I recently went to see the installation ‘Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red’ at the Tower of London, which will see 888,246 ceramic poppies planted in the Tower’s moat, each poppy representing a British military fatality during the war. It really is an impressive and moving sight. Fortunately both my grandfathers who served in the First World War came home again, but as I looked over the sea of poppies I thought about how many of them represented people from our own area who did not.
As a decision was taken that the fallen would not be brought back to this country, but buried with their comrades near where they fell, it became an imperative for communities to have a memorial locally to record their loss. The War Memorial at Littleton records the names of 13 men from the village who died in WW1. Built with funds raised from the local population, it stands in the churchyard of St. Mary Magdalene in Squire’s Bridge Road. One of those commemorated is Gunner Frank Howard, Royal Marine Artillery, who died at the naval battle of Jutland on 31st May 1916.
He served on the sadly misnamed battlecruiser Invincible, which was part of the Third Battlecruiser Squadron, deployed in advance of Admiral Jellicoe’s Grand Fleet. The battlecruiser squadron was the first to make contact with the German High Seas Fleet, in the North Sea off the coast of Denmark.
Invincible and others fired on the Lutzow, Invincible firing the shot that would ultimately sink the German ship, but return fire struck Q turret, Frank Howard’s post, blew off its roof and penetrated the mid-ships magazine. The resulting explosion tore the ship apart and it sunk in 90 seconds, with the loss of 1,026 men.
There were only six survivors, including one who miraculously escaped from Q turret. Like so many lost in the war, Frank Howard has no grave but the sea, but besides Littleton, is also commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial. The wreck of HMS Invincible is a protected war grave.
‘Sunbury and Shepperton in World War One’ is the latest publication by the Sunbury and Shepperton Local History Society. It costs £7 and is available from Squire’s Garden Centre and other outlets.
The next Society talk is ‘World War One- Myth and Reality’ and takes place at 8pm on Tues 18th November at Halliford School, Russell Road Shepperton. The speaker is the headmaster, Phillip Cottam. All welcome, admission £2 for non-members.