Commemorations from the First World War: the story of the Buddells

The Brockley and Ladywell Cemeteries contain several monuments dedicated to the Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen who were killed in the First World War. Those fallen in service are also commemorated in many of the family graves and two FOBLC members, David Platt and Michael Martin, have been researching this and uncovered the fascinating story of one family, the Buddells.

Early in 1915 it was decided by the British Government that it would be impossible to return all the dead from the Great War to Britain for burial. As result it became policy to not return any and that they were to be interred where they fell with their comrades. This presented problems to the families of the dead buried abroad after the war. While today it is relatively easy to visit the battlefields of Northern France and Belgium, in the 1920’s it was only the very rich who could afford to do this, unlike in America, there was no financial support offered to relatives to make these visits. The old battlefields also lacked accessibility and accommodation for the hundreds of thousands of mourners that would have liked to visit until they were finally cleared in the mid 1930’s.

It seems that, in England at least, it became common practise for families to commemorate their fallen husbands and sons on their own family graves and tombs. This took two forms; either a small monument added to an existing family grave of a relative, usually the mother or father, when one of the parents died an inscription was added to their headstone. On closer inspection of headstones of burials from the 1920’s you can find many of these inscriptions. When these dedications were new and easy to see, before weathering and nature began to reclaim these graves, it must have been a stark and startling reminder of the scale of the conflict and sacrifice of these men and their families.

Some of these inscriptions contain enough detail to build up a picture of what was involved and make it possible to relate to some of the suffering the families had to endure. Others merely give a name and country and we are left to fill in the gaps with our imagination.

The Buddells

Located in the Ladywell section of the Cemetery is the headstone of William and Elizabeth Buddell. It contains the following inscription:

Henry and Elizabeth Ann Buddell lived at 52 Garthorne Road Forest Hill. According to the headstone they had three sons who served and died during or shortly after the Great War.

Frank Buddell is recorded in the inscription as Company Quarter Master Serjeant of the 10th Royal West Kent Regiment (Serjeant is the old British Army spelling of Sergeant). The Company Quartermaster Serjeant (CQMS) in the British Army is the non-commissioned officer in a company who is in charge of supplies. The National Archive lists Frank as Colour Sergeant. Historically, Colour Sergeants of British line regiments were tasked with protecting Ensigns, the most junior officers who were responsible for carrying their battalions' Colours (flag or insignia) to rally troops in battles. For this reason the Colour Sergeant rank was considered a prestigious one given normally to courageous Sergeants who had attained accomplishments in battles. This tradition continues today as Colour Sergeants form part of a Colour Party in military parades.

In July 1915 the 10^th Royal West Kent Regiment was attached to 118th Brigade, 39th Division. In October 1915 they were transferred to 123rd Brigade, 41st Division

The 41st Division was withdrawn after the First Battle of Arras, 1918 (fourth phase of the First Battles of the Somme 1918), and sent north to Flanders where it held a sector near Ypres that was, for once, relatively quiet. Nonetheless, the average casualty rate for the British and Commonwealth forces during the Great War was around three hundred per day when not involved in a major offensive.

Frank Buddell was killed in action 24^th May 1918 aged 30. He is buried at Brandhoek, Belgium.

William Henry Buddell was a Lieutenant in the 26^th Battalion New Brunswick Regiment. Henry is listed on the Commonwealth War Graves database as Canadian, and this was a Canadian regiment. He was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal, or DCM which was instigated by the British Army as a means of recognising acts of gallantry performed by ther ranks' (i.e. non-commissioned officers) during the Crimean War in 1854; the Distinguished Conduct Medal was regarded as second only to the Victoria Cross in prestige. Acting upon the belief that during the Great War that the overwhelming demand for medals would devalue the prestige of those already available, the Military Medal was issued as an alternative to the Distinguished Conduct Medal from March 1916. Given that William is listed as a Lieutenant this implies that he joined as an enlisted man prior to 1916. The National Archive Medal Card lists him as a Serjeant Major, Canadian Infantry.

He was appointed Battalion Adjutant on the 13th January 1919. The Battalion war diary shows that he was admitted to hospital on the 30th January 1919 with sickness. He died on the 2^nd March. His funeral took place with full military honours at Tamines, Belgium, on the 4th February.

It is likely that William died of Spanish Flu, a pandemic that lasted from March 1918 to June 1920; current estimates are that between 50 million to 100 million people worldwide died, possibly more than that taken by the Black Death. This extraordinary toll resulted from the extremely high infection rate of up to 50% and the severity of the symptoms. People without symptoms could be struck suddenly and within hours be too feeble to walk; many died the next day. Symptoms included a blue tint to the face and coughing up blood caused by severe obstruction of the lungs. In some cases, the virus caused an uncontrollable hemorrhaging that filled the lungs, and patients drowned in their body fluids.

Albert Sidney Buddell was a member of the Royal Army Service Corps (RASC). This was responsible for land, coastal and lake transport; air despatch; supply of food, water, fuel, and general domestic stores such as clothing, furniture and stationery; administration of barracks; the Army Fire Service; and provision of staff clerks to headquarters units They were not responsible for ammunition and military and technical equipment, which were the responsibility of the Royal Army Ordnance Corps..

In 1918 the corps received the "Royal" prefix for its service in the Great War and became the Royal Army Service Corps.

Albert is listed in the National Archive as a private and has a medal card. He died on the 21^st February 1925 “As a Result of war service”

The British Empire mobilized 8,900,000 men during the Great War. There were 908,000 dead and 2,000,000 wounded. Albert died of his wounds over six years after the war ended in Europe.

William Henry Buddell died in 1935 aged 76, his wife Elizabeth Ann Buddell two years later in 1937 aged 78 having seen three sons die as a result of the war.

The true story of Jane Clouson, by her cousin

One of the most interesting graves in the Brockley and Ladywell Cemeteries is that of Jane Clouson, a 17 year old girl whose murder in 1871 aroused great controversy in Victorian London.

The FOBLC has been contacted by her surviving cousin John Hancock, who has written this moving account of her tragic tale.

The Eltham Murder 1871

Jane Maria Clouson, daughter of James and Jane Clouson (formerly Hancock) was born in April 1854 in Deptford. She had one older sister called Sarah who died of consumption in 1863 and one younger sister called Maria. Jane’s mother died when she was 13.

At the age of 14, Jane began working as a servant/maid for Ebenezer Pook, who owned a printing business with connections to The Times of London. Pook had a number of children, one being only 3 years older than Jane. His name was Edmund Walter Pook. He said that he suffered from ‘fits’ and could not be left alone. He also claimed to be a music hall entertainer.

At some point Edmund began having a secret affair with Jane.

Early in 1871, probably early April, Jane was dismissed from the service of the Pook family, for reasons of being lazy and generally unpleasant. This would have been a shock to anyone who knew Jane because she had a reputation for being quite the opposite.

Jane was dismissed from service because Edmunds parents had found out about the affair, and, as one of Ebenezer’s other children had already ‘married below his station’ it would not have been fitting for another child to be seen in the same position.

Jane had gone to live with her Aunt Elizabeth Trott (formerly Hancock) and her daughter Charlotte.

Letters were sent back and forth between Jane and Edmund. In one of these letters Jane told Edmund she was pregnant with his child. Unfortunately, neither Jane nor Edmund kept the letters.

Edmund arranged to meet Jane near Blackheath. Jane had conversations with her Aunt and Cousin in which she said that Edmund was going to whisk her away and make an honest woman of her.

On April 25^th 1871 Jane was discovered by a policeman, on Kidbrooke Lane, near-death; having been severely beaten. She managed to say the words “Edmund Pook” and “Oh let me die” before passing out. She was rushed to Guy’s Hospital but never regained consciousness.

Jane died on April 30^th, two days after her 17^th birthday.

A hammer was found, covered in blood about 1 mile from where Jane was found, and the shop that sold the hammer was quickly discovered with the shop owner identifying Pook as the man who had purchased it.

A man matching Pook’s description was seen fleeing Kidbrooke Lane. Police interviewed Edmund, who simply stated he was somewhere else and offered the Police the name of a person but the Police declined his offer. He then stated he wasn’t with anyone else, but he was running home, alone, because he felt a fit coming on. When asked about the clothing he wore on the night, it matched the description. The blood on the clothes was ruled out as being from biting his tongue during the fit. It did seem like a lot of blood for a tongue bite.

The case went to coroner’s trial first, and Edmund was found guilty of the wilful murder of Jane. This was then rushed through to the Central Criminal Court at The Old Bailey.

What followed was a farce. First, the judge ordered that Jane’s last words, in which she identified Pook, were inadmissible as they were hearsay. Secondly, the judge chastised the police, saying that they were after a quick arrest and hounded Pook with no real evidence.

Pook was found not guilty.

Public unrest followed. It was obvious to most people at the time that class was what helped Pook get off.

A pamphlet was written which identified Pook as the killer. Edmund hired one Henry Pook, apparently no relation to him, to prosecute for slander.

This was a bad move on Edmund’s part because during the civil trial he had no choice but to answer questions that in the criminal trial were not allowed. Everything pointed to him being the murderer. Nevertheless Pook was awarded £50 in damages.

A committee was formed; part of their role was to raise the money to pay Edmund Pook the £50.

The funeral was a huge event. The road between Elizabeth Trott’s house in Deptford and the cemetery was lined with thousands of people. So many, that the police came out in force to control the crowds. Jane’s body was transferred by horse-drawn carriage. Many people threw flowers onto the carriage and in the path of the horses.

Unusually, the pall bearers were all woman dressed in maids uniforms. Jane was laid to rest on a plot of land not far from the place where her mother and older sister lie. This land was given by the local council.

The committee formed to raise the money for damages also raised money to have a statue erected on her grave in Jane’s memory.

Written by John Hancock

(Jane Clouson’s 1^st Cousin, 4x removed)Newspaper illustrations of Jane Clouson murder from The Times of London archive

Meeting reminder

The next (6^th) Friends of Brockley and Ladywell Cemeteries meeting will be held on Tuesday 15^th January 2008, 7.30pm at the Envirowork Brockley Grove Depot, (opposite Baptist Church)

Hope to see you there!

Database of Brockley & Ladywell gravestones and inscriptions now online

The North West Kent Family History Society has just this week added a large database of memorial inscriptions from the gravestones at Brockley and Ladywell Cemeteries to their website. Although some of the data has been available for some years, this is the first time that the entire database as originally recorded has been made available for searching.

They have added a transcript of some 13,700 gravestones with the names of nearly 37,000 individuals buried there - you can find the introductory page to these at:

www.nwkfhs.org.uk/ladywell.htm