The_Poppy_September_2012_Part1.pdf - The Western Front ...

During the retreat the battalion fought its first
major action of the war at Maroilles, on 25th/26th
August 1914, suffering losses of 63 men killed,
wounded or missing, including Major Turner taken
prisoner and Capt. Henry Shott, the first officer of the
Royal Berkshires to be killed in the Great War. The
retreat to the Marne and beyond continued and by
5th September 1914 the battalion had marched a total
of 236 miles in 15 days but by now the retreat was
over as the BEF regrouped, turned northwards and
embarked on the offensive.
On 9th September 1914, the 1st Battalion recrossed
the Marne at Charly-sur-Marne, near Château
Thierry and by 13th September 1914 had reached
the Aisne, to cross it on a pontoon bridge near Soupir.
However, by now it had become apparent that the
enemy had stopped retreating and was setting up a
defence line on the Chemin des Dames. The advance
of the BEF was halted and a front line was established
here to mark the beginning of trench warfare, a
stalemate that was to continue for the next four years.
The 1st Battalion set up its HQ at La Metz Farm and
was engaged in heavy fighting along the Oise-Aisne
Canal for the next seven days, until relieved by the 1st
Battalion, Rifle Brigade on 22nd September 1914.
During these seven days the battalion incurred
losses of 18 men killed and 98 men wounded
including C.S.M. Frederick Jewson, who, sadly, died of
his wounds, on 27th September 1914, age 32, most
probably at No. 4 Casualty Clearing Hospital, situated
in Braine Château.
6260 C.S.M. Frederick Jewson is buried in Braine
Communal Cemetery, Braine, Aisne, France but is
commemorated on a special memorial (A. 21), as the
exact position of his grave within the Commonwealth
plot is not known.
October
The dedication this month is to Frederick William
Fenne, a Company Sergeant Major with the 1st
Battalion Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry from
Bodmin, Cornwall.
Frederick William Fenne is the great-uncle of
branch member Ian Fenne and was born at Fulham
in the spring of 1882. He was third eldest of eleven
children born to Frederick Henry Fenne, a gas stoker
and Charlotte Caroline Fenne of 27 Imperial Cottages,
Fulham, London. His parents were both of German
descent. Frederick Henry was born at Hanover,
Germany in 1847 and Charlotte Caroline was born at
Whitechapel, London in 1859 with the maiden name
of Wagner.
By 1891 the family had moved to 4 Edith Road,
Fulham where young Frederick William, age 9, was
a pupil at a local school. Unfortunately, Frederick’s
service record has not survived but prior to 1901 but
possibly around 1898/99, he enlisted with the army in
C.S.M Frederick Fenne, 1st Bn. Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry
with his wife Henrietta and son, Frederick, taken on
20th October 1912
London and was later posted to the 2nd Bn Duke of
Cornwall’s Light Infantry at Victoria Barracks, Bodmin,
Cornwall.
Under the Childers Reforms (1881) system, one
regular battalion of each regiment was to be at a
“home” station, whilst the other was to be abroad.
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