Page 51 - Sylvia Malt - Side by Side v1

It is not difficult for us to appreciate how such a tragic episode could have come about. No doubt any
medical help was only found among the men and probably would not have been sufficient to have saved
his life.

Whatever the reason, some three months after the official ending of the First world War, a letter went
out from the War Office to Henry’s widow, Mary, who must have been desperate for news of when her
husband would be home. The official letter informed her that her husband, had, unfortunately, died
in “Hong Kong.” Was this a deliberate attempt by the Army authorities to cover-up the truth because
the Regiment was officially still in Hong Kong, and that was, of course, their last base, and the Russian
adventure would, no doubt, have been considered a ‘sortie’?

In Memoriam - Henry Wells is buried in the Churkin Naval Cemetery, Vladivostok, which is on the
Churkin Peninsula and was used by British, French, American and Czechoslovak troops.

nd
Thomas WHIFFEN - 2 Battalion, South Lancashire Regiment
1895- 27th October 1914

An early casualty was a young man, just 19-years-of-age, who was very well known in North Cray, and
had for some time played the drums in the Foots Cray Band and had also been a second in the North
Cray Troop of Boy Scouts.

Thomas lived with his parents in Pretoria Cottages, North Cray and in 1911 he was working as a
dairyman in the King’s Foots Cray dairy. He joined the regular Army in 1912 being assigned to the
South Lancashire Regiment. When war was declared the Regiment was one of the first to be
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despatched to France landing at le Havre on 14 August 1914. In the first three months of the war the
South Lancashire regiment saw considerable action taking part in such battles as the Battle of Mons.

As a drummer, Thomas didn’t take direct part in fighting, but was trained in first-aid and used as a
stretcher bearer but when the Battalion was not involved in conflict, he would assume his usual role
with the military band for parades. He found time to write home to his only sister, 13-year-old Emma.
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The letter was dated 25 October:

“I got your cigarettes safely and you can tell how pleased I was. I have enough to last me a long time now.
I am so proud to have such a good sister who thinks of me. Our Battalion has had rather a rough time
lately, and we have had all the letters given out in a bunch. I have had some marvellous escapes. Got
hung up in some wire in a tobacco plantation yesterday with the enemy on top of us. I thought I was done,
but ‘Tommy’ eluded the wily pursuers!

I know that you are anxious to hear some of our fights………… I am sorry to say that I lost my chum at the
Battle of Aisne - he got killed by a piece of shrapnel. This is not war, but scientific murder! ”

Two days later he was killed.

In Memoriam Drummer Thomas Whiffen has no known grave but is remembered on the Le Touret
Memorial in France.