The Christmas Truce 1914 - An Alternate Perspective. Rifleman Bernard Brookes and Chaplain John Esslemont Adams

With the furore surrounding the recent relase of the 2014 Sainsbury's Christmas television advertisement, a four minute long depiction of the Christmas Day truce of 1914, it seems a good time to post about an element of that day's events overlooked in the piece.

Whilst the advertisement depicts many events for which much evidence exists, such as the swapping of photographs and the singing of Silent Night, there is some debate on the exact nature of any football match, game or kickabout which may or may not have taken place.

However many events which definitely did happen involved Christian commemorations but were overlooked by the film makers. Most movingly accounts of a joint burial service of fallen men were recorded.  Here are a couple of the more detailed accounts:-

Bernard Brookes

 

Rifleman Bernard Brookes of the Queen's Westminster Rifles received permission to attend a mass at a nearby church which had been badly shelled. A priest had come from Armentieres to minister to the local population,

At 9 am as I was off duty I received permission to go to Mass at a Church which I had discovered whilst hunting for the missing men. This Church was terribly shelled, and was within the range of rifle fire, as was clearly proved by the condition of the wall facing the trenches, and no effort had been made to clear the wreckage, as to attempt this would have been fraught with danger. A priest, however, had come in from Armentieres to minister to the few people who were still living in the district. In this Church which would hold about 300, there were some 30 people, and I was the only soldier. It was indeed a unique service, and during a short address which the priest gave I was about the only one who was not crying, and that because I did not understand much of what was being said.

Towards evening the Germs became very hilarious, singing and shouting out to us. They said in English that if we did not fire they would not, and eventually it was arranged that shots should not be exchanged. With this they lit fires outside their trench, and sat round and commenced a concert, incidentally singing some English songs to the accompaniment of a bugle band. A German officer carrying a lantern came slightly forward and asked to see one of our officers to arrange a truce for tomorrow (Xmas day).

An officer went out (after we had stood at our posts with rifles loaded in case of treachery) and arrangements were made that between 10 am and 12 noon, and from 2.00 pm to 4.00 pm tomorrow, intercourse between the Germs and ourselves should take place. It was a beautiful night and a sharp frost set in, and when we awoke in the morning the ground was covered with a white raiment. It was indeed an ideal Christmas, and the spirit of peace and goodwill was very striking in comparison with the hatred and death-dealing of the past few months. One appreciated in a new light the meaning of Christianity, for it certainly was marvellous that such a change in the attitude of the opposing armies could be wrought by an Event which happened nigh on 2000 years ago

 

John Esslemont Adams

Chaplain Esslemont Adams of the 6^th Gordon Highlanders conducted a service near Fleurbaix following the collection of about a hundred dead British and German bodies from No Man’s Land. This was described by Second Lieutenant Arthur Pelham-Burn-

We then had a most wonderful joint burial service.Our Padre… arranged the prayers and psalm etc, and an interpreter wrote them out in German.They were read first in English by our Padre and then in German by a boy who was studying for the ministry.It was an extraordinary and wonderful sight.The Germans formed up on one side, the English on the other, the officers standing in front, every head bared.Yes, I think it was a sight one will never see again.

 

 

 

Esslemont Adams read the 23^rd Psalm, followed by the young German student:

The Lord is my shepherd: I shall not want
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
He leadeth me beside the still waters…

Der Herr is mein Hirt: mir wird nihts mangeln.
Er weidet mich auf einer grunen Aue:
Und fuhrt mich zum frischen Wasser

The chaplain then stepped forward to salute the German commander.  The Regimental History of the 6^th Gordons stated, `It was an impressive sight; officers and men, bitter enemies as they were, uncovered, reverent, and for the moment united in offering for their dead the last offices of homage and honour.’

 

Adams and the German commander exchanged gifts.  The German gave Adams a cigar.  He said that he did not smoke but would keep it as a souvenir (he brought out that souvenir at subsequent talks he gave in Aberdeen).  Adams gave the German a small card with a `Soldiers Prayer’ which he had kept in his cap.  On the one side it had the Lord’s Prayer.  On the other side the following prayer:

Almighty and most Merciful Father,
Forgive me my sins:
Grant me Thy peace:
Give me Thy power:
Bless me in life and death,
                              for Jesus Christ’s sake.

Amen

The Regimental Diary of the Gordon Highlanders recorded `It was an impressive sight, officers and men, bitter enemies as they were, uncovered, reverent, and for the moment united in offering for their dead the last offices of homage and honour.’

A British officer wrote in his diary, `Both sides have played the game and I know this (German) Regiment anyhow has learnt to trust an Englishman’s word.

At the end of the service Adams saluted the German commander. They shook hands and bade farewell.

 

 

Violet Mary Pope and Lieutenant-Colonel Alan Haig-Brown D.S.O.

Violet Mary Pope and Lieutentant-Colonel A.R. Haig-Brown, D.S.O.

Violet was the second of four daughters of Alfred and Elizabeth Pope. She was born at South Walk House, Dorchester, on 3^rd October 1880.

On the subject of her education, R.G. Bartleot waxes lyrical on the benefits of women being brought up to strengthen the domestic sphere, and hence being so important to the nation’s war effort:

In modern times the education of a girl is governed by an expansive view of the widening possibilities of the so-called “feminine sphere” – a movement which was only in its beginning in the later decades of the Victorian era and has hardly yet gained its full momentum.  Without disparagement of pioneer methods in the education of girls, which have opened recently so many new avenues of employment and utility to women, it may be said that the older types of training, more conservative of energies than productive of the, gave to the nation’s service women of no mean worth – the wives and mothers of the men who have fought this war.  The full measure of the sacrifice and the suffering necessary for the combating of evil in the world has been demanded of them, and borne with a fortitude and magnanimity surpassing the famous examples of Sparta and Rome.  Their moral fibres have been tried to the full in a fiery furnace, and, no less than those of the men they nursed or the men they wedded, have come forth strengthened and glorified by the test.  Truly has it been said that, for the first time in her history as a nation, Great Britain has organized for this struggle the whole of her national resources; among the greatest and most powerful of these stand the co-operation and devotion of women – an old capacity revealed anew.

Violet was educated, first at home and then at a private school in Bath between the ages of fourteen and nineteen.  From there she spent eighteen months in Paris before returning to spend her time at South Walk House and Wrackleford House. She was fond of riding and driving and a lover of animals and country pursuits.  She played the organ for the services at St. Mary’s, Stratton and arranged the flowers there.

In 1907 she married Alan Roderick Haig-Brown, youngest son of Rev. William Haig-Brown, headmaster of Charterhouse School where many of the Popes had been educated.  Bartelot described him as, `a sportsman, poet and soldier.’  He too was educated at Charterhouse and the Pembroke College, Cambridge from where he graduated in 1899.  He gained his football blue and played in the F.A. Cup for Corinthians and as an amateur in the Football League for Tottenham Hotspur, Clapton Orient and Brighton and Hove Albion.

On leaving Cambridge he became a schoolmaster at Lancing College and wrote many articles for the press, mainly on the subjects of sport and nature.  He was appointed Second Lieutenant in the Lancing College Cadet Corps in 1900, affiliated to the Royal Sussex Regiment.  It was claimed that the corps was the only one in the country to enlist every member of the school on a voluntary basis before the outbreak of the war.

During the early part of the war he lectured on musketry before being appointed to the rank of Major and leaving for France in May 1916.  On the death in action of his commanding officer, Alan was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and fought at the Somme and Ypres.  He was mentioned in despatches in April 1917 and won the Distinguished Service Order in June.  After a spell in England to regain his health, his division was sent to Italy to rebuff a push by German-Austrian forces.  He was again mentioned in despatches before being recalled to the Western Front in February 1918 following the exit of Russia from the war.

Germany began a huge spring offensive and on Monday 25^th March 1918 Alan’s unit put up a rear-guard fight against overwhelming odds.  Withdrawal was held off until the last minute and Alan, directing the retreat, was killed instantaneously by the fire of a machine-gun at close range.  Alan was one of three officers of the Middlesex Regiment killed in that action, one of the others being Walter Tull, the first black officer in the British Army and by coincidence also a former Tottenham Hotspur footballer.

Alan received many tributes:

His first Adjutant wrote:-

"It is only today that I have heard of the passing over of Colonel Haig-Brown. I think that I knew him better than most people who had the honour of serving under him, for I became his Adjutant on the same day that he assumed command of the battalion and thus was in a very intimate association with him day and night until I was wounded last June. My sympathy is thus linked with every personal sorrow; for my chief-almost my only- reason for wishing to return was in order to be with him again. Never was a C.O. so entirely beloved by all who knew him. He made the battalion what it was-keen and contented-and by his personal example instilled courage and efficiency in those with him."

 

One of his Subalterns wrote:-

"I am sure it will help you to know what affection, and almost reverence, everyone who served in the 23rd holds Colonel Haig-Brown's memory. There was not a single man in the battalion who did not love him. Nor did he, like some C.O.s, consider his men at the expense of his officers. None of us subalterns ever wished to serve under a finer man, and it has been our hope that when we go out again we should have the privilege of serving under him."

 

A Company Commander wrote:-

"It has been my privilege to serve under your husband for some years, both at Lancing and afterwards abroad. As one of his Company Commanders for nearly a year, both on the Somme and in Belgium, I can assure you of the love of the whole battalion, both officers and men, for their Colonel, The men adored him. Great as was our admiration for him as a soldier, it was the man behind this that won us all, and kept us cheerful among many unpleasant surroundings."

 

Another Subaltern wrote:-

"The men, as did all of us officers, recognised in our C.O. the practical expression of the highest and noblest ideals which could permeate a man and a soldier, and our C.O. was unquestionably both; and thus our loss is indeed a severe one., and will be most keenly felt by officers and men alike. Words cannot in any degree express the depth of sincerity of the feelings which, deep in our hearts, we had for our C.O., and which I verily believe, will never with any of us fail to be a source of inspiration and help at all times. Whatever our own shortcomings, his presence amongst us will remain as a treasured memory."

 

His Divisional General wrote:-

"He was one of the very best commanding officers, always ready for whatever was to be done, cheerful under the hardest conditions, and was ever ready for the welfare of his men. He is a very great loss to the battalion and the Army."

The Assistant Chaplain General wrote:-

"I don't think I have ever come across an instance of such regret, and even love, as was felt by officers and men of his battalion for him. You may indeed be very, very proud of his memory. A more gallant and cheery C.O. never commanded a battalion. From what I hear, he gave his life in seeing that others got clean away, and died, as he had lived, for the men he commanded."

 

R.G. Bartelot wrote movingly of Alan’s death in the Pope memorial book that:

It was an end such as a man of his calibre would have chosen to a career of which his wife may well be proud.  Every man’s life, surely, fulfils its intention on earth in the unfathomable purpose of God’s creation, and, “when the harvest is come, immediately He putteth in the sickle.”  There is no sadness in the transfer of human activities to a wider and worthier work-field beyond, except for those who are left behind to await reunion in the unknown land, which, always so near to all of us, seems at times to be so far away.  There must ever be sorrow in parting, but from sorrow is born new strength and greater consecration of resolve.

 

Perhaps the final word should go to his son Roderick who commemorated Alan as

`an Edwardian: one of the young, the strong, the brave and the fair who had faith in their nation, their world and themselves.’

Elizabeth Kate Pope, V.A.D.

Elizabeth Kate Pope, V.A.D.

Elizabeth Kate Pope was Alfred and Elizabeth’s eldest daughter was born in May 1879 at South Walk, Dorchester.  In the typically contemporary words of family biographer, R.G. Bartelot, Elizabeth and her sister Violet, `brought with them that softening element which is so essential to the welfare of the sterner sex in a mixed family.’

Unlike her brothers, Kate was educated by a governess at home until the age of thirteen before being sent to a private school in the Circus at Bath.  She spent three years there and then went to Brussels to a finishing school kept by the Misses Drury in order to acquire a knowledge of the French language, and `to perfect herself in the many and varied accomplishments taught by those estimable ladies.’

Kate then returned to England to attend Cheltenham Ladies’ College for two terms.

One of the results of all this education was that from Easter 1897 to July 1917 she held the post of a Sunday School teacher at Holy Trinity Church, Dorchester.

Just as her father and brothers saw pre-war public service in the volunteer armed forces, kate became interested in nursing and in 1912 she obtained a V.A.D. (Voluntary Aid Detachment) Certificate.

The V.A.D. had been formed in 1909 and by 1914 Kate was one of 74,000 V.A.D. nurses in England, two-thirds of them being female.

During the war, Kate worked at Dorchester War Hospital depot for bandages and other surgical appliances for the wounded.

(At this stage of research it is not clear whether Kate worked in a wing of the Dorset County Hospital given over to treating war wounded or at the Colliton House V.A.D. Hospital).

Due to insights from Sue Light via her excellent website www.scarletflinders.co.uk it seems that Kate worked in one of the handful of War Hospital Supply Depots in Dorchester.

I quote:

WAR HOSPITAL SUPPLY DEPOTS

A LIST OF WAR HOSPITAL SUPPLY DEPOTS ORGANIZED BY PRIVATE INDIVIDUALS THROUGHOUT THE UNITED KINGDOM AND ABROAD

*****

The work of the Central Work Rooms, Burlington House, has been described on the previous page. In addition, there were more than 2,700 War Hospital Supply Depots and Work Parties throughout the United Kingdom and overseas and the number of each work party below gives some idea of how early it was registered. The numbers from 1 to 1,000 are absent as they were allocated to workers at Burlington House, and 2,000 to 3,999 to single home-workers, so the total numbers involved was very much higher than even this list suggests. These details are taken from:


Reports by the Joint War Committee of the British Red Cross Society and the Order of St. John of Jerusalem in England on Voluntary Aid Rendered to the Sick and Wounded at Home and Abroad and to British Prisoners of War, 1914-


DORSETSHIRE

 DORCHESTER MRS GOWRING, 49 HIGH STREET WEST
 DORCHESTER MRS GRIBBLE, KINGSTON RUSSELL HOUSE
DORCHESTER MRS SIMONDS, WINTERBOURNE ABBAS
 DORCHESTER MRS HANBURY, KINGTON HOUSE
 DORCHESTER MISS FETHERSTONHAUGH, OAKES WOOD
 
(Reference http://scarletfinders.co.uk/178.html_)

Another war service Kate undertook was the maintenance of an allotment for three years, in order to help maintain the food supply of the country during the U-boat menace.

Bartelot also states in the family memorial book that, `Kate is fond of home life and particularly fond of dumb animals, and in her younger days was often seen in the hunting field on her pony, “Tommy” attended by that favourite groom of the family, Jim Meech, now no more.’

It appears from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website that Jim Meech emigrated to South Africa, but was killed in 1918 whilst serving with the Australian Pioneers:-

James Arthur Meech

Rank:Private

Service No:3952A

Date of Death:29/07/1918

Age:29

Regiment/Service:Australian Pioneers

1st Grave Reference: A. 21. Cemetery:LE PEUPLIER MILITARY CEMETERY, CAESTRE

Additional Information: Son of John Henry and Frances Meech; husband of Bessie Meech of "Irene," Pretoria, South Africa; native of Beaminster, Dorset, England.

Kate Pope also managed the Coal and Clothing Clubs in Stratton and Grimstone.

It is notable that there is no picture of her in the Popes of Wessex memorial book, as there was of all her brothers.

Sub-Lieutenant William Eldridge Pope, R.N.

Sub-Lieutenant William Eldridge Pope, R.N.

William Pope was known in the family as `Willie’ and was, according to R.G. Bartelot `the favourite of all his brothers and sisters […] possessed naturally of a most loveable disposition.

Willie Pope 1881-1901

Willie was born in South Walk House, Dorchester on 22^nd September 1881, the fifth son of Alfred Pope.  He began his education at the Elizabethan Grammar School at Dorchester and then proceeded to the preparatory school for Naval Cadets at Stubbington.  In 1895 he joined H.M.S. Britannia, following in the footsteps of Admirals Somers, Bullen, Hardy and Digby from Dorset.

Willie spent two years on board the Britannia before qualifying as a midshipman on board H.M.S Vivid.  After a year he applied for foreign service and was appointed to the Hermione, and sailed to China.  Whilst he was there, the Boxer Rebellion broke out in 1900 and the Hermione was one of three ships which sailed up the Yangzte River, and Willie took part in the capture of the Taku Forts and of Peking on 17^th August 1900.

Writing to Alfred Pope, Willie’s commander, Rear-Admiral Sir W.E. Goodenough:-

Your son took part in an expedition to Castle Peak Bay and was in charge of a boat under my command which took about five hundred soldiers across from Hong Kong to quell some native disturbances.

HMS Hermione 1893-1922

Willie was awarded the China Medal, and was promoted to acting sub-lieutenant on H.M.S. Aurora in December 1900 and returned to England in January 1901 to study at the Royal Naval College at Greenwich.  He passed his lieutenant examination in February and undertook further study at Portsmouth.

However his health was becoming affected by the frequent changes of climate and he was admitted to Haslar Hospital in October 1901.  He died of acute pneumonia on 11^th November 1901.

Willie was buried at Dorchester cemetery with naval honours and a large marble monument with an anchor was erected there.  A chancel window at Stratton Church was also installed containing the figures of St. Clement, St. Peter, St. Paul and St. Nicholas.  In the centre is shown the Angel of Hope.
 

William Eldridge Pope Memorial Window, Stratton

 

The inscription reads:

The East Window of the Church was erected to the Glory of God and in memory of Sub-Lieutenant William Eldridge Pope, R.N., who died at Haslar November 11^th, 1901, by his loving parents Alfred and Elizabeth Mary Pope.

A memorial service was held in June 1902 when the window was dedicated, and a sermon was preached on the text from Hebrews vi, 19, `Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; with the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus.’

Had Sub-Lieutenant William Pope, R.N. lived until 1914, there is little doubt that he would have added to the proud war record of the Pope family in the Great War.

Captain Charles Alfred Whiting Pope, R.A.M.C.

Captain Charles Alfred Whiting Pope, M.A., M.B., R.A.M.C.

Charles Pope was Alfred Pope’s fourth son and was born at South Walk House, Dorchester on 26^th November 1877.  Like his elder brothers he attended Charterhouse School in Surrey, where he gained both the Classical and Mathematical prizes in the Sixth Form.  He was prominent in school cricket, tennis and `putting the weight’ (shot putt).  He then went to Trinity College, Cambridge, taking a M.B., from where he entered St. Bartholomew’s Hospital.  Charles distinguished himself in Clinical Pathology and Opthalmic work.  He gained his full medical M.R.C.S. and L.R.C.P. in 1904 and took up the post of resident House-Surgeon to the South Devon and East Cornwall Hospital in Plymouth.

Charles was selected to move abroad and become House-Physician to the Somerset Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa before returning to England to practise in Rugby, Hastings and St. Leonards.  In 1909 he married Marion Gravener at St George’s Fordington and they had two sons and a daughter.

In 1915 he offered himself for active service but was passed fit for Home Service only, gaining a commission in the R.A.M.C. However after a spending a year at a military hospital in Aldershot, he was promoted from Lieutenant to Captain and ordered to command three hundred men in Egypt.  Charles was one of four thousand troops and nurses on board the British troopship Transylvania, making its way from Marseilles to Egypt on 4^th May 1917. 

R.M.S. Transylvania

At 10a.m. the ship’s captain saw a small sailing vessel change her course and launch a torpedo.  Despite causing a great deal of damage, the engines were still intact and the Captain tried to make for shore, some eight miles away, in order to try and beach the ship.  However fifteen minutes later another torpedo struck the engine room and the vessel sank fifty minutes later.  Efforts were made to lower the boats to save the lives of the nurses first, then the soldiers and crew.  However, according to the Admiralty, twenty-nine officers and three hundred and seventy other ranks, as well as the ship’s Captain and ten of his crew were drowned.

The Pope family held out the hope that Charles might have been among those saved, writing many letters of enquiry, but after an agonising four and a half month wait, his wife received the following letter from the War Office:

War Office
Whitehall
S.W.
21^st September 1917

The Military Secretary presents his compliments to Mrs Pope, and regrets to inform her that in view of the fact that no further information has been received concerning her husband, Captain C.A.W. Pope, R.A.M. Corps, who was reported “missing, believed drowned” on the 4^th May, his death has now been accepted for official purposes as having occurred on that date.

The Military Secretary is desired be the Secretary of State for War to express his deepest sympathy with Mrs Pope in her sorrow.

One of the sergeants under his command wrote:

When the ship was hit I was with Captain Pope in the ship’s hospital.  After seeing the patients safe we went to the parade deck.  Shortly afterwards we heard that several wounded were below, so Captain Pope went with a party of men to try and rescue them and dress their wounds – and thus he died the death of a British Officer and Gentleman – at his post.

Another member of the R.A.M.C. who was the last to see him wrote:

He was in charge of us on the Transylvania and was missing when we landed.  He dies as every Britisher likes to die – doing his Duty, and went down with the ship whilst dressing the wounds of the poor fellows who were hit by the explosion.  I happen to know this as I was working with him up to about three minutes before she sank, when he ordered me over the side.  He was a good officer and we are all sorry to lose him.

 

On 30^th May 1918 a memorial service was held at St. Mary’s Stratton for Charles and his brother Percy, and a bronze memorial tablet fixed to the south wall of the church, bearing the words:

GLORY BORN OF DUTY IS A CROWN OF LIGHT

 

His brother-in-law, R.G. Bartelot wrote of him:

It may truly be said of Charles Alfred Whiting Pope that he sacrificed himself on the shrine of Duty.  Duty to his King, duty to his Country, and duty to his poor suffering fellow creatures who lay wounded in the hospital below deck as the result of the explosion following the torpedo attack when the ship went down.

 

Postscript

Dozens of bodies of those killed when the Transylvania went down were recovered and buried at Savona, Italy in a special Commonwealth War section of the town cemetery.  However Charles was not among them, and he is one of the two hundred and seventy five names listed on the memorial in the same cemetery.

Savona War Memorial, Italy

In 2011, the wreck of the Transylvania was discovered off the coast of the island of Bergeggi at a depth of 630 metres.

Wreck of the Transylvania, discovered in 2011

George Clement Pope

George Clement Pope was the third son of Alfred Pope.  He was born at South Walk House, Dorchester in 1876 and was educated at Weymouth College and then at Charterhouse School for five years.  He matriculated to Exeter College, Oxford, graduating in 1899.

He followed his father and elder brother into the legal profession, and was admitted as a solicitor of the Supreme Court in 1903.  Fancying a change of scene by 1906, he left for South Africa with his younger brother, Charles.  In 1907 he joined the firm of Mulligan and Routledge in Johannesburg.

Now being in a position to marry, he returned to England and married Margaret Emily Langhorne in Buckland St. Mary’s, Somerset before they both returned to South Africa.  However Margaret found the South African climate too trying, so they returned along with two small children in 1911. They tried setting up in British Columbia but again this was unsuccessful so in 1913 Clement took a post at the family firm of Eldridge, Pope and Co., Ltd.

Again, like his father and brothers, Clement was a `citizen soldier’, first serving with the Transvaal Horse Artillery for five years, rising to the rank of Sergeant.  On the outbreak of the Great War his health was not considered strong enough for active service overseas, but threw his energies into the Volunteer movement.  He enrolled in the Dorchester and District Volunteer Training Corps for Home Defence, a body reminiscent of the Armed Associations of the Wars against Napoleon and a forerunner of the Home Guard of the Second World War.

Their uniform was of grey serge, as khaki was prohibited and their badge was that of the three lions passant-gardant of Dorset.  By 1916 their role was recognised by the Government and they were allowed to wear khaki. Clement was made a section commander and took part in night coast watches at White Nose (White Nothe, Ringstead Bay) as well as night guards at the strategically important Whitehead Torpedo Works in Wyke Regis.

Whitehead Torpedo Works, Weymouth

He was a fine shot and excellent with the bayonet, being sent to the outlying villages to train men in bayonet fighting.  He was also a keen fisherman, especially of trout from the River Frome at Wrackleford, and a member of the Cattistock Hunt.

Clement remained on the board of Eldridge, Pope and Co. until his death in 1931.

Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Alexander Pope, DSO. Double War Hero

Edward Alexander (Alec) Pope was the second son of Alfred Pope and the eldest child of Alfred's second wife, Elizabeth.  He was born in Dorchester in 1875 and educated at the Elizabethan Grammar School, Dorchester before moving on to Weymouth College then Winchester College.

Edward Alexander Pope, 1875-1919

On leaving school he followed his father into the legal profession, firstly being articled to a firm of solicitors in Bath before spending a year studying in London.  However in 1898 he became a Director of Eldridge, Pope and Co., but was shortly called away from the brewery to serve in the Boer War.

In 1894 he had obtained a commission as Second Lieutenant in the Dorset Militia and in 1898 was transferred as a Captain in the 3rd Battalion Welsh Regiment.  The Battalion volunteered for active service in South Africa and sailed from Southampton in 1900.  Alec set out with a detachment to drive the Boers out of Philipstown, but arrived to find they had left at news of his advance.

After this he proceeded to Vryburg, near Mafeking, where he was responsible for the safety of the gaol containing 170 Boer prisoners.  He defended Vryburg against a Boer attack and was subsequently put in charge of an armoured train, guarding a construction train repairing a damaged line. During his seven months in charge of this train he had many brushes with the enemy.  Alec then developed severe sciatica and was invalided home in autumn 1901.

On arriving back in Dorchester his carriage was drawn with ropes by a large body of cheering men all the way to Wrackleford House as the church bells pealed their welcome.  Like other Dorchester officers and men who had served in the Boer War he was given the freedom of the borough.

In 1904 he married Sybil Briggs and was elected as a member of Dorset County Council. In 1915 he took the oaths to become a J.P.

He returned to civlian life at the brewery but retained his commission in the Welsh Regiment.  He continued to study soldiering and was promoted to the rank of Major in 1913 and shortly before the outbreak of war passed the examination in Tactical Fitness for Command, qualifying him to assume command of his battalion.  He believed that war with Germany was imminent and he left to join his regiment at Cardiff on 6th August 1914.  He trained reservists and recruits for the front line and in April 1915 was given the task of raising the 12th Service Battalion of the South Wales Borderers and given the rank of temporary Lieutenant-Colonel.  Alec raised 1100 men and 38 officers and began to train them for service in the field.  On the review of his Battalion on July 3rd 1915 he said, "We can stand together in fine weather and foul, and if you play the game by me I will do my best to play the game by you."

Seven weeks later the South Wales Argus carried a report which stated that:

`He has done his best for his men.  He has been their guide, philosopher, and friend.  To him they are more than a mere body of men whom patriotism and a love of home have brought together in a common desire to serve their King and country. They are men with individual needs and aspirations.  They possess character.  Colonel Pope has studied them, has made it his business to understand them, to join them in their work and in their play.'

The correspondent added a character sketch of of Alec:

`Tall, finely built, a born leader, a stickler for discipline and efficiency, detesting all that smacks of slackness or denotes the slacker, a man, in short, who is every inch a soldier, he has instilled the soldierly spirit into those over whom he has command.  He has won the respect and esteem of his officers and the admiration of his men, who are ready to go anywhere with him, do anything for him.  Under such happy conditions it is not surprising that the 12th has become a crack battalon in something like record time.'

On 1st June 1916, a month before the first day of the Battle of the Somme, Pope's Division embarked at Southampton for service in France.  The 12th Battalion was put into the trenches at Callonne and Loos and fought on the front line for six months.  The casualties were high, losing half their men killed or wounded.

In November 1916 Alec was mentioned in despatches by Field-Marshal Douglas Haig and on 1st January 1917 he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order, `For skilful leading of his battalion during the past months.'

At Christmas 1916, the 12th Battalion was moved down the line to the Somme, taing part in the advance and capture of Villiers-Paish and Goneaulieu.  Alec was wounded in April 1917 and returned to England. He was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel, in charge of his old battalion, the 3rd Welsh.  He was passed fit for home service and took command in Redcar.

Due to the excessive cold and exposure following his arduous spell in France, Alec had a severe bronchial attack and was invalided to the south of France.  He returned to his commany in Redcar in May 1918, where, Bartelot noted, `we now leave him carrying on his military duties with his former energy and ability.'

However whilst the memoir had been printed and was in the binder's hands, tragedy struck.  In March 1919 Alec experienced a relapse of his bronchial trouble, caused by mental strain and overwork..  He was moved to Queen Alexandra's Hospital for Officers where he died on 9th April 1919, to `disease contracted whilst on active service.'

Following a service in the Guards' Chapel at Millbank, his body was cremated at Golders Green and a memorial service held at Holy Trinity Church, Dorchester.  On the following day his bronze burial casket was interred in the family burying place in the churchyard of St. Mary's, Stratton in the presence of his relatives and friends, and tenants and employees of the Wrackleford Estate.

Major Alfred Rolph Pope, M.A., T.D., J.P.

Alfred Rolph Pope was the eldest son of Alfred Pope.  He was born in South Walk House, Dorchester, on 3rd August 1871.  He was educated at Charterhouse School near Godalming, then Cambridge University to study the Natural Sciences.  Whilst there he also took part in college and university rifle shooting, lawn tennis and rowing.

On leaving Cambridge he studied the science of brewing. and became a director of Eldridge, Pope and Co. Ltd in 1897.

Like his father, he was a keen `citizen soldier'.  At the age of fifteen he joined the Charterhouse Cadet Corps, and three years later was promoted to corporal.  He became a crack rifle shot, winning competitions across the south of England.  On moving to Cambridge he joined the 4th (Cambridge University) Volunteer Battalion, the Suffolk Regiment, being commissioned as a Second Lieutentant, rising to Captain by 1892.

After leaving university he transferred to the 1st Volunteer Battalion the Dorsetshire Regiment, being appointed a Major in 1908. He was granted the Volunteer Long Service Medal but in 1912, due to ill-health, he was transferred to the Territorial Force Reserve.

However on the outbreak of war on 4th August 1914 he was recalled to the colours and appointed to command the Territoral Force Association of the 4th Dorsets.  He was responsible for the moblisation and recruitment of the 4th Dorset Battalion. He managed to recruit two battalions which were sent to India.

As well as his military work, Alfred jr. also had a municipal government career being a town councillor in Dorchester from 1900 onwards and Mayor in 1907.  Just as when his father was Mayor twenty-one years previously, the Bath and West Country Show came to Dorchester. In 1915 he was appointed an Alderman of the town.

Politically he was, like his father, a staunch Conservative and was Vice-President of the Dorchester and Fordington Conservative and Unionist and Working Men's Club.

He had a taste for foreign travel, visiting Canada and the USA in 1896.  He took many holidays in Switzerland and also visited Egypt in the days when extensive foreign travel was still a minority interest.

Alfred jr, married Kate Rendall in August 1900.  Kate was the daughter of the late William Rendall of Maiden Newton, Surgeon-Captain in the Queen's Own Dorset Yeomanry.  They had four children recorded in the war memorial book; Alfred Cecil Rolph, Kathering Mary, Philip William Rolph and Conway Rolph.

Therefore the eldest of Alfred Pope's sons, although slightly too old for front line service as a non-regular as a 43 year old at the outbreak of war, did his bit as a leading citizen to raise men for the Dorset Regiment.

Alfred Pope

Alfred Pope was the father of fifteen children; eleven sons and four daughters.  All eleven of those sons, as well as three sons-in-law and three daughters all served their country in the Great War.  As far as in known, this is a unique record.


Alfred Pope




Alfred was born at Clifton Maubank, Dorset, on 2nd October 1842, son of John Allen Pope.  The Popes had been landowners in Marnull, Corscoube and the Tollers for three centuries before this.  Alfred was educated at Dorchester Grammar School, where he later became Chairman of the Board of Governors.  In 1859 he was sent to Paris to continue his education and then became a solicitor in Bath, then at the Supreme Court in London.  He then became a partner in the firm of Andrews, Pope and Andrews of Dorchester before retiring from the legal profession at the age of thirty-eight, retaining his interest in the subject as President of the Dorset Law Society.

In 1862 he had volunteered as a `citizen soldier', part of the National Volunteer Assocation formed `in consequence of apprehension of a new attempt at invasion by the French.'  He was gazetted into the 17th Company of the Somerset Rifle Volunteers, rising to the rank of Captain.  On the formation of the National Reserve in Dorset in 1909, he was again enrolled as a Captain but as that force was moblised for war in August 1914, he was ineligible for active service due to his age (seventy-one).

In 1880 Alfred moved from the `dry' profession of law, to the more `liquid' one of brewing, becoming a partner in the famous Dorchester firm of Eldridge, Pope and Co, developing the Dorchester Brewery, now preserved as a leisure and shopping precint near the market place.

 


Eldridge and Pope Brewery in its heyday



In 1869 he married Mary Jenner.  However she died in 1871, leaving a son, Alfred Rolph Pope.  In 1874 he remarried Elizabeth Mary Whiting, a union which produced ten sons and four daughters.

He was elected to the Town Council of Dorchester in 1876 and was twice appointed Mayor, in 1878-79 and 1886-87.  During his second tenure the Bath and West of England Show was held at Dorcester showground and was visited by H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, later Edward VII.  In the words of a friend, "Alfred Pope had more than any man to do with the creation of Greater Dorchester."  He supported the development of the Cornwall Estate, and bought land to the south of the town to enable the building of the Maumburyway suburb.

In 1887, he acquired the Wrackleford Estate, which is still in the family to this day, and with it the lordships of the Manors of Stratton and Grimston.  When the ancient church at Stratton was restored in 1894, he paid for the erection of the chancel as a memorial to his first wife.  In 1902 he erected a memorial window to his deceased son, Sub-Lieutenant William Eldridge Pope, R.N.

 

Wrackleford House

Alfred was one of the founding members of the Dorset Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club in 1875, becoming an expert on Dorset medieval market and church crosses. 
His enthusiasm for preserving the past was also evident in his work on the erection of the Dorset County Museum in 1881 and in 1899 he paid for the relaying of Olga Road, a tessellated Roman pavement unearthed in Dorchester, in the museum.  He was a generous benefactor to Dorchester Library and in February 1918 was elected Vice-President alongside his friend and other eminent man of Dorset, Thomas Hardy O.M.

 

Olga Road Pavement, Dorset County Museum

He was keen member of the Cattistock and South Dorset Hunts.  He kept a head of game at Wrackleford.

The family memorial book described him as `a devoted Christian, and in politics…a strong Conservative, an ardent supporter of the Constitution and of the unity of the Empire.’

However all these eminent deeds, wealth and connections could not insulate Alfred from the grief suffered by hundreds of thousands of families in Britain during the Great War.  In fact it was families such as the Popes who were expected to set an example in their localities by being among the first to join up, and often whose sons were to be the first out of the trenches towards the enemy.

We shall follow their story as war took its toll