Most things about my grand-uncle John Pugh, known as Jack, remain a mystery. He was a black sheep of the family, but why did his brothers and sisters refuse to talk about his life - and death - and take that knowledge to their own graves? How did he end up on the killing fields of the Somme? Now, with some help from experts, I know some of the answers.
The Postcard
Many years ago my father (born in Little Hereford) showed me this slightly crumpled postcard and told me that it was his "uncle Jack who was killed on the Somme":
A family of farm workers
There is a tendency to romanticise the past. But the lot of agricultural workers in Victorian times was usually nasty, brutish and short rather than some bucolic idyll of sunny days and cider-fuelled country dances. Agricultural depressions were frequent and new technology began to reduce the need for workers and - actual - horse power. Having said that, this branch of the Pugh diaspora was a sturdy one (for the most part).
Into this hard world came Thomas Pugh. Born at Burford (Tenbury Wells) in 1868 he became, like his father before him, a farm labourer and cowman. He was illiterate - to the extent of being unable to write his name. In 1887 he married the redoubtable Sarah Phillips. They had 12 live children including my grandmother Mary, Gert (a nurse in France during WW1) and, of course, John (Jack). The daughter of one of these siblings describes Sarah as "fearsome" and opines that Thomas must have been "a brave man to impregnate her so many times"!
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| From a 1905 Birth Certificate As with most things about Jack's life, even his birthday is a mystery. Various websites say he was born in Whitchurch, Shropshire, in 1894 but this seems to be incorrect. There are documents which clearly show that he was born in Little Hereford - in "about 1893" or "about 1894". When he joined the army in 1915 he did not provide a date of birth but gave his age as "21 years and 279 days" (which would have been either the 3rd or 4th of April, 1893 noting there are two different dates on the 1915 army Attestation Record).  Thomas and Sarah moved around various farms in the Teme Valley including ones at Boraston Dale, Nash, Berrington, Little Hereford, Greete and Rochford. But Jack was gone from the household by the time of the 1911 census. In a couple of documents he is described as either a groom or a horse dealer. At some point he voluntarily joined a Territorial army force, the 7th Worcester Regiment. But the lamps were going out all over Europe ... As more and more records became available online, I was eventually able to locate Jack's - frustratingly incomplete - military records. The Attestation Record shows that he gave a pub as his address, The New Inn at Knighton Common, Tenbury Wells, when he enlisted in January, 1915. He was posted to Aldershot where he joined the Horse Transport section of the Army Service Corps (ASC). On 23rd September, 1915 Jack deserted. This was confirmed by a military court on 19th October. What happened next is unclear but the only record which post-dates the desertion in an army medical record dated 4th December, 1915 following an examination at Tenbury Wells. His ASC service number has been handwritten on the document. This seems to indicate that the authorities had caught up with him. But with no more extant records I had run into a brick wall. Covid Lockdowns Like thousands of other people during the pandemic I used the lockdowns to have a sort-out. Looking through old family photos I discovered an uncropped copy of the photo from which the above postcard was made. This now showed his military cap. The badge is not that of the Army Service Corps, but that of the Kings Shropshire Light Infantry (KSLI):  Armed with this clue I contacted Tony Abrahams of the Royal Logistic Corps (successors to the ASC) archive. He kindly put me in touch with the incredible Richard Joyner of the RLC Museum. And Richard cracked the puzzle! By using records from the Register of Soldier's Effects he located a "James Reece alias Pugh" of the 5th Battalion KSLI. More particularly, "James" had named his parents as Thomas and Sarah Pugh of The Barns, Underley, Tenbury Wells - a known address of my ancestors. What remained for for me to do now was to find out how James/Jack met his end. From Tenbury to Thiepval I am indebted to Richard Gough for providing me with a warm welcome in a cold turret of Shrewsbury Castle - home of the Soldiers of Shropshire Museum where I reviewed further records. It is still not clear where and when Jack enlisted with the KSLI. One record suggests that it was in Ludlow in "early to mid-July, 1915 but that cannot be right as that was before the date he deserted from the ASC. That part of the story remains a mystery but we do know that he was in the 5th Batallion which, for part of 1915, were training at Blackdown Camp, Aldershot. Is it fanciful to suggest that Jack, also in Aldershot, met up with mates from the Tenbury area now in the KSLI, and decided to throw in his lot with them rather than spending his life with horseflesh? The December, 1915 medical after he had gone "awol" suggests he made no immediate move but, in any event, he made the jump at some point. We can't say when Jack joined the 5th KSLI or when he embarked for France but, of course, we know that he was there in July, 2016. The 5th missed the horrors of the first day of the Battle of the Somme (1st July) but moved up to the front on the 27th (marching much of the way in very hot weather). Meanwhile, a British advance on 15th July had left an exposed salient (or bulge) in the line at Delville Wood near Longueval. The "Devil's Wood", as the soldiers came to call it, became another of the First World War's notorious killing grounds. (There is a major memorial there now to the South Africans who sustained horrendous casualties trying to defend the Wood.) The 5th Batallion moved into trenches at the edge of the Wood on 21st August. There followed an "intense bombardment" of the Germans before a British attack on the 24th by the 14th Light Division, with the 5th KSLI in the centre of the line. They cleared some of the enemy from the Wood but became exposed and had to withdraw to a second line of trenches. Seven Officers and 197 other ranks were lost from the 5th Batallion in this one fight alone. On the 28th, the 5th was back in the front line but struggled to defend their trenches due to "incessant rain and continuous heavy shelling". The military diary describes the 28th as being "particularly onerous" which, in normal English, means it was hellish. The 5th were relieved on the 31st and rested for 11 days, returning to the "battle area" on 11th September. In another of the main assaults of the Somme battle, two divisions advanced in a combined attack on 15th September. The Battle of Flers-Courcelette had begun. And Jack and his comrades would have witnessed a moment of military history on the opening day when the British first introduced tanks in warfare. Four tanks set off but three were "knocked out" straight away. The curiously-named Tank "Dolphin" reached Flers (see map below) before succumbing to a shell. Incredibly, the reports say that the tank was "carrying spare petrol in tins on the roof" which one assumes didn't give the occupants any chance of survival!  The 5th started the Battle of Flers-Courcelette from "York Alley" in the British trench system and skirted around Delville Wood (blue arrow) heading for Flers and Geudecourt. At first everything went well and they advanced two miles (quite something given the history of the Western Front). But they were held up north-east of Flers by a line of field guns and snipers. The Batallion dug-in at "Bulls Road" which turned out to be the limit of the advance. In the understated military writing-style of the official report the chronicler states that the hour before midday was "a very hectic one for the 5th KSLI". The problem was that the troops on the 5th's right flank (white arrow on map), The Kings Royal Rifle Corps, were held up at Lesboeufs and "lost direction". The commanders were later criticised for not using the cavalry to break through towards Guedecourt where the Germans had not yet taken up positions. The whole attack stalled. On 16th September, 2016 the 5th began to withdraw. On that day one officer and two other ranks were killed whilst leaving the battlefield. One of them was Jack. None of the three have identifiable graves and their sacrifice is recorded with the many thousands of others in that sad situation on the Thiepval Memorial. In Jack's case he is named as "J Reece".  The 4th Army Commander, General Rawlinson, sent a formal message: Both in Delville Wood and in the attacks of 15th and 16th September the 14th Division displayed a fighting spirit and a dash which was worthy of the best traditions of the British Army whilst their discipline and self-sacrifice has been beyond praise. When two daughters of one of Jack's brothers said they wanted to find out Jack's story their father became very angry and told them to desist. His one comment was that Jack was "no coward". Quite.  Coda Earlier this year Linda and I stayed in Albert and visited some of the battlefield sites. As with other places on the Western Front it is hard to imagine the scale of the industrial carnage in this now peaceful farmland. There are some SHORT (!) videos to accompany this post (links below) where you can watch me cowering from the rain and mangling the pronunciation of the above villages. We walked through the replanted Delville Wood to the edge to get as close to where Jack died as we could. The birdlife was in full throat and every now and again a deer would break cover and leap away through the undergrowth. No longer hell on earth - nature had won through and life had returned. Our thanks to the many people in Albert who made our stay so memorable. Julian & Linda Saunders YouTube Links: Delville Wood, Somme: Part 1 Delville Wood, Somme: Part 2 Delville Wood, Somme: Part 3 From Tenbury to Thiepval iancrowwmultimedia@gmail.com |
