William John Curtis (b.1896): Over The Top!

William John Curtis (John & Mary Janes son)

I recently became aware of the war service history of - William John Curtis. William John Curtis was my uncle Will or 'Curto' as he was more affectionately known. I never knew of the details of my uncles early life in World War 1. What follows is an account of his life as a soldier in WW1 - I hope you like me find it a fascinating read.

William John Curtis was born in January 1896 at Trevethin (Trefddyn) near Pontypool, Monmouthshire, the son of John Curtis and his wife Mary Jane. In 1911 aged just 15 years Will was working down the pit as a coal hewer. A hewer is a man who cuts coal, removing it from the coal face. This was normally one of the most dangerous jobs in coal mines because in addition to the usual dangers, coal would fall from the face and sometimes the roof would fall in. Normal procedure for hewers was to cut a slot in the base of the coal seam so that coal would drop, or be coerced into dropping down under gravity. The roof immediately above the coal was liable to fall. Hewers, being in the vicinity of this activity were often killed by accidental falls of coal or stone. Hewers death certificates frequently record this as the cause of death. In fact it became such a commonplace accident that the Inspector of mines in Britain generally recorded it with little investigation, since there was little they could do about it. William worked for the Tirpentwys Collieries Co Ltd. Tirpentwys Colliery was between the Pantegasseg Hill and the Plasycoed Hotel. Wills father was the publican of the Plasycoed Hotel, Pontnewynydd, Cwmffrwdoer In 1923 a John Curtis was co-owner of the Plasycoed New Colliery, Cwmffrwrdoer and owned property in the surrounding area. John was  William's father.
Annie Parry / nee Hughes/Curtis (2013)

The Great War - WW1

Private - No 2124 - 2nd battalion Monmouthshire Regiment - Went to France on 7/11/14 - Awarded 1914 star, British war medal and Victory medal - 12/2/17 - medically classified as fit for home service only in labour units or in regimental outdoor employment (Pithead Medical Board South Wales) (Were soldiers from coalmining areas more likely to to be discharged because of the need for coal?) I believe he - - went "over the top" four times - refused promotion - deserted while on home leave

On 4th July 1914, a month before the war, William joined the part-time Territorial Army with the 2nd Battalion The Monmouthshire Regiment at Osborne Road, Pontypool. On 5th August 1914, the Territorial Force was embodied (called up) for wartime service. As recruiting developed, the 2nd Battalion raised sister battalions of second-line and third-line reinforcements and the battalions took on fractional numbers. The new battalions took the fractional numbers 2nd/2nd and 3rd/2nd Battalion Monmouthshire Regiment so the original battalion became known as the 1st/2nd Battalion ("first-second") shown on his medal card as 1/2 Monmouth. The 2nd Monmouth spent a short time at Pembroke Dock before moving to Oswestry on August 10th 1914 and then to Northampton. From there the battalion was sent to France. They embarked at Southampton on November 5th and landed at Le Havre on the night of 6th/7th November 1914. They joined the 12th Infantry Brigade in the 4th Division at Le Bizet, Belgium, on 20th November 1914. They remained in the Ypres sector fighting in the Second Battle of Ypres in April 1915. On 27th May 1915, the 1st Monmouth; 2nd Monmouth and 3rd Monmouth battalions were merged into one battalion after Second Ypres and joined 28th Division at Vlamertinghe. On 24th July, the 2nd Battalion was brought back up to strength and resumed its place with the 4th Division.

On 3rd August 1915, William was taken ill and admitted to 12 Field Ambulance (4 Division) and diagnosed as having appendicitis. He was moved to No 4 Casualty Clearing Station on the 7th August and moved by No 11 Ambulance Train to No 10 General Hospital at Rouen where he was admiited on 8th August. His admission was noted as "NYD" which stood for not yet diagnosed, although the soldiers claimed it meant not yet dead. He was treated for appendicitis and released on 13th August to the No 2 Infantry Base Depot from where he re-joined the 2nd Monmouth on 9th September 1915. He was again sick on 18th September 1915 at 4 Casualty Clearing station and admitted to 23 General Hospital at Etaples on the 25th September with broken arches (flat feet). On 27th September 1915 he was returned to the UK aboard the Hospital Ship "Brighton". He was taken to the V.A.D. Hospital at Leigh Road, Tonbridge, Kent. The VAD was the Voluntary Aid Detachment of the Red Cross and the St John Ambulance who provided nurses and staff for hospitals. He remained in that hospital until 5th November 1915 when he was granted the normal post-hospital leave until November 15th 1915. He was then posted to the 3rd/2nd Monmouthshire Regiment, which was the home-based reinforcement battalion then at Park Hall Camp, Oswestry. The records office at Shrewsbury lost track of William in October 1915 (this was not uncommon) and asked the local police to make enquiries with his father. His father told the police William was in hospital at Tonbridge and was expected home in a week. On November 16th 1915 William would have reported Park Hall Camp. He went absent without leave at Christmas 1915 from 22nd to the 28th December and was fined seven days' pay. He went absent again from 29th February 1916 to 6th March 1916. It was not uncommon for men who had been at the front to absent themselves from the "bull" of the Army at home.

William was discharged from the Army after one year and 267 days on 27th March 1916 under Army Council Instruction 301 dated 6th February 1916 in accordance with the Military Service Act of 27th January 1916. The reason was not stated but the Act made provision for discharge through ill-health or "if it is expedient in the national interests that he should be engaged in other work". The latter is the more probable, as he may have been returned to the coal mine "in the national interests". This is backed-up by William's application for a King's Certificate, to which the Army said he was not entitled. The King's Certificate was issued to qualifying soldiers discharged through wounds or sickness. The conclusion is William was discharged to return to work as a miner.

William was 5ft 8ins tall, had a fresh complexion; grey eyes and light brown hair. He was a Congregationalist. He qualified for the 1914 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.

It's hard to imagine how young Will ever managed to survive World War 1. How any man could 'go over the top', out of the trench and advance into the madness of battle once let alone on 4 separate occasions is incomprehensible! Young Will was undoubtedly brave in the extreme and tenacious too. The battlefield - Bloody Hell on Earth - gunfire, bombs and gas -  littered with the corpses of men and horses. Young William certainly had lady luck on his side.

Having survived World War 1  William John Curtis returned home to the Valley to another trench - The Coal Mine!

 

 William John Curtis (Curto)

 

Tirpentwys Colliery

POSTSCRIPT

Recently we received a wonderful letter from Richard Lewis who is the grandson of Will Curtis. What follows is Richard's recollection of his grandfather.

 

“ William Curtis & others – volunteering for war 1914

 

Almost exactly 100 years ago on July 4^th 1914 my grandfather, Will Curtis went to the Drill Hall in Osborne Road Pontypool to volunteer for war. These photos commemorate that event but also reflect the experiences of so many others.

 

Will was 18 years old and the eldest son of John Curtis who ran the Plasycoed Hotel. Four years earlier his mother had died leaving behind 12 children. Though young, Will had already been working at the coal face at Tipentwys colliery for a few years. No doubt seeking escape and adventure in the jingoistic spirit of the times, he joined the second Battalion of the Monmouthshire regiment raised in Pontypool.

 

He saw action very early in the war thus qualifying him as an ‘old Contemptible’ for the Mons Star medal. His regiment suffered severe losses especially at Ypres in 1915 when their strength was so diminished that the three Monmouthshire battalions had to merge for a while. However, Will survived, eventually returning to work for the rest of his life in Tirpentwys before dying from the effects of pneumoconiosis in 1971. He passed on his bitter experiences of both war and mining to his grandchildren.


One of the two group photos here was taken in the trenches. Will labelled it “Armentieres 1914”, this being where the 2^nd Mons first saw action. Most of the other photos are probably taken in Oswestry during training before Will embarked for France in November. The image of the six young volunteers is especially poignant: from which Pontypool homes did they come and how many of them survived? We do not know because their identities have been all been lost in the mist of time except for one. A man with the surname Crimins kept in contact with Will in later years. Perhaps he joined him at the Comrades club, evidenced by the 1918 membership document?

 

One photo of Will was enlarged, coloured by hand and placed in a picture frame. No doubt it was commissioned by his family and took pride of place at the Plasycoed Hotel. As I look at it today I think of how anxiously it must have been scanned by his brothers and sisters during Will’s time at the front. He survived gas attacks, severe shell fire and hand to hand fighting. He claimed to have ‘gone over the top’ a few times, but was also present during the famous Christmas day truce that was so disapproved by the General Staff officers.

 

A year after joining up Will was to be found in an army hospital. His medical notes labelled him ‘NYD’ which old soldiers translated as ‘Not Yet Dead,’ though it really only indicated ‘not yet diagnosed’. In fact Will was not wounded but was suffering from appendicitis, a life threatening illness at that time. After successive treatments, Will was sent to a ‘Blighty’ hospital in Kent.

 

In March 1916 came the event which may have saved Will’s life. Following an official review he was discharged from the army probably because it was in the national interest that miners should return to the coal face. Will had been desperate not to return to horrors of war. When on leave he had twice not returned to barracks when he should have. Perhaps he also had a special reason for staying at home because a year after his discharge he married the barmaid of the Plasycoed Hotel, Catherine (Kate) Lamrick. They had three children and lived thereafter at 7 and later 11 Springfield Terrace, only a couple of hundred yards from Will’s childhood home. 

 

Will’s discharge paper was so important to him that he kept it in his wallet for the rest of his life. The trauma he experienced as an 18 year old, not then labelled as PTSD, also never went away. The one photo he also kept in that wallet was of him as a young child on horseback with his father - a portrayal of innocence in Edwardian Wales that gave no indication of the horrors to come.”    

Richard Lewis (July 2014)

Ref:-

https://livesofthefirstworldwar.org/lifestory/1066938