Mobbs Corps

[7:29am]

I have been perusing a website and came accross quite a few names from my area who were in 'Mobbs Corps', (D Coy), 7th Battalion, Northamptonshire Regt.

My question is what is Mobbs Corps? I have contacted the guy re the topic but any additional info would be great.

Cheers

Jim

[Dolphin]

Jim

Edgar Robert Mobbs DSO was an England Rugby International with 7 caps for his country. He played as a Wing/centre for: Bedford Modern School, Olney, Northampton, East Midlands and the Barbarians.

Mobbs captained Northampton 1907-1913 (177 tries) and played for Combined Midlands and East Midlands Counties (16-5) v the 1908-1909 Wallabies – the only English provincial side to defeat the tourists. He was the first player to score a try in England v Australia internationals. Represented East Midlands on the RFU. His last game for England was as Captain of the team that played v France in Paris in 1910.

On 17 April 1915 Mobbs played for the Barbarians v a Welsh XV at Cardiff Arms Park in what was termed a "Military International" between Wales and England, designed to boost recruiting for the newly-formed Welsh Guards and to raise money. Wales fielded a near International team with only one uncapped player (Dan Callan of the Royal Munster Fusiliers). The Barbarian side had 12 Englishmen, 2 Irishmen and 1 Welshman (South African International Joseph Partridge). The match, won by the Barbarians 26-10, raised £200. In addition, while convalescing from a wound, he played in a fund-raising England v Scotland exhibition match in Northampton. He served on the RFU and Barbarians Committees. Also played for Buckinghamshire County Cricket Club.

Mobbs' War service resulted in his eventually becoming a Lieutenant Colonel, in the 7th Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment, 73rd Brigade, 24th Division. He was orginally refused a commission in 1914 due to his age of 32, and enlisted as a Private on 15 September 1914. He then raised his own unit of 264 men as “D” Company, 7th Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment, and included many Rugby players, including E R Butcher, captain of Devon, and H Willett, captain of Bedford. Over 400 volunteers served in “Mobb’s Army”, but only 85 of them survived the War.

[Then] Captain Mobbs arrived in France in September 1915, and took part in the Battle of Loos. In March 1916 he was promoted to Major, and took over command of the 7th Northants in April 1916, later being promoted to Lt. Col. He was wounded by shrapnel in August 1916 while taking part in an attack on Guillemont, during the Battle of the Somme. After two Mentions in Despatches in 1916, Mobbs was awarded a DSO in December 1916 (Gazetted 1 January 1917) for his work as a Battalion Commander. The 7th Northants suffered severe casualties during the Battle of Arras in April 1917. He was wounded in the neck at Messines on 7 June 1917, but returned to the Battalion on 26 June.

On 29 July 1917, while in his headquarters in Canada Street tunnels, near Zillebeke, he decided to lead the battalion from the front, and moved to Shrewsbury Forest. He was killed in action while attempting to bomb a machine gun at Lower Star Post that had trapped a detachment of his Battalion, and is commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Ieper, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium [Panel 43 and 45]. Before dying he wrote a note of instructions and sent it back with his runner. The battalion history says ‘The fact that his body could not be recovered and buried, as all ranks would have wished, was perhaps a good thing, as it helped keep alive his memory in the battalion, and inspired in everyone the resolve to avenge his death and to end the war that had already caused so much misery and suffering.’

I hope this helps

Gareth

[7:29am]

And all that before tea!! Thankyou very much, quite an inspiring history "UP THE SAINTS"

[gporta]

Jim,

Gareth has already given you a good explanation, but if you have further curiosity on Edgar Mobbs and the 7th Northants, there is a relatively recent book (1994) by David Woodall "The Mobbs' Own: The 7th Battalion, the Northamptonshire Regiment, 1914-18" Which covers extensively Mobbs biography, and the raising and whereabouts of the regiment during the Great War.

My only -small- "but" to the book is that little seems to be going in the history of the battalion in 1918, similarly, a list of men who served is given, but it is an early war list, so it missed the men joining the unit in later times.

Recommended reading if you have interest on the subject.

Gloria

[7:29am]

Well my interest has come from looking at the names on the local war memorial. and me being my normal meandering self am bouncing from link to link. I knew nothing prior to this morning but i think i should get hold of the book. My great uncle was in the 5th northamptons and have read their book which is first class, so i think to read about the 7ths has now moved up on the agenda!!

[Stebie9173]

Jim,

The 7th Book is by a different author to the one on the 5th but the 6th is by the same man. If you find a copy of the 6th Northants book, I would be interested in some details.

Captain Mobbs wrote a fair few letters home that were published in the local Peterborough Advertiser. I don't have copies but could look them out if required.

The 7th were nicknamed the Peterborough Chums, so the papers carry a fair bit on them.

Steve.

[Kate Wills]

Well my interest has come from looking at the names on the local war memorial...

i think to read about the 7ths has now moved up on the agenda!!

Hi Jim,

Out of interest, which memorial are you researching?

Are you familiar with the Mobbs memorial on Abington Square Northampton? His portrait hangs in the Regimental section of Abington Museum.

If you enter Mobbs into the Search engine (under the Remembering Today feature, to the right of the screen) you will see we have often mentioned Mobbs in our discourse.

My husband wrote a review of the Mobbs book for the Northamptonshire Association for Local History magazine Hindsight. Like Gloria, he had some reservations, and although I have not read it from cover to cover, I felt the author had not cast his net wide enough.

[7:29am]

Hi Kate,

Its the village of Mebourne in Leicestershire and some names cropped up from the villages in the Welland Valley, if you want some of the names i can post them up.

Cheers

Jim

[mebu]

I understand that Northampton Rugby Club has an annual fixture against the Barbarians, known as the Mobbs Memorial match, does anyone know when it is? Peter

[HarryBettsMCDCM]

  If you find a copy of the 6th Northants book, I would be interested in some details.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Is it the Four VCs book you seek details from Stebie?

Or the one written by a former Officer* but not generally Published,I have both!

*cant give details @ present as it is @ the bottom of a very large pile!

[ChrisC]

I understand that Northampton Rugby Club has an annual fixture against the Barbarians, known as the Mobbs Memorial match, does anyone know when it is? Peter

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Indeed they do, Peter and in the old amateur days it was a very important fixture, being something of an unofficial England trial. These days it's a bit low key and is usually held on a weekday afternoon sometime. Have a look at

www.northamptonsaints.co.uk

Saints also observe Remembrance Day on the date of the home match nearest. Am I right in saying that Franklin's Gardens is the only ground with a War Memorial INSIDE it?

C

[Stebie9173]

Harry,

I was talking about the Geoffrey Moore book, sister book to Kitchener's Pioneers (which I found in my Peterborough Library) which Jim has also read.

I assume it is written on the same structure: Summary of history, review of soldiers who died, some MM awards, National Roll extracts, and extracts from the Mayor's Roll of May 1915 (which my great-uncle just missed out on)

The 4 VCs in Forty Months I haven't seen but I'm interested in both really

Is the 4 VCs book out of print?

Steve.

[Kate Wills]

Stebie,

I think Harry may be referring to The Glorious Sixth by Peter Jackson.

[gporta]

My husband wrote a review of the Mobbs book for the Northamptonshire Association for Local History magazine Hindsight. Like Gloria, he had some reservations, and although I have not read it from cover to cover, I felt the author had not cast his net wide enough.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hi, Kate,

First of all, I should say that there are a lot of factors involving the making of a book: the interests of the author, etc... and certainly budget: a book with more pages is more expensive to produce, it requires more material (and research=time invested) to be put inside. As far as it is mentioned in the book, the author certainly was well-sourced: Local press, local honour rolls, official diaries of the unit, and old soldiers letters, accounts (interviews) or reminiscences of relatives.

I believe the book is good for those interested in knowing more about Edgard Mobbs, or the raising of the battalion as a Kitchener unit (which I believe were the main interests which made David Woodall, the author, to write the book)... Yet for other matters, I had the feeling that, Having seen the battalion diaries, there were certainly things going on in the later times of war, and I believe that the author seemed not to have as much interest in the men who reinforced the unit as the original Kitchener men became casualties... the fact that they were not "pals", or not from the original area of recruiting, or were conscripts doesn't make them less worthy of remembrance. (I had a personal interest in the last year of the war for the 7th Northants, so this has possibly coloured my opinion on the book)

I said that it was a pity that the list of men who served appearing in the book only listed those who joined up to 1915 (as taken from contemporary rolls)... But then a list comprising all the men who served would be, admitedly, more difficult to do, and would require quite a lot of research, and then, there would be always someone left out (i.e.: survivors of the war who were drafted from other regiments, enlisted in other counties, etc).

Gloria