Two Upchurch Men at the Battle of Gallipoli in 1915 by David Wood

William Wood.

Charles Gransden.

With the outbreak of war in 1914, men from all over Britain joined up to fight for King and Country. In Upchurch William Wood from Ham Green and Charles Gransden from Forge Lane both enlisted in the East Kent Yeomanry, a cavalry regiment made up of landowners, farmers and farm workers under the command of Lord Harris and they were soon undergoing training in Canterbury.

On September 24th 1915 the two Upchurch men sailed from Liverpool with their regiment to Mudros in Greece then on to Gallipoli where they had their first experience of warfare but were not used as cavalry, instead they operated as infantry in trenches. Coming ashore on the Helles Peninsular, they faced Turkish gunfire and shrapnel shells from high cliff-top positions. William Wood said they were targeted by a determined enemy who British soldiers respected as fighters and nicknamed ‘Johnny Turk.’ On the day after they arrived the allied commander General Sir Ian Hamilton visited and welcomed the East Kent Yeomanry but had a narrow escape when a shell fired by the Turks exploded directly above him according to his personal diary from 1915.

Armed Soldiers of the East Kent Yeomanry 

Serving at the front line for two week periods followed by two weeks behind the lines where soldiers constructed roads and unloaded provisions, Wood and Gransden survived in trenches and dugouts in the firing line with their fellow soldiers and food was brought to them on a mule. When a Turkish sniper eventually shot and killed the mule this apparently affected the men's morale badly. Disease also became a problem with an estimated 50,000 allied soldiers suffering enteritis or dysentery. Unsuitable diet, flies, unburied putrid corpses and open latrines caused this. William Wood contracted dysentery but survived mainly off periodic food parcels sent from home.

Eating bully beef, biscuits and jam as a daily main meal, soldiers suffered more when the weather became inhospitable with a severe blizzard that lasted for three days in November causing hostilities to temporarily cease. Ferocious winds with torrential rain flooded trenches and the snow and frost that followed caused frostbite and death from exposure. The regiment spent several months facing Turkish gunfire on the rugged Helles Peninsular until they were successfully evacuated at night by the Royal Navy in late December 1915 which turned out to be the most successful part of an otherwise disastrous allied campaign.

During 1916 the regiment amalgamated with the West Kent Yeomanry to form the 10th Buffs Yeomanry Battalion. The new Battalion formed part of General Allenby's Palestine offensive against the Turks. After landing at Alexandria in Egypt in 1917 they participated in the Second Battle of Gaza, then the Battle of Beersheba. They also played a leading part in the capture of Jerusalem from the Turks. William Wood recalled that during the campaign he remembered Captain Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) regularly entering the army camp on horseback with Bedouin warriors to deliver information about enemy movements in the Hijaz Desert to General Allenby. Apparently, soldiers ran from their tents to stare or laugh at the captain dressed in traditional Arab clothes.

Heavy casualties on the Western Front required the withdrawal of infantry divisions from Palestine to France in May 1918. After fighting at Merville, the Kent Yeomanry Battalion moved to the Somme in September and participated in the advance on the Hindenburg Line and then in the final advance which led to the armistice of 11th November 1918.

When the war ended William Wood returned to his farm at Ham Green physically unscathed while Charles Gransden who sustained a serious leg injury in a rail accident in France returned to Forge Lane and later became bellringer captain and churchwarden at the village church. Both men maintained contact with their old regiment and regularly attended the annual reunion dinner together until they both passed away during the mid-1960s.

In 2001 on Anzac Day which is observed by Australians and New Zealanders, I visited the site of the Battle of Gallipoli in Turkey where an Australian military historian took me to the beach where my grandfather and Charles Gransden came ashore with the East Kent Yeomanry and to the rugged and desolate area where they had fought, a fascinating and enlightening experience almost a century after the event.

David Wood.

About David:

David Wood was born and raised in Upchurch and is able to write from personal experience about many people and aspects of the village and of changes that have taken place over the years making ‘Memories of Upchurch’ a very readable book and a detailed historical study of the village. David's book ‘Memories of Upchurch’ is available direct from David at: david3702001@yahoo.co.uk or from us here at Upchurch Matters.
Price £12 + £3.50 postage and packing.

David Wood

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