Poignant postscript to the Somme

 

Ptes Radford, Vass and Ward

  • Left to right: Pte Radford, Pte Vass and Pte Ward.

 

Mid-November and action in the 1916 Somme offensive was drawing to a close. Amid the rain and mud on the shell-scarred battlefield, three Lutonians lay mortally wounded.

Pte John Radford and Pte Sidney John Vass were great friends and had lived just round the corner from each other - John at 9 Windsor Street and Sidney at 121 Castle Street. They joined the Beds Regiment together on November 22nd, 1915, were together in training and both went out to France together on July 11th, 1916. Both were wounded on November 13th.

On November 14th, John Radford passed away in the 44th Casualty Clearing Station in France. Ten days later Sidney Vass, wounded by shrapnel in both legs and his head, also died, at the No 13 Stationary Hospital in France.

So two pals in the true sense of the word met their fate as a result of action on the same day and near the same place, having been wounded within a few hours of each other on the Somme.

Another poignant story was that of Pte Joseph Ward, wounded on November 17th, the penultimate day of action on the Somme. An orphan, he had lived for upwards of ten years with his married sister Alice Gore at 85 Park Road West, Luton.

A chaplain at first sent an encouraging letter to Mrs Gore that, although her brother had been wounded, he was hoping to see his family soon. But official notification said Pte Ward had sustained gunshot wounds in the right thigh and a fracture of the femur and was seriously ill in Dannes-Camiers General Hospital in France.

Rather more encouraging prospects again for Mrs Gore came when the Records Office then sent a telegram telling her she might visit her brother in hospital. On Wednesday, November 22nd, she set off for France.

But while on board the boat train at Victoria Station in London came the heartbreaking news that her brother had passed away at 1.40 the previous day.

So much grief from the Somme for so many families in Luton and around the country. But even in sorrow there were stories with an extra emotional element.

[The Luton News: Thursday, November 30th, 1916]