Basil’s Medals

There were five campaign medals issued during the Great War and with some minor exceptions these were issued to all of the men, and some women, who served between 1914-1918.

The three medals awarded posthumously to Basil were: the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. As these were awarded after his death they were sent on to his father.

The 1914-15 Star (Pip)

This medal was issued to all of those who served in any theatre of war from 1914 to the end of 1915. The exceptions were those who were awarded the 1914 Star and those awarded the Africa General Service Medal or the Sudan 1910 Medal.

The medal is bronze with a red, white and blue ribbon. The reverse was left plain and had the recipient’s name, rank, number and service unit impressed on it.

The British War Medal (Squeak)

This is a silver medal with a blue, black and white ribbon that has a wider central orange band. It bears George V’s head on the obverse side and a naked St George figure riding a horse on the reverse. The horse is trampling on a shield that bears the Prussian eagle. It was issued to all those who served in the First World War. The recipient’s name, rank, number and service unit were inscribed along the rim of the medal.

The Victory Medal (Wilfred)

Each of the allies on the wining side awarded their own victory medal with a similar design. The British version is cast in bronze with a winged figure on the obverse representing Victory. On the reverse it has the inscription ‘The Great War for Civilisation 1914-1919’. It has a rainbow coloured ribbon with a wide, vertical, red line in the middle. It was awarded to most of, but not all, those who served in the 1914-18 war. The recipient’s name, rank, number and service unit were inscribed along the rim of the medal.

Pip, Squeak and Wilfred

As these three medals were awarded to so many and often in the trio they became familiarly known as Pip, Squeak and Wilfred after a popular strip cartoon that featured in the Daily Mirror from 1919. In the cartoon strip Pip was a dog, Squeak a penguin and Wilfred a rabbit.

If you have being doing any family history research you should check out the British Army medal index records at the National Archives www.nationalarchives.gov.uk . They hold the original records. Similarly if you belong to the www.ancestry.co.uk site or corresponding www.ancestry.com site you should be able to see the relevant scan of the index card for your family member online. This will give you information on the medals they were awarded and if given posthumously, who received the medals on behalf of the deceased.

Who was the real Basil? Part 2

Basil joined the 6^th Battalion South Lancashire Regiment Prince of Wales volunteers and after basic training was sent to Gallipoli. When the Gallipoli campaign failed and the men were evacuated the battalion was redeployed to Mesopotamia (latter day Iraq).

One assumes that Basil communicated with his family back in Salford but sadly none of these letters have survived. Thus we can only speculate as to how he might have felt as the campaign in Mesopotamia progressed. Thankfully the battalion’s detailed war diary does exist and is available to view at the National Archive in Kew, London. Various officers who were tasked with the job completed the diary on a more or less day-by-day basis and it is this document that gives us a real feel for the conditions that men were fighting in. Bearing in mind the location you wouldn’t think that the weather conditions ranged from stifling heat to below freezing, in fact in the winter of 1915/16 many men from the various regiments were hospitalized for hypothermia. Anyone with any interest in the First World War will be all too familiar with the dreadful conditions in the trenches in France and Flanders, the pictures of flooded trenches and deep mud are all too common, but did you know that the trenches and fox holes in Mesopotamia were also repeatedly flooded during the 1915/16 winter?

Gallipoli and the Mesopotamia Campaign had a high mortality rate, men died from the obvious – gunfire, shells, mortar attacks, shrapnel wounds etc., but did you know that a large number of men died from disease – typhoid and various diarrhoeal diseases were rife and many men were malnourished and dehydrated. There was also a continual problem with flies. The inside canvas of bivouac tents, mess tents, hospital tents etc. were all covered in flies taking advantage of the slight shade offered. The war diary gives us casualty lists and at times mentions how the men died.

That conditions were terrible is plain to see and another photo of Basil shows that he has now lost his puppy fat from the photo in part 1. Here he is battle hardened and lean, the stub of a cigarette between his fingers. He’s still managing to raise a smile for the camera though.

After travelling up through the marshlands and the flood plains of the Tigris river Basil died, along with 42 of his peers, on 5^th April 1916 during a particularly hard push to gain ground at Falahiyen and take the position. The war diary lists that many of the men had died from gunfire just in front of the Turkish trenches; perhaps he was one of these. He was just 5 months passed his 18^th birthday.

Basil’s body was never recovered so he does not have a war grave anywhere. Instead he is commemorated on the Basra memorial, his name appearing with the many thousands of other men who died in that campaign.

Records show that he was posthumously awarded three campaign medals – the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. These were sent back to his parents, but unfortunately they have been lost with the passage of time. I will write another post about these medals in due course.

Fanny and Clem would have received news of their son’s death via a telegram and received a letter from George V acknowledging Basil’s sacrifice (see below). They would also probably have received a ‘death penny’ inscribed with Basil’s name, but like the medals this has also disappeared over the years.

I have always had a keen interest in history, but having photos of an ordinary private soldier and knowing a little more about his personal story, plus the fact that he was one of my grandparents siblings, adds a whole new dimension for me when reading about this particular part of history as I hope it does for you.

Who was the real Basil? Part 1

Basil was born on 30^th October 1897 in Salford to Clement and Fanny Whitham. He was their fifth child, but the first two died shortly after birth making Basil their third eldest living child. Clem and Fanny were a prolific couple having eleven children in total. Clem Whitham was a bit of a maverick following many occupations until he set himself up with several fish and chips shops in Salford, unfortunately he would go on to progressively lose these in the 1920s in order to pay off the large gambling debts he had incurred.

Basil must have been a small child as evidenced by the statistics from his medical at his army enrollment. At the age of 17 he stood just 5 foot 2½ inches tall and had a chest measurement of just 35 inches fully expanded. In November 1914 the minimum accepted height for a new recruit had dropped to 5’ 3” and didn’t drop to 5’2” until July 1915 as the British army became even more desperate for greater numbers of men. As Basil volunteered in March 1915 I guess that extra ½” was very important!

Little is known of the detail of Basil’s early life. At some point he suffered a nasty scald to the inside of his left leg as evidenced by a scar being listed as a distinguishing mark on his army enrollment forms. We know that he joined as a boy scout and probably was a Methodist since most of the family’s activities, especially marriages, seemed to revolve around the Dock Mission Hall, a Methodist-meeting place, located near Ordsall Park in Salford.

Fig. 1 Basil in his scout uniform pre 1915.

Basil seems to have had a close relationship with his older brother Ernest and just a month before he signed up Basil was a witness at Ernie’s wedding. His signature can be seen on the marriage certificate copy below.

Basil answered Lord Kitchener’s call for extra men to enlist in 1915 and joined the Prince of Wales Volunteers. His enlistment record shows that he lied about his age in order to be accepted. The form states that on the 25^th March 1915 he was 19 years and 5 months old, when in fact he was just 17 years and 5 months – below the minimum volunteer age at the time. The pull to ‘do the right thing’ must have been strong. We can only speculate on his reasons and motivations for joining up and also Clem and Fanny’s reactions to their son volunteering when he was not of age.

Fig. 2 Basil as a new recruit in his Prince of Wales Volunteers South Lancashire uniform.

If you look at the photo above you can just make out the shape of Basil’s cap badge. Here is one the same, although not Basil’s actual badge. Once in Mesopotamia he would swop this dress uniform for his desert khakis.

Fig. 3 WW1 cap badge of the Prince of Wales Volunteers South Lancs Regiment.

The Prince of Wales Volunteers were part of ‘Kitchener’s New Army’, a wave of civilian men from all walks of life who had willingly answered the country’s call to take up arms. The career forces population, who viewed them as amateurs, gave them the nickname ‘the war gifts’ and treated them with some disdain.

You can find out more about Basil’s real life journey in part 2 coming soon.

Mavis' Date & Walnut Cake

This is one of the staples for the market stall and sells well each time. It is also a family favourite making a moist and sticky cake.

Mavis is my late mother-in-law and this is her recipe. Mavis was a fabulous baker and very kindly gave me some of her recipes. We miss you Mavis, but every D&W brings you straight back in our thoughts! :-) Here she is on a trip to Scotland with her husband, Fred.

It’s a very simple cake to make and never fails.

So here’s the recipe:

2 cups plain flour

1 cup brown sugar – I use golden caster sugar

125g margarine

2 level teaspoons of baking powder

1 level teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda

1 packet of dates (approx. 250g)

70g chopped walnuts

Method

Chop the dates up (I usually cut smaller ones in half and bigger ones into three). Place in a bowl and just cover with boiling water. Set aside to cool.

Set the oven to 150C/130C Fan/300F/Gas2

Sift the flour into a large bowl and mix in the baking powder and sugar. Add the margarine and rub it all together with your fingertips to form fine crumbs.

Once you have got to the crumb stage mix in the walnut pieces and then make a well in the centre.

Pour the soaked dates and the water into the well and beat the mixture until the batter is smooth (lumps of dates and walnuts excepted of course).

Divide the batter between two 1lb loaf tins. I always use a cake liner, so if you don’t use one make sure the tin is well buttered and floured or lined with baking parchment.

Place in the oven on the centre shelf and bake for approximately one hour to 75 minutes. As ovens vary so much I would advise checking on it from about 50 minutes or so. Use the skewer test in the centre of the cake to check if it is done – it should come out clean with no uncooked cake batter on it.

I have also divided this mix into four ½ lb loaf tins and it works just as well, baking time reduces to 40-45 minutes.

When cooled eat it straight away, but my advice is wait for 24 hours and if you can 48 even better as it gets stickier and quite frankly, yummier!

Have a go and enjoy!