Howards’ Way

Far from cherishing it, as the hymnist in a slightly different connection supposed, there was a danger that it could have ended up in the skip.

At a simple ceremony last Tuesday, however, the wooden cross that on a foreign field had marked the resting place of Lt Col Bernard Hedley Charlton was presented to the Green Howards regimental museum in Richmond.

The Green Howards are the Yorkshire Regiment. None knew that, that same day in Afghanistan, five more men would be added to its roll of honour.

Only one other such cross is known to exist – “a magical, important, really powerful object,” said museum director Lynda Powell. It was, she added, amazing how it had survived.

Bernard Charlton was born in Guisborough in 1885, his father a mines manager in east Cleveland.

Bernard himself graduated from the Royal School of Mines, was manager of the Guisborough ironstone mine in 1911 and by the outbreak of war had taken charge of the collieries at Hedleyhope and East Hedleyhope, near Tow Law – which may help explain why the cross ended up at the local church, where his name is also on the war memorial.

“It’s still a real mystery, no one knows how it got there but it’s been there longer than I have,” said longserving churchwarden Norman Deacon – a lovely man, delighted to be among the Queen’s Maundy Money recipients next month.

Charlton had joined the local volunteers in 1908, entered the war as a captain in the Yorkshire Regiment, first saw frontline fighting in 1915. In May of that year, he was badly gassed at Ypres and spent five months out of action. In the New Year honours of 1916, he was awarded the Military Cross for “exemplary gallantry” and was twice mentioned in despatches. In 1915, he also married Dorothy Joliffe, from Newlins Grange, Darlington.

He was promoted temporary major in March 1916, was wounded under heavy German bombardment at Kemmel three months later, became a lieutenant colonel in December 1917 and the following March was killed at the Battle of St Quentin.

His grave at Rossiel, on the Somme, was first marked with the wooden cross adorned with strips of metal of the sort once obtained from nameplate machines on railway stations.

Relatives were later allowed to collect the temporary grave markers if they paid their own expenses. Few did.

“It’s possible that his widow made the journey and wanted it back at Tow Law, where he had worked, but I’ve never been able to find out,” said local historian David Charlesworth, who nonetheless has faithfully created a website in the local hero’s honour.

They were joined at the poignant presentation by the Rev Jon Whalley, vicar of Tow Law and of neighbouring parishes, who is himself a Territorial Army chaplain. “We thank you that our forebears stood up to the bullies,” he prayed.

There are very many places of honour in the Green Howards museum.

The old rugged cross will be found another. “It’s wonderful how everything has at last fallen into place,”

says Lynda Powell. “These are men who must never be forgotten.”

THE Green Howards museum is a proud and a poignant place, made yet more fascinating because our guide was Canon Richard Cooper, chaplain both to the Queen and to the regiment and retired vicar of Richmond. Whatever the occasion, Richard is a master raconteur.

Probably many have been told the story of how the Green Howards came by their name, back in 1743 when a general gave the order for Howard’s company to advance.

There were two Howards, Charles and Tom. Which did he mean?

The general looked at their uniform, noticed that one wore green braid and one buff. The Green Howards it was.

Fewer may know the tale – Richard did, swore its veracity – of the painting in the museum by the renowned Terence Cuneo of a Green Howards service celebrated in Richmond 50 years ago by Michael Ramsey, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Archbishops are busy men, of course, and may have little time to stand around being painted. It may explain why the figure in ornate archi-episcopal attire is portrayed only from the rear – and that while there is a marked resemblance to Michael Ramsey, the man so gloriously vested is the regimental sergeant major.

FORMER Green Howard Matt Bendelow has featured hereabouts before.

He’s the truly extraordinary former Shildon lad who lost a leg in action and returned to become postman at Bowes – between the wars completing a nine-mile rural walk, six days a week, on crutches and playing a key role in village life. The next Green Howards Magazine will feature him, too. It should be essential reading.

AFOOTNOTE in last week’s column sought information on a “Welcome home” medal given to a returning First World War soldier in Blackhall, on the Durham coast. They seem to have been fairly common. John Briggs, in Darlington, discovers a similar medal issued in Ashington, sold recently on ebay for just £22.

In Witton-le-Wear, families appear to have been given monetary gifts and allowed to buy a suitable memorial.

Anne Yuill, writing a book on the west Durham village’s First World War heroes, discovers that the family of 21-year-old George Walton Scott, killed in France in September 1918, bought a clock to which a suitable plaque was attached. It remains a family treasure.

“It appears that many communities set up funds with donations from local people,” says Anne. “It doesn’t look as if it was a national campaign, but an initiative that developed in many areas.”

She hopes her book will be published in the summer.

LIKE Blackhall, Kelloe was a mining community, developed around East Hetton colliery. The miners’ union lodge presented Frank Mulligan, and doubtless many others, with a medal to mark his safe return.

It’s now treasured by Patrick Groark, his nephew, who lives in Stockton and who sends the photograph of Frank (see left).

Patrick also worked down East Hetton for a year. Per ardua ad astra, he came up in 1956 and joined the RAF instead.

PITCH and toss may have been a little less belligerent. Last week’s column recalled that, too, prompting a reader who asks anonymity to recall a long gone childhood in Spennymoor. It was also played on a Sunday afternoon, he remembers, after the men had been kicked out of the pubs.

“Some of the men used to chase us away but others urged us to stand guard, a good distance off. That’s just what I was doing when I witnessed a line of policemen coming over the fields from Tudhoe village.

“The panic was indescribable. I ran home as fast as I could and stayed in for the rest of the day waiting for a banging on the door, and my arrest for illegal gambling.

STAN Gray, treasurer of Blackhall’s local history group, has now heard of other medals in Haswell and in Trimdon Colliery. Diversifying a little, group chairman Harry Archbold sends a copy of The Old Age Pensioners’ Song Book – “a little gem” – published by the National Federation of Old Age Pensions Associations.

The book must be getting on a bit, too. It cost threepence.

Many of the 30 songs are familiar – Abide With Me, Crimond, Jerusalem – four or five are in Welsh, one of them to that well known Welsh hymn tune, Huddersfield. Another’s a reworking of a real old favourite.

Onward, Old Age Pensioners
Stand up for your right;
Rally round our banner -
Membership is might.
We will fight for justice,
We have waited long,
Come lift your hearts and voices
In the triumph song

Back then the weekly pension was 26 shillings. These days it must be nearly a fiver. That’s what rallying round does. Onward.