The photograph above (click on it to enlarge) shows men from C Squadron, Leicestershire Yeomanry, photographed in the Bull's Head Stable Yard, Loughborough on 6th August 1914. Private Thirlby Hack, second from left on the third row from the front, looks at the camera. Sergeant Major Diggle, with five TF efficiency stars on his right arm, stands at the end of the second row. His son, 1760 Lance-Corporal Bertie Diggle (who must have joined up at about the same time as Thirlby) was killed in action on 13th May 1915 and is commemorated on panel 5 of the Menin Gate.
Thirlby Hack - synopsisBetween 1982 and 1985, and by now already a veteran of old soldier interviews, I was studying at Loughborough University. Whilst there, I picked up from where I'd left off in Essex and started trying to track down WW1 veterans in Loughborough. A local newspaper published an appeal for me in June 1985 and a few days later I received the following letter from a man in nearby Sutton Bonington.
I see by the notice in the Lobro Trader that you wish to contact old soldiers of the 1914-1918 war.
I am 93 and served with the Leicestershire Yeomanry in France and Belgium from Nov 14 to Feb 19 except for a short period when I had to come home wounded.
I used to live in Loughborough and if you come and see me, if I have any information you are welcome to it.H T HackA few days later I visited Mr Hack at his home, took my tape recorder out and listened to his story. Thirlby (as he was known), had joined the Leicestershire Yeomanry in 1910 and by 2nd November 1914 he was in France. So, like
Stan Brown,
Leslie Hase and
Alf Worrell he was an early arrival on the Western Front.
He served throughout the war, picking up promotions (he finished the war as a sergeant), a bullet in his thigh and a Military Medal along the way. He died in June 1986 at the age of 94.
The interviewTH:
We were mobilised on August 5th 1914 and after about a fortnight in Loughborough we marched to Grantham and got on a train and went down to Bishops Stortford [Hertfordshire], I’ve forgotten the exact place now. We trained and moved to different places in the eastern counties before finally finishing up at Diss [Norfolk].
C Squadron [Loughborough Squadron] was at the village of Palgrave [Suffolk] and we were there, billeted in in farm buildings till November 1st 1914. We were put on a train, horses, men and the lot, and went down to Southampton and got ona steamer, on a boat, to Le Havre and landed on November 2nd. From Le Havre we marched up to Ypres; took us about two days I think to get there.
We took part in the First Battle of Ypres and were in reserve to some other units; I forget which ones now. We took over some trenches for a while.
We were in the 3rd Cavalry Division and I can tell you, the conditions at Ypres were very, very bad. The weather was bad with mud everywhere. The trenches were poor and very very muddy and the tracks up to the trenches were bad. But we didn’t stay long because the battle was coming to an end then. And we marched back to Ypres and we were billeted one night just outside the moat. We were shelled badly that night and we lost a lot of horses; the horses were tethered by the side of the moat.
From there we marched back again to billets round about Hazebrouck. We were billeted in different farm houses and farm buildings.
PN:
Did you go out to France with a lot of friends from Loughborough?
TH:
I lived at Quorn in those days and there were about eight of us who joined up at the same time. I think I’m the only survivor now certainly.
PN:
I’ve got written down from a newspaper cutting that at Ypres you had two men killed and seven wounded.
TH:
That was the early part of the war. We had a number of casualties afterwards, a bad lot of casualties. We took part in the Second Battle of Ypres too and suffered quite a few casualties, particularly on May 13th 1915. But before then we’d been into the trenches several times. We used to go up in buses. We’d take over the trenches for a while, dismounted of course, and then go back to billets where the horses were. We were kept as a sort of mobile reserve really.
I joined the yeomanry in February 1910 when I was eighteen and we joined up for Home Service only. When war came we had to volunteer to go before we could be taken abroad and I think about ninety eight per cent did volunteer.
PN:
Can you tell me about Frezenberg in May 1915?
TH:
We’d been in reserve before Ypres for about two or three days and then we were called into the line. We marched through Ypres and we took over the trenches on the night of the 12th/13th of May. We relieved some infantry and it was fairly quiet then. The trenches were in poor condition and they weren’t very deep. When I stood up my head and shoulders was above the top of the trench because the trenches hadn’t been dug very long. It was the second battle of Ypres and before that, the French and the Canadians had been gassed and they’d had to retire and the battle had ebbed backwards.
We took over the trenches and about four o’clock in the morning the first two shells came over. One dropped in front and one dropped at the back and that was followed by a terrific bombardment all the way along the front. A lot of damage was done to the trenches and we had a lot of casualties.
PN:
What was it like being under shell fire?
TH:
Very noisy and rather alarming. We had to try and crouch down under the front of the trench and try and keep our rifles clean because we were showered in dirt and filth. The next bay to me had the front blown in and I ran round to pull one or two of them out. One was shot through the wrist and one or two of the others was wounded but they managed to get away over the back of the trench. Where I was it didn’t hurt us. You know how trenches are made don’t you – zig-zag.
PN:
And did the Germans launch an attack after that?
TH:
Yes, over to the left. They came over in mass formation. The Lifeguards were on our left, then there was us and then the Dragoons. We were in the 7th Cavalry Brigade which was formed by the 1st and 2nd Lifeguards and the Leicester Yeomanry and the Brigade was part of the 3rd Cavalry Division.
PN:
[Reading] Do you remember any of these names: Frank White and Henry Hickling?
[1]TH:
Oh yes, I went to school with most of them.
PN:
So after this incident you went back to billets did you?
TH:
No I was wounded, I came back to England.
PN:
Where were you wounded?
TH:
Shot in the left thigh. I was corporal then and the sergeant was laying a little way in front of me. He was shot through the knee and the wrist and he couldn’t move and I crawled up to him and he says, “Go on, don’t bother about me, you look after yourself.” But I said, “I’m not going without you,” and I lay down beside him. I says, “Get on my back, I’ll see if we can’t get you back somehow or the other.” He did, he got on my back and I managed to crawl for some little while until I could move a bit better. Then I stood up and I carried him nearly all the way. Then we came across an infantry patrol and the officer in charge told off two men to take him from me. We were near to a dressing station then and we both went to it. From there we gradually got back down the line, got an ambulance through Ypres and eventually came back home to England.
[Above, 1756 Corporal Thirlby Hack, Leicestershire Yeomanry, sits in his bath chair somewhere in England]
PN:
How long were you in England for?
TH:
I was wounded on the 13th so I was probably back in England for the 17th. I went to Colchester Military Hospital first and I was there a while. Then I was sent to Cromer, a Voluntary Aid Hospital. I stayed there until I was convalescent and came back to Leicester at the end of September I think it was and joined the depot in Leicester and after about three weeks I got fed up with it and told them to put me on the next draft. They kept sending a few out to the regiment and I got back to the regiment in October of that year and joined up again.
PN:
You were in reserve for the battle of Loos then?
TH:
Yes, and then we moved south, marching about. We were a mobile reserve you see. We marched up to the battle of Arras and that was an awful day. It snowed and rained and it was terrible conditions. We thought we were going to get through you see. They’d made a gap but they hadn’t got sufficient forward to let the cavalry get through. The Essex Yeomanry made an attempt on the village of Monchy. They got into the village but then they had to dismount and take over the front dismounted. Well we could see they were going into the village and thought we should have to follow on but ultimately we didn’t, we had to come back again. The weather was too bad and the cavalry could hardly get about: mud and filth.
PN:
Were you in the trenches over Christmas 1914?
TH:
No, we were back in billets Christmas ’14. I think I spent two Christmases in the line. I’m not sure if it was ‘16/’17 or ‘17/’18.
Once we were holding a line of outposts in front of the Hindenburg Line. That was before the Germans broke through in March 1918, the last big offensive and we’d been dismounted then. They were going to turn us into a machine gun brigade. But hen the cavalry had been in action, I think it was the 1st Division, when the Germans broke through in March 1918. They’d had a lot of casualties and they wanted reinforcements. We were trained cavalrymen so we went to reinforce them and we went to the 4th Hussars. We finished the war in the 4th Hussars, B Squadron 4th Hussars. I stayed with them until February ’19.
In January 1916 the Yeomanry were in The Hohenzollern Redoubt but I was on a month’s leave then. I’d finished my time then of four years and one in reserve and they gave those that had done that a month’s leave because we had to volunteer again.
PN:
When you came back after your leave where were you then?
TH:
I must have been in the Somme region although I don’t remember it. The cavalry was all mobilised for the battle of the Somme because they were hoping to make a gap for the cavalry but hey never did anything. We had three night marches. All we did was send dismounted parties up to do fatigue work behind the lines, just behind the front. We were filling in shell holes so the artillery could get up and all sorts of business.
I remember once we went up, the night the tanks went over at the battle of Fleurs. We wondered what these things were under a big tarpaulin and then the next morning we saw them moving. But we didn’t go into action at all, we were doing fatigue work.
I remember helping to carry a wounded man back to the dressing station and they shelled us all the way down pretty well. There were two men to a stretcher and when we got there we handed him over to the first aid men. He was badly injured about the knee. His bandage was pinned to his flesh. His stretcher bearers I expect were in a hurry to get him bandaged up and they stuck the pin through his leg.
PN:
When were you awarded the Military Medal?
TH:
May 13th 1915. We had a brigade parade and the General was giving out the awards to all the men; different men in each regiment in the brigade. We had the medal ribbon and had the medal after the war finished. They sent word to me telling me they were sending the Military Medal and did I want it given publicly or whether to send it by post. I said, “Oh, send it through the post.”
PN:
Now in 1917 you were at Arras weren’t you?
TH:
Yes, in reserve as usual, hoping that they’d be able to use the cavalry to get through. We were in shell holes and the horses were tethered round us. As I say, we saw The Essex Yeomanry going into the village and they weren’t able to get any further and that night we came back onto Arras race course, mounted of course, through the mud and snow. It snowed too, quite a lot and we lost quite a few horses from exposure. A friend of mine had to stop behind and help bury these dead horses. Then we marched away again.
PN:
It says horse casualties were very heavy and you had to remain there until the re-mounts arrived.
TH:
Yes, we were always getting re-mounts. We were often getting horse casualties. It kept us up to strength and we used to get the occasional drafts of men who came up with the horses to make up for casualties.
PN:
It says that in October you moved from that area in support of the Portuguese Division.
TH:
Yes, the Forest of Nieppe that was. The Portuguese had lost their position and had had to retire so they sent us up again in reserve. We didn’t have to go into action.
PN:
As you said earlier, they were considering turning you into a machine gun battalion and you went to the 4th Hussars.
TH:
Yes, B Squadron, 4th Hussars.
PN:
Were you disappointed when the regiment broke up like that?
TH:
Disappointed when they took the horses away and very pleased when we got back to the 4th Hussars. We were still Leicester Yeomanry attached to the 4th Hussars. We never gave up our proper names but we stayed with them until the end of the war.
PN:
Why did you join the Yeomanry in the first place?
TH:
Because I always liked horses. I could ride a horse, my father was a market gardener and he kept a horse. When I joined up we were supposed to do 20 hard drills in the year and a fortnight’s camp, mounted under canvas. The drills we did partly at Mountsorrel and partly at Loughborough; evening drills of course, learning the ordinary things. Then about May time – we always went away at Whitsuntide for the camp – we had to hire horses and we were allowed five pounds to get a horse for the fortnight. There were plenty of horses in those days; hunting stables galore in Quorn, and everyone had got horses because motor cars had hardly come. I remember the first horse I got which was from a hunting stable in Quorn. The camp was in Garendon Park and I was riding over the central railway bride on the Loughborough Road and a train went under just at the same time as we were riding over. My horse threw me into the middle of the road. It jumped right under me; the steam and smoke frightened it. I wasn’t hurt at all but I got on again.
PN:
What were your rations like? Did you always have those on time?
TH:
Sometimes the rations were a bit behind hand, especially in the line, but somehow we always managed to get fed. We used to have bully beef and biscuits when we were short of other stuff. Every man was issued with an iron ration and it was in a canvas bag, nothing like they had in the last war. It had got a small tin of tea and sugar, two biscuits – big dog biscuits – and a tin of bully beef. That was your iron ration and you had strict orders not to eat it until you were ordered to.
PN:
You had Tickler’s jam as well didn’t you?
TH:
Oh yes but that weren’t in the iron rations. Have you met any Yeomen besides me?
PN:
No, you’re the first. [Actually I'd met an Essex Yeomanry man in 1981 but Thirlby Hack was the first and only Leicestershire Yeomanry man I met.]
TH:
I only know one in Loughborough and I only know two in the regiment that are left besides me. We have an Old Comrades’ Association. We formed one directly after the war finished and we’ve carried on ever since. And of course as the men have joined [the regiment] they’ve joined the Old Comrades’ Association as the years have gone by. Now they’re infantry you know. What are they called – The Leicestershire Yeomanry Company? Is it the 1st Battalion, The Anglian Regiment?
PN:
Tell me, how do you come to be in the trenches if you are Yeomen with horses?
TH:
We had to leave the horses behind, we had to go dismounted. There was so many taken from each brigade. On 13th May we went in two hundred and some odd strong. Then there was the 1st and 2nd Lifeguards on our left and they’d be about the same strength. On our right was the Dragoons, also the cavalry and they’d be about the same strength.
PN:
Did you go into battle ever on the horses?
TH:
Never. Oh, the latter part of the war when the Germans were retiring we did some patrolling in front of the infantry. I had a pal, his horse was shot under him. It fell down and broke his leg and the Germans grabbed him and he was prisoner for some weeks before he was released at the end of the war. That was getting towards the end of 1918. It finished on the 11th. We used to patrol in front of the infantry and then at night we’d come back and the infantry would take over the front. The next morning we’d go out again, trying to find where the enemy had got to.
PN:
What was Loughborough like when you left for France? Was everybody patriotic and waving flags?
TH:
No, no, no. We went off quietly, no bother. We just paraded in Loughborough market and marched away. There may have been a few people around but I don’t remember any particular goings on.
I only had four leaves altogether except when I came home wounded. The first one was seventy two hours. That was in 1915. I think I crossed the Channel ten times. I lived at Quorn then.
PN:
Did you ever play Crown and Anchor?
TH:
No, I never did because I didn’t gamble, but lots of my pals did. It was a ridiculous game. There were just one or two Jew boys that ran it. They were the only people who got any benefit I’m sure. They weren’t having me on that game.
PN:
How did you spend your money?
TH:
We hadn’t got much money to spend, we only got a shilling a day. I’ve got my pay book somewhere. When you were in billets you’d perhaps go back into the village. The French beer wasn’t that much cop and I was never a beer drinker. You got eggs and got them to fry them for you but we never had much money to spend and not many places to spend it.
[1] From Soldiers Died: Private 2081 Frank Cuthbert White, B Squadron [Leicester], son of George and Mary Ann White of Rose Cottage, Quorn, Loughborough and Private 2589 Matthew Henry Hickling, C Squadron son of the late Matthew and Mary Blanche Hickling of Syston, Leicester. Both killed on 13th May 1915 and both commemorated on panel 5 of the Menin Gate.
