Roll of honour – Page 2 – Salonika Campaign Society, 1915-1918

Remembering Charles Ussher Kilner

It is with great grief that I wish to tell you your son has died of wounds received in the recent attack. Our company was ordered to take up a position on the left flank of a brigade which was taking a village a mile to our front. We know the Bulgars were entrenched there. It was successfully carried out and the trenches taken and held. Your son was hit in the charge gallantly leading his men. I saw him at once and had him taken back. He was hit in the side but was not in great pain. We had great hopes of his recovery but last Saturday he had a relapse and died on Sunday morning. We buried him in a small cemetery where other are laid who in like manner have given their lives for their Country
Letter from Kilner’s company commander to his father, 8 October 1916

Mind the mozzies!

With family members heading off to tropical climes, I was quick to share my ‘specialist knowledge’ of anti-mosquito precautions – based entirely on reading about the BSF – and shared this splendid photo with the travellers:

Lance Corporal Harrison, 12th Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers, wearing protective anti-mosquito clothing as issued to troops on night duty during the summer months. Photograph taken at Bowls Barrow, 2 June 1918. © IWM HU 82035

I’m not sure how impressed they were, but I thought it gave an excellent impression of the precautions to take. So I was especially pleased to see anti-mosquito face veils at a reasonable price in a well-known hiking and outdoors shop and promptly bought one for each member of the party. I have seen them in use, although this was in the UK and – I suspect – more to humour me than a serious indication of an intention to wear them in foreign parts.

Just think how chuffed members of the BSF would have been to have these – they even look great with a slouch hat …

(of course, in proper use the veil should be tucked in at the neck!)

Well, they are on their travels and I don’t like to ask if they’ve used them yet, but I will be looking out for traces of mosquito bites on their faces when they return!

If you are travelling this summer, I hope you manage to avoid mosquitoes and midges. If not, maybe you should invest in one of these veils as a practical tribute to the BSF!

Remembered at the Tower

The tower most associated with the Salonika campaign is Thessaloniki’s iconic White Tower but, on a recent trip to London, I discovered connections with the campaign at another iconic landmark – The Tower of London. During a visit we took a look in the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula which, not surprisingly, remembers significant figures at the Tower over the centuries.

Happy International Logistics Day!

National Logistics Day is celebrated on June 28 every year to honor the work of the hardworking professionals in the logistics sector.

More on shorts!

The nice thing about doing these web posts is that sometimes people reply to them and so it has been with last week’s post on the shorts worn by the BSF.

Celebrating a Salonika VC Winner

The Victoria Cross was first introduced on 29th January 1856 to honour acts of valour during the Crimean War. Two VCs were awarded in the Macedonian campaign, one in 1916 and one in 1918. It’s the first of these, to Private Hubert William Lewis of 11/Welsh, that I want to celebrate today.

Rough Riders Remembered

Whilst in London recently we were passing through Smithfield on our way to St Paul’s, when I came across a hidden church: St Bartholomew the Great. It was open so we couldn’t resist going in for a nosey around and I’m very glad we did. It was especially atmospheric as it had some lighting on (it was going dark outside), a choir was practising for a concert and I’m sure there was a lingering smell of incense. With a long history – founded in 1123 – there is much of interest inside, but the item that especially caught my eye was comparatively recent: a memorial to the fallen of the City of London Yeomanry (Rough Riders) in the world wars.

One of the Regiment’s battle honours is ‘Macedonia 1916-17’.

1/1st City of London Yeomanry (Rough Riders) arrived in Salonika from Egypt – having earlier been in Gallipoli – in November 1916 as part of 8th Mounted Brigade. Its sojourn in Macedonia was relatively brief and the Brigade returned to Egypt in June 1917, where it became part of the Yeomanry Mounted Division which took part in the campaign in Palestine. In mid-1918 the Regiment moved to France as part of the Machine Gun Corps.

These are most of the dead from the First World War – several more are on a side panels:

According to the CWGC website, just five are buried in Greece. All are described as ‘died’, which suggests to me that the cause was disease or accident, but I know that’s not conclusive. From the dates of death, just one of the casualties is from the time the Regiment spent in Macedonia:

Two are casualties from the Gallipoli campaign, buried on the island of Lemnos

24 October 1915 – 2240 Private Horatio Cortissos De Pinna, aged 27; buried at East Mudros Military Cemetery (III.C.67);
1 December 1915 – 2824 Private Y F Wiggen; buried at Portianos Military Cemetery (V.A.83).

Just one is from the regiment’s time in Macedonia:

4 March 1917 – 3178 Private Thomas Victor Wilmott Watkins, aged 29; buried at Salonika (Lembet Road) Cemetery (937).

The other two died after the regiment left for Egypt, so stayed on in Macedonia for some reason:

13 October 1917 – 41436 Private W R S Wybrow, aged 45 (possibly a victim of influenza); buried at Kirechkoi-Hortakoi Military Cemetery (21);
15 March 1918 – 7436 Private W Laffeaty, aged 36; buried at Mikra British Cemetery, Kalamaria (232).

Water for man and beast: a typical scene in Salonika. An illustration dated 1917 from one of the many part works of the period, showing British Yeomanry watering their horses at a fountain in the city. — ‘Water for man and beast: a typical scene in Salonika’. An illustration dated 1917 showing Yeomanry in Salonika from one of the many part works of the period.

To find out more, please visit:

A Date With Destiny …

Whilst looking through ‘The Mosquito’ – an excellent resource and good value, too! – I came across a recipe for a date and walnut cake from June 1939 (No. 46, page 49). I’m no baker, but I do like pottering in the kitchen. Admittedly it’s mainly to listen to history podcasts, but I can turn out a reasonable tea loaf, so thought this would be within my capabilities. The opportunity came when we were given a bag of fresh walnuts so, with just some stoned dates to buy, I was off!

I know the recipe says ‘Walnut and Date Cake’ but I think ‘Date and Walnut’ trips off the tongue more readily!

Ingredients

1 lb stoned dates;
2 ozs walnuts – I put in 3 ozs as I had them and 2 ozs didn’t look much next to a pound of dates!
2 teacups of boiling water (bare measure) – I have no idea what this means but two measures of one of our posh teacups did the trick!
1½ teacups of sugar – I don’t have a very sweet tooth and given that a pound of dates is rather sweet I put in a little under a teacup of Demerara, which was fine;
4 teacups of plain flour – I ended up shaking in a bit more because the mixture looked rather gloopy!
2 teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda;
2 beaten eggs;
½ teaspoon of salt.

Method

Chop dates and walnuts – I went quite small; this was the most tedious part of the operation but, with a good podcast to listen to, the job was soon done;
place the dates and walnuts in a bowl and add salt, bicarbonate of soda, then boiling water;
allow to stand for two minutes;
add sugar, flour and the beaten eggs – stirring thoroughly;
‘Will make two cakes or loaves’ – not very precise guidance from the recipe so I got out a selection of baking tins and guessed how far the mixture would go – greasing them with butter and lining with greaseproof paper before pouring in the mixture; these are the sizes I ended up with …

Pip, Squeak and Wilfred!

‘Bake in moderate oven for 1 to 1½ hours’ – our fan oven did them in about 45 minutes at 180℃; I checked they were done by poking with a skewer to see if there was any uncooked mixture lurking (thanks for the tip, Mrs B!).

I have to say they were a great success and there is very little left after a week. I shall definitely be making this again.

So, thanks to the Salonika Reunion Association and, especially, Aileen H. Moore (late of QAIMNS (R)) for a super little recipe shared in the ‘Women’s Pages’ of ‘The Mosquito’ over 70 years ago!

Remembering William Hernaman

On a recent visit to Walthamstow I took a look at the Vestry House Museum. A former workhouse – built in 1730 – it has a chilling message over the front door: If any would not work neither should he eat. Well, it was chilling for this retired gentleman! Anyway, the building has changed use many times since then – including a spell as the armoury for the local volunteers – but is now the museum for the local area, under the care of Waltham Forest Council, for which it is also the archive and local study area.

Who Do We Think He Was?

Thursday saw the start of the latest series of the popular BBC TV family history programme, Who Do You Think You Are? which will be repeated tomorrow, Tuesday. The first subject was comedian and presenter, Sue Perkins and there was – in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment – the very briefest mention of the Salonika campaign.