Wonderful autumn sunshine on Remembrance Sunday in South Somerset.

Blue skies and autumn sunshine on Remembrance Sunday in South Somerset

Blue skies and sunshine on Remembrance Sunday in South Somerset.

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Field-Marshal Lord Harding of Petherton. Commemorated at Taunton Castle's Museum of Somerset.

A few weeks ago while wandering around the centre of Taunton I came across the Museum of Somerset in Taunton Castle.  Tucked away in the entrance courtyard is a modest bust commemorating Field-Marshal Lord Harding of Petherton, someone I had vaguely heard of due to his connection with the Somerset Light Infantry, but other than that I knew little about him.  I decided to do some research.

The commemorative bust of Lord Harding of Petherton in the courtyard of Taunton Castle's Museum of Somerset.

Allan Francis Harding was born at Rock House in South Petherton, Somerset, on 10th February 1896.  His father Francis Ebenezer Harding was a clerk to a local firm of solicitors and his mother was Elizabeth Ellen Harding (nee Anstice).  Both parents came from large families - Francis was one of eight children and Elizabeth Anstice one of thirteen.  The Hardings and the Anstices were descended from yeoman farmers and tradesmen who had lived in and around South Petherton for hundreds of years. 

The plaque on the wall of Rock House.  

Rock House in South Petherton, South Somerset, birthplace of Field-Marshal Lord Harding. 

At the age of 10 Harding went to Ilminster Grammar School, leaving at the age of 15 to work as a boy clerk at the Post Office Savings Bank in London.  Many of his colleagues were in the Territorial Army and they encouraged him to join them.  Harding applied for a commission and became a Second-Lieutenant in the 1/11 Battalion of the London Regiment, a battalion of the 2nd (London) Territorial Division, in May 1914.

After the outbreak of World War One Harding’s battalion became part of the 54th (East Anglian) Division.  In July 1915 it embarked for Gallipoli to act as a reinforcing division.  Harding first saw action on 15th August when he was wounded in an attack on Turkish positions.  After the withdrawal from Gallipoli he remained in the Middle East, participating in General Sir Edmund Allenby’s victorious campaign against the Turks in Egypt and Palestine.  He ended the war in command of a battalion.

After the First World War Harding served in Britain and India.  While home on leave from India in 1926 he fulfilled a promise to visit a fellow officer’s mother who lived in the Somerset village of Long Ashton near Bristol.  There he met her daughter Mary, the step-daughter of Charles Harrington Fry of the famous chocolate manufacturing family, and married her the following year when his battalion returned to England.

The autumn of 1940 found Harding in the Middle East where he joined the staff of General Sir Archibald Wavell and was involved in the planning and execution of Operation Compass the offensive which led to General Richard O’Connor’s crushing victory over the Italians in the Western Desert.

At the end of March 1941 Field-Marshal Erwin Rommel launched a counter-attack with his newly arrived German forces which led to the capture of several British commanders including General O’Connor and his successor Lieutenant-General Philip Neame.  Harding took command, stabilized the situation and, with the Australian Major-General L.J. Morshead, organized the defence of Tobruk.

During Operation Crusader, which ended in a victory over Rommel’s forces on Christmas Eve 1941, Harding was Brigadier General Staff, to Lieutenant-General A.R. Godwin-Austin commanding 13 Corps.

On 21st January 1942 Rommel counterattacked and by 6th February the British had lost all the gains made by Crusader.  Godwin-Austin asked to be relieved of command as he had fallen out with his superiors over tactics.  Harding, who admired and supported his commander, left 13 Corps to become Director of Military Training at GHQ Cairo.

Harding took command of the 7th Armoured Division on the 17th September 1942 in time for the Second Battle of El Alamein.  Four months later, while in pursuit of Rommel’s forces on the road to Tripoli, he was badly injured when a shell exploded in front of his command tank as he stood atop it spotting for his artillery.  His wounds were very serious and he was evacuated back to England with his future on active service in doubt. 

While making a remarkable recovery, Harding bought a 130 acre farm with dilapidated farmhouse near Nether Compton in Dorsetshire.  He and his wife and son moved in in time for Christmas 1943.  So complete was his return to fitness that he was offered the post of Chief of Staff to General Sir Harold Alexander commander of the 15th Army Group, sometimes known as Allied Armies in Italy.  On New Year’s Day 1944 he flew from an airfield in North Devonshire to take up his new post in the Mediterranean.  Harding served on Alexander’s staff until March 6th 1945 when he was given command of 13 Corps, and was in that post when the fighting in Italy ended.

During his time in Italy Harding was knighted by King George VI.  He chose to be known as Sir John Harding, John being the name he had used throughout his time in the Army.

After the Second World War Harding’s appointments included, Commander-in-Chief Far East, Command of the British army of the Rhine, Chief of the Imperial General Staff from 1952 to 1955, and Governor of Cyprus 1955 to 1957.  In November 1953 he had been made Field-Marshal. 

On retirement he accepted several directorships including that of Plesseys, the telecommunications equipment manufacturer, of which he became chairman in 1967.  He was also the first chairman of the Horserace Betting Levy Board.

Lord Harding died at his home in Nether Compton on 20th January 1989.    

Sources: 

Harding, John (Allan Francis) first Baron Harding of Petherton. (ODNB) https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/40129

Harding of Petherton, Field-Marshal, Michael Carver (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1978).

Dilemmas of the Desert War, Michael Carver (B.T. Batsford Ltd, 1986).  

Touching Remembrance tribute at Tatworth in South Somerset.

Earlier this month, driving along the A358 in South Somerset, I passed the village of Tatworth where I saw standing beside a hedgerow a touching Remembrance tribute in the form of two figures, a soldier and a nurse, dressed in the style of the First World War.  

Touching Remembrance tribute beside the A358 at Tatworth in South Somerset

A Remembrance tribute seen at the South Somerset village of Tatworth.  

Nearby, also beside the A358, is the imposing Church of St. John the Evangelist.  In its churchyard is a traditional war memorial commemorating Tatworth’s fallen of two world wars.  Twenty-eight names are inscribed for World War One together with the words: “IN MEMORY OF THE FALLEN / 1914-1918 / THEY DIED FOR ENGLAND”.  Five more names are inscribed for World War Two.  

The war memorial in the churchyard of St. John the Evangelist at Tatworth in South Somerset.

The Church of St. John the Evangelist stands beside the A358 at Tatworth in South Somerset.

Stogursey Castle, a picturesque Norman ruin in West Somerset.

I recently accompanied my wife to Stogursey, a village 8 miles from Bridgwater in West Somerset, where she was visiting a very good friend from her days at university.  It was a very bright and clear autumn day so after a pleasant lunch I decided, with camera at hand, to stroll down to the remains of Stogursey Castle.

The village and castle take their name from the manor of Stoke which in 1086 was in the possession of William de Falaise.  Williams’s daughter Emma married William de Courcy, the couple received the manor of Stoke upon their wedding and renamed it Stoke Courcy.  The manor became known as Stogursey which is how the village and castle received their names.

The castle dates from the time of William the Conqueror, but was besieged, overthrown and destroyed between 1455 and 1457 during The Wars of The Roses.   

The ruined walls of Stogursey Castle in West Somerset.

From High Street signposts direct you to the castle along the appropriately named Castle Street and public footpaths.  It is not possible to enter the castle grounds as The Landmark Trust operates the gatehouse cottage as a holiday let.  However, it is practicable to walk around part of the outer bank of the moat.

The gatehouse cottage and moat of Stogursey Castle in West Somerset.

The gatehouse cottage, which dates from the 17th century, at Stogursey Castle in West Somerset.

To learn more about the history of Stogursey Castle and its gatehouse cottage visit The Landmark Trust’s website where you will find a mine of information.

https://www.landmarktrust.org.uk/search-and-book/properties/stogursey-castle-12342

The loss of the minelayer HMS ABDIEL at Taranto. One of her officers is remembered at the Church of St.Michael and All Angels in the village of Rowberrow, Somerset.

South of Churchill on the A38 in Somerset is a narrow lane leading to Rowberrow, one of those Mendip villages once involved in the mining of calamite.  I first explored the lane around ten years ago; this month I decided to have another look.   Just a few hundred yards from the A38, holding fast to the top of a precipitous hill, is the parish church and manor house.  In the churchyard of the Church of St. Michael and All Angels there is a war memorial in the form of a cross with a bronze long sword attached to its west face.  It commemorates the men of the Somerset Light Infantry who died in the First World War and names Captain R.J.R. Leacroft, of Rowberrow Manor, who was killed serving with the regiment on the first day of the Battle of The Somme.

The war memorial in the churchyard at the Church of St. Michael and All Angels, Rowberrow in Somerset.

Another name was added to the memorial after the Second World War, that of Lieutenant Commander (E) Anthony Holland Brown who was killed on the 10 September 1943 while aboard the minelayer HMS ABDIEL.  This year saw the 75th anniversary of that warship’s loss in Taranto Harbour.

ABDIEL, completed in April 1941, was the first of a class of 6 minelayers.  They were of 2,650 tons displacement with a speed of almost 40 knots, a crew of 242, carried 156 mines and an armament of 4inch AA guns in 3 twin mountings.  Due to their very high speed the ships of the class were often used to run supplies to the besieged island of Malta.     

On September 10 1943 ABDIEL was sunk by mines in Taranto Harbour while taking part in Operation Slapstick.  Because of a shortage of aircraft the plan involved Royal Navy ships landing British troops of the First Airborne Division to capture the Italian ports of Taranto and Brindisi.  Only hours after berthing in Taranto ABDIEL detonated two mines laid previously by German torpedo boats as they evacuated the harbour.  The ship, which sank in 3 minutes, was carrying men from the 6th (Royal Welch) Parachute Battalion.   The Battalion suffered 58 men killed and 150 wounded while Lt. Cdr. Brown was among the 48 of ABDIEL’S crew who were lost.    

Operation Slapstick was ultimately successful as the First Airborne Division captured the ports of Taranto and Brindisi in working order.

Lt. Cdr. (E) Anthony Holland Brown was 40 years old and the husband of Jessie Elizabeth Brown B.A. (Cantab.) of Rowberrow, Somerset.  He is remembered on the Plymouth Naval Memorial as well as at the Church of St. Michael and All Angels.

The Church of St. Michael and All Angels, Rowberrow in Somerset.

Remembrance figures in Chard, South Somerset.

“Birthplace of powered flight”, proclaim the signs on the main roads leading into South Somerset’s ancient town of Chard.  Therefore it seems appropriate that to commemorate the end of the First World War the figure of an airman stands at attention beside the A358 on the southern fringe of the town.

Sponsored by Chard Town Council the figure of a First World War airman stands at attention.

Chard in South Somerset remembers those who died serving their country. 

Herne Hill in South Somerset on a foggy autumn morning.

There was thick fog in my part of South Somerset this morning.  At around 11am the fog was lifting under a clear blue sky, and Herne Hill began to appear out of the murk.

Herne Hill in South Somerset appears out of the murk on a foggy autumn morning.