2nd Battalion Officers.

[timberman]

 List of Officers that served with the 2nd Battalion the Manchester Regiment in this Topic.

 Some of these will have been covered before on the forum, I'm just consolidating them in one place.
 
 At the top of each new page will be a list of Officer's covered on that page as follows.




          1) 2nd Lieutenant John Herbert Michael Smith, 2nd Manchester Regiment.
              (Continued from the last post.)

          2) Captain Arthur George Tillard 2nd Battalion Manchester Regiment.

          3) Lt., Reginald Blencowe Bayliss 2nd Battalion Manchester Regiment.

          4) Lieutenant John Henry Loftus Reade 2nd Battalion Manchester Regiment

          5) Second Lieutenant Clarence Leslie Bentley 2nd Battalion Manchester Regiment
       
          6) Major Alexander Gunning Foord 2nd Battalion Manchester Regiment

          Timberman

[timberman]

  2nd Lieutenant John Herbert Michael Smith, 2nd Manchester Regiment.
              (Continued from the last post.)




The grave registration report form.

Timberm

[timberman]

Captain Arthur George Tillard 2nd Battalion Manchester Regiment.

Name   Arthur George TILLARD   

Rank/Number   Captain   
Regiment   Manchester Regiment   3rd Bn attd A Coy 2nd Bn
Enlisted   
Age/Date of death   39      20 Oct 1914
How died/Theatre of war   Killed in action   France & Flanders
Last known address   
Cemetery   Le Touret Memorial, Pas de Calais, France
Grave or Memorial Reference   Panels 34 & 35
Location of memorial   Denham St Mary

Date/Place of birth   Dec qtr 1874      Ore, Hastings, Sussex
Date/Place of baptism   
Pre-war occupation of Casualty   army officer
Parents   Rev James & late Jane Tillard
Parent's occupation   Clerk in Holy Orders
Parents' Address (last known)   Clerk in Holy Orders
Wife   Emily Katherine Tillard nee Close-Brooks
Wife's Address (last known)   Maltmas Green, Denham
Notes   died near La Bassee. Served in South African campaign

There is an oval plague at,

St. Mary the Virgin Church
Village Road
Denham
South Bucks
Buckinghamshire
UB9 5BH
England

The following can all be found here,

Thank you to Philip and Charlie for their contributions

http://themanchesters.org/forum/index.php?topic=9075.15

Also there is a oval plaque in St Marys Church,
Denham, Buckinghamshire, near Uxbridge, West London


Captain Arthur George Tillard, d.1914, killed in action near La Bassoc,
and son David George Tillard, d.1929 in Marlborough, erected by the
unnamed wife and mother. An oval plaque with a narrow border and
cartouche with painted emblem on top.

Enquiries were made to the Red Cross in December 1914 regarding the fate of Capt. Tillard. Capt Selasinky was luckier and appears to have survived the war.
Charlie

Hauptmann Eberhard Karl Gustav Alfred Hermann von Selasen-Selasinsky was, as to be expected, a pre war soldier. Post war, as a retired Major, he was involved in a minor way in returning Crown Prince Wilhelm (the Kaiser's son) to Germany after he had spent 5 years in exile in Holland. He was recalled for the next war and ended up as a Lt. Col. in the Luftwaffe. He lived to the age of 95 and died in 1974.

Perhaps more relevant to the Regiment is that he was, as stated in the newspaper cutting, an ADC in the 25th Infantry Brigade when he wrote the letters. He was in fact an officer in IR158, which was a component of 25 Inf Bde, and was a Company Commander at the start of the war. Manchester Hill in 1918 was thus not the first time the Regiment had faced IR158.

Charlie

I take it that "Mrs Tillard's brother who had received a commission in the same regiment" was Captain Arthur Brooks Close-Brooks MC late of the 3rd Manchesters who DOW on the 10th January 1917 and is buried in Amara War Cemetery.
 PhilipG.
Timberman & Charlie,

                                  Captain Arthur George Tillard

May I make some observations relating to this officer which have emerged from your excellent research?

Firstly, I refer to Reply No. 15 in which Timberman refers to a commemorative plaque in St.Mary's church in Denham, Buckinghamshire, where Tillard's wife resided.  I assume the "unnamed mother" will be Mrs Emily Katherine Tillard (nee Close-Brooks).   Reference is made on this plaque to the sad death of Tillard's son - David George Tillard - who died in 1929 in Marlborough.  I wonder whether or not David Tillard was a pupil at Marlborough College at that time - one of England's top public schools?

Secondly, I refer to Reply No.13 and in particular, to the newspaper cutting in which reference is made to Mrs Tillard's brother, which I suggested would be Arthur Brooks Close-Brooks', who died on active service with the Manchesters and  is buried in Amara War Cemetery.   I wonder if I am correct in that assumption?

Thirdly, I turn to Reply No. 16 and Charlie's helpful contribution, where it seems, in addition to enquiries by Mrs Tillard, there were enquiries by a Miss Tillard of St.Ives, Hunts. (the Captain's sister?) and it would appear from persons domiciled in Switzerland, too.  Is that interpretation correct, Charlie?

Finally, I note that Captain Tillard's name is, like that of 2nd Lt. R.F.Walker,recorded on the Tablet relating to the Manchester Regt. in the Royal Military College's Memorial Chapel at Sandhurst.   
PhilipG.,

Philip,
You are correct. Enquiries were made by the following:
Mrs Tillard
Mrs Cocke
Mrs Venning
Miss Tillard - Hemingford Grey
Mlle Laure de Wild, resident in Münchenbuchsee, Canton Bern
Mme Dunant of Geneve.

If my very poor understanding of the French language is correct, it was thought he may have been a PoW in Darmstadt. There is also a reference to Amsterdam. Perhaps someone who understands French could be more specific.

Unfortunately none of the documents relating to the enquiries have survived.

Charlie
In the clipping it  say's his wife received two or three letters from
Captain E Von Selasinky ADC of the 25th Brigade of infantry Prussian
Army.

Neil 

Hauptmann Eberhard Karl Gustav Alfred Hermann von Selasen-Selasinsky was, as to be expected, a pre war soldier. Post war, as a retired Major, he was involved in a minor way in returning Crown Prince Wilhelm (the Kaiser's son) to Germany after he had spent 5 years in exile in Holland. He was recalled for the next war and ended up as a Lt. Col. in the Luftwaffe. He lived to the age of 95 and died in 1974.

Perhaps more relevant to the Regiment is that he was, as stated in the newspaper cutting, an ADC in the 25th Infantry Brigade when he wrote the letters. He was in fact an officer in IR158, which was a component of 25 Inf Bde, and was a Company Commander at the start of the war. Manchester Hill in 1918 was thus not the first time the Regiment had faced IR158.

Charlie

Click on the pictures to make them bigger.

Timberman

[timberman]

Captain Arthur George Tillard 2nd Battalion Manchester Regiment.

 (continued from last post)

Click on the pictures to make them bigger.

Timberman

[timberman]

Lt., Reginald Blencowe Bayliss

Source : De Ruvigny's Roll Of Honour Vol 3

Name:   Reginald Blencowe Bayliss
Death Date:   18 Nov 1916
Rank:   2 Lieutenant
Regiment:   Manchester Regiment
Battalion:   2nd Battalion
Type of Casualty:   Died of wounds

SUPPLEMENT TO THE LONDON GAZETTE, 13 JANUARY, 1916.

The Manchester Regiment.
The undermentioned to be temporary
Second Lieutenants: —
Dated 8th December, 1915.
Charles Edward Poynton.
Denis John Charles Adams.
Reginald Blencowe Bayliss. Dated llth.
December, 1915.

The following information was sent to me by one of the members MrsPGC thank you.

 2nd Lieut. R.B. Bayliss is one of the soldiers researched by volunteers of the WW1 Lives Project. There is a file about him and his family  at the East Riding of Yorkshire Archives, Beverley (available soon). Reginald B. Bayliss, born 1894, High Wycombe, Bkm had two brothers, Frederick Archibald Bayliss, born 1890, Alford, Lin (who went to America) and Norman Bayliss, born 1896, Abingdon, Bks (WW1, Leicester Regiment) and a sister, May, born 1887, Brandon, Sfk (later wife of the Rev James Edward Knott). Their father, the Rev Archibald Bayliss (1854-1942) was a minister of the Wesleyan Church.
Here are some newspaper reports concerning 2nd/Lieut. Reginald Blencowe Bayliss, 2nd Battalion. Wounded and Missing 18th November 1916.
1. Hull Daily Mail, 14th Dec 1916. Page 5.
Beverley Officer Missing. News has been received by the Rev A. Bayliss, minister of Beverley Wesley Church, that his son, Lieut. R.B. Bayliss (Manchester Regiment) has been wounded and is missing. His Colonel* writes, in a later message, that when last seen Lieut. Bayliss was fighting in the German trenches and is now missing. Before enlisting Lieut. Bayliss was employed at a bank in Hull.
2. Hull Daily Mail, 16th Dec 1916. Page 2.
(Identical report to the previous one)
3. Beverley & East Riding Recorder, 16th Dec 1916. Page 5.
Roll of Honour. Beverley Maintains its Traditions. Lieut H.B. Bayliss, Manchester Regiment, son of Rev A. Bayliss, Wesleyan Minister, Beverley. Wounded and missing. (with photograph)
(Misprint of his first initial - not H, as printed - his Christian name was Reginald.)
4. Beverley and East Riding Recorder, 16th Dec 1916. Page 5.
Beverley Lieutenant Missing. The sad news reached the Rev. A. Bayliss, minister of the Wesley Church at Beverley, that his son, Lieut. H.B. Bayliss (Manchester Regiment) was wounded and missing. A letter from his commanding officer states that Lieut. Bayliss was wounded and when last seen was still fighting in the German trenches and he is now missing. Before enlisting he was in the London Joint Stock Bank at Hull.
5. The Yorkshire Post, 18th Dec 1916. Page 10.
The Roll of Honour. Sec. Lieut. R.B. Bayliss, Manchester Regiment, reported wounded and missing after an attack in which he took part about a month ago, is a son of the Rev. Archibald Bayliss, Wesleyan minister of St Giles' Croft, Beverley and late of Westgate, Louth. One of the latest reports stated that the young officer was seen fighting after he had been wounded. His commanding officer* writes of him in most appreciative terms. Before going to Louth his father was stationed at Withernsea, and was for some years at Cleckheaton and Grantham.
6. De Ruvigney's Roll of Honour, 1914-1919.
Reginal Blencowe Bayliss, 2nd Lt. 2nd Bn, Manchester Regiment of 12 St Giles Croft, Beverley. Born 9th June 1894. Educated Kingswood School, Bath....Joined Lincoln's Inns of Court OTC, 10th Jun 1915. Gazetted 2nd Lt. Manchester Regiment 11th Dec 1915, being appointed to the 27th (Local Reserve) Bn and later 2nd Bn. Served with the Expeditionary Force in F&F from 15th Jul 1916 and was killed in the action at Serre 18th Nov 1916 following. His commander* wrote of him as a most promising officer and Capt. Keeley** of the 27th Bn wrote "He did not know the meaning of fear and was always persevering and conscientious in all his duties and his first thought was always for his men."
(*Lt.-Colonel Noel Luxmoore, DSO)
(**Capt Arthur W. Keeley, 27th Bn)

Perhaps 2nd Lt.R.B. Bayliss is the gallant officer from the blazing dugout, near Beaumont Hamel.

The following is from the IWM Collections

2 Lt Bayliss died, aged 22, on 18 November 1916.
 
He was the son of the Rev. Archibald and Mary James Bayliss, of 49, Arthur Street, Withernsea, Yorkshire. He was born at High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.


The 1901 census has Reginald aged 6 living with his parents, brother Newman 4, and sister May 13 at The Manse, Church Road, Lyminge. His father was a Wesleyan minister and his mother's family manufactured needles. By 1911 when he was 16 he was a boarder at Kingswood School, Landowne Road, Bath. He appears in the De Ruvigny Roll of Honour 1914-1924 and it states that he was born 9th June 1894 and educated at Kingswood School, Bath. He then entered the Hull branch of the London Joint Stock Bank and joined the Lincoln Inns of Court OTC (officer training Corps) on 10th June 1915.
He was gazetted as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Manchester Regiment on 11th December 1915. He was first appointed to the 27th battalion and then later to the 2nd battalion. He went to France on 15th July 1916 and was killed at Serre on 18th November 1916. His commander wrote of him as a most promising officer and Capt Keeley of the 27th battalion wrote ' He did not know the meaning of fear and was always persevering and conscientious in all his duties and his first thought was always for his men.' At the time of his death the family were living at 12 St Giles Croft, Beverley, Yorkshire.
He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, France.
Reginald takes his second name Blencowe from his Grandmother Mary Anne Blencowe born 1825 Brackely.
Reginald and his company were killed wounded or taken POW when they were involved in a disastrous attack on 18th November 1916 this from website at www.themanchesters.org/2nd batt.htm
"On the 18th November the 2nd battalion, still short of bombs, attacked from Lager Alley and on to Munich Trench and Trench 28. " The Manchesters gained their objective and were the only regiment to do so" the company that was covering their flank were ambushed from a dugout that hadn't been cleared, "The company got into Munich and 28th Trench but were unable to advance or withdraw, bombs were scarce, the Germans were on both sides of them and advancing up a trench in front of them. when a dugout caught fire and the smoke was so dense that the men had to put on their gas masks. This party was all killed, wounded or taken prisoner." the place was found later with all their bodies grouped together. 'The second battalion was practically wiped out' Brigade Commander."

Timberman

[Timberman]

John Henry Loftus Reade (1881-1914)

https://www.tameside.gov.uk/LibrariesandLeisure/
MuseumsandGalleries/Regimental-Life-of-the-Month
-John-Henry-Loftus-Rea

In 1996 a box containing 538 letters written between 1895 and 1914 by Lieutenant John Henry Loftus Reade was presented to the Manchester Regiment’s 1st Battalion, then serving in Belfast. The donor was his kinswoman Mrs Rosemary Wilkinson, daughter of Dr Richard Brandon of Castletown, County Fermanagh.
After some intensive sorting by two members of the Regimental Association, the letters were deposited in their archive which is held in the Local Studies Library of Tameside Council, Ashton-under-Lyne. Loftus Reade was killed in action during the third month of the First World War while serving with the Regiment’s 2nd Battalion. I have attempted to catalogue these twenty years of his writing as part of my voluntary work at the Library, where all the letters and their summaries year-by-year can be viewed. This article aims to summarise the summaries.
Although Loftus Reade had been with the Regiment since 1902, he did not apparently set foot in Manchester until a brief visit six years later. According to Burke’s Irish Family Records (1976), the Reades lived in Ireland from Cromwellian times and George Reade was made High Sheriff of Wexford in 1768. His son, another George, married the niece of Charles Loftus Tottenham, Marquess of Ely (in Ireland), and from then onwards the name of Loftus appears in each generation. The younger George’s son Loftus was a Church of Ireland priest who moved from Wexford to County Fermanagh in 1826, and in 1830 became Prebendary of Devenish near Enniskillen. His marriage four years later proved significant, because his wife Rosanna was a daughter of John Brien from the neighbouring estate of Castletown.
Lieutenant Loftus Reade (who always signed himself as Loftus) was this clergyman’s grandson. Loftus’s father John Henry was a legal civil servant who by 1891 was Principal Clerk of the Local Government Board in London, and his mother Annabella Willans was of Irish origin but born and probably brought up in the city.
The London 1881 Census shows them living with Annabella’s parents, then ten years later they had their own home in Hampstead, where Loftus attended Loudoun House, a local school. But the situation was drastically changed by a series of deaths. Grandfather Willans had died in 1884, then Annabella’s mother and husband both died in 1894, leaving her with three children. These were Elinor (15), Loftus (13) and Constance (11).
Loftus’s letters start in January 1895, four months after his father’s death; they remain edged in black until April 1897. He had just entered the Fourth Form of St Columba’s College at Rathfarnham, on the southern edge of Dublin, leaving his mother and sisters in their new home at Bundoran, on the coast of County Donegal.
This Church of Ireland boarding school of 108 boys, one of the most prestigious in the country, was headed by Dr Whelan, a distant cousin. Loftus would have preferred to attend the much closer Portora Royal School, but the choice may not even have been his mother’s. It soon becomes clear from his letters that Annabella did not have financial control. Her husband had apparently failed to leave a will, and the holder of the purse-strings was an “obstinate old lady” (as he later described her), Mrs Brien, who lived in Dublin. Although she was his great-uncle’s widow, he never referred to her in any closer terms. The Brien pedigree (available on Ulster Ancestry’s website) reveals her maiden name as Frances Smyth.
Until 1912, Loftus wrote generally once a week to his “darling mother”, with a few letters to the “dear girls”. None of their replies are known to have been preserved. Throughout the years his handwriting matured but remained immaculate, his spelling and grammar were perfect, and his sentiments were restrained. Only occasionally, as with Mrs Brien’s miserliness or his frustrations over his army prospects, did he break into sardonic irritation. So in 1895 he calmly informed Annabella about the bullying and caning at his new school, but he reached third place in class and moved into the Fifth Form in September. By July 1896 he was excelling in the curriculum of Latin, Greek and Mathematics, he had been confirmed in the church, and he was made a prefect in September with charge of a dormitory. One of the privileges he most prized was freedom from corporal punishment; though he stopped short of condemning it, there is no sign that he approved of it or carried it out on younger boys.
Although Loftus always remained modest, his all-round abilities still come through. In January 1897, though not quite 16, he was made Acting Head of the Sixth Form during a measles epidemic, and had to help cope with the aftermath of a serious school fire. He also took a lead in producing “The Columban” college magazine, and was a keen rugby and cricket player. Yet there was no satisfying Mrs Brien, to whom “letter-writing is a weariness unto the flesh”.
By late 1898 he had risen to second in class, but Mrs Brien decided that enough had been spent on his schooling. Loftus wanted to see out the school year, but she had resolved that he should start at Trinity College Dublin the following January. He therefore scraped through the entrance exam and began his studies (which were still Classics and Maths) poorly prepared and in uncomfortable lodgings.
The situation was complicated in May 1899 by the sudden death of Loftus’s eccentric Aunt Willy, actually his great-aunt Mrs Wilhelmina Braddell. This widow was one of the three children of John Brien of Castletown, the others being Loftus’s grandmother Rosanna and John Dawson Brien, Mrs Brien’s husband, who had died in 1881. Only Rosanna had produced children, and Loftus was her sole grandson. Although Aunt Willy had nominal possession of Castletown, she had lived in Dublin for over thirty years whilst her Fermanagh estate was managed by her agent, Mr Plunkett. Loftus had visited her occasionally, but his spirits sank when he discovered the state of her Dublin home, containing endless boxes of old papers and three drunken servants.
Fortunately her brother-in-law came to the rescue. Banknotes were found in unlikely corners and so Aunt Willy was given a good wake before the will was settled. She had lived so frugally that one observer described her funeral procession as “the dearest journey she ever took in her life”.
Less fortunately, Aunt Willy had promised legacies to all and sundry but her will was not the clearest of documents. Loftus found himself neglecting his studies for innumerable meetings with solicitors, much to Mrs Brien’s disapproval. It seems that she had agreed to take her share of the estate on her husband’s death in the form of income rather than actual land, so there was no dispute that Loftus should inherit the whole of Castletown - a mansion largely built by John Dawson Brien in 1869, the year after his marriage, with the ruined seventeenth century Monea Castle nearby.
The house was surrounded by its domain of tenant farmers, covering 5,085 acres at this date according to the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. However, it was not apparent from the will that the house’s contents were included, and a codicil stated that any unspecified property was to be divided between a string of relatives. What final agreement was reached is unclear from the letters, but in early 1900 Loftus’s mother and sisters were able to move into Castletown. Henceforward Loftus took on the cares of a generally absentee landlord, worried about the expenses of estate management and concerned that Elinor and Constance had no provision of their own. Plunkett (as he was always called) continued as his agent; their relationship seems to have been efficient but always formal.
Although Loftus moved to rooms in Trinity College, dissatisfaction with his course and city life was perhaps increased by his new responsibilities. He was also aware that Boer War recruitment had accelerated, with many regular and militia troops being despatched to South Africa in 1899 and 1900. From January 1900 Loftus considered an army career. He believed that he could receive a commission in June of that year and duly sat a test, but apparently the War Office changed policy on awarding commissions to undergraduates. However, he wrote no more letters from Trinity College after that date, apparently abandoning his course (although his name appears on the College’s War Memorial).
His next letter home is dated June 1901, by which time he was a Second Lieutenant  in the Royal Irish Rifles’ 5th (Militia) Battalion at Belfast. The next month he sailed from Southampton to Durban, a seventeen-day voyage on RMS Orotava. “There are a few ladies on board” he wrote, “all middle-aged, going out to ‘concentration camps’ at the Cape, one of them being Lady Knox” the wife of a serving Colonel. (These camps had been set up to hold Boer women and children, and reports of their disease-ridden conditions had resulted in British volunteers.)
Once landed, Loftus took the train to Vredefort Road Camp in what had been the Orange Free State, now the Orange River Colony. The final bitter stage of the war consisted mainly of sporadic skirmishes, but Loftus felt that “this life suits me down to the ground”. He was appointed Transport Officer at Kopjes Station, north of Vredefort and closer to the outposts of Boer resistance, where he dealt with both trains and mules, also using this opportunity to learn polo and shoot “a lot of queer birds”. Letters home were still penned regularly once a week on the battalion’s notepaper.
Thirty-three Riflemen died from gunshot or disease before peace was made in June 1902. Loftus’s final posting was in charge of a line of blockhouses (or small fortifications) with a garrison of 24 soldiers and 50 “kaffirs”. Although the blockhouses had been attacked in previous months, none were ever taken and Loftus did not experience any direct action. Then on 28 January 1902 came “a total surprise”; he was commissioned Second Lieutenant in the Manchester Regiment, which had two regular battalions in South Africa and two at home. By May he was with the 4th Battalion at Cork Barracks, a regular officer who had earned his rank rather than acquired it through any connections.
Henceforth he was to settle into the routines of peacetime military life, with the training of new recruits, countryside manoeuvres, summer camp under canvas and the sporting and social activities of the officers’ mess. In October he was sent off to Hythe in Kent for a six-week musketry course, and on return instantly became the expert and trainer in this field. His reward was to be promoted Lieutenant in November 1903, aged 22, though he commented that “it will take the next fifteen years to Captain”.

To be continued.

Timberman

[Timberman]

John Henry Loftus Reade (1881-1914) continued


Loftus’s Battalion remained at Cork until late in 1905, and letters show that he had “lashings of work”. He was made Assistant Adjutant at the same time as Lieutenant, which entailed administrative and disciplinary duties; he was expected to hand out fines or guardroom confinements for drunken escapades, and had to arbitrate with a local farmer over a sheep-stealing episode. He attended race-meetings with his colleagues but had neither the taste nor funds for their hunting activities, preferring to develop his golfing skills. At the same time he attempted to oversee his estate, ensure Mrs Brien’s annuity and show protective concern towards his sisters, as he must have realised what limited lives they led. He encouraged them in their extended visits to friends and relations, in their gardening and bee-keeping, and, with Constance, her increasing skills in photography. Flowers and photographs were always welcomed.
In November 1905 the Battalion was transferred to Corunna Barracks at Aldershot, a town that Loftus instantly disliked (though he later admitted that he hated all new places but grew to tolerate them before being moved again). He was also made acting Adjutant, a post held off and on for four years until it became official; the job brought him an extra £40 a year plus a horse. After a year in Aldershot, the Battalion was posted to Fort Albert on the Channel Island of Alderney, where Loftus spent a bleak Christmas in 1906. The windswept isle had “six trees and twenty forts, mostly derelict”, yet he came to prefer it to “suburban Guernsey” when some of the Battalion were deployed there and he had the chance of a transfer.
With the company of eleven other officers, one policeman and one magistrate (who had to arbitrate over the islanders’ rights to shipwrecks), he could shoot gulls and play golf every day when weather permitted. He also found that the once or twice-weekly mailboat deliveries cut down on wasteful time in the Adjutant’s office.
Political concerns developed from 1906, with the election of a Liberal government resolved on military cutbacks. While Loftus was on Alderney it was announced that the Manchester Regiment would be halved from four Battalions to two, but he survived reorganisation to emerge in January 1908 as acting Adjutant for the 2nd Battalion, based at Cambridge Barracks, Portsmouth. Then in June he was in the Guard of Honour for the visit of the Duchess of Albany, who was the King’s sister-in-law. “It was extremely hot for a tunic” he wrote, “but it all went off very nicely”.
Meanwhile at home he encouraged Plunkett in selling off land to tenants, so giving a boost to the family’s uncertain income. He lamented that he had “to soldier permanently for a living” after he performed badly at a promotional exam in December because “I haven’t the brains of a fly”. (Modern readers may doubt this on looking at his meticulously researched twenty-page essay about Stonewall Jackson’s 1862 Virginia Campaign, written as a training exercise in 1905.)
In March 1909 Loftus, now aged 28, was elected Mess President, perhaps because he was not subject to the Battalion’s “matrimonial epidemic”. Naturally he would not disclose all his private activities in letters home, but over the years there is never a hint of romance. In fact, Loftus tried to avoid society dinners and dances whenever possible. Nor does he ever mention any close male friends, whether in school, university or regiment. It would be wrong, however, to assume that he was a recluse; he was known to have a good baritone voice, and was prepared to perform at small gatherings. Yet he always gives the impression of being detached from others,
happiest when reading one of his sisters’ novels, playing golf, or on a shoot in the country.
Loftus’s routine was interrupted in September 1909 when, after six weeks of manoeuvres on Salisbury Plain, the Battalion transferred to Mullingar in County Westmeath. The barracks proved comfortable, though there was “no dirtier town in Ireland”. Social life consisted of visits to the local gentry, including the Tottenhams of Tudenham House who were distant relatives. Contact was easier when his colleague Captain Theobald was prepared to share his motor-car (make unspecified). Loftus still avoided hunting (“the Irishman is a brute where animals are concerned”) and liked escaping from the Mess provided that he was not expected to socialise too much with his hosts’ hopeful daughters or nieces.
National and international politics now increasingly entered into Loftus’s letters. The Liberal government was pledged to introduce Irish Home Rule, but had been frustrated by the House of Lords’ power of veto. Tensions in Ireland had risen, and in Mullingar there were occasional bad words (though no apparent violence) between soldiers and locals. In May 1910 the new King George V was proclaimed at Mullingar without public enthusiasm, only the military singing the National Anthem. Loftus believed the government to be dangerously weak both at home and abroad. He warned his mother in May that “it is high time everybody put their affairs in order with a view to the approaching war with Germany”. But then a war “would settle our promotion troubles”.
There were diversions in June 1911, when Loftus travelled to London in order to supervise the Battalion’s ceremonial drill at the Coronation, and in July, when the King presented new colours to all the five regiments in Ireland. Two months later he feared that the same troops would be used to intervene in a Dublin strike, but in the end they were not involved. Back at Castletown, Elinor had played a large part, along with the Rector of Devenish, in fund-raising for a new school, and she had presided over its opening in February when Loftus was unable to attend. This boosted her confidence into becoming an organiser and speaker for the Women’s Unionist Movement. And as the 1911 Parliament Act had removed the House of Lords’ power of veto, the prospect of Home Rule was drawing closer.
In October 1911 the Battalion moved to Keane Barracks on the Curragh, the grassy plain in County Kildare that provided both a racecourse and the major army base in Ireland. Three months later, they were sent to Belfast because violence was expected during a visit from one of the government’s keenest Home Rulers, Winston Churchill. Loftus wrote home that “The battalion is in Belfast and I am here (at base). I don’t feel very noble over it. But when it seemed as if there would be serious trouble with the Orangemen, I told the Colonel that I really could not go and he agreed to leave me behind.” The troops were not called into action, although “Winston would have been badly mobbed but for having his wife with him”. Loftus however “washed (his) hands of Orangeism and all its ways” because soldiers were illicitly handed leaflets urging them not to fight against their fellow citizens. Unlike his sister Elinor, his mind had become “an absolute blank on the matter” of Home Rule.
Loftus’s adjutancy was due to end in December 1912. He had now served six postings with the regiment, ranging from over three years at Cork to ten months in Alderney, and he reluctantly expected a transfer to India. So he visited Mrs Brien, now nearly blind but still expecting updates on “the safe custody of her marriage settlement”. Then he was saved by the appearance of another lieutenant who drew the short straw. In February 1913 he arrived instead at the Regimental Depot in Ashton-under-Lyne.
There are only four letters home preserved from 1913, sent between February and July. Eight officers were based at what was later called Ladysmith Barracks, built between “sombre moors and endless mills”. A march round the local towns resembled “being led into Dante’s Inferno”. But as four colleagues had cars, there were excursions into Manchester and through the “Stockport slums” to Alderley Edge, home of Lieutenant Holberton (later a war hero). Loftus had attended several refresher courses on musketry skills, and now again took shooting practice with recruits, this time at Fleetwood on the Lancashire coast. These “troglodytes”, as he called them, were required to pass a test and so new officers had to watch out for experienced soldiers being bribed to impersonate the less able. Fleetwood was followed by summer camp near Appleby. Loftus’s life sounds less stressed than in his adjutancy days, though he was bothered about “socialism in the ranks”. But he had perhaps become more cynical, conscious that his career had stalled and he had been sidelined.
From the start of 1914, Loftus was concerned about his mother’s sciatica which confined her to bed, but his letters continued to comment on the fraught Irish situation. On 20 March the Commander at the Curragh gave his officers the choice between resigning their commissions or fighting the Ulster Unionists, a step which he believed the government was about to order; fifty-seven (though none from the Manchester Regiment) offered to resign. Word got out, and the government claimed there had been confusion about its intentions, but others smelled a plot. Loftus had no time for Unionist conspiracy theories. “I’m sick of the government, equally sick of the opposition, and sick almost more than all with the Morning Post” he wrote home on 2 April. “The whole trouble did arise out of misunderstandings – the evidence of a plot to force a conflict in Ulster isn’t enough to hang a fly on.”
Then on 30 April Annabella died, aged 72. She must have concealed her terminal condition from her son. Blacked-edged correspondence resumed with the sisters in June along much the same lines as before, ranging from speculation about a general election to comments on a jolly trip to Blackpool. Two months later “Armageddon has come at last”. War was declared on 4 August, which gave “an unrivalled opportunity of getting rid of the German menace”. The Home Rule Bill was finally given royal assent in September, but suspended for the war. However, Loftus realized that the fighting was not going to be finished quickly and he did not expect Irish Nationalists to be “loyal citizens until the war’s over”.
Loftus returned to his Battalion at the Curragh on 10 August and sailed six days later on the crowded “Buteshire” from Dublin. The battalion currently comprised 20 officers and 570 other ranks, and were to join the British Expeditionary Force in northern France. During the next eleven weeks Loftus managed to send his sisters five pre-printed postcards and five letters in minute pencilled handwriting.
He began by assuring them of the arrangements made with his solicitor before departure, then listed his practical needs for socks, handkerchiefs, soap, chocolate and cigarettes. Censorship meant that he could not describe the campaign, but he could tell Elinor and Constance that he had been made Adjutant again in September after his predecessor had been killed in carrying out the hazardous task of passing on orders. Yet it was still “a wonderful time to live through”.
His last letter is dated 28 October. “I am still as fit as ever” he wrote, “but sleep has been at a discount”. He knew that he had already been mentioned for valour in despatches, and “to know that it has given you pleasure gives me pleasure too. God bless you both”. This was written the day before his death, and so must have reached home after the fateful telegram of 1 November, sent in the War Secretary’s name. “Deeply regret to inform you” it stated, “that Lieut. JHL Reade Manchester Regt was killed in action 28-29 October. Lord Kitchener expresses his sympathy.” Loftus was aged 33 years and 8 months. Mrs Brien had outlived him; she lingered on until December 1917, and was buried with her husband in Dublin.
The box of Loftus’s letters also contained the official notices of his death, obituaries clipped from Irish newspapers, a few South African photographs and twenty-four letters of condolence. No family letters were included. The earliest, dated 2 November 1914, is from the Rector of Devenish, William Steele. Comments on Loftus’s “blameless and upright life”, and his support for the church, were to form the basis of the Rector’s funeral sermon, reproduced in full by the Fermanagh Times. Other missives were from the Parish Vestry, the local Rifle Club, the Orange Lodge, the sisters’ war nursing class, and several neighbours. One of these wrote that “everyone hoped he might settle down as Squire in Castletown”. But the most poignant were six letters from Loftus’s wartime colleagues, written whilst recovering from wounds in England and so free from the censorship of the front. It is from their accounts that the Lieutenant’s movements during his final weeks can be reconstructed.
The Battalion’s first encounter with the Germans occurred on 23 August, at the Mons-Conde canal. Three days later there was a fierce fight at Le Cateau, south of Mons, after which Loftus’s commanding officer, Colonel James, mentioned him in despatches. Another participant was a Private Richards who was nursed by the sisters’ friend Alice Tottenham in Torquay. She got him to describe what had happened, and then passed on the details. “All his men used to wonder at his courage. He went across a zone of fire to get orders, and would let no one go but himself. When a bullet hit his cap, he got up and came back laughing, and he used to wear the cap afterwards with the hole through the peak.” Loftus’s old motoring colleague from Mullingar, Captain Theobald, also wrote that “he was absolutely without any sort of fear in action.”
Two witnesses to Loftus’s final moments also contacted the sisters. One was his immediate chief, Captain Hardcastle, whom he had first known on Alderney. Hardcastle was with him in the trenches at Festubert, about fifty miles west of Mons, where Loftus had told him that “I’d sooner be here than at Ashton”. He wrote that “Suddenly we saw them (the Germans) rushing our forward trenches, and Loftus ran along the supporting trench, steadying the men. He must have exposed himself in his haste, because he’d hardly got to the end of the line before a man told me he’d been hit. As soon as we had driven them back, I went to him and found a bullet had gone through his neck. When night fell, he was buried with others near a small farm, and after the burials the regiment withdrew from the firing line. ”
Alice Tottenham also prompted another wounded Private for his memories, which he committed to paper himself. JM Hall wrote that “About seven o’clock on the morning of 29 October Lieut. Reade was dashing up and down giving his orders and urging on his men when a sniper fired and hit him in the head. He never spoke a word after, and I can honestly say what I saw of Lieut. Reade was, he was a brave and gallant soldier.” The sisters sent Private Hall a cigarette case, and in a letter of thanks he promised on his return to look for their brother’s grave if possible. But there seems to be no further word from him, and in November 1916 Elinor and Constance got the Director of Graves Registration to confirm that Loftus was indeed buried at Festubert.
Included amongst the letters was one sent to Loftus himself in April 1914 by Arthur Bathurst, an acquaintance from another regiment, in reply to an earlier post. Bathurst wrote that “Your letter sums up both the political and military situation with an impartiality which is extremely rare in any class of the community, and especially so in the Army and from an Irishman!” Loftus’s impartiality was mature and enlightened; he understood that the Irish troubles would not be resolved by one party triumphing over the other, and that the German conflict would be prolonged and devastating. Yet it was also symptomatic of that sense of detachment which had grown increasingly cynical during the frustrations of twelve years’ peacetime soldiering. Once at the front, however, an entirely different spirit of heroic recklessness seems to have taken him over, and the twelve years of detachment were followed by two months of glory and then death.
Back in Fermanagh, her wartime duties over, Elinor Reade married Rector William Steele on 4 March 1919. She was now aged 39 and he was 53; there were no children. Constance meanwhile lived on in Castletown, presumably tending the garden as before, perhaps still taking photographs, but above all ensuring that the possessions and letters of her brother remained intact. She died unmarried in 1968, aged 85. There were no Reades nor Briens to succeed her, and the house with its remaining 135 acres was left to Dr Richard Brandon (1916-2001), whose mother Gladys Reade was Constance’s third cousin. Their common ancestor was the George Reade who had been High Sheriff of Wexford in 1768. Coincidentally, they shared another forebear as Dr Brandon was descended from a sister of John Brien of Castletown. It may also have come to the old lady’s notice that he had served as a Flight Lieutenant in the Second World War, and that his name had been mentioned in despatches.
Acknowledgements
For their work in preserving Loftus Reade’s records and their help in preparing this article, I would like to thank Captain Robert Bonner (retired), Chairman of the Manchester Regiment Advisory Committee, and his two volunteers, Peter Ashworth and Frank Fenton; Frank McHugh, Secretary of the Fermanagh Family History Society; Larysa Bolton and Michael Keane, present and previous Tameside Council Archivists; and all the staff of Tameside Local Studies Library in Ashton-under-Lyne.
David Ian Hamilton

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Lieutenant John Henry Loftus Reade

Regiment: 2nd Battalion Manchester Regiment
Killed In Action: Yes
Date Killed: Thursday, October 29, 1914
Age at Death: 33
Panel Reference: Panels 34 and 35.
Cemetery: Le Touret Memorial Pas de Calais France
Information:
Lieutenant John Henry Loftus Reade, 2nd Battalion Manchester Regiment, who was killed in action on the 29th October, was the only son of the late Mr. John Henry Loftus Reade, Barrister-at-Law, Lincoln's Inn, and grandnephew of the late John Dawson Brien, D.L., of Castletown, Co. Fermanagh, to whose property he succeeded. He was born in 1881, and was educated at St. Columba's College, Rathfarnham. He entered the service in December, 1900, receiving a commission in the 5th Royal Irish Rifles, and served in the South African Campaign from 1901 to 1902. In January, 1902, he was gazetted to the Manchester Regiment. From 1909-1912 he was adjutant of the 2nd Batt. Manchester Regiment. He left the Curragh with his regiment on 13th August, and after the battle of Le Cateau became acting adjutant. He was mentioned in Sir John French's despatches.
Date of Publication:
Friday, January 22, 1915
Collections
    Description   Held by   Reference   Further information
1   
c1900-1914: letters to his mother and sister from college, the army and active service in France and South Africa

Tameside Local Studies and Archives   Acc2915   See Annual return 2000
2   
c1900-14: personal papers

Tameside Local Studies and Archives   Acc 3059   See Annual Return 2003

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Second Lieutenant CLARENCE LESLIE BENTLEY,
Died 28/10/1914
Aged 20
2nd Bn.
Manchester Regiment
Son of Anne Mary Bentley, of Fulford Grange, York, and the late Alderman William Bentley, J.P. Passed out of Sandhurst as war was declared.
The following is taken from Life of the Month James Leach VC
The action in which Leach and Hogan won their VC’s
•   Now, a battalion of worn-out and exhausted men, they were ordered the following day to withdraw and hold a new line which had previously been prepared by the Royal Engineers and which extended half-a-mile along the road leading north from the cross roads one mile east of Festubert. They continued to hold this position for the next few days with just a few casualties. On the 26th the 1st Battalion Manchester Regiment took over trenches to the left of the 2nd Battalion. This was a historic occasion being the first time that the two battalions had met since Alexandria in 1882. Unfortunately there were many casualties resulting from heavy enemy shelling. Shelling continued on the 27th. Through every hour of 28th October the German artillery continued shelling their trenches, thumping at the thin line of the 2nd Manchesters. It continued throughout the night and redoubled in intensity on the morning of the 29th.
•   In the thin light of dawn the German infantry attacked in overpowering strength against the centre and right of the Manchesters and against the Devons on their right. Soon intense hand to hand fighting took place in the front line trenches manned by ‘A’ Company. The Germans succeeded in occupying the centre forward trench in the charge of newly commissioned 2nd Lieutenant James Leach; but the right forward trench, commanded by Captain Evans, repulsed the attack made on them. Leach and his men withdrew to their support trench where they gathered themselves and were able to prevent a German attempt to over-run their new position, driving the enemy back to the trench which they had just won. 2nd Lieutenant Bentley and Lieutenant and Adjutant Reade plus eighteen rank and file were killed in this action.

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 Major Alexander Gunning Foord

Alexander was born between April and June 1876 in Brentford, west London, and baptised on the 20th August. His father was called Henry Robert and his mother was Gertrude P. C. Alexander had 4 older siblings: Gertrude, Constance, Montague and Francis Leighton; and 2 younger: Kenneth and Robert.
Henry worked as a clerk for the Admiralty, the Government department responsible for the Royal Navy. In 1881 the family lived at 235 High Street in Isleworth, west London. Ten years later they had moved to Wadsworth Villa on London Road in nearby Heston.
On the 8th December 1893 Alexander joined the Cape Mounted Rifles in what is now South Africa. His service number was 2536. We don't know whether he had been living in South Africa for a time before he enlisted. In peacetime this unit enforced the law in Cape Colony, but during conflict it acted as an army. Francis joined at the same time, his service number was 2535.
Alexander saw service during the Annexation of Pondoland in 1894, when the independent native Pondo Kingdom was brought under European rule. He also served in 1897 in what he referred to as the Le Pleut Rebellion. We don't know what this was. Both he and Francis had reached the rank of Corporal by 1899. Alexander had also leaned the Afrikaaner language spoken by Boer settlers.
The outbreak of the Boer War in October 1899 meant that British Army units began to arrive in South Africa, leaving the Cape Mounted Rifles to guard railways and other vulnerable points. Alexander applied to the Governor of Cape Colony to be recommended for a commission as an officer. The Governor agreed to nominate him, so he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Manchester Regiment on the 5th January 1901. Francis went through the same process, and joined the South Staffordshire Regiment.
Alexander joined the 2nd Battalion of the Manchester Regiment in mid June, along with Phillip Holberton, whose medals are also in the Museum of the Manchester Regiment collection. He was promoted to Lieutenant on the 30th October 1901. Alexander served with the Mounted Infantry Company of the 2nd Battalion throughout the rest of the war, taking part in sweeps across the countryside aimed at restricting the movements of Boer fighters and preventing them from avoiding British forces. This strategy was eventually successful and the war ended on the 31st May 1902.
The 2nd Battalion set sail for the UK on the 27th September, and Alexander went with them, aboard the Kinfauns Castle. He would serve with them in the UK for the next 12 years.
On the 1st December 1903 Alexander was appointed Assistant Adjutant of the Battalion. The Adjutant was responsible for administration and discipline, as well managing the junior officers and being expected to assist the Commanding Officer with planning operations. He was assisting Phillip Holberton. After 3 years Phillip left the post and Alexander held it until December 1909.
During that year the 2nd Battalion had moved from England to Ireland. Alexander served with them in this country for 18 months before he was appointed Adjutant to the 3rd Battalion of the Manchester Regiment on the 6th June 1911.
The 3rd Battalion was based at the Regimental Depot in Ashton-under-Lyne. It was a unit of the Special Reserve, made up of men who lived as civilians for most of the year and trained as soldiers annually for a short period. Alexander will have had the same responsibilities as with the 2nd Battalion, but his job will have been made more challenging by the battalion so rarely coming together.
Alexander was promoted to Captain on the 1st December 1912, and became engaged soon afterwards. He married Violet Muriel Smith on the 30th April 1913 in Churchdown, near Gloucester. He left the 3rd Battalion on the 5th June 1914 and returned to the 2nd, now at The Curragh Camp in Ireland.
The First World War broke out on the 4th August. The 2nd Battalion needed to be brought up to its full strength of around 1000 with Reservists and Special Reservists. Alexander was one of a number of officers sent to the Depot in Ashton to collect Reservists. He returned on the 8th August with 400 men. Around 680 Reservists were required in all.
Alexander was a member of C Company when he arrived in France on the 14th. He took part in the Battle of Le Cateau on the 26th, where around 350 members of the battalion were killed or wounded. After this the British Army was forced to retreat by the Germans. The retreat was ended by the Battle of the Marne, fought between the 5th and 12th September.
Casualties amongst the 30 officers of the battalion had been very high. Alexander was the only Captain still with them by the 9th. On this day Alexander was severely wounded. After being left on the battlefield all night he was recovered and taken to hospital.
We don't know what Alexander did between then and the 20th December 1915, when he was given a special appointment. We don't know anything about what he did, but the job did not last for long.
Alexander was promoted to Major on the 5th January 1916 and given the job of Brigade Major 2 weeks later. A Brigade Major was a staff officer based in a Brigade Headquarters, one step above a battalion. He was responsible for planning operations and organizing the units within the brigade. We don't know which brigade he served with at first.
On the 23rd January 1917 Alexander was assigned to the 173rd (3/1st London) Brigade, part of the 58th (2/1st London) Division. This unit had just arrived in France, so many of its soldiers will not have seen combat. Experienced officers such as Alexander will have been of vital importance.
Alexander served as Brigade Major during the fighting around the Hindenburg Line and at Bullecourt. On the 14th May he was promoted to Temporary Lieutenant Colonel and took command of the 2/6th (City of London) Battalion (Rifles) of the London Regiment. They were part of the 174th (2/2nd London) Brigade, but in the same Division, so Alexander may have known some of its officers and soldiers. They fought in the Passchendaele Offensive around Ypres in Belgium during this period.

To be continued.

Timberman

PS. The medals are,
(L to R) Distinguished Service Order; Queen's South Africa Medal with clasps 'Cape Colony', 'Orange Free State', 'Transvaal'; King's South Africa Medal with clasps 'South Africa 1901', 'South Africa 1902'; 1914 Star with clasp '5th Aug.-22nd Nov. 1914'; British War Medal; Allied Victory Medal; Special Constabulary Long Service Medal

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Alexander Gunning Foord continued

At some point during August or September Alexander led his battalion with such skill that he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order. His citation was published in the London Gazette on the 27th October 1917:
For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty in capturing all the battalion objectives and holding them against counter attacks. His battalion had a most difficult task to perform and it was due to his power of command that they so ably carried it out.
Alexander led the 2/6th Battalion until the 20th September when he was again wounded. After he recovered from his injuries he was assigned to the 3rd Battalion of the Manchester Regiment, which was based at Cleethorpes in Lincolnshire and involved in training recruits. On the 24th August 1918 he again became a Temporary Lieutenant Colonel and took the job of Commandant at the Northern Command School of Musketry at Strensall in Yorkshire. This job involved overseeing the training in rifle and machine gun shooting of recruits and soldiers.
The war ended on the 11th November, but Alexander stayed as Commandant until the 2nd May 1919, when he returned to the 3rd Battalion as a Major. With the end of the war this unit was being reduced in size. It was disbanded in July, by which time Alexander had left it.
Alexander's new job was Officer Commanding the Regimental Depot. This was where recruits for the Manchester Regiment were trained, and it was the regiment's link with the Manchester area, so this was a high -profile job. Alexander dealt with several issues. His immediate priority was to ensure soldiers were demobilised quickly and correctly. After this he dealt with the creation of the Defence Force between April and June 1921. This saw large numbers of officers and reservists report to the Depot, in case they were needed to support the police during large industrial strikes. These strikes were threatened, but never occurred.
Perhaps Alexander's most lasting legacy was the decision to name the barracks where the Depot was based Ladysmith Barracks, in memory of the battle honour earned during the Boer War. The new name was approved on the 31st December 1921.
Alexander left the Depot in August 1922, and retired from the Army on the 7th December. He would be missed by his comrades. He was described as 'always cheery, very keen on his work [and] conscientious to a fault'. They wished him the best in Cheltenham, where he and Violet went to live.
Although he had left the Army Alexander stayed heavily involved with the Manchester Regiment. He joined the Old Comrades Association (OCA) and attended many reunions and dinners. He was serving as Honorary Treasurer of the Manchester Regiment Central Committee by July 1935. This aimed to coordinate the work of the various OCAs, the Regimental Chapel the Museum, and other groups. He held this job for around 25 years.
After the Second World War age and illness meant Alexander had to slow down. He was no longer Treasurer in 1948 and as he developed increasingly serious arthritis attending Regimental events became harder. He could still enjoy fishing, and took an annual holiday to do this. Often he would go with an old comrade; his partner in 1951 was Alfred Rose, whose medals are also in the Museum of the Manchester Regiment collection.
By the late 1950s Alexander was one of only 3 Manchester Regiment officers still living who had served in the Boer War. He suffered a heart attack during 1959 that disabled him further, and he came to rely on Violet's devoted care. They lived at 'The Bryn' on Talbot Road in Cheltenham during this period.
As well as his involvement in the Regiment Alexander served as a Church Warden at Christ's Church, Cheltenham. He had served as a Special Constable for at least 9 years by the time King George V died in 1936. He also collected and presented a number of medals to the Museum of the Manchester Regiment.
Alexander died on the 31st July 1961 in Bayshill Nursing Home. He was 85 years old. His funeral was held at Christ's Church. Many of his friends and comrades paid their respects to a man they knew as 'Podge'.
Violet died on the 22nd March 1970 aged 83. We don't know whether they had any children. Alexander's medals were donated to the Museum of the Manchester Regiment in 1972.

The information is from the Men behind the Medals.

Timberman