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Joseph Axford was born on December 26th 1898, to the best of my belief. I say this as his mother did not have his birth registered, at least there is no entry in the index of births at St. Catherine’s House, unless that is, he was born in West Ham and had the middle name of Henry, which is unlikely. The reason I choose December 26th is that his mother was known to become emotional on this date in the early years after the War. And 1898 for he was said to have been two years older than his brother James, who was born in 1900.His mother was born on April 2nd 1880, and was named Rebecca after her mother, whose maiden name was Brent. Her father Patrick Eaton, a leather finisher, had been born in Ireland but now lived at number 18 Hargreave Square, Bermondsey, London, when his daughter was born.
Hargreave Square was made up of small terraced houses, situated off Alice Street, which runs parallel to what is now Tower Bridge Road. This little square was pulled down in the early 1930’s to make way for the Meakin Estate.
As a young child Joseph was to live at number 25 Riley Street, (now called Riley Road) which is to be found behind the Tower Bridge Road, running out of Abbey Street to Tanner Street, and consisted of a double row of terraced houses with a school at each end of the road. These old houses have been replaced by 1950’s council flats, having been destroyed in the war-time blitz of the 1940’s, one of the two schools still stands (as of 1989).He was to move to Pages Walk, which connects the Old Kent Road with Grange Road. The Guinness Trust flats on the West side of the road were pulled down to make way for the Harold Estate in the 1930’s. The small houses on the east side still remain, and are being offered for sale in 1989 at a price of £126,500. This price is for a two bedroom terraced house that could have been rented for a few shillings a week in the 1900’s. This asking price represents almost eleven times the average annual wage at the present time.
Joseph attended the Pages Walk School, which was an annexe to Bacon’s school in the Grange Road. In the 1950’s this school was known as Bermondsey Central School, and is at present called Bacon’s Secondary School (C of E). It is somewhat unfortunate that the Greater London Council Records Office have no London County Council archive material covering the period that he attended school. So his achievements as a scholar will forever remain a mystery.A move to Pollock Road in 1913 where his sister Violet was born in the Palatinate Buildings. This road consisted of one corner shop and 12 blocks of 5 storied flats connecting the New Kent Road to Deacon Street. The buildings were demolished in 1960, and the area built over with the Heygate Estate. Pollock Road no longer exists.
A final move to number 25 Warner Street, (now called Bartholomew Street) which was made up of a double row of mostly three storey terraced houses, two Public Houses and a urinal at the junction with Great Dover Street. Few of the original houses remain today, the rest having been bombed in the blitz of the 1940’s, including number 25. One of the pubs, the Beehive, survived the German bombs and a drink can still be had there today.
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Warner Street (taken in 1953) with the 'Beehive' middle left of photograph.
Warner Street (after the bombing) with the 'Beehive' in the middle background.In the glorious summer of 1914, Joseph had changed his work place to Neckinger Mills in Abbey Street, working with his uncle William Eaton at the leather trade. Leather is still produced to this day by the same firm in the same building.
The people of England were enjoying a ridge of high pressure that Spring, until a deep depression was to develop over the Continent. Not in the weather but in the lives of the people of Europe, when on June 28th, Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, was shot dead at Sarajevo in what is now called Bosnia Herzegovina, by Gavrillo Princip. This event was to bring about the Great War on August 4th, 1914, which resulted in some 30 million being killed or wounded in just over four years of fighting. Over one million (1,104,890) of those who died were from Great Britain or the Empire. One of this number was to be Rifleman Joseph Axford.
When Joseph volunteered for the Army in 1916, his mother blamed his uncle William for the consequent loss of her son, and was never to forgive or speak to him for the rest of her life.His uncle William may have been the instigator of Joseph taking the ‘king’s shilling’ but the pressures on a young and fit man to join up were many. It was common for War Widows, dressed in black to stop young men in the street and ask them why they were not in uniform. Then there would be the recruiting advertisements and posters reading:
‘The greatest War in the history of the World’‘Are you a man or a mouse’
‘Are you a man who will forever be handed down to posterity as a Gallant Patriot or a Rotter and a Coward’
‘Your King and Country Need You’
and the famous Kitchener poster ‘Your Country Needs YOU’
and to the women of the country ‘Is your best boy wearing khaki?’
This form of propaganda was so successful that young men volunteered in droves.
For those who were reticent in coming forward the following illegal methods were used by some authorities. Recruiting officers sending letters that would read:‘Dear Sir, I can tell you that I have good reason to believe that you will be mightily sorry in the end if you have not enlisted and we have to come and fetch you. ‘Come willingly or we’ll fetch you’.
The military also used the methods of the Press Gang, rounding up men at such places as railway stations or large factories and detaining them for investigation, when they would be subjected to pressures to join up then and there.
One of these Press Gang round ups resulted in a predictable violent reaction. A rather naïve officer took his squad to The Ring at Blackfriars, where each week a gaggle of professional fighters would entertain a tough audience with a show of boxing. This unfortunate officer tried to stop the proceedings to press men into service. The pugilists and the audience put him and his gang outside with a great loss of dignity. When the scheduled fighting in the ring was over they all charged outside and started again with the troops. With the officer out cold on the pavement, both sides retired to the pub for a well earned drink.
Bearing all these pressures in mind it would not seem fair to put all the blame for Joseph’s enlistment onto the shoulders of uncle Bill (alias William Eaton, later to be buried at Chislehurst in Kent).
The records of soldiers serving after 1913 are held by the Ministry of Defence, who have proved to be both bureaucratic and mercenary to my request for information. Although they have informed me that two-thirds of their records were lost in the blitz of 1940. His regimental museum have been unable to respond to my letters, for whatever reason I know not. Therefore I can only piece together his war service by regimental histories, family information and logic.Under age he volunteered for war service at a Camberwell recruiting office towards the end of 1916. Joining the Second Battalion The Rifle Brigade, (Prince Consort’s Own). The Rifle Brigade was raised in August 1800 from a selected detachment of other regiments, as Experimental Corps of Riflemen, commanded by colonel Coote Manringham. Their first notable action was at Copenhagen in 1801 serving under Admiral Hyde Parker. In 1803 ranked as 95th Foot. The Brigade was composed of 21 Battalions in the Great War, incorporated into the 3rd Green Jackets in 1958.
The Second Battalion was to win three Victoria Crosses between 1914 and 1918. The first at Neuve Chapelle by Coy. Sgt. Maj. H. Daniels on the 12th of March 1915, and the second posthumous on the same day at the same place by A/Cpl. C.R. Noble. The third to 2nd Lieut. G.E. Cates at Bouchavesness on the 8th of March 1917.
Joseph, before he was sent to France, was admitted to the First Eastern General Hospital at Cambridge in January of 1917, suffering from a fever. During his convalescence his girlfriend Alice, brother James, young sister Becky (Rebecca) and his mother paid him a visit. He was able to show his family around the town dressed in army hospital blue. Returning to the hospital, his small sister, who had a gift for music, entertained the troops with popular tunes on the piano.
First Eastern General Hospital - Cambridge
1920 Ordnance Survey Town Map
While in hospital Joseph stitched two white handkerchiefs with red silk thread, which he later gave to his mother, who kept them unused, all her life.
The hospital which was situated in the west of town, between Grange Road and Queens Road, was the result of contingency plans made in the expectation of war. In August 1914 it was set up in Leys school, and then in Trinity College, finally to be moved to King’s and Clare cricket ground in October 1914 (where it was to remain for the rest of the war). In 1919 the hospital wards were converted into temporary dwellings, these were in turn demolished in 1929. The Cambridge University Library and Clare College Memorial Court now stand on the site.
The rest of Joseph’s story has, owing to the lack of detailed information, be that of the 2nd Battalion, under the command of Lieut.-Col. Cole, S.J.B., M.C. On the 20th March 1918 the 2nd Battalion were at Tilques in northern France close to the border with Belgium, having been in the line since January 24th and been severely shelled for days with mustard gas, and was below strength or full of young soldiers, many of those who had not been evacuated were still suffering from the effects of gas.The German Commander-in-Chief, Hindenburg, together with his Chief of Staff, Ludendorff, planned after three and a half years of indecisive fighting, a final attack for the Spring of 1918. On March 24th Germany launched their offensive in the region of the Somme, and in ten days drove the Allied Forces back forty miles, and this in a war where an attack was deemed to have been successful if one side had managed to advance a few yards. The German aim was to capture the town of Amiens, thereby cutting the British army off from the French, and had they succeeded the Channel ports might well have fallen.
To counter this offensive the 2nd Battalion of the Rifle Brigade were entrained for a journey of about 100 kilometres to the town of Rosieres-en-Santere. On March 23rd they detrained at Pargny to march in retreat the 5 kilometres to spend the night north of Potte. The 25th of March saw them marching the 10 kilometres in retreat to stop overnight east of Chulnes. The 26th they were west of Rosieres-en-Santere and on the 27th east of the same town. On the 28th they marched some 32 kilometres in retreat to the town of Morisel. During the night of 29th and 30th of March which they had spent near to Cavalry Wood, General Coffin commanding the 25th Brigade, found that the H.Q. and two battalions of French Regiments which had been at Villers-aux-Erables were now north west of Cavalry Wood and the Regimental Commander told him that he intended to move over the bridge at Castel to the left bank of the Avre.
After a personal consultation with the G.O.C. 20th Division at Domart, it was decided to move the 25th Brigade to Castel, and if necessary to hold the bridge-head there. The Brigade, including the 2nd Battalion of the Rifle Brigade, thereupon moved off before 05:00 but, on arrival in Castel at about 06:00 it was found that there were already sufficient French troops there, so a further move was made to the neighbourhood of Rouvrel. There the troops were fed and rested, and at about 18:00 the 2nd Battalion marched along the D134 road to Castel, coming under heavy shell-fire on the way, and took up position east of the river to protect the bridge-head. It was on this road that Joseph was killed together with nineteen other ranks killed and wounded.
The weather in France that March was dry and warm with strong winds. Having changed from January when it had been very cold with 14 days of rain. In February it had been very mild with much rain and very windy.
In Front of Amiens the Allies held fast, but the situation was critical. It was agreed to place Marshal Foch (French) in over-all command of the Allied armies on the Western Front. The British General Haig said in a historic order addressing all ranks of His Majesties Forces in France, that "we have our backs to the wall", by April 6th the German advance had been stopped. But a few days later General Ludendorff succeeded once again in breaking through the allied lines almost to the Channel ports. The Allied troops were to rally and save the vital coastline.
At this time the Army Council’s yellow telegram envelopes were being delivered by the handful. These telegrams were the terror of the day. The sight of a Post Office boy in the street caused agonies of apprehension. Children would be dragged indoors from playing on the street, mothers and wives firmly closing the front doors, trying, by denying the presence of the ‘telegram boy’ to somehow make him pass them by.The telegram delivered to number 25 Warner Street read:-
"Deeply regret to inform you that your son Rifleman Joseph Axford was reported missing in action, believed killed on March 31st 1918. The Army Council express their sympathy."This was followed by a diploma to the next-of-kin expressing the homage and gratitude of the French Nation.
On August the 8th, (later to be called ‘Black Monday’ by Ludendorff), the British launched their great counter offensive. This was to prove to be the downfall of the German Army, resulting in the armistice on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month 1918, when all the many guns in Europe ceased firing.The Second Battalion of The Rifle Brigade in 1918 lost some 284 men who either died of wounds or were killed in action. This was made up of 14 Officers, 8 Warrant Officers or Sergeants, 11 Corporals and 251 Riflemen out of a total strength of 1,171 men.
The passing of Joseph from this life is remembered by two memorials and in three books. This in addition to the most poignant one that was kept by his mother in her mind. For even though she was finally persuaded to accept a war pension of five shillings a week (£0.025p), she always believed that he could have still been alive. The regimental badge that he gave to her before going to France was also a memorial to this memory. His mother wore this badge with pride, until it was lost in a dress shop at Lewisham in 1957. It was once temporarily lost when she took cover under trees in a park at Avery Hill, Eltham, from a German air raid in 1942.
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The Pozieres Memorial in France. The photograph was taken on the 15th September 1990.
Joseph's name engraved on the wall. The wreath was laid by his brother Albert on the 15th September 1990.
Enlargement of Joseph's name engraved on the wall.
His name is recorded on the Pozieres Memorial in France. Pozieres is a village about 6 kilometres north east of the town of Albert. The memorial, which encloses a cemetery of Australian graves, fronts onto the road with an open arcade terminated by small buildings, broken in the middle by the entrance gates. Along the sides and back, tablets are fixed to the stone rubble walls bearing the names of the dead, grouped under their regiments. The Cross of Sacrifice and Stone of Remembrance stand on a platform at the far end of the cemetery. In all 14,644 officers and men who have no known graves are remembered here. Of these 12,741 fell in the sixteen days of the German 1918 offensive. The regiment most largely represented is The Rifle Brigade, with 657 names. Joseph’s name is to be found on the right hand side wall, between panels 81 to 84.
Rifle Brigade War Memorial in London, standing at the corner of Grosvenor Gardens and Hobart Place, SW1, near Victoria Station, at a place once known as suicides corner. It is one of the nicest designed War Memorials in London. The inscription reads:
"In Memory of the 11,575 Officers, Warrant Officers, Non Commissioned Officers and Riflemen of the rifle Brigade who fell in the Great War".A further slab has been added to the 1329 casualties of the 1939-45 war.
The memorial consists of a high curved stone wall with a bronze First World War Rifleman on top in the centre, while standing on the floor of the memorial to the left is an oversize bronze Rifleman in the uniform of 1806. Standing on the right is an officer dressed in the uniform of 1800. The whole tribute was designed by John Tweed in 1924.
At Saint Catherine’s House, Kingsway, London, 16 Axfords are listed as being killed in the index to War Deaths, Joseph among them, although he is wrongly recorded as having served in the KRRC.
On page 22, part 74 of the many volumed book of ‘Soldiers Died in the Great War’, he is listed under The Rifle Brigade, 2nd Battalion. The entry reads:
"Axford Joseph, born Bermondsey Surrey, enlisted Camberwell, Surrey (Southwark, Surrey) S/34719 RFN. Killed in action, France and Flanders, 31st March 1918".And in the illuminated Book of Remembrance at St Mary Magdalene church Bermondsey, kept in a glass case behind the lectern. This entry reads:
"Axford Joseph, Rifle Brigade".Originally the entry read "Axfa Joseph, Rifle Brigade". It is without doubt our Joseph, as no ‘Axfa’ is recorded as being killed in action with the Rifle Brigade. This has now been rectified by the efforts of Alice Williamson (nee Axford), [Joseph’s Great Niece].
In 1919 his next of kin received the British War Medal (Silver), the Victory Medal (Bronze) and a small bronze plaque inscribed with his name and the words:
"He died for Freedom and Honour".One side of the plaque has a portrait of Britannia and on the obverse a lion slaying an eagle.
As a tribute to all fighting men Siegfried Sasson was to write:
You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye Who cheer when soldier lads march by, Sneak home and pray you’ll never know The hell where youth and laughter go.
'Soldiers Died in the Great War'.'The Rifle Brigade Chronicle for 1918' - Col. Willoughey Verner.
'The History of the Rifle Brigade in the War of 1914-1918' - Seymour.
Register of BirthsIndex to War Deaths
'A Guide to the Regiments and Corps of the British Army' - J.M. Brereton.'London Statues' - A. Buron.
'Badges of the British Army 1820-1960' - F. Wilkinson.
'Dear Old Blighty' - E.S. Turner.
'Michelin Road Atlas of France'.
'British Campaign Medals' - R. Gould.
'London Trade Directory 1916'.
1920 Street Map of Cambridge.
'The Times Newspapers'.'Whitakers Almanac 1919'.
'Old Street Photo’s'.
'1916 Street Maps of Bermondsey'.Electoral Roll.
Pozieres Memorial.
Mr Bevington.
Various
We will remember them...
