Private Ernest Francis Hahn from Australia, who was buried in Southern Cemetery in 1915 aged 22

It began with this simple grave stone in Southern Cemetery to a young man who died far from his home having crossed the world to fight at Gallipoli.

He was Ernest Francis Hahn who had been born in Redesdale in what was then still “the colony of Victoria” in Australia on June 23 1893, and left Melbourne in the December of 1914 ending up on the shores of the Ottoman Empire in the ill fated Gallipoli campaign.

He was wounded in early May with gunshot wounds to his chest and died here in Manchester at the General Hospital of enteric fever on June 25 1915.

It is a story that could be replicated many times but what marks this story out is that David Harrop posted the picture on a social network site in response to a request for information about Private Hahn's grave in Southern Cemetery from a relative and almost immediately he received a reply from Margaret Cooper in Australia, who supplied David with the story of this young man and concluded with that it was “nice to see the photos at Southern Cemetery and that he has such a peaceful resting place.”

And with Margaret's permission I was able to access a wealth of family material  which gave a context to the life of young Ernest who was the son of Heinrich Frederick Hahn who had been born in Germany in 1843, settled in Australia in 1865 and married Jane Rose in 1870.

Mr and Mrs Hahn had fourteen children had worked hard and were well respected in their home town.

Amongst the documents were Ernest's birth certificate, his obituary and his ANZAC medal along with much more about his brothers and sisters.

What also makes this new link with Margaret's family all the more fascinating is the sight of an Australian birth certificate which differs from those issued in Britain and which provided a wealth of additional information not included on our own.

All of which has added to my own knowledge and wish to go looking for my own Australian family.

So we all win and I shall close with Margaret's reply to my last email, "thank you for telling the story of Ernest Hahn in your blog. 

Gradually the stories of the occupants of the lonely graves are being told and it is nice to know people care and remember them and want to record who they were and something about their lives..............I think Australians are surprised at the respect shown by the English towards the war graves."

And here of course I have to mention David and his  unique collection of memorabilia from both world wars, some of which is permanently on show a in the Remembrance Lodge.

Picture; the grave stone of Private E R Hahn, 2015 from the collection of David Harrop, and Private E R Hahn's ANZAC medal courtesy of Margaret Cooper.

Additional material courtesy of Margaret Cooper

Three men of the Great War buried in Southern Cemetery a long way from home

Now I know there is more of a story here but some of it eludes me.

This is the memorial in Southern Cemetery to three men killed fighting in the Great War and for two of them I will be hard pushed to learn much about their lives because both were from New Zealand.

Alleyne G Webber was killed in action at Bauchops Hill in Gallipoli in August 6th 1915 and is “buried where he fell.”

His brother, Gerard died the following February here in Manchester “of wounds received in action before France on November 14th 1916."

Both men were 27 years old and they were from New Zealand.

Alleyne Webber was a Lance Corporal in the Otago Mounted Rifles which had been formed at the outbreak of the war and left New Zealand in the October for Egypt.

He died on the second day of an operation to capture Chunuk Bair a high point in the Sari Bair mountain range.

His brother who served in the 10th Royal Fusiliers had been wounded on the second day of what was to be the final large British attack during the Battle of the Somme.

I cannot even now begin to comprehend how his parents Emily and Alfred came to terms with the loss of two sons or that both were buried so far from home.

And I wonder also at how Mrs Ross took the news of her son Alan who had died in the July of 1916 just fourteen days after the start of the Battle of the Somme.

He too is on the memorial remembered with the lines “in memory of a splendid Friend and Comrade Alan Hamiliton Ross, 10th Royal Fusiliers Killed in action in France, July 15th, 1916.”

Now in the way these things work it will be far more difficult to uncover the lives of Alleyne and Gerard Webber, but at least I know something of Private Ross.

He was 30 years old was born in Paddington and came from a wealthy family.

His father was a ship owner and Private Ross attended Dover College founded in 1870.

There is something very moving in seeing these three men recorded together in Southern Cemetery but sadly the monument has recorded the year of Lance Corporal Webber’s death wrongly citing 1916 for 1915.

It is a small error and with the passage of a century does nothing to detract from the memorial.

I have to thank David Harrop for taking the photograph and once again point me to his permanent exhibition of memorabilia from the Great War which is housed in the Remembrance Lodge at Southern Cemetery.

Picture; from the memorial to Lance Corporal Webber and Private Weber and Ross, Southern Cemetery, 2015, courtesy of David Harrop

Revealing more of the lives of three men from the Great War remembered in Southern Cemetery ..... and a thank you

Lance Corporal Alleyne G Webber, circa 1914

This is Lance Corporal Alleyne Gordon Webber of the Otago Mounted Rifles.

He was born in New Zealand, died at Gallipoli and he is remembered on a monument in Southern Cemetery.

It is quite humbling to uncover the life of lance Corporal Webber and more so because it has brought together a number of people who have contributed to the story of this young man and his brother and friend.

I first came across Lance Corporal Alleyne Gordon Webber on a photograph of his monument taken by David Harrop.

David has a long association with the cemetery and his permanent exhibition commemorating those who participated in both world wars can be seen in the Remembrance Lodge at Southern.

The memorial also records the names of Private Gerard K Webber and Private Alan Hamilton Ross.

The memorial, in Southern Cemetery, 2015

Private Webber was wounded at the last engagement during the Battle of the Somme and died here in Manchester of his wounds just seven months after his brother Alleyne.

Private Ross was killed at the beginning of the Battle of the Somme just fourteen days after it started.

I doubted that I would ever discover much about the Webber brothers and assumed that it would be Private
Ross whose life would be easier to uncover.

He had been born in Paddington in London, and attended Dover College and came from a wealthy family.

His life had been researched by one of his descendants and I am indebted to Genevieve who kindly allowed me to share her research.

But during the course of yesterday I came closer to knowing much more about the Webber Brothers.

Dee who read the original story* went looking and found a shed full of references to the Webber family which in due course I am hoping she will share, but that would be to steal her thunder so instead I shall return to Genevieve who also went looking for references to Alleyne and Gerard and discovered that

The Life Class - A Sketch Club Night, G K Webber, circa 1910

“Gerard Webber painted this scene at a sketch club meeting at the Canterbury College School of Art. 

Typical of the day, the class is dominated by male students. 

Subdued interior studies such as this were common and, although slightly sketchy in treatment, Webber has accurately captured the details in the room and the effects of the falling light in the foreground. 

This work was presented to the Canterbury Society of Arts by Webber’s father, Alfred, in 1919. 

Webber was born in Auckland and attended the Elam School of Art before studying at the Canterbury College School of Art from 1910 to 1913. 

He was awarded the Brangwyn Scholarship to study at the Slade School of Art in London c.1914 but enlisted with the British Armed Forces serving in the 10th Royal Fusiliers.”

Detail of the monument, showing Private A H Ross, 2015

Now that will explain how a young ma from  New Zealand ended up in a British Regiment and how he met the “splendid Friend and Comrade Alan Hamiliton Ross, [of the] 10th Royal Fusiliers."

Genevieve also uncovered the 1916 college magazine for The Auckland University* which featured Alleyne.

And in the magazine there was a photograph, and a short entry on this “quiet and retiring ........ capable and conscientious young gentleman [who] was an exceptionally strong swimmer and was well known in yachting and rowing circles.”

Detail showing the Webber brothers, 

The account detailed his career before enlisted, his bravery at Gallipoli and commented that just a “few days before [he died] he had been recommended for one of the first commissions in the regiment.”

I have no doubt that in the fullness of time I will return to the lives of all three men and especially to the college magazine which reveals much about the sacrifice made my New Zealand during the Great War.

But for now I think it is enough to reflect on what has been learnt by the joint efforts of four of us from David who lives in Stockport, Dee in Wythenshawe and Genevieve in Australia.

Pictures; Lance Corporal Alleyne Gordon Webber, 1914 from The Kiwi, The Life Class - A Sketch Club Night, G K Webber, circa 1910, courtesy of Genevieve Kang, and the memorial to Lance Corporal Webber and Private Weber and Ross, Southern Cemetery, 2015, from the collection of David Harrop


Research by Dee Leetch and Genevieve Kang


*The Kiwi, The Auckland University Magazine, August, 1916, Vol 11, www.thebookshelf.auckland.ac.nz/docs/Kiwi/kiwi_011_01.pdf

Remembering the Gallipoli Campaign in Southern Cemetery today

As part of the events to mark the centenary Gallipoli Campaign  there will be a special exhibition in the Remembrance Lodge in Southern Cemetery today.

Medal awarded to Private E F Hahn who is buried in Southern Cemetery

In April 1915 British, Empire and French soldiers were landed at Gallipoli in what was seen by some as a way of breaking the deadlock on the Western Front by an assault in the Dardanelles against the Ottoman Empire.

This second front if successful would it was hoped draw Bulgaria and Greece into the war on the allied side, stop the Ottoman offensive against Russia and lead to the capture of Constantinople and the exit of the Ottoman Empire from the war.

The campaign began with an allied naval bombardment in February and continued with the landing of troops in April.

Amongst the units which fought at Gallipoli were battalions from the Manchester Regiment who were landed in the summer and along with the rest of the expeditionary force were evacuated in December.

And so it is appropriate that there should be an exhibition devoted to the men of that campaign at the Remembrance Lodge in Southern Cemetery.

The collection is a unique one covering everything from medals and letters to the simple and touching memorabilia which would have graced homes across the city.

These very personal records of the men who fought and their families have been collected by David Harrop who has mounted major exhibitions last year at Southport and Oldham.

The lodge is open from 9am - 4pm seven days a week.

Pictures; ANZAC medal of Private E F Hahn, courtesy of Margaret Cooper and the lodge  from the collection of David Harrop

Tomorrow in Southern Cemetery remembering Gallipoli

Gravestone of Private E F Hahn wounded in Gallipoli died in Manchester

As part of the events to mark the centenary Gallipoli Campaign  there will be a special exhibition in the Remembrance Lodge in Southern Cemetery tomorrow.

In April 1915 British, Empire and French soldiers were landed at Gallipoli in what was seen by some as a way of breaking the deadlock on the Western Front by an assault in the Dardanelles against the Ottoman Empire.

This second front if successful would it was hoped draw Bulgaria and Greece into the war on the allied side, stop the Ottoman offensive against Russia and lead to the capture of Constantinople and the exit of the Ottoman Empire from the war.

The campaign began with an allied naval bombardment in February and continued with the landing of troops in April.

Amongst the units which fought at Gallipoli were battalions from the Manchester Regiment who were landed in the summer and along with the rest of the expeditionary force were evacuated in December.

The Lodge

And so it is appropriate that there should be an exhibition devoted to the men of that campaign at the Remembrance Lodge in Southern Cemetery.

The collection is a unique one covering everything from medals and letters to the simple and touching memorabilia which would have graced homes across the city.

These very personal records of the men who fought and their families have been collected by David Harrop who has mounted major exhibitions last year at Southport and Oldham.

The lodge is open from 9am - 4pm seven days a week.

Pictures;  from the collection of David Harrop

At Gallipoli with young Harry from Manchester and one more story from the Manchester & Salford Boys' & Girls' Refuge

"Three boys from Central House," date uknown

There will be many stories about Gallipoli over the next few months and some have already appeared in the blog.*

This week marks the landing of allied soldiers on the shores of the Ottoman Empire in the Dardanelles.

Along with units of the British Army there were men from Australia and New Zealand, Canada and India as well as France and the French Colonial Empire.

Amongst them were many from the twin cities, some who served with the Manchester’s and others with  the Royal Fusiliers, and their contribution has also featured here.**

But today I am drawn to the stories of those young men who were in the care of the Manchester & Salford Boys’ and Girls’ Refuge who enlisted and in particular young Harry who served with the Marines at Gallipoli as well as Jutland and the earlier naval engagement at Heligoland Bight.

“Harry was one such marine. Born in 1892, Harry entered the Higgin’s Home in Cheetham Hill on 9th May 1903. 

Like many of the other children in the homes on George Street, Harry was an orphan. 

A few months later he transferred to the Atkinson Home where he remained for the next three years prior to returning to his elder sister’s care. 

He then joined the Indefatigable to be trained for a life in the Navy.”***

And for the rest of Harry’s story I suggest you visit the Together Trust’s blog  Harry and the Gallipoli Campaign.***

Now I am a great fan of the blog which focuses on the work of the charity and is a good starting point for anyone who wants to know about its activities as well as the wider story of how young disadvantaged people were helped.

But there is more because the archivist is most helpful in assisting those wanting to know more about their own family members who passed through organisation.

Getting down and dusty....... the blog

And for me it pretty much ticks the box.

I live here in Manchester and have a great uncle who was migrated to Canada as a British Home Child by another charity in 1914.

Sadly his records and those of his siblings one of whom was my maternal grandfather are fragmentary, and what there is can be written on one page.

So this archive is an important one and a powerful resource for those with relatives who were in care in the twin cities, not only because there may be a record of them but also because of the general background to the work of this caring organisation.****

Picture; Three boys from the Central Home, now on Active Service with the Marines, date unknown, courtesy of the Together Trust

* Gallipoli,  http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Gallipoli

*The Manchester Regiment, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20Manchester%20Regiment

***Harry and the Gallipoli Campaign, http://togethertrustarchive.blogspot.co.uk/

****The Together Trust, http://togethertrustarchive.blogspot.co.uk/p/about-together-trust.html

Looking at the Great War from New Zealand with a nod to this Sunday's remembrance event in Southern Cemetery

A G Webber remembered in  Southern Cemetery

It is easy to view events from a European perspective; after all I was born in Britain, and have family in Italy and a grandmother who was born in Germany.

All of which means I tend to see the Great War as a European tragedy, more so because it and the war that followed were in a sense a family civil war for us.

So while I can count on six immediate members who fought in the first of those world wars and two in the second, I know that there were also some who fought in the armed forces of Imperial Germany and three who stare back at me in German army uniforms from 1938.

But that is to ignore that both conflicts were really world wars which saw the fighting spread out to other continents as well as the oceans of the world and drew in men and women from everywhere.

And so it is fitting at a time when we remember the fighting at Gallipoli and the contributions made by the ANZAC forces and French colonial regiments that I focus on the feelings of one group in New Zealand in 1916.

Now the date is important for the conflict was now into its second full year and much of the optimism of a short war had vanished under the weight of the casualties on the Western Front, and the Middle East along with those on the high seas.

In Auckland at the University there was much to ponder on, ranging from those amongst the staff and students who had enlisted, to all manner of shortages.

And so in the August of 1916 the editor of the college magazine was in reflective mood commenting that

“Looking back over the last twenty months we cannot but be struck at the change that has come over the College. 

This change is none the less noticeable for the fact that it seems scarcely a definite alteration in any specific thing or things, but rather a feeling that we are not the same as we were a short time ago.

We do not hesitate to ascribe this feeling-this atmosphere of change-to the war and its direct effect upon us.  

And when we think of the number of students who were with us a few months ago and who are now thousands of miles away taking part in the great world-struggle that is convulsing Europe, do we wonder that the College is not as it used to be?”*

That said the College while it had seen some of its members go off to fight had received new students, so that in one sense the editor could say that in sheer numbers the place was much as it was.

But the College was missing many of its experienced and older members, added to which most of the magazine was given over to photographs of those who had left and descriptions of what had happened to them.

Some had died others invalided home and most were still far.

And that is what makes this magazine such a powerful insight into the impact of the war on New Zealand.

The numbers at the college may not have been big and we are dealing with a very small community but for me it is the start of the journey into discovering how other people thought about that war fought out on my continent.

And that is perhaps the point to draw attention again to this Sunday when David Harrop will be in attendance at the Remembrance Lodge on Sunday April 26 which houses his collection of memorabilia from both world wars, but given that this is the centenary of the Gallipoli campaign David will have items which reflect the campaign.**

Pictures; Lance Corporal Alleyne Gordon Webber, 1914 and R W Lambert, 1914 from The Kiwi, The Auckland University Magazine

*The Kiwi, The Auckland University Magazine, August, 1916, Vol 11, www.thebookshelf.auckland.ac.nz/docs/Kiwi/kiwi_011_01.pdf

**New Zealand, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/New%20Zealand

Remembering Gallipoli in Southern Cemetery

We will soon be reaching another of those Great War anniversaries.

In April 1915 British, Empire and French soldiers were landed at Gallipoli in what was seen by some as a way of breaking the deadlock on the Western Front by an assault in the Dardanelles against the Ottoman Empire.

This second front if successful would it was hoped draw Bulgaria and Greece into the war on the allied side, stop the Ottoman offensive against Russia and lead to the capture of Constantinople and the exit of the Ottoman Empire from the war.

The campaign began with an allied naval bombardment in February and continued with the landing of troops in April.

Amongst the units which fought at Gallipoli were battalions from the Manchester Regiment who were landed in the summer and along with the rest of the expeditionary force were evacuated in December.

And so it is appropriate that there should be an exhibition devoted to the men of that campaign at the Remembrance Lodge in Southern Cemetery.

The collection is a unique one covering everything from medals and letters to the simple and touching memorabilia which would have graced homes across the city.

These very personal records of the men who fought and their families have been collected by David Harrop who has mounted major exhibitions last year at Southport and Oldham.

The lodge is open from 9am - 4pm seven days a week.

Pictures; from the collection of David Harrop