SOME BRIEF BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS
OF JUST A FEW OF
SUTTON & WAWNE'S WAR DEAD
Lance Bombardier Douglas Shearsmith 11051876
Our first biography is of L/Bdr Douglas Shearsmith, who served in
242 Battery, 48 Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment of the Royal
Artillery, an ack-ack unit, and this photo of him was taken along
with his brother when on embarkation leave in 1941, aged 19.
Thousands of serving men hurried along to
photographic studios when just about to embark for foreign parts,
to have their photo taken with their families. For those who
didn't return, this was often the last memory or momento they
had of their boy, or husband, father, etc.
And so it sadly proved to be for Douglas and his family. His
regiment originally sailed for the Middle East, to reinforce the
troops engaged in desert warfare. Unfortunately, in the meantime,
Japan entered the conflict after Pearl Harbor, and his convoy was
diverted a further several thousand miles to Singapore. He and
his unit arrived just in time for the fall of Singapore, and were
surrendered without they themselves being able to fire a
shot.
Douglas then entered a period of 3 years of unbelievable cruelty
and torment. He was imprisoned along with his friends in a
Japanese camp in Sandakan, in Borneo. Towards the end of the war,
2000 of the camp's inmates were force-marched hundreds of
miles as the Japanese tried to flee the advancing allies, taking
the evidence of their inhumanity with them. Of that 2000, only 6
survived, and Douglas was not one of them. He died in June, 1945,
aged 23, when the war was nearly won and just two months before
hostilities against Japan came to an end.
Douglas' body was amongst those of thousands that were never
recovered, nor any knowledge of where his grave lies. So his name
appears on a panel on the Memorial that stands in Kranji War
Cemetery, 22 kilometres north of Singapore.
For anyone interested in more about POW's of the Japanese, I
can recommend a book that is still to be seen on bookstalls, in
charity shops, etc. "The Naked Island" by Russell
Braddon is one of many accounts of life as a POW at the hands of
the Japanese.
Sapper Bernard Catterick, no 2015554, Royal Engineers,
and his wife, Doris
This following story departs from our theme, as neither appear on
the Sutton War Memorial, but there is a strong Sutton connection.
The above wedding photo illustrates both the
tragedy and sadness of modern war. It was sent in by former
Sutton resident, Terry King. The groom is his Uncle Bernard, with
his bride Doris, standing on the steps of St James' in the
spring of 1941. Three months later, both were killed in one of
the most notorious bombing raids on Hull. The night of 18th July,
1941 was when Mulgrave Street shelter received a direct hit, and
most people sheltering within were killed, most almost instantly.
It can only presumed that Bernard and Doris died together, as did
many other complete families. It seems they were on their way
home, and caught by the sirens, dashed down the shelter.
Tragically, Mulgrave Street was not the only street shelter to
receive a direct hit in this way, there were others in various
raids between 1940 and 1944.
Their tragic story helps to illustrate some of points to remember
in tracing recent family history, especially the records of those
killed in World War Two. Bernard does not appear on the Sutton
memorial because, though he came from a Sutton family, he was not
a Sutton resident at the time of his death, but resident in Marfleet.
The details for his wife can be found in the
Civilian War Dead Index for Yorkshire, Northumberland & Durham. All civilians killed in the bombing in Hull are
listed there, stating their full name, age, date of death, the
place where they died, and the grave reference number in city
records. Thus it shows:
Catterick,
Doris - 21 yrs - 18 Jul 1941 - Mulgrave St Shelter, Hull, ERY - 2218
http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/Indexes/NE_WarDead/
Bernard is not listed, because he was not a civilian, and
presumably appears on another memorial elsewhere, perhaps a
street memorial at some time, as well as the Rolls of Honour
compiled and held by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission for
the Forces. These Rolls, along with the Civilian Rolls, are
lodged in Westminster Abbey, along with the names of the tens of
thousands of others, military and civilian, killed in the six
years of that conflict.
Bernard was a Sapper, Royal Engineers, so he will also be
remembered in his Regimental Rolls. On checking the War Graves
site, we do indeed see that both husband and wife are buried
together in St James' churchyard, and the Honour Record
details for Bernard show thus :
Son of John and Gertrude Catterick, of Sutton-in-Holderness;
husband of Doris Catterick, of Hull, who was killed in the same
incident. New Yard. Cemetery: SUTTON (OR SUTTON-IN-HOLDERNESS)
(ST. JAMES') CHURCHYARD Yorkshire, United Kingdom ; Grave or
Reference Panel Number: Row 7 Grave 2.
It is sobering that the record merely describes the tragedy as an
"incident". But we have to remember that the Rolls only
record the bare details, a man's regiment, and the memorial
or grave on which he appears. There were so many killed, the
action of war often so fast, that years later when the millions
of records came to be compiled, it was often not known how, or
indeed exactly where, a person had died. All that was known that
someone didn't come back .. "Missing".
So these records don't tell the story of the action, or
incident, or sinking, that was the cause of a death. That was for
historians to find out . . if they can. In all too many
instances, the story of a man's death, often in the pursuit
of saving a comrade, was later lost when the only witnesses to an
incident were themselves killed. In many cases, a whole unit, a
tank crew, a submarine, or a bomber, even a battleship, were lost
all in one go. All that can be said is, however much we THINK we
know about war, or a battle . . it is only the tip of the
proverbial iceberg.
More information on the Hull Blitz, including some maps of Hull plotting the fall of bombs, is available on my other website at Hull Blitz Maps
Guardsman David Blyth, 2657980, 1st Bn.,
Coldstream Guards
died Friday, 4 August 1944, Aged 25
Son of John and Clara Blyth, of Sutton on Hull
Husband of Mary Blyth, of Greenford, Middlesex.
Guardsman David Blyth is another example of a
name of a Sutton man who doesn't 'officially' appear
on the list of Sutton's dead of World War 2. That's
because, at the time of his death, this soldier had moved to
Middlesex, with his wife Mary.
David, as with Douglas above, is one of tens of thousands who
have no known grave. Therefore, he is primarily remembered on a panel on the
Bayeaux Memorial at Calvados, in Northern France, as
well as on his Regimental Roll of Honour. The
Bayeaux Memorial
bears the names of more than 1,800
men of the Commonwealth land forces who died in the early stages
of the campaign whose bodies were never recovered and so have no
known grave. They died during the landings in Normandy, during
the intense fighting in Normandy itself, and during the advance
to the River Seine in August.
The date of David's death indicates that it was as part of
the latter action in which he was killed. It's a sobering
thought to remember that, though the Allied Landings had taken
place in Normandy on the 6th of June, nearly two months before,
and despite desperate fighting and untold suffering, our forces
had only reached the River Seine
. In that two months, many
of those men saw more action, more heroics, and more suffering
than most of us born since will ever see in an entire lifetime.
A Maritime Story
Captain William John Decent b. Myton 1861 .. d. North Sea 1918
As befits a maritime port city such as Hull, here we have a
couple of photos of a Hull and Sutton sea captain lost during
World War 1. The photos are provided curtesy of Jean & Dick
Guest, married at St James' in 1943, and Captain William John
Decent was Jean's grandfather. His ship, the SS Gitano, was
lost with all hands in the North Sea, as far as we can tell, off
the coast of Denmark. Captain Decent is also named on the
Memorial to the Mercantile Services, who proportionately suffered
the most horrendous losses at sea during the First War too.
This story is typical of the thousands of merchant ship crews who met
their fate this way, struggling to bring essential food supplies,
as well as fuel and rubber and all manner of other items needed
for an island nation to survive a major war. The GITANO was
probably taking our export goods to Sweden, to return with a load
of much-needed timber. But she never got there.
I said "during" World War One, which isn't strictly
true. Captain Decent died on the 23rd of December, 1918, just two
days before Christmas. But of course, the war actually
'ended' as we all know, on the 11th of the 11th, just
over a month before. On the internet, at
The Ships List,
they show this Wilson Line vessel, SS
GITANO, as "went missing at sea - probably mined". All
of which makes the point that many deaths occurred long after the
hostilities officially ended. Then, as now, naval mines still
exploded and took innocent sailors and passengers to their
deaths, in some cases, several years after a conflict. Many a
fishing boat and crew have been lost in this way, hauling a
deadly mine up hidden amongst the fish catch in their nets, to
explode as the catch was released onto the deck. A ship thus
caught would sink in seconds, lost with all hands, without trace.
There wouldn't even be chance to send a signal, let alone launch a boat.
Many will see memorials to the First World War as having the
dates, 1914-1919 .. and this is why. Hundreds more soldiers and
combatants from all the services died of their wounds, or
exploding mines, or abroad in circumstances
'caused by the
war if not during it'
for a long time after. And so this
captain and his crew are as much a part of our War Dead as any
others. So many deaths appear in 1919, and likewise later in the
Second World War, history repeats itself yet again with many
memorials recording Second War deaths as late as 1947. A frequent
example of "later tragedy" is that not all the
'survivors' of the Japanese POW camps, having got home,
lasted more than another year or two.
SS GITANO .. Wilson Line .. built 1913 .. lost 1918
So here we have Captain Decent, and his ship, lost just before
Christmas, the first Christmas of the Peace after 4 years of
devastating and costly war. The sepia photo here looks as if it
could have been taken in a North Sea fog. A current Danish
website dedicated to deep-sea divers tells us that the GITANO was
lost, "on passage from London to Gothenborg", which
suggests that she, and her captain and crew, are lying not far
from the Danish coast, a marked war grave. The shame of it is, is
that in all probability, it was one of our own mines that she
struck.
Captain Decent was born in 1861, to parents Samual and Hephzibah,
down Cogan Street in Myton parish. He married Jane Nesbitt Mudd
and they had two children, Lily, and Stanley. Captain Decent is
also commemorated on the Commonwealth War Graves site
below.
Second Lieutenant Sidney Hannaford Hellyer
4th Bn East Yorkshire Regiment
Sydney, pictured here at Lambwath Hall with his mother, Jane Elizabeth Hellyer (1858 - 1943), was the son of Charles Hellyer of the well-known Hull shipping family. Sydney was in the 4th Battalion, East Yorkshire Regiment. His battalion took part in the 2nd Battle of Ypres, and Sidney was mortally wounded on the 8th of May, 1915.
He was repatriated to a hospital at Boulogne,
probably with a view to getting just well enough to be able to
board ship for England and further hospitalisation. But he died
of his wounds before he could leave France, aged just 25.
He was one of tens of thousands to "die
of his wounds" in the Great War, almost certainly of some
sort of infection, or complications caused by an infection. The
most notable was gangrene. This was just over a decade before the
discovery of penicillin, the first really effective anti-biotic,
and the saviour of so many more lives in the Second War.
Though born in Sutton, his parents had moved back to
their own roots in Brixham, and somehow, that's where his
body was finally buried. So this son of Sutton lies in St
Mary's churchyard, South Devon, shown in the photos here of
both the memorial window his mother gifted to the church, and his
headstone in the churchyard. Sydney's memorial window is
particularly interesting as it not only shows him as a soldier,
but is very recognisably an image of Sydney himself.
Both of these excellent photos here are supplied by Peter
Haywood of the Seamens' Christian Friend Society in Brixham,
South Devon, with our thanks.
This particular story of Lt Hellyer and his
memorials serves very well to illustrate how a man can be
remembered in several places for various reasons. His family
roots were not Sutton, but he was born and lived here and so is
remembered here. And as well as in his father's home town of
Brixham, Sydney will also be remembered on on Roll of Honour in
the annals of the East Yorkshire Regiment. And of course, as with
over 2 million others, his details and memory are also recorded
on the Commonwealth War Graves site, on the link further below.
There are often more ways than one of finding a person's
details after military service, particularly if they were killed
in doing that service.
It's also worth noting that, though many actual service
records for serving men and women in the First War were lost in
the bombing of London in the Second, someone cleverly realised
that almost every soldier, sailor and airmen who served
'overseas' was awarded a campaign medal. And those
'Medal Rolls'
have survived, and in
the past year or so, every record has been processed and placed
on the internet, for us to check for free.
As of 2004, the medal records for all letters of the alphabet
down to 'Z' have been available, with only a very few
ommissions, for over 5.5 million men and women. That is some
database.
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