Name
Alfred Raymond Jenkins
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
10/09/1916
21
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
24100
Grenadier Guards
1st Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
THIEPVAL MEMORIAL
Pier and Face 8 D.
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Pirton Village War Memorial, St Mary’s Shrine, Pirton, Methodist Chapel Plaque, Pirton, Pirton School Memorial, Hitchin Town Memorial, St Mary's Church Roll of Honour (Book), Hitchin
Biography
* He was baptised Alfred Raymond, but appears as A. Raymond on the Village Memorial. As this is how they wished him to be remembered, that is how he appears here.
Although born Alfred Raymond Jenkins on April 4th 1895, it seems that the village knew him as Raymond or perhaps Ray.
His parents were Alfred Jenkins and Elivina Elizabeth (née Carter), although in the 1911 census she appears as Elizabeth. According to the census from 1891 and 1901 they were born in Stondon and Pirton respectively. They met and were married in June 1887 when both were listed as from Pirton, so presumably Alfred had moved to Pirton some time before. He was a bricklayer and she a strawplaiter – a common occupation within the village. Children quickly followed and according to the 1911 census they had a large family(*1), eleven in all, but two died. At least seven were sons and, in all, four sons served and all survived except Raymond. They lived in the Little Green area of the village.
The Pirton School’s Roll of Honour confirms that he attended, which would have been in the late 1890s. After leaving school he became an engine cleaner on the railway, probably working in Hitchin. When war was declared he was still working on the railway. As a railway employee he would not have had to join up, but apparently was anxious to do so. Twenty-one and single he gave a week’s notice and enlisted. He was 6’ 1¾”, but he must also have had other qualities because he was accepted by the proud and prestigious Grenadier Guards. The October 1915 issue of the Parish Magazine acknowledged this in a list including fifteen others - ‘May God bless, defend and preserve them and bring them safe home!’
He went to France in June 1916 and sent cheerful letters home. One asked relatives to send a Christmas pudding ‘there was nothing like asking in time’. His last letter was sent on September 6th, just four days before the date recorded for his death. He said that he had been in the trenches and that he and about twenty others were resting in a barn before returning to them again.
There was a quiet start to June, training in the area behind Poperinge, Belgium before moving to the Yser Canal not far from Ypres. They watched heavy bombardments, had warnings of gas attacks and took part in raids on the enemy trenches. Even though it was June, it was noted as wet and cold. July was similar, starting with training and then back into the trenches before moving some twenty miles from Poperinge to Bollezelle. Then on the 29th they moved again, by train to Halloy, France, via Cassel and Frevent. At the beginning of August they moved to a camp in a wood near Bus-les-Artois. There they had daily training in bayonet fighting, bombing and wiring, but in a complete change from routine they were honoured with a visit from the King on the 9th. The next day, probably still talking about the visit, they moved into the notorious trenches at Beaumont-Hamel on the Somme.
They recorded the trenches as being very quiet, despite the ‘hostile trench mortars’. They were only there for three days before returning to billets and more training. Between the 19th and the 25th they moved on, marching first to the original camp in France, then to Sarton, Longuevillette and Vignacourt, where they caught a train to Mericourt, and then marched to their new billets at Ville sous Corbie. They undertook more training until the end of August, including two days of open warfare training, presumably in preparation for an attack.
The Battalion’s war diary records them as billeted at Ville sous Corbie between the September 1st and 9th. The 10th saw them move back to the Front, part of the Battalion going to the front line East of Ginchy, and part to Guillimont. On the 11th they were ordered to attack an enemy strong point and occupy a line of trenches known as Ginchy Telegraph. The writing is not clear, but it looks like the attack commenced at midnight and some time shortly after 10:00am they had managed to fight their way to within 100 yards of the strong point. Here they were then held up by the enemy’s wire. They regrouped and attacked again just after 6:00pm. The casualties are not recorded in detail, but they certainly lost seven officers and presumably many more other ranks. They were withdrawn on the 13th and then, the next day, marched to the trenches at Trones Wood. On the 15th a new zero hour of 6:20am was ordered and the Guards Division went into the attack. The 1st Battalion were used as carrying parties for the rest of the day supplying the leading Brigades. On the 16th, at 9:00am, the 1st Battalion advanced to the trenches and at 1:30pm went into the attack with the Welsh Guards to their left. They advanced to attack the trenches called Les Boeufs, but without artillery or other support. The losses during this period and for the rest of the month were awful. For the period from the 15th to the 26th for the 1,000 men that formed a Battalion, the war diary records the following casualties; 84 officers and men killed, 445 wounded and 86 were missing - a total of 611 men.
His exact date of death may be in doubt as the ‘Soldiers Died in the Great War’ database records that it was between the 10th and 12th and another man, Private F Adams, wrote to his wife in Hitchin that he had heard that he died on the 16th. The exact date is perhaps of little consequence and officially remains the 10th.
We know that Raymond was killed in action, his body never found or at least never identified. Probably left behind in the attack and then not recovered, another casualty of the Somme, another name on the massive, imposing and memorable memorial at Thiepval.
As A R Jenkins he is also commemorated on the Hitchin War Memorial.
(*1) From the records available only ten can be named, they are Annie (b c1886), Alice Alma (b 27/10/1887, d 1890 aged two years and three months), Montague Harold (b 1889), Arthur Alfred (b 1893, d 1894 aged ten months), Raymond (Alfred Raymond, b 1895), Edward Victor (b 1897), Leonard Cyril (b 1899), John (b c1902), Norman (b c1905) and Emma (b c1909). Montague, Edward and Leonard all served and survived.
Additional Information
Text from the book: The Pride of Pirton
Acknowledgments
The Pride of Pirton book – www.pirton.org.uk/prideofpirton Chris Ryan / Tony French / Jonty Wild
