Belle Vue Pyrodramas

Several of the letters published in the Ashton Reporter from the men of the 9^th Battalion Manchester Regiment make reference to “Belle Vue”, which was a famous local amusement park in West Gorton, Manchester. For example, take the letter written by Private Tom Littleford, to his mother, and published in the Reporter on Saturday July 17, 1915:

“Private Jas. Ryder has had one or two narrow escapes. One day, when they were taking us in the trenches, a bullet took his hat straight off his head, and another bullet lodged in the overcoat, which was strapped on his back. Both night and day shrapnel shells are bursting around us. Talk about Belle Vue, it isn’t in it. When we were at home they called the Territorials England’s last hope, but we are England’s first aid at present”.

But in this case, the references to Belle Vue were specifically comparing the real world experience of battle they were now witnessing first-hand to those re-enacted in “Pyrodramas” at Belle Vue that they and their friends and family had seen together in happier times.

The founder and driving force behind Belle Vue was John Jennison (1790-1869) who bought the original 36 acre site, off Hyde Road and Kirkmanshulme Lane. Belle Vue opened in 1836, expanded over time and eventually occupied 165 acres. At the height of its popularity, 2 million people visited every year.

In 1851, Jennison, visited the Great Exhibition in London and whilst there, paid a visit to Surrey Zoological Gardens. It was here that he witnessed a ‘stupendous Diaphanic Panopticon’, which portrayed the horrors of war. Described in publicity of the time as a ‘gigantic panorama’ it measured 200 feet in length, and had figures 15 feet in height, and ‘was ‘the first ever attempted.’ Constantly looking for new ways to attract the public, on his return to Manchester Jennison formulated a plan to dramatically increase the quality, and expand the scale and visual impact of his own static panorama displays.

He envisioned large firework shows presented against the backdrop of a huge painted canvas representing a famous historical or contemporary event. He hired George Danson, (of Messrs. Danson), who had created the Surrey Zoological Gardens panorama which so impressed him, to come to Manchester and create the sets for the Belle Vue Pyrodramas. Danson constructed enormous backdrops, 300 feet wide and 60 feet high, hand-painted in the open air by professional artists who, for the rest of the year, worked in the Royal Opera House and the theatres of Covent Garden and Drury Lane. These backdrops were then installed on the “firework island” that formed the setting for the dramatic orchestrated shows, punctuated by fireworks and acted out by ever larger casts of actors. So successful were the Pyrodramas that Danson, and his sons, Thomas and Robert Danson, would come back to Manchester and paint them for each of the next 44 years.

Pyrodramas were included in the price of admission and visitors could watch from what used to be an open air dance floor or could pay extra to watch from an elevated viewing platform. The Pyrodramas were spectacular and turned out to be immensely popular, watched by tens of thousands each year, and their addition as an attraction in the zoological gardens helped secure the financial future of Belle Vue.

Battle of Blenheim, 1907 Season

Courtesy Chetham's Library, Manchester

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The first of the Pyrodramas was “The Bombardment of Algiers” in 1852 and the sequence of shows through 1926 are outlined below:

Year	Pyrodramas
1852	The Bombardment of Algiers
1853	The Storming of Seringapatam
1854	Burning of Moscow
1855	Siege of Sebastopol
1856	The Storming of Malakoff
1857	The Siege of Gibraltar
1858	The Storming of Delhi
1859	The Temple of Janus
1860	The Storming of the Badajoz
1861	The Emperor’s Palace & the City of Pekin
1862	The Battle of the Nile
1863	The Relief of Lucknow
1864	The Siege of Charlestown
1865	Earthquake at Lisbon
1866	Carnival of Rome
1867	Storming of St. Jean d’Acre
1868	Battle of Trafalgar
1869	Storming of Magdala
1870	Capture of Quebec
1871	Bombardment of Strasburg
1872	Napoleon Crossing the Alps
1873	The Spanish Armarda
1874	Battle of Waterloo
1875	Capture of Coomassie
1876	The Prince at Calcutta
1877	The Fall of Alexinatz
1878	The Fall of Plevna
1879	The Afghan War
1880	Burning of the Tuilleries (City of Paris)
1881	Battle of Navarino (Fought in 1827)
1882	Carnival of Venice
1883	Battle of Tel-el-Kebir (Egypt)
1884	Siege of Constantinople, 1453
1885	Siege and Defence of Khartoum
1886	Storming of San Sebastian
1887	City of London
1888	Siege of Malta
1889	Storming of the Bastille
1890	Storming of Cairo
1891	Battle of Inkerman
1892	Battle of Cape St. Vincent
1893	American Indian War
1894	Siege of Granada
1895	Storming of Port Arthur
1896	Battle of Alma
1897	Matabele War
1898	Storming of Dargai
1899	Battle of Omdurman
1900	Siege of Ladysmith
1901	Siege of Pekin
1902	Battle of Paardeberg
1903	Capture of Gibraltar
1904	Attack on Port Arthur
1905	Battle of Mukden
1906	Storming of the Kashmir Gate, Delhi (1857)
1907	Battle of Blenheim, Aug 13th, 1704
1908	Defence of Mafeking
1909	Bombardment of Alexandria
1910	Battle of Manchester
1911	The Relief of Lucknow
1912	Burning of Hankow
1913	The Balkan War – Battle of Lule Burgas
1914	The Battle of Kandahar
1915	The Battle of the Marne
1916	War in Flanders
1917	The Battle of the Ancre
1918	The Fight for Liberty
1919	Mons 1914-1918
1920	The Capture of Jerusalem
1921	Chinese War – Storming of the Taku Forts
1922	Storming of Kotah (Indian Mutiny 1858)
1923	The Redskins
1924	Mexico
1925	The Cannibals
1926	Reign of Terror

By 1923 the themes of the Pyrodramas changed from well-known military actions to less militaristic depictions, not wholly surprising after a run of 70 consecutive annual shows, and perhaps reflecting a change in public appetites after the great war. The last Pyrodrama produced at Belle Vue was “Robin Hood” in 1956.

In 1925, Belle Vue Zoological Gardens was sold to a London-based syndicate and during the 1950s it was purchased by the hotel and catering conglomerate, the Forte Group. As anyone of a certain age from Manchester can tell you, Belle Vue continued to be quite a popular local destination and an amusement park, miniature railway and speedway racing were added to the list of attractions. But by the 1970s, Belle Vue entered a death spiral as other more popular public attractions became available and attendances dwindled. Belle Vue finally closed for good in 1979.

References:

[1.] Chetham’s Library, Manchester
[2.] “The Belle Vue Story”, by Robert Nicholls. ISBN: 9781852160708

Gilbert the Filbert

Basil Hallam Radford was born on April 3, 1888. He attended Charterhouse School and went on to become a well known actor and light comedian performing under the name ‘Basil Hallam’. In early 1914 he created and played the character of a privileged young “Knut”, Gilbert the Filbert, for The Passing Show which opened at the Palace Theatre, London, on 20 April 1914. The composer was Herman Finck and the lyrics were written by Arthur Wimperis.

Hallam became an overnight sensation and the whole country was singing the song and young men of a certain station started to refer to themselves as “Knuts”.

I’m Gilbert, the Filbert,
The Knut with a “K”,
The pride of Piccadilly,
the blasé roué.
Oh, Hades! the ladies
who leave their wooden huts
For Gilbert, the Filbert,
The Colonel of the Knuts.

The widespread popularity can be glimpsed in letters from the front, published in local newspapers, where men refer to themselves as ‘Knuts’ and further evidenced by a short article, written by P. G. Wodehouse, about the “Knuts O’ London” in the September 1914 edition of Vanity Fair.

But, as for many others, the war got in the way of his success and on September 14, 1915 he was gazetted a probationary Second Lieutenant in the Royal Flying Corps.

On August 20, 1916 he was a temporary Captain and a member of No 1 Army Kite Balloon Section, stationed in France. On that day, the balloon broke away from its moorings and began to drift towards enemy lines. Following protocol, the three man crew proceeded to throw out their instruments and maps before planning to save themselves. Basil Hallam Radford did not survive the jump and is buried in the Couin British Cemetery. He was 27 years old.

References:

The September 1914 Vanity Fair article by P.G. Wodehouse can be found here.
Details regarding the death of Captain Basil Hallam Radford can be found here.

P.S.A. Movement

Several of the letters published in the Ashton Reporter from the men of the 9^th Battalion Manchester Regiment have editorial references to the man being a member of the “P.S.A.” Additionally, the Reporter published short articles regarding the meetings and activities of the local P.S.A. brotherhood in Ashton and district and at one point published a P.S.A. “Roll of Honour”.

The Pleasant Sunday Afternoon (P.S.A.) movement was founded by John Blackham, a linen draper from West Bromwich, who was a prominent member of the local community. By the time he was 30 he was already a deacon at the West Bromwich Ebenezer Congregational Church, and was already active in the Adult School Movement which was originally intended to teach literacy to working class adults primarily through the study of the bible, especially the New Testament. No doubt his involvement in this endeavor caused him to think generally about how to increase attendances and especially how to regain the interest of those who had previously attended Church Sunday Schools but had since stopped.

In 1875, when he was 41, he traveled to Birmingham to hear the well-known American evangelists, Moody and Sankey who were speaking at the Town Hall one Sunday afternoon. Unable to get in, due to the large crowds, he ended up attending a small Sunday School bible study class at the Ebenezer Congregational Chapel in nearby Steelhouse Lane. Opened in 1816, this was a very large church with capacity for a thousand worshippers but on that day only a few dozen young men were in attendance. What a contrast. Thousands of people clamored to see the American evangelists preach the word of God but just a few minutes’ walk away, a capable and engaging speaker could barely summon up a handful of faithful men. Blackham had a breakthrough moment and perhaps for the first time clearly saw that in order to fill seats, the format, content and delivery mattered more than anything else. “I realized that if men were to be won, we must give them a service neither too long nor too learned. We must avoid dullness, prolixity, gloom and constraint”, he is later reported to have said.

On his return, he met with the West Bromwich Ebenezer Congregational Church Sunday School officials, and laid out his ideas of how to boost attendance, and reclaim lapsed members, by introducing a new kind of bible study class that would be short and bright and last no more than three-quarters of an hour. Importantly, as a member of a Congregationalist church the only people who needed to be persuaded to do something radical were his local church elders. Evidently, he was able to gain their consent and so he quickly set out to find as many local young men as he could who had previously attended Sunday School but who now no longer regularly attended church. The following Sunday afternoon, around 120 young men that he had recently canvased on the streets of West Bromwich duly arrived at the Ebenezer Chapel to attend the first meeting of what was shortly to become the Pleasant Sunday Afternoon (P.S.A.) movement.

The meetings were wildly successful and the popularity of the P.S.A. meetings slowly spread throughout the Black Country, across the Midlands and to the rest of the country. Within ten years, around 1885, they had reached Ashton-under-Lyne, gained traction and became an integral part of the religious establishment thus earning their place in the Ashton Reporter.

The P.S.A. and the Ashton Reporter

Saturday, September 11, 1915:

On Sunday, at the Ashton P.S.A. Society, at an open service for men and women, the veteran and distinguished elocutionist, Mr. Barnish Barnsdale is announced to recite “The Sermon That Wasn’t Preached”, “What Shall it Be”, and “Unconquered”. These are items that Mr. Barnsdale has made his own, and his elocutionary abilities ae acclaimed everywhere.

P.S.A. Roll of Honour

UNVEILING CEREMONY PERFORMED BY MRS. A. PARK

Saturday, October 30, 1915:

The gathering of the P.S.A. Society’s Bible Class on Sunday morning took the form of an open service, the first of its kind in the 30 years’ history of the class. There was a large attendance, which included a number of soldiers. The special feature of the gathering was the unveiling of the class Roll of Honour, which contains the names of all those who are doing military service in various parts of the world.

Mr. A. Park, J.P., president of the society, was in the chair, and he was accompanied on the platform by Mrs. Park. Several friends, by giving voice and recitations, added to the brightness of the service, and the members of the Singing Class rendered musical items in pleasing fashion.

The Chairman made sympathetic and appropriate reference to the members whose names appeared on the roll, and mentioned the loss they had sustained by the deaths in action of Gunner William Booth, R.F.A., and Staff-Sergeant Harry Owen of the Royal Garrison Artillery.

Ms. Park gave a short address of patriotic and religious character, and then proceeded to unveil the roll of honour, which contains the following names: –

Sergeant Thomas William Boon, 1^st South Wales Borderers.
Company Quartermaster-Sergeant John Williamson, 1/9 Manchester Regiment.
Company Quartermaster-Sergeant Herbert Bradshaw, 2/9 Manchester Regiment.
Staff-Sergeant Harry Owen, 1^st Siege Battery, R.G.A., killed in action.
Staff-Sergeant Wm. H. Martin, 1/9 Manchester Regiment.
Private Walter Eastwood, 3/9 Manchester Regiment.
Private Harry Hobson, 2/9 Manchester Regiment.
Private Wm. Bromley, 1/9 Manchester Regiment.
Private John Oldham, 3/9 Manchester Regiment.
Private Roland Bromley, 2/9 Manchester Regiment.
Private John Seedall, 6^th Cheshire Regiment.
Private Frank Briggs, 8^th South Lancashire Regiment.
Gunner Wm. Booth, R.F.A., killed in action.
Gunner Geo. H. Watkins, R.F.A., 181^st Brigade.
Private James Beaumont, R.A.M.C.
Private Harry Kerrick, 3/9 Manchester Regiment.
Private Stanley Townley, 3/9 Manchester Regiment.
Private James Hague, 3/9 Manchester Regiment.

Royal Visit to Ashton May 20, 1938

King George VI and Queen Elizabeth concluded their four days’ visit to Lancashire today with a tour from Knowlsey to Ashton-under-Lyne, and embracing: Wigan, Bolton, Radcliffe, Bury, Heywood, Rochdale and Oldham.

The King and Queen will set out this morning from Knowsley Hall, where they have been staying for the last two nights as the guest of Lord Derby, on the last stage of their tour of Industrial Lancashire. Today’s itinerary takes a zigzag course across the south-eastern part of the county, ending at Ashton-under-Lyne, where the King and Queen will entrain for London.

10:45am – Leave Knowsley hall and progress to Ashton-in-Makerfield.
11:10 am – Due Ashton-in-Makerfield, progress to Wigan.
11:33 am – Arrive Wigan Town Hall for presentations.
11:45 am – Leave Wigan for Bolton.
12:29 pm – Arrive Bolton Town Hall for presentations.
12:41 pm – Leave Bolton for Bury.
1:27 pm – Arrive Derby hall, Bury for presentations and lunch.
2:42 pm – Leave Bury via for Rochdale.
3:14 pm – Arrive Rochdale Town hall for presentations.
3:26 pm – Leave Rochdale for Oldham.
3:59 pm – Arrive Oldham Town Hall for presentations.
4:11 pm – Leave Oldham for Ashton-under-Lyne.
4:24 pm – Due Ashton Town Hall for presentations.
4:45 pm – Due Ashton Railway Station.

How Ashton Welcomed the King¹

Lord Derby arrived in Ashton a few minutes ahead of the King and Queen. As the wireless message regarding his approach was received, his car was seen turning from Oldham road into Katherine Street, and a few minutes later he was being introduced to the Mayor and Mayoress and others on the platform. With the Town Clerk, he went over the list of people to be presented.

A THRILLING MOMENT

It was a thrilling moment when news was received that Their Majesties were in Ashton. Looking from the Town Hall, their car could be seen turning into Katherine Street. Flags were waved, and the cheering swelled into a deafening crescendo, as the car pulled up opposite the Town Hall entrance. The King and Queen were received by Lord Derby, the County Lieutenant, who presented the Mayor and Mayoress to them.

The Queen, smiling as she acknowledged the cheers of the dense crowd, was a radiant figure in a blue swagger two-piece with a hat to match. She wore a red rose on her left shoulder. The King, who looked well and fit, raised his hat in acknowledgement of the cheers.

The King broke off his conversation with the Mayor as the Regimental Band of the 9th Battalion, The Manchester Regiment played the national Anthem, and afterwards, with Lord Stanley, the hon. Colonel of the 9^th Battalion, and Col. Barratt, the commanding officer, he inspected the guard of honour mounted by the Battalion, which had previously given the Royal Salute, under the command of Captain Hall. During the inspection, the Queen talked animatedly with the Mayor.

After the inspection, The King walked back to the platform and, with the Queen, ascended the dais on which two chairs had been placed for them. In front of the chairs was a blue carpet bearing the inscription “In commemoration of the crowning of King George VI, of Great Britain and Ireland, the Dominions beyond the seas, as King-Emperor of India, May 11, 1937. God save the King.”

The Presentations

After the presentations already named had been made, the following presentations were made by the Mayor to the King. Those to be presented sat on the right of the King and Queen, and as each was presented, after shaking hands with the King and Queen, they moved to the opposite side of the dais: –

The Deputy-Mayor, (Counsellor E. Meeks)
Borough Member, (Mr. F. B. Simpson and Mrs. Simpson)
Alderman R. S. Oldham, (Freeman of the Borough)
Alderman Col. J. Broadbent, (ex-Member for the Borough)
Alderman C. M. Bowden, (President, Portland House Social Centre)
Miss Margaret Bridge, (Matron, District Infirmary Ashton)
Miss A. Howard, (Matron, Ashton and District Sick Nursing Association)
Mr. Francis Dunn, (ex-Servicemen’s Association)
Alderman W. Wood, (National Gas and Oil Engine Co.)
Counsellor J. F. Davis
Alderman E. Broadbent, (President, National Chamber of Trade and hon. secretary Ashton Chamber of Trade)
Mr. J. Wolstencroft Jnr., (Secretary, Ashton and District Trades and Labour Council)
Mr. E. N. O’Hara, (Borough Treasurer)
Sir Charles H. Booth, (Magistrate’s Clerk)
Counsellor Mrs. M. E. Williamson, (President, Ashton Boy’s Club)
Rev. H. Whewell, (Rector and Rural Dean of Ashton)
Rev. G. A. Mitchell, (President, Ashton and District Free Church Council)
Father Bryan Hickey, (Roman Catholic Churches)
Mr. G. W. Fielding, (Secretary, Ashton and District Cotton Employers’ Association)
Mr. S. Howard, (Chairman, Limehurst Rural District Council) and Mrs. Howard
Mr. A. Brown, (Clerk, Limehurst Rural District Council) and Mrs. Brown

“GOD SAVE THE KING!” – Just after Their Majesties arrived at the Town Hall, the band of the 9^th Battalion the Manchester Regiment played the National Anthem and everybody stood to attention. In the foreground will be seen the ladies-in-waiting to the Queen, Lord Stanley, Mr. A. Lascelles (the King’s private secretary), Colonel W. M. Barratt (1/9^th Batt.), the Chief Constable (Mr. H. Dutton), Mrs. D. W. Bromley, the Town Clerk (Mr. D. W. Bromley), Lord Derby, the Mayoress (Mrs. J. Q. Massey), the Mayor of Ashton (Alderman J. Q. Massey), and Queen Elizabeth, King George VI, and Captain Hordern (Chief Constable of Lancashire).

After the presentations, the King and Queen walked over to the disabled ex-Servicemen, and spoke to a number of them.

SERVED IN HER BROTHER’S REGIMENT

“Oh! My brother² was in the Royal Scots”, said the Queen to one of the disabled ex-Servicemen, Mr. Slater of Oaken Clough, Limehurst, after he answered her query as to the regiment he served in during the war.

ROYAL SCOTS – In the foreground can be seen Mrs. and Mr. D. Bromley, (The Town Clerk), the Mayoress (Mrs. J. Q. Massey), the Mayor of Ashton (Alderman J. Q. Massey), and King George VI, Queen Elizabeth, and Mr. Edwin Slater M.M., (ex-Serviceman Royal Scots Regiment).

SHOWED QUEEN INVITATION TO PALACE

To ex-Private John Spicks, 80 Stockport Road, Ashton, who was blinded as a result of his war service whilst serving with the Shropshire Light Infantry, the Queen offered a few words of encouragement. When Mr. Spinks showed her an invitation he received to an entertainment in Buckingham Palace in 1916, the Queen emanated, “That was a long time ago.”

The Queen displayed an interest in the motor carriage in which sat Mr. Percy Sampson 13 Minerva Road, Ashton, and asked him how fast it could travel. In reply to the Queen’s questions Mr. Sampson told her that he was “knocked out” at Bethune in 1917 by an aeroplane bomb.

WITH THE DISABLED EX-SERVICEMEN – The King and Queen spent a few minutes talking with the disabled ex-Servicemen, who were given a place of honour on the right of the dais.

“What speed do you travel in your motor carriage?”, was one of the questions Queen Elizabeth asked of Mr. Livensy of 91 Timperley Road, Ashton, who served in the war in the King’s Liverpool Regiment, lost both his legs, had fifteen wounds and also sustained a broken jaw.

The Queen smiled when he replied, “Thirty miles per hour, when no one is looking!”

HOPED TRADE WOULD IMPROVE

In the course of the short talk which she had with him, the Queen told the Mayor that she thought Lancashire people were “wonderful” and that both she and the King had been impressed by the welcome they had received.

When the Mayor offered a compliment by remarking that the Scotch were also wonderful people the Queen replied, “Yes, they make a good combination.”

Told by the Mayor that the trade of the town was not as good as he would like to see it the Queen said she hoped it would soon improve.

The Queen said she was feeling rather tired after the tour and when the mayor said that she would, no doubt be glad to be able to return to the Princesses she said, “Yes, they are longing to see me.”

The King told the Mayor that he would take back with him happy memories of his visit to Ashton and expressed the hope that prosperity would return to the town.

BOUQUET NOT PRESENTED

It was intended that the Mayoress should present a bouquet of red roses to the Queen. Lord Derby, however, said that a rule had been made that no bouquets should be accepted throughout the tour. He promised that if the bouquet were placed in his car he would see that it was forwarded to Buckingham Palace.

After their conversations with the ex-Servicemen the King and Queen walked slowly back to the platform and stood for a moment acknowledging the cheering. Then they re-entered their car to a renewed burst of tumultuous cheering and drove away in the direction of Charlestown Station.

Queen’s Appreciation of Bouquet

In the handwriting of Lady Katherine Seymour, one of the Queen’s ladies-in-waiting, the Mayor has received the following letter:

Buckingham Palace

“Dear Mr. Mayor,

The Queen commands me to write and convey to you her Majesty’s warmest thanks for the beautiful bouquet which you so kindly presented to the Queen at Ashton-under-Lyne yesterday afternoon.

The Queen was deeply touched by your charming thought of presenting the red roses of Lancashire to Her Majesty and the lovely flowers remind her most happily of Their Majesties’ memorable tour of Lancashire this week.

The Queen hopes so much that you were not unduly tired after receiving Their Majesties, as she fully realizes what efforts you must make to overcome your great infirmity.

The Queen does indeed appreciate your lovely bouquet of red roses.”

“Deeply Moved”

Lord Derby has sent on to the mayor a copy of the following letter which he has received from the King:

“The Queen and I are deeply moved by the loyal and enthusiastic reception so characteristic of the County Palatine that has been given to us during the past four days.

Will you please convey our heartfelt thanks to the people of Lancashire who, in sunshine and in rain, came in their thousands to bid us welcome with a warmth of affection that we shall never forget.

I appreciate that the arrangements for our visit could not have been as perfect as they were without a great deal of forethought and organization on the part of those entrusted with them. I send my hearty congratulations on their success to you and to all those who co-operated with you.”

The King’s Thanks

The Chief Constable of Ashton has received the following letter from the Chief Constable of Lancashire (Capt. Hordern):

“Dear Mr. Diston, Lord Derby has asked me to let you know that he has received the following telegram from the private Secretary to H. M. the King: –

“The King will be grateful if you will convey to all Chief Constables concerned, and to the members of their respective forces, His Majesty’s high appreciation of the services they have rendered while he was in Lancashire. Throughout the visit all the arrangements were, His Majesty considers, admirably planned and admirably executed.”

THE KING AND QUEEN END THEIR TOUR ³

The King and Queen ended their tour of Industrial Lancashire yesterday in perfect weather. They saw the mining and cotton towns of the county’s least attractive district bathed in sunshine, with a cloudless sky overhead, a kindly heat-haze shrouding the scarred and blackened landscape and an unwonted wealth of brilliant colour disguising the somber drabness of the streets and public buildings.

The day’s drive started at Knowsley Hall, where the King and Queen had been staying for the last two nights as the guests of Lord Derby. The procession was due to leave the park at 10:45, and as the zero hour drew near the pressmen who were to accompany the royal party were given an insight into the exceedingly thorough and complex precautions taken by the Lancashire County Police to ensure that the carefully planned programme should be carried through with the smoothness and precision of clockwork.

A police plane zoomed overhead, and on the radio of the control car in the park we heard its officer exchanging calls with stations at various points on the route. The advance pilot car, a big grey sports model with a large yellow circle on its tonneau cover, set off at 10:35, and the wireless operator warned the ‘plane the “X 50” – the royal landaulet – was ready to follow in a few minutes. And so all through the journey the procession kept constantly in touch with patrols on the route ahead with the all-seeing occupants of the circling ‘plane ready for any emergency and assured of an unobstructed passage.

A TASTE OF SPEED

The royal car drove off, with hood down, some ten minutes late, and it is a tribute to the organization behind the nicely calculated time-table that it maintained this margin, within three or four minutes, all the way to Bury. Lines of chambermaids and scarlet-liveried footmen cheered the royal guests as they left the hall, and knots of labourers clustered behind the park railings at intervals to give them a farewell wave. Soon the procession had turned into the East Lancashire Road, and on our speedometer showed forty, fifty and sixty miles an hour.

But this rapid progress was possible only on short stretches, for at frequent intervals were stationed policemen holding red flags, to indicate a section where spectators could congregate to see the King and Queen pass slowly by. For two or three miles on either side of Ashton-in-Makerfield our speed was reduced to a crawl by the throngs of flag-waving school children and miners, who encroached on the roadway in almost uncontrolled but orderly enthusiasm. Even the window-frames of a half-built house were decorated with welcoming banners.

WIGAN’S WELCOME

As we approached the centre of Wigan the banks of school children lining the route grew broader and denser, their agitated flags became a dancing haze of colour, and church bells pealed above their vociferous greetings. In the Market Square the caravan drew up, and the King and Queen were received by Lord Derby, who had driven on ahead. Twenty thousand people sang “God Save the King” at widely differing speeds, and drowned its irregular conclusion in a hearty cheer. The King inspected a guard of honour provided by the Fifth battalion the Manchester Regiment, and then the Queen and he chatted with a number of crippled but proudly be-medalled ex-servicemen.

The Mayor presented a number of civic notables, and in less than ten minutes the cars moved off again on the Bolton road. Here, in depressed mining villages, surrounded by ugly slag-heaps and starkly motionless winding gear, the crowds were thinner and less exuberant in their welcome. There were gloomy faces in the groups of clog-shod colliers, as well as among the vendors of flags and favours whose hopes of further sales were ended by our arrival. And it was here, on a deserted stretch of road near Deane, that the first mishap of the day occurred.

The second royal household car, containing Lord Stanley, Mr. A. Lascelles (the King’s private Secretary), and a detective, suddenly drew into the side of the road, and for a moment the rest of the procession halted, while the police pilot car and the royal landaulet passed rapidly out of sight. Immediately the occupants of the car which had stalled jumped into one of the others, and the procession had reformed itself before the leaders entered Bolton. The defect – a fault in the petrol feed – was quickly remedied, and the car resumed its proper place when the party reached Bolton Town Hall.

At the boundary of Bolton mounted policemen met the party and trotted alongside the cars. When the royal car had passed one of the horses began to prance, but the officer quickly brought his steed to order.

In Bolton, the lines of cheering people were still more exuberant, and still less subject to official restraint. Constables were stationed more than a hundred yards apart in most of the streets, but the children resisted the temptation to push their flags through the press-car windows as we crawled at a snail’s pace through the narrow space allowed us.

“WRITE ME A LETTER”

As before, the King and Queen were received by Lord Derby and proceeded to inspect the guard of honour and ex-servicemen. One of the latter, Mr. J. Taylor, told the King that the local association for limbless veterans had ceased to exist. “It is twenty years since the war“, he added, “and none of us are getting any younger. We should like free passes on the corporation trams and buses, as they have in other towns.” “Well”, answered the King, “you must write me a letter about it” – which Mr. Taylor promised to do.

The presentations were made under a gorgeous canopy of blue and yellow, flanked by masses of flowers, and there were hundreds of people watching and taking photographs from the rooftops opposite, besides the thousands that thronged the square and filled the windows. Before they left Bolton the King and Queen were greeted by a large board, bearing the words “You’re Gradely Welcome,” which was attached to a girder hanging from a crane beside the framework of a new building.

And so it went on, through Farnworth, Ringley, Stand and Radcliffe with everywhere flags, crowds, cheers, and hordes of children. Near Ringley Station the same royal car developed the same unfortunate trouble as at Deane, but otherwise the royal progress was without untoward incident.

By this time one had gained some sympathetic inkling of the trials and hardships suffered by a King on these occasions, when he must try to appreciate that for nearly every person in these endless crowds his passage is an exciting event, joyfully anticipated and long remembered, whereas to us who saw them from the moving cars their uniform appearance ad interminable cheers became so tedious that we almost jumped with relief and delighted surprise when we entered Bury – and found the school children waving coloured handkerchiefs instead of Union Jacks.

DIED AFTER MEETING THE KING

Less than three hours after he had shaken hands with the King and Queen at Bury yesterday, Herbert Fearing (52), a disabled ex-serviceman, of Buller Street, Bury, collapsed and died at his home while describing his experiences to his wife.

He served with the 15^th Lancashire Fusiliers at the Gallipoli landing and was badly wounded.

Notes:

This is an excerpt from an article that was originally published in the Saturday May 27, 1938 edition of the Ashton Reporter. It has been gently edited and slightly reformatted for accuracy and clarity. [back]
The Queen’s brother, the Hon. Michael Claude Hamilton Bowes-Lyon, (“Mickie”), was a 2nd Lieutenant in the 3rd Battalion Royal Scots Regiment at the outbreak of world war one. Eventually, he was promoted to Captain with the 16th Royal Scots and while serving with them was a German Prisoner of War from April 28, 1917 to Nov 29, 1918. [back]
This is an excerpt from an article that was originally published in the Saturday May 21, 1938 edition of the Manchester Guardian. [back]

SMS Wolf

By late 1916 the German battleships were tied up in port by the Royal Navy’s Grand Fleet and the only avenue for striking at Allied merchant shipping was through the U-boat fleet and surface raiders. Wolf was a merchant ship fitted with seven hidden 150mm guns, four torpedo tubes, 465 mines, and a reconnaissance seaplane (“Wölfchen”).

Her major task was to lay mines off Allied ports in the Indian Ocean and act as an independent marauder. The Wolf was relatively slow, with a top speed of only 11 knots but her bunkers could hold 8,000 tons of coal, giving her a huge cruising range of 32,000 nautical miles at eight knots. And those bunkers were regularly replenished over the course of her voyage from the supplies of the merchant steam ships that she captured.

SMS Wolf mined, captured and sunk allied shipping during a round trip voyage from Germany lasting from November 30, 1916 to February 24, 1918. After a year at sea, accompanied by the captured Spanish steamer Igotz Mendi, she headed back to Germany. The Igotz Mendi ran aground off Skagen, Denmark and was seized by the Danish military. Wolf reached Kiel, Germany on February 24, 1918 after a voyage of 100,000 km over 1 year, 2 months, and 25 days.

For the first 3 months, the Wolf concentrated on laying mine fields around South Africa, Ceylon and India. After laying mines along the entrance routes to Bombay the Wolf started to focus on acting as a surface raider. After a few months of raiding, the Wolf arrived off the coast of New Zealand and laid mine fields off New Zealand and in the Tasman Sea before resuming its raiding activities on the way to Singapore, where it laid its remaining mines. From there, the Wolf started on the long voyage home taking shipping prizes as they became available.

South Africa

Mines were first laid of the coast of South Africa in January 1917.

The following ships, with a combined gross tonnage of 21,384, were struck by mines off the Cape of Good Hope and sank:

Ship	Flag	Gross Tonnage	Date
Matheran	British	7,654	26-Jan-17
Cilicia	British	3,750	12-Feb-17
C. de Eizaguirre	Spanish	4,376	26-May-17
City of Athens	British	5,604	10-Aug-17

The following ships, with a combined gross tonnage of 16,244, were struck by mines off Cape Agulhas (the geographic southern tip of the African continent) and were damaged but did not sink:

Ship	Flag	Gross Tonnage	Date
Tyndareus*	British	11,000	06-Feb-17
Bhamo	British	5,244	26-Aug-17

*The Tyndareus struck a mine about 10 miles (16 km) off Cape Agulhas. The explosion tore a large hole in the forward part of her hull and she began to sink by the head. On board were 30 officers and 1,000 men of the 25th (Garrison Service) Battalion, The Middlesex Regiment, who were bound for Hong Kong.

Despite rough seas, all the troops were successfully transferred to the SS Eumaeus and the hospital ship HMHS Oxfordshire, which had responded to Tyndareus’s SOS signals. A British cruiser, HMS Hyacinth, arrived from Simonstown accompanied by a tug to assist the stricken troopship. The captain of Hyacinth ordered that Tyndareus be beached, as it was a hazard to shipping, but Captain Flynn ignored the order and was able to pilot the sinking ship safely into Simonstown, where she was repaired.

Some accounts of the SMS Wolf appear to characterize SS Tyndareus as a “war ship” since it was acting as a Troop Transport rather than a pure merchant ship.

India and Ceylon

After laying mines off the coast of South Africa the SMS Wolf steamed to Colombo laying more mines off the Port of Colombo and the Southern tip of India. From there mines were laid along all the major access routes to Bombay.

The following ships, with a combined gross tonnage of 36,711, were struck by mines off the coast of Bombay, British India and either sank or were so damaged that they had to be scrapped.

Ship	Flag	Gross Tonnage	Date
Worcestershire	British	7,175	17-Feb-17
Perseus	British	6,728	21-Feb-17
Unkai Maru No. 7**	Japanese	2,143	16-Jun-17
Mongolia	British	9,505	24-Jun-17
Okhla	British	5,288	29-Jul-17
Croxteth Hall	British	5,872	17-Nov-17

** The Unkai Maru No 7 struck a mine from the SMS Wolf but photographic evidence indicates that it did not immediately sink and managed to make it into the Port of Bombay.

The mines laid by SMS Wolf did not always stay in the place they were laid and several of them came ashore over the following months.

The following ship with a gross tonnage of 9,373 was damaged by a mine but managed to make it into the port of Bombay.

Ship	Flag	Gross Tonnage	Date
City of Exeter	British	9,373	11-Jun-17

The City of Exeter, a passenger ship, struck a mine in the Indian Ocean, about 400 m. from Bombay. Number 1 hold filled at once, and the master gave orders for the passengers and crew to leave the ship. Then the master and chief engineer returned and, at grave risk, made a thorough examination of the ship. They decided that, with the exercise of the greatest care, the crippled vessel could reach Bombay under her own steam. The passengers re-embarked and the ship safely arrived in port.

New Zealand

The SMS Wolf laid mines around the coast of New Zealand in June 1917.

The following ships, with a combined gross tonnage of 8,322 tons, struck mines laid by SMS Wolf and sank off the coast of New Zealand (off Cape Farewell and in the Cook Strait, respectively).

Ship	Flag	Gross Tonnage	Date
Wimmera	British	3,622	26-Jun-17
Port Kembla	British	4,700	17-Sep-17

Australia (Tasman Sea)

In July 1917, the SMS Wolf laid mines in the Tasman Sea which quickly sank the following ship.

Ship	Flag	Gross Tonnage	Date
Cumberland	British	9,471	06-Jul-17

Singapore

After laying mines in the Tasman Sea the SMS Wolf meandered her way to Singapore eventually laying mines there in September 1917. No allied merchant ships were reported damaged or sunk by these mines.

Aden

Back in February, after laying the mine field, at Bombay on the 19th February, Captain Nerger began seeking out enemy shipping.

With great irony, the first vessel encountered was the SS Turritella, a sister ship to Wolf, (previously called the Gutenfels), captured by the British at the beginning of the war, at Port Said, and subsequently renamed and sold to the Anglo-Saxon Oil Company.

On February 27, 1917 the Turritella was re-captured off Colombo. The ship was renamed Iltis, after a ship in which Captain Nerger had served in China in 1900. A prize crew was placed on board along with 25 mines and a 12 pounder gun. She was ordered to place her mines around the port of Aden.

Port bow view of the 5,528 ton British freighter, Turritella, alongside the SMS Wolf. Crew members line the railing around the bow of the Turretella, which has just been captured.

On March 5th, 1917, while laying a minefield in the Gulf of Aden, she was spotted and chased by the British warships HMS Odin and HMS Fox. The crew, however, managed to scuttle her to avoid her changing hands for the third time in the war.

Two ships were damaged by the mines laid by Iltis but neither one sunk or was damaged beyond repair:

Ship	Flag	Gross Tonnage	Date
Danubian	British	5,064	20-Mar-17
Hong Moh	British	3,910	05-Jan-18

Surface Raider

From February 1917 onward, the SMS Wolf was primarily engaged as a surface raider. In all, 14 ships with a combined gross tonnage of 38,391 tons were captured by the SMS Wolf over the following months.

Ship	Flag	Grt	Captured	Sunk
Turritella	British	5,528	27-Feb-17	15-Mar-17
Jumna	British	4,152	01-Mar-17	03-Mar-17
Wordsworth	British	3,509	11-Mar-17	18-Mar-17
Dee	British	1,169	30-Mar-17	30-Mar-17
Wairuna	British	3,947	02-Jun-17	17-Jun-17
Winslow	USA	567	16-Jun-17	22-Jun-17
Beluga	USA	507	09-Jul-17	11-Jul-17
Encore	USA	651	17-Jul-17	17-Jul-17
Matunga	British	1,618	06-Aug-17	26-Aug-17
Hitachi Maru	Japanese	6,557	26-Sep-17	07-Nov-17
Igotz Mendi*	Spain	4,648	10-Nov-17	22-Feb-18
John H. Kirby	USA	1,296	30-Nov-17	01-Dec-17
Marechal Davout	France	2,192	15-Dec-17	15-Dec-17
Storebror	Norway	2,050	04-Jan-18	04-Jan-18

*Igotz Mendi was being sailed back to Germany but ran aground and was stranded off Skagen, Denmark on February 22, 1918.

SS Jumna

The 4,152 ton British merchant ship, Jumna, sinking, her bow and funnel still visible above the surface, as viewed from the SMS Wolf. She was captured 650 miles west of Minikoi Island.

SS Wordsworth

Captured 680 miles east of Mahe, Seychelles on 11 March 1917, her crew and passengers, totaling 30, and some of her cargo of rice were transferred aboard the SMS Wolf before she was sunk by explosives on 18 March 1917.

SS Wordsworth Dynamited

Image courtesy of Australian War Memorial, collection ID P05338.048

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Wairuna

The 3,947 ton New Zealand steamship, Wairuna, was Captured by SMS Wolf on 2 June, 1917. The Wairuna accompanied her to Sunday Island where the crew of 40 and her cargo of cheese, milk, meat and 1,200 tons of coal were transferred aboard the raider before the steamer was sunk by explosives on 17 June, 1917.

Wairuna

Image courtesy of Australian War Memorial, collection ID P05338.053.

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Winslow

The 567 ton United States four-mast schooner, Winslow, captured by the SMS Wolf, off Raoul Island in the Pacific Ocean on 16 June, 1917. Her crew and cargo were transferred aboard before she was set alight and left to burn on 22 June 1917.

SS Beluga

Viewed from the deck of the SMS Wolf, smoke rises on the horizon from the 507 ton United States steam whaler, Beluga, captured in the Pacific Ocean off Howe Island on 9 July, 1917. She was sunk with 19 rounds of gunfire on 11 July, 1917. Her crew, master, and 12 passengers were taken prisoner, the second mate died aboard SMS Wolf on 10 October, 1917.

Encore

Smoke on the horizon from the remains of the 651 ton United States three-mast schooner, Encore, captured in the Pacific Ocean by the SMS Wolf on 13 July, 1917. After being relieved of some cargo, and her passengers and crew, oil was poured over the schooner and deck cargo, her rigging was cut away, and the vessel set on fire on 15 July, 1917.

Matunga

Port bow view of the 1,608 ton British merchant ship, Matunga. After intercepting a radio message, the SMS Wolf stalked Matunga to Rabaul, New Guinea, and captured her along with her 500 tons of coal and supplies of liquor on 6 August, 1917. SMS Wolf and her new captive steamed in company for a week until they reached the remote island of Waigeo, where stores were transfered. On 26 August, 1917 46 crew and passengers were transferred to the raider as prisoners and Matunga was scuttled a few miles out at sea off the coast of New Guinea.

Hitachi Maru

The 6,557 ton Japanese freighter, Hitachi Maru, was captured south of the Maldive Islands on 26 September, 1917. Damage from SMS Wolf’s guns can be seen on Hitachi Maru’s hull. Passengers, including women, and crew members line the railings. Wolf jammed the radio transmission and fired 14 rounds into the ship, killing 16 and wounding 6 of the Japanese crew before she surrendered. For over a month the Hitachi Maru anchored with the raider at Suvadiva Atoll, where she was removed of her passengers, crew and cargo including a large amount of coal. She was scuttled among the Cargados Carajos Islands on 7 November, 1917.

A gripping account of her capture and the subsequent trials and tribulations as life as a prisoner of the SMS Wolf is well documented in the book, A Captive on a German raider, by Trayes, F. G.

Hitachi Maru

Image courtesy of Australian War Memorial, collection ID P05338.065.

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Igotz Mendi

Port bow view of the 4,648 ton Spanish steam ship, Igotz Mendi. The steamer was captured on 10 November, 1917, south of the Mauritius Islands in the Indian Ocean. Although the Igotz Mendi was a neutral ship, she was carrying 5,000 tons of coal for the Royal Navy. A prize crew was placed on board and 1,000 tons of coal was transferred to the raider as they sailed for the Cocos Islands. Both ships were painted grey and they travelled around the Cape of Good Hope and proceeded across the South Atlantic towards the Ilha da Trinade.

During February 1918, the SMS Wolf and her prize sailed through the North Atlantic en route for Ruhleben via Iceland. Both ships had been badly damaged when the raider had coaled from the collier at sea in rough weather. Conditions for prisoners on board both ships were almost unbearable, the temperature reaching as low as minus 10 degree Celsius. Violent storms were encountered with huge waves that constantly washed over the decks. The two ships made the coast of Norway on 21 February, 1918 but before reaching the safety of the port of Kiel the Igotz Mendi ran aground off the Danish coast in thick fog on 22 February, 1918. A Danish gunboat retrieved the crew and prisoners on board but the Igotz Mendi remained firmly aground and was abandoned by the Wolf.

John H Kirby

Sailors crowd the deck of the SMS Wolf (left), to view the sinking of the 1,359 ton United States three-mast barque, John H Kirby, her masts and stern still visible above the water. The barque was captured by SMS Wolf in the Pacific Ocean, 320 miles southeast of Port Elizabeth, Africa on 30 November, 1917. Her cargo of 270 Ford cars remained on board but she was stripped of useful supplies of toiletries and her passengers transferred aboard the raider before she was scuttled using explosives the following day.

Journey’s End

Wolf arrived back at Kiel, Germany on February 24, 1918 after a voyage of 100,000 km over 1 year, 2 months, and 25 days and without entering a single port of any kind . She had mined and sunk 13 ships with a gross tonnage of 75,888 tons and severely damaged five others with a combined gross tonnage of 34,591 tons. In addition, she had captured 14 vessels with a combined gross tonnage of 38,391 tons, sinking 12 of them.

References:

Der Kreuzerkrieg in den ausländischen Gewässern, by Raeder, E.
A Captive on a German raider, by Trayes, F. G.
Additional pictures from, ‘Ruhmestage Der Deutschen Marine‘ by Kapitanleutnant Norbert v. Baumbach, Hamburg, 1933.

UNKAI MARU No 7

The Unkai Maru No. 7 was a 2,143 gross tonnage steamer owned by the shipping company Nakamura & Co., of Osaka Japan.

LLOYD’S WAR LOSSES, The First World War, casualties to shipping through enemy causes 1914-1918 (ISBN1-85044-314-9 LLoyd’s of London Press) reports that the Unkai Maru No. 7 struck a mine on 16 June, 1917 at 18° 33′ N, 72° 10′ E, bound for Bombay carrying rice.

The mine was laid by the German Raider SMS Wolf in February 1917.

And the map below shows the relative position of the Unkai Maru No. 7 to Bombay when it struck the mine, approximately 45 nautical miles south west of Bombay Harbour.

[intergeo id=”AN2YTM”][/intergeo]

Pte. Monks took these photos of a “Japanese ship mined in Bombay Harbour” and labeled the date as Aug 1916, (although you can clearly see that he originally wrote 1917 and overwrote it).

However, research shows that this date that he wrote must be incorrect.

Only two Japanese ships were sunk through hostile actions in Q3 1916, the Kohina Maru (sunk August 2, 1916 near Alexandria by German Submarine UB46) and the Tenmei Maru (sunk Aug 10, 1916 off the south coast of France MED by German Submarine U35).

The VITA was in Bombay from June 4-22, 1917 (at Alexandra Dock No2 Shed) and it is reasonable to surmise that Pte. Monks was able to get out and about around the harbour during this extended stay. The Unkai Maru No 7 hit a mine laid by SMS Wolf on June 16 at 18° 33′ N, 72° 10′ E, bound For Bombay with a cargo of rice. It is recorded as being destroyed and the assumption was that it sank. However, rather than sinking, if it had in fact been able to make it into Bombay harbour (approximately 45 nautical miles) then it would have been there exactly during the time that Pte. Monks was also there. And it’s not difficult to imagine that any ship arriving at the harbour after striking a mine would have been of great interest to all sailors currently there, especially coming just 10-days after the SS City of Exeter also suffered the same fate and managed to sail into Bombay under her own steam.

So, the conclusion is that it was the Unkai Maru No7 that he saw, boarded and photographed in Bombay harbour and it happened in June 1917 rather than August 1916. It’s not difficult to imagine that several years later he could confuse the exact date (which he originally wrote as 1917 and then changed to 1916) but it is hard to believe that he would get the ship’s nationality (Japanese) and demise (striking a mine) wrong. The only Japanese steam ship listed in this region in Lloyd’s Register of Shipping, RETURNS OF VESSELS TOTALLY LOST, CONDEMNED, etc. during 1916 and 1917 is the Unkai Maru No 7. LLOYD’S WAR LOSSES, The First World War, casualties to shipping through enemy causes 1914-1918 (ISBN1-85044-314-9 Lloyd’s of London Press) further indicates that this was the only Japanese ship struck by a mine in this region and confirms the date and location of the incident.

This account is the only plausible version that fits with the information from Lloyds Register of Shipping (the definitive source). Regardless, the activities of the SMS Wolf certainly impacted the safety of the VITA and its crew and must have been a cause for grave concern for all shipping in and out of Bombay during this time.

The complete list of Japanese steam ships lost, missing, abandoned, etc. in 1916 and 1917 is shown below.

Ship Name	Cause	Date Lost
Chikyu Maru	ran aground (wrecked)	31-Jan-1916
Takata Maru	collision	1-Feb-1916
Daijin Maru	collision	2-Feb-1916
Seiun Maru	ran aground (wrecked)	24-Feb-1916
Kenkon Maru No.11	abandoned	26-Feb-1916
Seiko Maru	missing	23-Mar-1916
Chiyo Maru	ran aground (wrecked)	31-Mar-1916
Wakatsu Maru	ran aground (wrecked)	31-Mar-1916
Kagawa Maru	ran aground (wrecked)	23-Apr-1916
Yamaguchi Maru	ran aground (wrecked)	15-May-1916
Oyo Maru	ran aground (wrecked)	4-Jun-1916
Daiyetsu Maru	gunfire – shelled	24-Jun-1916
Yeijo Maru	ran aground (wrecked)	16-Jul-1916
Kohina Maru	torpedo	2-Aug-1916
Temmei Maru	gunfire – shelled	10-Aug-1916
Heiyo Maru	missing	11-Aug-1916
Kansai Maru No.1	collision	28-Aug-1916
Chokyu Maru No.2	collision	29-Aug-1916
Kiyo Maru No.2	ran aground (wrecked)	12-Sep-1916
Take Maru	missing	21-Sep-1916
Hiroshima Maru	ran aground (wrecked)	22-Sep-1916
Kachidate Maru	foundered	27-Sep-1916
Kaiho Maru	ran aground (wrecked)	11-Nov-1916
Nagata Maru	scuttled	30-Nov-1916
Taki Maru	torpedo	16-Dec-1916
Michi Maru	collision	21-Dec-1916
Wakamatsu Maru	ran aground (wrecked)	1916

Ship Name	Cause	Date Lost
Chinto Maru	charges/explosives	4-Jan-1917
Suruga Maru	ran aground (wrecked)	12-Jan-1917
Kisagata Maru No.3	torpedo	20-Jan-1917
Matsu Maru	ran aground (wrecked)	21-Jan-1917
Gishun Maru	missing	30-Jan-1917
Sakatagawa Maru	foundered	1-Feb-1917
Zenra Maru	ran aground (wrecked)	27-Feb-1917
Shinsei Maru	torpedo	28-Feb-1917
Hoyen Maru	foundered	1-Mar-1917
Sawa Maru	torpedo	6-Mar-1917
Taizan Maru	charges/explosives	2-May-1917
Tamon Maru No.11	foundered	12-May-1917
Kokai Maru	ran aground (wrecked)	22-May-1917
Tansan Maru	torpedo	22-May-1917
Miyazaki Maru	torpedo	31-May-1917
Nikko Maru	ran aground (wrecked)	10-Jun-1917
Unkai Maru	mine	16-Jun-1917
Otaru Maru No.1	missing	26-Jun-1917
Daito Maru	collision	2-Jul-1917
Shinsan Maru	torpedo	2-Jul-1917
Shigizan Maru	mine	7-Jul-1917
Tamon Maru No.16	foundered	7-Jul-1917
Kageshima Maru	torpedo	20-Jul-1917
Kotohira Maru	ran aground (wrecked)	27-Jul-1917
Kinryo Maru	ran aground (wrecked)	9-Aug-1917
Bandai Maru	gunfire – shelled	15-Aug-1917
Toyokawa Maru	foundered	1-Sep-1917
Hikosan Maru	torpedo	2-Oct-1917
Kobe Maru	foundered	2-Oct-1917
Ikoma Maru	scuttled	20-Oct-1917
Moyori Maru	gunfire – shelled	20-Oct-1917
Kochi Maru	fire	23-Oct-1917
Sakai Maru	ran aground (wrecked)	5-Nov-1917
Hitachi Maru (II)	scuttled	6-Nov-1917
Yanagawa Maru	collision	8-Nov-1917
Fukuyama Maru No.6	missing	11-Nov-1917
Yeisho Maru	missing	17-Nov-1917
Kounyu Maru	collision	1-Dec-1917
Taikosan Maru	collision	14-Dec-1917

References:

Lloyds Register of Shipping, Returns of Vessels Totally Lost, Condemned, etc. 1916.

Lloyds Register of Shipping, Returns of Vessels Totally Lost, Condemned, etc. 1917.

Lloyds Register of Shipping, Returns of Vessels Totally Lost, Condemned, etc. 1918.

Lloyd’s Register of Shipping, RETURNS OF VESSELS TOTALLY LOST, CONDEMNED, etc.

Wrecksite

Serbian Silver Medal

Foreign Gallantry Awards

Foreign gallantry awards were sometimes given as a “consolation” if a British medal was not awarded. In some cases men were recommended for a Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM) and it was downgraded to a Mentioned in Despatches (MiD) as it passed up the chain of command. Foreign awards were slightly different in that they generally passed down the chain of command and therefore there was more certainty over their award. The Military Medal was not established until March 1916 and although it was possible to make a retrospective award, it often didn’t happen and of course was not available in 1915.

Some foreign medals seem to have been made available to the British on a reciprocal basis, and were awarded to men who were chosen by British commanders as being particularly deserving, but who did not, for some reason, qualify for a British gallantry medal.

One particular feature of some of these foreign awards (which was in effect an MiD with related medal) was that they could be awarded posthumously. The French Croix de Guerre as an example. This made it especially useful for awarding to men who had lost their lives in gallant circumstances but who fell short of the requirements for the Victoria Cross, the only British gallantry medal that could be awarded posthumously. Confusingly, one hears sometimes of apparently posthumous awards of ‘lesser’ British gallantry medals, but on investigation these turn out to be confirmations after the recipient’s death of awards for which they had already been recommended.

Pte. WILLIAM SHEEKEY (2231) 1/9th Manchester Regiment was one such man who was awarded the Silver Medal, otherwise known as the Serbian “Milos Obilic” Silver Medal of Valour. In the London Gazette, the Serbian Silver Medal was listed under the heading of “Decorations and medals conferred by HIS MAJESTY THE KING OF SERBIA” and awarded for “gallantry and distinguished service in the field” which is the only citation available. [Gazetted Feb 15, 1917]

Silver Medal Background:

Milos Obilic was a medieval Serbian knight, considered an epitome of bravery and honesty, and who, legend has it, was captured by the Ottoman Turks at the end of the Battle of Kosovo in 1389. Presented as a prisoner of war to the Turkish Sultan Murad I, Obilic produced a hitherto-hidden dagger and stabbed and killed the Sultan, an act for which Obilic was beheaded. Ever since he personified the fearless, heroic Serbian warrior, ready to sacrifice own life in face of threatening defeat.

In the summer of 1913, the Kingdom of Serbia was overhauling its gold and silver Medals for Bravery, both in design and regulations, and opted to use the name and image of the great Serbian hero, Milos Obilic, in the design.

Award Criteria:

The medal was awarded for valour on the battlefield:

The gold version of the medal could be awarded to officers for “valour tested in battle” and, in exceptional cases, to NCOs for “fearless bravery in battle”.
The silver version could be awarded to NCOs and enlisted men for “bravery in battle”.

Description:

On one side of the medal is an ideal portrait of Milos Obilic in profile, wearing his armour and, near the edge, his name in Serbian Cyrillic, ‘MИЛОШ ОБИЛИЋ’.

On the other side of the medal, a cross with a pair of diagonal swords and, in the centre, the Serbian Cyrillic text, ‘ЗА ХРАБРОСТ’, which transliterates as ‘Za Hrabrost’, and translates to ‘For Bravery’.

Serbian recipients of the Milos Obilic Medal were exempt from taxes and it was the highest ranking Serbian medal at the time, which meant that, for a set of Serbian medals, it was worn in the leftmost position of the medal group, with the lower-ranking medals in their respective, regulated order or rank, being worn to the right of the Obilic medal.

References:

‘Serbian and Yugoslavian Orders and Decorations, 1859-1941’ by Pavel Car and Tomislav Muhić, 2009.
The Europeana Collections Web Site.

Scabies in WW1

Pte. Arthur Slater was hospitalised for Scabies twice during his service in World War One. He was not unusual in this.

Scabies Mite — Sarcoptes Scabei. Kalumet, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The information below is primarily from Medical Services; Diseases of the War, Volume II, by Sir W. G. Macpherson.

Treatment of Scabies in WW1

The principles underlying the treatment of scabies included first, the exposure of the parasite and ova, secondly, their destruction by a suitable parasiticide, and thirdly, disinfection of contaminated articles of clothing and bedding.

Of all remedies, sulphur is generally acknowledged to be the most efficient, and by reason of its procurability and cheapness it was especially suited for the extensive requirements of the army.

During the war many preparations of sulphur were tried. After experiment the old-fashioned plan of inunction with the B.P. ointment was found to be the most satisfactory, although good results were obtained with sulphur in other forms, such as Vlemingkx’s solution*. Reference may be made to the “sulphur vapour treatment,” for it obtained a certain vogue. A number of instances of the after results came under observation. It proved an unsatisfactory and unreliable form of treatment; cure was uncertain, and severe secondary dermatitis common.

The treatment of scabies as adopted by MacCormac may be outlined as follows. On the first day the patient was thoroughly rubbed with soft soap for fifteen minutes. He then entered a warm bath where he lay for twenty minutes; during the last five minutes the infected sites were gently scrubbed with a soft brush. This procedure was designed to open up the burrows and expose the acari and ova. Steam or shower baths could not accomplish this satisfactorily and were therefore unsuitable. After drying, a liberal quantity of sulphur ointment (B.P.) was rubbed over the whole body below the neck, special attention being paid to the hands, feet, and penis. This inunction was repeated on the second and third days. On the fourth day, but not before, the patient was given a second bath and supplied with clean clothing and bedding. Such articles as socks, wrist straps, gloves, and the string of identification discs also required disinfection.

This routine procedure was successful in the vast majority of cases. Occasionally, it caused some degree of dermatitis, a condition easily allayed by simple ointment or dusting powder. This dermatitis was of importance; it usually made its first appearance five to seven days after sulphur treatment had been completed and was associated with itching, and therefore occasionally led to the false conclusion that relapse had occurred.

It should be noted that the preliminary bath was solely intended to expose the parasite and ova, therefore no disinfectant had to be added. In applying the sulphur preparation the whole body below the neck had to be treated, otherwise a few insects might escape destruction, with consequent re-infection. The sulphur ointment was employed on three days only; further application was unnecessary and might cause severe dermatitis. Finally, unless all contaminated material was disinfected, relapse was probable.

In 1918 a pamphlet on scabies was issued to the army. While it represented the result of much careful investigation reference may be made to it since it differed in certain respects from what has been said above. Moreover, dermatologists will hardly concur in the recommendation that the parasiticide liquor calcis sulphuratae should not be allowed to run on to the glans penis. This was a region very commonly found to be infected and therefore required special attention in treatment.

The severe type of scabies commonly met with in France required 31-7 days for cure as against three days for the average early case. But these severe types were in themselves evidence that disease had been present for a considerable time during which the infected man was capable of contaminating others. Early detection, therefore, not only shortened the period of treatment but also served as a means of preventing the spread of disease. Such early detection demanded first, familiarity on the part of the medical officer with the prevalent and unusual type of scabies; and secondly, the provision of sufficient opportunities for complete inspection. Early treatment was complementary to early diagnosis and was of equal importance. It has been shown that 30-29 days elapsed before a man affected with skin disease reached the base. Where treatment was carried out near the front area this figure was reduced, but, on the other hand, the more accessible the unit the less adequate must the means of treatment be unless this duty was undertaken specially. The provision of scabies hospitals for each army corps would seem to satisfy all requirements under conditions of active service, for they would afford early and skilled treatment, thereby both shortening the period of treatment and limiting the opportunities for spreading infection.

* Vleminckx’ solution is an orange-colored solution containing sulfides of calcium made by boiling a mixture of hydrated lime and sublimed sulfur in water and applied externally as a topical antiseptic and scabicide. Also called Sulfurated Lime Solution.

Thresh Disinfector

Sanitation was a huge issue in World War One. Soldiers in the trenches, both on the Western Front and in Gallipoli, living for months (and years) in difficult circumstances contracted various infestations and diseases related to the unsanitary conditions. Pte. Arthur Slater was twice hospitalized for scabies and men were also hospitalized for lice infestations. In such cases, apart from medically treating the patient, it was also necessary to disinfect their clothes and personal effects. The Thresh Disinfector was used for this purpose.

In Mesopotamia, disease (at least in the early years) was almost as dangerous to the health of the soldiers as the Turks. The war diary of the Assistant Medical Director Services, Basra makes mention of Thresh Disinfectors being ordered, arriving and being distributed to the various camps used by the troops.

Some History

In 1870, Washington Lyon was working in the field of chemical disinfectants and served as the chair of his local sanitary committee. He took an interest in the process of vermin disinfection which lead to his high pressure Steam Disinfector patent ten years later.

In 1904, John Thresh, of the Thresh Disinfector Company of 66 Victoria Street, Westminster, London, took out a patent for an improved Disinfector – a device by which low pressure steam was used to disinfect bedding and clothing. Hot air was also created within the appliance, enabling drying of the contents to also take place. These disinfectors, sometimes mounted on wheels, were supplied to the War Office as well as Crown Agents for sale and use across the colonies. The appliances were made in Keighley, West Yorkshire.

Thresh Disinfectors used a calcium chloride solution to create steam that could penetrate materials at lower pressures than previous methods and could complete disinfection in as little as fifteen minutes. The basic process was as follows. First, infected materials including clothing, sheets, and mattresses were wheeled into the chamber and the chamber door was closed, providing an airtight seal. Next, low-pressured steam entered the interior chamber through the inlet valve, penetrating materials inside at a high, constant temperature. Finally, the steam was blown off the materials with hot air and the other chamber door was opened to wheel the materials out. The entrance and exit were separated to prevent contact between infected and disinfected materials.

References:

The P.S.A. and the Ashton Reporter

Saturday, September 11, 1915:

P.S.A. Roll of Honour

UNVEILING CEREMONY PERFORMED BY MRS. A. PARK

Saturday, October 30, 1915:

How Ashton Welcomed the King1

THE KING AND QUEEN END THEIR TOUR 3

Treatment of Scabies in WW1

How Ashton Welcomed the King¹

THE KING AND QUEEN END THEIR TOUR ³