Hooptedoodle #137 – Cereal Packet Giveaways

This started off with me reminiscing in an email to Old John about the cut-out masks you used to get on the back of Puffed Wheat packets when I was a kid. So this is straightforward, aimless nostalgia, purely for its own sake.

I’m not an expert or a collector, but I suppose I must have spent many weeks of my life at breakfast times over the years, staring at cereal packets – maybe months. Nowadays my attention tends to wander a bit, but this is partly due to the messages on the packet being mostly dedicated to telling me why I should buy this stuff, disregarding completely the fact that I have obviously already bought it.

There was a long period when all cereal packets had to be themed into some popular TV character, or some cartoon personality they had generated for their own advertising – which at the time I thought was a bit limp, and probably is a useful guide to the point in history when kids were no longer expected to have an imagination. There was also a pseudo-health period – where else could I have learned that the cereal I was eating contained traces of Niacin, which (of course) is the anti-Pellagra vitamin? Just out of interest, did anyone ever have Pellagra? – I’ve always assumed it was very nasty, but I never knew.

No – I’m talking of the fifties [sinister, echoing sound effect]. Out of complete idleness, I spent a little time yesterday looking online for some evidence of some of those memories – naturally, the world of Google is swamped in US examples, probably because Americans are better than we are at nostalgia and because it rarely occurs to them that anywhere else ever existed. I found a marvellous UK site, which is worth a look, here. I borrowed a couple of examples from there, but only to show what a great place to visit it is.

Well I remember the Puffed Wheat “Hi-Hats”, which promised so much yet delivered so little. My first one was the Saturn Space Spy, which was unusual in that it was a full face – most of them were upper face only. I munched my way impatiently through a big pack of PW, gazing longingly at the thing (though I had some misgivings about the fact that it said Space Spy in big letters on the forehead). This is the stuff of fantasy – at no additional cost (as they pointed out), the mighty Quaker company – whose technology was such that every single Puff was fired from big cannons, apparently – had presented me with the opportunity to actually look like a real Space Spy. Fantastic. If you got your mum to give a hand with cutting out the eye holes, and around the sticky-out nose flap – oh yes, and punch the holes for the elastic, and then actually find some elastic – then, at a stroke, your imagination would do the rest and you would instantly - magically - be changed from a kid into a kid with a piece of cereal packet attached to the front of his head.

I believe that I actually cried a bit when I saw the reality of my mask. Even if it had worked, which it didn’t, it would only have worked from the front – although, of course, that is exactly the view I presented in the mirror. The worst of the lot was the cowboy hat. Let’s put this into context…

Cowboy hats were a problem. In fact cowboy outfits were a problem generally. You could buy any number of toy guns, you could play at wiping out the entire aboriginal population of Northern America every day (God forgive us - no wonder we grew up weird), but if you wanted to dress the part you were in for a let-down. Cowboy outfits that you bought from toyshops didn’t look like the proper cowboys in the Tim Holt movies on Saturday mornings – they looked, at best, like Hopalong Flaming Cassidy. I had a stupid black, Baden-Powell shaped hat with a lime green fringe around the brim – lime green? - what was that about? My cousin’s was even worse – it was the same shape, but a festive sort of royal blue, with a cut out tin-foil star on the front – and his cowpoke’s protective “chaps” actually had pictures of cowboys printed on them. Even at 5 or 6, we realized this was a poor show.

You get the idea. Into this authenticity vacuum, Puffed Wheat produced a very convincing looking 2-dimensional cowboy hat that Tim Holt and his chums would have been proud of, and the drawing of the happy boy wearing it, terrorizing his astonished mother and sister, showed that he looked – even from the side – just like the real deal. Although I had cooled on the idea of Hi-Hats after my Space Spy fiasco, I got quite worked up about this one. One Saturday, stuffed with Puffed Wheat, I cut it out, fitted it up, recycled the elastic from the binned Space Spy, took one look in the mirror and it was ditched within 20 seconds. Not only did it look rubbish, but it actually wrapped around the sides of your head like a sweatband – not at all like the illustration. More tears.

These were valuable life lessons, of course – about marketing and about the fact that – in the long run – no amount of imagination will cover up for complete junk!

I remember the multiple series of cut-out vehicles of all types on the back of the Weetabix packets – I’m sure some genius must have designed them, and they were fun, but – again – they were fiddly to make and looked dreadful. One after the other, they were cut out, glued together and binned, I didn’t get upset about them any more, but I was aware that I only liked the process, rather than the end deliverable. The flat wheels, printed on one side only, were an obvious weakness, but in fact the square edges were unrealistic too – in both respects, the veteran car series were better, but the finished product was never worth the effort. It must have served as a good apprenticeship for all these botched toy soldiers in later life, though! I recall that the first couple of series of Weetabix Workshop had a sketch of a boy and his mum looking suitably enthusiastic, but the later ones were more obviously macho and engineering-focused, and mum was dropped - the psychologists were busy, even then.

I also remember something called Mornflake Oats, which I assume was porridge – my cousin collected a most impressive looking village and farm which you could cut out and assemble – on good quality art card, as I recall, but we never had the courage to try to build them. There was a slight risk that if they didn’t turn out well it might be down to us.

So much other stuff – freebies which have become little icons of childhood – red plastic British Foot Guards bandsmen – I started collecting them, but gave up after I got five tuba players on the trot. Of course, if I’d had any mates, I could have swapped them.

I recall little plastic submarines which worked with baking soda, a series of small one-piece plastic racing cars, which must have come with Sugar Puffs (later?), since I can recall that they were always sticky and had to be washed.

I tried to find some pictures of proper Hi-Hats, but failed – I found some American Kellogg’s equivalents, but not the real thing from my own history. Anyway, if you never saw them, they were rubbish. Take my word for it.  

Painting - Mules...

In response to emails from Ludovico, Martin P, Martin S, Louis and Francis, here is the new mule train.  Not hugely attractive, but potentially useful. They are versatile, since they are capable of representing any nation in the Peninsula, or of splitting into smaller trains.

I would prefer it if they weren't all in step, but this is only a toy army, after all.

Painting - a Little Command Tidying-Up

While assembling some heavyweight shipments of soldiers to go away to be worked on by painters who actually know what they are doing, I've also been doing some fiddling away of my own, finishing off some odd figures that have been in the To Be Painted pile for far too long. None of them is going to win any prizes, but it is satisfying to get a bit of the backlog cleared.

First thing I did was finish off my Peninsular War mule train - it's only taken me about 40 years to get around to having one of these. Pack and draught animals are always a bit of a thankless undertaking; since I always put off painting them, I have usually forgotten that they are mostly just a mass of harness and strapping and bits tied on, all of which requires a bit of care to make them look half-decent.

That was last week. This week I have mostly been finishing off some missing generals for my other French Peninsular Army (which is sort of the Army of the Centre, or the North, or Aragon, or any and all of these as occasion demands). Two of these are Art Miniaturen castings, for the cavalry - nominally Generals Treillard (with the white "division" border to his base) and Maupoint (brown for "brigade), and the other is an old Minifigs 20mm OPC figure, who started life as one of several Marshal Neys which I have, and will be a spare General de Division for the Army of Portugal, or anyone else who needs one.

Here they are - glad to have got them finished - feels like more progress than it really is. Once again, my photographs show the blue uniforms as rather paler than they look in the flesh - my camera has outsmarted me again. [I don't mind so much if my camera is smarter than me - it hurts more when I am out-thought by the electric kettle…]

Since the Aragon role is not comfortable for King Joseph (who is the incumbent command figure for this other army), I am also thinking of having an extra figure for Marshal Suchet - the real motivation here is that I have a very nice little mounted ADC in hussar uniform who will paint up very colourfully as Suchet's sidekick, Captain Gaultier, on the 2-figure C-in-C stand. That's down the road a piece - next painting job for me is a group of British infantry intended for digging trenches in the siege game. These will be armed with shovels and pickaxes, and mounted on the house-standard brown "mud" stands (for sieges). After that there is more artillery equipment, and a refurb job on a very elderly unit of Garrison French chasseurs a cheval, who will need some improvised command. Don't hold your breath.

Foy’s Almost-Summer Prize Competition 2014 - the Actual Competition

Here it is – sorry, this is all a bit rushed now, which makes something of a nonsense of my attempt at dramatic effect, but I'm not sure I'm going to get a chance to get back to the blog over the next couple of days.

As ever, if you wish to enter you have to either be a registered follower of my blog or else someone with whom I have regular email correspondence in connection with the blog.

I’ve gone back to an old format for this competition, mainly because it used to give rise to a bigger and more entertaining response! The competition is very simple – please study this photograph, which was taken at around midday in the month of August, on a weekday, and send me a comment (or email, if you prefer) telling me where it was taken, which Napoleonic event took place near here, why whiskers are relevant(!), how you arrived at this answer, and any other thoughts you have.

I’ve deliberately made the photo large, so you can examine it in greater detail. Oh yes – I took the photo myself, so you won’t find it in Google Image. There’s quite a few clues here, but I hope it’s still a reasonable challenge.

Judging will be, as ever, completely subjective and totally unfair – I’ll allow up to 10 points for geographical accuracy, 10 points for identification of the historical associations (including the whiskers) and 20 points for your explanation of how you came to this conclusion, and any relevant observations – thus an amusing explanation of a poor answer may score as many points as a blunt presentation of the correct answer.

If you can get your solution to me by midnight (UK time) at the end of 10^th June I’ll get the details of the winner posted within a day or so after that. I won't publish entry comments received, to avoid people learning from each others’ answers, though I’ll consider publishing any clarifications, in case there are any technical issues….  (yawn)

The Prizes

This is a bit of a grand chuck-out – so I hope it appeals, there are some nice items in here. The winner will receive a parcel containing all of the following:

(1) Paperback of Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch’s Napoleonic War Stories (new)

(2) Paperback - The Wargaming Pioneers Vol.1 – edited by John Curry – includes details of Little Wars, R L Stevenson’s games, Shambattle and a pile of other early wargames (perfect, unmarked)

(3) The Napoleonic Wargame – G W Jeffrey (paperback) – (old and read, but sound and clean) – Old School, but not as we know it, Jim…

(4) Warhammer – English Civil War – rules and much more (paperback) – (very good condition)

(5) Napoleon – Matthew Fletcher - Wargames Foundry’s rules-cum-coffee table book about wargaming, which is an entertaining read – lots and lots and LOTS of pictures of their figures, with instructions on how to paint them

(6) Portuguese Army booklet as described in my previous post

If you wish to enter but do not want the prize, please say so and have a go anyway, just for the glory, and you may be the Category B winner – the prize will still go to the best Category A effort.

If you are interested then I wish you all the best, I look forward to hearing from you and thank you for reading my blog!

Foy’s Almost-Summer Competition 2014 – the Preamble

First of all – if you’re looking for an actual competition here, you’re too early – come back in a week or so!

Since it’s just a couple of weeks short of what passes for Midsummer in this part of the world, and since it’s a while since I did a competition, I decided it was time to do something about it.

The bad news is that the prize on offer consists, in part, of a very humble booklet which I put together in the 1970s. The value, if it has any, is in its rarity! I’ll set out the competition, with full details of the prize(s), in a day or so, but in the meantime a couple of stories associated with this booklet seemed appropriate – you can regard them as something to add background or, if you prefer, as further injury added to the insult already presented by the wretched prize!

Subplot 1 – the Publication

Around 1976 I was attempting to put together a Portuguese army for my 20mm Peninsular War, and became so frustrated about the lack of helpful, explicit reference information about this army that I decided to do something about it.

What I did was put a letter in the Military Modelling, asking for anyone who had any useful contacts or information to get in touch. It worked. I had been prepared to bet I would get no response, but I got a lot of mail quite quickly. Most of it was from people with a similar frustration, asking me for whatever information I already had(!), but I also got some really helpful replies – from all over the world. I remember that a chap named Gallo, in South Africa, sent me some very rare photocopies of an ancient typed monograph, with line drawings, which was better than anything I’d seen to date.

I also received a response from Herbert, who features in Subplot 2, below, which resulted in a lengthy correspondence during which we became quite good friends and exchanged a lot of information. By early 1977 I was in possession of so much material that I set it out in a formal booklet (which meant old-fashioned typing, in those days). Someone put me in touch with the Napoleonic Association, who were producing uniform and organization booklets at that time, and they were happy to publish my Portuguese effort as one of the series.

My involvement with the NA at that time was restricted to discussion of the forthcoming booklet, and I dealt mostly with Rob Mantle, who was enthusiastic and helpful throughout. I did attend their annual dinner once, in Knaresborough, and enjoyed the evening, though I became aware of some factionism within the ranks – there were definitely insiders and outsiders, and the re-enactors treated the wargaming section with a rehearsed indifference which struck me as very amusing, but then I was a complete outsider anyway.

The booklet took a while to manufacture, which was normal for 1979, during which I was requested to add an extra chapter on available reading sources, for which, I regret, I produced a half-hearted lash-up, partly because I was expected to say something controversial, or critical of established works or authors. Also, to my great disappointment, there was no time to include a lately-acquired pile of additional detail on flags and cavalry standards.

When the booklet appeared, it was given a collective roasting, along with the NA’s other publications, in a review by Donald Featherstone (would that be in Wargamer's Newsletter? - I'm not sure now), who expressed himself as increasingly tired of the flood of low quality booklets by amateur historians. There is a potential case of pots and kettles in this, but apparently DFF and the NA had some gentle history of friction – it may be that they represented a new generation of wargamers of which he did not entirely approve (I am guessing), but it also became evident that he was one of the established writers they had set about annoying, so they had certainly succeeded in this.

As for the credentials of their authors, I confess that Mr Featherstone had a point (none of them had served in the Tank Regt in WW2, after all), but the line-up included Pete Hofschroer, who is regarded pretty seriously now.

The booklet sold a modest number of copies, as you would expect, and was eventually remaindered. I never did anything about the improved, expanded version I contemplated, but I did make a lot of information available to Terence Wise, who credits me as a source in his Osprey title on flags. The booklet was also identified as a reference by George F Nafziger PhD* in his own booklet on the Portuguese and Spanish armies, and it is listed somewhere in the Napoleon Series materials.

Not that any of this matters – I am not particularly proud of my booklet, but at the time it was probably the most thorough attempt at the subject to date in English. Since then it has been surpassed by a good many later works – particularly Chartrand’s Osprey books. Whatever, I have one or two copies left in the bookcase – I found them when I was clearing out the other week – so I’ll add a fairly clean specimen to the Almost-Summer Grand Prize. I hope I think of something half-decent to fatten up the jackpot…

* I never mention Nafziger, or his fine contributions to wargaming and military study, without reference to his doctorate from the Union Institute

Subplot 2 – Herbert

Herbert replied to my Military Modelling letter, very enthusiastic. He was an interesting fellow – he was born in Austria, of Italian descent, and his father had been an officer in the Austro-Hungarian Army at the end of WW1. Having been such an officer was not a great career enhancer in 1918, so a number of the officers handed over their savings to an entrepreneur and bought land in Brazil, and took their families to make a fresh start in a very different world. After a long voyage, they discovered it was a scam – they had bought a piece of swamp, in the jungle.

There seems to have been a violent disagreement – Herbert’s father returned to Salzburg, while his mother took the children and walked about 100 kilometers to the nearest civilization, which was the city of Sao Paulo. Herbert spent the rest of his life there, mostly working very successfully in the retail trade. When I had dealings with him he was in his eighties, retired but walking for an hour every day, reading and painting and delighted to hear from someone in (or near) Europe. He was fluent in Portuguese, German, English and French, and could turn a good hand to Spanish and Italian. He had a huge personal library of military history, acquired through a long life of private study and collecting, he had an excellent portfolio of his own watercolours of uniforms of all sorts of nations and periods and – above all else – he had contacts in the Brazilian government and the national libraries who could get copies of all sorts of obscure materials on the Portuguese army and their colonial offshoots. Some of these documents – being stored away in a colonial outpost at Brasilia – had survived political upheavals in Portugal which had put paid to the Lisbon copies, so some of the dress regulations and so on I saw were thought not to exist in Portugal.

Thus the very idea of my humble booklet, and the rather more ambitious follow-up which I abandoned, is very largely due to the input and support of my elderly Brazilian collaborator – at times, he was far more enthusiastic than I was! We eventually lost touch – he might, of course, have died, but I prefer to think he moved to a quieter part of the city. In due course I got no response to my letters. Since he would now be 120-odd, I can safely assume he is no longer alive, but I won’t forget him, or his good-humoured wisdom. He used to write (in 1976) that the Western powers should not worry overmuch about the Russians or the Chinese, and that the future threats to the world would centre on the Middle East. I would be more positive about his understanding of the world if he hadn’t been a regular reader of the Daily Telegraph, but no matter! 

If anyone reads German, the adventures of the Austrian emigrants to Brazil after WW1 are the subject matter of Das Geschäft mit der Hoffnung: österreichische Auswanderung nach Brasilien 1918-1938 (Böhlaus Zeitgeschichtliche Bibliothek) by Ursula Prutsch, published 1996.

Hooptedoodle #136 – Just One More Bus

All right, all right – I said there would be no more, but I’d already secretly made up my mind to get one of these if one came up in the right livery. I know it isn’t a proper, real bus in my traditional terms, but these were being introduced when I was still at school, so it squeaks in.

This is a Leyland Atlantean in the colours of Liverpool Corporation Passenger Transport, on route 82, which travelled between Speke and the Pier Head, and was a familiar sight on Aigburth Road, in my old stomping ground. These must have been introduced around 1962 or so, I would guess, and were the first buses Liverpool acquired which were designed for single-man operation, though the conductors were retained for a good while thereafter (negotiated union agreement?).

It was one of these – albeit on route 86, which had similar termini to the 82, but ran through Allerton – which caught out my racing cyclist chum, Kenny, who used to train by slipstreaming the buses along Mather Avenue on his way to and from school. He couldn’t cope with the automatic gearboxes and superior brakes of the new generation of buses, and he lost his teeth in a brief but decisive misunderstanding.

I am satisfied now that my collection is complete. Unless I spot a nice vintage Leyland in Wallasey colours…

Hooptedoodle #135 - Capt Graeme Nixon MC

British tank before the Battle of Flers, 1916

Something a little different today. In a recent exchange of emails with a former school colleague, some photos of the teaching staff appeared, and there was discussion of what we remembered about the individuals. One of them, Graeme Nixon, has always been a shadowy figure from my past. He taught me Mathematics for one term in around 1959, but he was clearly in poor mental health and was completely unable to manage a classroom, so he left in mid term, never to be seen again.

At the time, there was a tale that he had been a hero in WW1, commanding a tank unit. There was even a legend that he had been decorated for leading his unit into action on foot after his tank was disabled, but I always regarded that as unlikely.

This week I was directed to the marvellous website The First Tank Crews, which is dedicated to the men who fought at Flers in 1916, and I found out rather more about Mr Nixon. I reproduce a little of the website’s text below, with all due humility and with no permission to do so, but I would urge anyone interested to examine the website from the link above.

It seems that GN was, in fact, a hero – he commanded a tank section in support of the NZ Division attack at Flers, in September 1916. The tale of leading the section on foot is a myth, apparently derived from an infantry messenger directing them into position, a very early example of a spotter acting in this way.

All I have is this tiny photo fragment, taken when he was approaching retiral age, and (without wishing to do any Internet stalking of the dead, which is a creepy pastime) I know that he was a witness at the marriage of a teaching colleague of his, Walter Simmonds, in Allerton, Liverpool in 1931. The text reproduced here suggests that he was still alive in 1967, though elsewhere I read that he died in 1966.

Given that I may well be one of the kids who finally put paid to his teaching career, I have no deep personal interest in this, apart from a vague feeling that we should have shown the poor old guy more respect at the time. I understand that Nixon appears in a contemporary photograph in a very respected 2-volume work, The Tanks at Flers, by Trevor Pidgeon. I don’t suppose anyone has access to a copy?

*

This is the excerpt from The First Tank Crews:

D12 (Tank No 719 - Male).

Sect Comds tank supporting the New Zealand Div assault. D12 with D10 (2Lt Darby) and D11 (Die Hard - 2Lt Pearsall) were to work together on the NZ Div right flank, close to the village of Flers. Midway across the NZ frontage, Nixon’s tank worked its way north until he received a request for help at 09.15 hrs.  The message, carried through heavy fire by Rfn JW Dobson, was follows:  “From Lieut Butcher to O.C. Tanks. Enemy machine guns appear to be holding infantry in the valley on your right.  Can you assist in pushing forward? Dobson was the target of heavy enemy rifle, as he tried to reach D12, but eventually got inside and accomplished the first example of infantry – tank target indication.  He guided the tank crew to the east and identified a farm building where the machine guns were located.  Nixon used the tank to collapse the building and its occupants scattered in all directions.  He then pressed on, heading for the northwest corner of Flers until his tank was hit by artillery fire. The tank’s steering was damaged so Nixon headed south, eventually becoming ditched in a shell hole.  The tank was once again hit by enemy artillery fire, which killed one of the crew (Gnr W Debenham), and caused a fire.  Although this was subsequently put out, by other tanks crews; D12 had become totally unusable and was therefore abandoned.

Capt Graeme Nixon was born in Sep ‘95 West Derby, Lancs, the third child (second son) of Robert Nixon a schoolmaster and Annie G Nixon.  Graeme studied Engineering at Liverpool University 1913. He was commissioned into the Royal Scots Fusiliers and served at Gallipoli from 3 Nov 15, then transferred to MGC in Apr ‘16. He was promoted T/Capt 12 Aug ‘16 (Sect comd) and led 4 tanks in support of NZ Div attack at Flers-Courcellette. On 14 Nov 16, he lead a section of six tanks from Auchonvillers to Beaucourt Station, crossing own lines and German lines to relieve Capt Mortimore and his six tanks.  He continued to serve as a section commander in D Bn . At Ypres, on 22 August, he commanded 12 Sect of 12 Coy during their attack near St Julien.  He then lead 1 Sect, 12 Coy of D Bn during the battle of Cambrai – he was wounded and replaced on the opening day of the battle; two of his three tanks being destroyed by direct fire as they attempted to push into the village of Flesquieres on the eastern side (by the Chateau wall).   He commanded a coy (probably A Coy) from 5 to 20 Dec 17, being promoted A/Major . In early 1918, he lead his company to Merlimont where they undertook gunnery practice. He commanded A Coy throughout the Kaiserlacht withdrawal, when the tanks were either destroyed or abandoned and Battle Of Lys, when his coy was used in the MG role. Awarded MC Jun ’18.  At the Battle of  Amiens his Mark V tanks were in support of 2^nd Cdn Bde for the initial action.   He relinquished command on 6 Sep ‘18 and returned to the UK and served with 22nd Bn Tank Corps as a company commander until 11 Jul 19 when he lived at Overmoigne near Dorchester. On resigning his commission, he moved to Radstock Rd, Fairfield Liverpool and later became a school teacher. In 1967 still living in 16 Pinfold Road, Hunts Cross Liverpool. Note – his elder brother Robert Nixon (who studied Medicine at Liverpool University) volunteered for the Kings Lancashire Regt in August 1914 but was discharged due to ill health in early 1915).

2993 Sgt Reginald John Vandenbergh (spellings change) was born 8 Dec 1889 in Islington, the second son of commercial clerk  Reginald was also a clerk when he enlisted (aged 26 years) at Whitehall. Posted to Bisley on 13 Mar, he was promoted three times in five months. Deployed to France on 28 August, he was posted to D Bn on formation. Attached to Reinforcement Bn on 13 Jul, he returned to the UK on 19 July 1917 as an instructor. On 1 Dec 1917, he was posted to J Bn on 1 Dec 1917, deployed overseas on 20 Dec 1917 and served with C Coy 10 Bn as Tech MS from 23 Jan (OC was Maj Kemp-Robinson. Returned to Tank Trg centre, as an instructor, on authority of GHQ on 14 August 1918. Married Amelia Whitehead on 5 October 1918 at Christchurch Kensington Liverpool, he was posted to the Central Schools. Discharged 27 September 1919, he settled in Brighton, the couple had three daughters – Betty born in 1920; Norma in 1921 and Audrey in 1923; all registered at Steyning.  Reginald died in Brighton in the Spring of 1977.

32206 Gnr Horace Allebone was born 29 Aug 89 the elder son of Augustus Allebone and the director of a boot manufacting company at Rushden. He intially attended to avoid conscription but volunteered and enlisted on 10 Mar 16. Later 200864 of D Bn Tank Corps, he served as a driver and was awarded 2 parchment certificates: one for gallant and meritorious service in the field; one for soldierly conduct under heavy fire 4^th Oct ‘17, during the 3^rd battle of Ypres. Promoted LCpl he was KIA aged 28 on 20 Nov ‘17; whilst serving with No 2 Sect of 10 Coy, when his tank was hit by direct artillery fire to the west of Flesquieres. Commemorated in the Louveral Memorial and Rushden War Memorial Northants.

32105 Gnr William Bertram Debenham born Canterbury ‘90. Moved to Coventry by 1901 and was living with mother Annie and stepfather James W Appleton. Enlisted Coventry. MIA age 26 on 15 Sep 1916 (CWGC states 24) son of Mrs Annie Laureen Appleton of 33 Northumberland Rd, Coventry. Commemorated on the Thiepval memorial later allocated no 206155.

2963 Gnr Cecil Frederick Gloyn was born in Plymouth Devon ‘97 the son of Frederick Albert Gloyn and Jesse A Gloyn. Living in Plymouth 1901. Attested on 22 Feb ’16; aged 18 years 11 months. Employment shown as Grocer , weight 7 st 13 lbs. height 5 ft 63/4 inches; chest when expanded 34 inches. Father shown as NOK, living at 2 Sussex St, Plymouth. Mobilised in MMGS at Bisley on 3 Mar ‘16; Transferred to HS MGC 4 May ‘16, Posted to D Coy 24 May ‘16 and proceeded to France 28 Aug ‘16.  Casualty Form Active Service signed by Capt AG Woods (D Coy) - majority of service details indistinct. Continued to serve with D Bn. Later 200824 Tank Corps, Granted UK leave by OC 4th Bn, 16 to 30 Dec ‘17; he rejoined his unit on 4th Jan ‘18. . His contact sheet was lost during action on 23 March ’18 (Kaiserslacht); the replacement shows him serving as a Cpl with B Coy of 4th Tank Bn.  No Hosp admissions recorded.  Discharged, with clear conduct sheet and no claim for injury, as Cpl from 25th Bn Tank Corps, as part of early release scheme on 29 Jan 19. Home address shown as 2 Sussex St in Plymouth. Medals issued 28 Jun ‘21. Married Elizabeth E.B Pain April to Jun ‘22 in Plymouth.

Gnr Mead

205666 Gnr Harry Zimmerman (later Tank Corps) possibly earlier service as 9881 Pte Ox and Bucks LI.

M2/191040 Cpl Robert R Murray ASC re-badged as a Private in the MGC (75064) then transferred back to the ASC with original number.

Further info; the remains of the tank were still on the edge of the village in the early ‘20s where they were played on by local children