Hereford Times - 7th January 2016 - Page 33
Hereford Times - 7th January 2016 - Page 33
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Image Details
| Date | 07/01/2016 |
|---|---|
| Type | |
| Format | |
| Language | English |
| Area | Hereford Times |
| Collection Holder | |
| Date of Publication | 7th January 2016 |
| Transcription |
herefordtlmescom Th ursday, January 7 2016 THE HEREFORD TIMES lnFocus A proud Old Contemptible A GENERATION or so ago, newspapers throughout the country, including the Hereford Times, would regularly feature reports on military societies from the 1914-18 war. The Suvla Bay Associa- tion was one, the Old Con- teinptibles another but, as their members disap- peared with the passage of time, many will no longer know what significance these groups once held or, indeed, what the qualifica- tion for membership might have been. While the worth of the Suvla Bay Association — marking the amphibious landing made at Suvla on the Aegean coast of the Gallipoli peninsula in 1915 — should not be underes- timated, it’s the Old Con- temptibles which figured large in our family’s life for as long as I can remember. Members of the group earned their epithet from the reported comment of Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany, who allegedly issued an order on August 19, 1914 to “exterminate the treacherous English and walk over General French’s contemptible lit- tle army”. My grandfather George Sawkins was a proud member of the association which was open only to those who were already in France as part of the Brit- ish Expeditionary Force on the day war was declared — August 4, 1914. The son of the game- keeper at the south Here- fordshire Whitfield estate, George was born in 1895 and so had not yet reached his 18th birthday when he enlisted in the Royal Army Medical Corps (Territo- rial Division) on March 18, 1913, initially with the South Wales Mounted Bri- gade Field Ambulance. A stretcher-bearer, he was attached to the 7th Cavalry Field Ambulance — he even joined their choir — which crossed to Ostend and then moved on to Bruges in Bel- gium. They served the 3rd Cav- alry Division which was involved on the Western Front in the first battle of Ypres in 1914, the second battle of Ypres in 1915, the battles of Arras in 1917 and battles in The Somme in 1918. The Somme must have been a particularly dif- ficult experience. He had lost his elder brother Wil- liam at the Somme in 1916. William’s short life, ended by a sniper at just 22, is marked on the war memo- rial near Perrystone on the B4224, the Ross side of How Caple. After the war, George worked in the steelworks at Pontypool before returning to the county of his birth as a maintenance man for the Morelands family — who ran the famous match Richard Prime with the medals of his late grandfather George Henry Sawkins factory in Gloucester — at Foy. He moved on to be the es- tate maintenance manager for Colonel Spence-Colby at Donnington Court, lat~ er to become, briefly, the home of Elizabeth Hurley and Shane Warne. He was involved in a bad motor accident when he was hit by a car in 1937. In spite of his injuries, mili- tary life had not complete- ly relaxed its grip on him. When conflict with Ger- many came again in 1939, he and his wife Dot, whom he had married in 1923, were both employed at the Rotherwas Munitions Fac- tory — he was a storekeeper — and moved to Hereford with their four daughters in 1942. The two eldest daughters were involved in the war effort, one serving as an ARP warden and the other spending time at Bletchley Park. George served with the Home Guard throughout the Second World War, earning another medal to add to his collection, and his uproarious laughter when Dad’s Army first reached TV screens in the 19603 gave the probably correct impression that the incidents portrayed in the series held more than a grain of truth. He retired in 1961 and he and Dot enjoyed a happy retirement, three times travelling to Canada where two of their daughters had emigrated in the postwar period. He maintained his link with the Old Contempti- bles to the end of his life serving for a long period as treasurer of the local branch, wearing his asso ciation badge with pride every day of his life. My grandfather, George Sawkins, died on Novem ber 23 1977. His coffin was draped in the Union Flag — a hero, to his family at least. to the last army uniform An oil painting of George Sawkins in his First World War .F“ 3‘1. \E'r—Y 92;... '7“. " ' . ,2..va a [‘3- J , 3.! .. ,_‘ » :1 1' iIEK'v/ '(l. Effx HumtIIE strut tINGTtINo CENTiMES Les Mcmhms an In Com .1 ‘33Ian as com o c git-57’.» t. @M/ ‘. _1r__.-1-......_ . a. -._I,i_.. Cl ,, 6‘2 58’ BON at (31011.11. LA GARANTF SOclUAIRE 9r 1 CD!- MIJN‘ES OCCUPE'. E upturn/nun}: du tram; -1( I'l/SNS era ”OISE 0,2 F.1-‘ium I'r 34‘1‘hbr! In- ~. Cc aor- nu In “lulu. don “1 um 11%“ 2 a» tub" 4- Guam 1. CMII M , ‘ 1’ I‘ ., m.--» k.— .> An army token which is part of the surviving paperwork -1 LO (Q Before Atier k 1.5K ' 11-1 11;. 1 .fl' 1*;va 4:. i f I was i m........_,. 1.....-” 1. Three Counties |_/_1_T_R00FING THE GCCFi NC "“5 " CALL US FOR A FREE QUOTATION 01 4 3 2 21 3144 www.tcflatroofing.co.uk ._._-.l |
| Newspaper name | Hereford Times |