Reverend Humphrey Gordon Barclay

[PRC]

3 hours ago, rob carman said:

Peter,

 

I might be him, but I am not confident of it.  I can tell you I am glad you brought this up.  RSM Elliott has confused me for some time.  You have joined up some dots.  I have a couple of notes:

 

"Hear that the Norfolk [Yeomanry] Regimental Sergeant Major was killed in one of our trenches last night." Maj Edward Cadogan, Suffolk Yeomanry, Monday 6 December 1915.  According to Cadogan, the sergeant’s body was recovered and carried down into Bedford Gully on 7 December. 

 

Petre (1924) says that two men working by a water course to restore drainage in the trenches were casualties. One man was badly wounded. The other was killed.  The dead man weighed a considerable amount but that his body was nonetheless retrieved with great courage by a peacetime friend, a policeman. 

 

Bastin (1986) says only, “On the 11^th December Lieut J. Harbord was wounded in the neck by a sniper’s bullet and was lucky to escape with his life: two days later RSM Elliot was killed by an enemy sniper.” 

 

Rob.

 

 

So Cadogan dates it to the 5th, Petre doesn't have a date and Bastin gives the 13th?

 

Just to chuck another date in the mix, when I posted the write up on Thomas Elliott earlier today on Flickr in my haste I only checked my newspaper notes for that day editions. If I'd gone back a day, (Eastern Daily Press, Friday January 28, 1916,), I'd have found this article which fills in a few more of the gaps.

 

NORTH WALSHAM HERO’S DEATH.

 

Mrs. Elliott has been notified that her husband, Regimental-Sergeant-Major Thomas Elliott, of the King’s Own Norfolk Yeomanry was killed by a sniper while attending to a wounded Corporal at the Gallipoli peninsula on the 4th December last. The deceased, who was widely known in North Walsham, had served in the Army 25 1/2 years, beginning his military career with three years in an old Volunteer Corps at Birmingham, subsequently enlisting in the 5th Dragoon Guards, with which regiment he served twelve years in India, and 4 1/2 in South Africa. He took an active part in the Boer War, and possessed three medals, viz. defence of Ladysmith, three bars; Orange River Colony, two bars; and the third for long service and good conduct, with gratuity, (1912). Perhaps he was better known in military circles as an excellent shot being the crack shot of his regiment, and winning the gold medal whilst in India and various other valuable prizes at home. By the Freemasons and Oddfellows (Manchester Unity) he will be sadly missed, being an enthusiastic member of both bodies. Regimental-Segeant-Major Elliott came to North Walsham about six years ago as sergeant-major instructor to the B Squadron, K.O.R.N.Y., and was widely respected – a man of strict integrity and honesty of purpose, a kind friend, and a man who made hosts of friends. The officers of the K.O.R.N.Y., held him in the highest esteem, and upon his promotion to the rank of regimental-sergeant-major, in succession to Regimental-Sergeant-Major (now Lieut.) Hudgett, they presented him and his wife with a silver tea service, inscribed, “Presented to Regimental-Sergeant-Major Elliott and Mrs. Elliott as a token of friendship, esteem, and gratitude for unceasing and invaluable services.”

 

So that gives us another possibility in the front row of the group with Lieutenant-Colonel  - is the man on the left-hand end a musketry instructor? Given RSM Elliotts' skills in that area you would have thought that was an area where he might have become an instructor.

 

Conscious I'n taking this thread off on a tangent, so suggest limit the conversation here to dating the group shot and those in it, and anything else particular to Thomas Elliott can go into it's own thread or a PM exchange.

 

Cheers,

Peter

[Humphrey Barclay]

Going back to the beginning of this thread, Humphrey Barclay was attached to the 9th Lancers.

 

”On the outbreak of war he applied for a commission as a Chaplain for a twelve month period on the 30th of November 1914 and was appointed as a Chaplain 4th Class in the Army Chaplains Department on the 1st of December 1914, which was the same day as he landed in France. He renewed his term of engagement for a further twelve months on the 23rd of October 1915 and on the 16th of November 1916. He was attached to the 1st Cavalry Division in 1916, was promoted to Chaplain 3rd Class and was mentioned in despatches (London Gazette 4th of January 1917). He was attached to the 9th Lancers and was awarded the Military Cross which was announced in the London Gazette of the 18th of January 1918 and was mentioned in despatches three times altogether. 

The recommendation for his award, which was made on the 4th of December 1917, read as follows: - 

"His work since the beginning of the present operations on the 20th of November 1917 has been brought to notice on several occasions and from different quarters. In the mounted actions about Noyelles Sur L'Escaut on the 20th and 21st and with the dismounted Bns S.W. of Bourlon Wood on subsequent days, his care and solicitude for the troops in the most advanced portion of our battle front was most praiseworthy. His complete disregard for his own safety, his indomitable spirit, and his unflagging energy were an example and inspiration to all ranks and the greatest help to the wounded and dying."  

 

http://www.hambo.org/hazelwood/view_man.php?id=126

I found this amusing snippet in his mother’s war journal