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Kings of the wild frontiers

This month, people across Britain will be celebrating the 60th anniversary of Victory in Europe (VE) Day, 8th May 1945, and with it the end of the Second World War. But in Shropshire and the Marches people have an added reason to remember the heroic contributions played by thousands of soldiers who fought ‘For King, Queen and Country’ - and not just during WWII. (Country & Border Life – May 2005)

For 2005 is the anniversary of the formation of ‘The Shropshire Regiment’. For 250 years soldiers from the English Marches have been playing their contribution – waging wars with everyone from the Afghans to the Zulus, in battles that have stretched from the eighteenth century American Colonies to Second World War Japan.

The original Shropshire infantry regiment was established in 1755, when George II authorised Major William Whitmore, from Bridgnorth, to ‘raise, form and discipline a Regiment of Foot of ten companies’.

A painting of the Major, the regiment’s first Colonel (its commanding officer), dressed in a fine long coat and manicured wig, greets you on arrival at the Shropshire Regimental Museum, in Shrewsbury Castle. Here, the clear and attractive displays enable you to dip into the county regiment’s history.

Colonel Whitmore may have long been forgotten, but some of the regiment’s other Colonels are still remembered today. General Rowland Hill, for example, who was Wellington’s second in command, and who stands on top of the column outside Shirehall.

The purpose of the 53rd (originally called the 55th, but renumbered in 1757) was to defend the new British Colonies in North America.

But so frequent were the wars in those days that an additional 85th regiment, called ‘the Royal Volunteers’, was raised in Shrewsbury in 1759. But wars came and went and during its first 30 years, the regiment was twice disbanded.

But also twice decimated. While on garrison duty in the West Indies, tropical diseases reduced the original 600 men to just 71, and, no sooner had they been re-equipped with new troops, than many were lost during their return home, in rough seas off Newfoundland.

Reorganisation of troops is a fairly frequent phenomenon in the army – even if it leaves the rest of us a little bewildered as to their meaning! In 1881 for example, the 53rd and 85th were merged to from the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry (KSLI), although more recent changes mean that today they are part of the light Infantry, with ‘Shropshire’ now forever lost from their name.

Whatever the regiment’s strict army classification, its history is not just about bayonets, battles and badges, which you might expect. In 1815-17 for example, the regiment had the job of guarding the former Emperor Napoleon, on St Helena. And in the museum you can see a lock of his hair, along with an account of a recent FBI examination suggesting that the level of arsenic in it is consistent with a possible death by poisoning!

During their 250 years, the Shropshire regiments have won eight Victoria Cross medals. Half of these were awarded during the Great Rebellion in India, in 1857, and the last was awarded posthumously, to Private Joseph Stokes, for his gallantry at Kervenheim, in the Second World War.

But whether they won a VC or not, all Shropshire soldiers that served in the last great war made a contribution of some kind, as examples from today’s survivors clearly demonstrate.

The 1st Battalion of the KSLI was among the very first troops to be sent to France in WWII. Indeed, they suffered the first British casualty to the war when Corporal Tom Priday was killed near Metz, on 9th December 1939.

They also earned the reputation of being the last battalion to retreat from Dunkirk in 1940, and after several years at home served in North Africa and Italy.

“We thought how nice, Italy will be warm and sunny”, one veteran told me. But no such luck - the weather in the mountains was bitterly cold and the conditions were appalling. “The Italians gave me parmesan cheese, which I thought disgusting”, he continued. “But the girls were gorgeous.”

It was in Monte Ceco in North Italy, in 1944, that the Germans captured some of the battalion’s soldiers, after they got trapped in some farm buildings. Among them was Lance Corporal Maurice Jones, who therefore spent the final six months of the war in a Prisoner of War (POW) camp in Labinowice, Poland.

“There was very little food,” he says. “The conditions were nothing like what you see in Colditz, on TV – which was an officers’ camp, and where we all wanted to be.”

Indeed, Maurice - whose father, grandfather and great grandfather had all been in the KSLI before him - was lucky to survive. As the Russians approached Poland the POWs were marched 500 miles through the snow, back towards Germany. Only about 1 in 10 survived and by the end of the war Maurice - who had exchanged his watch and fountain pen for four tiny crusts of bread - was ill with malnutrition, frostbite and jaundice. But aged 81, he is still alive to tell the tale.

The 2nd Battalion had a less dramatic start to the war, guarding the oil fields in the Dutch West Indies. Later however they took part in the historic ‘D’ Day Landings that started on 6th June 1944, landing on ‘Queen Beach’, moving through Normandy and finishing the war near Bremen.

But it was county’s territorial Battalion (as well as others) that earned great acclaim for the county. After landing in Normandy and sweeping through France, in April 1945, after several weeks of continuous advancing, with a maximum of three hours sleep per night, they were the first allied infantry to reach the River Elbe. The battalion’s account of the time tells what happened next:

‘The death of Hitler (who committed suicide on 30th April) had removed the last incentive for the German army to fight. By 2nd May the ‘shooting match’ was at an end and the German High Command was trying to surrender. The predominant British emotion was one of thankfulness of having survived, and satisfaction and pride at having seen the job through to the bitter end.’

Not many WWII soldiers still survive today, but Chair of the Shropshire Branch of the Normandy Veterans - a healthy looking 80 years old, and still doing warder duty at the Regimental Museum - is Les Stocking.

Only 17 when war broke out, he had to get his father’s permission to ‘join up’. Reluctantly, his father – who had himself served 21 years in the KSLI – agreed, but on condition that Les did not join the light infantry. So Les became an engineer instead, and spent the war clearing mines.

“I remember the deprivation more than anything else”, he says. “For weeks at a time we lived in what was really just a hole in the ground, with only our capes serving as the roof from the rain - until one day they all fell in!”

On VE Day, 8th May 1945, Les’s regiment found themselves in Germany, next to a schnapps brewery.

“I do not need to tell you what happened next,” he smiles. “And anyway, I think we were entitled to it.”

Les has been back to Normandy nearly every year since then, as a tribute to his former colleagues that are buried in Northern France’s 17 cemeteries – and only last month he laid flowers on Private Stokes’s grave.

After the war he worked as a tanker driver for Shell and BP, where he met someone who had rather a different wartime role, and with whom he is still good friends.

Jim Backhouse’s job was delivering mail to the troops.

“Field Marshall Montgomery placed mail third in soldiers’ list of priorities ”, he says proudly, “after ammunition and petrol, but above grub!”

Both of Jim’s parents had died by the time he was nine years old but that didn’t stop him from enrolling when still a teenager. And, like Les, he too took part in the D Day Landings, landing on Juno Beach with the Canadians, on ‘D Day Plus Two’, moving through France and ending up in North Holland.

“One day there was so much shelling overhead that I dug a trench and hid in it, and held my helmet firmly on my face. If I was going to go, I was going to go good looking!”

But although they were not always in the action, even Post Boys like Jim had difficult jobs to do, such as delivering telegrams to people who had lost their loved ones.

“I even delivered the telegram to my grandfather that told him his son, my uncle, had died”. (You can read about Jim and other soldiers’ wartime memories on the BBC web site, ‘A Nation at War’, www.bbc.co.uk/ww2)

Jim was back in Shrewsbury, on a week’s leave, when Victory in Europe was announced on the radio, as was Maurice Jones, who was recuperating in the Royal Shrewsbury Infirmary. But even Maurice was well enough to recall the bells of St Mary’s ringing out loud in the evening, to celebrate.

Much to his frustration Maurice never got fit enough again to be a regular soldier, but his last job before retirement was 12 years as Curator of the Regimental Museum, during which it was moved from Copthorne Barracks to Shrewsbury Castle, where it still is today.

And whether your interest is military, historical or social, the museum is well worth a visit – telling the story of 250 years of bravery by Shropshire soldiers, not least during WWII.

The Shropshire Regimental Museum’s is open 10-5, Tuesday to Saturday (Restricted winter opening hours start on 4th October)

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