Ryedale men who served their country during the First World War

‘He recalled only the good times he had’

THE daughter of a man who joined the Army at just 19 has remembered the stories her father told of his time on the frontline, getting lost for two days in no man’s land and losing his front dentures as he fought for his country.

Herbert Hore joined the Armed Forces as part of the 60th King’s Royal Rifle Corps in January 1916, along with his friend Miller, where he became known in the regiment as Tom, because there was already a Bert – Bert Rowsby, of Malton.

His daughter, Joyce Appleton, of Norton, has kept detailed records of every memory her family has of her father’s time during the war to allow others to share in their family’s history, as well as Herbert’s own personal journey.

Once enlisted, Herbert took part in elementary training in the grounds of the Feversham family home at Duncombe Park, Helmsley, where makeshift accommodation was set up, while others stayed with local residents or slept in outbuildings.

Joyce said that despite the horrors of what her father would have seen during his time in the war, he spoke openly about his experiences.

“My father, unlike many returning soldiers, talked a lot about his experiences and usually recalled only the good times he had and the close friendships he made,” she said.

“He did recall once seeing a soldier punished by being put ‘on the wheel’ and thought it was a barbarous act, but he seemed to regard many of these acts as necessary to discourage the soldiers from deserting.

“He also recalls getting lost for two days in no man’s land and where he lost his front dentures – he never did find them.”

Three months after joining, Herbert was already serving on the frontline in what has been described in a book written by Lord Avon as “some of the bloodiest battle-grounds of the Somme”.

Herbert was lucky enough to get some home leave during his time, while enlisted in the Army and Joyce said that whenever he did her grandma, Herbert’s mother, would always start with the same routine.

She said: “Soldiers did get leave home, often straight from the trenches, and when my father got leave, it was always the first task of my grandmother to get him to strip off, then working around the seams of all his clothes, using a heavy flat iron heated on the kitchen fire, she would kill off the bugs and lice he had collected there.

“My father was a fastidiously clean living man so it must have been very hard for him to cope with the awful unhygienic conditions in the battlelines of France.”

Returning to the war after his leave, Herbert was injured and was eventually brought back to Helmsley to be cared for by Lady Marjorie Feversham and her nurses at the hospital set up at Duncombe Park.

Once back to full health, Joyce’s father was sent to Aldershot, in Hampshire, where he completed a course with the British Army Physical Training and Bayonet Corps to become a qualified instructor serving in Eastchurch, on the Isle of Sheppey. Here he met his wife, Sarah Jane Clenaghen, and they married in December 1919.

Joyce said: “Having trained as a physical training instructor at Aldershot, not only saved my father from being sent back to the frontline in 1917, but later, in the Second World War, he was appointed initially as squadron PI instructor and later commissioned flying officer in the Loftus 453 Squadron Air Training Corps, a post he held until the end of the conflict.”

Gearing up for service

JIM RIVIS sent us a photograph of Lieutenant Corporal Harry Rivis, which is either a nephew or a cousin, to his grandfather, Edmund Harry Rivis’s brother, Robinson Ramsden Rivis, who joined the Royal Hussars and was a horseman.

Both brothers were brought up as miller’s sons at Yoadwath Mill, in Kirkbymoorside.

Harry Rivis, who is pictured on the motorbike, was a member of the 2/1st Yorkshire Mounted Brigade, which was a second line yeomanry brigade of the British Army during the First World War.

Raised after the declaration of war, Jim said it was a mirror formation of the first line Yorkshire (Horse) Mounted Brigade. It had under command the 2/1st Yorkshire Hussars, the 2/1st Queen’s Own Yorkshire Dragoons and the 2/1st East Riding of Yorkshire Yeomanry, all of which were converted into cyclist units in 1916. The brigade, never having seen any active service, ceased to exist.

Jim believes the motorbike is a military adapted 2 3/4HP Tourist Trophy Twin Lightweight Humber.

Tributes paid to Somme victim, 21

A SLINGSBY woman has paid tribute to her great uncle who died in Battle of the Somme, at the age of 21.

Despite never having met her great uncle Fred, Shirley Chapman feels that through keeping his memory alive and learning about his past she knows him.

“I wanted to know all about him and I got a lot of information from my mum and dad, and it has kept his memory alive,” she said.

“I feel quite passionate about him really and I feel as though I did know him and that he is here with us now.”

Private Fred Croft served in the East Yorkshire Regiment from a young age until he died in action during the Battle of the Somme on November 5, 1916.

Shirley has since framed his picture and medals and displays them proudly in her home. Fred lived with his mum, dad and brother Arthur near Filey, before he was called up to fight for his country.

His memories have been shared among the family, included Shirley’s granddaughter, who found Fred’s name on the Thiepval Memorial, in France, during a school trip.

Shirley said: “Although she was only 15 years old, she said it made her cry to see it there in black and white.”

The monument contains the names of more than 70,000 missing British and South African men who died in the Battles of the Somme during the First World War and have no known grave.

“She said that it was just so emotional when she found it and I guess his body was never found that’s why his name is on there,” said Shirley.

“Uncle Fred went to war a young man but never came back, like thousands of other young lads, but in our hearts they will always be remembered and will never grow old.”

Send us your memories

Gazette & Herald readers are invited to submit any family stories and pictures on the First World War for this year’s centenary. Email gazette@gazetteherald.co.uk or post them to Gazette & Herald, 76-86 Walmgate, York, YO1 9YN.