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Pte. Nicholas Cawthorn
British Army 1/5th Battalion Yorkshire Regiment
from:10 River Head, Driffield
(d.11th April 1917)
Nicholas Cawthorn was born at Knottingley, West Yorkshire, on the 7th September 1883, the fourth of seven children of Nicholas and Fanny Cawthorn (nee Dawson). His father was a Keelman, owning the 60 ton Barge Mary, conveying coal and lime between Hull, Wakefield, Leeds, Knottingley and Sheffield. The Cawthorn family lived and worked on the barge although by 1901 they were residing at 11 River Head, Driffield, East Yorkshire. The 1911 census records the family had moved to the neighbouring house at number 10. Nicholas worked with his father as a Keelman until the outbreak of the Great War.
On his 31st birthday, 7th September 1914, he enlisted at Driffield in D Company of the 1/5th Battalion, Yorkshire Regiment, at this time part of the York and Durham Brigade in the Northumbrian Division. His attestation papers record that he gave his age as 29 years (he clearly choose to take two years off his true age) and that he was 5 feet 7 inches tall. His address was 10 River Head, Driffield. He was passed medically fit for service in the Territorial Force and the same day joined at the Regimental Depot at Scarborough. Following the issue of uniform and initial induction he joined his battalion at Newcastle where the whole Northumbrian Division was billeted. They remained at Newcastle until the following April and there followed a period of intense training.
At 11.00am on the 17th April 1915 the Northumbrian Division left Newcastle by train arriving at Folkestone at 10.00pm, where they immediately embarked on H.M. Transport Onward for France. They arrived in Boulogne at 1.50am the following morning, 18th April. That same night the Division left by train, arriving at Cassel at 06.00 on the 19th April. They then marched to billets outside the village of Steenvoorde where they were able to rest for three days. At midnight on the 22nd April the Division proceeded by motor buses to Vlamertinghe and from there marched to Ypres.
Second Battle of Ypres (22 April to 25 May 1915)
The arrival of the Northumbrian Division in Ypres coincided with the start of the Second Battle of Ypres. On the 22nd April the German Fourth Army carried out a surprise attack against two French divisions holding the Allied Front Line on the northern sector of the Ypres Salient. On that day the warm, sunny spring afternoon was suddenly shattered at 5.00pm with a devastating and frightening new development in modern warfare: a cloud of poisonous gas. German gains during the fighting of 22nd and 23rd April were considerable and represented an enormous slice of the northern and north-east sectors of Ypres' outer defences - markedly changing the configuration of the Salient and making it even more constricted and difficult to defend.
The 1/5th battalion was held in Corps Reserve at Ypres during the day of 23rd April and was placed on ten minutes notice to move. The York and Durham Brigade was separated and two battalions (the 1/4th Yorkshire Regiment and the 1/4th East Yorkshire Regiment) proceeded almost immediately to the battlefield.
Battle of St. Julien (24 April to 5 May 1915) The 1/5th Battalion fell in at 1.15am on the 24th with orders to occupy the west bank of the Yser Canal north-east of Ypres. The position allocated to the battalion was the extreme left of the British line, the troops to the left being the 2nd Algerian Zouaves of the French Army. On arrival just before daylight the battalion lined the canal banks under the shelter of a ridge, the men shortly afterwards digging themselves into shelter holes.
At 4.00am on 24th April, a few miles to the east, the Germans launched another attack (forestalling Allied plans of a counter-attack) directed against a newly formed and vulnerable northern projection of the line held by the Canadians to the north of St Julien. Following an intense bombardment and the release of cloud gas on the exposed apex of the readjusted Allied line, Canadian and British forces withstood repeated enemy assaults on their positions. The defenders, with only the most makeshift protection against the gas, were steadily driven back and by the afternoon the Germans were past St Julien.
The pattern of fighting established in the previous two days was now repeated. A whole series of desperate British counter-attacks, notionally in conjunction with delayed and often ineffective French support sought to dislodge the Germans from their newly won ground. The immediate response to the loss of St Julien included the attack of the 1/4th Yorkshire Regiment and 1/4th East Yorkshire Regiment of the York and Durham Brigade (supported by Canadian artillery batteries) which forced the Germans back to the edge of the village and effectively ended any further German progress on 24th April. Secure in the knowledge of their dominance in artillery fire-power (equally effective in supporting them in attack and defence) the Germans were content to halt, dig-in and consolidate their gains and repel the British counter-attacks. The Northumbrian Division had had its baptism of fire, amongst those killed being the Commanding Officer of the 1/4th East Yorkshires.
Meanwhile, the 1/5th Battalion, in their positions on the Yser Canal bank, had their first experience of shell fire in the forenoon of the 24th but sustained no injuries. In the afternoon the battalion was ordered to cross the canal by a pontoon bridge and support the Canadians at Potizje Chateau, where it reported at 3.00pm being subject to rifle and shell fire en-route. From Potizje it was ordered to proceed to Saint Jean to support the 3rd Canadian Infantry Brigade. This village was soon in flames and the battalion skirting its rear, skirmishing across open country under heavy shelling to the 3rd Canadian Infantry Brigade Headquarters situated to the north of Wieltje. The battalion attempted repeatedly to get into touch with the other two battalions of the York and Durham Brigade, but could obtain no reply. It was taken over by a Canadian General and reinforced one of the Canadian trenches with orders to counter-attack should it be necessary. The War Diary records that it rained constantly all night and several men were wounded and one killed by shellfire.
At 3.00am on Sunday 25th April the battalion received orders to proceed to Fortuin. En-route they passed many refugees and disorganized troops in retreat. At 05.00am the battalion arrived at the rendezvous point in company with 1/5th Bn. Durham Light Infantry and met the Yorks and Durham Brigade Commander. B and C Companies occupied a line of reserve trenches to the left of the 1/5th Durhams, but no shelter was available for A and D Companies except the bottom of hedgerows on the roadside.
About 6.00am these latter Companies were ordered to advance in support of 1st Royal Irish Fusiliers during 10th Brigade's counter-attack across open field against St Julien and Kitchener's Wood. 10th Brigade was 'called on to attempt the impossible. Without adequate artillery preparation and support, on ground unknown and unreconnoitred, they were sent to turn an enemy well provided with machine-guns out of a position which had ready-made cover in houses and a wood, and splendid artillery observation from higher ground behind it.' (Military Operations, France and Belgium, 1915 [Volume I], Brigadier-General J E Edmonds and Captain G C Gwynne, London, Macmillan, 1927, p 240).
The Brigade's highly visible advance had calamitous consequences and its destruction moved the British Official Historian to a poignant description of the aftermath of battle: 'A few men tried to crawl back into cover, but the majority of those in the leading lines never returned; mown down like corn, by machine-guns in enfilade, they remained lying dead in rows where they had fallen.'
The War Diary of the 1/5th Battalion recorded that leading parties obtained the objective when the order was given to retire as Royal Irish were falling back. In this movement A and D Companies suffered severely, losing 8 killed and about 40 wounded. The total number of casualties (killed, wounded or missing) sustained during the 10th Brigade counter-attack on the 25th April was 73 officers and 2,346 other ranks.
One of the 1/5th Battalion Yorkshire Regiment casualties of the day was Private Nicholas Cawthorn of D Company. During the attack he received severe shrapnel wounds to the right side of his face (shattering his jaw) and to his shoulder. He was fortunate enough to be evacuated from the battlefield and then became one of the many wounded soldiers of the Battle of Second Ypres who started the journey along the Army Medical Services evacuation route back to hospitals in England.
He was first transported to the 3rd Field Ambulance Hospital at Vlamertinghe where he was admitted the same day he was wounded. His stay here was brief and the following day, 26th April, he arrived by ambulance train in Boulogne, a journey that involving a short stop en-route at No. 4 Stationary Hospital at St Omer. On arrival in Boulogne he was admitted to 11 General Hospital, 98 Boulevard Saint-Beuve. On the 28th April he was transferred to the Hospital Ship Salta, subsequently to the Hospital Ship Valdivia, which brought him to England where he arrived on 29th April.
Following the failed 10th Brigade attack on 25th April two further major counter-attacks took place during the Battle of St Julien on the 26th and 27th April. The costly failures of the ensuing British counter-attacks moved General Smith-Dorrien to recommend a withdrawal to a more tenable line.
Sir John French replaced Smith-Dorrien and appointed General Plumer as overall commander of British troops in the Salient. Plumer saw the logic of a better defensive line though a move back was postponed following Foch's plea to Sir John French on 28 April not to give ground. The failure of a French counter-attack eastward from the Yser canal-line on 1 May finally convinced the British of the necessity of falling back. Amidst continuing German pressure, including another gas attack on 2 May, the remaining battle-weary British forces were withdrawn from forward positions to take up to the east of Ypres by 3/4 May. This line established by Plumer remained, despite further and repeated German attacks in 1915, roughly the same until the great British offensives began in late July 1917.
For Nicholas Cawthorn, his short period of only 12 days service overseas was over and he would never rejoin his colleagues of the 1/5th Battalion again. Back in England he must have spent many months in hospital and suffered greatly.
On the 13th November 1915 he was subject to a medical board as a result of which he was discharged from the Army on 16th December 1915 being found no longer physically fit for war service. His disability was described as followed:
G.S. Wound Temporo Maxillary Ankylosis (R)
In action on 25th April 1915 at St Julien. Struck by piece of shrapnel on right side of face. Almost complete ankylosis of right jaw, unable to masticate and has to live on liquid nourishment. Still a lodgement of shell below left inferior maxilla. A second operation advised but unreasonably refused.
Medical Board 13-11-15:- Result of Active Service. Permanent.
In non-medical terms, he could no longer move his jaw. This would have affected his ability to talk properly and he could not chew solid food. He was granted a pension and returned to his home in Driffield, a facially disfigured and broken man.
Many of the limbless ex-servicemen could disguise their disabilities. For the facially disfigured, which Cawthorn undoubtedly was, the return to civilian life must have been far more conspicuous and unforgiving. Many of the facially disfigured became socially marginalised. While a few wore special custom-made masks to conceal their missing noses, ears, mouths and jaws, others simply withdrew from normal civilian life by abandoning parents, wives and children upon whom they were often dependant for tube or spoon feeding. Many others killed themselves or died in suspicious accidents.
Richard Cawthorn was one who never recovered and he contracted tuberculosis, his body being weakened by his existing medical condition. He died at his home, 10 River Head, Driffield, on 7th April 1917. His death certificate records his cause of death as Tubercular Disease of Lungs following wounds of face and neck on active service. The Driffield Times records that he was buried with full military honours in Driffield Cemetery on Wednesday 11th April 1917.
