1918 marks the 100th year since the end of the First World War. Across the country, numerous commemoration events are taking place including the traditional parades and minute silences.
But, from my work within school archives, I have seen first-hand the power of remembrance and how important it is for successive generations to connect with what can seem like far off events, through the people involved. World War One has a potency with the photographs that are left behind, helping to give faces to the names that we often see engraved in memorials.
So, in commemoration of the armistice, I would like to tell you about my Great-Grandfather, Harold Penrose Daynton, and his role within the war.
Harold had attested on the 16th December 1916 in Sudbury, finally being signed on in Bury St Edmunds on the 7th February 1917. During this time, conscription into the army had been in force for just under a year which effectively forced any single man between 18 and 41, to sign up into the army.[1] He had been put into a cavalry regiment, but this was soon changed to the 8th Yeomanry cyclists due to a shortage of horses. Unfortunately, this regiment did not prove its worth and so Harold was transferred into the 6th Queens Own Royal West Surrey Regiment.
His first regiment number was 67709 but my sources are mixed for the number this changed into. The information that I was bequeathed by my grandfather says that Harold’s number changed to 203636 but on his medical record in the national archives, it says that his number is 147321.[2]
It seems that Harold went over to France in the summer of 1917 and there is no evidence that has come down to myself that suggest that he had any leave back to England during his service.
On the 21st March 1918, the Germans led a final, big push offensive against the allies around the area of the Somme.[3] The Queens Own stood fast but found that the Germans had surrounded their unit by destroying their allies on one side, and because the French battalion that had been supporting Harold’s on their other flank, had ‘ran away’. Harold and his unit tried to make an escape, apparently running for nearly three days, but they were eventually cornered and taken prisoner by the Saxony regiment of the German army at Balincourt near Arras on the 24th March 1918.
The news that reached home must have been devastating for Harold’s family as he was listed as ‘missing believed dead’ on the 28th April 1918. However, a formal notification card was received by Selwyn, Harold’s brother, which was stated that Harold had been taken as a prisoner of war. This card was sent onto military HQ.
Harold is documented as being interred in a camp at Silverin/Solverin? near Limburg. While his experiences are not documented within official archives, his story has been passed down in the family. His phrase that he ‘used his loaf’ could not be more apt for his attitude to his situation.
He and his unit were taken to the camp in cattle trucks. Conditions were cramped and very simple. On the first roll call, the British soldiers were separated, and a German officer called for 10 British volunteers who were carpenters. Harold and nine others offered their services and were put under the supervision of four German guards.
These guards explained that the 10 soldiers were expected to complete tasks to ensure that buildings that had been abandoned by the allies were to be made safe before being occupied by the Germans. The allies used to booby trap them in order to try and prevent this. Harold and his fellow British soldiers were taken to many battlefield sites. What became clear was that the German guards were as poorly equipped with food and supplies as the British and so they survived by stealing from farms that they came across.
Although the German guards were told to shoot if any of the British tried to escape, there does not seem to have been any animosity between either side. In fact, the German guards even took pictures with the British soldiers and got them developed! I have attached them below in a slide show.
To keep these photos safe, Harold sewed them into his cap which has unfortunately made the originals very fragile.
The group continued to move around the battlefields until on the 10th/11th November 1918, when they reached a village somewhere between Maastrict, Leige and Aachen. It was here, on the 11th November 1918 at 11 am that each side turned to one another, shook hands and then walked their separate ways.
Harold and the other British soldiers had to walk towards a port because most of the railways were out of action. They eventually came across the Salvation Army near Kortrijk where they were fed, de-loused, showered and put on a ship back to Dover.
When Harold finally arrived back in England on the 2nd December 1918, he was met off the ship by Queen Alexandra, the wife of the late King Edward VII. He stayed in the army for another two years, being attached to the Royal Army Medical Corps when he was discharged on 20th April 1920.
Before the war, my great-grandfather had worked in the De-Kaisers Hotel in London (ran by a German company) and so had a smattering of German. From this skill, he managed to find out the name and details of one of his German guards whom he kept in touch with between the two world wars.
What I find touching and interesting about my great-grandfather’s story is lack of animosity between the ordinary men within the ranks on either side. We often have this image that each side hated the other in a propaganda fuelled environment. But Harold’s story does not only disprove this but highlight that both sides got on well and (as was the case with my great-grandfather) became friends with one another.
For me, it is a touching, positive story to come out of such a dark period of our history.
Please help to remember Harold and other soldiers who fought and died during the Great War this remembrance day through The Imperial War Museum’s Lives of the First World War.
Harold’s entry: https://livesofthefirstworldwar.org/lifestory/1154928
Lives of the First World War: https://livesofthefirstworldwar.org/dashboard
[1] Parliament, Conscription: the First World War, <https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/private-lives/yourcountry/overview/conscription/> [accessed 6/11/2018].
[2] The National Archives, Medal card of Daynton, <http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D2142564> [accessed 6/11/2018].
[3] The History Learning, Timeline of World War One, <https://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/world-war-one/timeline-of-world-war-one/> [accessed 6/11/2018].
cvd history and museums 