New Milton Advertiser 27th Nov 2020

Friday 27th November 2020 · 23

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by Nick Saunders

Stories behind memorial names

THE author Terry Pratchett wrote: “Do you know that a man is not dead while his name is still spoken?” Apart from this year, when Covid intervened, every 11th November large numbers of us from across the New Forest and Christchurch visit our local war memorial. We lay our wreaths and place our poppies. We say: “We will remember them”. But who are we remember- ing? Only a few, well established local families may know some of those commemorated on the memorials. For the rest of us perhaps our chorus of “We will remember them” might have more meaning if we knew some- thing about the men and wom- en named on our memorials. When we research the stories behind the names, they become more than just letters etched onto stone. They have history. They become one of us again. Here are the brief histories of four of the men on the memo- rials.

the New Milton war memorial and the Bashley St John’s me- morial. Thomas Kinison Merrifield of Ashley Tom was born at Beckley Farm, Beehive Hill, Bashley. Shortly after his birth the fam- ily moved to Ashley. He grew up with his three sisters Lucy, Vera and Nancy who was born after Tom. In 1935 the family moved to 1 Bertram Road, New Mil- ton, which remained the fam- ily home. Tom’s father, Arthur George Merrifield, was a coun- cil worker. He had served dur- ing the First World War in the Royal Garrison Artillery, in France, where he was gassed. During the Second World War, he also served as an ARP war- den. Tom’s Mother was Eva Irene Merrifield. She kept the family home and looked after Tom and his sisters. Tom regularly attended the services at the Ashley Baptist church, volunteering to pump the bellows for the organ. He went to Ashley School, followed by a period of time at Gore Road School before progressing to Ashley Secondary School. He studied for a year, leaving there in 1939, aged 14. He initially worked for the Home and Colonial stores in Station Road, New Milton. He was lucky to escape injury walk- ing home from the shops just before the bombing raid on the 23rd August 1940. Tom moved on to work for Mr Williams, a baker in Ashley, making the deliveries of bread to the households in the area. He also worked as a messenger boy for the National Fire Ser- vice in New Milton. When he turned 18 he joined the Royal West Kent Regiment in January 1944 and was sent to Maidstone, Kent, for his train- ing. Tom came home on embar- kation leave in June 1944, but when he was sent to France he was re-mustered into the 2nd Battalion, Seaforth Highland- ers as they had suffered severe losses. Tom was killed in action dur- ing street fighting to liberate

William Clarke

for them. Three men managed to bail out and survived. The Stirling crashed in a sheet of flame along with Bill and two other colleagues. They are buried together at Benschop General Cemetery in the Netherlands. His death was reported in the New Milton Ad- vertiser on 20th March 1943. Bill is commemorated on the war memorials in Boldre, Lym- ington and New Milton. Hopefully these brief biogra- phies will inspire you to find out more about those named on our memorials and then we really will remember them. For more information or for books covering the names on some of our local war memo- rials contact Nick Saunders, a local historian, battlefield guide and chair of the Milton Herit- age Society. Email nick@milton heritagesociety.co.uk Nick Saunders BA (Hons) is a local historian and chairman of the Milton Heritage Society. He can be contacted via nick@ miltonheritagesociety.co.uk or 01425 618549.

There are tales behind every name on New Milton war memorial

at the local open-air swimming pool diving off the top board. At the age of 16 Fred start- ed to work at Wellworthy’s, the piston ring factory in Lyming- ton. It was at this time that he joined the Home Guard, pos- sibly in the Wellworthy factory platoon. Just two days after his 18th birthday in 1943, Fred joined the Royal Navy and completed his basic training at Chatham. He was then drafted as an Able Seaman to HMS Cassandra which was launched in 1943 and commissioned on the 28th of July 1944. Cassandra was the latest de- sign for a destroyer. She was well armed with four 4.5-inch guns, eight torpedo tubes and four depth-charge throwers. She had a complement of 235 men and was capable of a top speed of 36 knots. HMS Cassandra was used mainly in northern waters. She was part of a force of vessels searching for the German bat- tleship Tirpitz. By December she was as- signed to escort duties on the Russian convoys. On the 10th December 1944 Convoy RA 62 departed Kola Inlet bound for Scotland. The convoy con- tained 29 merchant vessels that had brought vital war supplies to the USSR to aid their fight against Germany. Just a day after setting sail the convoy was attacked. HMS Cassandra was hit by a torpedo fired by U-365. Sixty-two crew- men were killed and the ship was severely damaged. She was towed back to a Russian port for repairs. Sadly, Fred was one of the crewmen killed in the attack. He is commemorated on the war memorial in Lymington and on the Chatham Naval Me- morial in Kent. William Clarke of Boldre William (Bill) Clarke was born on 31st May 1910 in Liverpool. His father George was part of the Clarke’s family business. His mother Tallulah’s family was also in the tobacco indus- try in the United States. Bill had two younger broth- ers. The family eventually set- tled at Vicar’s Hill in Boldre. All three boys went to Chel- tenham College. Bill went on to read philosophy, politics and economics at St Johns College Oxford. It was here that he developed a passion for flying. He joined the University Air Squadron and received several hours of flight training. He was enrolled in the Re- serve of RAF Officers and re- mained a member of the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. On leaving Oxford, Bill was able to indulge his other pas- sion, that of motorbikes and racing. He met Phil Irving, an Australian engine designer who was working for the fledg- ling Vincent motorcycle com- pany. Bill was invited to join the team. As the company was based in Stevenage, Bill moved from Boldre to be closer to the factory. When war was declared Bill was brought back into the RAF as a pilot with the rank of flying officer. He married Winifride on 8th September 1939 and they went on to have two sons. For the first three years of the war Bill was a flying instructor based at No.6 Flying Training School at Little Rissington. In

November 1940 he was promot- ed to the rank of flight lieuten- ant. Bill eventually managed to get released from training and moved on to operations. After a conversion course to four-en- gine Stirling bombers, Bill was posted to 214 Squadron in No- vember 1942 based at RAF Chedburgh. At this time he was promoted to squadron leader. Bill’s first operational sortie was a second pilot in an expe- rienced crew on 28th/29th of November. This was a long-haul

flight over the Alps to attack the Fiat factory in Turin. From the 15th January 1943 Bill was the captain of his own aircraft and crew. On 3rd February Bill and his crew took off as part of a force of 263 bombers sent to attack the U-boat construction yards in Germany. Despite a failure of the cock- pit instrument lights Bill and his crew managed to arrive over the target on time. After drop- ping their bombs they turned for home.

One of Bill’s crew members reported after the war that when they were about 15 min- utes from the Dutch coast they were attacked by a German night fighter which put two en- gines out of action. A third cut out through loss of fuel. The Stirling bomber started losing height. Bill turned the aircraft around so it was head- ing inland, and ordered the crew to bail out. They had just enough height left to be able to do this. Bill needed all his flying skills to hold the aircraft steady

George Rolls

George William Rolls of Bashley George William Rolls was born around September 1895. His parents were Alfred and Bessie. His father worked as a carter. The 1901 census shows the family, including George’s sisters Winifred, Irene and Ju- lia, living at Beckley Common. In the winter of 1901 Alfred died at the young age of 34, leaving the family in some fi- nancial difficulty. In 1907 their fortunes changed when Bessie married George Sandy. George and his mother moved into their new family home at Rose Cottage, Bashley. George and his sisters at- tended the National School in Milton Village. The school was located on a triangle of land at the junction of what is now the A337 Lymington Road and Old Milton Road, very close to what was the George Inn. On 24th May 1909 when the school held a sports event on Empire Day, the races were con- ducted in the road. The main race was over two miles. George was entered at the last minute. He won the race in a time of 15 minutes 10 seconds for which he was awarded a silver cup. When war was declared George volunteered and was enlisted by the end of August 1914. He undertook basic train- ing at the Hampshire Regiment depot in Winchester and was then posted to the 10th (Ser- vice) Battalion as part of the 10th Irish Division. In May 1915 the division moved to the Basingstoke area of Hampshire where they were inspected by King George V on the 28th. It was anticipated that they would soon be on their way to France. This rumour was in- correct as they were officially told that the division was being sent to Gallipoli. 10th Hampshires did not ar- rive in Gallipoli until fresh land- ings of troops were made on 5th August 1915 at Anzac Cove. They were concealed in an area known as Shrapnel Gully. Three days later they went into action for the first time. The Hampshires and other battalions from the division launched an attack to capture an area of high ground known as Chunuk Bair. The attack started at 9.30am. In addition to the Turkish artillery, rifle and machine gun fire, the high tem- peratures and swarms of flies caused numerous difficulties for the attacking forces. The Hampshires managed to capture an area known as ‘The Farm’ and some were able to advance to higher ground. Rifle and machine gun fire reduced the attacking force until there was no option but to retire. George was severely wound- ed at Chunuk Bair and died two days later on 12th August 1915. George is remembered on the Helles Memorial in Gallipoli,

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Tom Merrifield

the town of Drunen in the Neth- erlands on 4th November 1944 at the age of 18. He is buried in Bergen-op Zoom War Cemetery, Holland. His death was reported in the A&T edition dated 18th No- vember 1944. He is named on the New Milton war memorial, the Ashley Baptist Church me- morial and inside the New Mil- ton Memorial Centre. Frederick Sydney Cassey of Lymington Fred Cassey was born on 6th July 1925 to Alf and Flora Cassey. The family, including Fred’s sister Betty all lived at 69 Flushards Estate in Lymington. Fred went to the local Church of England school, leaving at the age of 14 to work in Mr Bran’s butcher’s shop in the High Street. Fred was the bi- cycle delivery boy bringing the meat to the customers. Fred was a very strong swim- mer and spent much of his time

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Fred Cassey