Before the War – Wokingham’s first cinema arrives in 1913.

Posted on May 15, 2012 by admin

Electric Theatre, 10 Broad Street, Wokingham (now the Nationwide).

We have now mostly identified the names on the town’s memorial and have tried where possible to provide details of their short lives. We now have the opportunity to find out what life was like in Wokingham in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s.

Local historian, Jim Bell joins Wokingham Remembers to provide a fascinating insight into a Wokingham life experienced by our servicemen before and after the wars. Following his article on the Nicholson family, Jim now tells the story of the cinema as seen by our residents of over the past 100 years.

 

1913: The ‘Wokingham Picture Palace’ opens

 Wokingham’s first cinema, Wokingham Picture Palace, opened on the afternoon of Monday, 10th March 1913 at No 10 Broad Street, in the days of the silent black and white films. Before the official opening three articles appeared in the Reading Mercury.

Saturday, February 1st 1913 – ‘Wokingham Picture Palace. An advertisement gives notice that this place of entertainment will be opened on or about the 26th inst. And that application should be made on or before that date for the 600 20 percent participating preference shares that remain to be allotted’.

Saturday, 1st March 1913 – ‘The Wokingham Picture Palace will be formally opened on Tuesday afternoon next and invitations have been sent to the leading residents of the district. A charge will be made for admissions and a share of the proceeds will be given to the Crowthorne & District Nursing Association. The Directors will provide light refreshments. The first public performance will take place the same evening’.

Saturday, 15th March 1913 – ‘Electric Theatre. The opening of this place of amusement took place on Monday afternoon. The Mayor (Councillor W. T. Martin) opened the proceedings and switched on the first film. Mr. Vince, a director, thanked the Mayor for his kindness. A selection of films was then exhibited. The theatre was filled at the evening performance’.

The cinema made a small contribution to the war effort of the First World War in 1914. Reading Mercury:

‘Saturday, October 24th 1914 – The Wokingham Picture Palace. ‘A matinee was given at the above theatre on Tuesday in aid of the Belgian refugees. The well-known bass, Mr. Berry, sang “The Battle Hymn” assisted by a chorus, and later the “Bugle Call”. The directors have much pleasure in handing over £5 to the fund.’

The Wokingham Picture Palace building is largely unchanged and stands on the site of the premises of Stevens Reuben basket makers and is now occupied by Nationwide. A little imagination on the part of the viewer will reveal the outline of cinemas of yester years. The building to the right, while similar in style, was not a part of the cinema and was actually built several years later.

The Savoy advertises its latest showing

Affectionately referred to as ‘The Bug House’, The Palace was very popular with children who would queue up on Saturday afternoons to see their favourite Laurel and Hardy or cowboy film. Admission to the front rows was threepence; middle rows: sixpence and back rows one shilling and threepence. In the 1920’s one of the ladies in the box office, although almost blind, was able to identify the coins by touch and seldom made mistakes.  One of the commissionaires was a Mr. Horace Blake veteran soldier who sported a waxed moustache with twirled ends. He would stand outside briskly walking up and down in front of the cinema controlling the customers.

During the days of silent films, music was used to increase the drama of the film scenes. At one time it was supplied by a violinist and pianist. Two of the earlier musicians were Mr. Otley, violinist, and Miss Adey, pianist, who was succeeded by Dorothy Blake. According to Edna Goatley, Miss Adey was a music teacher and, when she wasn’t giving Edna and Ken lessons, she would play some of the sequences from the films.

The walls of the auditorium were decorated with jungles scenes and monkeys, painted by Dick Giles, a local signwriter. During the years when one could reserve a seat, some cinema goers would ask for seats beside the monkey as they provided a better view of the screen.

To the right of the screen was a door which led to the toilets. It also led to an exit so it was quite easy for the children to go home for tea and return unseen for a second viewing without having to pay.

1937: The Union Cinemas Ritz Opens

The prestigious “Union Cinemas Ritz” opened in Easthampstead Road in May 1937 and, for a number of years it competed with the humble Savoy, also owned by Union Cinemas. With the introduction of television at the beginning of the 1950s, cinema audiences began to decline and the Savoy now owned by a Mr. Handford, was the first casualty. When the Savoy gave its final show, The Champion, on the evening of Saturday, January 6th 1951, the reasons, given by Mr. Handford were the high rate of entertainment tax and the impossibility of complying with the quota regulations that stated that 30% of the films shown had to be British. The building was later sold and became the premises of Courtney Reed Ltd.—house furnishers.

The Ritz cinema in Easthampstead Road was officially opened on Saturday the 29th of May 1937. It was one of the most modern cinemas of its time as the description in the following article from the Reading Mercury will illustrate.

The Ritz Cinema, Wokingham. Courtesy Dusaschenka.

Saturday 29th May 1937- ‘Today (Saturday) the “Union Cinemas Ritz” will be opened to the public and the Mayor of Wokingham, Alderman F.J. Barrett J.P. will preside at the opening ceremony, which will take place at 2.30pm. Union Cinemas have set a unique standard in the furnishing and equipping of their theatres, incorporating the most modern ideas in design, combined with ideal comfort for patrons. The new “Union Cinemas Ritz,” Wokingham has been erected and equipped under the direction of Mr. J.H. Lundy of Union Cinemas Ritz, Wokingham the architect being Eric F. Tully L.R.L.B.A. the company’s staff architect. The new cinema is the most imposing building and occupies a commanding position a short distance down Easthampstead Road after turning out of Peach Street, the main thoroughfare of Wokingham. It affords a new car park with separate entrance and exit doorways and an exit into Denton Road for pedestrians. The main elevation to Easthampstead Road is carried out in red sand-faced bricks with stone dressings and is of light modern design. The entrance doors are featured on the corner facing towards the main street and are surmounted by a broad canopy, lighted on the underside by Neon tube lighting, whilst the opposite corner runs upwards in the form of an imposing tower and is in turn featured by tall projecting vanes to the front and side. These vanes serve the purpose of displaying the theatre name and are picked out in Neon lighting. The auditorium seats are all set radially thus affording a perfect vision of the screen from all positions and are served by gangways of generous proportions leading to exits at the front and rear. The interior scheme is in a light

'The Ritz Cinema interior, Wokingham Courtesy Dusaschenka'

decorative trend and much use has been made of Spray texture on which the varying tones of colour give a very pleasing effect, whilst leading the vision to the main decorative feature on the anti-proscenium walls. Excellent effect has been given by the two ornate grills set on either side of a large vertical cove, draped with silk and satin materials and artistically lighted. The main auditorium lighting is by means of chandeliers of exceptional beauty and decorative dome lighting far in advance of the usual type of lighting schemes usually associated with the modern cinema. Altogether, the new “Union Cinemas Ritz,” Wokingham regarded in detail or as a homogeneous whole must take its place as an important, as well as an imposing structure in the architecture of modern entertainment. In the projection department many thousands of pounds have been spent on the finest equipment obtainable. The famous B.T.H. Sound Reproducing apparatus has been installed together with the latest high intensity arcs and powerful modern projectors. Electricity is called upon to serve patrons from the moment it delivers tickets at the paybox. It lights warms and ventilates the building; works the clocks; operates the curtains; projects the films; reproduces the sound—and a hundred and one other details. The wonderful air conditioning plant which has been installed is another of the most important features in the “Union Cinema Ritz”. It literally manufactures weather conditions, for, by its means, the air is washed as it enters the building and every patron is served with a specific quantity of purified air, warmed or cooled to suit varying external conditions. When it is hot outside the building the patrons will find it beautifully cool inside and on the other hand when it is freezing outside the auditorium will be comfortable, warm and cosy.

The Ritz. Illustration courtesy of Reading Mercury

It is gratifying to know that the new “Union Cinemas Ritz” has been built by local labour and local materials have been used as far as ever possible. The finishing touches are now being put to the new Union Cinemas Ritz, Wokingham, which will be opened to the public today (Saturday), at 2.30 pm and the programme that has been arranged for the opening ceremony and for the next week includes “Girls’ Dormitory,” starring Simone Simon. This film was especially selected to introduce Simone Simon to the screen, and she is surrounded by an impressive cast, which includes Herbert Marshall and Ruth Chatterton. “Girls Dormitory” is supported by “Three Married Men,” a sparkling, clever and true-to-life domestic comedy. Monday brings for three days, “This’ll Make You Whistle”. This gay musical film has proved Jack Buchanan’s greatest laughter maker.

The Ritz was proclaimed to be one of the finest in the south of England and the public was amazed and delighted to see the floor to ceiling mirrors that covered the walls of the foyer. There was also deep-pile carpeting, the seats were luxurious and dimming light was new. In the heat of a Saturday afternoon there was one place that was refreshingly cool—the Ritz cinema, Wokingham. The contrast between the temperature in the open and the Ritz left the impression that here was a cinema that was the acme in up-to-date comfort’.

The Ritz starts to crack.

Not long after the opening, however, the mirrors in the foyer began to crack. When buildings were being demolished to make room for the new cinema, older residents had warned the company about the suitability of the site. The problem was that Mr. William Denton had operated a chair manufacturing factory nearby and, over the years, sawdust had accumulated in the ground. The warnings were ignored and the sawdust, together with the natural composition of the soil, had resulted in instability. The mirrors were replaced with a more suitable wall covering.

Overview: A century of cinema-going

Going to the pictures in Britain in the early part of the 20th century was a very popular form of entertainment and by 1938, there were nearly 5,000 cinemas throughout the country. Going to the cinema or ‘the pictures’ was more than a night out. Courting couples and families often went to their local cinema twice a week to see their favourite stars and their local cinema was a ‘home from home’. Most cinemagoers had their favourite seats and, after buying tickets for the stalls or circle, they would queue up at the shop in the foyer for a bag of their favourite sweets or a packet of cigarettes. The frequent rustle of sweet wrappers and the haze of smoke during the performance were all a part of the evening out.

In the early years films, or ‘movies’, were silent and monochrome, or black and white. The ‘talkies’ were swiftly introduced in the late 1920s which brought about a significant increase in cinema audiences and this is generally accepted as being the start of the Golden Age of Hollywood.   Meanwhile researches into animation and colour were in progress and, in 1937, cinema audiences were experiencing the wonder of Walt Disney’s first full-length film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. A year later came the excitement and glamour of The Adventures of Robin Hood starring the legendary Erroll Flynn.

Most cinemas gave continuous ‘double feature’ performances. For many it was their first introduction to luxury both in the cinema and on the silver screen itself. The former was lavishly decorated with curtains, mirrors, lighting and photographs of the stars while the latter revealed the envious lives of the upper classes either at home or in glamorous Hollywood where the sun shone continuously on fast cars, swimming pools or cowboys.

The doors usually opened early afternoon and the performance would commence with general advertisements followed by advertisements of films scheduled to be shown during the following week. These were known as ‘coming attractions’, or ‘trailers’. Then would come an interval during which members of the staff would enter the auditorium sell refreshments, mainly ice cream and fruit juice, which, for many years, stayed at sixpence or two and a half new pence. A Pathé film with the latest news would then be shown as there was no television in those days and, with luck, this was followed by a Disney cartoon. The ‘B film’ or low-budget film, usually a western, would come next and, after another interval, the audience would settle down to watch the ‘A’ film’ which was a more expensive production. Programmes were changed every three days (see advertisement opposite).

There was usually a full house and people came and went during the performance. If the film was a very popular one, queues would form and people would be allowed in when seats became available.

Advertising of future performances in the local newspaper was more detailed. Instead of merely providing the names of the films and actors, there was usually a resume of the films to be shown. The Reading Mercury, June 19th 1937, gives us an example:

‘Next week, until Wednesday, “Theodora Goes Wild” is being shown, featuring Irene Dunn and Melvyn Douglas. The ingenious plot concerns the adventures of Theodora Lynn (Irene Dunn), a small-town girl, who has written a highly successful novel. In order to keep the secret from her two aunts and her gossiping neighbours, she has written the book under an assumed name. She meets the artist who illustrated her book and he advises her to rebel against the narrow-mindedness of her neighbourhood, descending upon the vicinity himself to force her to bring about the emancipation. With this accomplished she proceeds to pay back in kind. It is at this stage that Theodora really goes wild’.

During the early years, admission to the Wokingham Ritz in the afternoon was sixpence in the stalls and one shilling and sixpence in the balcony.

Chums’ Club. About three weeks after the Ritz opened the following announcement appeared in the Reading Mercury of June 19th 1937:

'Chums Club'. 'September 11th 1939 'Courtesy Wokingham Times'

‘Last Saturday, close on 500 happy children were enrolled as members of the Union Cinemas Ritz, “Chums Club”. A glorious time was spent by the youngsters, a special programme being provided for them which included comedies, cartoons and cowboy films. The Union Cinemas Chums’ Club meets every Saturday morning at 10 am and membership and badges are free. The president of the club is Shirley Temple. Every week the youngsters will enjoy community singing, and prizes will be awarded for various competitions amongst them’.

Minors’ Monitors would read out newsletters, from the A.B.C.’s (Associated British Cinemas) head office, from the stage. Seat Monitors were in charge of a block of seats and their duty was to ensure that the other children behaved. The manager of the Wokingham Ritz took monitors to the Gorrick Woods from time to time for picnics and arranged visits to the projection room. Talent shows were held onstage from time to time and every year the Ritz was the venue for a series of events that culminated in the crowning of the Carnival Queen.

Union Cinemas were taken over by Associated British Cinemas (A.B.C.) in 1937 and they operated the Wokingham Ritz until it was sold to Star Cinemas in June 1969.

World War Two: Wokingham Ritz

Two years after the Ritz opened in 1937 war was declared and cinemas nationwide were closed. A notice displayed outside the Ritz cinema declared, CLOSED—by order of his majesty King Hitler and his Lunatics. The closure didn’t last long because by September 11th 1939, Maureen O’Hara appeared in My Irish Molly. At the end of hostilities the following statement was read out at the beginning of all performances for a week:

‘We, the Directors and Staff of Associated British Cinemas offer our sincere congratulations to General Eisenhower, Field Marshall Montgomery and all allied Naval, Military and Air Force Commanders on their brilliant victory. From our hearts we thank the members of the forces who did the job so gallantly. We further extend our grateful thanks to the men and women of Great Britain who so courageously withstood the blitzes and who worked in the workshops, the factories, the mines and on the land to make this victory possible’.

In addition to showing films, the Ritz was the scene of memorable events including ceremonies by the Mayor. He presented leather wallets of brown pigskin embossed with the crest of the borough and the recipient’s initials, to those ex-service men and women who were fortunate enough to survive the Second World War. A second presentation took place on Sunday October 27th 1946, when a further 228 wallets were presented. The presentations took place later than planned because earlier in the year the wallets, manufactured by the Home for Disabled Soldiers, were stolen.

Presentation of wallets at the Ritz Cinema. Courtesy Wokingham Times

The Wokingham Times & Weekly News reported—

‘An impressive and poignant moment was when the entire audience rose to its feet during the playing of two verses of Abide With Me and remained standing while the relatives of those who did not return and who had intimated their desire to be present received the posthumous presentation of the inscribed wallets from the Mayor. By this natural and thoughtful gesture the thoughts of everyone in that packed building went out to those proud parents and wives in their tragic loss. Alderman Perkins who called out the names of the recipients pointed out that among them were several high-ranking officers and also a number of men who had been decorated—but this occasion was such that it was more fitting if the men be called by their Christian and surnames—omitting rank and distinctions. To judge from the audience’s reaction this decision was a popular one’.

Post War Ritz

More recently all public places of entertainment were closed on Good Friday. In Wokingham congregations from local churches and their choirs went to the cinema for a joint service.

As with all cinemas the Ritz employed a commissionaire, one of whom was Mr. Blake, who ensured that the waiting crowds didn’t misbehave. In his smart uniform, waxed moustache and ramrod-straight back he was a magnificent figure.

The Ritz then passed to Jora Leisure Ltd. an independent operator, on November 1st 1977 who converted the main auditorium into a bingo hall and used 180 cinema seats in the circle area on occasions when films  were shown.

The Ritz went over to full time bingo from November 10th 1979 and, in 1981, an extension was built onto the front of the main building to house a small cinema. The former circle was partitioned off to create a second screen seating for 190. One of the screens closed in August 1990 because of falling audiences. Audiences continued to drop and the death knell was sounded when an announcement was made stating that The Point, a new 10-big screen complex at Skimped Hill in Bracknell, was due to open in April of the following year. Jora Leisure hoped for an upturn in audience numbers and kept the Ritz open over Christmas, but on Thursday, January 10th, the curtain came down for the last time. The film shown was entitled, Ghosts, and although many had protested against the closing of the dear old Ritz only fifty people turned up. The sad demise of the Ritz, which had once been a household word, had gone almost unnoticed. In keeping with other cinemas it was a victim of progress and the recession.

Bingo continues in the Ritz, operated by Gala, but the building has been stripped of all its original internal and externally features. Nothing of it’s former opulence has been preserved.

   Approx Proprietors Name
1910-32 Wokingham Picture Palace Wokingham Picture Palace Ltd
1932-34 Electric Theatre D.W. & R. T. Hayward
1935-36 Savoy Electric Theatre Basingham Electric Theatres Ltd
1939 Savoy Theatre ditto
1941 Savoy Cinema  Union Cinemas Ltd (part of A.B.C. Cinemas)
1950-51 Savoy     Handford

Table shows Cinemas in Wokingham 1910 – 1951

Posted in Jim Bell's Archive | Leave a comment

The Nicholson family. Four sons lost in two wars.

Posted on April 10, 2012 by admin

Grandson Edward Hills Nicholson 1880 - 1918. One of four brothers killed by war.

The Nicholson family have no Wokingham street or building named after them and have sunk below the consciousness of today’s local community. In the 1800′s however, they invested in large parts of Wokingham and it is the tragedy of war which took away the family’s youngest generation. The Nicholson’s were wealthy, connected and self made; they were also destroyed by both World Wars. Local historian Jim Bell provides Wokingham Remembers with an excerpt from his book ‘Five Wokingham Families’:

‘Edward Nicholson and his wife, Sophia Hill, hailed from Northumberland. Son of William a butcher, and Margaret Nicholson, Edward was born in Hexham and she in North Shields. They had married in 1846 and, five years later, Sophia gave birth to Eliza Henrietta. In the following year she had a son, Alfred James. At that time Edward described himself as a draper. He must have been quite successful for they had two servants.

To understand how the Nicholson family moved from a butcher’s shop to owning large

Frederick Walton, inventor of linoleum. (Wikipedia).

parts of Wokingham we need to know of Frederick Walton, the inventor of linoleum. After all in the mid 1860’s Edward and Sophia moved south to Middlesex, probably to meet this gentleman. Born in 1838, Frederick Walton discovered the solidification of oil by oxidation. By adding ground cork, gums and resins he produced linoleum, which was a much improved floor covering than kamptulicon, which was expensive, unattractive and difficult to manufacture. He also introduced the manufacture of metallic flexible tubing to Britain. This was originally a French invention but Walton perfected it and rendered it practicable. The use of large diameters of this tubing proved of enormous value in the world’s oil fields and, in certain industries, superseded the use of India Rubber.

After his father refused to finance any more of his inventions, Walton took a distant relative as a partner who gave him a £1,000, but that was soon used up. In desperation he advertised for a second investor and an unidentified ‘person from the north’ came forward, invested £3,000 in the project, and became the second partner. Walton and his two partners set up in business and formed The Linoleum Manufacturing Company which started production on June 4, 1864 in a converted mill at Staines, Middlesex.

At first sales were slow then the partners rented a shop in Newgate Street, London where they held a well-publicised linoleum exhibition. This was the turning point. The shop was continuously crowded with inquirers and the trade suddenly awakened to the fact that the public wanted linoleum.

Locals just didn't like the name Linoleumville. They changed it to 'Travis'.

The company flourished and expanded overseas in 1872 opening the American Linoleum Manufacturing Company with New York manufacturer Joseph Wild. The demand for linoleum grew quickly in North America and the factory’s Staten Island home base became a company town called Linoleumville. In England 19th century Staines became the major producer of linoleum and was a main employer in the Staines area until the 1960s.

It is possible that the above mentioned distant relative was James Walton, next door neighbour of the Nicholson family, according to the census of 1851. It is most likely that the second investor and unidentified person from the north, was Edward Nicholson himself because, at that time, Edward and Sophia were living in Northumberland. Moreover, in a speech given by Edward’s great grandson, Mr. Edward Nicholson Barran at the 82nd ordinary general meeting of Barry & Staines Linoleum Limited held in July 1946, Edward was identified as being one of the founders of the Linoleum Manufacturing Company. At the time of his early death in 1885 Edward was a director of the company.

In addition, according to the census of 1861, Edward and Sophia were boarders at Thavies Inn in Middlesex and Edward was no longer a draper describing himself instead as a fund holder. The census of 1871 states that Edward was residing at No. 14 Montague Villas, Richmond describing himself as a floor cloth manufacturer. Sophia, meanwhile was staying in Leeds with their daughter, Eliza Henrietta who had married John Barran, son of Sir John Barran, 1st Bart. founder of John Barran and Sons, clothing manufacturers; J.P. and Mayor of Leeds.

Having made his fortune in linoleum Edward retired and purchased Matthews Green Estate in 1877 from Captain Elliott Morres. The property was advertised in The Times as—

Matthews Green House, now the Cantley House Hotel.

BERKS—The attractive Freehold Residential Estate known as Matthew’s Green, Wokingham, including a capital house with pleasure grounds, stabling, farmery, three cottages and very picturesque well- timbered, park-size land, in all about 70 acres.

In 1880 he rebuilt the western end of the 17th century Matthews Green House which became the family home. It is now known as Cantley House Hotel.  Around that time he also purchased Wiltshire Farm.

Edward soon became well-known and respected in Embrook and  Wokingham and took an active part in local politics as an ardent Liberal. He was instrumental in starting the Working Men’s Club at Embrook in 1884. Sophia was an active member of St. Paul’s Parish Church and regularly helped to organise Mothers’ Meetings and other entertainments at Embrook Mission Room.

While hunting in December 1884 Edward had a serious accident from which he never fully recovered. He died from pleuro-pneumonia on the 25th of September in the following year at the age of 60 and was buried in St. Paul’s Churchyard. Sophia remained in Matthew’s Green House and continued to participate and give generously to church and local activities until her death in January 1901. She was buried beside her husband.

Their daughter, Eliza, had married John Barran in 1870 and had given birth to eight children: Ruth, Edith, Margaret Elma, Dorothy Hilda, Nathalie Beatrice, John, Lorna and Philip Austyn. As John predeceased his father, Sir John Barran 1st Bart., John junior inherited the title and became Sir John Barran 2nd Bart. upon his father’s death in 1905.

Alfred James, Edward and Sophia’s son, had married Letitia Marian Hills (1856-1929) in 1879 and had moved south to No. 6 Cambridge Park Gardens, Twickenham where they raised a family of one son and three daughters: Edward Hills, Marjorie Hills, Gillian Hills and Christelle Hills.

Edward Nicholson had chosen his son Alfred James, John Barran jnr. and Alfred Henry Hill of Cleveland House, North Shields to be his executors. In 1888 Alfred James purchased some of Wokingham’s glebe land from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for England who had been trying to dispose of it for several years. An area of land of 17 acres, 1 rood and 30 perches, which lay behind the gardens of the houses in Rose Street, Broad Street and Milton Road, after active bidding, was knocked down to him for £2,600. He later purchased a triangle of adjacent land that was left over when the Palmer Schools were built.

As part of the terms of the purchase of the first piece of land Alfred James also took on the responsibility of maintaining 3 acres, 1 rood and 17 perches of unadopted roads. These comprised the whole of Glebelands Road and the portion of Rectory Road between Broad Street and the traffic lights. He persuaded the E.C.E. to let him put down £600 and pay off the other £2,000 as an interest-free mortgage.

These pieces of land comprising Barn Field, part of High Close, part of Coppid Close and the triangle linked Hill Field (which he already owned and for which he had been claiming a property vote in Wokingham’s Parliamentary elections) with Wiltshire Farm which was a part of his father’s estate. This, together with the Matthews Green Estate, gave Alfred James authority over an area stretching from Rectory Road to Bell Foundry Lane.

Alfred then built a house on eight acres of land of High Close that was completed in 1890, at a cost of £8,000, and which he named Glebelands. Shortly afterwards the Nicholson family moved from Twickenham to take up residence at the new house.

The census of 1891 revealed that there were six servants living at Glebelands: Mary Brenton dressmaker; Matilda Shint cook; Annie Goddard nurse; Frances Wise kitchenmaid; Eleanor Hermon housemaid and Emily Cooley parlourmaid.

Glebelands Lodge, next to the house, accommodated Henry Genery coachman, and his wife and two children, plus Alfred Shorter stable helper aged fourteen years. Above the entrance to Glebelands Lodge is the devil in the shape of a ram’s head. It is believed to be a warning to the servants to stay on the straight and narrow.

Alfred’s family continued to increase with the addition of Walter; Bruce and Victor so he built another, much larger, house designed by Ernest Newton R.A., one of the famous architects of the era, that was completed in 1897. Edward named this Glebelands and renamed the first house Clare Court. He later created some confusion in his will of 1907 by referring to these two houses as High Close and Oakfield respectively.

Alfred James and Letitia were also quite public spirited and participated in various events. In town, they organised entertainments for the public from time to time and, in 1901, Alfred was elected town councillor serving for one year. In that year he sold Matthews Green Estate to Colonel Raymond South Paley (c l838-1913) a retired army officer, who renamed it Cantley.

At the time of his death, on the 22nd December 1908, Alfred James, after having served as a director of the Linoleum Manufacturing Company for several years, was its chairman. He died at Glebelands, and was buried in All Saints Churchyard. Letitia joined him many years later in October 1929.

 The children of Alfred and grandchildren of Edward Nicholson

Edward Hills Nicholson 1880 - 1918

Lieut. Col. Edward Hills Nicholson, D.S.O. was educated at The Towers, Crowthorne and Winchester, received his commission in the Royal Fusiliers in August, 1900 and served in the South African War obtaining the King’s and Queen’s medals with five clasps. He was later ordered home from India where he held the appointment of Adjutant to Volunteers and was posted to France in 1915.

Edward married Ethel Frances, daughter of the late Cecil Henry Drumlamph, County Derry in 1912 and they moved to 56, Clarendon Villas, Hove, Brighton. They had one son.

He was posted with his battalion to Salonika where he remained for upwards of two years. He was mentioned in despatches and awarded the D.S.O. He was killed in action on the 4th of October 1918 aged 38 years and was interred in Unicorn Cemetery, Vend’huile, Aisne, France.

A Hills Nicholson brother. This is possibly Walter (alternative is Bruce)

Captain Walter Hills Nicholson had a distinguished career in the First World War. He joined the Royal Fusiliers and was awarded the Military Cross. The following report was published in the Supplement to the London Gazette of the 18th July 1918—

‘For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. Owing to the rapidity of an enemy attack he and his company headquarters were cut off from the company. Realising this, he at once made a determined effort to reach them, and after a sharp hand-to-hand fight, in which several of the enemy were killed, and he himself wounded, succeeded in doing so. By his gallant action he was able to rally his company’.

He survived the war and married Ethel Francis Baird. They had a daughter, Nan Baird, who married Flying Officer, Frederick Barr of the Royal Australian Air Force at St. Blaise Church, Milton, Berkshire in August 1945.

Walter joined the R.A.F and served in the Second World War as  flight lieutenant and was killed in 1943.

Bruce Hills Nicholson 1894 - 1917

Second Lt. Bruce Hills Nicholson enlisted in the Royal fusiliers and was killed in action. He was buried in Faubourg-d’Amiens Cemetery, Arras, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, France, Plot: Bay 3.

Marjorie Hills Nicholson married John Francis, son ofthe Costons of Evendons, in 1903. They had three children—Diana Mary, Joan Marjorie and Albert Hills Coston.

Gillian never married and died at Nyeri in Kenya in 1941.

Sub-Lieut. Victor Hills Nicholson joined the Royal

Victor Hills Nicholson 1897 - 1917

Navy and died on the 9th of August 1917 when his ship, H.M.S. Recruit was torpedoed and sunk by U-boat, Wilhelm Rhein, three miles north of the Noord Hinder. Another 53 of the crew were also killed.

Christelle married Captain Charles Murray Carpenter of the Royal Engineers in 1906.

St. Paul’s Parish Church Family Memorial

Plaque beside the font. For Grandparents, Edward and Sophia:

To the glory of God and to the dear memory of

Edward and Sophia Nicholson

Loving parents, faithful friends, good citizens

Who entered into rest Sep 25th 1885-Jan 21st 1901

and are interred in this churchyard.

This tablet is erected by their children

“The memory of the just in blessed”

All Saints Parish Church Family Memorial

Plaque in the South aisle. For father, Alfred:

IN MEMORY OF

ALFRED JAMES NICHOLSON

BORN NOVEMBER 9, 1852

DIED DECEMBER 22, 1908

List of First World War dead. For Grandsons and Sons Edward, Bruce and Victor:

EDWARD H. NICHOLSON, R. Fusiliers

BRUCE H. NICHOLSON, R. Fusiliers

VICTOR H. NICHOLSON R.N. H.M.S. RECRUIT

Jim Bell’s book and many others can be found in Wokingham Town Hall’s Information Office. Here is a list of more local publications: http://www.wokinghamsociety.org.uk/wokingham_publications.html

Posted in Jim Bell's Archive | Leave a comment

Wokingham families and The Great War

Posted on February 15, 2012 by admin

Wokingham Families and the Great War.

Recalling the 1914-18 war often involves descriptions of military strategy and the bewildering numbers who were killed or maimed on both sides.  What is often lacking in the tomes of history is the impact of the war from the perspective of the home shores.  The research into Wokingham’s memorial has shown us the numbers of losses each street suffered during the war.  If you look at the bottom on this page there is a map which shows these losses;  often eight or nine deaths in a single street. However, there is another perspective and that is the impact on the families within the community. Today’s Wokingham only shows glimpses of its village history and it is difficult to grasp how close a community it was and it is even harder to envisage what a ‘close community’ actually means.  What is also surprising is the community which existed for hundreds of years (as we shall see) has changed beyond recognition only in recent decades.  At the time of First World War, Wokingham was a small town of fewer than 7,000 people (1911 Census) as compared to the 35,000+ of today.  The tight knit nature of small towns such as Wokingham felt their losses not just on an individual basis, but as a community. Names such as Brant, Rance, Pursey and Collyer have been in the town for hundreds of years and a network of marriages during this period meant the losses laid heavily on the townspeople because the community was in effect, a large extended family. One example of this family network in Wokingham is the connection between the Purseys and Alexanders and when we start to look into this family, we very quickly find the relationships go much wider and deeper.  To help us understand these connections, we spoke to Mrs Christine Parnwell (nee Pursey) who is interested in her family history.  Christine gives us a little background to the early connections:

The Purseys were members of the old church at Barkham

“I and other family members have traced the Pursey family to the seventeenth century, where John Pursey married Ann Walden on 14th January 1748.  The Pursey family were associated with the village of Barkham for many years.  Many of whom (if not all of them) worked as agricultural workers living in tied cottages which went with their work”.

We can see by the photo on this page, a report of a proud Mr and Mrs T Alexander watching their sons go to war.  Mrs Mary Alexander was in fact Mrs Mary Pursey before losing her husband Charles and later marrying Thomas Alexander in 1909.  Mary and Thomas were later to witness the death of four of their sons, Henry and Thomas Pursey and William and George Alexander.  Charles Pursey senior was Christine’s Great Grand Uncle. Christine also has connections with the Rance family, whose name is mentioned on the Wokingham Memorial; Oliver and William Rance having lost their lives.  Christine tells us:

“My maternal grandparents had the surname of Rance and lived in the Plough Pub,

Christine's mother, Matilda Sumner (toddler in front) and siblings 1922

London Road, Wokingham. The first listing I can find of Thomas and his first wife Ann is dated 1854. Thomas and Ann ran the pub for over a decade, then Thomas was widowed, he married his second wife Martha and ran the pub for at least another two decades. It is said Rances Lane may have been named after the family. I have found a Thomas Rance age 13 listed as a border at the Wargrave Union Workhouse, if this was my great great grandfather he did very well indeed as by the age 25 he was married to Ann and running the beer house (as it was called then) which is certainly an achievement coming from a very poor start in life. The pub then had 5 acres of land which Thomas and family worked on as agricultural workers, as well as running the pub and coping with a very large family. One of his daughters Florence was my grandmother, my Mum’s Mum. William Thomas Rance (on the Wokingham Town Hall Memorial) is I’m sure a relation, although as of yet I haven’t found the connection to the Plough Pub family”.  

Harold Rance sitting to the right of the trophy.

“I remember in the sixties having relations of Rance in Easthampstead road, no doubt descendants of ours. I have a football photograph of my Mum’s half brother Harold Rance (right of the trophy).  At the age of 14 Harold joined the Army (WW2) and rose to be a Major spending a lot of time in Nicosia. We have the date of 1933/4 on the football, but as yet not found any other information”.

Just to add to connections within this old Wokingham family, Christine’s mother’s maiden name was Sumner and we know of an Arthur Sumner, who was born in Wokingham, a Grenadier Guard and was killed in the First War on November 1st 1914.  The Sumner family came from Bramshill.

“There is a tombstone just inside the gate at Eversley churchyard of Ernest Sumner age 19 who had died in 1915, a gunner with the Royal Field Artillery.  I found later Ernest was my grandfathers’ (Alfred Sumner) youngest brother.  A few years earlier on the 1901 census Ernest was a shepherd’s boy age 14, just so sad to think of him and all the other young men dying so young”.

Christine provides more information of the intertwined nature of the Wokingham families:

Christine's Grandmother, Rosina Pursey (nee Jewell). This photo taken outside Robinswood the lodge at California Crossroads where the Pursey family lived

“Our family is complicated as my Dad’s widowed Mum (Rosina Pursey) married my Mum’s widowed Dad (Alfred Sumner) bringing both families together merging 15 children, Mum being the youngest at 14, Dad was 19.  It was the first time my parents had met and in later years (1947) they married, although step brother and sister they were not blood related.  This meant I only had one set of grandparents who I don’t really remember, as Mum’s Dad (Alf) died in 1952 when I was 3 and Dad’s Mum (Rosina) died in 1956 when I was only 7.  So sadly my brother and I grew up without any grandparents. I don’t have many photos of the grandparents as they were all very poor and probably a camera was a luxury.  I have never seen any photos at all of Dad’s Dad (Edwin Pursey), he died in 1933 age 59.

Alfred Sumner, Christine's Grandfather.

Henry and William (named in the Wokingham Town Hall memorial) were Charles Pursey’s sons and Edwin my grandfather was one of Richard’s sons.  Charles and Richard were brothers so that made William and Henry Edwin’s cousins. My grandmother, Rosina married into the Pursey family, her maiden name was Jewell who came from Hurst.  I’m surprised there are no mentioned of any Jewells on the memorial as they were another large family who must have had young men in the WW1”.

In this short biography, we start to feel the sense of loss which were felt along the wires which bonded many families together in Wokingham.  What is also fascinating is how if there was a premature loss in the family of a husband or a wife, that they would, by necessity (as no benefit system then) as much as love, remarry and combine two already large families into an even larger unit. The rural communities required all members of the family to work in order to provide sustenance and ultimately, survival.

Christine then finishes with a passage which will describe many of our experiences of childhood:

“I was born in 1949 at Barkham which is three miles out of Wokingham.  As a child on many occasions I went with my Mum shopping in Wokingham I remember some of the old shops Ken Goatley mentions in his history of Wokingham.  Although we weren’t well off my brother and I had a lovely childhood, we played outside in all weathers and were free to roam, we had healthy food often grown in the garden and fresh eggs from our own chickens, those were the days, what I call a lovely natural healthy childhood”.

Posted in Site Development Updates | Leave a comment

BBC’s ‘Birdsong’ and the story of the miners in The Great War

Posted on January 29, 2012 by admin

Front cover of 'Birdsong' by Sabastian Faulkes

Birdsong has completed its two episodes on the BBC. Author, Sebastian Faulkes tells us of a story about a soldier who has been affected by the experience of war; from the battles of the Somme to Messines Ridge and Amiens. The more the battles rage the more his mind is taken back to a time when he fell in love with a French woman in the summer of 1910. The story weaves its way through the deaths of comrades on the battle field and the memories of the loss of his lover before the war changed his life and that of many others. It also delves into the experiences of a group of miners who are tunnelling under the ground taken up by German trenches. The book presents a far darker picture of the experiences of the mine workers than we have seen from its televised counterpart, which naturally tends to emphasise the story’s love theme. However, the BBC still manages to tell the story of the mines, a little known, but very important part of the war’s operations. The chalk deposits that lay around the Western Front, provided a relatively penetrable subsoil and below the streets of Arras, the town’s besieged residents have hidden in the honeycomb of tunnels for hundreds of years. Le Grande Mine site at La Boiselle shows a huge crater from an underground bomb which announced the start of the Battle of the Somme on July 1st 1916. The placement under the German lines, was the result of the tunnelling of miners taken from the coalfields of England and Wales and even workers from the London Underground.

Historian Max Arthur, produced a magnificent book titled ‘Forgotten Voices Of The Great War’ and tells the story of the war via the memories of the soldiers who were actually there. One such soldier was Lance Sergeant Charles Quinnell of the Royal Fusiliers (9th Battalion). He tells us of his observations of the miners and finishes off with one of the war’s many shocking revelations.

“Sixty men and two senior NCO’s out of each battalion had to be labourers for the Royal Engineers mining parties.

We were billeted in French barracks in Bethune and the idea was that three parties of thirty men would attend to each mine. There were three mines at Givenchy, known as Ducksbill 1, Ducksbill 2 and Ducksbill 3.

As you walked along the trench all you saw of the mine was a wooden framed doorway about four feet high and two wide. Behind it was a staircase that went thirty feet underground and opened up into a room about eight feet by eight. In the centre of that room was a four feet square shaft and over the top of that was a wooden windlass and a rope. The shaft went down another twenty feet or so. At the bottom of the shaft was another doorway facing the German Lines and that was the entrance to the tunnel. The tunnels were a continuation of this wooden frame work that went straight ahead under the German lines.

Now these lads were really masters with their tools. Their principal tool was a bayonet and they would stick that into the face then with a twist of the wrist bring out a big cheese of clay, which was put in the sandbags and passed along the tunnel to the bottom of the windlass. That was then wound up and an endless chain of men took them up the staircase and threw them over the top.

Every now and again we’d have to stop work and we’d always have one man down there at the face who’d sit on a sandbag with a stethoscope pressed against the wall, so he could hear the Germans working. If you could hear the Germans working you knew you were safe, it was when he didn’t hear a noise you knew the Germans were going to blow. One day I crept up to the chap who was listening and whispered, could I have a listen? He handed the stethoscope to me and I could distinctly hear the Germans talking.

It was clay there and while those timber frames were good, every joint leaked and as you were bending down all the time and they were only four feet high – your back got absolutely sodden because it was drip, drip, drip on you all of the time. We pumped the mine for days on end but you couldn’t make an impression on the water. The bottom tunnel was absolutely filled and it started to come up the shaft. This puzzled the Royal Engineer officer who went out one night and found a crater immediately above the tunnel. The German had been pumping water out of their mine and into this crater, so of course we were getting the full benefit of it. So he cut the German hoses and that had an immediate difference and we got our mine clear of water.

The miners were a rough lot, but by God they were brave men. They used to mooch into the trench, they had a rifle but they didn’t know how to fire it. They weren’t supposed to, they were miners. You could always tell a miner, he never bothered to clean his buttons. He was a miner, he wasn’t one of those posh soldiers.

We had a sergeant who came to us when the Dardanelles was evacuated, a very regimental type of man. On his first day in the trenches two of these miners slummocked past him along into the front line – they used to walk along with their heads down and took no notice of us and we took no notice of them. Anyway, this sergeant didn’t know who they were and yelled out “Halt !” Then when they didn’t attempt to halt, he gave the order again, but when they didn’t obey he brought up his rifle and ‘bang’, he shot the first one through the head. Then he did exactly the same to the other man, so a bullet went through both their heads. He killed them stone dead. He was later court martialled and reduced to corporal”.

 

Posted in Site Development Updates | Leave a comment

The story of The Christmas Day Truce 1914

Posted on December 25, 2011 by admin

Peace breaks out on the Western Front

Many thanks to Wiki for this study of the amazing tale of the human family’s desire to express friendship during the first Christmas of the First World War:

The 1914 Christmas truce was a series of widespread unofficial ceasefires that took place along the Western Front around Christmas of 1914, during the First World War. Through the week leading up to Christmas, parties of German and British soldiers began to exchange seasonal greetings and songs between their trenches; on occasion, the tension was reduced to the point that individuals would walk across to talk to their opposite numbers bearing gifts. On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, many soldiers from both sides – as well as, to a lesser degree, from French units – independently ventured into “No man’s land“, where they mingled, exchanging food and souvenirs. As well as joint burial ceremonies, several meetings ended in carol-singing. Troops from both sides had also been so friendly as to play games of football with one another.[1]

The truce is seen as a symbolic moment of peace and humanity amidst one of the most violent events of modern history. It was not ubiquitous, however; in some regions of the front, fighting continued throughout the day, whilst in others, little more than an arrangement to recover bodies was made. The following year, a few units again arranged ceasefires with their opponents over Christmas, but to nothing like the widespread extent seen in 1914; this was, in part, due to strongly worded orders from the high commands of both sides prohibiting such fraternisation.

The truces were not unique to the Christmas period, and reflected a growing mood of “live and let live“, where infantry units in close proximity to each other would stop overtly aggressive behaviour, and often engage in small-scale fraternisation, engaging in conversation or bartering for cigarettes. In some sectors, there would be occasional ceasefires to go between the lines and recover wounded or dead soldiers, whilst in others, there would be a tacit agreement not to shoot while men rested, exercised, or worked in full view of the enemy. However, the Christmas truces were particularly significant due to the number of men involved and the level of their participation – even in very peaceful sectors, dozens of men openly congregating in daylight was remarkable.

Background

The first months of World War I had seen an initial German attack through Belgium into France, which had been repulsed outside Paris by French and British troops at the Battle of the Marne in early September 1914. The Germans fell back to the Aisne valley, where they prepared defensive positions. In the subsequent Battle of the Aisne, the Allied forces were unable to push through the German line, and the fighting quickly degenerated into a static stalemate; neither side was willing to give ground, and both started to develop fortified systems of trenches. To the north, on the right of the German army, there had been no defined front line, and both sides quickly began to try to use this gap to outflank one another; in the ensuing “Race to the Sea“, the two sides repeatedly clashed, each trying to push forward and threaten the end of the other’s line. After several months of fighting, during which the British forces were withdrawn from the Aisne and sent north into Flanders, the northern flank had developed into a similar stalemate. By November, there was a continuous front line running from the North Sea to the Swiss frontier, occupied on both sides by armies in prepared defensive positions.[2]

The approach to Christmas

Soldiers playing football on Christmas Day in Salonika, 1915.

In the lead up to Christmas 1914, there were several peace initiatives. The Open Christmas Letter was a public message for peace addressed “To the Women of Germany and Austria“, signed by a group of 101 British women suffragists at the end of 1914 as the first Christmas of World War I approached.[3][4] Pope Benedict XV, on 7 December 1914, had begged for an official truce between the warring governments.[5] He asked “that the guns may fall silent at least upon the night the angels sang.”[6] This attempt was officially rebuffed.[7]

Christmas 1914

British and German troops meeting in No man’s land during the unofficial truce (British troops from the Northumberland Hussars, 7th Division, Bridoux-Rouge Banc Sector)

Though there was no official truce, about 100,000 British and German troops were involved in unofficial cessations of fighting along the length of the Western Front.[8] The first truce started on Christmas Eve, 24 December 1914, when German troops began decorating the area around their trenches in the region of Ypres, Belgium.[9]

The Germans began by placing candles on their trenches and on Christmas trees, then continued the celebration by singing Christmas carols. The British responded by singing carols of their own. The two sides continued by shouting Christmas greetings to each other. Soon thereafter, there were excursions across No Man’s Land, where small gifts were exchanged, such as food, tobacco and alcohol, and souvenirs such as buttons and hats. The artillery in the region fell silent that night. The truce also allowed a breathing spell where recently fallen soldiers could be brought back behind their lines by burial parties. Joint services were held. The fraternisation was not, however, without its risks; some soldiers were shot by opposing forces. In many sectors, the truce lasted through Christmas night, but it continued until New Year’s Day in others.[7]

Bruce Bairnsfather, who served throughout the war, wrote: “I wouldn’t have missed that unique and weird Christmas Day for anything. … I spotted a German officer, some sort of lieutenant I should think, and being a bit of a collector, I intimated to him that I had taken a fancy to some of his buttons. … I brought out my wire clippers and, with a few deft snips, removed a couple of his buttons and put them in my pocket. I then gave him two of mine in exchange. … The last I saw was one of my machine gunners, who was a bit of an amateur hairdresser in civil life, cutting the unnaturally long hair of a docile Boche, who was patiently kneeling on the ground whilst the automatic clippers crept up the back of his neck.”[10]

General Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien, commander of the British II Corps, was irate when he heard what was happening, and issued strict orders forbidding friendly communication with the opposing German troops.[8]

Adolf Hitler, then a young corporal of the 16th Bavarian Reserve Infantry, was a notable opponent of the truce.[8]

Later truces

In the following months, there were a few sporadic attempts at truces; a German unit attempted to leave their trenches under a flag of truce on Easter Sunday 1915, but were warned off by the British opposite them, and later in the year, in November, a Saxon unit briefly fraternised with a Liverpool battalion. Come December, there were explicit orders by the Allied commanders to forestall any repeat of the previous Christmas truce. Individual units were encouraged to mount raids and harass the enemy line, whilst communicating with the enemy was discouraged by artillery barrages along the front line throughout the day. The prohibition was not completely effective, however, and a small number of brief truces occurred.

An eyewitness account of one truce, by Llewelyn Wyn Griffith, recorded that after a night of exchanging carols, dawn on Christmas Day saw a “rush of men from both sides … [and] a feverish exchange of souvenirs” before the men were quickly called back by their officers, with offers to hold a ceasefire for the day and to play a football match. It came to nothing, however; the brigade commander threatened repercussions for the lack of discipline, and insisted on a resumption of firing in the afternoon.[12] Another member of Griffith’s battalion, Bertie Felstead, later recalled that one man had produced a football, resulting in “a free-for-all; there could have been 50 on each side”, before they were ordered back.[13]

In an adjacent sector, a short truce to bury the dead between the lines led to official repercussions; a company commander, Sir Iain Colquhoun of the Scots Guards, was court-martialled for defying standing orders to the contrary. Whilst he was found guilty and officially reprimanded, this punishment was quickly annulled by General Haig, and Colquhoun remained in his position; the official leniency may perhaps have been because he was related to Herbert Asquith, the Prime Minister.[14]

In the later years of the war, in December 1916 and 1917, German overtures to the British for truces were recorded without any success.[15] However, in some French sectors, singing and an exchange of thrown gifts was occasionally recorded, though these may simply have reflected a seasonal extension of the live-and-let-live approach common in the trenches.[16]

Evidence of a Christmas 1916 truce, previously unknown to historians, has recently come to light. In a letter home, 23-year-old Private Ronald MacKinnon told of a remarkable event that occurred on December 25, 1916, when German and Canadian soldiers reached across the battle lines near Vimy Ridge to share Christmas greetings and trade presents. “Here we are again as the song says,” the young soldier wrote. “I had quite a good Xmas considering I was in the front line. Xmas eve was pretty stiff, sentry-go up to the hips in mud of course. … We had a truce on Xmas Day and our German friends were quite friendly. They came over to see us and we traded bully beef for cigars.”

The passage ends with Pte. MacKinnon noting that, “Xmas was ‘tray bon’, which means very good.”[17] MacKinnon was killed shortly afterwards during the Battle of Vimy Ridge.

In the following years of the war, artillery bombardments were ordered on Christmas Eve to try to ensure that there were no further lulls in the combat. Troops were also rotated through various sectors of the front to prevent them from becoming overly familiar with the enemy. However, situations of deliberate dampening of hostilities also occurred. For example, artillery was fired at precise points, at precise times, to avoid enemy casualties by both sides.[18]

French-German truce

Richard Schirrmann, who was in a German regiment holding a position on the Bernhardstein, one of the mountains of the Vosges, wrote an account of events in December 1915: “When the Christmas bells sounded in the villages of the Vosges behind the lines ….. something fantastically unmilitary occurred. German and French troops spontaneously made peace and ceased hostilities; they visited each other through disused trench tunnels, and exchanged wine, cognac and cigarettes for Westphalian black bread, biscuits and ham. This suited them so well that they remained good friends even after Christmas was over.” He was separated from the French troops by a narrow No Man’s Land and described the landscape as: “Strewn with shattered trees, the ground ploughed up by shellfire, a wilderness of earth, tree-roots and tattered uniforms.” Military discipline was soon restored, but Schirrmann pondered over the incident, and whether “thoughtful young people of all countries could be provided with suitable meeting places where they could get to know each other.” He went on to found the German Youth Hostel Association in 1919.[19]

Public awareness

The events of the truce were not reported for a week, in an unofficial press embargo which was eventually broken by the New York Times on 31 December. The British papers quickly followed, printing numerous first-hand accounts from soldiers in the field, taken from letters home to their families, and editorials on “one of the greatest surprises of a surprising war”. By 8 January pictures had made their way to the press, and both the Mirror and Sketch printed front-page photographs of British and German troops mingling and singing between the lines. The tone of the reporting was strongly positive, with the Times endorsing the “lack of malice” felt by both sides and the Mirror regretting that the “absurdity and the tragedy” would begin again.[20]

Coverage in Germany was more muted, with some newspapers strongly criticising those who had taken part, and no pictures published. In France, meanwhile, the greater level of press censorship ensured that the only word that spread of the truce came from soldiers at the front or first-hand accounts told by wounded men in hospitals.[21] The press was eventually forced to respond to the growing rumours by reprinting a government notice that fraternising with the enemy constituted treason, and in early January an official statement on the truce was published, claiming it had happened on restricted sectors of the British front, and amounted to little more than an exchange of songs which quickly degenerated into shooting.[22]

In Petermann makes peace or the parable of German sacrifice, a 1933 play by national socialist writer and World War I veteran, Heinz Steguweit, a German soldier, accompanied by Christmas carols sung by his comrades, erects an illuminated Christmas tree between the trenches, but is shot dead by the enemy. Later, when the fellow soldiers find his body, they notice in horror that enemy snipers shot down every single Christmas light from the tree.[23]

Posted in Site Development Updates | Leave a comment

Wokingham Remembers Alfred Hurdwell 1896 – 1917

Posted on September 29, 2011 by admin

Peter Hurdwell and Heather White, visit their ancestor Alfred Hurdwell's memorial in Wokingham Town Hall. 2011

Although we are still adding the names of the Wokingham Fallen to our website, we have already witnessed our first reunion of two members of the Hurdwell family who were introduced to each other via Wokingham Remembers. Heather White had read about the website in the Wokingham Times and made contact with us, sending some superb photos of her ancestor Alfred Hurdwell.  Alfred was killed in action on the 22nd August 1917, during the Third Battle of Ypres; otherwise known as Paschendaele. Whilst we were building the family tree, Peter Hurdwell made contact informing us that he too was a descendant of Alfred. Peter lives in Sydney, Australia and was visiting the UK to meet up with some friends. We introduced Peter to Heather (a descendant of Alfred’s sister) and the result was a meeting of the two cousins at Wokingham’s War Memorial in the Town Hall.

L to R: Mike Churcher (Wokingham Remembers), Peter Hurdwell (Alfred's family), Heather White (Alfred's family), Trevor Ottlewski (Wokingham History Society), Councillor Gwynneth Hewetson (Cultural Partnership) and Jan Nowecki (Town Clerk).

Now this wasn’t two people meeting up and knocking on the door to have a look in the War Memorial Room. If the Town Council are informed beforehand, they will take a descendent visiting the memorial very seriously. The Council at this point becomes the voice of the community which expresses its appreciation of the servicemen’s gift of life. On this occasion the Town Clerk (Jan Nowecki) and Councillor Gwynneth Hewtson  (also Chairman of The Cultural Partnership) were there to greet Heather and Peter and provided an appropriately warm reception. Trevor Ottlewski  who is Chairman of The Wokingham History Society was also on hand to give the visitors a tour of the magnificent Victorian Town Hall, which is placed right in the middle of the town centre.

To cap it off and to add to the importance of the occasion, Lewis Rudd, reporter from the Wokingham Times came along to take an interview. I state that this is an important occasion because the whole event came about from a communal desire to remember a young 21 year old man from Wokingham who literally gave up his life to protect his family and ultimately our community. It is also an uplifting experience to learn of Heather’s and Peter’s desire to keep their ancestor’s memory close within their family. Heather’s own children have made the journey to the Tyne Cot Memorial in France, to mark their respect for Alfred’s memory. Peter too has made his own personal journey to the same Memorial, making the long trip from the other side of the world.

Alfred Hurdwell. There is another picture of Alfred on his own page, with Hetty Fisher, his sweetheart.

Keeping in mind the nature of the occasion, we all agreed it was an uplifting moment for us. The sun shone on the day, Wokingham was in flower and the town’s people were out in force, simply enjoying the unique atmosphere our town can provide on days such as this. And here we were, our small group, taking part in the simple act of remembering one of our fallen from the First World War and knowing Alfred would be as proud of his home town as much as we were of him.

Please take the time to look at Alfred’s page and also see him standing proudly by the side of his sweetheart Hetty Fisher,  yet another person embroiled in this personal tragedy. If you would like to know more about the events leading up to the particular action read John Chapman’s excellent synopsis on http://www.purley.eu/H142P/P274-YPRE.pdf. John Chapman is a leading expert on the Royal Berkshire Regiment, otherwise know as the biscuit boys. To read of the Regiment’s experience in the war is in itself a highly rewarding journey.

In building up our knowledge of the 217 fallen of the First World War, we can only note that Alfred’s name being remembered by his family is something of a rarity. By twist of fate, the men who died for us, were too young to have their own offspring to recall their memory by a future generation. Also, any surviving brothers returning from the war, rarely recalled the appalling experience and so the names of their dead siblings are now often lost to history. It is therefore an ambition of this project to encourage the community to ‘adopt’ one of our Fallen. He may have lived in the same street as us, or went to the same school or maybe worked in the same business, trade or shop. We can bring their names back into our lives where they belong and make sure their names are remembered at the major centenary events of 2014 – marking also, the year the world changed. We hope also to involve the descendants who have also ready made their valuable contributions to our mission.

Sarah Huxford and Mike Churcher (Wokingham Remembers)

mrchurcher@gmail.com and huxfordfamily@gmail.com

Posted in Site Development Updates | 4 Comments