Some more recent photos of Hersham war memorial, the first ones I published taken well over decade ago now (but still available to view here). So why this shot to start?
Well, there was a Great War German field gun here, once upon a time, but now only the base on which the gun was displayed remains,…
…a place for flowers now, not firepower,…
…the gun itself removed from its shackles long ago,…
…to be melted down for its metal content during the Second World War.
At which point, I ought to own up.
As you might by now have gathered, these pictures are a bit of a mish-mash from more than one visit, but you know what? I don’t care! And my bet is that you don’t, either.
The Second World War names – the names of the Great War casualties, 117 in total, can be found on a rather magnificent Roll of Honour in St. Peter’s Church – are divided into Royal Navy, Royal Marines, Army, R.A.F., Merchant Navy and, all the names in the final column, civilians.
At the going down of the sun……
Beautiful!
Succinct, I know, but there it is 😉
The height of succinctness, I’d say. And you’re right, too.
There was a German gun here in Brora also. Apparently at some pont in 1920s a group of old comrades threw it into the river where it might still lie. Bit of local romanticism.
Well there’s a project for a winter’s afternoon then! Lol!
I have the hard copy report from local paper somewhere and a couple of references from interviews with folk no longer with us x
Which might see the light of day sometime…….???
Which might indeed but at moment Christmas letters need uo be written and that takes time . Our memorial unveiled Christmas Day 1922. Been very busy working on panels- text and photos to be put on display for public. Once they are in place for public i can send the content and pictures for your files? Will see if I can locate gun story
That sounds a good project – probably a better one than underwater-gun-searching. Yes, please send me all when they are in place. Sounds like we could do a post here perhaps?
I have it on file and will forward once local folk have seen it. You will be able to share I am sure all done under auspices of Friends of Clyne War Memorial association
Excellent – I’ll even, for once, hand ultimate editorial decisions to your good self. In that you can okay it before publication.
Hello,
I’m giving a talk in Hersham in June on Churchill’s Intervention in the Russian Civil War. I’m told there is a soldier either on the War Memorial or in the Church listed as died in Russia in 1919. Might someone be able to provide his name?
I can then do some research on our man.
Thank you.
Andy Stuart
Hello Andy. Actually, I used to live around there (lucky you) and I can answer your question. The following, assuming this is the right bloke, will start you off: His name was Able Seaman John William Buss and he died on 3rd July 1919. Rough bio: H.M.S. “Fandango.” Service Number: J/2144. Born 5th May 1892 in Leinster Stables, Leinster Terrace, Paddington, London. The son of Frederick Arthur (Coachman) and Jane (Jupp) Buss. He was baptised on 3rd July 1892 in Christ Church, Lancaster Gate, Westminster. He grew up in Weybridge, Surrey, where his mother died in 1897. He joined the Royal Navy on 13th August 1908 and by 1911 was an R.N. Able Seaman. John married Alice (Mott) in St Peter’s Hersham, Surrey, on 12th June 1915 when he was serving on H.M.S. Actaeon ll, a torpedo training ship in Sheerness, Kent and lived at 8 Green Lane, Hersham. Beginning with H.M.S. Ganges in 1908, apparently he served in twenty one ships during his naval career, finally being assigned to the North Russia Expeditionary Force in H.M.S. Fox which supplied men to the Minesweeper H.M.S. Fandango. Seconded from HMS Fox to H.M.S. Fandango which then struck a mine in the River Dvina, Northern Russia. Apparently at least five of the crew were lost, including John Buss.
There you go. That’s a start for you.
That’s just brilliant – thank you so much! The amazing thing about WW1 research is that someone will know something. My grandad told stories about going to Russia after the war and these inspired my writing during lockdowns. ‘Churchill’s Intervention: A Tale of Escape from The Russian Civil War’ tells the story of men sent down the Dvina River, captured by Bolsheviks after a mutiny of Dyer’s Battalion and their journey back to Britain. Because no one knows this stuff, I now give talks and like to have a local angle if I can. So the information on A.S. Buss will provide real interest. The Fandango went down on the 3rd July a few days before the mutiny. The river in the middle of summer dries into narrow channels and sandbanks so easy to mine, as the Bolsheviks did. The force were heading up-stream from Archangel to try to get to Kotlas and link up with White Russians under Kolchak from Siberia. None of which happened. https://www.andystuart.net/
Really grateful for the help ‘Magicfingers’!
Andy Stuart
You are most welcome Andy. Interesting about your grandad. My family all survived two World Wars – an uncle got an M.C. on 1st July 1916 at Beaumont Hamel with the Middlesex, and my Dad (Royal Signals) was with the Americans in the Bulge in late 1944. Buss’s name is on the Roll of Honour in St. Peter’s Hersham: https://thebignote.com/2015/07/31/hersham-st-peters-church/
Where and when is your talk, Andy? Ticketed, or not?
I’m talking on the Thursday 19th June to the St. Peter’s Fellowship group. Details here:
They meet at the Women’s Institute Hall (WI) at 4 Burhill Road, Hersham KT12 4JH at 2pm.
Its not ticketed and I’m sure you’d be made welcome – these groups are usually very open. I’d be happy to mention to them my ‘guest’ living locally with an interest in attending. Let me know if you can make it.
Andy
That was my Great Uncle John William Buss, he died clearing sea mines bless him, he lived on Green lane with his newly wed wife Alice, she gave his war penny to my grandmother and she passed it on to me x
Wow! That’s most interesting Stephen. I too have a number of pennies. We must look after these things! Thanks very much for commenting.
The Buss Family Roll of Honour
When we gather the threads of the Buss name, we see not only a lineage of labour, love, and survival, but also a tapestry torn by war. Each man lost was more than a soldier or sailor: he was a son, a husband, a brother, a neighbour. Each loss meant children never born, laughter that went quiet, and futures that England itself never received.
The Great War and Russia’s frozen rivers
Able Seaman John William Buss, Royal Navy, was only twenty-seven when he died. He had grown up after the death of his mother, married Alice Mott at St Peter’s in Hersham, and moved into a modest home on Green Lane. Just a month into married life, he was seconded to HMS Fandango in the intervention against Bolshevik forces. On 3 July 1919, his ship struck a mine on the River Dvina. His body was never recovered, his grave the cold waters of the north. He lives now on the Chatham Naval Memorial, and on the Roll of Honour in Hersham church. His widow, unable to keep the memorial plaque, gave it back to the family. That bronze penny passed through the hands of grandmother Ivy, and resting today — a heavy coin of memory.
Lance Bombardier Benjamin William Buss of the Royal Garrison Artillery endured the war almost to its end. Serving with the 197th Siege Battery, he died in Italy on 2 November 1918, just days before the Armistice. He rests far from home in Genoa’s Staglieno Cemetery. His name can still be read in Abinger and Forest Green, where he had lived and worked.
Private Frederick William Buss of the Queen’s (Royal West Surrey Regiment) fell in June 1917. His body never came back across the Channel; his name is cut deep into the Menin Gate at Ypres. He was a Surrey man, another root of the family line cut away in Flanders.
Private John George Buss died in November 1916 on the Somme. He, too, has no grave but Thiepval’s arches remember him.
Private Jesse Buss, only eighteen, served with the Royal Sussex Regiment. He died in March 1916 and lies in Quarry Cemetery at Vermelles.
Lance Corporal W.D. Buss of the Royal West Kent Regiment died in October 1918, when the war was in its final weeks. The full details of his death in battle are not available yet, but his name adds to the toll.
And then there is Frank Aubrey Buss, your grandfather. Though not listed by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, the war claimed him all the same. He survived the front but was broken by shell shock, the wounds of the mind as deep as any bullet. He rests at Addlestone Burial Ground with Ivy May, his wife, both in an unmarked grave. Their silence is part of this family’s war story, as real as any memorial stone.
The Second World War
The next generation carried the same burden.
Trooper George William Buss, Royal Scots Greys, was forty-one when he died in July 1940. He is buried at Brookwood Military Cemetery in Surrey, his life ended at a moment when Britain stood alone.
Private Sidney George Buss, Royal Sussex Regiment, was only twenty-one. He died in May 1940 during the desperate retreat of the British Expeditionary Force in France. His grave lies in Lille Southern Cemetery.
Driver Hubert Ernest Buss of the Royal Army Service Corps died in September 1944, aged twenty-eight. His work would have been the lifeblood of the armies pressing into occupied Europe.
Leading Stoker Frank M. Buss served in the Royal Navy. In September 1942 he succumbed to wounds; his name is recorded in naval rolls and his place of rest is carried in the Commonwealth records.
The Home Front
Not all losses came with uniforms.
Frederick George Buss, a Firewatcher, was killed in Bristol during an air raid in March 1941. At fifty-seven, he was still serving his community when death came from the skies.
Peter R. Buss, only ten years old, died in Bromley in April 1941. A child’s life snuffed out in a war he never chose. His name is preserved in the Civilian War Dead Roll.
A family’s sacrifice
Each of these names marks a loss not just to the Buss family, but to the country itself. When we speak them aloud — John William, Benjamin William, Frederick William, John George, Jesse, W.D., Frank Aubrey, George William, Sidney George, Hubert Ernest, Frank M., Frederick George, Peter — we count the missing sons, brothers, uncles, grandfathers.
And we count the children who might have been, the lines that ended before they began. The toll is not measured only in the men lost, but in the silence that followed them.
I read all that and it’s a bit staggering, really. Both my grandfathers fought in the Great War (infantry & Merchant Navy), and a Great Uncle won a M.C. which I now have, and was later captured, and my father fought in WWII, and all survived. Sadly, not so much luck in your family. Thanks for sharing all that Stephen.
Good morning wonderful information on the sailor died in Russia. Brightened a chilly start to the day.
Glad to hear it! Chilly here today too.
Andy, most kind – I moved away about twelve years ago but the missus has friends there still. I have put it in the diary, although I am supposed to be in Cornwall sometime in June. I shall confirm nearer the time if I may.
Cornwall sounds like a better option!
You’re very welcome.
Best,
Andy
Lol! Cheers Andy!
I was trying to get information about HMS Fandango. My Grandfather Charles Clout was on that ship and survived. I have a photo of him and crew. He never spoke about the wars to me, just bits and pieces . He was born in 1898. I know he spent time in China well. I believe he did 32 years service and two of the ships he was on were sunk. I dont have much info and would like to know some more. I have a batch of Russian stamps he gave me from that period of time. Who picked up the survivors of the HMS Fandango and did they so ashore. I cannot account for the stamps?
Brenda, should Andy return to this page he may be able to help. Maybe keep checking back just in case?
Would love to see or get a copy of that as my great uncle should be there somewhere
Hello Brenda and Mike,
Further to Charles Clout, John William Buss and HMM (His Majesty’s Minesweeper) Fandango. Sadly, most books that refer to the River Dvina ‘Front’ in North Russia only have a passing reference to the sinking of Fandango. A contemporary account that will give you a feel for what was happening there is “Bolos and Barishynas” by G.R. Singleton-Gates which you can access here: https://ia601301.us.archive.org/7/items/bolosbarishynasb00singrich/bolosbarishynasb00singrich.pdf
p59 has a reference to HMM Fandango and the important work she was doing on the river.
The account is interesting in that it details some of the actions from the perspective of a serving officer. There is a Roll of Honour at the end, mainly the Fusiliers (the author’s unit) but also including Royal Navy men and John Buss on p174.
The imagined story of my grandfather’s time in N. Russia is here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Churchills-Intervention-Escape-Russian-Civil/dp/B0DDXQL55L#averageCustomerReviewsAnchor
All the best,
Andy Stuart