Peace!

 

When at last peace came, Englefield celebrated quietly as was its way. A peal was rung from the church belfry and the Scouts paraded through the village with flags flying and the band playing. A special church service was held on 17 November.

 

So by ones and twos through 1919 the lucky ones came home and quietly took up their pre-War occupations with the lack of fuss and ceremony associated with their kind. Some, like George Duckett and William Yarlett, returned to lives elsewhere; some came back to the village, stayed a while and then moved on; many came back and remained, duty done, to raise another generation in Englefield and to touch the lives of some who are living now.

 

Arthur Claydon married Marian Mabel Reid, daughter of the coachman at Englefield House, five years to the day after war was declared and they lived at number 8 The Street in 1939, moving to number 4 later. He worked in the office at the Timber Yard, sang in the church choir and was the organist from 1938 to 1968. He died in 1971. Mabel Claydon had become a monitor after leaving school and an assistant mistress with the infant class in 1918. She taught many generations of village children until she retired in 1957.

 

William Milne and his wife Clara lived at Rectory Cottage after the War. He died in 1938 and is buried in St Mark’s churchyard. Ted Van Veen, a groom before the war, had served as Henry Benyon's batman. He had married May Winchcomb in 1911 and they lived initially with her widowed mother at one of the estate houses in Theale. After the war he became and garden labourer and lived with his wife and son Theodore at 15 the Street. He died in 1959 and she in 1964. Ted Cotterell lived at Bradfield Lodges. Vic Briant, just old enough to be conscripted in 1918, lived with his parents at number 24 the Street in 1939, as he had in 1911, though now married and about to depart to serve in another war.

 

George and Mary Nash, after the death of their two sons, lived at 57 Parker’s Corner. Edward Buckland came back to Daintylands and became Head Keeper in succession to his father who had died in January 1918, and Frank Smyth moved into Rectory Cottage in 1939 as the gardener when Clara Milne moved out after her husband died. Frank Webb lived at 9 the Street, Tom Harris at 12 and William Lamperd at 52 Parker’s Corner.

 

Arthur Dance returned from captivity and remained at Chalkpit Farm until his death.

 

George Parsons, cousin of Herbert Parsons, had married Ethel Horne, daughter of William and Fanny Horne from number 10 the Street, in 1910. George died in 1933 and Ethel lived as a widow with her children at 19 Street. She died in 1982. Ethel’s sister Emily had married William Percy Smith from Remenham in 1907 and returned with her young family to live at number 10 with her widowed mother when her husband joined up. After the War William and Emily lived for a time in North Street but he died in 1925 and Emily returned again to number 10 where she remained until her death in 1981.

 

Frederick Charles Fisher, initially living at 16 the Street, was a wheelwright on the Estate and had moved to number 20 by the start of the next war. He was the father of Frederick Graham Fisher, born in 1924, who won a scholarship for a free place at Newbury Grammar School in 1935. Graham Fisher joined the RAF in 1942 and is the only man from the village named on the war memorial as killed in World War Two.

 

Thankfully, Henry Benyon came through the War unscathed as was able to take on the responsibility for the stewardship of the estate in his turn. Thus Englefield was spared the fate that befell so many great estates when the death of the heir led to punitive death taxes and the breaking up the estate, with great houses being sold off or falling to ruin.

 

The VAD units were formally demobilised on 11 December 1918 by Vice Admiral Fleet CBE the County Director and in a speech fully reported in local papers congratulated all those who had served during the last seven years.

 

The relief and joy at the ending of the War was inevitably tinged with sadness for the losses, which continued right up to the end. The only grandson of James Herbert and Dame Edith Benyon, Lieutenant Henry Wallace Trelawney, was killed on 23 October and five days later Albert Freemantle succumbed to wounds received earlier. The news came too in the final month of the War that Sidney Willcox, posted missing perhaps a prisoner, had after all been killed on 25 May and then in the very last days Tom Nash and George Slyfield died in France as a result of the Flu outbreak. At home too there were losses. Charlotte Martin, adoptive mother of Albert Freemantle, had died on 7 September 1918 after twelve years of infirmity - a demise perhaps hastened by the worry over his fate.

 

Nor did the losses end with the war. In the years before the next time a number of those who had been involved died early deaths, perhaps in some way linked to their war service. Charles Cooley (Special Constable and member of the Volunteers) died at the early age of 37 in June 1919 and a most significant loss was that in March 1919 of Dame Edith Benyon, so recently made GBE, the Commandant of the War Hospital. Edwin Parsons died in 1925 and his cousin George in 1934. William Percy Smith, brother in law of George Parsons, also died in 1925 and William Milne in 1938.

 

We recall that the agreement of 11 November 1918 was but an armistice and the relief felt when the formal peace treaty was eventually signed in June 1919 was just as great as that felt on Armistice Day although celebrations were more restrained. Nevertheless, the church bells were again pealed and the Scouts paraded. Saturday 19 July was kept as a general holiday throughout the country though Englefield celebrated on Thursday 24 July. At 3 pm the children, preceded by the Scouts’ band marched from the school to the Park where there were races and other sports until 6 pm, with an interval for the children’s tea. At 6.30 a troop of Pierrots from London amused a large audience for an hour after which Mrs Harry Benyon distributed prizes and medals. Dancing then took place on the grass to the band that had played throughout the afternoon.

 

The first cricket match after the War was held at Englefield on Whit Monday 1919 when the result (Englefield 81 and 62; Theale 62 and 66 for 5) surprised many as Theale had scoured the area to put together a seemingly invincible team. Among those on the Englefield team were Arthur Dance and Edward Buckland.

 

And so life in Englefield resumed its normal pattern - until the next time.

The Great War