In conjunction with the Centre for Bucks Studies at Aylesbury, the Trust’s secretary, Professor Ian Beckett, has received a grant of £11,955 from the ‘Gateways to the First World War’ Centre at the University of Kent for a research project based on the casualty books of the 1/1st Bucks Battalion, 1914-18. These unique records, which are held in CBS, detail such aspects of military life as leave and training periods, illnesses and wounds, and disciplinary offences. Together with the order books of B and C Companies (1915-18), and a Company Trench Log from 1915-16, the records will be fully digitised for a comprehensive database. Apart from the academic value of the data, the project will be an invaluable aid to geneaologists researching Bucks servicemen in the Great War. Digitisation will be carried out by a specialist contractor but volunteers will be recruited by CBS to transcribe the data.  

Volunteers wishing to assist in transcription should contact Laura Cotton at CBS at www.buckscc.gov.uk/leisure-and-culture/centre-for-buckinghamshire-studies.

Waddesdon Manor

From 23 March 2016 onwards

Around 100 letters have been discovered by an electrician laying new cabling in the roof of the Five Arrows at Waddesdon. They are believed to have been sent between Eliza Turnham, the landlord’s daughter, and her sweetheart, James ‘Jack’ Wilson Cox, the son of Miss Alice de Rothschild’s chauffeur. Jack enlisted in the OBLI and went overseas in early 1915.

Waddesdon Estate’s archivist, Catherine Taylor, said, ‘We think that Eliza must have hidden the letters away, and they are one of the most significant recent finds at Waddesdon. Eliza was 13 years older than Jack and, in some of them, it seems like writing between an older sister and a younger brother. But in others, he talks about “perhaps stealing a kiss”, and they are very romantic. It’s really intriguing.’

Jack survived the war and returned to Waddesdon, living close to Eliza. He worked, like his father, as a chauffeur for the Rothschilds. In 1923, however, he married a girl from Luton. Eliza never married, dying in 1953.

Selections from the letters are to go on display at Waddesdon Manor from 23 March, as part of the Tales from the Archives Exhibition.

For further details, see www.waddesdon.org.uk

February 2016

The actions at Fromelles (18-19 July 1916) and Pozieres (21-24 July 1916) are of significance to Australia as the first large scale actions of the Australian Imperial Force on the Western Front. They are equally important for Bucks for, directly alongside the Australian formations, were the 2/1st Bucks Battalion at Fromelles and the 1/1st Bucks Battalion at Pozieres. If 1 July 1916 is remembered as a particularly catastrophic day for the British army, the period between 18 and 24 July 1916 was the Bucks equivalent. A total of 124 men from the 2/1st Bucks were killed between those dates, and 69 from the 1/1st Bucks. Men from the 2/1st Bucks entered the notorious German ‘Sugarloaf’ stronghold at Fromelles before being driven back, while the 1/1st Bucks captured Pozieres itself on 23 July.

As reported in The Times on 5 February 2016, relatives of fallen British soldiers have been banned from the centenary commemorations. The Australian Department of Veterans’ Affairs, tasked with organising the events by the French government, have said that British representatives and relatives are not welcome to attend, only those with Australian passports or residency. A departmental spokeswoman, Jennifer Stephenson, said the focus would be on Australian casualties, adding, ‘This is not to diminish the role of other nations but simply a recognition of the Australian focus of the event we are organising.’

There has been understandable outrage on the part of relatives of the British fallen from the 61st (Fromelles) and 48th (Pozieres) Divisions, both raised from Bucks, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire, at the appropriation of the battles by the Australians. This forms a continuing pattern in the Australian re-invention of the ‘Anzac myth’ since the 1980s to emphasise national and cultural differences in ways that would have been incomprehensible to those many Anzacs who were British rather than Australian-born.

The Bucks Military Musuem Trust is working to ensure appropriate British representation. Details will be announced in due course. 

by Ian F W Beckett

An in-depth study of the impact of the conflict on Buckinghamshire between 1640 and 1660.

Chapters: The Community and the Approach of War; The War and the County Community; The War and the Local Community; The Revival of the County Community. 

Now available from Pen & Sword Military. Pp.204 + x, 7 tables, 15 full colour illustrations

ISBN 1473856035, £25

Thursday 29 October 2015, 7.30 p.m.

The Church of Christ The Cornerstone, Milton Keynes, MK9 2ES

In aid of SSAFA

[The Charity giving lifelong support to our Armed Forces and their Families]

A combination of live performance and film describing the effect of music in wartime from Napoleonic times to the two World Wars. Joining Isla is film maker Patrick King, who gives a ‘behind the scenes’ look at making their \award winning documentary films about music in war. Also featuring the Milton Keynes Pipe Band.

Tickets  £10 from The Church of Christ The Cornerstone and from Wilkinsons Estate Agents in Leighton Buzzard and Winslow. Or telephone 01296 712513

www.ssafa.org.uk

Talk by Martin Brown

1 October 2015 at 7.30 p.m.

Stowe School, State Music Room, Stowe, MK18 5EH

Discover how archaeology, anthropology and science combine to help identify fallen soldiers in  a presentation that takes the audience from the discovery of bones to full military funeral.

Tickst £8 from www.oxboffice.com

Bucks Military Museum Trust and High Wycombe Library

Saturday 26 September 2015, 10.00-16.00

Learn about the Buckinghamshire Great War Virtual Trail

Search our databases of Bucks servicemen in the Great War

Get advice on researching Great War lives

Bring in your images and memorabilia for identification

Display of uniforms and equipment

Display on 2/1st Bucks Battalion at Fromelles (18-19 July 2016)

Talk on Bucks in the Great War at 1100

An exhibition by the Bucks Military Museum Trust and the Buckingham Heritage Trust

At the Old Gaol, Buckingham from 18 August 2015

The 1/1st Royal Bucks Hussars sailed for Egypt in March 1915 as part of the 2nd (South Midland) Mounted Brigade. Leaving the horses in Egypt, the regiment was sent to Suvla Bay, Gallipoli, landing on 18 August 1915. Three days later, the brigade advanced acorss the ‘Salt Lake’ to attack the Turkish trenches on ‘Chocolate Hill’ and ‘Scimitar Hill’. Heavy casualties resulted, the regiment remaining on Gallipoli until November 1915.

This new exhibition tells the story of that baptism of fire for the 1/1st Royal Bucks Hussars a century ago.

Sunday 12 July 2015 at Pullingshill Wood, Marlow Common 11.00-16.00

An event to commemorate the First World War Training Trenches dug in 1915 by the Grenadier Guards, Welsh Guards and Royal Engineers stationed in the vicinity.

Sergeant-Major’s Drill and Children’s Assault Course; Guided walks, talks and displays on the history of the trenches; Remembrance Service at 1100; Local cadets undertaking military tasks.

Free Entry. Free parking at Danesfield Primary School, Henley Road (A4155), Medmenham, Bucks, SL7 2EW.

The Woodland Trust in partnership with Marlow Remembers World War 1 Association

The fruits of the research by the Chiltern U3A Family History Groups on the men commemorated on the Amersham War Memorial is now available both as a book and also online.

See www.amershamhistory.info/wwi/amersham-remembers