EU Referendum 2016 - a personal view

Today the Prime Minister announced that he'd achieved a deal on a reformed European Union; that there would be an in-out referendum on 23rd June; and that he would be campaigning to remain "in".

I'm sure the PM had good reasons for engaging in the "deal making" process, perhaps it mattered to one or two members of the cabinet but I'm neither persuaded nor disappointed by it and I very much doubt that the "deal" will change the minds of more than a few stragglers in the country. Some people, members of UKIP for example, are determined to have us leave the EU regardless of the circumstances. Others are equally determined to remain in the EU. Neither of those groups will be in any way persuaded by the new deal. That leaves the undecided and those who just won't vote. Are the undecideds really going to make a decision as momentous as this because of the contents of that deal?

I approach this matter from two different perspectives: the case for staying in and the various arguments I've heard for leaving. I shall be voting to remain in the EU.

The case for remaining in the EU

My grandfather fought in the first world war, a war brought about by infighting among the nation states of Europe; my father fought in the second world war, a war brought about by infighting among the nation states of Europe. I have been very fortunate in that I did not have to waste my youth fighting European wars and I attribute a large amount of credit for that fact to what is now the European Union.

The EU's story began with the  European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) formed after the second world war with the specific aim to "make war not only unthinkable but materially impossible". By the time of the 1975 referendum the community had changed to become the European Economic Community (EEC) (also known as the common market). In 1993 it became the European Community (EC) and ultimately merged into what is now the European Union.

It is a single continuum. To those who say that it's not what we voted for in 1975, speaking only for myself, I say that it absolutely is what I voted for in 1975. I was young then but I wasn't stupid, I could see the future and wasn't "fooled by the wording" of the question posed on the ballot paper.

The European Community in its various forms has never been purely an economic club, it's always been about peace and security. Of course that doesn't mean that the world has been free of war for the last 70 years nor does it mean that NATO is redundant, there are plenty of external threats from beyond Europe's borders.

Is it perfect? No of course not. Like any mature computer program it has had bits added on, bits taken out, it's been patched and repatched. It certainly needs more reform than the PM's "deal" and of course that reform will, eventually, take place. In my view, the EU is stronger with Britain and vice-versa. It makes more sense to me to have a seat on the Board if we want to make things better.

The case for leaving the EU

It's quite hard for me to offer a coherent case for leaving the EU. Personally I don't think it's a good idea and all the arguments I've heard advocating BREXIT have been focussed on one or more of:-

• claimed direct financial savings
• grand schemes involving trading with Australia, South Africa and others
• confusion between the European Convention on Human Rights and other "European" entities
• fears about immigration
• don't like "being told what to do"
• "we used to be brilliant"

 I'm afraid they haven't impressed me much  so I can do no better than to point you to Michael Gove's excellent piece in The Spectator.

Scouts and scouting

Scouts and scouting, as far as Kingsley was concerned, actually involved East Worldham where the local pack was located. The First Worldham met on Friday evenings mostly in the village hall at the top of the hill on the right hand side going towards Alton. I say mostly as there were occasions when we met in the vicarage garden. The scout leader being The Reverend Nap. Reverend Nap was the local vicar and he was also The Rural Dean. As small beady eyed man with a well clipped moustache, he was a thoroughly decent chap. He and his wife did great things for the pack not least by providing cake and biscuits in sizeable amounts. The Reverend was a friend of Baden Powell, the founder of the scout movement. They had served together in the army during the First World War. Among his many adventures Reverend Nap had been instigator in founding the first scout pack in Russia. He was, as can be imagined, getting on a bit and although I can’t remember when it was he retired at some point during my scouting membership.

I suppose the only negative thing I can say about my scouting experiences was the fact that I, thanks to the older boys, became a smoker. It was customary for many of the boys to take advantage of the garden plot behind the Hall, which in those days, grew large quantities of tall brassicas in the form of kale and Brussels sprouts together with beans and peas etc. In any event the vegetables provided a convenient hiding place in which they could puff away upon their Woodbines and Players Weights. These had been obtained from the Three Horseshoes Pub which was, of course, just a couple of hundred yards down the road. Sold then in packs of five, ten and twenty there was no problem in going to the off sales door at the pub and being served. This was long before age restrictions on the purchase of tobacco were imposed.

Scouting for me provided a great opportunity to indulge in all the things which I held dear: woodcraft, building camps, hiking and numerous other country related delights. There was then an official scout camp site in a woods at Crondall and during my membership the pack spent a number of times both camping and attending scouting events at that location. I still recall with pleasure the camp fires and the jam buns we made in the embers. These were simply flour and water made into a stiffish dough which was then pressed on to the end of a shaved hazel stick and held into the embers. When cooked, this sometimes meant charred, the dough was removed from the stick and the hole which was left was then filled with jam. The other great delight was breakfast cooked on the open fire. There is, in my opinion, nothing quite like the aroma of bacon wafting through the woods whilst cooking on an open wood fire, wonderful!

Of course knot tying, whittling, map reading, lashing and basic survival skills were all a part of scouting in those days and each of these activities provided the scout with the chance to obtain another badge to be sewn on to the arms of the scouting shirt. It was during my membership that the wide brimmed scout hat was superseded by a military style green beret. I don’t know why that change occurred but I rather liked the older style hat and was sorry to see it go.

I suppose, if I had to choose my favourite scouting activity, the one that jumps out at me is the map reading exercises which Reverend Nap set us. These took the form of small numbers of boy being blindfolded and then driven several miles away from the vicarage in a circuitous route. We would then be dropped off and left to find our way back. Maps and compasses and advice on looking for obvious land marks such as church steeples and other high buildings our guides to getting home. The perhaps obvious, but often overlooked, fact that rivers and streams always flow downhill and will eventually go through a village was also one of the factors which were taught as a way of finding our location. No sat navs then! Wonderful days and memories which have lasted a lifetime. I don’t know how the modern scout movement operates and I am also well aware of the, sadly, many scandals involving scout leaders, however, my own experiences of scouting gave nothing but pleasure and a great deal of learning. It is quite amazing how many techniques and skills, picked up as a scout, have stood the test of time and remain as valuable today as they did then. As far as the First Worldham was concerned the Reverend Nap did a great job with lots of local village boys and I am sure will still be remembered by many of them with great admiration, gratitude and fondness. It doesn’t get much better than that.
 

WW1 - John George Parfitt

John George Parfitt was born in Binsted in 1898, the oldest son of James and Louisa Parfitt. The family lived at 1 or 2 Rose Cottages on The Straits which was in the Civil Parish of Binsted though the children (John had two younger sisters, Alice Louisa and Dorothy and one brother, Henry James) would have walked from there to Kingsley School.

In the 1901 census his father is identified as a nursery labourer so he probably worked at the nearby Kingsley Fruit Farm.

John Parfitt enlisted as a private in November 1914 with the Dorset Regiment at Winchester (No. 5297), but was later transferred to the 8th (Service) Battalion of the Devonshire Regiment (No. 33832). It appears that he was only sixteen when he signed up and so would still have been under-age when he went to France in 1916. Recruits were supposed to be 18 before they could enlist and 19 before they could be sent overseas.

He wrote and signed an “informal will” on 2nd August 1917 in which he left all his property and his effects to his mother, Louisa Parfitt and he was killed in action, probably at the Battle of Passchendaele, on 4th October 1917, aged only 19. The regiment’s war diary refers to “Atrocious conditions : untold odds, very heavy shelling, appalling mud. A battle against pill-boxes and machine guns, with very heavy casualties.”

John George Parfitt is one of only nine men who are named on the Birr Cross Roads Cemetery at Ieper, West- Vlaanderen in Belgium which was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens (Sp.Mem.4).

The cemetery contains “special memorials” which means he was known or believed to be buried amongst the 336 unidentified burials.

He is remembered on the Binsted War Memorial which was dedicated in November 1921 – but his name was not initially inscribed. His mother, Louisa, wrote a very poignant letter to Mrs Lucy Ogilvy, who was the treasurer of the War Memorial Committee :

“I feel I must say how much it touched me…..and found my dear boy’s name wasn’t mentioned…….we made a lovely cross to put on for our son you can imagine how my feelings were hurt….”

The Parfitt family continued to live on The Straits until the 1920s when they moved to Wheatley and John Parfitt still has descendents who live locally.

WW1 - (Edwin /Edward) Charles Painting

Charles Painting was born in Kingsclere Hampshire in 1881 and married Sarah Odell (from Islington London) in Alton in 1908.

The house that has replaced the original Pear Tree Cottage.

By 1911 his parents and five brothers and sisters were living in Bentworth but he and his wife and his sister-in-law, were living in Kingsley, in Pear Tree Cottage at The Straits.

He is identified as a farm labourer, so he may well have worked at Kingsley Fruit Farm.

Charles enlisted at Alton at the beginning of the war, on the 12th September 1914, (though the Rev. Laverty notes it as 5th August) with the 1st Battalion Hampshire Regiment (No. 5813), aged 34. He must have been in the army previous to this date as he had already received two South African medals with three bars.

After re-enlisting he was only with his regiment for less than two months before he died from his wounds, received in action, at the Boulogne Hospital on 5th November and he was buried at the Boulogne Eastern Cemetery (IIIB.30). Charles was recorded in the Parish Magazine of June 1915 as one of “Our Defenders ….killed”.

He is also on the Bordon Roll of Honour (though the date shown is 26 September 1914).

His wife and sister-in-law must have moved from Kingsley to Headley soon after he died, as the Rev. Laverty wrote :

“…come to Tibolds no. 3 and there January 1915. Widow married 1906 (it was 1908!) of a soldier (Private) Edward Charles 1st Hants. who had served 20 years or more (Not exactly accurate as Edward Charles was only 34 when he enlisted!).He rejoined 5.9.1914 and died in Boulogne Hospital…..Her sister is Elizabeth O’dell.”

Mrs Painting subsequently married Frank Coombes of Headley but died in Park Prewitt in 1925.

WW1 - Alfred Edward Naunton

Alfred Naunton was born in London in 1881, married Louise Fairman in 1900 and joined the GPO in June1902, aged 20.

He, his wife and five young children moved down to Hampshire from Battersea in 1912 as he joined the newly-opened Post Office at Bordon Camp. Rev. Laverty wrote “A Bordon postman came January 1912 to Eashing Cottages (Headley) and moved on in 1912 to Elm Cottages, Lindford”.

At some time between 1915 and 1916 the family moved to The Straits and the children attended Kingsley School.

Alfred enlisted at Whitehill and joined the 5th Dorsetshire Regiment, (No. 18152), probably in 1914 and by his death in 1917 he was a Lance Corporal with D Company XV Platoon.

He was involved in the heavy fighting at the Chalk Pit near Beaumont Hamel during the Battle of the Somme in January 1917. His family heard nothing from him and it was assumed he had been taken prisoner, but in July 1917 a letter was sent to Mrs Naunton from the British Red Cross (via Susan Lushington) informing her that his name was not on any official lists of prisoners. And it was not until February 1918 that a further letter came from the Enquiry Department (at the Red Cross) for Wounded and Missing which said:

“We much regret to say that not withstanding constant and careful enquiries, we have not been able to hear anything of L/Cpl. A. Naunton and have come to the conclusion that he must have lost his life at the time when he was missing. We have questioned all the men of his unit whom we have been able to see, both in English hospitals and at the bases abroad, and none of them has been able to throw any light on his casualty……….We wish to offer our sincere sympathy to the family and friends.”

Signed on behalf of the Earl of Lucan.

So for over a year Mrs Naunton, with her five children, would have heard no news about her husband.

Alfred is remembered on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing (Pier & Face 7B) which is dedicated to those who fell on The Somme and have no known grave and his name is also on the Bordon Post Office’s Roll of Honour and on the Bordon War Memorial.

There are several references to the Naunton children in the Parish Magazine and in the Kingsley School records. Alfred (aged 10) won a three-legged race in the Empire Day celebrations in late May 1916 and was collecting for the Red Cross in November 1916 and Rose and Alfred had plots in the school garden in July 1917, with Rose winning a prize. Alfred’s wife, Louise Naunton, is said to have played the piano at the Bordon barracks as entertainment for the troops.

One of Alfred’s grand daughters, Winnifred Evans, takes up the account :

“After the war Gran (Louise) moved back to London and in 1919 the family, Gran and five kids, moved to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The children ranged from 18 to 8 years. We are still trying to understand why the family moved to one of the coldest places on earth….We wonder what kind of propaganda was being spread that Gran decided to move there instead of Florida!”

All five of Alfred and Louise’s children stayed and died in Canada.

In 1921 Louise, now living in Edmonton, received Alfred’s Memorial Scroll and a letter from the king and later a Memorial Plaque (or Widow’s Penny). However probate for Alfred’s will was not granted until July 1923.

Footnote

In the 1960s one of Alfred’s daughters, Rose, visited Kingsley to find the house in the Straits where the family lived. She met with Mrs Taylor who lived there at that time.

Rose (nee Naunton) with Mrs Taylor and Mrs Taylor’s mother-in-law at The Straits

In 2013 Rose’s daughter, Winnifred sent me a tremendous amount of material ( including the 1960s photo) about her grandfather for which I am most grateful.

WW1 - Sidney James Giddings

Sidney Giddings was born near Andover in 1883 but by 1891 (aged 8) was living with his parents, William and Mary and two sisters at “Baker’s Farm” (ie one of the two cottages at Baker’s Corner) and he would have attended Kingsley School.

Baker’s Corner c 1970

 His father was a farm labourer and probably worked at Lode Farm (the cottages belonged to Lode).

Lode Farm

 However by 1901, when he would have been 18, he had moved away and in the 1911 census he was recorded as a gardener at Crawley in Oxfordshire.

Just after the outbreak of the war he married Kate Plumley from Kinson in Dorset in November 1914 and enlisted, for the duration of the war, at Banbury in December 1915 six months before his only child, Elsie May was born.

At that time he was gardener at Bodicote near Banbury, Oxfordshire. By 17 June 1916 his Approving Officer at Cowley Barracks attested that “he is correct and properly filled up” and appointed him to the Oxford and Bucks. Light Infantry ( as Private no. 24261).

His records show he was 6ft 0.25” tall, 140 lbs in weight and with a chest measurement of 37”.

However he transferred to the 3rd Battalion Base Depot (Camiers) Machine Gun Corps in November

1916 (as no.81712) and crossed to Boulogne February 1917.

He must have contracted pneumonia or pleurisy later that year as, whilst he was stationed at the base depot, Camiers, he was sent to the nearby hospital at Camiers, (which was next to Le Touquet, south of Boulogne) on 18 February 1917 and he died of Lobar Pneumonia there the same day.

He was buried at Etaples Cemetary (part 3 UK, XXI G10A).

By May 1917 his widow Kate was living in Winton, Bournemouth (perhaps to be near her own family) with her daughter Elsie May and acknowledges receiving Sidney’s personal effects. She was still there in May 1922 when she took receipt of his British War and Victory medals. Kate and her daughter received a pension of 18/9d per week from 27 August 1917. This is six months after her husband had died so she could well have suffered from severe financial hardship before then, like many war widows at that time.

Sidney is also remembered on the War Memorial at Bodicote in Oxfordshire.

His parents continued to live on at Baker’s Corner. A friend of Ena Mitchell’s mother, (Mrs Bayley), told her that she had “dressed a terrible face cancer on Mr Giddings’ face” and had nursed Mrs Giddings, whose will, after her death, was registered in 1936.

WW1 - Frederick Walter Fullick

Frederick Fullick was born in Kingsley in December 1889, to George and Jane (nee Burningham) Fullick.

His oldest brother, Harry had joined the Army Service Corps just one year after Walter’s birth and was finally discharged, having served in South Africa, in 1902. The 1911 Census shows Frederick living at Deane Bridge (below) with two of his brothers (though not Harry)

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Deane Bridge c 1905

and sister, a nephew and a lodger. Both Frederick and his brother Thomas may have worked for Mr James Knight, at Dean Farm next door, as they are both described as “farm labourer” and “houseman on farm”  respectively.

Dean Cottages today

 Frederick enlisted at Alton on 1st November 1915 for “Short Service” (ie for the duration of the war), aged 24, as a Gunner and became 62612 Gunner Fullick with the 79th Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery. He listed his oldest brother, Harry, as next of kin. His Enlistment Descriptive Report noted that he was 6ft. 0.25 inches tall. He would have embarked from Avonmouth on 27th April 1916 and arrived in Boulogne the next day. He never went home again.

As a gunner he would have been using heavy howitzers which sent large calibre high explosive shells in high trajectory, plunging fire and used to destroy or neutralise enemy heavy artillery. In March 1917 the 79th Battery was transferred to the 1st Army and remained with them until November 1918 and he was wounded in the back and on the leg on 23rd August 1917, probably at Paschendale in Flanders. On the 24th August he was admitted to the No. 9 Red Cross Hospital at Sangatte, Calais where he was making a good recovery until he was wounded again (probably by bombing at the hospital) and he died on 30th September 1917.

His sister Jane received three letters one when her brother was wounded the second time and another dated 5th October 1917, from the Duchess of Sutherland.

Dear Miss Fullick
I am very sorry indeed to have to tell you that your brother has died of wounds in hospital here. We did all we possibly could to make him comfortable, but he was very badly wounded. He has been buried in a little cemetery, just outside Calais, beside many more of our brave men who have, like your brother, laid down their lives so nobly for King and Country. Please accept my deepest sympathy in your great sorrow.
Yours sincerely, with many thoughts
MILLICENT (Duchess of) SUTHERLAND

A third letter, dated 16th October, was from, I suspect, his Commanding Officer, who wrote that he thought that Fred’s absence from the Battery would only have been temporary- so he expressed his shock at hearing of Fred’s death. 

This feeling, I can assure you, is shared also by all the men in the Battery, for he was respected by all. ………
But it must be remembered that all these happenings are witnessed by the eyes of the Maker, who does all things for the best.
I was in charge of the party of men who carried him to the dressing station and I can certainly assure you he was perfectly calm and collected. He was known as the coolest man in the Battery………….
G.COLLINS

These letters received by Jane Fullick, were subsequently printed in the Alton Gazette.

Frederick was buried in the newly-opened Les Barraques Cemetery (1C6) at Sangatte.

A letter dated 6th June 1919 was sent to Harry Fullick, c/o Rev. CA Mason at Kingsley Vicarage requesting information about his living relatives and eventually his effects, medals and memorial plaque and scroll were sent to his sister Jane.

His surviving siblings were Harry, aged 50 who still lived at Dean Cottages with Thomas and Jane, and Alfred, George, Eliza and Ellen who lived locally.

He is also listed on the Bordon Roll of Honour.

WW1 - Harry Betteridge

Harry Betteridge was born in 1882 in Chipping Norton Oxfordshire, one of six children. He married Eva Hodges in Kensington London in 1904 and by 1911 was identified as a “Domestic Butler” at Grange Lodge near Banbury. At this time he had four children aged under seven. In 1913 the family moved to Hampshire as Harry became the butler at Headley Park. This was the home of the McAndrew family, Charles and his American wife Florence and his three sons.

Mr. McAndrew owned a shipping line and had purchased the estate in 1902.

Headley Park today

Harry was probably conscripted, despite being a married man with four children, after the Military Service Act extended conscription to married men in May 1916. He enlisted into the Hampshire Regiment, “C Company, 1st Battalion as Private 25069 and fought in France and Flanders, probably at Arras, in the 1st and 3rd Battles of the Scarpe.

He was killed in action, whilst an Acting Corporal, on 13 May 1917, aged 35. His young 19 year old master, 2nd. Lt. Charles Arthur McAndrew, who had also enlisted, had been killed just seventeen days earlier.

Presumably his family had to move from Headley Park – and appear to have rented or lodged in Kingsley.

The Rev. Laverty of Headley noted “He killed in the war – she went away to The Straits.”

Harry’s death is recorded on the Arras Memorial (Bay 6), he is remembered on the Chipping Norton Roll of Honour and he is also on the war memorial at Headley where the Rev. Laverty listed him, in a booklet he wrote in the autumn of 1919 as “one of our Soldiers and Sailors whom we lost in the Great War.

Writing in the Parish Magazine of June 1985 Mrs Winifred Barnes refers to Corporal Betteridge as “the first man from the village killed in 1WW – and that help for the family was asked for at that time.”

Beatrice Mary Betteridge, the six year old daughter, was admitted to Kingsley School in December 1917, with the parent listed as Eva Betteridge.

Ena Mitchell (nee Bayley) who attended the school between 1924 and 1929 remembers a Fred Betteridge who had no father. I can find no reference to the other two children who would have been 12 and 13 in 1917 – perhaps they found work elsewhere.

There is a reference in the Alton Gazette of 17 October 1917 to Eva Betteridge (a widow) being fined 5/6d at the Whitehill Petty sessions for riding a bicycle without a front light. Eva Betteridge died in Winchester in 1936 aged 50.

So although it would appear that Harry Betteridge never actually lived in Kingsley his family certainly did.

WW1 - Joseph Henry Allden

Joseph Allden was born in Headley on 31 July 1889 at Stream Farm where his father, William, farmed.

By 1907 he had moved with his family to Malthouse Farm, Kingsley. Malthouse was a large mixed farm, with a substantial farm house. It was known for its hops and would have employed many farm workers, with Joseph and his younger brother Samuel shown as "helping on farm" in the 1911 census.

(This younger brother, Sam, carried on farming at Malthouse until 1935 and had Monkswood built at that time).In late 1915 Joseph joined the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry (The 24th Battalion)as a 2nd Lieutenant. His 22 year old younger brother, Samuel, appears to have enlisted before him, by November 1914 in the 2nd Batt. Public School Company - leaving none of William and Elizabeth’s five sons on the farm.

William, his wife Elizabeth and his daughter Ethel were very involved in village life during the war years. William was a School Manager and on the PCC. Strangely, though he and the Vicar, the Rev. Mason, BOTH lost their sons in 1917, no mention of this is made in the Minutes at that time.

Mr & Mrs W Allden

William, his wife Elizabeth and his daughter Ethel were very much involved in village life during the war years. William was a School Manager and on the PCC. Strangely, though he and the vicar, the Rev. Mason BOTH lost their sons in 1917, no mention is made of this in the Minutes at that time.

Elizabeth Allden was very active in war work – for example she was director of a working party that made and sent mufflers, socks etc. to the troops. She and her daughter were also involved with many of the activities at All Saints and Ethel was the Kingsley Guides’ leader.

I could find nothing about Joseph during 1916 but by early 1917 he is described by his commanding officer as "A new officer, Allden, in my company, also proved his worth about this time."

Joseph was involved in a raid named "Raid Fayet" near St Quentin on 28 April 1917. No. 13 Platoon, was led by Lt. Allden and his Sergeant, Kilby, both of whom were killed during fierce fire from the German machine guns -although the raid was hailed as a success, with two machine guns and one protesting prisoner being dragged back to the lines !

Joseph’s Commanding Officer wrote in his memoirs "Allden and Kirby were a serious loss to the fighting efficiency of D Company."

The vicar, in the June 1917 edition of the Parish Magazine wrote :

"A young man in the prime of his life taken, with many another, fighting for freedom and truth, buried amid the booming of guns in a foreign soil."

At Morning Prayer on 6 May a special hymn and the "Dead March" were added to the service. The Vicar commented "He made his Christmas Communion at this church . His life and character were calculated to commend the doctrine of God in our Saviour to those who knew him. The King and Queen’s telegram of condolence is much valued by the family."

Joseph Allden is remembered on the Thiepval Memorial and on a brass plaque in All Saints.

He is also named on the Headley War Memorial.

His family lived on at Malthouse until 1935, purchasing the farm from the Dutton estate for £8,500 in 1920. William Allden died in 1927 and his wife, Elizabeth in 1930 and are buried in Headley churchyard.

WW1 - Kingsley men

I have spent some time researching the eight men from Kingsley who died in WW1  the stories behind the men of Kingsley who died in WW1 – and their families and I have written up my findings for each of :-

Joseph Allden

Harry Betteridge

Frederick Fullick

Sidney Giddings

Gerald Mason

Alfred Naunton

Charles Painting

John Parfitt

Of Kingsley’s Eight Men who Died :

* Only one, Frederick Fullick, was actually born in Kingsley, though John Parfitt should be counted in too. Strictly speaking though , he was born in Binsted, as most of The Straits is not within Kingsley.

*  Three of them would have gone to Kingsley school  together, Frederick Fullick, John Parfitt and Sidney Giddings (who moved to Kingsley when he was 8).

* Two of them, Joseph Allden and Edwin Painting had moved to the village a few years before the  outbreak of the war.

*  Three of them, Gerald Mason, Alfred Naunton and Harry Betteridge, may never have actually lived in Kingsley – but their families did.