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War
Memorials Elsewhere, - Mount St. Mary's College, Derbyshire |
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The War Memorial in the Ante-Chapel of St. Mary's Mount College, Derbyshire
(left hand section).
(Photo : Richard Clarke)
Mount St Mary's College was first founded by Jesuit fathers at Stanley Grange near Derby in 1620. At this time the Penal laws were fully implemented against Catholics and the fathers of the English Province of the Society of Jesus. It is one of the oldest foundations in the Midlands.
The school Chapel, designed by Adrian Gilbert Scott, was dedicated as a war memorial in 1924. The Ante Chapel enshrines the names of 100 Old Mountaineers (Old Boys) who died in the Great War 1914 - 18. Two of the names on this memorial are those of Officers who served with the Yorkshire Regiment.
2nd Lieutenant Herman Bysshe Bagshaw Bicknell. 1st Battalion the
Yorkshire Regiment, attached 1st Battalion East Yorks Regt. Son of Harriet
Frances Bicknell of Holme Park, Ashburton, S Devon and the late Captain Herman
Kentigern Bicknell who also fell. Killed 28 May 1918. Aged 19.
Commemorated on the SOISSONS MEMORIAL.
(Herman Bysshe Bagshaw Bicknell was known as "Basil Bicknell",
the name that appears on both the Mount St. Mary's College memorial, and the
Beaumont College War Memorial.)
Robert Coulson provides the following information on 2nd Lieutenant Bicknell
in his Biographies
of Officers of the Yorkshire Regiment;-
"Herman Bicknell was born on January 16th 1899 at Northam in Devon.
He was commissioned into the Yorkshire Regiment in September of 1917 and sailed
to France in April of 1918 attached to the 1st Battalion of the East Yorkshire
Regiment.
2nd Lt Herman Bysshe Bagshawe Bicknell was killed in action on May 28th 1918
at the age of 19 in fighting near Trigny.
The East Yorks were in danger of being encircled with machine gun and shrapnel
shells coming in from the front and the flanks. The action began at 7.00 a.m.
and by 4.00 p.m. the battalion had to withdraw so weak were their ranks.
2nd Lt Bicknell’s body was not recovered and he is remembered today
on the Soissons Memorial, which commemorates the missing of the Marne and
Aisne battles of 1918.
Herman Bicknell was a nephew of Captain
E G C Bagshawe, and the son of Harriet Frances Bicknell of Holme Park,
Ashburton, South Devon, and the late Captain Herman Kentigern Bicknell of
the Oxford and Bucks LI who had been killed a year earlier in Mesopotamia.
Lieutenant Maurice Gabriel Hume-Wright. 8th Battalion Yorkshire
Regiment. Son of Maj. Gerald Hume-Wright and Elizabeth Winefred Hume-Wright,
of "Elleray," Ash Vale, Aldershot. Native of Ireland. Killed 10
July 1916. Aged 21.
Buried BECOURT
MILITARY CEMETERY.
Robert Coulson provides the following information on Lieutenant Hume-Wright
in his Biographies
of Officers of the Yorkshire Regiment;
Originally from Ireland, Maurice Hume-Wright was serving with the 8th Battalion
when in June 1916 they moved into billets at Bertangles to prepare for the
Somme offensive.
The battalion joined the battle on July 5th with the attack on Horseshoe Trench
and on July 8th were in trenches in front of Becourt Wood. Lt Hume-Wright
and his men were then ordered up for an attack on the village of Contalmaison.
At 4.50 p.m. on July 10th they attacked from Horseshoe Trench in a westerly
direction towards the village running into heavy machine gun and rifle fire
while still five hundred yards short of the objective.
Lt Maurice Gabriel Hume-Wright was killed in this action on July 10th 1916
aged 21.
His grave today lies in Becourt Military Cemetery at Becordel-Becourt not
too far from where he fell.
He was the son of Major Gerald Hume-Wright and Elizabeth Winifred Hume-Wright
of “Elleray” Ash Vale in Aldershot.
The War Memorial in the Ante-Chapel of St. Mary's Mount College, Derbyshire
(right hand section).
(Photo : Richard Clarke)
Maurice Hume-Wright's Name on the Mount St. Mary's College War Memorial
(Photo : Richard Clarke)
Basil Bicknell's Name on the Mount St. Mary's College War Memorial
(Photo : Richard Clarke)
The website for Mount St. Mary's College (Our History), - select the above
image to be taken to the website.
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