Rowland Edwin John RaynorD
Driver 51816 Rowland
Edwin John Raynor, 93rd Battery, Royal Field Artillery
Edwin (as he was known) was
born on 10 December 1886 in Purston Laglan, a hamlet within the
parish of Featherstone, Yorkshire. His parents, Arthur and Mary Emma
(née Luckey) had met and married in Ireland while Arthur was serving
in the army. Their eldest children Arthur William
(1880-1961) and Caroline Elizabeth Dorothea (1881-1947) were born in
Ireland before the family moved to Sandal in Yorkshire
where Mary Maudeline Margaret was born in 1885 and then to
Purston Laglan where Edwin, James Albert (1888-1950) and Robert
Henry (1891-1892) were born. Another move, this time to Sheffield
was followed by three more daughters; Emily Hilda (1893-1893),
Frances Bellwood (1895-1945) and Doris Irene
(1901-1901). Infant death was all too common at
that time as the Raynors would have been all too aware with three of
their nine children dying before their first birthday. Strangely
Mary Emma’s mainden name is given as Williamson at the
birth/christenings of all the children born in Purston Laglen; there
is nothing to show why she would seek to disguise her origin in this
way.
Arthur died in 1908 and Mary
moved to Birmingham, possibly to be close to her two elder sisters
(Sarah Anne and Mary Jane) who were living in the area.
In 1911 she was working as a cook at the Greswolde Arms in
Knowle. However, there is also evidence that she
was having problems with drink, a conviction for drunk and
disorderly in 1911 may be put down to an out of character event, but
later information suggests otherwise.
Mary remarried in 1920, to
James Bryam. On 21st June 1939 Mary, 80, killed her
husband in a drunken quarrel (far from their first).
At the time they were living in ‘5 back of 65’ St Mark’s
Street – one of Birmingham’s famous ‘back-to-backs’; once
commonplace the few survivors today are protected as a visitor
attraction by the National Trust. She was arrested for his murder
but the charge was later reduced to manslaughter. Convicted of this
lesser charge she was sentenced to 14 months but not imprisoned,
instead she was bound over to live in a home chosen by Social
Services. The judge treated her leniently out of
compassion for her frail state, lack of intent and evident drink
problem. She died on 11 November 1940, aged 81, at 31 Tenby Street
North, in a WW2 bombing raid.
Another bombing raid, on the
night of the 7/8 September 1940 destroyed a large proportion of WW1
army service records, including Edwin’s. However, it is suggested in
his obituary that he enlisted in September 1908 and it is certain
that he was at Borden Camp near Winchester for the 1911 census. It
is suggested that he spent a lot of his service in India. This
tallies with the history of his unit, which was in what was then
India, but today is Pakistan.
When war was declared in
August 1914 many units manning garrisons scattered around the Empire
were recalled to the UK and formed into Army divisions (about 20,000
men) for deployment to wherever required, but Edwin’s unit was
incorporated into an Indian Army division – the 3rd
(Lahore) Division, one of five divisions that landed in the south of
France in late August. These were desperately needed at the front,
the Imperial troops arriving in the UK were coming in piecemeal and
had to spend time melding into new divisions, the Indian division
arrived fully formed. A long train journey north
and the Indian Army troops were soon thrown into the action as the
Allied and Central Powers jockeyed for position attempting to
outflank each other to the north – the phase of the war known as the
Race to the Sea because all hope of outflanking by either
side was ended once the line reached the sea in Belgium. From 10
October to 2 November 1914 the Lahore Division fought in the
Battle of La Bassee just south of the Belgian border and on
20-21 December at the Defence of Givenchy.
Fresh from the sub-continent the troops were ill-prepared for a
winter campaign in northern France so it is no surprise that a
number succumbed to illness, trench foot and other delights of
living in freezing conditions with inadequate clothing.
Edwin was one who fell ill,
seriously ill. He was diagnosed with
tuberculosis, frequently a killer in the days before antibiotics.
His condition was indeed severe, he succumbed to the disease on 1
April 1915, after 3 months treatment at the Newbury Cottage Hospital
in Andover Road.
His funeral took place on 4
April and his body was interred in Newtown Road cemetery with
military honours.
Newbury Weekly News 8
April 1915.
MILITARY FUNERAL AT
NEWBURY
"ONE OF BRITAIN'S BEST
SOLDIERS"
WITNESSED BY LARGE CROWD
OF PEOPLE
The sad reality of war
was brought home to the townspeople of Newbury on Easter Monday
morning when there was laid to rest in Newbury Cemetery, Driver
Edwin John Raynor, of 93rd Battery, Royal Field Artillery. To
do him the last and greatest honour was to give him a soldier's
funeral, and the Army Service Corps who are quartered in the town
provided an escort, being headed by the Newbury Town Band. Starting
out from their headquarters in the Wharf, the A.S.C. marched to the
Newbury District Hospital by way of Bartholomew-street, and soon
gathered a large concourse of people in their train. On arrival at
the Hospital, the procession was formed under the supervision of
Colour Sergt. Roberts, and to the awe-inspiring strains of "The Dead
March" in "Saul," the cortege slowly wended its way to the Cemetery,
long lines of people forming an avenue throughout the route and
evincing a demeanor of the utmost respect. The coffin, which was
covered with a Union Jack and a number of beautiful floral tributes,
was conveyed on a hand bier in charge of four A.S.C. men, supported
on either side by the members of the firing party. It was
immediately followed by a coach containing the mourning relatives,
which, in turn, was followed by the rest of the Army Service Corps,
Inspectors Hermon and Gawthorne representing G.W.R. Staff, Mr. W.
Sparrow of the local V. A.D., Red Cross and Captain Walter
Partridge, Chief Recruiting Officer of the District. The first
portion of the funeral service took place in the Chapel at the
Cemetery, the Rev. A.G.P. Baines, Chaplain of the Hospital,
officiating, as he also did at the graveside, where, as the
Committal Sentences were read, the grief of the mourners at the loss
of a favourite son and brother was deeply affecting. The service
over, there ensued what is practically the most poignant and yet
most stately part of a military funeral, the firing of volleys over
the grave by the party of A.S.C. men, which was followed immediately
by the soldier's last call, that which in everyday life summons him
to rest, but which in a case of this description was but a farewell
to a comrade who, having served his country well, was thus speeded
on his way to a higher service. The military then reformed and,
headed by the band, as is usual at such functions started off to
headquarters to the strains of an inspiring march.
The mourners in the
procession were the Mother, Mr and Mrs Persani (sister and
brother-in-law), Mrs Holloway (sister), Miss Hudson (the deceased's
betrothed), Mrs R.F. Jeffrey and Mrs Ilsley.
There were several
beautiful floral tokens of esteem, including those from Mother and
Lillie, Jim and Dad, from Annie, from Maud, from Mrs R.F. Jeffrey
and Mrs Ilsley, from Captain Walter Partridge, "In memory of one of
Britain's best soldiers."
The deceased soldier was a native of Hockley, Birmingham, and had been in the Royal Field Artillery nearly seven years. He came of quite a fighting stock, his deceased father having served in the Egyptian War with the 19th Hussars, in which regiment he put in eight years. At the present time, two brothers are also in the Army. Sergt. A. Raynor, who has served 22 years in the 1st Cheshire Regiment and went through the Boer War, is at present a prisoner of war at Saltoun in Hanover. The second brother, Driver J.A.Raynor, A.S.C., was called up as a reservist, and went out with the First Expeditionary Force; he is still serving at the front. Several other relatives of the family are also doing service, including a brother-in-law, Private Holloway, a reservist of the 1st Worcestershire Regiment, who has been wounded, but returned in time to take part in the battle of Neuve Chapelle. Had he lived to September, the deceased would have completed seven years in the Royal Field Artillery, some considerable period of which was spent in India; in fact it is surmised that the drastic change from the climate of India to that of France, with service in water-logged trenches brought on the rheumatism which preceded the complications causing his death. During the three months he had been at the Newbury District Hospital, he had received the skillful treatment of the medical staff and the kindly consideration of the nurses.
_____________________________________
The MOTHER and RELATIVES
of the late DRIVER RAYNOR desire to express their grateful thanks to
the Medical and Nursing Staffs of the Newbury District Hospital for
their kindness to the above deceased; they also wish to thank the
Army Service Corps and Newbury Town Band for the kindly honouring of
the deceased at the funeral on Easter Monday and Mr. and Mrs Jeffrey
for sympathetically entertaining them on the same day.
4/21 Burbury Street,
Hockley, Birmingham
April 5th, 1915.
This was the first funeral
in Newbury of a man who had seen service at the front, as the war
progressed there were more, and all were given military funerals and
a write-up in the paper, but they became le an ‘event’ as the war
progressed.
Rowland's two surviving
brothers are mentioned in the NWN obituary. The
oldest Sgt Arthur Raynor went to France on 16 August 1914
with the 1st Battalion, Cheshire Regiment. On 24 August
the battalion was in combat at the Action at Elouges, little
more than a footnote in the closing stages of the Battle of Mons,
but a disaster for the 1st Cheshires.
The Battalion war diary records the roll call before and after the
fighting – they had suffered 78% casualties (dead, wounded or
missing) – in his 27 years in the army this day was probably
Arthur’s only experience of war – such were his actions that day
that he was later awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal, second
only to the Victoria Cross as a gallantry medal.
He was fortunate to survive unwounded but had to spend the rest of
the war as a prisoner. The second, James Albert Raynor, known
as Bert, also survived the war. However their brother-in-law,
Charles Holloway, was killed in action in 1917 and is buried in
France. Charles was married to Maud (Mary Maudeline Margaret) who
was named as the recipient of Rowlands effects.
The Mr and Mrs Persani
mentioned in the obituary were James Persani a policeman seconded to
the military Mounted Police during the war and Rowland’s elder
sister Caroline Elizabeth Dorothy (known as Lily or Lillian).
