Herbert DOVE

War Diary of the 1/6th Battalion Duke of Wellington's (West Riding Regiment)

30 JULY 1915

YSER CANAL BANK N. of YPRES. Casualties: . . . No. 2381 Pte H. Dove, D Coy. Shell wound 6.30 p.m. on Canal Bank.

Private Herbert Dove 1886-1915, researched and composed by Lesley Dove

HERBERT DOVE

Born 1886, Crossflatts, West Yorkshire Died 1915, Le Touquet, Belgium

Herbert Dove was born on 30 May 1886 in Crossflatts, near Micklethwaite in West Yorkshire. The sixth of eight children of Walter Whitaker (known as Wally) Dove and Mary Ann (nee Grice) but only their second child to survive beyond infancy. Herbert was raised largely by his mother as his father was absent from the family living in Scarborough.

The 1891 census shows Herbert aged four, his mother, older brother Walter aged 12, and younger sister Miriam aged 2 living at 13 Canal Road, Crossflatts. His paternal grandparents, Jonathan and Sarah (nee Whitaker), lived about ten minutes’ walk away on Micklethwaite Lane. Staying with his grandparents were his aunt, Mary Ann Smith (nee Dove), and his cousin, another Herbert, who were visiting from the USA. Johnathan and Sarah had come from Birtswith in Nidderdale in about 1849 to work in the worsted mills. In 1891, Walter was already a ‘half-time worsted spinner’ in addition to attending school.

By 1901, Herbert was living with his mother and his two sisters Miriam, aged 12, and Clara, aged 4, at the same address on Canal Road. His mother, Mary Ann, was working as a char and washer woman, he was unemployed and Miriam, then aged 12, was not working. This was a very poor household with no full male wage. Presumably some support was being given by Walter who was working as a worsted spinning overlooker in Steeton and, hopefully, by Wally, the children’s father. Herbert appears twice in the 1901 census; once with his mother in Crossflatts and once as a visitor staying in the house in Steeton where his brother is boarding. No doubt he had gone there in search of work.

By 1909 he was living in Steeton. On 10th April 1909, in the Parish Church there, he married Annie Haygarth, a resident of Keighley who was born in Liverpool. The marriage certificate records his occupation as a warehouseman and her occupation as a weaver in a worsted mill. It also records his father as Whitaker Dove, blacksmith, and her father as John Haygarth (deceased), joiner. Their son Leslie Walter was born before the end of the year.

By the time of the 1911 census, they were living at 8 High Street, Steeton. Herbert was still working as a warehouseman and Annie as a weaver. Leslie was staying with his grandmother, Mary, and his Aunts Miriam and Clara, who had all moved to Steeton and were living in Chapel Street. Miriam and Clara were both working as weavers in the worsted mill.

On 4th August 1914 Britain declared war against Germany. On 7th August 1914, at Skipton, Herbert enlisted in the Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding) Regiment 1/6th Battalion. According to the documents he signed when he enlisted, Private 2831 Herbert Dove was 5 feet 6½ inches tall, recently vaccinated, with fair physical development and good vision.

The War Diaries of the Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding) Regiment 1/6th Battalion have survived and are available on-line. All the details that follow are taken from those War Diaries, with the quotes taken directly from them, unless otherwise stated.

April 1915 On 12th April 1915, three officers, 86 other ranks, 74 horses, 21 vehicles (4-wheels) and four vehicles (2-wheels) entrained at Shakespeare Dock Station, Doncaster and left for Southampton at 8.15pm. Arriving at 8am on the 13th, they embarked on the SS Marathon at 7.15pm and arrived in Le Havre at 9.30pm on 14th April. This is the date noted on Herbert’s medal card as the “date of entry into the theatre of war”. At least one other party from the Battalion travelled separately.

By 14th April the strength of the Battalion was 29 officers plus one attached officer, 1,004 other ranks plus 10 attached and one interpreter. They stayed in St. Martin’s Rest Camp, three miles from Boulogne before travelling to billets in Neuf Berquin from which a few travelled daily for short instructions in The Trenches and others for bomb throwing training. On 27th, April they moved to new billets in Rue du Quesne, Fleurbaix. A work party of 350 men were sent out to assist the Royal Engineers and the Battalion suffered its first fatality. Then 29th April Fleurbaix was bombed, two killed and three wounded. On 30th April, Herbert moved to No. 3 Section Trench.

May 1915 All of May was spent moving between the Front Line in No. 3 Section Trench and Rue du Quesne. In the latter they were in billets, presumably in the barns or less likely houses of local people, and would have had access to bathing facilities and some leisure. However, this was not time off as such. There were drills and parades, working parties were still sent out and casualties are still recorded whilst taking part in working parties or through stray munitions. In addition men were expected to carry out fatigues, that is, tasks to maintain or improve the military infrastructure, such as, latrines, dugouts, trenches.

Nonetheless, the War Diaries give the sense that these days were, as much as any could be, days of quietude and rest. Perhaps, though, it is just that there was less discomfort.

June 1915 This pattern continued throughout June until on the 25th the Battalion was ordered to march to Sailly sur la Lys. They set off to march in platoons from 12.30am arriving by 2.30am; except for two platoons of C Company which had not been relieved. At 4pm on the 26th, the Battalion received orders to march to billets in Doulieu. This must have been particularly bad news for those two platoons of C Company, who did not even arrive in Sailly sur la Lys until 4.30pm. An officer, the interpreter and the Company Quarter Masters went ahead of the Battalion to secure billets.

Starting at 7pm the platoons marched at intervals of five minutes, arriving between 9 and 10.30pm. After two nights there the Battalion was ordered to march to Moolenacker, setting off about 8pm, arriving at 10.30. “All men were able to get under cover, but were crowded”, according to the War Diary. The following day they were ordered to march to Sint Jan ter Biezen, where they went into bivouacs in the woods. “Men not being in hard condition due to Trench life were rather done up.” This is the first time that the War Diarist has suggested that the men were suffering.

July 1915 The Battalion had a few days in bivouacs at Sint Jan ter Biezen. Leaving on 7th July at 7pm, they arrived in Chateau des Trois Toure, Brielen on the evening of 8th July after two marches. Officers had gone in advance “as their horses arrived in Brielen 3pm” on 7th July”. Men were in bivouacs except for a “few in dugouts”. By the 10th, the Battalion was in bivouacs at Chateau des Trois Toure, and the Officers were taking “instruction and information” on The Trenches to the east and west of the Yser Canal “preparatory to taken them over from the 7th Battalion Duke of Wellington’s Regiment”.

Orders were received to relieve the 7th Battalion on the evening of the 13th, but due to shelling with gas shells all along the canal by the enemy and the reply by the British artillery this was postponed until the 14th. Herbert, in C Company, moved at 9.30pm and relieved a sub-section of the 148th Brigade, completing that relief at 5am. Other companies relieved the 7th Battalion by 2,30am. “Rain commenced falling at 7pm and ceased at 2am. Trenches in a very muddy condition.” By the next day, The Trenches are described as in “a very bad state”. It rained every day until they were relieved in the evening of the 18th by the 7th Battalion. The War Diaries mention the deteriorating state of The Trenches.

Casualties started to mount. On July 15th, the “enemy’s saps were only 20 yards distant”. The enemy was attacking with trench mortars and “their bombers were troublesome”. That day one officer was killed laying a telephone line in a forward trench, a man killed in The Trenches, one mortally wounded and three injured.

Fighting went on through the night, as evidenced by the times that the casualties were wounded which is assiduously recorded in the War Diaries. On the 16th for example, mortar attacks and bombing continued, men were wounded at 3.30am, at 3.35am and at 10am. A lot of work was carried out at night, maintaining or improving obstacles. Soldiers must have virtually slept on their feet whenever the opportunity arose.

Two men were wounded on July 17th, again one was working on communications. On July 18th the 1/6th Battalion was expecting to be relieved by the 7th Battalion but before relief came there was much action. The enemy was literally brought into clear focus, when a German was shot close to the parapet. Papers retrieved from his body showed he belonged to the 240th Artillery Regiment. At 3pm they requested artillery support as the “enemy occupying enemy sap [were] troublesome with mortars and bombs, the bombardment lasted ½ an hour after which there was more peace”. Three were killed and seven wounded that day. The fighting had caused the expected relief by the 7th Battalion Duke of Wellington’s Regiment to be delayed, but it was eventually completed at 4am on July 19th. Once relieved they went into dugouts on “both sides of the Yser Canal.”

Following a quiet day on July 19th, one man was killed on the 20th and seven wounded. Although there were no casualties on July 21st the “enemy shelled canal”. Shelling continued the next day and three men were wounded.
Back to The Trenches on July 23rd, the 1/6th Battalion relieved the 7th Battalion. Unusually the relief commenced during the day at 11.30 completed at 9.30pm. Six men were wounded. On the 24th fighting is escalating. The War Diary for that day records two men were killed, five wounded and one blinded.

The next day, 25th July, was quiet. On the 26th and 27th there was more shelling, including with gas, with one casualty on the 26th and five on the 27th. As a small mercy, the weather had improved, the diarist records “fine days”.

On July 28th, the 1/6th Battalion was relieved by the 7th Battalion, but the relief was delayed “between 4pm and 5pm as the Artillery shelled enemy trench and sap head… during our bombardment the enemy replied vigorously”. By 7.20pm the 1/6th Battalion was back in dugouts on the east and west side of Yser Canal. There were three casualties. Still in dugouts on the 29th, but the “canal bank was heavily shelled” and the “Battalion furnished a large number of fatigues”. There were three more casualties.

Over the course of the 30th July commencing at 11am, the 1/6th Battalion was relieved by the 5th Battalion, the relief was interrupted by “our guns shelling the enemy’s barbed wire”. The relief was finished by 2.30am. However, at 6.30pm had Herbert received a shell wound whilst still on the Canal Bank and was recorded as a casualty. There was one fatality and four other casualties that day.

Herbert was carried out by stretcher bearers. He was admitted to a West Riding Field Ambulance, that is, a dressing station, on the 31st. That same day the War Diary records that the Battalion was at the Divisional Reserve. It was a “Very fine day. All men of the Battalion able to have a bath at the Divisional Baths close at hand. Camp pitched in a wood.”

From the Field Ambulance, Herbert was transferred to the Casualty Clearing Station at Abeele and from there to the No 2 Canadian Cross Stationary (or Base) Hospital at Le Touquet, to which he was admitted on 1st August. It is over 50 miles as the crow flies from Abeele to Le Touquet. Herbert had been transported at least 10 miles from the front to Abeele. Herbert made this journey in deteriorating health and increasing pain. He died in Le Touquet on 3rd August of a shrapnel wound and gas gangrene.

Dr. G.E.F. Holmes describes gas gangrene as follows. It was caused by anaerobic bacteria, Clostridia, that do not require oxygen or air to survive. Trench warfare, spreading over large areas of both France and Belgium, was all that was needed to bring Clostridia to the surface by disrupting and churning up the soil. In fact, the whole front consisted of “churned-up” soil from artillery rounds and the digging of deep trenches. When a soldier was injured, his wounds could easily come into contact with the bacteria. Most of the wounds, of course, were grossly dirty and quickly foul-smelling, and were usually contaminated with more than one kind of bacteria, in fact many kinds. Treatment for wounds initially available to the medical and nursing staffs during the early months of WWI consisted of minimal exploration and use of various then-new antiseptic solutions to pour onto and into the wounds. For simple wounds this standard treatment might be adequate, but many wounds were caused by shrapnel which caused deep injuries containing soil and bits of dirty uniforms, with extensive breakdown of tissues, including muscles.

Herbert was buried in Le Touquet-Paris Plage Communal Cemetery. His service record shows that he served from 7th August 1914 to 3rd August 1915, 362 days.

On December 18th 1915, the Register of Soldiers’ Effects shows that Herbert was owed £1 13s 8d pay accrued over his whole service as money not paid to his wife, nor paid to him in cash at the front. It was divided between his two legatees, his mother and his wife (listed in that order) who each received 16s 10d. The same ledger records Herbert’s War Gratuity which was processed on 26th November 1919. The total was £3; this was divided between his mother and brother, Walter, who both received £1 10s. Presumably Walter received this for his nephew, Leslie.

On December 29th 1915, the records show that his personal effects were processed for dispatch to Mrs Annie Dove at Quarry Cottage, Steeton. These personal effects were:

•photo
• some postcards
• pocket bo
• New Testament
• 2 knives
• toothbrush
• bell
• Will

Annie herself died in 1918. Herbert’s brother Walter became Leslie’s guardian, as evidenced in the letter sent with Herbert’s memorial scroll in September 1920. In the letter, Walter is reminded that the scroll and any medals “are the property of and should be handed to the child on attaining an age to appreciate their value.” Prior to this though in 1919, Leslie, aged 9, had signed for his father’s medal and ribbon. In September 1920, Walter acknowledged receipt of Herbert’s British War Medal.

In May 1921, Walter had to fill in a form giving the names and addresses of all Herbert’s living relatives to receive the memorial plaque for his brother. This included the names of Herbert’s aunts and uncles, all siblings of their father, Whitaker, so either their mother was an only child or her siblings were already dead. Walter notes that he does not have their addresses, clearly they were not close as some of the details are out of date. He listed:

• Miriam Marshall although she had died in 1919,
• Sarah Boncil whose married name was Bonsall,
• Violetta Bowler, whose first husband had died and who had remarried James Butler,
• Eliza Harrison and
• Albert Dove.

He listed their father and gives his address as Beech Villa Avenue, Scarborough.

Herbert’s immediate family were all living in Eastburn, Steeton in three households.
• Leslie was living with his Uncle Walter at 18 Sun Street.
• Herbert’s mother Mary Ann was living with her younger daughter Miriam, her son-in-law Harold Murgatroyd and their daughter Clara at 21 Sun Street.
• The older of Herbert’s sisters Clara was living with her husband James Bottomley and with their children Renie and Walter in Moor Lane.

Herbert is commemorated on the Steeton War Memorial.

Records for many of the soldiers who served in First World One are patchy and sometimes non-existent. Herbert’s records are as complete as possible and the supporting War Diary is detailed. Given that Herbert’s son Leslie died in 1928, there is something fitting about the fact that, although he left no heirs, his story can be told.