Buffnut's 2021 (and Later) Tour of Great War Sites...And Other Animals
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Crimea_River
Marshal
An amazing read. Thanks for taking the time to lay it all out for us.
Airframes
Benevolens Magister
I agree, a great thread all the way through - almost like being there.
Thanks for all the effort, photos and narrative - now I'm off to fit some swords to my chariot wheels ....................
Thanks for all the effort, photos and narrative - now I'm off to fit some swords to my chariot wheels ....................
Good shots!
Snautzer01
Marshal
- 46,292
- Mar 26, 2007
Thank you, i read it again in one sitting. Great story.
- Thread starter
- #67
buffnut453
Captain
Hey folks, apologies for resurrecting this thread but I watched a documentary on the Battle of the Somme this evening and it got me thinking about my Great-Great Uncle Bill Pountney who was wounded on 2 July 1916 attacking La Boisselle. The War Diary of his unit (the 9th Royal Welsh Fusiliers) doesn't explicitly identify where they were fighting, or what their objectives were.
Watching the documentary caused inspiration to strike...I wondered if the Commonwealth War Graves Commission records for the 9th RWF soldiers that were killed on 2/3 July might include concentration reports identifying where the bodies were found before they were moved to a CWGC cemetery. As luck would have it, I found one soldier killed on 2 July plus a few more on 3 July...and all the positions, when plotted on T-Mapper, came out in the area between the Loch Nagar Crater and the village of La Boisselle. Here's a screenshot from T-Mapper showing the original burial site of the chap who was killed on 2 July:
The first image in the post I'm replying to shows the view from Loch Nagar Crater generally southwest towards the high ground from where the 9th RWF launched there attacks. I unknowingly took that photo during my visit last year because it was one of the few areas where I got a good, clear view of the area from which the 9th RWF attacked. Given that all the 9th RWF soldiers who were killed and whose identities are known were originally buried in this area (with none appearing northwest of the main road out of Albert), it seems pretty certain that Bill Pountney was shot somewhere roughly within the field of view of that photo.
Re-reading the War Diary again, it does mention craters which almost certainly referred to the Glory Hole craters, which already existed at the time of the battle, as well as the Loch Nagar and Y Sap mines, the latter being just over the Albert road. The War Diary entry for 2/3 July reads "This Battalion therefore only reached the craters - which had been formed in the German trenches the previous morning - at daybreak on the 2nd."
Just got a few shivers down my spine thinking about having walked that ground last year. Methinks I'll be revisiting before too very long!
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Echo all here, well done!
- Thread starter
- #69
buffnut453
Captain
Interestingly, I just pulled a GoogleEarth image of the area. Take a look at the brown field just northwest of the Loch Nagar Crater, above Rue de la Grande Mine. Those lighter areas correspond pretty well with the trenches shown on the right-hand 1916-vintage map in my previous post.
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- Thread starter
- #70
buffnut453
Captain
I know this thread is old but a recent work trip to Farnborough resulted in some further discoveries that I thought might be of interest. Also, it made sense (to my simple mind) to keep all my boring family history junk in one place. So here we go...
My relative Jim Gamble, who served in the RFC, held on to these two photographs clearly showing a military funeral, apparently in Aldershot (based on the photographer's information on the photo). One of the squads is carrying arms reversed, and there's clearly a hearse in the background. There were no other details on the reverse and, since Jim passed away long before I was born, it seemed improbable that I'd learn more about them. They were clearly of importance given that he kept them his entire life, and yet he doesn't appear in either photo, and the funeral itself drew a fair amount of interest.
Fortunately, there are great people out there in the interwebby-thingy, including friends at the Aldershot Military Museum who confirmed that the photographs showed the funeral of
2Lt William Boyle Power on Queen's Street, Aldershot, Hampshire, on 21 July 1916. The route along Queen's Street ran from the North Camp at the Farnborough end, heading towards the Aldershot Military Cemetery from the Royal Aircraft Factory (re-named the Royal Aircraft Establishment in 1918).
2Lt Power died on 17 July when his FE8 aircraft crashed at Farnborough. The Aldershot Mail local newspaper provided further details about the funeral:
The cortege having formed up outside the church was equally imposing, stretching over a quarter of a mile along Queens Avenue.
First came the firing party of the Royal Flying Corps, under the command of Sergeant Austin, followed by the band of the Inniskilling Dragoons and the gun carriage, upon which was the coffin, draped with the Union flag and covered in flowers.
Following the pall bearers were the officiating clergymen in their full robes, his widow and family mourners. Behind them followed the escort and wreath bearers numbering several hundred. In overall command of proceedings was Major A.F.S. Leggatt.
Thousands witnessed the cortege's departure towards the cemetery and the greatest respect was manifested by the great many mourners who lined the route. Such was the size and scale of the procession, that it was photographed by the photographic company Messrs. May and Co.
Here's a photo of William Boyle Power. He was married and his wife was either pregnant or had just given birth to a son, also named William, at the time of Power's death. Alas, the son would die just 2 years later.
William Boyle Power was born in Plymouth in December 1888 and lived at Wyche Cottage in Albert Street, Droitwich at the start of the war in 1914. He obtained his pilot's certificate on July 1st 1914 and joined the Royal Flying Corps when the war started. After serving in Egypt, he returned to the UK and trained others to fly. One of his students in March 1916 was J T B McCudden, who went on to become possibly the greatest British flying ace before also being killed in a flying accident in July 1918.
William was working as a test pilot when he was killed on the evening of Monday 17 Jul 1916 when his FE8 plane nose-dived into the ground at Farnborough Air Station near Aldershot.
During my work visit to Farnborough this week, I was able to locate William Boyle Power's grave in Aldershot Military Cemetery. Here are a couple of pics:
2Lt Power is in good company in Aldershot Military Cemetery. Just a few yards away lies the grave of Samuel Franklin Cody who flew the first powered aeroplane in Britain in 1908. Ironically, Cody also has a couple of connections to Jim Gamble's home town of St.Helens in Lancashire.
Cody had a colourful career. He was born in Davenport, Ohio, but made his name running a Wild West show. He brought his show to the UK and gained a certain notoriety. It was while touring with his show that he first visited St.Helens in 1899 (Jim Gamble would have been 5 years old at the time). Some pyrotechnics used in the performance caught fire one night and burned down the town's theatre. Whether this event prompted Cody to change careers is unclear but, within 2 years, he was experimenting with flying kites and offering them to Britain's War Department for use in the Boer War.
From his initial work with kites, Cody continued experimenting and learning, moving to manned gliders and then, ultimately, creating a powered aeroplane. He flew the first heavier-than-air craft in Britain, officially dated 16 Oct 1908, at Laffan's Plain, which is now part of the Farnborough airfield. Cody continued his experiments, including taking passengers up for trips from 14 Aug 1909 onwards.
On 29 Dec 1909, Cody visited St.Helens for a second time, this time by accident. Sir William Hartley had established a prize of £1000 for the first aviator to fly the 35 miles between Liverpool and Manchester. Cody departed Aintree Racecourse at 1217 and was making good progress, flying at 80-200 feet, until fog and industrial smog made navigation difficult. With high ground nearby, Cody was confronted by the high ground at Eccleston Hill. He tried to veer around the hill but faced with the tramway and telephone wires above the Prescot to St Helens road he opted to land at Valencia Farm, close to the old church at Portico. Following his landing a large crowd soon gathered and Alderman Dixon-Nuttall invited him to lunch at his residence in Eccleston Park.
Here's an image of Cody's aircraft taken after its landing at Valencia Farm:
Jim Gamble would have been 15 at the time of his forced-landing in St.Helens and I can't help wondering if Cody's visit might have inspired his interest in aviation. While Eccleston was a few miles from where Jim lived, it's possible news of the aircraft travelled quickly and perhaps he headed over to see it.
Turning back to Cody, he finished fourth in the 1911 Daily Mail "Circuit of Great Britain" air race, for which he was awarded the Silver Medal of the Royal Aero Club in 1912.
He died on 7 Aug 1913 when the aeroplane he was flying broke up in the air over Ball Hill, near Farnborough in Hampshire killing himself and his passenger. He was buried with full military honours at Aldershot Military Cemetery, the funeral drawing huge crowds. Here are a couple of pics of his grave:
My final appointment at Farnborough this week was to visit the airship hangar that has been re-erected after restoration. It was designed in 1913 as a transportable testebed to evaluate how the Army might employ airships in the field. It didn't survive long in its original form: the fabric had started to rip off within 6 months. Demonstrating an uncommon attitude of "waste not want not," the Army repurposed the hangar frame to form two separate buildings that became part of the Royal Aircraft Factory. The buildings survived into this century but were eventually demolished, Thankfully the hangar frame was saved and restored to its original glory. It's interesting to think that Jim Gamble would have been familiar with these pieces of metal during his service at Farnborough, 1915-1917. I took a pic of the notice board in case anyone wants to learn more about this engineering feat:
For those who haven't been to Farnborough, it has a pretty decent museum, the Farnborough Air Sciences Trust (FAST) that includes an amazing collection of wind-tunnel models used for high-speed airflow research in the 1950s and 1960s. Unfortunately, being a volunteer-run establishment, the museum hours are pretty limited: it's only open on weekends and bank holiday Mondays.
That said, the location of the Museum is pertinent to the thread. It's housed in a building that was once the headquarters for the Royal Flying Corps. Here are a couple of pics that highlight how the building has changed (not necessarily for the better, aesthetically-speaking!). It's another building that would have been very familiar to Jim Gamble during his time at Farnborough, 1915-1917:
My relative Jim Gamble, who served in the RFC, held on to these two photographs clearly showing a military funeral, apparently in Aldershot (based on the photographer's information on the photo). One of the squads is carrying arms reversed, and there's clearly a hearse in the background. There were no other details on the reverse and, since Jim passed away long before I was born, it seemed improbable that I'd learn more about them. They were clearly of importance given that he kept them his entire life, and yet he doesn't appear in either photo, and the funeral itself drew a fair amount of interest.
Fortunately, there are great people out there in the interwebby-thingy, including friends at the Aldershot Military Museum who confirmed that the photographs showed the funeral of
2Lt William Boyle Power on Queen's Street, Aldershot, Hampshire, on 21 July 1916. The route along Queen's Street ran from the North Camp at the Farnborough end, heading towards the Aldershot Military Cemetery from the Royal Aircraft Factory (re-named the Royal Aircraft Establishment in 1918).
2Lt Power died on 17 July when his FE8 aircraft crashed at Farnborough. The Aldershot Mail local newspaper provided further details about the funeral:
The cortege having formed up outside the church was equally imposing, stretching over a quarter of a mile along Queens Avenue.
First came the firing party of the Royal Flying Corps, under the command of Sergeant Austin, followed by the band of the Inniskilling Dragoons and the gun carriage, upon which was the coffin, draped with the Union flag and covered in flowers.
Following the pall bearers were the officiating clergymen in their full robes, his widow and family mourners. Behind them followed the escort and wreath bearers numbering several hundred. In overall command of proceedings was Major A.F.S. Leggatt.
Thousands witnessed the cortege's departure towards the cemetery and the greatest respect was manifested by the great many mourners who lined the route. Such was the size and scale of the procession, that it was photographed by the photographic company Messrs. May and Co.
Here's a photo of William Boyle Power. He was married and his wife was either pregnant or had just given birth to a son, also named William, at the time of Power's death. Alas, the son would die just 2 years later.
William Boyle Power was born in Plymouth in December 1888 and lived at Wyche Cottage in Albert Street, Droitwich at the start of the war in 1914. He obtained his pilot's certificate on July 1st 1914 and joined the Royal Flying Corps when the war started. After serving in Egypt, he returned to the UK and trained others to fly. One of his students in March 1916 was J T B McCudden, who went on to become possibly the greatest British flying ace before also being killed in a flying accident in July 1918.
William was working as a test pilot when he was killed on the evening of Monday 17 Jul 1916 when his FE8 plane nose-dived into the ground at Farnborough Air Station near Aldershot.
During my work visit to Farnborough this week, I was able to locate William Boyle Power's grave in Aldershot Military Cemetery. Here are a couple of pics:
2Lt Power is in good company in Aldershot Military Cemetery. Just a few yards away lies the grave of Samuel Franklin Cody who flew the first powered aeroplane in Britain in 1908. Ironically, Cody also has a couple of connections to Jim Gamble's home town of St.Helens in Lancashire.
Cody had a colourful career. He was born in Davenport, Ohio, but made his name running a Wild West show. He brought his show to the UK and gained a certain notoriety. It was while touring with his show that he first visited St.Helens in 1899 (Jim Gamble would have been 5 years old at the time). Some pyrotechnics used in the performance caught fire one night and burned down the town's theatre. Whether this event prompted Cody to change careers is unclear but, within 2 years, he was experimenting with flying kites and offering them to Britain's War Department for use in the Boer War.
From his initial work with kites, Cody continued experimenting and learning, moving to manned gliders and then, ultimately, creating a powered aeroplane. He flew the first heavier-than-air craft in Britain, officially dated 16 Oct 1908, at Laffan's Plain, which is now part of the Farnborough airfield. Cody continued his experiments, including taking passengers up for trips from 14 Aug 1909 onwards.
On 29 Dec 1909, Cody visited St.Helens for a second time, this time by accident. Sir William Hartley had established a prize of £1000 for the first aviator to fly the 35 miles between Liverpool and Manchester. Cody departed Aintree Racecourse at 1217 and was making good progress, flying at 80-200 feet, until fog and industrial smog made navigation difficult. With high ground nearby, Cody was confronted by the high ground at Eccleston Hill. He tried to veer around the hill but faced with the tramway and telephone wires above the Prescot to St Helens road he opted to land at Valencia Farm, close to the old church at Portico. Following his landing a large crowd soon gathered and Alderman Dixon-Nuttall invited him to lunch at his residence in Eccleston Park.
Here's an image of Cody's aircraft taken after its landing at Valencia Farm:
Jim Gamble would have been 15 at the time of his forced-landing in St.Helens and I can't help wondering if Cody's visit might have inspired his interest in aviation. While Eccleston was a few miles from where Jim lived, it's possible news of the aircraft travelled quickly and perhaps he headed over to see it.
Turning back to Cody, he finished fourth in the 1911 Daily Mail "Circuit of Great Britain" air race, for which he was awarded the Silver Medal of the Royal Aero Club in 1912.
He died on 7 Aug 1913 when the aeroplane he was flying broke up in the air over Ball Hill, near Farnborough in Hampshire killing himself and his passenger. He was buried with full military honours at Aldershot Military Cemetery, the funeral drawing huge crowds. Here are a couple of pics of his grave:
My final appointment at Farnborough this week was to visit the airship hangar that has been re-erected after restoration. It was designed in 1913 as a transportable testebed to evaluate how the Army might employ airships in the field. It didn't survive long in its original form: the fabric had started to rip off within 6 months. Demonstrating an uncommon attitude of "waste not want not," the Army repurposed the hangar frame to form two separate buildings that became part of the Royal Aircraft Factory. The buildings survived into this century but were eventually demolished, Thankfully the hangar frame was saved and restored to its original glory. It's interesting to think that Jim Gamble would have been familiar with these pieces of metal during his service at Farnborough, 1915-1917. I took a pic of the notice board in case anyone wants to learn more about this engineering feat:
For those who haven't been to Farnborough, it has a pretty decent museum, the Farnborough Air Sciences Trust (FAST) that includes an amazing collection of wind-tunnel models used for high-speed airflow research in the 1950s and 1960s. Unfortunately, being a volunteer-run establishment, the museum hours are pretty limited: it's only open on weekends and bank holiday Mondays.
That said, the location of the Museum is pertinent to the thread. It's housed in a building that was once the headquarters for the Royal Flying Corps. Here are a couple of pics that highlight how the building has changed (not necessarily for the better, aesthetically-speaking!). It's another building that would have been very familiar to Jim Gamble during his time at Farnborough, 1915-1917:
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Your "boring" family history is not boring at all.
can only agree with Marcel, thanks for sharing
Great stuff!
