On Sunday afternoon 23 October 1921, as reported by the Western Gazette, “there took place one of the most impressive and soul-stirring ceremonies in the history of the borough. It was Shaftesbury’s day with the dead. Here upon the wind-swept walk, in the chilly, moist atmosphere of an October day, hundreds of townspeople honoured the memory of the 60 men who gave up their lives in the service of their King and Country.”

The following article is based on the account published in the Western Gazette of 28 October, 1921.

SHAFTESBURY’S WAR HEROES.

BEAUTIFUL EYAM CROSS UNVEILED BY EARL OF SHAFTESBURY.

STIRRING CEREMONY IN “THE PARK.”

Almost directly in front of the Westminster Memorial Hospital, there now stands this visible expression of the gratitude of a thankful people. It is a distinctive tribute, beautiful in its substantial symmetrical proportions, and in perfect harmony with the traditions of the town, itself one of the oldest in England.

The Eyam Cross in Derbyshire is the oldest of the Saxon crosses in this country, and there are few modern imitations. The only replica in the West of England is that erected at Blundell’s School, Tiverton, (by the same company of stonemasons, H. Hems of Exeter, in November 1920.) Hence Shaftesbury has a memorial of distinction.

With the exception of the four panels, which are of Hopton Wood (Derbyshire) stone, the memorial is constructed of the noted Chilmark stone, drawn from the district. The locality of the memorial gives it an added boldness and dignity, overlooking, as it does, miles and miles of country. In this unique spot stands this high tribute to the heroism and devotion to sixty gallant Shastonians, whose example will be as a beacon fire upon the hilltop, pointing the way to true greatness and noble service in the cause of humanity.

The inscription reads: ‘Lest we forget. In proud and grateful memory of the men of Shaftesbury who gave their lives in the Great War, 1914-1918’. The names of the 60 fallen are inscribed on the side panels. They are as follows:-

Walter Harry Alner. Sidney William Alner. Frederick Thomas Atkinson. William Bastable. Harry Bastable. Charles Belbin. William Belbin. Charles Blake. Charles Brickell. Frederick Brickell. James Burbidge. Harry Butt. Frederick Butt. Reginald Butt. William Thomas Cole. Charles Crew. Charles Davis. Harry Davis. Montague Durston. George Henry Dyke. Ernest Foot. Reginald Foot. Harry Gray. Sidney Gray. Edwin Greenway. Leslie Gutsell. Decimus Hardiman. Henry Meatyard Hatcher. John Highman. Walter William Hodder. Percy Hussey. Bertram Keast. Charles King. Edwin Large. Rex Lawson. Gilbert Maidment. Arthur Mayo. Frederick Miller. Frederick Morgan. Edwin George Mullins. George Newton. Sidney Parsons. Charles Parsons. Alfred Parsons. Joseph Powell. Harry Robins. Bertram Robins. Alfred Stainer. John Stainer. Frederick Taylor. Walter Thorne. Arthur Toogood. Harold Lawrence Tuffin. Hubert Frank Weldon. Reginald S White. Frank White. Leslie Reginald Wightman. Thomas Wright. Herbert Wright. Philip Sidney Young.

THE UNVEILING

A long procession left the Town Hall square shortly after 2.15pm, for a service at Holy Trinity Church. At the head walked Inspector Swain and members of the local constabulary, followed by the Comrades’ band, under bandmaster T. Wareham. The Territorials and several hundred ex-servicemen from Shaftesbury & Gillingham, under the command of Lord Stalbridge and ex Corporal-Major, T. Imber, preceded the civic body, which was led by the Mayor, wearing his robes and chain of office.

At Holy Trinity, the service was conducted by the Vicar and commenced with the hymn ‘O, God, our help’ and was followed by a pause for silent remembrance.

After the service, the procession was reformed and to the triumphant music of ‘Onward Christian soldiers’, proceeded to the memorial, which was surrounded by a huge crowd, with every point of vantage being occupied. In reserved positions, close to the memorial, were the relatives of the fallen, most of whom carried floral tributes.

After the hymn ‘Rock of ages’, the Earl of Shaftesbury addressed the crowd and then pulled the cord, releasing the flags, and revealing the beauty of the memorial. The Mayor then solemnly read the names of the fallen, and concluded, ‘May God grant that they rest in peace’. The Rector dedicated the memorial, and Lord Stalbridge laid on it the Comrades’ wreath, in national colours, bearing the inscription, ‘As a token of respect to our fallen comrades, from the ex-servicemen of Shaftesbury’. Many other wreaths were laid until the base was completely covered.

Lord Shaftesbury, although suffering from a sprained ankle, stood throughout the ceremony. Addressing the Mayor, members of the Corporation and the good people of Shaftesbury, he offered his hearty thanks for the share he was privileged to have in the impressive and stirring proceedings. Now they had unveiled the memorial to public gaze, what a host of feelings it evoked. Feelings of wonder and amazement for that supreme act of sacrifice. Then there was the thought of all the pain that that sacrifice entailed. Finally, the sense of thanksgiving and praise for the stupendous victory won. Surely they in Shaftesbury had done well in selecting this form of memorial to those of Shaftesbury who gave their lives for King and Country.

“Greater love hath no man than this,

That a man lay down his life for his friend.”

Then, after Lord Shaftesbury’s address, another hymn, prayers and a blessing, the National Anthem was sung, and a memorable and deeply stirring service ended with the sounding of the Last Post, by three members of the Cadet Corps.

The stories of most, if not all of the individuals whose names appear on local War Memorials have been researched by volunteers of the Shaftesbury Remembers Project and may be accessed by clicking here

Thanks to Peter Stanier for additional research into the construction of local War Memorials.

At 4p.m. on Sunday 09 October 1921 a Memorial to the men of Enmore Green and Sherborne Causeway who gave their lives in the 1914-18 Great War was unveiled by Lady Stalbridge. Virtually every parish in Great Britain had sent men to the war who had not returned, and who would be buried in or near the battlefields where they served. It was government policy that bodies should not be repatriated, with the notable and symbolic exception of the Unknown Warrior, who was interred in Westminster Abbey on 11 November 1920. The overseas cemeteries of the Imperial (later Commonwealth) War Graves Commiss- ion were set out with a beautiful and standardised rigour, and are lovingly maintained to the present day. There was no prescribed uniformity for local parish War Memorials back home, so there is an endearing variety of designs for the monuments, which for many Britons would have been the only accessible place of Remembrance for their relatives.

The monument at Enmore Green is in the practical form of a lamp post, with a plaque bearing the names at the base. All of these names will have been researched and recorded by the volunteers of Shaftesbury Remembers.

The names may be more easily read on this image of the outside of the original programme of the Dedication Ceremony, kindly provided by Nigel Garrett and photographed by Ann Symons at Gold Hill Museum.

Perhaps History does repeat itself. In July 1928 King Amanullah of Afghanistan returned from a lengthy tour of Europe. His enthusiasm for Western manners did not endear him to his subjects, and the Royal Family was forced to flee an armed uprising to neighbouring British India. The British Minister at the newly-built British Legation, Colonel Sir Francis Humphrys, was able to call in 70 Squadron, then based in Iraq (and now at RAF Brize Norton.) The Squadron’s workhorse was the Vickers Victoria, designed to carry 24 troops and their equipment at about 100mph. In 84 missions between 23 December 1928 and 25 February 1929, the RAF pilots, in open cockpits and relying on rudimentary instrumentation, flew 586 shivering passengers of 11 nationalities across the wintry mountains of the Hindu Kush to Peshawar, in what is now Pakistan.

Sherard Cowper-Coles was British Ambassador in Kabul from 2007 to 2009. In ‘Cables from Kabul’ (published 2011) he describes commemorating the 80th anniversary of the first Kabul Airlift, and writes that ‘an added twist to the story was the fact that Aircraftsman T.E. Shaw (aka T.E. Lawrence) was sitting at RAF Miramshah, spending his spare time preparing a new translation of Homer’s ‘Odyssey’. But the word got out among the Waziri tribesmen that “Al Urens” (as the Arabs called Lawrence) was among them, plotting.’ Very swiftly Shaw/Lawrence was transferred from British India back to England, where he continued his service in the ranks until 1935. Two months after leaving the RAF, in May 1935 he was catapulted over the handlebars of his powerful Brough motorcycle and fatally injured near his cottage Clouds Hill, in Dorset.

In January 2009 Cowper-Coles met briefly with Vice-President-elect Joe Biden, emphasising his belief in ‘the need for the military effort to be complemented by a political approach, involving both the internal and the regional parties to the conflict. …. Senator Biden’s scepticism about the feasibility – and afford- ability – of a serious counter-insurgency strategy in a country of the size and poverty of Afghanistan was clear. …. (Cowper-Coles argued that since 2001) There had been huge improvements in health, in education, in infrastructure and, amazingly, in prosperity. All these could be endangered if we pulled our ground-holding forces back unilaterally.’ (pp200-201) Prophetic words written ten years ago.

The subject of the Teulon Porter Memorial Lecture by Professor Anthony Badger at 7.30pm in Shaftesbury Town Hall on Tuesday 05 October 2021 will be ‘The 2020 American Presidential Election in Historical Perspective.’ Free to members of The S&DHS; otherwise £5 on the night.

On 16 August 1914 Private William Richard Bastable (service no. 7643) disembarked with the 1st Battalion of the Dorsetshire Regiment at Le Havre. Nine days later he and his comrades, professional soldiers in the British Expeditionary Force, were facing the overwhelming strength of the German army at Mons. Kaiser Wilhelm II is alleged to have dismissed the BEF as General French’s “contemptible little army” (though there is no documentary evidence to bear this out). In sixteen sweltering days the “Old Contemptibles” marched 220 miles in an orderly retreat, impressing the enemy with their discipline and withering rifle fire. Almost on the outskirts of Paris, the Allies turned the tide at the Battle of the Marne, and a war of movement became one of attrition, as both sides dug in.

William Richard Bastable was born in Shaftesbury in 1888, the son of George William Edward Bastable, an agricultural labourer, and Fanny Ann Bastable (nee Davis). There were four other children: George (born 1883), Henry John known as Harry (1884), James (1891) and Ruth (1895). William’s father and siblings, plus their father, were listed in the 1871 Census as paupers living in Shaftesbury Workhouse. We are indebted to volunteers Ann Symons and Chris Stupples for researching the story of the Bastables and many others, and entering the information into the Shaftesbury Remembers database. Chris has now passed the personal landmark of 1200 entries. Shaftesbury Remembers continues to expand its coverage and usefulness to researchers worldwide, as noted in the 2020-21 Trustees’ Report and at the 2021 AGM of The Shaftesbury & District Historical Society on 24 August.

Wiliam’s father died aged 47 in 1898 and was buried at St James Church. His widow worked as a laundress and a charwoman to support the children at 84 St James Street, where she is recorded as living with a boarder, George Hull, in the 1911 Census. William joined the Dorsetshire Regiment in 1905 (service no. 4993) and is listed in barracks at Wanowrie Lines, Pune, India in 1911. By 1914 he had returned to England and married Alice Eliza Conway from Melbury Abbas. As he seems to have had two service nos. and some of his military records were destroyed by World War II bombing, we can only speculate that he left the regular Army and then re-enlisted at the beginning of World War I.

Harry Bastable joined the Royal Navy as an Ordinary Seaman on 28 May 1901. He was discharged with good conduct reports on 16 August 1905. No Census entry for 1911 has been found, but it is known that on 28 March 1914 he sailed for Canada aboard the S.S. ‘Tunisian’ and found work in Nova Scotia as a warehouseman. On 17 December 1914 in Winnipeg, he enlisted as a private in the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry (Eastern Ontario Regiment) and sailed for France on 16 March 1915. The two brothers were destined to serve simultaneously in the same area of the Western Front, the Ypres Salient.

Hill 60 was a man-made mound of earth, thrown up by the construction of the adjacent railway cutting in the 1850s. In the flatlands of Flanders it was something of a vantage point and possession was keenly contested. It was captured by the Germans in December 1914 and the Dorsets helped to retake it in late April 1915. As one of the few survivors from the original BEF, William Bastable now had the misfortune to be exposed to one of the earliest uses of chemical warfare. Clouds of yellow and white chlorine gas drifted across No Man’s Land from nozzles in the German front line. The instinct to hunker down in the trenches was invariably fatal as the gas was heavier than air and the rudimentary protection little more than bits of flannel or gauze. The Official History states on 05 May that ’90 men died in the trenches or before they could be got to a dressing station; of the 207 brought to the nearest dressing station, 46 died almost immediately and 12 after long suffering.’ William died at No.2 Casualty Clearing Station, probably unaware that his wife had given birth to a daughter, Winifred Violet Alberta, on 29 April 1915. He is buried at Bailleul Communal Cemetery Extension, Nord, France.

‘The attack on Hill 60, to which the the gas was a preliminary, was driven off – not least, perhaps, because the wind changed and some of it drifted back upon those who sent it – but a few days later the Germans tried again. This time they were more successful …. Hill 60 was lost, and with it 627 men of the battalion in one abominable week.’ (Hugh Popham, ‘The Dorset Regiment’, p74). It was also an abominable week for Fanny Ann Bastable. On 08 May 1915 Harry Bastable was killed in action at Bellewaarde Lake near Ypres. His body was never recovered and he is one of 54,395 Commonwealth soldiers with no known grave whose names are incised on the Menin Gate at Ypres.

Both William and Harry Bastable are remembered on the Park Walk and St James War Memorials, the Roll of Honour in St James Church, and the Holy Trinity Memorial, now in St Peter’s Church, Shaftesbury.

Angus Campbell, Her Majesty’s Lord Lieutenant of Dorset, will unveil a Blue Plaque commemorating the life of John Rutter (1796 -1851) at noon on Saturday 07 August 2021. The Plaque will be mounted on the front wall of No. 2 The Commons, Shaftesbury, where from 1817 John Rutter ran a printing and publishing business, and subscription library. The premises are currently owned by Ship and Sherry Limited and leased to HSBC Bank.

Rutter was a nineteenth century human rights campaigner, when slavery was yet to be abolished and only a small minority of men had the right to vote. He passionately denounced the inhumanity of slavery, and opposed corruption and intimidation in local municipal and parliamentary elections. This led to friction with the agents of Lord Grosvenor, the wealthy landowner who had bought most of the property in Shaftesbury. In the wake of the troubled 1830 elections dozens of Shastonians including Rutter were sent for trial at Dorchester Assizes, charged with riotous assembly and criminal damage. In the first two trials, 21 defendants were found guilty of assault and 14 sentenced to between one and four months’ imprisonment. Eight were acquitted. By the time of the third trial the judge had grown impatient with the multiple prosecutions and urged the defendants to plead guilty, agree to be bound over to keep the peace for twelve months and accept a nominal fine of one shilling. All complied, except John Rutter, who knew that he was guilty of nothing. His religious beliefs repudiated all forms of violence, and during the disturbances he urged demonstrators to go home. This adherence to principle irritated the judge and led to Rutter’s being nicknamed “The Turbulent Quaker of Shaftesbury.” (The title of the 2018 book by Sir John Stuttard, who has masterminded the Blue Plaque project.) Eventually the baseless charges were dropped.

By the mid-1830s Rutter had achieved a working relationship with Grosvenor, who cancelled eviction orders against tenants who had voted ‘unwisely’ and stopped imposing parliamentary candidates on the town. After the Municipal Corporations Act of 1835 abolished local cliques, Rutter was elected to the Town Council and championed improvements in education, water supply, sanitation, and gas street and domestic lighting. In the 1840s he lobbied Parliament to extend the London and South Western Railway from Salisbury to Exeter via Tisbury, Semley and Gillingham. The grateful inhabitants of Gillingham presented him with an engraved silver salver in August 1848, though the line was not completed until after his death. The salver will form part of a temporary exhibition at Gold Hill Museum together with other artefacts, including a magnificent top hat bought in 1849 when Rutter attended the Third International Peace Congress in Paris. We are grateful to the Rutter family for the loan of the hat, and to Shaftesbury Town Council for financial support in meeting the cost of the project.

In 1837 John Rutter qualified after five years’ legal training and began to practise as a solicitor. His brushes with the law may well have motivated him to acquire a more thorough knowledge of a profession which was in any case barred to him as a Quaker until 1828. He was also better able to defend the rights of the poor, whether as a Poor Law Guardian or in the Small Debts Court. Several generations later, the Rutter name is preserved in two local law firms, and on a street sign. This is the first Blue Plaque in Shaftesbury honouring a named individual for their positive contribution to the development of the town and the welfare of its inhabitants.