November 2024

21 Buckden Roundabout November 2024 Buckden War Memorial The war memorial which stands at the front of St Mary ’ s Church is engraved with the thirty - three names of men associ- ated with the village who died in the First World War and six- teen who fell in the Second World War. After more than 100 years, few people would know who these men were and what their lives were like. This article endeavours to bring their sto- ries to light. There were no government directives or funding, so war me- morials were organised by local people and the question of who was to be commemorated was agreed by those setting up and funding the memorial. Some men appear on more than one town or village memorial. This was the case with Jack Stanley Bunton, a native of Steeple Bumpstead, Essex, who was “ so well known in Buckden ” and was listed along with the other Buckden residents. Others do not appear though they were residents, such as William Dorrington labourer of Hunts End, Buckden who joined the Bedfordshire Regiment. He died on 12th June 1919. He is commemorated with a Common- wealth War Memorial in the Lucks Lane graveyard. So many of those named were very young and had little experi- ence of anything beyond their own village. At the out- break of war many men living in the village worked on local farms as horsemen, labour- ers or gardeners as did their fathers before them. Others had trades such as carpentry or bricklaying. George Thur- ley, was the son of a farm foreman and at the time of enlistment an apprentice carpenter living at Hollow Farm, Buckden. When war broke out, he was just fifteen years old and too young to fight. However, the war dragged on and he was conscripted some three years later on 10th Decem- ber 1917 at the age of 18 years and 2 months. Two days later he was sent to the Somme. On 25th April 1918, after just four months as a soldier, he was killed in action. On his grave is the inscription “ The beloved and only son of M & E Thurley Buck- den Huntingdon ”. Jack Stanley Bunton and George Thurley also died aged 18. Thomas Allsop born in Buckden in 1889, was living and working as a tailor in Wellingborough when war broke out. He did not volunteer to go to war, perhaps he like many other people thought that the war would be over quickly. However, it turned out to be harder than expected to push back the Ger- man offensive and the war continued into 1916. In January 1916 the Military Service Act was passed which imposed con- scription on all single men between the ages of 18 and 40 years of age. He was therefore conscripted, joining the North- ampton Regiment on 29th February 1916 and shortly after was sent to France. His war records show that he suffered from tachycardia, a condition where the heart beats rapidly and is sometimes irregular. The causes of the condition include fear, anxiety or stress. Possibly his experiences in the trenches brought on the condition. He fought in one of the toughest battles of the First World War, the Battle of the Somme, and was killed on the 1st October 1917. The Somme claimed the lives of several other men including that of Henry Thomas Usher who was born in Buckden in 1885. His father Henry Hastings Usher was a boot maker who ran a shoe shop on Buckden High Street. When war broke out, Hen- ry enlisted in the Huntingdonshire Cyclist Battalion. After a short period of training locally he was sent to guard the York- shire coast against possible invasion. He later transferred to the Canadian Expeditionary Force and then on to the Oxford- shire and Bucks Light Infantry. He was killed in action in the Battle of Langemarck, Passchendaele on 16th August 1917 aged 32 years. On this day the Allies were trying to break through the German defences by storming their trenches. However, heavy rains began to fall, turning the battlefield into a quagmire of mud and deep shell holes. These conditions slowed down the British advance and made it difficult to bring up supplies and artillery. The Allies were forced to wait for better weather. Passchendaele was one of the bloodiest battles fought on the Western Front. Both sides suffered sig- nificant losses during an offensive. Usually, soldiers were buried close to where they were killed, but in the chaos of war some men were never properly identi- fied. Henry ’ s body was not found. Instead, his name is en- graved on the Tyne Cot Memorial along with around 12,000 British Empire casualties making this the largest Common- wealth War Grave Cemetery in the world. His is the only me- morial to the First World War casualties inside St Mary ’ s Church, Buckden. Possibly it was because his father had been the church clerk, or it may have been that his mother, Eliza- beth, was the first to petition for a memorial. The vicar agreed to a marble monument that was put up in 1919. Another Somme casualty was George Henry Gale, born in 1881, the son of a policeman. At the outbreak of war, he was working as a valet for the Gilliat family who lived at Abbots Ripton Hall. His employer was a wealthy gentleman who had several servants, including a valet. George was Mr Gilliat ’ s per- sonal servant (a gentleman ’ s gentleman) and would have ac- companied his employer on trips and visits. He made sure the right attire and outfits were all packed for the trip, arranged taxis and took care of the luggage. Whilst working for the Gilli- at family he became known for his skills as both a football play- er and a fine cricketer who played an important role in the team ’ s success in the pre - war years. George had years of expe- rience working for prominent families. In the 1901 census, George is a groom at Hinchingbrook House, the home of The Earl of Sandwich. Important visitors, such as the prime minister of the time, were entertained by this well - connected family. At the time that George was working at Hichingbrook as a groom, the house was being used as a convalescent home for soldiers who had returned injured from the Boer War. He would have known about the devastating injuries of war but despite this he volunteered early on to join the war effort, signing up with the Lancers in September 1914. After training in Ireland, he was sent to France in May 1915. After surviving three years of fighting, George was involved in the Second Battle of the Somme. On 21st March 1918 the German Army launched a (Continued on page 23)