4TH OCT 1916: CENACLE CONCERT: RED CROSS NURSES & WOUNDED SOLDIERS.

October 4, 2016 Elizabeth Hibbett Webb Leave a comment

RED CROSS HOSPITAL, WALLASEY, NEW BRIGHTON, CHESHIRE.

CONCERT 4th Oct.1916.

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PROGRAMME COVER

WHERE ONCE THE NUNS PACED TO & FRO NOW WOUNDED SOLDIERS COME & GO.

PROGRAMME:-

1. Pte: Farrar H. R.A.M.C. Pianoforte Solo: Silver Ruin.

2. Nurse Greenham. Song: Had I but known where my caravan.

3. Pte Kirk E.C. R.A.M.C. Recitation: The Fireman’s Wedding.

4. Nurse Hay. Recitation.

5. Nurse Cockeram. Violin Solo.

6. Pte: Wallace 23rd London Regt. Song: Tennessee.

7. Cpl: Beck Liverpool Scots. Song: The Trumpeter.

8. Nurse Wilcox. Song: Michigan.

9 Pte: Hibbett A.H. S. Staffs. Recitation: Sniper Atkins.

10. Rflm Pays A.F. Song: Until.

11. Nurse Evans. Violin Solo.

12. Pte A. Kelly. South Irish Horse. Song at Piano: Goo Goo Eyes.

13. Nurse O’Neil. Song: I love the Moon.

14. Cpl. Featherstone. Durham Light Infantry. Song: Macafferty.

15. Cpl. Byrd C.B. Cold. Guard. Songs: Son of Mine. Shipmates o’mine.

Popular Choruses

GOD SAVE THE KING Oct 4/16.

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Where once the Nuns paced too and fro’, Now wounded Soldiers come and go, They liken the Cenacle to a herbal cure For the Matron and Nurses are so good and pure.

Oh! to sleep in a cosy bed On pillow soft to rest my head And have my sore wounds dressed by a kind nurse Whose virtue is mercy and nothing worse. A.H.Hibbett. Oct 1916.

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BACK from the FRONT. Dedicated to my Home.

Cheer O! Cheer O! Here I fly! Dodging shells which burst so high; Daring not to stop and sigh, I picture Home Sweet Home so dear. Ma and Pa are thinking of me At Home beyond that strip o’ sea, Where I so long and wish to be. Where I can banish all my fear.

Back Home! Back Home! There’s mon (sic) Mere And mon (sic) Soeur, et Frere, et Pere. I kiss them all here and there. Then with our faces all aglow We gather round the fire-side. Putting war news on one side We talk until we’re satisfied. And very soon forget the foe.

Back Home! Back Home! Oh! What it is To feel the thrilling Heavenly Bliss To give my Mother a loving kiss. In my Home where I behold And see my father’s face again After my life of toil and pain Which I had not born in vain But for Freedom to uphold. A.H. Hibbett. Oct 1916.

The Cenacle. View showing New Brighton Tower. — **The Cenacle. Concert Programme Illustration showing New Brighton Tower. A.H.Hibbett. 1916. Both The Cenacle & the Tower have been demolished.** (See Tower Note below).

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Pte Bertie Hibbett’s Letters from The Front show how much he enjoyed taking part in Army Concerts. He also describes Hospital Concerts given by the YMCA & Red Cross Nurses in France. It could well be that my father had a hand in organising this Cenacle Concert & another given on 10th Nov. 1916. Perhaps he even acted as Master of Ceremonies, as he did later in his College years.

The Programme of Recitations, Songs & Instrumental pieces is typical of Concerts during WW1 and a good illustration of the talent amongst Cenacle soldiers & nurses alike. No doubt the Matron made sure the content was suitable for a respectable establishment! My father’s illustrations, all done with his left hand, are delightful in their attention to detail. The Programme Shield could be that of the Cenacle when it was a Nunnery, but it is more likely one of his own designs – a phoenix rising from the ashes, a symbol of new life.

THE COMPANY:-

(1) Pte: H. Farrar. (Royal Army Medical Corp). Pianoforte Solo: Silver Ruin. Connection to poem by Robert Burns, 1916? See From the Somme to Silver Tassie. ‘Sean O’Casey & the Contorted Legacy of 1916’ by Edward Mulhock.

(2) Nurse Greenham. Song: Had I but known where my caravan rested. (Waltz Tune). Listed in Columbia Records Calendar, 1916-1917.

R.A.M.C Autogrphed Cigarette Papers. Red Cross Hospital. 1916. — **R.A.M.C Autographed Cigarette Paper: Pte Ernest C. Kirk, 1916.**

(3) Pte Ernest C. Kirk. (Royal Army Medical Corp). Recitation: The Fireman’s Wedding. W.A. Eaton. Romantic ballad of young fireman who saved a young woman from fire & made her his bride.

(4) Nurse Kathleen Hay. Recitation.

Red Cross Nurses: Sonia Langdon & Kathleen Hay 1916. — **Red Cross Nurses: Sonia Langdon & Kathleen Hay 1917.**

**Signatures: Sonia Langdon & Kathleen Hay.April 12th 1917.**

(5) Nurse Cockeram. Violin Solo.

(6) Pte: Wallace. (23rd London Regt). Song. Tennessee.

(7) Cpl: J. Beck. (1/10th Liverpool Scots). Song: The Trumpeter.1904. Words: J Francis Barron. Music: J. Airlie Dix 1862 -1911.

SCOTTISH REGIMENTS. — **Cigarette Paper Signature: Cpl J. Beck.**

(8) Nurse Wilcox. Song : Michigan. ‘Michigan, My Michigan’ – to the tune O Tannenbaum/ O Christmas Tree. Lyric: Winifred Lee Brent Lister 1862.

Bertie in Uniform — **Pte A.H. Hibbett.**

Sniper Atkins outer pages — **Sniper Atkins. A.H.H. 1916.**

(9) Pte A.H. Hibbett (South Staffords). Recitation. Sniper Atkins. Own poem. Foncquevillers trenches. cf Hibbett Letters. May 1916.

Troops Autos & their Cigarettes. THE QUEEN'S WESTMINSTER. South Africa 1900- 1902. — **Cigarette Paper Signatures: Rflm A.F. Pays; Rflm G. Hughes & Rflm W.S Markwell. The Cenacle. July 1916. Ward 6.**

(10) Rflm A.F. Pays (The Queens Westminsters). Song: Until. 1910. Wilfred Sanderson. 1878 -1935.

(11) Nurse Evans. Violin Solo.

Pte Kelly. — **Cigarette Paper Signature: Pte A. Kelly.**

(12) Pte A. Kelly (South Irish Horse). Song at Piano. Goo Goo Eyes. cf ’19th cent American Black Music’. 1900 hit. ‘Just becos she made dem Goo-Goo-Eyes’ / ‘If you love your baby make Goo-Goo-Eyes’. Phrase exploited by Barney Google, 1923.

Cartoon. — **Pte A. Kelly’s Cartoon: The Matron & The Cook.**

(13) Nurse O’Neil. Song: I love the Moon. Classic Nursery Rhyme/ Lullaby. ‘I see the moon the moon sees me, down through the leaves of the old oak tree, please let the light that shines on me shine on the one I love’. Anon.

(14) Cpl. Featherstone. (Durham Light Infantry). Song: Macafferty. Irish Street Ballad. Patrick McCaffrey, Ireland Regt of Foot, born 1842, executed 1862 for killing two officers. Folk hero.

bostock-byrd-turnbull-cigs-sigs — **Cigarette Signatures: Corpls: C. Bostock Byrd & H. Turnbull R.E.**

(15) Cpl. C. Bostock Byrd. (2nd Bn Coldstream Guards). Songs: Son of Mine. Shipmates o’mine. Wilfred Sanderson.1913.

Corp. Bostock Byrd. — **Corp. C. Bostock Byrd.**

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NB. All the material posted here comes from the Hibbett Collection of Photographs, the Concert Programme and my father’s 21st Birthday Autograph Album given to him by his best pal Vernon Evans. Details of the Cigarettes are given elsewhere in the Hibbett Letters.

New Brighton Tower: steel lattice observation tower 567ft high, opened 1898 -1900 as part of a Pleasure Park. Dismantled 1919 except for Tower Ballroom (Beetles venue when not at The Cavern Club) – finally closed 1969.

NEXT POST: 12th Oct. 1916. ‘Our brother has gone to that peaceful land where there is no war.’

OCT 1916 : BACK FROM THE FRONT.

September 24, 2016 Elizabeth Hibbett Webb Leave a comment

Pte BERTIE HIBBETT, The Cenacle, Red Cross Hospital, Wallesley, New Brighton, Cheshire: ‘BACK from the FRONT’.

This Poem, possibly begun in the trenches, was finished in the Red Cross Hospital ready for the October Concert Programme. It indicates that my father was allowed Home to Walsall about this time in 1916. This is supported by a photograph of him in uniform with his arm in a sling & my Dad’s caption:’Possibly taken at 95 Foden Rd Walsall’, added in 1960s.

Dedicated to my Home

Cheer O! Cheer O! Here I fly!

Dodging shells which burst so high;

Daring not to stop and sigh;

I picture Home Sweet Home so dear

Ma and Pa are thinking of me

At Home beyond that strip o’sea,

Where I so long, and wish to be.

Where I can banish all my fear.

*********

Back Home! Back Home! There’s ma Mere

Et ma Soeur, et Frere, et Pere

I kiss them all (both) here and there

Then with our faces all aglow

We gather round the fire-side

Putting war news on one side

We talk until we’re satisfied,

And very soon forget the foe.

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Back Home! Back Home!, Oh what it is

To feel the thrilling Heavenly Bliss

To give my Mother a loving kiss

In my Home where I behold

And see my father’s face again

After my life of toil and pain

Which I had not born in vain,

But for Freedom to uphold.

A.H.Hibbett Oct. 1916.

I published this poem too soon by mistake hence the quick update!

NB My father’s French has not improved!

NEXT POST: 4th Oct 1916: The Cenacle Red Cross Hospital Concert.

19TH SEPT: ‘BERT, WHAT MAKES YOU THINK ABOUT BARBED WIRE NOW?’ YOUR OLD PAL BEN.

September 19, 2016 Elizabeth Hibbett Webb Leave a comment

South Staffordshire Badgee — **South Stafford’s Knot Badge: ‘Hope & Perseverance’.**

YOUR OLD PAL BEN, 1/5th South Staffordshire Regiment at the Front: LETTER to Pte BERTIE HIBBETT, The Cenacle Red Cross Hospital, New Brighton, Cheshire.

Field Post Office 152 Censor L. J. Taylor.

Sep. 19th 1916.

Dear Pal Bert,

I was very pleased indeed to get a letter from you so quick and it gave me such a surprise when I opened it and saw your photo (1) a straw would have knocked me down in the trench. Reg Taylor * fainted when he saw it. He said to me ‘Ben, he has got some swank on him now, with his ring on and a cigar in the same hand’.

Bert we are having a very pleasant time where we are. I think we have frightened them just where we are holding. We have had the pleasure of catching a few of them since we have been at that part.

I hope by the time you get this letter you are better in health and look better.

Bert I was so proud of the five fags as I was smoked straight out and they made me a very comfortable night.

What do you mean Bert that you like my style of writing. What is it like – a young lady’s style? (2).

Yes Bert, I think myself that you had had enough – and also myself, don’t you think so, Bert. I am A.1. myself and ready for them any time they have got the mind to come over.

I was very sorry indeed when I read your letter and you said that you had wrote (about Sydney) to the N.M. Div. Base (3) and had it returned back to you, but you may get some news, I say Bert, better late than never.

There is one above who knows where he lies at rest.

I say Bert it was a very hot 1st of July. I shall never forget Derby Dyke (4).

Cheveaux de friezes. Barbed wire entanglement. — **chevaux de frises: barbed wire entanglement.**

Bert what makes you think about barbed wire now you have got a contented mind and you are so far away from the Boss (i.e. ‘Bosche’).(5)

Venables* is a prisoner in Germany (6). J. Maley* is with us now and in the pink. Yes I have heard about A. O. Jones* being in Blighty (7). I say it is luck.

I may see some of the old faces shortly as they say we have got a big draft at the Base (8) waiting to join us. It is very seldom I see Pte Gurley* (9) now as he stops at Head Qrs. I shall see him when I get out of the line and I will show him your photo and letter.

D. Ball* (10) has left the Batt. some time now, he has gone back under age.

I now close and more next time.

I remain your Old Pal, Ben.

Write back Bert.

Bert – let me know if you move and send your address.

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More evidence of the many letters my father wrote in the search for his brother and the whereabouts of his friends. I would love to know more about his ‘old pal Ben’, he sounds such a cheerful lad but without a surname to go on this will be very difficult. He was probably in my father’s ‘A’ Coy if he was in Derby Dyke trenches facing Gommecourt Wood, on 1st July 1916.

Well might Pte Bertie Hibbett be haunted by barbed wire. Not only did he have to face the possibility of being caught on the German wire if he managed to cross No Man’s Land but he also had to carry his own chevaux de frise along the flooded Derby Dyke to the Front Line (700 yrds or more). In his Memories of the First World War my father describes how impossible this was under the relentless shelling. A detailed description of Derby Dyke on 1st July 1916 is given by Alan MacDonald in A Lack of Offensive Spirit? p 348.

(1) Pte Bertie’s Photo: probably one taken by Harold on the beach at New Brighton, Aug/Sept. 1916. (2) Writing Style: perhaps Bertie had teased Ben about his conversational repetition of ‘Bert‘ in a previous letter. (3) 46th N.Midland Division Base: Rouen.

(4) Derby Dyke: 1/5th S. Staffords Assembly Trenches, Foncquevillers, Battle for Gommecourt, 1st July 1916. One of the principal communication trenches named after the Division ( Staffords Avenue, Lincoln Lane, Leicester Street, Nottingham Street, Derby Dyke, Roberts Avenue, Rotten Row, Regent Street, Raymond Avenue & Crawlboys Lane). Derby Dyke ran through orchards at the edge of the village parallel to Nottingham Street & the modern road into Foncquevillers. These trenches had been deepened from 2 ft to 7 ft in the lead up to the Battle and on the day were full of water. Derby Dyke held the ‘Advanced Battalion HQ of the right attacking Bn in the right brigade’.

(5) Barbed Wire: See My Memories of the First World War ref to chevaux de friezes/ barbed wire contraption my father was desperately trying to carry through the trenches on 1st July 1916. (6) Arthur Venables*: Missing on 1st July 1916 after he had dressed Pte Bertie’s wound and saved his life. It was possible but I think an unlikely hope that Venables was captured that day. Commemorated on Thiepal Memorial to the Missing & Walsall War Memorial.

(7) Corp. A.O. Jones: the Hibbett family was anxious to trace Sydney’s pack & belongings, which in his last letter he said he was entrusting to his friend Jones ‘in case’. If Corp Jones was wounded & back in Blighty that would account for the lack of news, especially as the Battalion had moved to a different part of the Line on 2nd July.

(8) Base: Rouen. (9) Gurley*: my father had also written to Sergt Price about Gurley. See Hibbett Letter: 17th Aug. 1916. (10) D.Ball*: younger brother of Sydney & Bertie’s pal Ball. He appears to have been with the S Staffords in 1914, so very much under age if he was still under 18 when the Military Act 1916 caught up with him.

NEXT POST: 4th Oct. 1916. Soldier’s Concert at the Cenacle, Red Cross Hospital, New Brighton.

3rd SEPT.1916: EARL SOHAM’S WAR-TIME HARVEST, SUFFOLK.

September 3, 2016 Elizabeth Hibbett Webb Leave a comment

Basil Hibbett Age 18. 1916. — **Basil Hibbett. 18 yrs. 1916.**

BASIL HIBBETT, Earl Soham, Suffolk: LETTER to BERTIE, The Cenacle Red Cross Hospital, New Brighton, Cheshire.

Earl Soham (1).

Sunday (3rd September? 1916) (2).

My dear old Bertie,

uk.pinterest.com Windmill Earl Soham PC 1930sce350ef7e3d08a512e2cea888ec76114 — **Earl Soham Windmill, Suffolk.**

Earl Soham Church, Suffolk. — **St Mary’s Church, Earl Soham. c AD 1320.**

Many thanks for the letter received last week: am sorry I have not written before but you know how we stand in a tiny village with an orange-box for a Post- Office!

I rushed off down the village on Thursday just after dinner to buy a few Post cards and Stamps and found every place closed including the Orange Box, otherwise known as P. Office.

I was very sorry that the photo was spoilt; it has been fingered such a lot you see! Never mind I want it if you don’t: I haven’t one of either of you now and I don’t like it – not ’arf! Hope H(arold) has sent you some by this time.

Centre: Sydney Hibbett. Sergt Training.1916. Does anyone recognise the other soldiers. — **Centre: Sydney Hibbett. Derby 1916. Who are the other new Serjeants? See Hibbett Letters:**

Where did you get the photos of S. taken with the Reserves at Derby? (3).

I guess you will be glad to hear that H. is going to see you for a few days.

I am glad also for your sake as I expect you do get fed up now and again. How long do you think you will be there?

**Northamptonshire Farm Wagon. <www.welney.org>**

Yes, we are busy as you say, especially as the harvest is late (more than a month) and as we are so short handed.

We have started to cart the wheat & oats. I am the carter! I find it quite exciting at times with a big load on. There is a ditch between two fields which has to be crossed thru. a gap in the hedge. We filled in the ditch with hedgings & straw, but it did not seem very firm as I came across with a great towering load of wheat! I thought the bally show was coming on top of me as it sank into the bed of straw and then bumped onto the other side.

**Clydesdale Horses? Early 20th Cent.<www.welney.org.uk**

And of course there is the nag to look after & shout & yell at. There is one horse, a grey mare, that doesn’t require any of that & it doesn’t look at the ditch, but simply charges off over, and I have to charge along-side it with the load bumping & rolling at the back! O them ’osses!

Rabbit in wheat field. — **Rabit in a wheat field: <www.permuted.org.uk>**

It is very exciting when we have been cutting some wheat or oats and there is a small piece left to be cut.

We all arm ourselves with thick sticks & get ready for the fray.

Out come the rabbits, or rather they don’t come out this year somehow, but anyway when they do there’s plenty of fun. There have not been so many this year & we have only caught 12 all the time I have been here: the men generally take a few. If we have got a lot, say a dozen at once, I will try to send a few to your Hospital. I should like to send something. The apples are hardly ripe yet. Would you like some when they are?

I went round this afternoon finding eggs, the hens stray all over and lay just where they like. I found three eggs in a nest by the roadside and also 2 guinea fowl eggs. Mrs. Adams (4) has forty hens, about thirty chickens and a flock of geese, about 35 in number. Unfortunately all the hens aren’t laying and we don’t get many eggs.

All the milk from the 3 cows goes to butter making, of which we get 30 lbs a week. Mrs. Adams sells it to the people at Ipswich, except that which we use ourselves. There are some very nice calves and a pair in particular. This particular pair is quite swanky & look at me, as I get over the style, just as though they were in the Stalls and I was in the Pit.

I am feeding enormously! – fat ‘bearcon’ in particular, plenty of cheese, butter, beans, potatoes, onions & meat!

Now with regard to Sydney, that is quite a good idea of Miss Foster’s which we are adopting (5). I think we are getting a little ‘nearer’ to him, don’t you? We must keep pegging away at making enquiries & keep on smiling.

Must close now dear old boy & I hope you will have a good time with Harold. I am sure you will.

With best love from

Dodger.

PS Mr & Mrs Adams* send their best wishes & hope you make a good recovery.

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A Good Harvest in 1916 was critical. It was reported that the country’s wheat supply was down to six weeks owing to German attacks on shipping in the North Sea & Atlantic. Farmers were given a guaranteed price for wheat & oats and Food Rationing became compulsory.

It is no wonder that Basil Hibbett, with his interest in farming, was not called up immediately he attested – but it is not clear whether he was now complying with government requests for help with the harvest in Suffolk. It is possible there were family connexions on the East Coast. Grandfather Henry Hibbett, was born in Empringham, Rutland, 1824, into a farming family going back generations, before he became a master plumber & glazier in York. The Hibbett Family frequently holidayed at Uffington in Rutland.

Ida and Sydney. On holiday with cousins at Uffington. — **A Hibbett cousin with Ida & Sydney, (riding on Uncle Sell’s farm-cart?), Uffington, Rutland. c 1905.**

(1) Earl Soham, Suffolk (two miles west of North Framlingham): An Ancient Roman Settlement, so called after the Earls of Norfolk (Bigod family). 15 miles from Ipswich on the River Orwell & Estuary.

(2) No Date given: it could be a Sunday in August but 3rd Sept. best fits details in the letter re Bertie’s request for Harold’s photos & mention of ‘a late harvest’. (Spring wheat harvest was usually late summer/early autumn).

(3) Sydney Hibbett was sent Home from the Front with catarrhal jaundice in early 1916. From Hospital in Cirencester he was transferred to Staffordshire Regiment Reserves in Derby, where it appears he began Serjeant training. See Hibbett Letters: 10th Jan.1916.

(4) Mrs Adams: Basil’s landlady. According to Genes Re-united there was a B.F.Adams living at Cheshunt? Farm, Earl Soham in 1914 – advertising his cabbage plants for cattle, cooking potatoes and marrowfat peas in the local paper that year. The Adams’ Farm appears to have been mainly arable with just a few cows & the usual poultry.

(5) Mary Foster: another example of the help Bertie’s Godmother was giving the family – letter writing all-round in the search for Sydney.

NEXT POST: 19th Sept. 1916. ‘What makes you think about barbed wire now?’ Your Old Pal Ben.

30TH AUG. 1916: LE JOURNAL CARTOON ‘GERMAN BIG BOY & SMALL FRENCH CHILD’.

August 30, 2016 Elizabeth Hibbett Webb Leave a comment

Pte BERTIE HIBBETT, The Cenacle, Red Cross Hospital, New Brighton. CARTOON POST CARD to Arthur HIBBETT, 95 Foden Rd Walsall.

The Cenacle. 30/8/16.

**A.H.Hibbett’s Copy of Le Journal Cartoon. Posted Home 30/8/16. (NB Double Click to enlarge).**

Received Mother’s letter yesterday & PC this morning.

I will write to the Quartermaster today about Sydney’s things (1).

Could Basil develop some more photos that Harold took and bring some when Mother comes (2) also one or two white soft collars.

I am as usual. Best love, Bertie.

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The optimistic tone of this French Cartoon suggests a date of publication during the long weary months of the Battle of the Somme when, with the enormous loss of young men in France, there was a felt need to raise the nation’s morale and hope of victory.

Drawn with his left-hand my father’s copy of The Le Journal Cartoon reads: ‘The Big Boy: Hi! Hi! I’m a German. The Small Child: That doesn’t frighten anyone now’. ‘Re-drawn by A.H.Hibbett. From Le Journal‘. (French daily newspaper founded & edited by Fernand Arthur Pierre Xau 1892-1899, then by Henri Letellier. Closed 1944).

(1) Quartermaster in 1/5th Bn South Staffords: A Quartermaster was a senior NCO responsible for supervision & distribution of food, clothing & equipment. Sydney’s last letter before the 1st July Battle of Somme, entrusted his belongings to his pal Corp. A.O.Jones. Hibbett Letter. 28th June, 1916.

Matron, nurses & patients at The Cenacle.1916. — **Matron Gertrude Bellow (centre), Sister M. Clive (dark belt), Nurses & Wounded Soldiers at The Cenacle.** **Pte Bertie Hibbett (seated right, arm in sling). Photo: Harold Hibbett. Autumn ,1916.**

(2) Photographs of The Cenacle Nurses & Wounded Soldiers: Basil Hibbett no doubt developed extra copies of Harold’s photos in the Top Attic at 95, Foden Rd. Walsall. (NB A Names List of Cenacle Red Cross Nurses mentioned in my father’s Letters & Papers, as well as of fellow Patients, is pending).

NEXT POST: 3rd SEPT.1916. Basil Hibbett & the Harvest at Earl Soham, Suffolk, 1916.

28TH AUG.1916: ‘BE THOU FAITHFUL UNTO THE END & I WILL GIVE YOU A CROWN OF LIFE’.

August 28, 2016 Elizabeth Hibbett Webb Leave a comment

Pte BERTIE HIBBETT, The Cenacle, Red Cross Hospital, New Brighton, Cheshire: LETTER to Arthur & Marie Neal HIBBETT, 95, Foden Rd. Walsall.

Aug. 28th/ 16.

‘Be thou faithful unto the end, and I will give thee a crown of life’. (1)

Roman Soldier Ponpei — **‘Faithful unto Death’. Roman Soldier at Pompeii. Eruption of Mount Vesuvius. 1865. Edward John Poynter. 1836 -1919.**

If I am not far wrong it is the eventful day of Basil being called up for Service. The picture and the words I got from the Calendar (2) for Sat. 26th are most appropriate.

May Our Heavenly Father bless, protect and prosper him, and strengthen the patience combined with love in my dear brave Mother; as for Daddie, Proverbs teaches us a beautiful saying, that the glory of children are their father sic, ‘how venerable is a father in the sight of his son who has returned from the wars’ (3).

Well Miss Foster*, Mary, gets over me, I had another nice letter from her today, she takes away my sorrow. . .

(end missing).

Bertie.

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Basil-with-cane — **Basil Hibbett with grey arm band. 1916.**

The National Registration Act of July 1915 was intended to boost voluntary enlistment. It failed. The census (in which Ida Hibbett played her part in Walsall Town Hall) revealed that 5 million males of military age were not in the forces and 1.6 million were ‘starred’ (i.e. protected by high or scarce skilled jobs). See Hibbett Letter: 21st Oct.1915.

Since the South Staffords embarked for France in 1915, Basil Hibbett had been keen to join his brothers at the Front but they had done their best to dissuade him from attesting until he was compelled to do so. See Hibbett Letter: 28 April 1916.

Courtesy Mike peters, military historian. East Anglian Daily Times 18th Jan 2016. — **Courtesy Mike Peters, military historian. East Anglian Daily Times 18th Jan 2016**.

The Military Service Act, 27th Jan 1916, of necessity, introduced conscription for men aged between 19 -41 years – so Basil had no choice but to attest after his 18th Birthday (1st May 1916). According to The Long Long Trail website these ‘Class A’ men were given a day’s pay, transferred to Section B Army Reserve & sent back home until they received their ‘call up’ papers.

Bertie states that Basil was to be ‘called-up’ on 28th Aug., but he must have meant ‘attest’ for in September Basil wrote to him about bringing in a ‘late harvest’ at East Soham, Suffolk.

www,northdevonww1stories.files.wordpress.comimages — **Lord Derby Scheme Arm Band with Red Crown.**

Basil Hibbett was given a grey armband with a red crown as a sign that he had volunteered. The biblical significance of the crown on the arm band was not lost on Bertie.

(1) Revelation 2.10. Exact wording KJV Bible: ‘Be thou faithful unto death & I will give thee a crown of life’.

Painting Edward john Pointer. Pre-raphaelite. — **Faithful unto Death’. Edward John Poynter. Pre-Raphaelite Painter**.

(2) Painting: ‘Faithful unto Death’. Roman Sentry at Pompeii. Eruption of Vesuvius, AD 79. Edward John Poynter, Pre-Raphaelite Painter. 1836-1919. Copy cut from Walsall Parish Church Calendar?). See ‘Pompeii Live from the British Museum’.<http://www.britishmuseum.org>

(3) Proverbs 17.6: Children’s children are the crown of old men; & the glory of children is their fathers’. Second half of quotation ‘how venerable is a father’ not found in Proverbs (possibly paraphrase of saying in Homer’s Iliad? Homer: 8th Cent BC. considered first & greatest of Greek epic poets, foundation of European Literature.

NEXT POST: 30th Aug.1916. Le Journal Cartoon.

25th AUG.1916:’MANY A TIME HAVE I THOUGHT OF YOU & THOSE OLD BOYS OF MINE MARCHING AWAY TO DO YOUR DUTY’.

Image August 25, 2016 Elizabeth Hibbett Webb Leave a comment

CHARLES LE BON, Headmaster, Blue Coat School Walsall (?): LETTER to BERTIE HIBBETT, The Cenacle, Red Cross Hospital, New Brighton, Cheshire. 82, Charlotte St. Walsall (1)

Aug 25th 1916.

My Dear Bertie,

Many and many a time have I thought of you and the other gallant lads that I watched walk up Park St. one day in September 1914.

Pte Bertie Hibbett is marching behind his brother Sydney (in mufti, front row far left). Bridge Street, Walsall. Sept. 1914. — **Pte Bertie Hibbett marching behind his brother Sydney (in mufti, front row far left). Bridge Street, Walsall. 4th Sept. 1914.**

There you all were in mufti marching away to do your duty and to respond to your country’s call for men. Those were the days before Lord Derby’s Scheme (2) and prior to the Military Act (3) when all of the proper age are compelled to serve.

Park Street with St Matthews' Church on the hill. Christine 7 John Ashmore. Old PC. — **Park Street, Walsall, looking towards the Bridge with St Matthews’ Parish Church on the hill. Courtesy Christine & John Ashmore. 1950s PC. <http://www.historywebsite.co.uk>**

What England owes to those men who joined up in the first month of the war none can ever tell, and words fail me when I wish to express my admiration and feeling towards those numerous old boys of mine who responded so early.

Blue Coats School Walsall. c 1914. — **Blue Coats School, 1859 Building, St Paul’s Close. Closed 1933 to become Bus Station.**

You know better than I do what it has meant to you all. How you sacrificed your homes, your positions, your comfort and everything that one should hold dear in this world. I do not differentiate between any of you; all were noble, self-sacrificing gallant lads, and I am proud that you were amongst the number.

Don’t think that I ever doubted you. I know your noble nature too well, and if I wrote all I think of you I may be accused of being a fulsome flatterer and lacking in sincerity. I feel that you know me well enough to write what I mean.

Since you have been on Active Service I have made regular and frequent enquiries concerning your welfare, and when I heard that you had been wounded I was deeply grieved for yourself and the other members of your family. I have made numerous enquiries concerning your progress, but I forbore going to your parents because I felt that to talk about you would only increase their worry.

I am pleased to know that you are making fairly good progress, and I sincerely trust and pray that such may continue and that in the fullness of God’s blessings you may ultimately be restored to your parents safe and sound. I was highly delighted to learn of the great patience and fortitude you have shown in the hour of your great misfortune and I feel sure that such manly conduct will meet with its just reward.

We all take comfort in the worn out saying that things may have been much worse. It appears to me very cold comfort, but then we must try and be philosophic, and with brave hearts and cool courage fight against misfortunes and troubles, and with God’s help prove ourselves superior to the multitude of worries that surround us, and appear to be overwhelming us.

My Dear Bertie, I am writing with the hope that this expression of my sympathy towards you will in some small way help you to bear your great burden, and will also afford you some comfort in your illness, and perhaps the knowledge that what you have done is fully appreciated, by us who are left at home, will also assist you and comfort you.

Mrs Le Bon heartily joins with me and wishes to be remembered very kindly to you and I will close with our sincere best wishes for your welfare and fond remembrances of a brave and noble boy.

Believe me to remain,

Very Sincerely Yours, Charles Le Bon.

*****************************

The overwhelming impact of the Battle of the Somme on those at Home, and the respect & affectionate regard shown towards all who had volunteered in 1914 is clear in this letter.

From the style of writing, as well as the reference to ‘those numerous old boys of mine’, the writer appears to be a teacher, possibly at Queen Mary’s Grammar School, but more likely Charles Le Bon was the Head Master of the Blue Coat Elementary School in Walsall. Sydney, Bertie & Basil Hibbett all attended this school before attending the Grammar School.

(1) Charlotte Street: the next street to the Hibbett Family Home, 95 Foden Road., a popular professional middle-class area in Walsall, close to the Arboretum.

(2) Lord Derby: Secretary of State for War 1916-1918. ‘Lord Derby’s Scheme’: The National Registration Act for Military Service was initiated by Lord Derby, & passed on 15th July 1915. It required all men, between the age of 18 and 65 years, to register their residential location on 15th Aug.1915. See: <http://http://www.1914-1918.net/derbyscheme> and <http://www.firstworldwar.com/atoz/derbyscheme.htm>.

(3) The National Registration Act resulted from the huge number of trench warfare casualties 1915. See Hibbett Letter, 21st Oct. 1915. Ida Hibbett volunteered at Walsall Town Hall, helping to create a Card Index of Men Available for Military Service. 29 million forms were issued: Granite Blue forms for Men and White forms for Women. A Pink Form was completed for each Granite Blue Form, if that man was between the age of 18 and 41 years. Local Recruiting Officers began canvassing but the hoped-for recruits did not materialise. The Military Service Act, amounting to conscription, was then passed on 27th Jan. 1916. Basil Hibbett, just 18, the youngest of the family, had now no choice but to attest and await call up.

NEXT POST: 28th Aug. 1916. ‘Be thou faithful unto death’.

17th AUG. 1916: ‘YOU WERE ALWAYS A GOOD SOLDIER & ONE OF THE BEST’.

August 17, 2016 Elizabeth Hibbett Webb Leave a comment

PLATOON SERJEANT W. PRICE: LETTER to Pte BERTIE HIBBETT at The Cenacle, New Brighton, Cheshire.

Same Address (1). 17/ 8/ 16.

Dear Bertie,

Received your letter & parcel this afternoon & P.C. yesterday. Glad to hear your comfortably settled and hope your wound will make a good cure, but not too speedy a one.

It is very good of you to think of us here, it is usually the case for those who are fortunate enough to get back to Blighty to forget those left behind, but there is at least one who remembers and I thank you for it on behalf of the boys and myself. At present I am on a course away from the Batt. but expect to rejoin in a few days, probably Sunday, so will take the cigarettes, etc. with me.

I sincerely hope your brother is at the Base Hospital (2). I explained as well as I could in my letter to Miss Foster*, although I had no idea where he was until I had your letter. Please God all is well with him and that he will make a good recovery.

I didn’t have anyone killed, the day you were wounded, in the platoon, but one man is missing. I haven’t heard anything of him yet, that was the man who put his field dressing on you, A.V. (3).Yes Gurley* & the boys are all keeping well. I don’t know Ball* but will let you know soon. I don’t know how the other three instructors got on.

No wonder you say you are happy, what with your people being near you and the weather and the place – you could not well be otherwise. I hope the only shadow that is marring your happiness will soon be dispelled.

www.liverpool-genealogy.org.ukTransporter Oct 1947 — **Runcorn-Widnes Railway and Transporter Bridge over the River Mersey. 1905 – 1961 as Serj. W. Price would know it.**

You know my home is not far from New Brighton. Widnes, the other [side] the Mersey from Runcorn, is where I live (4).

I know all around New Brighton, Seacombe, Wallasey etc. quite well.

I could envy you if you had not richly deserved your rest. As you say war seems far distant from such surroundings.

No we have not been in a charge since you left us. I will answer for it that correspondence is kept up between the platoon & yourself. I will write occasionally, if it is only a note it will act as a connecting file so we shall not lose touch.

Yes I wish the boys could be with you to enjoy the privileges of the hospitality shown to us all by those at home. You know I can speak from experience as I was in hospital five months. You made my mouth water speaking of chicken etc, but we are out here for a purpose, let us get this done then we will think of the luxuries of life.

Yes Randle* found his way alright. I cannot tell you anything about the roll call, you must guess that (5). I will tell Bird (6 ) what you asked me to.

Don’t think you were scoffed at for living as He would have us all live, far from it. We all admire you for the strength of will you exercised to do so, and I greatly admire you for the (card?) incident. I used to ‘say things’ myself at times, but you must remember I was a Platoon Sergeant. Still I always tried to live as I should live.

Before I close, Bertie, I should like to say that what I said in my two letters to Miss Foster* was quite true, and you must not underestimate your own qualities as a soldier. I am always candid in my opinion of everyone and I can honestly say you were always a good soldier and one of the best.

Please accept the kindest regards of all the platoon and myself.

Yours sincerely,

Serg. W. Price.

PS. Your card enclosed.

***************************

The Hibbett Family was hoping against hope that the verbal report Pte Bertie had received of Sydney’s death was not true and that he might be lying injured somewhere in a Hospital in France.

This Letter indicates the lengths Bertie’s Platoon Serjeant W. Price went to help families & friends as they tried to discover the whereabouts of their loved ones. He had already written twice in reply to Mary Foster, Bertie’s Godmother, and here he promises to keep fully in touch with Bertie. His relationship with my father is yet further evidence of the respect and understanding which existed between officers, NCOs & men of 1/5th S. Staffords who volunteered in Walsall, August 1914.

WW1 Historian Peter Barton, in a recent authoritative & well documented TV series, suggests that the Battle of The Somme did not end on November 18th 1916 but continued until the following February 1917; when the Germans made a strategic retreat to the Seigfried/Hindenburg Line. <www.the guardian.com>19th July 2016, review of revised 2006 Somme Panorama.

NO MAN'S LAND, CEMETERY FONQUEVILLERS: WOODEN CROSS inscribed: " Unknown Sergeant, S. Stafford". Photo: Basil Hibbett 1920. — **WOODEN CROSS inscribed: ” Unknown Sergeant, S. Stafford”. Photo: Basil Hibbett c.1920.**

This further length of time, before it was safe to search the Gommecourt Battlefield for those who fell in No Man’s Land, would account for Sydney’s loss of identity and his burial beneath a wooden cross inscribed ‘Unknown Serjeant, South Stafford’.

(1) Same Address: i.e. 1/5th South Staffordshire Battalion, B.E.F. the exact location can be found in the War Diary for 17th Aug. 1916. The battalion had moved on up the Line immediately after 1st July. (2) No 6, 9 and No 12 Base Hospital, Rouen. Pte Bertie was in all three from Aug – Oct 1915.

(3) A.V. Arthur Venables*, Walsall pal (put a field dressing on my father’s wound in the midst of battle, 1st July 1916). Commemorated on The Memorial to the Missing, Thiepval; in Walsall Town Hall & on Walsall War Memorial. <www.webmatters.net>

(4) Widnes, Cheshire, north bank of River Mersey. (5) Roll Call: i.e. of the Platoon after the 1st July 1916 Charge, Gommecourt. See Casualties 1/5th S. Staffords War Diary Post :1st July 2016.

(6) Padre H.E.Bird* (Chaplain QMS 1/5th S Staffords). See Letter to Pte Bertie, 19th July 1916.

* See also Menu: Names Page.

NEXT POST: 25th Aug. 1916.

16th AUG.1916: ‘HOW HARD IT WOULD BE TO LET YOU GO AGAIN’.

August 16, 2016 Elizabeth Hibbett Webb Leave a comment

Lower Largo Harbour Pier, Fife, Scotland — **Lower Largo Harbour & Pier, Fife, Scotland.**

GODMOTHER, Miss MARY FOSTER, Bankhead, 12, Drum Park, Lower Largo, Fife, Scotland (1):

LETTER to Pte BERTIE HIBBETT, The Cenacle Red Cross Hospital, New Brighton, Cheshire.

16/ 8/ 16.

My Dear Bertie,

At last the weather has broken & today is very stormy with heavy rain, but even as I write it is brightening as though to clear.

wiki 220px-Ark_Royal_(1914) — **Ark Royal. First British sea-plane carrier.**

French aircraft carrier.<wiki. — **French sea-plane carrier. WW1.**

Just opposite our window, this morning, is the ship (2) which is the base for Hydro planes, of which we saw two yesterday (3).

I was very pleased to get your letter this morning, but is it not easier for you to write in pencil? You will be thinking she takes a lot of pleasing – it is either “too good” or “too tired”, I know. But really it is “too good” this morning. I am sure it required a great effort & you know you need not exert yourself to do all your level best writing for me.

I can quite understand your feeling of depression, in fact, I have been expecting it when you settled down by yourself. You see you have had a string of excitement up to now, & less time to brood.

I wonder if the time will come when you would like me to come up, & I wonder if it did whether you would say so. I wonder! Would you? And do you know it would give me great pleasure to do so in that case?

I can well understand that your thoughts go out to the ‘Boys of the Staffords’ & that you feel very much drawn to them in the grand work they are carrying on. But my dear Boy you have nothing to regret – your part in this great task has been long & splendid. Have you ever thought how hard it would be to let you go again?

I do hope you will have a bit of good news from the Matron you wrote to – yes we will keep on praying hard for dear Sydney – I always wake to wonder if we shall hear today.

Now, dear, you must not feel that you must answer when I write, but, as per usual, write just when you want to. If I write too often or too much you may tell me. You will tell me all you learn about your arm, won’t you? & “anything and everything”.

With best love from

Mary.

PS Mrs Gorrie (4) sends her love to you & says she is thinking about you & how you will miss all your people.

************************

Almost as soon as he arrived at The Cenacle Hospital, Pte Bertie Hibbett began to write letters in search of his brother Sydney, missing since 1st July. He appears to have written to the Hospital Matrons he had met in France, at Le Treport & Rouen.

My father was very fortunate to have a Godmother, like Mary Foster. From the beginning her kindly character shines through in his Letters Home – now we are able to see first-hand how wise and understanding a friend she was. She recognised his need to confide his sorrow to someone, other than his immediate family, and to tell her ‘anything & everything’.

He also appears to have been experiencing what is now known as the ‘guilt of the survivor’ & the feeling he must get back to help his pals, ‘The Boys of the Staffords’.

**Statue: Alexander Selkirk, Lower Largo.**

(1) Lower Largo, Fife: village in Largo Bay, Firth of Forth, Scotland. Birthplace of Alexander Selkirk, marooned 4 years on Juan Fernandez Island (South Pacific Ocean, 416 miles off coast of Chili). Inspiration for Daniel Defoe’s ‘Robinson Crusoe’.

(2) H.M.S. Ark Royal was the first British sea-plane carrier. Launched 5th Sept 1914. Supported troops in Gallipoli 1915 & Macedonia 1916. Unlikely to have been in Largo Bay in 1916?

(3) Hydro planes: British Sopwith 1½ Strutter (named after long & short cabane struts supporting wings). A squadron of biplanes was created in 1915-1916 to patrol Firth of Forth & North Sea against German Assault. First British aircraft to have synchronised machine gun to fire during battles without hitting the blades. In WW1 the French built twice as many Sopwith Strutters than the British.

Aviation Fair Re-enactment Prague Czechoslovakia.WW1 Sopwith Strutter in action. — **Aviation Fair Prague Czechoslovakia.WW1 Sopwith Strutter in action. Note Gunner. 2014.**

(3) Mrs Gorrie (old Scottish name) possibly No 12 Drum Park Guest House Landlady. Mary Foster often spent her annual holiday in Scotland.

NEXT POST: 17th Aug. 1916. Message from 1/5th Staffords Platoon Serjeant.

4th AUG. 1916: ‘WHERE ONCE THE NUNS PACED TO & FRO NOW WOUNDED SOLDIERS COME & GO’.

August 4, 2016 Elizabeth Hibbett Webb Leave a comment

THE CENACLE RED CROSS HOSPITAL, NEW BRIGHTON: Pte BERTIE HIBBETT, MATRON, NURSES & WOUNDED PALS. 1916 -1917.

a.H.H. — **The Cenacle Garden. Pen & Ink Drawing. A.H.Hibbet. Oct 1916.**

Pte BERTIE HIBBETT’S eldest brother, Harold, took most of these photographs during visits to The Cenacle between July 1916 -1917. As a Chemist he would have developed & also printed them.

As well as drawing the house & grounds, Pte Bertie Hibbett tried his hand at a poem dedicated to The Cenacle.

‘Where once the Nuns paced to and fro’, Now Wounded Soldiers come and go, They liken the Cenacle to a herbal cure For the Matron and Nurses are so good and pure.

Oh! to sleep in a cosy bed On pillow soft to rest my head And have my sore wounds dressed by a kind nurse, Whose virtue is mercy and nothing worse.’ Oct 1916.

Matron & Nurses, Front door The Cenacle, Red Cross Hospital, New Brighton. — **Matron & Nurses. Front door, The Cenacle, Red Cross Hospital, New Brighton.**

3 Nurses. — **The Cenacle. Sister F.M.Clive with Red Cross Nurses G. Wilkinson & D. Puddicombe.**

J. Turnbull, x x Bertie Hibbett, ? — **Patient Heads at the The Cenacle Entrance: H. Turnbull, Beck, (Unknown but in photo 30th July post) , Bertie Hibbett & Bostock Byrd.**

2 Nurses. — **The Cenacle Red Cross Nurses: Sonia Langdon & Kathleen Hay. April 12th 1917.**

*************************

It is clear from these photographs of smiling faces that the Matron Sisters & Red Cross Nurses at the Cenacle were indeed kindness itself. I hope that readers researching their Mothers, Grandmothers & Aunts who were Red Cross Nurses in WW1 may find their relatives & their signatures here.

Patients appear to have been allowed to wear mufti when they had visitors. See photo below (most probably taken at the same time as the one of my father above with his arm in a sling). N.B. I think the names given refer to the Red Cross Nurses, N. Cockeram and N. Higson. A note under the photo states the man on the left was an Irishman – in which case he could be Pte Kelly, S. Irish Horse, who sang & played a Song entitled ‘Goo Goo Eyes!‘ at a Cenacle Concert. Oct. 1916.

******************

NEXT POST: 16th AUG. 1916.

The WW1 Letters and Drawings of Private Bertie Hibbett, 1/5th South Staffordshire Regiment, to his family in Walsall, will be posted again, one hundred years on, from August 1914 to November 1918, by his daughter Elizabeth Hibbett Webb. The first posting will be the Recruitment Postcard sent by Queen Mary's Grammar School Headmaster to the Hibbett family on holiday in Abergele, Wales.

WW1 PARCELS TO THE FRONT & LETTERS HOME

Yearly Archives: 2016

4TH OCT 1916: CENACLE CONCERT: RED CROSS NURSES & WOUNDED SOLDIERS.

OCT 1916 : BACK FROM THE FRONT.

19TH SEPT: ‘BERT, WHAT MAKES YOU THINK ABOUT BARBED WIRE NOW?’ YOUR OLD PAL BEN.

3rd SEPT.1916: EARL SOHAM’S WAR-TIME HARVEST, SUFFOLK.

30TH AUG. 1916: LE JOURNAL CARTOON ‘GERMAN BIG BOY & SMALL FRENCH CHILD’.

28TH AUG.1916: ‘BE THOU FAITHFUL UNTO THE END & I WILL GIVE YOU A CROWN OF LIFE’.

25th AUG.1916:’MANY A TIME HAVE I THOUGHT OF YOU & THOSE OLD BOYS OF MINE MARCHING AWAY TO DO YOUR DUTY’.

17th AUG. 1916: ‘YOU WERE ALWAYS A GOOD SOLDIER & ONE OF THE BEST’.

16th AUG.1916: ‘HOW HARD IT WOULD BE TO LET YOU GO AGAIN’.

4th AUG. 1916: ‘WHERE ONCE THE NUNS PACED TO & FRO NOW WOUNDED SOLDIERS COME & GO’.