives. What can I say about this man (Lee) that hasn't already been said by my friends and acquaintances? What a terrific man and a friend for life. How the compass made it back to Blighty in one piece and ended up in a barn in Oxfordshire 90 years later we can only guess for the moment, but there seem to be family connections between its original owner and the family who's barn it lurked in for years, with the only other link between Herbert and them being Machine Guns as all three served in Machine gun sections or Corps. Whatever route it took, I can only say I'm very pleased it made its way back! Lieutenant Alan Francis Harding As for the original owner - Lt A.F. Harding - he was wounded in the leg the day Herbert picked his compass up, so I presume he dropped it when wounded, although I have no evidence to support that other than the coincidence of the date. Lieutenant Harding survived the war and led an extremely full life, becoming a decorated Officer in the Machine Gun Corps. By 1918 he was Lt-Colonel with a Military Cross to his credit and died 'Field Marshall', Lord Harding of Petherton' no less, according to p131 of Richard Holmes's book 'Tommy'. Having served alongside my Great Grandfather on Gallipoli and in France in the first war, he served alongside my Grandfather too, in the British Eighth Army who fought in North Africa and Italy in the second war of 1939-45. Although unlikely that he knew either of my ancestors as they would have moved in very different circles, the odds of them all being in the places they were when they were must be quite slim! |
Ernest
George Kendall (Herbert's brother,left). Ernest was born
25th April 1887 in Kettering, and worked as a barber in his
early working life until he went to America in June 1909.
He returned to England and married Mabel Helen Driver in Kettering
late in 1910. The couple lived in King's Norton, Birmingham
initially, where they had their sons John Roughton Kendall
(named after Ernest's brother) in 1911 and Ivan Kendall in
1913. Ernest returned to America in 1914 and his family followed
in August 1915. In June 1917 Ernest enlisted into the American
Army who had joined the war but did not serve abroad. They
lived in Newburgh, New York, where Ernest worked for the Underwood
Typewriter Company. By 1930 they owned their home and Ernest
was a Commercial Traveller for the same firm. In WW2 Ernest
was again drafted, at which time he lived in New Jersey and
the couple passed away in 1970, in Florida. 
Despite
the distance from her home, his future wife worked "in service"
for a vicar in Kettering, where it would appear they met.
Annie
Elizabeth Kendall (my Grandmother, pictured left in June
1954 after her only son had returned from the Korean War).
Annie was born 3rd March 1910. Although some documents record
her birth at Lanes End, Heath and Reach, Leighton Buzzard,
Bedfordshire, it is possible that she was born in Eastbourne,
Sussex, probably whilst her father was working there as a
Stonemason Journeyman. She lived in Linslade and Leighton
Buzzard her entire life and died 19th February 1981 at Rothschild
Road, Linslade, Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, aged 70. She
is the eldest child, on the right, on the photo at the top
of the page.
He
is shown on the left early in their training, in a group photograph
of D Company. Below and to the left as you look appears to be his
brother-in-law, Joe Hack, although this is unconfirmed.
