August 2014
Four Blandford brothers killed by Peter Reder THE war memorial outside Blandford Corn Exchange names 11 pairs of brothers who fell in the Great War, but an even greater tragedy was borne by the Lane family, who lost four sons. The parents lived in 4 Lawrence Yard (within the site of what is now Ryan Court) in White Cliff Mill Street, and the father, Frederick, had died in 1898, leaving Annie to care for five sons of the marriage and another son from a previous relationship, who eventually moved to Wales. Reginald was the youngest of the brothers and enlisted with the 5th Dorsets in August 1914, exaggerating his age to "19 years and 245 days". He was posted to the Balkans in July 1915, suffering gunshot wounds six weeks later which required hospital treatment in the UK. He rejoined his battalion in France in September 1916, only to be killed on the Somme during the attack from Beaucourt on 11th January 1917, aged 21. The eldest son, Henry, joined the 1st Battalion of the Dorsetshire Regiment, probably before the outbreak of the war, and was posted to France in September 1914. He died of wounds sustained near Happlincourt on the Somme on 31st August 1918, just 10 weeks before the Armistice, aged 33. He had married May Smith in 1917 and they lived at Brown's Yard, East
Street (now Kohima Court and previously at times Albert House Yard or Albert Row). Their son, Eric, was only about three months old when Henry died. Frederick was the second eldest and also joined the 1st Dorsets. He was posted to France in May 1915 and survived a gunshot wound in March 1916. He was killed during the battalion's advance from Authuille Wood on the Somme on 1st July 1916 at the age of 28. He had married Amy Dyer in 1911 in Blandford and they had two children, Gladys, born in December 1911 and Frederick, born in September 1913. The fourth son, Albert, was posted to France in December 1915 with the 6th Dorsets. He was killed in action at Montauban on the Somme on the same day as Frederick at the age of 23. In September 1914, he had married Margaret Chown. Their first child, Frederick, was born about October 1914 but only survived for a year; their second child, Albert, was given his dead father's name when he was born in about February 1917. The middle brother, William, enlisted with the 3rd Dorsets in December 1915, transferring to the Hampshire Regiment and then the Tank Corps. Although wounded in France, he survived the war, being demobilised in 1919. His service record contains a medical certificate dated 22nd July 1916 three weeks after the deaths of Frederick
and Albert - summoning him home because his mother, Annie, was dangerously ill. It is doubtful whether this was a 'Saving Private Ryan' gesture, because she died a year later, in August 1917. Dr Peter Reder is a retired Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist. He lives in London and Tarrant Keyneston.
Harsh regime as Camp returns to a wartime role IT was not until November of 1918 that Blandford Camp, which had been largely returned to agriculture since the closure of the signal station after the end of the Napoleonic wars and was used mainly as a training ground for the Yeomanry, was brought back into service as home to the newly formed Royal Naval Division. But it required a massive construction programme to house the thousands of servicemen who arrived on the site where only bell tents had provided accommodation, as this photograph (right) taken in 1913 demonstrates. The editorial in the County Chronicle of November 12th 1914 expressed concern about the fall-off in recruiting for the Armed Forces, half a million having originally responded. But the second half million demanded by Lord Kitchener did not materialise. It was suggested that compulsory service (conscription) may have to be introduced. "We can see the operation of the bad influences which are keeping back recruits in our own county. No-one can go through one of the many camps in Dorset without realising how patriotism is being stifled and national enthusiasm damped down in more senses than one in the unspeakably miserable conditions in which thousands of young men from the north and midlands have spent the last few weeks." Then the editor attempts to be slightly conciliatory in tone. He continues: "The authorities on the spot have not been blind to the facts. They appreciate in full the mischief that has been done by the deplorable lack of foresight and organisation
Bell tents provided the accommodation prior to the outbreak of war. that have made several of the camps centres of misery and revolt." The lack of foresight was the billeting of thousands of keen young men in bell tents, well into what turned out to be an exceptionally wet and cold autumn and winter. This lack of foresight extended into the time when the hastily erected wooden huts replaced
those bell tents on the Blandford camp, late in November. The official allocation of bedding for each man of the Royal Naval Division that winter was just two blankets. December in Blandford, turned out to be both exceptionally wet (12.87 inches of rain fell that month) and cold. The average temperature for December
throughout the 24-hour period was 38 degrees F. Accounts written at the time by members of the RND state that the other ranks largely slept fully clothed in order to survive in those under-heated huts. It is little wonder that the rate of recruiting into what was still an all-volunteer army fell off drastically that winter.