Seaford resident Cuthbert Bromley distinguished himself during the Gallipoli landings on 25 April 1915.

Cuthbert was born in Hammersmith, London before the family moved to live in Seaford. One of four brothers, Cuthbert originally planned on being a doctor or a civil servant after finishing school. However, he eventually settled on the army and joined in 1898. Cuthbert proved to be a strong and capable soldier and served in West Africa before also being stationed in India.

Cuthbert was widely recognised as being incredibly strong and capable of great sporting achievement. Under his leadership, the 1st Battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers gained a variety of regimental sporting achievements. Cuthbert had also achieved the notable feat of swimming between Malta and Gozo, a feat which is still attempted by swimmers today.

War time service

In 1915 Cuthbert’s regiment was included in the plans for the attack on Gallipoli as part of the Dardanelles Campaign. The original aim of the operation had been to lead an expedition through the Dardanelles Straits and eventually threaten the capital of the Ottoman Empire, Constantinople. However, the Ottoman defences at Gallipoli had prevented British and French ships  from sailing past. It was decided to land an infantry force to try and clear the way for the fleet.

On April 25 1915, Cuthbert and his men landed on the beaches. The landings were a disaster. The beach was heavily defended with a mix of barbed wire and land mines, some of which were hidden just below the surface of the water. As a result, many were killed as they exited their boats or drowned. It was during this landing that Cuthbert Bromley performed actions of notable bravery and heroism as reported in the London Gazette.

On the 25th April 1915, headquarters and three companies of the 1st Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers in effecting a landing on the Gallipoli Peninsula to the West of Cape Helles, were met by very deadly fire from hidden machine guns, which caused a great number of casualties. The survivors, however, rushed up to and cut the wire entanglements, notwithstanding the terrific fire from the enemy, and after overcoming supreme difficulties, the cliffs were gained and the position maintained. Amongst the many very gallant officers and men engaged in this most hazardous undertaking, Captain Bromley, Serjeant Stubbs, and Corporal Grimshaw have been selected by their comrades as having performed the most signal acts of bravery and devotion to duty.

Cuthbert was wounded in the back during this landing but refused to leave his unit for medical treatment. It was only when he received another wound to his leg on the 28 April that he agreed to medical treatment. After a few weeks of recuperation, Cuthbert returned to his men at Gallipoli and, when the commanding officer fell sick on 13 June he was promoted to acting Major. He still held this rank when he led his men into battle at Gully Ravine. To motivate his men Cuthbert gave a stirring speech before leading them over the top. Early in the battle he received a wound to his foot but, once again, refused medical assistance and continued to lead his men forwards. It was not until the following morning once he was sure that the captured position was well defended that he agreed to seek treatment.

The HMT Royal Edward

This final wound saw Cuthbert travel to Cairo for medical treatment for six weeks whilst his foot healed. After his recovery, Cuthbert managed to arrange himself passage onboard the troopship Royal Edward in order to return to Gallipoli from Egypt as quickly as possible.

On 13 August 1915, the Royal Edward, whilst it crossed the Mediterranean at 9am, was intercepted by UB-14, a German submarine and torpedoed. A letter from Lt Col WB Pearson, Cuthbert’s close friend and commanding officer, described the events following the attack on the ship for Lady Bromley, Cuthbert’s mother.

The Royal Edward was struck by one or two torpedoes about 9.am. and went down in about 4 1/2 minutes. Your son was not well that morning – a touch of fever and had not come down to breakfast as usual. As far as I can gather he was one of the last to jump overboard but must have either jumped on some floating wreckage or had some fall on him for he was seen swimming in the water in a half-unconscious state with his forehead damaged. One of our men who knew him helped him onto a collapsible boat but which kept turning over as people tried to climb on. So the awful hours passed until the hospital ship ‘Soudan’ was seen in the distance and your son and this man started to swim for it – but your son was by this time very feeble and told the man to go on and he turned back after about 20 yards and swam back towards the upturned boat crowded with men.

The next details I have is from a semi-official source and says a man – one of ours, who knew him well, who had been rescued in one of the hospital ship boats – was in this boat as it cruised about picking up survivors. They found your son’s body floating in the water and took it on board and tried to revive him, but it was some hours after the original tragedy and he was dead and so his body was consigned once more to the deep, for the boat was nearly filled to the gunwale and there were still some survivors struggling in the water.

In March 1917, Cuthbert’s actions and bravery during the landings at W Beach were formally recognised with the award of a posthumous Victoria Cross. The Victoria Cross is the highest military honour that can be awarded in Britain and is given to those who have shown valour ‘in the face of the enemy’.

Cuthbert was commemorated on the Helles Memorial in modern day Turkey. He is also recognised on the war memorial in his home town of Seaford as well as having a road named after him.

Cuthbert Bromley was honoured with the laying of a VC Paving Stone in Seaford on 16 August 2015.

Questions to ask your students

1) What is a Victoria Cross?

2) How many times was Cuthbert Bromley wounded?

3) Where is Cuthbert Bromley commemorated?

Images

Click here to download a copy of this resource: First World War – Cuthbert Bromley – teachers

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Major Alfred John Martineau was the Commander of Newhaven Fort during the early years of the war.

Alfred John Martineau was born in 1871, the youngest son of Judge Alfred and Maria Martineau, 6 Evelyn Terrace, Brighton.

He was a highly qualified doctor and surgeon and worked at the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street before going on to practice at Hove, Sussex, where he was also a surgeon to the Brighton Ear and Throat Hospital.

Alfred Martineau had served for many years in Sussex Territorial Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA). On August 26th 1914 he was promoted to the rank of major. During the early part of the war he was stationed at Newhaven, in command of the fort. The Fort was an important part of the defenses along the Sussex coast and guarded the supply port at Newhaven. Major Martineau would leave command by 15th November 1915.

Major Martineau was then sent to France on 7th April 1916. He was killed in action on April 17th 1917 aged 46 whilst with the 19th Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery. He was shot by a sniper whilst doing reconnaissance work in connection with his battery. He is buried at the Bully-Grenay Communal Cemetery, British Extension, Bully-les-Mines, Pas de Calais.

The British Medical Journal reported his life and death in 1917

ARMY.
Killed in Action.
MAJOR A. J. MARTINEAU, F.R.C.S.
Major Alfred John Martineau, F.R.C.S., Royal Garrison Artillery, was killed in action on April 17th. He was the
youngest son of the late Judge Martineau, and was educated at St. Thomas’s Hospital, taking the M.R.C.S. and L.R.C.P.Lond. in 1895, and also the F.R.C.S.Edin. in 1899. After filling the posts of house-surgeon at St. Thomas’s Hospital, and at the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street, and of house-physician to the Brompton Chest Hospital, he went into practice at Hove, Sussex, where he was surgeon to the Brighton Ear and Throat Hospital. He had served for many years in No. 1 (Brighton) Company of the Sussex Territorial Royal Garrison Artillery, and on August 26th, 1914, was promoted ‘to the rank of major and to the command of the company. During the early part of the war he was stationed at Newhaven, in command of the fort at that port, and subsequently took his company overseas.

His fellow soldiers mourned his loss upon receiving news of his death.

‘I learnt the news that one of our best liked Officers of prewar days, a Major Martineau, who in happier days had been a leading surgeon at the Children’s Throat and Ear hospital in Upper Church Street, Brighton, had been killed in France while marking the fall of shot of a German battery. A Great Loss’
Corporal C. E. Cornford, Sussex 

At the time of his death Alfred Martineau’s address was 22, Cambridge Road, Hove. He was 46 years old.

Questions to ask your students

1) What was Alfred Martineau’s pre-war job?

2) Why was Newhaven Fort important during the war?

3) How did Major Martineau die?

Images

Click here to download a copy of this resource: First World War – Alfred Martineau – teachers

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Lewes resident Sidney Woodroffe was awarded the Victoria Cross for the heroism on the battlefield that cost him his life.

Sidney Woodroffe was born in Lewes, East Sussex, on 17 December 1895. He was the fourth and youngest son to his parents, Henry and Clara. Sidney was educated at Marlborough College. He was also a keen sportsman appearing in various school teams for football, cricket and hockey. At a young age Sidney displayed an interest in the military, becoming a Captain in the Officer Training Corps.

Following the completion of his schooling, Sidney was due to study Classics at Cambridge University before the outbreak of war moved him to join the army. He was commissioned as a 2^nd Lieutenant in The Rifle Brigade on 23 December 1914, before being deployed to France in May 1915.

Heroism at Hooge

On 19 July 1915 near Ypres in Belgium, the British army detonated a mine beneath German trenches and captured the village of Hooge. Eleven days later on the 30th July the Germans counterattacked. The fighting that day saw the first use of flamethrowers by German soldiers. These new weapons were terrifying and German soldiers swiftly overran sections of British trenches.

Woodroffe and his men found themselves surrounded. It was at this moment that Sidney rallied his men and performed acts of ‘conspicuous bravery’ that would see him win the Victoria Cross but also lose his life, as reported later by the London Gazette:

The enemy having broken through the centre of our front trenches, consequent on the use of burning liquids, this Officer’s position was heavily attacked with bombs from the flank and subsequently from the rear, but he managed to defend his post until all his bombs were exhausted, and then skilfully withdrew his remaining men. This very gallant Officer immediately led his party forward in a counter-attack under an intense rifle and machine-gun fire, and was killed whilst in the act of cutting the wire obstacles in the open. .- London Gazette 3 September 1915

In a letter to Sidney’s father, Lieutenant-Colonel R.C. Maclachlan wrote that, ‘Your younger boy was simply one of the bravest of the brave, and the work he did that day will stand out as a record hard to beat’.

The Victoria Cross is the highest military honour that can be awarded in Britain and is given to those who have shown valour ‘in the face of the enemy’.

Despite Sidney’s sacrifice the German offensive proved to be successful and they recaptured the village.

Aftermath

The war poet Charles Sorley attended Marlborough College alongside Sidney and, upon learning of his death and the posthumous awarding of a Victoria Cross, composed a poem in his memory:

There is no fitter end than this.
No need is now to yearn nor sigh.
We know the glory that is his,
A glory that can never die.

Surely we knew it long before,
Knew all along that he was made
For a swift radiant morning, for
A sacrificing swift night-shade.

Two of Sidney’s three brothers also served in the British Army during the war. Kenneth Woodroffe was killed at Neuve Chapelle in May 1915, whilst Leslie Woodroffe was badly wounded at Hooge in the same battle that claimed Sidney’s life.  Leslie returned to action in 1916 but was subsequently badly wounded a few days later. Leslie Woodroffe died on 4 June 1916, therefore meaning that all three Woodroffe brothers who had gone to war would not return home.

2^nd Lieutenant Sidney Woodroffe’s body was never recovered and he is commemorated on the Menin Gate war memorial at Ypres. At the time of his death he was 19 years and 7 months old. His private papers are held by the Imperial War Museum.

Sidney Woodroffe is commemorated on a new war memorial at Lewes Library which was unveiled by Her Majesty’s Lord Lieutenant of East Sussex, Peter Field Esq. at a ceremony on 30 July 2015.

Questions to ask your students

1) What is a Victoria Cross?

2) What did Sidney Woodroffe do to earn the VC?

3) What happened to Sidney’s brothers during the war?

Images

Click here to download a copy of this resource: First World War – Sidney Woodroffe – teachers

The post Sidney Woodroffe VC appeared first on WW1 East Sussex.