'SERVICEMEN WE KNOW'
Driver Ben Howarth, 171680, Royal Field Artillery
Thumbnails link to larger pictures
My grandfather, Ben Howarth – that's Ben not Benjamin – was born the son of George and Hannah Howarth on 20 September 1882 at 26 Eden Street, Oldham, Lancashire… |
26 Eden St. |
In 1907 Ben married Esther Ann (Hetty) Lomax here at Holy Trinity Church, in the district of Coldhurst, Oldham… and that year they moved a short distance away not far from the moorland of Oldham Edge to ...
115 Crompton Street, Coldhurst |
Holy Trinity Church |
As a young man, Ben had been a groom to a Dr Pickering and had driven the doctor on his rounds in a brougham as well as looking after his horse. Ben loved horses – for him, they were not solely a means of transport. However, by the time he lived here, the doctor had retired and Ben had had to find other employment. Unlike many of Oldham's population who worked in mills and factories, Ben had an office job with the Scottish Legal Life Insurance Company based here in the white building at 25 Union St, Oldham … Star Inn in the distance. |
|
Soon after moving to Crompton Street, Ben and Hetty's first child, Collinge Jackson, was born. Four years later in 1911, Edith, my mother, was born. She must have been about six when this photo was taken… |
Children
(The taller boy is a cousin.) |
Ben
taken on holiday in the 1930s… |
And here he is
with his wife, Hetty… |
|
Ben was called up in 1916 when conscription was extended to include married men.According to Ben's Service Record he was posted on 18 September 1916 to D Battery No. 2 Reserve Brigade Artillery based at Bettisfield Park near Whitchurch in Shropshire.
Bettisfield Park was (and still is) a large country house…
And Ben might have sent home a postcard like this… |
|
This unit arranged the provision of men to reinforce existing units or for the formation of new units – a large common pool of men to be drawn upon and sent when and where needed.
Here he would have marched and drilled, learned to shoot and been trained in horse care and management for he was designated as a driver probably because of his early experience in civilian life with horses – as a groom to a local doctor.
After joining the army, the Royal Field Artillery, he would have been issued with his uniform and various items of equipment such as a bandoleer and RFA badge… |
Now that he was in the Royal Field Artillery Ben also might have sent home postcards like these…
– but embroidered postcards such as these were very popular…
|
After a few months training at Bettisfield Park he was finally sent overseas as part of the British Expeditionary Force on 13 March 1917, probably sailing from Folkestone, to a transit camp in northern France to await posting. This was to be the 31 Divisional Ammunition Column (31 DAC) in the Arras area of France.
|
Ben was not a gunner; he was not actually operating the guns. He was helping to take ammunition to the guns in horse-drawn wagons like this… He was a driver and would have ridden one of the near-side three horses of a six-horse team that was harnessed to a General Service wagon…
Ben's duties involved taking the ammunition to where it was needed, not always an easy task in the mud… |
|
31 DAC - Division Insignia |
The 31st Division was one of Kitchener's New Army divisions. It was sometimes referred to as the '30-Worst Division' and its commander, Maj-Gen R. Wanless O'Gowan, as 'Useless' O'Gowan. This was somewhat unfair as he and the division were often the victims of mismanagement elsewhere and bad luck.
Each Division had its own insignia…
Each Divisional Ammunition Column also had its own insignia … The 31 DAC was rarely mentioned in any historical or official account.
|
The 31 DAC's war diaries are held in the National Archives at Kew near London. These war diaries show the movements of the 31 DAC. They were kept on a daily basis by the Commanding Officer and provide record of the 31 DAC's movements so it was possible to locate both the 31 DEC and Ben although he was never mentioned by name.
One of these places where he would have been was a small village called Camblain l'Abbé… |
|
|
Apart from riding and driving the horses in his care, Ben would also have had to learn how to fit them with gas masks…
If any of them were sick or wounded they might have needed a horse ambulance
|
|
18 Pounder Field Gun
|
Ben was not a robust man having had a spell in hospital during training and an office job before he was conscripted. For all this, he was paid 1/2d a day – twopence a day more than his Napoleonic counterpart a hundred years before! His Canadian contemporaries were paid about 5/- a day.
|
Vimy Ridge Memorial
|
The 31 DAC (including Ben) was attached to the 1st Canadian Division was in preparation for the massive attack on the German positions at Vimy Ridge between 91-12 April 1917… Vimy Ridge is not a range of hills but a barely discernible higher point in an otherwise flat landscape… Today it is topped by the massive Canadian memorial…
The guns that were mostly used and that Ben supplied with ammunition were 18-pounder field gun… and this is it in action with its ammunition which would have been brought to the gun by wagons of the 31 DAC…
|
 |
The battle of Vimy Ridge lasted from 9-12 April 1917. Even when it was over, there was no let-up and almost immediately the giant war machine, including Ben, rolled a few miles south to the Bullecourt area which is now largely remembered as an Australian action. Ben with the 31 DAC had to go wherever ammunition was wanted…
…this was the view around the 15 April 1917 and was sold as a postcard – hardly a "Wish you were here…" view. |
On 10 May 1917 Ben was having health problems again and was admitted to a hospital at Camiers not far from Etaples, a big military base on the coast not far from Boulogne…
Ben was stated as suffering from PUO: Pyrexia of Unknown Origin, i.e. fever.
Two weeks later, on 24 May Ben was shipped back to Blighty on board the Princess Elizabeth, a former cross-Channel ferry converted to a hospital ship… |
|
 |
So Ben was now a casualty, albeit sick rather than wounded …
Later in May 1917 he was taken to 2nd Southern General Hospital - Southmeads hospital at Bristol…
Ben was a good singer and he entertained the patients and nurses, perhaps in the hospital theatre at Southmeads… |
Ben was later transferred to Hart House Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) Hospital at Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset – many miles from his home in Oldham, Lancashire…
He would have worn the traditional 'hospital blue' uniform: a loose fitting light blue jacket and trousers, white shirt, red tie and blue arm band like this group…
Ben was stated as suffering from myalgia – muscular pains and had indications of heart problems… |
In July 1917 Ben appeared before the Army Medical Board at Bristol for his health to be assessed to see whether he was fit enough to continue in the army. Apparently he was. He was then granted two weeks' leave, or furlough as it was then called. He had recovered enough to be posted to the 3rd Reserve Brigade Royal Field Artillery at Fenham Barracks, Newcastle-upon-Tyne....
|
|
 |
After two months, Ben was then posted to 31st Battery, Maryhill Barracks, Glasgow. This would have been his view of the place as he arrived on the train…
While he was at Maryhill Barracks, there was correspondence from Ben's pre-war employer, the Scottish Legal Life Assurance Society, stating that they would be very willing to have him back… |
He had worked for them since February 1908 and was paid £2/5/- a week. An earlier letter from them stated how difficult it was to find employees as they were continually called up but, it also seemed to indicate that they wanted Ben back because he had been a good employee.
By early November 1917, Ben's medical report indicated "Disordered action of the heart… enlargement of left ventricle…"
His record stated that he had been transferred to Class W. This meant that, although he had been 'written off' he was liable to recall if circumstances that had led to his release changed, i.e. he got fitter or the army needed him. Fortunately, the army did not need him and Ben spent the rest of the war in England. On 14 December 1918, a year later, he was officially discharged as surplus to military requirements because by then the war was over.
Despite his ill-health, he was not granted an army pension as it could not be proved that his condition was the result of his army service and he was considered capable of earning a living with his previous civilian employer.
|
Ben had served with the colours for two years and three months and had been overseas for nine weeks – probably long enough. Like all other soldiers, Ben was awarded medals… the Allied Victory Medal and the British War Medal.
|
Ben Howarth was a kind, patient, but strong, gentle, man and full of common sense. He was well-known in Oldham and district for his singing – a robust tenor – and had performed in concerts and would have liked to pursue it as a career but in the 1920s and 30s during the depression in Oldham this was just not possible, particularly for a family man. However, he sang with nationally known singers and taught singing part-time at home.
Although Ben was around at a time when horses were a means of transport and beasts of burden, he had a great love for them and owned a Shire horse called Boxer when he ran his own coal haulage business in the 1920s – after his time as an insurance agent. Boxer died of colic and my mother remembers her father weeping at the death of his horse. It is nice to think that Ben might have been as close to one of his army horses as this soldier… |
Again, it may be a little fanciful but
perhaps Ben might have sent home
from the war a postcard like this. |
Ben even smoked a pipe like
this soldier.
|
Ben Howarth died of a heart attack on 24 February 1938
at 115 Crompton Street, Coldhurst, Oldham, Lancashire. |
Narrative & photos contributed by Anne Grimshaw
back to 'SERVICEMEN WE KNOW' Gallery
|
|
