RAYMOND HEYWOOD

 

 

LOOKING FOR RAYMOND
THE SOLDIER-POET OF REMEMBRANCE
BY
BARRY VAN-ASTEN
 

‘Have you seen the rose trees
And the hedgerows white with may,
In the early morning breeze
By the Thames down Marlowe way?
 
Have you seen the sunset quiver
As it sinks behind the ridge,
When the shadows on the river
Softly fall by Cookham Bridge?
 
Lilac trees fade out of sight,
There is magic in the moon,
Stars come out to greet the night, -
Night of roses: June, sweet June.’ (1)

 

Upon discovering the poetry of the soldier-poet, Lieutenant Raymond Heywood of the Devonshire Regiment, I decided to learn more about this lesser-known and elusive writer of poems of remembrance whose verse celebrates the brave souls that gave their lives during the Great War and sings of his deep devotion and love for Devon. But what do we actually know about Raymond Heywood? We know that he proclaims to have served with the Devonshire Regiment as a Lieutenant; we certainly know that he survived the First World War and that his poetry appeared in many periodicals (2) and newspapers and that he published two volumes of verse: ‘Roses, Pearls and Tears’ (Erskine Macdonald. London. 1918) and ‘The Greater Love’ (Elkin Mathews. London. 1919); both books gathered favourable reviews from various newspapers and literary periodicals, and with no other line of evidence to pursue the reviews make an obvious choice, such as this from The Western Times of June 1918: ‘An officer of the Devon Regt., Lieut. Raymond Heywood, has published, through Erskine Macdonald, a collection of poems under the title of “Roses, Pearls, and Tears”. The verses were mostly written in the trenches of France and the East while Lieut. Heywood was serving with the Devons, and are aptly described as “a treasury of remembrance to all who have known the sadness and sacrifices of war.” It is interesting to know that one of Devon’s own regiment has joined the ranks – already imposing ranks – of our soldier poets.’ (3) It seems the author of the article conveniently forgot about Lieutenant William Noel Hodgson, M.C. (born 1893 in Gloucestershire, educated Durham School and Christ Church, Oxford) the poet who wrote under the pen-name, Edward Melbourne and served with the 9^th Battalion of the Devonshire Regiment at the Battle of Loos (25^th September 1915) and sadly died on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, near Mametz on 1^st July 1916, aged just 23! It also makes me think that had Heywood died we would probably know more about him, but perhaps the reviews will reveal something? In The Tatler of July 1918 we find: ‘Have you added yet to your poems shelf “Roses, Pearls, and Tears,” by Lieutenant Raymond Heywood of the Devonshire Regiment? The writer has charmingly sent a copy:- To Eve with the author’s grateful thanks for happy hours spent reading the “Letters,” and it is a duty as well as a pleasure to get the book because he is devoting half the proceeds to helping the poorer women-folk left by the men of his company who have fallen. “You know, Eve, how splendid these boys were, meeting death with laughter on their lips and the love of home in their hearts.” I quote from one called “Pals O’ Mine”:-

 
Morning came –
Out of its golden mist I heard
Laughter and the echoed tramp
Of a thousand laughing lads.
 
Behind the lonely hill
The sun sank crimson… through the trees
The night wind softly stirred
And all was still.
 
… But I shall hear
When morning comes in a golden mist,
The echoed song from the thousand lips
Of those dear laughing lads.’ (4)

 

So far there is very little new knowledge concerning Heywood but we must continue the search – I found this from The Globe, of May 1919: ‘Mr. Raymond Heywood’s poems of remembrance, “The Greater Love” (Elkin Mathews. 2s. 6d.), breathe a sweet love of the homeland “down Devon way,” for he was a Lieutenant in the Devon Regiment.

 
Tell me – do the roses blow
In the lanes down Devon way,
Are the orchards all aglow
And the hedgerows bright with May?
 
Tell me – are the skies of Devon
Just as blue as blue can be,
Is there still a peep in heaven
In the blue of Devon’s sea.
 
Yes, my laddie, skies are blue,
And it helps to ease the pain,
While my heart is calling you
Back to Devon and love again.’ (5)

 

And as another example this from The Devon and Exeter Gazette which mistakenly (or perhaps not) gives Heywood’s rank as ‘Captain’ – ‘Captain Raymond Heywood of the Devonshire Regiment, whose little volume of verses “Roses, Pearls, and Tears,” was noticed in these columns some short time since, has favoured us with a copy of “The Greater Love”, poems of remembrance which he has dedicated “To all who have loved and lost, yet – keeping the love in their hearts – can smile back into the eyes of God, and understand.” As in his previous volume, the contents of  “The Greater Love” are particularly meant to appeal to Devon folk, and we are sure they will carry their message of comfort and consolation to many, re-echoing the sentiments in the hearts of those who are able to express themselves as Captain Heywood does in “Things I Love”:-

 
“The fragrance of a lilac tree in May,
The crimson of a sunset o’er the bay,
The peace of twilight time down Devon way.
 
The golden radiance of a harvest moon,
The call to prayer of village bells at noon,
The falling petals of a rose in June.
 
The heather-perfumed breeze upon the moor,
The echo of sad waves upon the shore,
These things I love – and, ah, a thousand more.”

 

The publishers are Messrs Elkin Mathews (Cork-Street, London). (6)

 

Unlike many other soldier-poets with their patriotic bluster, Raymond Heywood has a very subtle, almost feminine touch to his poetry with an ever present tone of melancholy, much as one finds in the poetry of A. E. Housman and Thomas Hardy; it is evident in poems such as ‘Rose Leaves’, from Roses, Pearls, and Tears:

 
I did not know so soon would end the day
In which the roses bloomed – scarce had they found
The sun’s caresses, when they died away,
And shed their withered petals on the ground.
 
I did not know that when you had to go,
The sunshine with the roses would depart –
But you’ll come back to me one day, and so
I’ll keep the rose-leaves fragrant in my heart. (7)

 

And the almost haunting, ‘Down Devon Way’, also from Roses, Pearls, and Tears, which speaks of the turmoil of change, beginning with the poet accompanied by his lover or companion and ending in solitude, searching for peace:

 
It seems that only yesterday
We listened to the blackbird’s song.
The roses bloomed down Devon way,
Our hopes were high and love was strong;
The joy of living filled my heart
(Oh, that such joy can never stay!)
We made a little world apart,
For hearts are true down Devon way.
 
I know that when the blackbird’s song
In sweetest silence died away,
The nights grew very sad and long,
But hearts are loyal down Devon way,
We lost our little world apart –
It seemed the joy was only lent –
But there’s a memory in my heart
That lingered when the roses went.
 
I think that when the roses blow
Down Devon way I’ll go again
To some dear, quiet place I know,
And hear the blackbird’s sweet refrain:
There, when the western shadows fall
Around my world at close of day,
My heart will understand it all,
And find sweet peace down Devon way. (8)

 

Heywood’s Christian sentiments and sympathy for those men lost to the war and for the loved ones left to cope with the loss runs throughout his poetry and one can sense the deep sadness he feels, at times it seems as a ‘motherly love’ for the soldiers in his care, the ‘doomed youth’ that the war will eradicate physically, in lines such as ‘My son, / How sweet the day, / Before you went away! / The red, red roses bloomed, and I was glad. / You filled my mother-heart, dear Tommy lad.’ The poem continues with deeper tenderness – ‘”For Valour,” / A little cross, / To compensate my loss; / Crushed are the roses’ petals, crimson red, / Time does not matter now. My boy is dead.’ The poem ends with the same ‘understanding’ the poet seems to find in ‘Down Devon Way’: ‘With mother lips, upon my cross / In tenderness / A loving kiss I press. / And as I touch it with my caring hand, / New things of heaven and earth I understand.’ [Son. Roses, Pearls and Tears] The same ‘motherly-love’ can be found in the following poem, which some may say indicates the poet’s sexuality:

 
‘O Boy o’ Mine, beneath the rose –hued skies,
Of other days I see your face again;
Life only leaves me tender memories,
And dear dead dreams that fill my heart with pain.
 
O boy o’ mine, how could I let you go, -
All that I held so dear: Nothing can tell
Of all you were to me – I only know
That when you went the evening shadows fell.
 
O boy o’ mine, the joy was only lent,
And you have nobly played a hero’s part,
Thro’ the dark night to your dear grave is sent
A Mother’s love, from my poor aching heart.’
 
[My Boy. Roses, Pearls and Tears]

 

Just why the poet chooses a ‘mother’s role’ is difficult to say but the concern and the regret and the promise that they shall be remembered remains as a firm testament –

 
REMEMBRANCE
(“To live in hearts we love is not to die.”)
 
A myriad souls that have the sweetness pressed
From youth and love and life,
From Flanders’ fields have gone to seek their rest
Beyond the pain and strife.
 
Youth said to Love: “The soldier’s soul is mine,
‘Twas I who brought
His spirit all the fire and strength divine,
That nobly fought.”
 
Love answered: “While they claim I will confess –
My inspiration gives
Such splendid lives the noble tenderness
Whereby their memory lives.” (9)

 

The strength of this promise to remember is given in his dedication in ‘Roses, Pearls and Tears’ to ‘The Women of the Empire and those of their splendid Men who have fallen and to all who have known the discipline of Pain and Sorrow’ –

 

‘Oh, that it were within my power to stay the hand

Of pain and death – the bitter waste of years;

But what is time and life? – when in God’s better land

Love lies beyond our Roses, Pearls, and Tears.’

 

The poet has seen the ‘splendid men’ fall in battle; he has known great friendship and great minds fall to the war machine and the promise to remember them is fulfilled by his devoting half the proceeds from the volume to the poor ‘women-folk’ left to grieve. He explains his wishes in a letter to the Devon and Exeter Gazette in September 1919: ‘The Greater Love. To the Editor of the Daily Gazette. Sir, - Under the patronage of Princess Christian, Veterans’ Day is to be held on the last day of this month. The object is to create an Imperial memorial scheme to our war heroes. It is to take the form of a Club house, with 1,000 beds, and every convenience for serving and ex-Service men, also Convalescent Homes for those still requiring treatment and after-care. In order to help this scheme I am publishing a special edition of Remembrance Poems, entitled “The Greater Love”, and for each copy sold I will double my royalty in aid of this fund. Copies will be sent post free for 2s 6d net to any address, and the help of your readers will be gratefully appreciated. Yours truly, Raymond Heywood Lieut. Devonshire Regiment. 10, Buckingham Street, Adelphi, London, W.C.2.’ (10)

 

We know also that he served in France and Macedonia as many of the poems in ‘Roses, Pearls and Tears’ were written in the trenches (11) and give specific locations such as ‘A Soldier Sleeping’ – ‘Tread softly there! On the ground / Rifle and bayonet forgotten lie! / Tommy lad is resting. See his lips / Are smiling – dreams have come / On rose-tipped wings!’ written at Neuve Chapelle on 12^th March 1915 and ‘The First Wave’ which begins dreamily, ‘Falling leaves and setting sun, / Ending of another day; / Down the trench the echoes run, / O’er the top and far away!’ and goes on to describe the ‘eager faces’ and ‘anxious eyes’ as ‘through the fire of hell they run’, blurred figures from the past whom Heywood would have known as comrades, as ‘swiftly through the wire they pass, / silent faces, one by one; / some will sleep upon the grass - / falling leaves and setting sun.’ written at Givenchy in the Autumn of 1915; ‘In Thessaly’ written in Greece during Christmas 1916 and the elegiac ‘Rest and Quietness’ written in Macedonia on 10^th February 1917, a night that was definitely not quiet and restful for the Devonshire Regiment:*

 
‘If I should die
Be my last thoughts of Devon –
Of early morning
And quiet nights,
To see the woods in Autumn, the green of fields,
The blue of Summer skies and bluer sea;
To hear the song of birds, the rippling streams,
The swish of waves against the big grey rocks;
To smell the rich brown earth – the wild flowers
In the lanes – the ripening fruit…’

 

And the contemplative ‘The Discipline of Sorrow’ where the poet has ‘seen the silver moonbeams gently play / o’er Macedonia’s hills at dead of night’ and seen ‘the Eastern stars play hide and seek / on Doiran’s lovely lake of azure blue’ and can only conclude that ‘maybe, one day, when Time has eased the pain, / at last I’ll see / God’s own good reason for these latter years!’ which was written by Lake Doiran, Serbia in 1917, so we can see a pattern of movement and we know that the Devonshire Regiment served in Macedonia, specifically the 10^th Battalion and therefore the poet, Raymond Heywood must inevitably belong to the 10^th Devonshire’s. With this in mind I researched the officers of the Devonshire Regiment for the period of the war; particularly the 10^th Service Battalion but found no officer named Raymond Heywood, I even looked through the lists of chaplains of various denominations but no-one named Raymond Heywood. I can only gather that ‘Raymond Heywood’ is a pseudonym, in fact many poets chose to use a ‘pen-name’ and I am convinced of this; for some reason the poet wanted to remain anonymous; but he was still a soldier and served, presumably as an office, in the Devonshire Regiment and certain factors still remain: 1. he survived the war and his identity may possibly be revealed through investigating a list of officers from the 10^th Devons who survived the war, and, 2. his love of Devon suggests he was probably born there or had some deep attachment to the county which may narrow down the search.

 
PRO PATRIA MORI
 
The shadows softly fall where they are sleeping,
The moonbeams dance
Upon their beds, and they are in God’s keeping –
Somewhere in France.
 
Upon their graves the crimson poppies glory,
And cornflowers too,
White lilies to complete the floral story –
Red, white and blue,
 
For that they died… no clarion calls were blended,
No lifted lance
For each small share, - but just a journey ended –
Somewhere in France. (12)

 

The 10^th Service Battalion of the Devonshire Regiment was formed at Topsham Barracks in Exeter on 24^th September 1914; training began when they were posted to Stockton Camp, Codford St. Mary, Salisbury Plain as part of the 79^th Infantry Brigade of the 26^th Division. During November the weather was too cold to sleep in tents and so better accommodation was found for the men in Bath.

 

A list of officers for the 10^th Service Battalion of the Devonshire Regiment given in the Monthly Army List for December 1914 appears as:

Captains: K. A. Brown. L. F. [Lewis Frederick] Adams. Lieutenant: F. Bryce. 2^nd Lieutenants: O. Lovett. J. B. Passmore. H. G. Wimbush. H. W. H. Creasy. G. R. Bennett. D. H. Bellamy. B. R. Dunning. C. Greenslade. M. W. A. MacMichael. W. R. F. Miller. W. T. A. Bazalgette. A. [Andrew] Napier. J. [John] Ost. R. W. Townsend. N. Greenslade. H. D. H. Court. F. Colwin. E. J. G. Mudge. W. I. Partridge.

 

And for March 1915: Command: Lt. Col. G. J. [George John] Ellicombe (1859-1946). Majors: F. M. [Francis Marwood] Hext. R. P. Smith. N. Z. [Norman Zeal] Emerson. Captains: H. R. [Henry Reginald] Chomondeley (1862-1947). K. A. Brown. A. MacN. Martin. A. Fletcher. C. K. Martin. Lieutenants: H. G. Wimbush. O. Lovett. J. B. Passmore. C. Greenslade. G. R. Bennett. B. R. Dunning. H. W. H. Creasy. 2^nd Lieutenants: E. F. Lyons. F. W. Moore. D. H. Bellamy. M. W. A. MacMichael. W. R. F. Miller. W. T. A. Bazalgette. A. Napier. J. Ost. R. W. Townsend. N. Greenslade. H. D. H. Court. F. Colwin. E. J. G. Mudge. W. I. Partridge. C. F. C. Featherstonhaugh. D. M. Murdoch. A. H. Peck. A. [Andrew] Fowle. L. F. Vinicombe. W. T. Beer. H. F. Clark. H. Diggines. J. B. S. Notley. G. Litchfield. S. H. Duff. S. J. Cottle. C. G. Harris. H. S. Adams. A. D. S. Catling. N. G. Easton. J. de M. Dunster. L. J. Moon. G. A. Williams. E. H. Taylor. G. E. Morrison. A. B. Cadell. C. A. Campbell. R. Weymouth-Wilson. G. B. C. Northey. G. D. Lock. W. G. Lock.

 

The Regiment left Bath to crowds of cheering and waving on 20^th April 1915 and marched the 21 miles to Sutton Veny, a camp near Warminster where further training would be given; the 10^th Devons were at the camp with the 7^th Wiltshire Regiment, the 12^th Hampshire Regiment and the 8^th Duke of Cornwall Light Infantry. They were sent to France on 22^nd September 1915, landing at Boulogne.

On the 30^th October 1915 the 26^th Division which included the 10^th Battalion of the Devonshire Regiment were diverted from France to Greece; they departed at the port of Marseilles and landed at the port of Salonika; they arrived in Salonika on 21^st November 1915. The 10^th Devons were stationed at Lembet Camp which is about three miles north of Salonika. Once there they surrounded their trench system with wire which came to be known as ‘the birdcage’. In July 1916 the 10^th Devons were ordered to advance north to the front line on the Greek/Bulgarian border, this was done over almost a week of night marching. They settled at Kalinova, a place south of Doiran. On 25^th October 1916 they marched about eight miles east towards the hill, ‘La Tortue’ (The Tortoise), situated across a ravine from the fortified hilltop, Petit Couronne, on the Bulgarian front line, to relieve the French. They were to remain there for six months and malaria and dysentery caused a lot of sickness in the battalion.

 

In November 1916 the Battalion consisted of: 2^nd in Command: H. R. Cholmondeley. Captains: K. A. Brown. A. MacN. Martin. L. F. Adams. A. Fletcher. C. K. Martin. C. Greenslade. Lieutenants: O. Lovett. J. B. Passmore. G. R. Bennett. B. R. Dunning. A. H. Peck.  D. H. Bellamy. E. F. Lyons. F. W. Moore. W. R. F. Miller. 2^nd Lieutenants: W. H. [William Henry] Hornby. J. Ost. R. W. Townsend. N. Greenslade. W. I. Partridge. J. N. Herapath. A. Fowle. H. Diggines. H. S. Adams. L. J. Moon. E. H. Taylor. W. E. A. Hitchcock. G. B. C. Northey. C. D. Webber. H. Goad. J. T. J. Hollom.

 

On Christmas Day 1916 the men of the 10^th Battalion enjoyed a traditional Christmas Dinner of turkey, roast beef and Christmas pudding and it was during this time that Heywood would write – ‘In Thessaly’: ‘In Thessaly I see the light / Of twilight time, when comes the night / With charm and grace, / But somewhere o’er the Western Sea / A fairer thing I long to see, / One woman’s face.’ (In Thessaly. Roses, Pearls, and Tears)

 

A raid was planned for the 9^th February 1917 but a terrible snow blizzard caused it to be delayed until the following day, the 10^th February 1917; the Devonshires made a trench raid on Petit Couronne and after two hours of fierce fighting with over thirty casualties and around a hundred wounded they were forced to withdraw.

 

February 1917: Major: K. A. Brown. Captains: A. Fletcher (Lt. Canadian Military Forces). C. K. Martin. C. Greenslade. J. B. Passmore. O. Lovett. E. F. Lieutenants: G. R. Bennett. B. R. Dunning. D. H. Bellamy. E. F. Lyons. F. W. Moore (Adjutant). W. R. F. Miller. R. W. Townsend. W. H. Hornby. 2^nd Lieutenants: J. Ost. N. Greenslade. W. I. Partridge. J. N. Herapath. A. Fowle. H. Diggines. H. S. Adams. E. H. Taylor. W. E. A. Hitchcock. G. B. C. Northey. C. D. Webber. H. Goad. J. T. J. Hollom. G. E. S. Montagu. S. J. H. Smith. Quarter Master: F. L. P. Rosini.

 

On 23^rd April 1917 there was a heavy bombardment and lots of wire cutting for on the following day, 24^th April 1917, another night raid was scheduled, zero hour being 9.45 p.m. The Devons managed to get through the wire but were ordered to retreat; this would be known as the first Battle of Doiran.

On 26^th April the Battalion marched eight miles east of Doiran to a new position at Dova Tepe, a sector on the slopes of the Krusha Balkan hills. The Devons held the line for the remainder of 1917 until the spring and summer of 1918.

 

May 1918: Command: Major K. A. Brown, D.S.O. Captain: H. C. Ponsonby. J. B. Passmore. E. F. Lyons. B. R. Dunning. R. W. Townsend. Lieutenants: K. C. Nichols. F. W. Charlesworth. N. Greenslade. H. Goad. J. N. Herapath. A. Fowle. S. Wright-Smith. G. B. C. Northey. F. W. [Frederick William] Cornell. 2^nd Lieutenants: W. E. A. Hitchcock. R. E. Carpenter. H. [Howard] Mercer (Adjutant). F. W. [Frederick William] Deacon. R. G. Jefferson. Quarter Master: J. H. Simpson (Hon Lt.).

 
EVENTIDE AT YPRES
 
A solemn stillness fills the air,
The shadows long and longer grow;
Broad sunbeams lie across the square,
Where soldiers come and go;
Round ruined tower stray swallows glide
And slowly, slowly sinks the sun
At Ypres – when the day is done.
 
No more the shattered trees resound
With song of many a happy bird;
But far beyond the fire-swept ground
The crashing guns are heard!
And yet sometimes like whispers sighed
Soft breezes through those tree-tops run
At Ypres – when the day is done.
 
So may the lives so nobly spent,
When sunset greets their dying eyes,
Find in their hearts a sweet content
Instilled by sacrifice.
For many hero-spirits glide
To realms of rest – the journey run
At Ypres – when the day is done.
 
[Eventide at Ypres. Roses, Pearls and Tears]

 

On 14^th September 1918 the allied offensive began. By the 18^th September the Serbs had taken Doiran and Petit Couranne had fallen. The Bulgarians had retreated by 20^th September and the Devons crossed into Bulgaria on 28^th September; the Bulgarian forces surrendered on 29^th September and hostilities ceased at noon; the following day, 30^th September the Bulgarians officially surrendered from the war but Turkey still remained! On 1^st December 1918 the 10^th Devons marched through Bucharest.

 

September 1919: Majors: K. A. Brown. J. B. Passmore. Captains: A. MacN. Martin. E. F. Lyons. B. R. Dunning. R. W. Townsend. S. Wright-Smith. F. W. Charlesworth. A. S. Robinson. Lieutenants: H. Goad. J. N. Herapath. P. G. Whitehouse. G. B. C. Northey. P. H. Thomson. F. W. Deacon. F. W. Cornell. H. T. Marshall. R. G. Jefferson. 2^nd Lieutenants: C. H. Cosway. H. V. Gibbons. J. H. Simpson.

 

BEFORE BATTLE
 
I heard them sing of home last night,
A song of Devon they loved so well,
As they were marching to the fight –
Along the Flanders road to hell…
 
I scarce can think ‘twas yesterday
Those laughing lads could laugh and sing,
For now their dear boy lips are grey,
And Devon has made her offering.
 
Their song is dead, but that sweet strain
Still gathering charms unknown before,
Will make a music in my brain,
And haunt my heart for evermore.
 
[from The Greater Love]

 

The following is a list of fellow officers of the 10^th Battalion whom ‘Heywood’ would have probably known, men who sadly fell in battle:

 

Lieutenant (later Captain) Owen Lovett, born 1895, Fulham, London, son of Charles Joshua Lovett (Oilman Dealer) and Jane Douglas of 68 Badminton Road, Balham, London. He died on 25^th April 1917, aged 22 and is buried at Doiran, Greece.

 

Lieutenant (later Captain) Harry William Hay Creasy, born circa 1896 in Colombo, Ceylon, son of Harry Creasy and Louise Hay. Educated at St Bees School, Cumberland (1911-1913) and Berkhamstead School, Hertfordshire; he also served with the 11^th Battalion, Essex Regiment. He died on 13^th June 1916 and is buried at Essex Farm Cemetery, Belgium.

 

Lieutenant William Thomas Arnold Bazalgette, born June 1897, Epsom, Surrey, son of Major John Evelyn Bazalgette (1870-1951) and Mabel Constance Brooking (1872-1927). Educated at Blundell’s School, Tiverton, Devon; he died in Flanders on 9^th May 1917 aged 20 (there is no grave, his name appears on the Menin Gate, Ypres).

 

Lieutenant (later Captain) David Humphrey Bellamy, born 1895, India, Ceylon, son of Lt. Col. Charles Vincent Bellamy, D.S.O. and Ellen Hawkins of ‘Leigh Holt’, Crapstone, Yelverton, Devon. He served with the 9^th and 10^th Devons in France and Salonika, and died on 2^nd April 1917 aged 22; he is buried at H. A. C. Cemetery, Ecoust-St. Mein, France.

 

Lieutenant (later Captain) Francis William Moore, M.C., born c. 1890, son of Richard and Mary Moore, 61 Highbury New Park, Highbury, London. Francis was a member of the Kensington Rowing Club and served with the 8^th and 10^th Devonshires (‘B’ Company); he died on 26^th April 1917 aged 27 and is buried at Sarigol Military Cemetery, Kriston, Greece.

 
‘Beneath the moon, grief pale, I clasp his hand,
And for a quiet while I bend above him and his tired smile
Will linger in my heart until the end…
O God! ‘tis only they who loved a friend can understand.’
 
[My Pal. Roses, Pearls and Tears]

 

Lieutenant Sidney Joseph Cottle, born 27^th January 1895, Calcutta, India, son of John and Adela Cottle of Devon. Sidney served as a private in the Royal Fusiliers; 2^nd Lieutenant in the Machine Gun Corps; Lieutenant in the Devonshire Regiment and also ‘A’ Battalion of the Tank Corps. He died on 31^st July 1917 aged 22 and is buried at Birr Cross Roads Cemetery, Belgium.

 

Lieutenant Michael William Annesley MacMichael, born 1895, Lee, Ilfracombe, Devon, son of Rev. William Fisher MacMichael and Mary Elizabeth Fisher of ‘Old House’, Tiverton, Devon. He also served with 11^th Battalion, Essex Regiment (A Company) and died on 16^th September 1916 aged 21; he is buried at La Neuville British Cemetery, Corbie, France.

 

Lieutenant William Reginald Francis Miller, born 1897, Wellingborough, Northamptonshire; son of Hubert William Miller and Amy B. Dulley of 4, The Beacon, Exmouth; he died between 24^th and 25^th April 1917 aged 20, and is buried at Doiran, Greece.

 
‘I only want to find a quiet place,
Within a garden, where a heart is yearning;
I only want to see one woman’s face,
And find the love-light in her dear eyes burning.
 
I only know what joy ‘twill be to feel
That from her side again I need not roam;
When I come back, at close of day, I’ll kneel,
And thank my God for bringing me back home.’
 
[My Wish. Raymond Heywood. Malta. Summer 1917. Roses, Pearls and Tears]

 

Lieutenant Wilfred Issell Partridge, born 18^th May 1893 in Heavitree, Devon, son of Richard Issell Partridge (Schoolmaster) and Laura Sarah Jane Mugford of 6 St John’s Road, Exeter, Devon. Wilfred was educated at Hele’s School and King’s College, London. He died 24^th April 1917 aged 25 and is buried at Doiran, Greece.

 

2^nd Lieutenant Leonard James Moon, born 9^th February 1878, Kensington, London, son of William Moon (solicitor) and Sarah A. Moon. He was educated at Westminster School (1891-1896) and Pembroke College, Cambridge (1897-1900) before becoming a schoolmaster and Headmaster; a renowned cricketer who played for Middlesex County Cricket Club (1899-1909). His cause of death states ‘died of wounds’ but Moon, suffering the trauma of shell-shock committed suicide by shooting himself on 23^rd November 1916, near Salonika. He was 38 years old and he is buried at Karasouli Military Cemetery in Salonika, Greece.

 
‘He was a man… I linger where his cross
Shines white among the shadows, and I know
My very soul is strengthened by my loss.
My comrade still in death – I loved him so.’
 
[A Man’s Man (To ….. killed in action). Roses, Pearls and Tears]

 

2^nd Lieutenant Edward Stanley Hudson, born 20^th October 1892, Stroud, Gloucestershire, son of Rev. Edward Francis William Hudson of Saunton, Devon, and Constance Lyla Carver; by all accounts a fine pianist and well-liked young man, educated at Victoria College (1906-1911) and Exeter College, Oxford (Modern Languages) until 1914 when he entered the Royal Fusiliers before his commission in 1915 to the 10^th Devonshires; in November 1916 he served in Egypt and Salonika. He died 13th February 1917, aged 24 and he is buried at Sarigol Military Cemetery, Greece.

 

2^nd Lieutenant Sydney John Howard Smith, born 1888, Wandsworth, London, son of Arthur Nixon Smith (Tobacconist/Confectioner and Solicitor) and Mary Ann Rebecca Day. Sydney entered service as a private in the Royal Fusilers and became a 2^nd Lieutenant 10^th Devonshires. He died 10^th February 1917 and is buried at Doiran, Greece.

 

2^nd Lieutenant Assheton Biddulph Cadell, born 1894, Tiverton, Devon, son of Nevil Pottow Cadell and Gertrude Louisa Biddulph of ‘Foxlease’, Camberley, Surrey. Cadell also served with the 8^th Battalion, Queen’s Own (Royal West Kent Regiment). He died at Ypres on 19^th February 1916, aged 21 and he is buried at Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery, Belgium.

 
‘The moonlight softly fell upon your bed,
(O God, I scarce can think that you are dead!)
And all my heart, and all the dreams I knew
I dreamed I saw a little cross of white,
A little lonely mound, so still and grey –
I only heard the sighing poplars sway.’
 
[By Sanctuary Wood. Roses, Pearls and Tears]

 

2^nd Lieutenant Lionel Frank Vinicombe, born 1887 in Constantinople, son of  Charles and Louisa Vinicombe, of Constantinople (and 36 Cherry Hinton Road, Cambridge). He was educated at George Watson’s College, Edinburgh (1900-1905) and King’s College, London (1907) at the Faculty of Science (Analytical Chemist) before going to the National Gymnasium in Stockholm. He enlisted in the 10^th Devonshires in December 1914 and transferred to the 8^th Battalion, Queen’s Own (Royal West Kent Regiment) in November 1915. He died on 29^th June 1916, aged 29 and he is buried at Dranoutre Military Cemetery, Belgium.

 
TO THE DEAD
 
Ah, how can we forget you? – you who stood
For right, and brought us Freedom with your blood –
Saving a nation’s soul; your heads held high –
Thinking it fine to fight, and finer still to die
For England’s sake!...
 
Ah, we shall not forget you, come what may
With the glad dawning of each new-born day
Remembrance still shall live from age to age
For you, our best, our dearest – England’s pride,
Who, having died
For all that Justice stands for, side by side –
Gave up your lives to God, and paved the way –
That we might come into our heritage! (13)

 

 

Some of the officers who served with the 10^th Devonshire Regiment and survived are listed below which may provide a clue as to the identity of Raymond Heywood:

 

Major Kenneth Arundel Brown, born 2^nd February 1890, St. Thomas, Devon, son of William Henry Brown, born 1866 (house decorator/restaurant waiter) and Emily S. Brown. Kenneth was educated at the Guildhall School of Music, becoming organist of St. Peter’s Church and Director of the Wimbledon Choral Society. He lived in St. Leonard’s and died in Hastings in 1980.

 

Major (later Lieutenant-Colonel) Francis Marwood Hext, born 14^th January 1860, Trenarren House, St. Austell, Cornwall, son of Thomas Hext (1805-1881) and Rhoda Charlton Yeatman (1819-1914). He married Florence Petherick (1868-1922) on 17^th June 1893; he was also High Sheriff of Devon in 1933. He died on 21^st December 1944 at St. German’s Lodge, Exeter, Devon.

 

Captain Archibald McNeil Martin, born 1870, Blackheath, London; he married Anne Carter Hampson at Ormskirk, Lancashire on 30^th August 1893. Their son Captain Cecil Hampson Martin (born 8^th June 1894, India) of the East Lancashire Regiment died in France on 2^nd October 1916. Captain Archibald MacNeil Martin died on 19^th April 1922, Plymouth, Devon and was buried on 22^nd April in Broadstone, Devon.

 

Captain (later Colonel) Henry Chambre Ponsonby, D.S.O., M.C., born 8^th April 1883, Ireland, son of Chambre Brabazon Ponsonby, M.P. and Mary Plunkett. Henry married Beatrice Maud Cecil Levinge in July 1923. He died on 2^nd January 1953 in Salisbury, Wiltshire.

 

Captain (later Major) Ashton Fletcher, born Arthur Guy Ashton Fletcher, M.D., C.M., 15^th January 1870, Toronto, Canada. He married Eleanor Beatrice Forbes, 27^th November 1899, Massachusetts, United States (and later Loretta Luella King, post 1914). Ashton was a General Practitioner before joining the Canadian Expeditionary Force in 1914; commission to Lieutenant (4^th Battalion); Captain in the 10^th Devonshires and Major in the R.A.M.C. He published a paper ‘Creosote in Pneumonia’ in the British Medical Journal (28^th June 1919. p. 799) while an acting Major (temporary commission) with the R.A.M.C. He died 2^nd March 1933 in Toronto, Canada.

 

Captain Claude Kennedy Martin, born 1873, Coorg, South India, youngest son of Major G. M. Martin, Indian Army. Claude married Madeline Annie Desborough (born 15^th October 1872 Plumstead, Surrey) at Northam in Devon on 19^th April 1904. In 1911 they are living in Cranford Magna, Dorset and Claude is a ‘retired coffee planter). He died on 26^th October 1937.

 

Captain (later Major) Ernest Frederick Lyons, M.C., born 12^th July 1890, India. In 1901 11 year old schoolboy, Ernest, born in ‘India Ragportana’ is boarding in East Preston, Littlehampton, Sussex. Ernest worked as a clerk at Baring Brothers and Co. Ltd. London in 1906 and his address was 124 Fellows Road, Hampstead, London. In 1911 he is 21, single and a ‘bank clerk’ boarding with the Greening family in Lewisham (possibly a friend of Reginald Walter Greening, a civil servant second class clerk in the India Office who is the same age as Ernest). E. F. Lyons served as a 2^nd Lieutenant with the 8^th Service Battalion, Devonshire Regiment in October 1914 (as was fellow officer 2^nd Lieutenant Francis William Moore) and was transferred to the 10^th Battalion as he appears in the February 1915 Army List as a Lieutenant with the 10^th Devonshires (F. W. Moore was also transferred to the 10^th; he died during the first Battle of Doiran on 26^th April 1917). In April 1917 Lyons was wounded and hospitalised. He was awarded the M.C. on 1^st January 1919. In the Army List for June 1929 Captain Ernest Frederick Lyons is serving with the 1^st and 2^nd Battalion (Regular) of the Middlesex Regiment (small arms school). On 14^th September 1933 Army Officer Captain Ernest Frederick Lyons aged 43 travels from London to Port Said, Egypt on board the ‘Barrabool’. However, Captain Lyons did return to England and there is some mystery surrounding his death as the following article from The Cornishman and Cornish Telegraph (14) describes: ‘Major’s Fatal Fall by Land’s End – an open verdict. How a man saw another man fall, sustaining injuries which proved fatal, and then went away, and could not be traced was told to the Deputy Borough Coroner (Mr. Barrie Bennetts) at Penzance on Thursday afternoon, when he held an inquest on Major Ernest Frederick Lyons staying at No Place, Sennen, who died at the West Cornwall Hospital on Tuesday morning as the result of injuries received in a fall at the Land’s End the previous afternoon.’ The article goes on to say that ‘evidence of identification was given by Mr. Gaston Chameroy (15), of No Place, Sennen, who said that deceased was a retired Major who had served with the Middlesex Regiment. He had known deceased since the latter was a boy, and for the last three months deceased had been staying at his house. Deceased was a bachelor aged fifty-one, and his home address was “Oakway”, Alford, near Cranleigh, Surrey.’ We are then told that ‘Major Lyons enjoyed fair health’ and ‘had no financial or other worries’ and had been ‘seeking another post’. The witness, Mr. Chameroy last saw the Major alive on Monday lunch time; the Major went out for a walk about 2.20 p.m. and walked to Land’s End, one of his favourite walks and he ‘would go by the cliff route, returning by the road.’ No foul play was suggested; the unnamed witness to the fatal fall left the scene and Major Lyons, who had fractured the base of his skull, was unconscious when he arrived at the hospital. He died at 3 a.m. on Tuesday morning 23^rd September 1941 in Penzance. It was recorded as an ‘accidental death’ but due to circumstances of the missing witness it must remain an ‘open verdict’. His estate was worth near £3000. (16) The Probate was held at Westminster on 19^th November 1941 and the Beneficiary is Una May Lyons (17). I have been particularly drawn to E. F. Lyons as a possible candidate for the identity of Raymond Heywood – was his death an accident or was it suicide? Could he have written something as sentimental as ‘Last night beneath the stars, on sentry, go, / I saw the fairies dancing to and fro - /Just how they came and went / I do not know.’ Could he have imagined their ‘little fairy forms’ come towards him ‘before the moon had set’ and as ‘somewhere a cannon roared into the night, / And as I peered into the evening light / My fairies sighed – and vanished out of sight.’ [Fairies in Flanders. Roses, Pearls and Tears] or have sent this touching poem to the Devon and Exeter Gazette:

 
ANNIVERSARY
Nov 11^th 1919
 
Do we remember all our splendid men –
Now they are gone and life has lost its sweetness,
Shall we remember always – even when
Remembrance pales in Life’s far-off December –
As we do now in Summer’s sweet completeness,
Britain – shall we remember?
 
Oh! Day, too brief, ere Britain’s heroes went,
And Britain’s honoured flag with glory covered;
It seemed the peace we knew was only lent,
And Summer left our hearts for sad November;
Above our souls the pain of parting hovered,
Britain – do you remember?
 
Oh, let our love to those dear heroes go –
For all this earthly strife shall end to-morrow,
Strong in their memory, our souls did know
Not one regret for War’s expiring ember…
They would not wish us to have one thought of sorrow,
Britain – while we remember.
 
Raymond Heywood. [The Devon and Exeter Gazette. Tuesday 11^th November 1919. p. 3]

 

Captain (later Major and Lieutenant-Colonel) John Burnell Passmore, M.C., born 1894, Barnstaple, Devon, son of John Passmore (clothes manufacturer) and Fanny Burnell (Teacher of music and languages), they were married in 1890 in South Molton, Devon. Captain Passmore married Marian Ashton on 18^th December 1920 in Exeter and became a lecturer on agricultural engineering at Reading University and was a member of the Society of Engineers; he also published a book – ‘The English Plough’ in 1930. He died on 14^th August 1947 in Dorset. His obituary appeared in the North Devon Journal and Herald (18): ‘A Barumite’s Death. News has been received of the death at Weymouth of Lt.-Col. John Burnell Passmore, M.C. He was a native of Barnstaple, and was formerly a professor of agriculture at Reading University. He held the degree of B.S.C. (London) and M.S.C. (Reading). From 1938-40 he was Secretary to the National Fitness Committee of the West Riding of Yorkshire. During the 1914-18 war Lt.-Col. Passmore served with the Devons in France and Salonika, and later as an officer in the Royal Berkshire Terrritorials. In the 1939-45 war he commanded a heavy A.A. battery and served from 1941-44 with the West African Frontier Force, commanding the 4^th A.A. Regiment at Bathurst, Gambia. He also saw service in India. Since 1945 Mr Passmore has been manager of the Queen’s Court Hotel, Shanklin, Isle of Wight.’ Passmore certainly has the literary credentials to write wistful poetry but did he write the elegiac ‘To a Robin (in Flanders)’ – ‘(“For a moment even the guns seemed to have grown tired; there was a sudden calm – strangely beautiful. Somewhere a robin burst into song…” Extract from a letter.)

 
The Angelus at close of day was ringing
In some quiet place not very far away,
And ‘mid the solitude I heard you singing
A requiem for the sadness of the day.
 
Full of strong life your little voice I heard
Above so much around that spoke of death;
Singing when every other little bird
In that sad wilderness so little saith.
 
[To a Robin. Roses, Pearls and Tears]

 

Captain Robert Wilfred Townsend, M.C., M.B.E., born 1^st June 1891, Exeter, Devon, son of James Townsend, born 27^th September 1842 (printer and wholesale commercial stationer) and Mary Ann Gadd, born 14^th September 1846 (married 12^th May 1870 in Lambeth). In 1881 James Townsend employed ’36 men 36 boys under 18 and 27 women and girls’ and had three servants; he died on 13^th April 1906 aged 63 (19) and Mary died on 7^th July 1918 in Exeter, aged 72 (20). Robert’s older brother, Reginald Stephen Townsend, born 10^th November 1882, served as a Captain with the Indian Army (Medical Service); he was married in Exeter on 5^th September 1912 to Caroline Parker and died 17^th January 1959 in Woldingham, Surrey; another brother, James Henry Townsend, born 16^th March 1879 (Exeter), educated at Cambridge University, became a clerk in Holy Orders and Rev. James Henry Townsend was married on 29^th April 1914 at Edmonton in Middlesex to Katie Languth. Herbert Townsend, born 1878, became a printer like his father James; he died in Exeter on 8^th September 1948.  Robert Wilfred Townsend served with the 10^th Devonshire Regiment in France and Salonika; at Petit Couronne, on 20^th September 1918 after the Bulgarians had ‘stole away in the night’ Captain Townsend writes: ‘I visited a bit of their line this afternoon. They have blown up a lot, but there are still some wonderful dugouts. The wire is tremendous everywhere.’ He goes on to say that ‘it is a pretty country, but the dust on the road has been simply awful. The Bulgar has gone quickly but it has been a fearfully hard march and I didn’t get in until 10 o’clock absolutely beat. However it is all part of a day’s work and we are finishing off the Bulgar in great style.’ (21) In the 1930’s he lived at Darnford House in Dunsford – ‘Chimney Fire at Dunsford. Exeter fire brigade were called Sunday to a fire at Dunsford, where a chimney of Darnford House had become ignited. Fears were entertained for the thatch roof and the roofs of surrounding houses, but the brigade soon had the outbreak under control. Darnford House is owned by Mr. A. Anstey, the Mayor of Exeter and is tenanted by Mr. Robert Wilfred Townsend.’ (22) Two years later another incident occurred in the form of a robbery: ‘Exeter Youth sent to Borstal’, a ’16 year old lorry boy Gordon Kenneth White’ was sentenced to three years borstal after pleading ‘guilty to breaking and entering the house of Robert Wilfred Townsend on May 27^th and stealing an A.R.P. badge’; White also broke into other houses, ‘stealing a gun, the property of Gordon Cowling Taylor, on June 3^rd and breaking out of Mr Taylor’s house’. (23) Townsend served as a Special Constable during the war of 1939-45 and was awarded the M.B.E. in 1946. He died in Exeter in 1982. Townsend is another officer who fascinates me and could possibly have written something as charming as the following lines from ‘Consummation’ [Roses, Pearls and Tears]: ‘A quiet room, wherein I fain would rest, / A long low window looking to the West, / A garden filled with roses blooming red, / And you, my dearest heart, when all is said.’ Or ‘Night at Tangier’ [The Windsor Magazine. 1922]:

 
The minarets gleam silver white,
A subtle silence fills the air;
Through the still watches of the night
The Muezzin chants the call to prayer.
Around the mosaic pillars cling
Pale purple-hued clematis flowers
From shadowed byways lilies fling
Their fragrance to the midnight hours.
Like azure wings of butterflies,
Blue wavelets dance upon the shore,
Lilting a song that never dies
That love is love for ever more.
Above the starlit city lies
A dream of vague imaginings,
While night bends down with whispered sighs
And folds me softly in her wings.

 

Captain Bertram Richard Dunning, born 20^th May 1892, Honiton, Devon, son of Alfred John Dunning (solicitor, died 18^th May 1934 aged 54) and Alberta Ann Giddy, born in South Africa (19^th March 1862, Cape Colony, Fort Beaufort. She died on 25^th March 1937). Bertram studied law and worked as a solicitor for the firm of ‘Dunning, Rundle & Stamp’ in Honiton. He died in 1982 in Honiton, Devon. His sister, Dorothy Shepstone Dunning was born on 26^th June 1886 and died in Honiton on 14^th June 1972; she never married. Dunning seems another possibility for assuming the pseudonym of Raymond Heywood and may well have written:

 
MAID O’ DEVON
 
In France I saw the roses go –
The blossoms withered from my sight;
But back in Devon your face aglow
Retains for me the rosy light.
 
In France I heard the gentle breeze
At morning, through the trees rejoice,
And I shall hear its melodies
In Devon – awakened in your voice.
 
In France, I think the tender blue
Of Autumn mist at twilight dies;
But I shall find the lovely hue
In Devon – mirrored in your eyes.
 
To-day the skies of France are dark,
And Summer’s roses cannot stay;
But Devon – and you my dearest heart
Will bring back loves eternal May.
 
[Maid O’ Devon. Roses, Pearls and Tears]

 

Captain Straun Wright-Smith, born 1893, Victoria, Australia. In August 1914 he enlisted as a private in the Australian Imperial Force, 7^th Battalion; he served in Egypt and was promoted to sergeant. In April 1915 he served with the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders, 2^nd Lieutenant, and then the 10^th Devons seeing action in France and Salonika. Wounded twice and married twice he was demobilised in August 1919 and returned to Australia where he worked as a solicitor/barrister. He died in Victoria, Australia in 1972.

 

Lieutenant Hector George Wimbush, born 24^th May 1893, Barnet, Middlesex, son of Philip Wimbush (born 1861 London) and Lena Emilie Hawkins (born 1865 Exeter), married 1891, Woburn, Bedfordshire. Hector attended Harrow School. He married Juan Thomas (1908-1978) on 9^th November 1935 in London and Hector died there in 1975.

 

Lieutenant Gilbert Battams Cornish Northey, born 5^th January 1892, Tavistock, Devon, son of Gilbert William Northey (1850-1892) and Lilie Maria Battams (1861-1942). Gilbert was educated at Cheltenham College and worked as a tea planter in Ceylon at the outbreak of the war. He was commissioned as a 2^nd Lieutenant in the 10^th Service Battalion, Devonshire Regiment, serving in France from 21^st September 1915, then Salonika to fight the Bulgarians; took part in the Battle of Horseshoe Hill in 1916 and the Battles of Doiran 1917 and 1918. 1^st July 1917 became Lieutenant; Acting Captain and Adjutant on 11^th April 1919. Service ended on 20^th January 1921 when he returned to tea planting in Ceylon (later, iron and rubber merchant). He married Gwendoline M. Howden in London in 1934 and lived at Churston Cottage, Churston Ferrers, ‘retired merchant, late Ceylon’. Died 12^th December 1945, in Totnes, Devon. Could Northey have written:

 
‘Once the skies were blue… very blue,
(Perhaps those happy days will come again!)
No shadows fell my way: I only knew
The tender joy of loving when you came,
 
Then the skies grew grey… leaden grey,
We knew the pain of parting – and your eyes
Shone brightly through your tears: our little day
Seemed shadowed by the sadness of the skies.’
 
[Retrospect. Roses, Pearls and Tears]

 

Lieutenant (later Brigadier) Cyrus Greenslade, C.B.E. born 13^th May 1892, Torquay, Devon, son of William Francis Greenslade (brewer and wine merchant) and Rose Blanche Hodge. Served with the 10^th Battalion, Devonshire Regiment at Salonika and in Turkey 1921-23. In 1919 he was Staff Captain with the British Military Mission to the Baltic and at Staff College in Camberley 1926-28; Instructor at the War Office 1931-34; served in India 1934-38 with the Yorkshire & Lancashire Regiment; Commanding Officer 1^st Battalion, North Staffordshire Regiment; France December 1939-May 1940. He married Edith Margaret Johnson on 2^nd January 1918 in Bath Abbey, Somerset and died on 30^th October 1985 in West Chinnock, Somerset.

 

Lieutenant Norman Greenslade, M.C., D.F.C., born 1897, Torquay, Devon, brother of Cyrus Greenslade and son of William Francis Greenslade (brewer and wine merchant) and Rose Blanche Hodge. Norman was overseas with the 10^th Devons on 22^nd September 1915 (he was awarded the M.C. in January 1918 while with the Devons) and on 18^th October 1918 he became 2^nd Lieutenant in the Royal Air Force (temporary commission). Attended the School of Aeronautics, Heliopolis in the spring of 1919. In April 1920 he was awarded the D.F.C. for action in 1919 when ‘Flying Officer Norman Greenslade, M.C. “A” Detachment (10^th Devonshire Regiment) on August 27^th 1919, at Cherni Yar, this officer carried out a raid at a very low altitude on the assembled flotilla of Bolshevist vessels, and by accurate bombing was largely instrumental in the success which followed.’

 

Lieutenant George Rolston Bennett, born 1887, Stoke Damerel, Devon, son of William Edward Bennett and Sabina Elizabeth Rolston (married 15^th March 1886 in Stoke Damerel). George worked as a mining surveyor and served with the 10^th Devons as transport officer. He emigrated on 15^th May 1925, aged 38, to Bombay, India from London on the ‘Caledonia’. He possibly died at Bathavon, Somerset in 1954, aged 67. Could Lieutenant Bennett have written such lines as: ‘Dear lips – in dreams, come back to me again, / And kiss me on the brow; ‘twill ease the pain. / Be true, dear heart – and then if death should come, / I shall not fear – your love will guide me home.’ [Supplication. Roses, Pears and Tears] or ‘Yesterday – or so it seems - / The world was glad (‘twas only dreams!) / And God looked down on a happy land / Where life and love walked hand in hand.’ [The Garden of Suffering. Roses, Pearls and Tears]

 

Lieutenant Herbert Goad, born 1890, Surrey, son of Francis Henry Goad (born 1860, civil engineer’s assistant) and Mildred Parsons (1859-1917), married 1880, Southwark, London. Herbert died in 1954 at St. Albans in Hertfordshire, aged 64.

 

Lieutenant John Newton Herapath, born 8^th January 1893, Winslow, Cheshire, son of Edwin Loud Herapath and Caroline Elizabeth Herapath (married 1884). John went to Canada in October 1920 and New York in 1937. He studied law at Osgoode Hall Law School and died in Florida on 24^th February 1981.

 

Lieutenant Kenneth Cecil Nichols, born 1883, Lewisham, son of Charles Cecil Nichols (Eastern and Australian merchant) and Frances De la Mare (married 1877 Croydon) [Frances died in Reigate in 1894]. Kenneth worked as a clerk and served in the Wiltshire Regiment and 10^th Devons. He died in London in 1943.

 

Lieutenant (later Captain) Reginald Clarence Weymouth-Wilson, born 6^th March 1891. He enlisted as an ordinary signalman in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve in 1914 (Military service number London Z/506); served with the 10^th Devons, wounded in May 1916; married Winifred Gladys Roberts (1898-1982) in Helston, Cornwall in 1919 and had six children: Pamela I. M. (b. 1920), Reginald David (b. 1921), John H. (b. 1924), Diana S. (b. 1927), Victoria Regwin (1928-1993) and Alexander C. (b. 1932). Reginald Clarence Weymouth-Wilson died in Cornwall in 1967 aged 77.

 

Lieutenant (later Captain) Andrew Fowle, born 1895, Pewsey, Wiltshire, son of landowner, William Hugh Fowle (1853-1942), B.A. Trinity College, Cambridge 1875, (eldest son of Thomas Everett Fowle Esq. of Chute Lodge, Hampshire), educated at Rugby. J. P. Wiltshire, Major 1^st Battalion Wiltshire Rifle Volunteers 1879; Lord of the manor of Chute Forest, a student of Lincoln’s Inn, 22^nd November 1875 (called to the bar 25^th June 1879) and Isabel Lucy Curtis of Everleigh Manor House, married November 1884. In 1911 Andrew is an Army Student boarding in Blatchington, Sussex. He died in 1952.

 

Lieutenant (later Captain) Percy Gilbert Whitehouse, born 15^th August 1893, Edgbaston, Birmingham, son of John Benjamin Whitehouse (builder) and Annie Tranter. Percy died 24^th September 1959.

 

Lieutenant (later Captain) Percival Hamilton Thomson, born 1894 Upton on Severn, Malvern, Worcestershire, son of James Thomson (tailor) born Scotland 1853 and Jane H. Thomson, born Scotland 1856. Percival married Gertrude A. Spicer in Paddington, 1920. He died in London in 1954.

 

Lieutenant Roy Gladstone Jefferson, born 1885 West Ham, Essex, son of Frederick Charles Jefferson (house furnisher and warehouseman) and Ann Elizabeth Clingh. Roy worked as a clerk at the Gas and Water Company and married Elizabeth Marjory Theresa Spreckley in Victoria, Australia, 1923. He died 27^th August 1934 in Victoria, Australia.

 

ON PATROL
 
There were dead men on the wire
Lying in the bloodied mire –
Staring wildly at the skies
With their cold and sightless eyes –
Stars, grinned down with hideous faces,
And the moon was mocking them with grimaces.
 
[from The Greater Love]

 

 

2^nd Lieutenant James Thomas John Hollom, born 1897, Islington, London, son of James Thomas Hollom and Alice Mary Windett (married 1888 St. Pancras). J. T. J. Hollom married Elsie M. Howard at Marylebone in 1923 and Elinor H. H. Carter at Hove in Sussex in 1945. He died in 1960 in Sussex.

 

2^nd Lieutenant Harold Seymour Adams, born 1891, St. George’s Hanover Square, London, son of Herbert Arthur Adams and Ethel Julia Burnett. Harold married Lilian Frances Longsdon Woore in Newton Abbot, Devon in 1921; Lilian died on 25^th October 1941 in Newton Abbott.

 

2^nd Lieutenant (later Captain) Ernest Henry Taylor, born 1892, Forest Hall, Northumberland, son of Shemelds Taylor (1847-1901), commercial traveller (grocery) of Forest Hall, Northumberland and Henrietta Greener, married 1878 (Shemelds later married Evelyn Derrett in 1893). In 1911 Ernest is a jeweller’s assistant in Powys, Wales and he married Winifred Gwendolin Green (1894-1975) on 23^rd August 1917 in Gloucestershire. He served with the 10^th Devons and the Machine Gun Corps. Ernest Henry Taylor of the Machine Gun Corps was an officer taken prisoner-of-war in the March offensive of 1918, incarcerated in Germany for eight months, first at Rastatt, Baden before being taken to Mainz. Taylor had the idea of establishing a ‘future career society’ and wrote ‘A Project for a Memorial’, dated Mainz, Germany, September 1918. (24) He was released at the end of the war and died in Durham in 1968 aged 76.

 

2^nd Lieutenant (later Captain) John Eugene De Mohun Dunster, born 1881 Kensington, London, son of John Dunster and Mary Monckton (married 1873). Worked at Great Western Railway (Paddington) like his father. Commissioned into 10^th Devons at Bath in February 1915; Captain 11^th Reserve Labour Corps, September 1916. He died in 1965.

 

2^nd Lieutenant George Edward Stirling Montagu, born 1874 in Jersey, son of George Edward Montagu (landowner) and Annie Mary Augusta Delvin. G. E. S. Montagu married on three occasions: Doris Mary Irwin Cockin (1910 Marylebone), Nora Ellen Hone Kempson (1938 Proughly) and Gladys Ivy Hobson (1943 Devizes). He died in 1956 in Devizes aged 82.

 

2^nd Lieutenant Charles Henry Cosway, born 15^th July 1891, Tiverton, Devon, son of Richard Philip Cosway (1853-1930, bank clerk) and Bessie Werk (1851-1934). In 1911 Charles Henry is an ‘auctioneer pupil’ living at Lime Cottage, Tiverton. He died in 1971, in Devon.

 

2^nd Lieutenant (later Captain) Cyril Donald Webber, born 23^rd May 1891, Bridgewater, Somerset, son of William Henry Webber and Marie Board. Married Cassie Mildred Hunter (1893-1982) in 1928; he died in Vancouver, Canada on 18^th April 1962.

 

2^nd Lieutenant William Edwin Arthur Hitchcock, born 1885, Dartford, Kent, son of John Arthur Hitchcock (factory engineer) and Mary Ann Throne (married 1879). He married Minnie Reeves in 1913 and died in Crayford, Kent in 1954.

 

2^nd Lieutenant John Bazet Salusbury Notley, born 26^th December 1892, Totnes, Devon, son of Rev. James Notley of Diptford Rectory and Grace Doveton. John or ‘Jack’ as he was known as was educated at Keble College, Oxford and like his father was a keen fly-fisher. He served with the 10^th Devons until he contracted Trench Fever and was hospitalised in several institutions (three in France) for almost two years. In 1919 he taught fly-fishing and married twice: Rebecca Gedge Pearce in Bodmin, 1924 and Dorothy Joan Stephanie Bellinger in Totnes, Devon on 21^st October 1945. He died in 1985 in Newton Abbot, Devon.

 

2^nd Lieutenant Arthur Donald Skene Catling, born 26^th February 1896, Sculcoates, Yorkshire, son of Charles Brian Catling (Bank Manager) and Florence Margaret Maria Douthwaithe. Arthur was a journalist who became Head of the Mail Features Department at Reuters and became Chairman of the London District of the Institute of Journalists in 1929. He published a rather unsuccessful novel, ‘Fever Heat’ (Methuan. London) in 1931 under the name ‘Skene Catling’ and later in 1940, a work for which he is better known – ‘Vanguard to Victory: An Account of the British Expeditionary Force During its First Months in France in the Second Great War’ (Methuan. London). He married Sheila Hoolihan, travelled to New York in 1940 and emigrated, aged 49, to Montreal, Canada on 6^th November 1945. He died in Arizona on 5^th October 1949. Although Catling had literary ambitions I don’t believe he with his rough journalistic skills could have written anything as sublime as Heywood’s lines from his poem – ‘A Prayer’ and kept silent about it:

 
To-day my hero-lover went away;
It was so hard to part;
I stand alone – the hours
Are sad and long, - the flowers
Are drooping, like my heart.
To-day my hero-lover went away.
 
To-day my hero-lover went away,
He looked so strong, and now
He’ll tread the soul that’s red
With life-blood of God’s dead.
He kissed me on the brow –
My hero-lover when he went away.
 
[A Prayer. Roses, Pearls and Tears]

 

or ‘Destiny’ from the same volume which begins: ‘One wondrous little hour of perfect bliss, / A million stars set in a sapphire sky, / A little love, a sigh, a little kiss - / And then, “Good-bye”.’ and ends: ‘Oh that my dream so quickly should depart! / The skies are grey, in which all stars have set; / A bitter pain, a tear, a broken heart - / I can’t, I can’t forget.’ There is an erotic element to the poems which is maybe why Heywood wanted to remain anonymous but they can also be viewed from a feminine aspect which his readers would identify with.

 

2^nd Lieutenant Harold Darlington Henry Court, M.B.E., born 24^th November 1891, Kingston, Surrey, son of Edward Darlington Court (died 3^rd April 1935 aged 72, Exeter) and Edith Wilson (died 13^th November 1931, Exeter). Harold worked as a civil mechanical engineer and enlisted on 30^th September 1914. He was awarded the M.B.E. in 1919 and married Marie Dadiani in Constantinople, Turkey, on 23^rd April 1921. He died in Sussex in 1968.

 

2^nd Lieutenant (later Captain) Arthur Hicks Peck, D.S.O., M.C., born 25^th April 1889, Darjeeling, India, son of Lt. Col. Francis Samuel Peck of Bristol. Arthur was educated at Clifton College, Bristol and Christ’s College, Cambridge (1903-06). He served with the Royal Fusiliers and10^th Devonshires (7^th December 1914, 2^nd Lieutenant). He joined the Royal Flying Corps on 4^th October 1916; Flight Lieutenant on 24^th October 1919 and later Captain. He served in France and Salonika; married Marjorie Amy Clare Smith in Bristol in 1920 and died on 14^th February 1975 in Cornwall.

 

2^nd Lieutenant Harold Diggines, born 12^th June 1891, Exeter, Devon, son of George Diggines (builder, 1853-1908) and Emily Lake. Harold was educated at Exeter School and the University of London and worked as a clerk. He married Dorothy M. Burdge (1888-1964) in Camberwell in 1916. He died in Lancashire in 1978.

 

2^nd Lieutenant Geoffrey Denis Lock, M.C., M.B.E., born 30^th July 1889, Barnstaple, Devon, son of William Henry Lock (surveyor) and Marian Elizabeth Lane. Geoffrey was a dealer in works of art and antiques. He married Barbara Penelope Mallett in Bath in 1915; as the Chief Warden of the Civil Defence Service in Bath he was awarded the M.B.E. in 1945.

 

2^nd Lieutenant Edward James George Mudge, born 18^th May 1895, Exeter, Devon, eldest son of Edward Mudge (builder) and Anne Maria Tucker. Edward attended West Somerset County School and passed the matriculation held at University College, Exeter in February 1912. Edward James George Mudge died in Exeter in 1933 aged 38.

 

2^nd Lieutenant Charles Frederick C. Featherstonhaugh, born 8^th November 1899, Irthlingborough, Northamptonshire, son of William Featherstonhaugh (1869-1939), shoe-maker and Senior Director of Messers C & W Featherstonhaugh Ltd. Leather manufacturers, and Florence Ellen Perkins (1870-1951), married 18^th April 1892, Irthlingborough, Northamptonshire. C. F. C. Featherstonhaugh enlisted in 1914 as a signalman in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (Bristol Z/6825); served with the 10^th Devonshire Regiment. He married Mildred Rose Newman (1903-1951) in 1930 and died on 20^th January 1981 aged 81 in Irthlingborough, Northamptonshire.

 

2^nd Lieutenant Percy Redcliffe Harvey, born 1884, Plymouth, Devon, son of Frank A. Harvey (baker, shop keeper) and Lavinia Anna Shute. Percy died in Devon in 1961.

 

2^nd Lieutenant (later Captain) Samuel Hugh Duff, M.C., born 1882, Dudley, Worcestershire, son of Samuel Hugh Duff (1852-1896), chartered accountant (solicitor) of ‘Duff & Son’, glass and china dealers, 235a Market Place, Dudley, and Louisa Bond, born 1853 married at Warwick in 1878. In 1911 Samuel Hugh Duff (born 1882), a solicitor like his father and also a managing director of Dartmouth’s Palladium Cinema, Hanover Street, was involved in a German spy case. Samuel met a German named Max Schultz who began visiting the cinema when his yacht, the ‘Egret’ was moored on the River Dart near the Royal Naval College; Schultz, who claimed to have a Doctorate in Philosophy, also met Duff at Plymouth and began asking questions regarding naval affairs in Plymouth and Dartmouth. Schultz said that he was a correspondent for a German newspaper; Duff who grew suspicious went to the police who advised him to give Schultz false information and keep on good terms. Schultz paid Duff £50 a month and on 17^th August 1911 he was arrested in Plymouth and it was discovered that he was actually a Lieutenant in the German Army. The trial began on 28^th August and Duff acted as prosecutor. Schultz was sentences to 21 months in prison. In 1914 Duff enlisted in the Devonshire Regiment, serving with the 10^th and the 8^th Battalions. He was awarded the M.C. in 1917. Following the war Duff, who was affected by it never returned to his previous work as solicitor, he went to West Africa and became a peace magistrate; he died there in 1920 of typhoid fever.

 

2^nd Lieutenant (Adjutant) Howard Mercer, born 14^th May 1896, Streatham, Surrey, son of Edward James Mercer, born 1869, Bermondsey, London, bank clerk and financial agent and Ellen Lissaman King, born 1869, Belfast, Ireland (died 1944, Colchester) married in 1894 in Camberwell. Howard died in Dorset in 1973.

 
AT STAND DOWN
 
Above the trench I heard the night wind sigh,
Across the tattered sandbags moonbeams lay,
While Flanders stars shone overhead, and I
Alone with thought of you at close of day.
 
The cannon’s angry roar had died away
And left the stillness of a Summer’s night
For one sweet hour of peace that would not stay,
And I could rest before the coming fight.
 
And then I saw a star shoot in the West…
I wonder if beyond the silver sea
It found you somewhere in its loving quest –
And pressed a kiss upon your lips from me?
 
[from The Greater Love]

 

Following the end of the war Heywood rejoiced in the peace and sent sundry verse to various newspapers, as this from The Devon and Exeter Gazette of July 1919:

 
PEACE
 
Peace is here! The bells are ringing
Through this land of ours to-day,
While a nation’s voice is singing
From a heart both glad and gay;
Through a myriad streets are blending
Merry shout and hearty cheer,
Everywhere is joy unending…
Peace is here!
 
Peace is here! The night of sorrow
Is forgotten with our tears,
There is laughter for to-morrow –
Joy for all these latter years;
Banish thoughts of care and sadness,
Cast away each passing fear,
There is only room for gladness…
Peace is here!
 
Out in Flanders, out in France
Sleep a nation’s hero dead,
Where the sunbeams softly dance
On each lowly hero bed;
Roses bloom where they are sleeping,
Birds are singing in the air;
Safe are they within God’s keeping…
Peace, sweet peace is there! (25)

 

It is very unusual for a poet to suddenly lay down his or her pen and write no more; it is more common that the poet may turn to prose writing but to abstain completely from writing is strange. Why was there such silence after 1922? Did Heywood die or did he emigrate?

 
LATE CHRYSANTHEMUMS
 
A down my garden path I see
Chrysanthemums in bloom;
They blow beside the Devon sea
‘Mid Winter’s twilight gloom;
Some golden petals are ablaze,
And some are snowy white,
That quiver in the evening haze
Beneath the stars’ pale light.
 
The wind may sigh ‘mid silent eaves
For summer that is dead;
I do not heed the faded leaves,
Nor miss the roses red,
For memories of other days
Are borne upon the breeze,
While I remember perfumed sprays
Upon the lilac trees.
 
The moonlight sheds its silver beams
Across the sea of Devon;
My garden path is filled with dreams
And peace that breathes of heaven.
What though the year is growing old,
And sunny hours depart,
Chrysanthemums of white and gold
Keep summer in my heart. (26)

 

Without further evidence the identity of Raymond Heywood must remain, like the death of Major Ernest Frederick Lyons, an open verdict! My intention was to reveal the man behind the pseudonym, the soldier-poet behind the mystery, but the adventure of the research has taken me into exploring a little of the history behind the officers of the 10^th Devons which in itself has been rewarding and although there is no definite conclusion as to Heywood’s identity the task has not been a thankless one, although it has been often frustrating. Heywood’s intention to remain anonymous has been a complete success but perhaps a private letter may turn up in the future linking the poet to an officer of the Devonshire Regiment, but for now we must honour those who gave so much and remember the words of the poet, Raymond Heywood, inspired by his ‘love and tenderness’:

 
MY ADVOCATE
 
Oh little book of mine
Indeed ‘twill be my gain
If some quiet thought of thine
Has eased the bitter pain
Of some poor aching heart,
In this sad world to-day.
This is thy little part
To comfort by the way.
 
I only ask you this,
Oh little book of mine –
If one has pressed a kiss
Upon a page of thine,
Then little book, confess
‘Twas from my inmost shrine
That love and tenderness
Inspired these words of mine!
 
[from Roses, Pearls, and Tears]

 

 

* I wonder if Heywood was aware while he was writing ‘Rest and Quietness’ on 10^th February 1917, that a soldier in his company, private Francis Thomas Mullins, born 15^th March 1897, Axminster, Devon, was also writing poetry – ‘The Night of the Stunt on Petit Couranne’ (manuscript poem held at the University of Leeds Special Collections: GB 206 Liddle Collection. SAL 044). Private Mullins survived the war and died in Devon on 27^th July 1987. Also serving in Salonika (R.A.M.C.) was the Scottish poet, Christopher Murray Grieve (1892-1978) who wrote under the pen name, ‘Hugh MacDiarmid’. In a letter to his brother dated 1^st September 1916 he included a poem, ‘A Salonikan Storm Song’. He was invalided out in 1918 suffering from malaria. And over in the 10^th Irish Division we find chaplain, Rev. Edward Griffith Evans who published his poems: ‘Remembering Salonika: Poems’ in The Mosquito, number 7. September 1929; while with the 7^th Battalion, Wiltshire Regiment is Edward Owen Rutter (1899-1944) who took part in the Battle of Horshoe Hill and Doiran and wrote under the pen name ‘Klip Klip’ in the Balkan News – see his parody of  Longfellow’s ‘the Song of Hiawatha’, ‘The Song of Tiadatha’ (1920).

 

 

NOTES:

 

1. Untitled poem by Raymond Heywood. The Sphere. Number 77. Saturday 14^th June 1919. (‘Woman’s Sphere’ by Olivia.) p. 234.

2. Poems appeared in the following periodicals: ‘Retrospect’ in Pearson’s Magazine (263). November 1917; ‘Down Devon Way’ in Windsor Magazine. January 1918; ‘Fairies in Flanders’ in Pearson’s Magazine (268). April 1918; ‘Rest’ in Pearson’s Magazine (269). May 1918; ‘Afterglow’ in Colour Magazine. August 1918. Volume 9. p. 7; ‘Red, White and Blue’ in Pearson’s Magazine (275). November 1918; ‘A Memory’ in Pearson’s Magazine (276). December 1918’ ‘Late Chrysanthemums’ in Windsor Magazine. December 1919; ‘Devon in April’ in Pearson’s Magazine (280). April 1919; ‘Night at Tangier’ in Windsor Magazine. June 1922.

3. The Western Times. Monday 17^th June 1918. p. 2.

4. The Tatler. (The Letters of Eve). 17^th July 1918. p. 60.

5. ‘Tell me, do the roses blow?’ The Greater Love. 1919. Also The Globe. (Book Gossip). Thursday 29^th May 1919. p. 3. Several of Heywood’s lyrics were set to music: ‘I’m Coming Back To Dear Old England’, words: Raymond Heywood, music: Harold Leslie Perry. Weekes & Co. London. 1918. ‘My Dream Moon’, words: Raymond Heywwod, music: Harold Leslie Perry. The John Church Company, Wigmore Street. London. 1918. ‘Laddie wi’ the April Eyes’, [‘Laddie wi’ the April eyes,/ Long wonder where ye roam / Wand’ring ‘neath them foreign skies,/ Be ye never comin’ home?’] words: Raymond Heywood, music: Charles Willeby. The John Church Company, Wigmore Street. London. 1920. ‘Tell Me Do The Roses Blow?’ words: Raymond Heywood, music: Bernard Green. Enoch & Sons. 58 Great Marlborough Street. London. 1920. – ‘Sweetly pretty are both words and music of this little love song, and when one knows it to be sung by Madame Clara [Ellen] Butt [1872-1936], what need to say more in its praise? The voice is in contrast to the accompaniment, and produces the most melodious of effects.’ (Montrose Standard and Angus and Mearns Register. Friday 5^th November 1920. p. 6. Also the Dundee Courier. Saturday 1^st January 1921. p. 8)

6. The Devon and Exeter Gazette. (Books - Some new volumes). Saturday 31^st May 1919. p. 4.

7. Rose Leaves. Roses, Pearls and Tears. Also found in ‘Reynold’s News’. London. Sunday 25^th May 1924. p. 12.

8. Down Devon Way. Roses, Pearls and Tears. Also found in the Windsor Magazine, vol xlvii, Dec 1917-May 1918. p. 166. And the Reading Mercury, Oxford Gazette, Newbury Herald, and Berks County Paper. Saturday 19^th January 1918. p. 10.

9. ‘Remembrance’. Roses, Pearls and Tears. Erskine Macdonald. London. 1918. Also published in The Daily Mirror. Saturday 3^rd August 1918. p. 6.

10. Princess Christian is Princess Helena Augusta Victoria (25^th May 1846-9^th June 1923), daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert who later became Princess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein. The Devon and Exeter Gazette. (Correspondence). Saturday 20^th September 1919. p. 3.

11. ‘An officer of the Devon Regt., Lieut. Raymond Heywood, has published, through Erskine Macdonald, a collection of poems under the title of “Roses, Pearls, and Tears”. The verses were mostly written in the trenches of France and the East while Lieut. Heywood was serving with the Devons, and are aptly described as “a treasury of remembrance to all who have known the sadness and sacrifices of war.” It is interesting to know that one of Devon’s own regiment has joined the ranks – already imposing ranks – of our soldier poets.’ The Western Times. Monday 17^th June 1918. p. 2.

12. ‘Pro Patria Mori’. The Greater Love. Elkin Mathews. London. 1919.

13. To The Dead. Lieut. Raymond Heywood, Devon Regiment. The Cornishman and Cornish Telegraph. Wednesday 4^th January 1922. p. 4

14. Major’s Fatal Fall by Land’s End. The Cornishman and Cornish Telegraph. Thursday 2^nd October 1941. p. 7. There is also an article concerning a ‘Captain Ernest Frederick Lyons’ of the ‘4^th Tank Battalion’ who was fined 5 shillings for having a ‘motor car without lights (left the Drill Hall, Wareham, whilst dance was in progress)’ which may relate to him! [The Western Gazette. Wareham County Petty Sessions (second court). Friday 15^th December 1922. p. 9]

15. Probably Gaston Barthelemy De Chameroy born in France, 1872, died 1953, who married Emily Gertrude Poole (born in Folkestone) in Fulham in 1893. In 1901 they are boarding at Bouverie Square, Elham, Folkestone, Kent and in 1911 they are living at the Old Cottage, Bishopsbourne, Canterbury, Kent. Gaston is 38 and a ‘private tutor’, ‘naturalized British in 1895’ and Emily Gertrude Chameroy, 40, is ‘British by parentage’. Emily died on 19^th March 1946 aged 82 in Penzance; Gaston died in Cornwall in 1953.

16. Western Wills – Cornwall and Devon Estates. ‘Maj. Ernest Frederick Lyons. Middlesex Regt, of Oakway, Alford, Cranleigh, Surrey, who died at Penzance on September 23 last, has left estate of the gross value of £2,906, with net personality £2,871.’ The Western Morning News. Saturday 29^th November 1941. p. 5.

17. Una May Lyons, born 1887, Ipswich, Suffolk, daughter of Frederick John Charles Lyons (born 9^th April 1846 St. Luke’s, Middlesex; died 4^th February 1900, Richmond, Surrey) and Emily Pickering Crux, born 1864, Thanet, Kent; died 18^th November 1915). They were married at St. Luke’s, London on 18^th February 1886 [Hampshire Advertiser. Wednesday 24^th February 1866. p. 2]. I do not know the connection to Ernest Frederick Lyons but Frederick J. C. Lyons may be his father? Frederick J. C. Lyons M.D. of the Royal Army Medical Corps: 1^st October 1867: Staff Assistant Surgeon; 22^nd December 1869: Assistant Surgeon to the 92^nd (Gordon Highlanders) Regiment of Foot; he served in the Afghan war from 1878-80; 1^st October 1879: Surgeon-Major; 1^st October 1887: Surgeon-Lieutenant-Colonel; October 1888: served in Bombay Command, India, General Duties, Poona District; 4^th November 1893: Brigade-Surgeon-Lieutenant-Colonel; 9^th November 1894: arrived at Malta Garrison from England; 1895: Officer in charge of Valletta Station Hospital; 1896: resident at the Imperial Hotel, Sliema; 22^nd February 1897: Resident at Imperial Hotel, Sliema and went to Colchester on sick leave; 13^th October 1897: Retired. In 1901 13 year old Una May Lyons is at Linden Gardens, Kensington boarding at a boarding house kept by Florence F. Schroeder, a 40 year old, single woman born in London in 1861. Una’s 30 year old widowed mother Emily Pickering Lyons is at the same address. Una never married and died in 1966 in Surrey at the age of 78.

18. Barnstaple Brevities. A Barumite’s Death. The North Devon Journal and Herald. 4^th September 1947. p. 4. J. B. Passmore, aged 54, was father of ‘Ann, Elizabeth and Richard (Dick)’ [Obituary: Western Gazette. 21^st August 1947]

19. Obituary. Western Times. 16^th April 1906. p. 1.

20. Obituary. Western Times. 11^th July 1918. p. 1. (also 12^th July 1918. p. 4.

21. Private papers of Captain Robert Wilfred Townsend, 10^th Devons (79^th Brigade, 26^th Division), Salonika Campaign 1815-18, almost 300 letters held at the Imperial War Museum, catalogue number Documents 11443.

22. The Western Times. Friday 12^th March 1937. p. 3.

23. Express and Echo. Tuesday 4^th July 1939. p. 5.

24. The Empire’s War Memorial and a Project for a British Imperial University of Commerce. Ernest H. Taylor and J. B. Black M.A., B.A. (pamphlet) Macniven & Wallace. Edinburgh. 1920.

25. Peace. The Devon and Exeter Gazette. Saturday 19^th July 1919. p. 3.

26. The Windsor Magazine. Volume LI, December 1919-May 1920. p. 39. Ward, Lock & Co. Ltd.

 

 

FURTHER READING:

 

The Devonshire Regiment 1914-1918. C. T. Atkinson. Exeter: Eland Brothers. London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent. 1926.

The Gardeners of Salonika: The Macedonian Campaign 1915-1918. Alan Palmer. Deutsch. 1965.

Poets & Pals of Picardy: A Weekend on the Somme. Mary Ellen Freeman and Ted Smith. Leo Cooper/Pen & Sword. Barnsley. 1990.

Lads: Love Poetry of the Trenches. Martin Taylor. Constable. 1989.

Voices of Silence: The Alternative Book of First World War Poetry. Vivien Noakes. Sutton. 2006.

English Poetry of the First World War: A Bibliography. Catherine W. Reilly. George Prior Publishers. London. 1978.