TOPIC:

William Russell Barnard

Wounded in Action – Windsorton Road, Cape Colony – 13 August 1901
Wounded in Action – Suvla Bay, Dardanelles – 21 August 1915

Private, City Imperial Volunteers
Private, 94th Squadron, 24th Imperial Yeomanry (Metropolitan Mounted Rifles) – Anglo Boer War
Sergeant, 11th London Regiment (Finsbury Rifles)
Sergeant, Royal Flying Corps/ Royal Air Force - WWI

- Queens South Africa Medal (CC/OFS/TVL/SA01/02) to D33 PTE. W.R. BARNARD, C.I.V. - 30638 + 24TH I.Y. M.M.R. added by recipient, (original naming crisp and unaffected)
- 1914/1915 Star to 280 SJT W.R. BARNARD, 11-LOND.R.
- British War Medal to 280 SJT W.R. BARNARD, 11-LOND.R.
- Victory Medal to 280 SJT W.R. BARNARD, 11-LOND.R.
- Territorial Efficiency Medal (GV) to 280 CPL. W.R. BARNARD 11/LONDON REGT.

Will Barnard spent most of his life in and around London – the parts of his life when he wasn’t fighting for Queen and then King and Country. Born on 9 April 1880 in the Parish of St. Luke’s in Islington he was the son of William Barnard, a Carpenter and Joiner by trade, and his wife Elizabeth. At the time of the 1881 England census the family were living at 68 Morton Road in the Borough of Finsbury. Will, aged 1, was an only child at that stage of the game.

Ten years later, at the time of the 1891 England census, the family had moved to 18 Dagmar Terrace in Islington. William, now 11, had been joined by a host of siblings since the last census with Elizabeth (9); George (8); Florence (7) and baby Walter (1) having joined the ranks. A school pupil, he had been enrolled at St. Stephen’s Parochial School since 23 October 1885.

Perhaps of a mischievous disposition, he had been taken into the City of London Union Workhouse on 14 August 1893 when 13 years old – only to be released into the custody of his father the very next day.

Having finished his elementary schooling the young Barnard became an artisan, taking up the trade of Fitter and it is whilst pursuing this occupation that he stepped up to enlist with the City of London Imperial Volunteers for service in the Anglo Boer War. This conflict, between the two Dutch-speaking Boer Republics of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State had been raging since war was declared on 11 October 1899. Initially the Boers had enjoyed great success against an Imperial Army lacking in numbers and spread very thinly on the ground in South Africa. So thinly in fact that the call had gone out for the raising of an Imperial Yeomanry back home from among the citizenry of the nation. Not to be outdone, the Lord Mayor of London had, likewise, seized the opportunity and created the City of London Volunteers to take the fight to the Boers.


Barnard was undoubtedly one of these men

The first draft of this august body had long departed for South Africa and the front by the time a 20 year old Barnard enlisted with the C.I.V. on 28 June 1900 with no. D33 and the rank of Private. Mustered as part of the 21st Middlesex (Finsbury Rifles) detachment, Barnard and 500 comrades paraded on the Guards’ grounds in Hyde Park on 17 July 1900, under the command of Colonel Byrne, preparatory to them sailing for the Cape. They were also given the Freedom of the City of London, with Barnard’s name appearing in the register compiled for the purpose, in July 1900. Once landed at the Cape, they were moved upcountry and entered the fray.

The war, at this point, had evolved into a game of cat and mouse. The days of pitched battles were over, to be replaced by the guerilla phase where small bands of highly mobile Boers would swoop down and attack British patrols or lines of communication and, once they had plundered whatever they could find, they would release the men they had captured, having no longer the capacity or the desire to take and keep prisoners. Barnard and his compatriots would have been part and parcel of the interminable drives undertaken by the British High Command, in the Orange Free State and the Transvaal, designed to ensnare the Boers thereby effecting their surrender.

His limited period of engagement up, Barnard returned Home, sailing aboard the Aurania at the end of October 1900. On arrival in London they were met by rapturous crowds and feted as celebrities.

Having tasted action for the first time, Barnard wasn’t about to settle down to some or other mundane occupation. The war down south still raged with no apparent end in sight and, with the C.I.V. having played their role and being disbanded, he made for the Imperial Yeomanry Recruiting Office where, on 18 February 1901, he completed the Short Service (One Year with the Colours) Attestation Forms. Confirming that he was 20 years and 10 months old and a Fitter’s Mate by trade, he enlisted with the 24th Battalion of the Imperial Yeomanry (the Metropolitan Mounted Rifles) and, having been passed as fit by the Doctor, was assigned no. 30638 and the rank of Private. The 1901 England census caught Barnard betwixt and between – he is recorded as being in his father’s abode – 18 Dagmar Terrace, Islington – as a 20 year old member of the Imperial Yeomanry.

5 feet 6 ¼ inches in height he weighed 137 lbs and had a fair complexion, grey eyes and light brown hair. He sported a tattoo on his left forearm of a Sailor and had a scar on the back of his head by way of distinguishing features about his person. After 57 days at home, he sailed for South Africa once more, aboard the Assaye and, having landed in the country on 1 May 1901 his battalion entrained at once for De Aar. After a week there they marched for Orange River Station and remained a week before a column was formed under Colonel Henry. Striking north they visited Jacobsdal, Paardeberg, Boshof, Hoopstad, Bloemhof, Modder River Station, Petrusberg, Koffiefontein, and Christiana before turning southwards again, having no big fights but small skirmishes, taking prisoners and generally having a hard time with night’s rest disturbed by snipers.

In the words of the Echo of 16 May 1901, they soon had hot work, “Cradock, Cape Colony, May 15th – A patrol of 30 men of the Metropolitan Mounted Rifles lost four killed and six wounded in a skirmish near Maraisburg yesterday. The Metropolitan Mounted Rifles constitutes the 24th Battalion Imperial Yeomanry (94th, 95th, 96th and 97th Companies). The Corps was recruited principally in London and its environs. They are under the command of Colonel Byrne of the 21st Middlesex Volunteers.”

It was in one of these skirmishes that Barnard was Wounded in Action – near Windsorton Road in the Kimberley district on 13 August 1901, along with 33422 Private Percy Henry Church. Barnard appeared in the casualty rolls as a Lance Corporal who was Slightly Wounded.

In total he spent 1 year and 142 days doing more of the same that he had been doing with the C.I.V. – taking part in the innumerable drives and skirmishes that came with chasing the elusive Boers across the length and breadth of the country – before being repatriated to England and discharged, on 7 September 1902 with a Conduct and Character rating of Very Good. His forwarding address was 293 Flanders Passage, High Street, Islington. For his effort in both the C.I.V. and the M.M.R. he was awarded the Queens Medal with the relevant clasps. Obviously proud of his IY service, and wanting the world to know it, he added his service with them on the rim of the QSA.

Out of uniform once more, Barnard resumed his trade as a Fitter. There was now time for affairs of the heart. On 12 April 1903 he wed 22 year old Rose Wynn of 27 Arlington Square, herself the daughter of a Joiner. Barnard was 23 and provided his address as 36 Palmerston Buildings. When their son, William Russell Barnard, was born on 30 March 1908 their address was 11 Florence Street.



All the while Barnard had kept up his Volunteer service and was rewarded with the Territorial Forces Efficiency Medal (Edward VII) on 1 July 1910. The Islington Gazette of 27 July 1910, under the heading “11th Batt. County of London Regt. (” Finsbury Rifles”)”, mentioning that, for the week ending Saturday, July 30th, Corporal Barnard was on Duty.

The 1911 England census was just around the corner and provided a glimpse into Barnard’s domestic situation. Now 31 he was a Wrought Iron Fitter. There were two children born to the couple, his namesake previously alluded to and an older child, Rose Elizabeth (5). As time went on, he was proving to be a crack shot. The Volunteer Service Gazette of 30 October 1912 reporting on the “Skirmishing Cup in connexion with the Finsbury Rifles that was competed for at Purfleet on Saturday”.

Corporal Barnard had one of the highest scores and, “Lieut. Col. Grant, commanding the Finsbury Rifles, hopes to deliver lectures on the greater battles of the South African war at headquarters, commencing on November 5th. The lectures will not be given unless 75 men are present, and every two lectures will count as drill.”

It is to be hoped that not too many of the men took the lessons learned in the Boer War to heart as, in just over two years from that date, unbeknown to them, they would be fighting for their lives in a very different kind of war where lessons learned in South Africa would be outmoded and difficult to apply. I refer of course to the Great War which erupted on the world stage on 4 August 1914. This war pitted the might of the British Empire against the forces of Kaiser Wilhelm’s Germany and her Ottoman Ally to the east. The Finsbury Rifles aka 11th London Regiment were to play their part. At their annual camp in Dorset when war was declared, they immediately returned to their headquarters to start the process of mobilisation. They initially protected a section of the National Railway System in Hampshire before in April 1915, joining the 162nd Brigade, the 54th (East Anglian) Division (TF) quartered around Norwich where coast defence duties were undertaken.



The whole division was then transferred to the area around St Albans while it prepared for overseas deployment. On July 8, 1915, orders were received to move abroad and at 6pm on July 29 the Finsbury Rifles boarded HMT Aquitania at Liverpool bound for Gallipoli. They landed at Suvla Bay on August 10 and within five days were in action against the Turkish forces in the vicinity of Lone Tree Gully with the battalion war diary recording that nine officers and 350 other ranks were killed, wounded or missing. It was here that Barnard, now a Sergeant with no. 280 and a qualified Machine Gunner, was to be Wounded in Action for a second time in his life. A brief synopsis of the Battalion’s War Diary in the days up to an including Barnard’s wounding provides context to what he and his comrades were experiencing:

Date: 10 August 1915 Hour: 1pm
Started for Suvla Bay arriving 3pm, disembarked 5pm, proceeded at 9pm with 163rd Brigade two miles due north. Then placed in reserve.

Date: 11 August 1915
Moved one mile east and remained in reserve. Slight shelling by the Turks, shells falling half mile in front of the battalion, which was in cover in a long ditch.

Date: 13 August 1915
Camp shelled by enemy.
Battalion ordered out to entrench position 800 yards north of 10th division trenches. Work commenced. Our casualties 5 wounded including Sgt Gardener.

Date: 14 August 1915
Continued entrenching position. Again shelled and sniped. Our casualties 4 wounded including Lieutenant Kilby. Work discontinued until dark, then carried on until daybreak. One man wounded.

Date: 17 August 15
Quiet day in trenches. Reinforcing draft under Capt. Collins arrived. Effort made to get companies reorganised and men of the battalion withdrawn as far as possible from other battalion trenches.

Date: 18 August 15
Quiet day in trenches. Shelling and sniping at intervals and a few casualties. Battalion now practically accounted for.

Date: 19 August 15
Quiet day in trenches. Three men sniped. Battn relieved at 8pm by 1/4th NORTHANTS.

Date: 20 August 15
Battn resting until 8pm. Whole battalion other than base details and sick and including. Captain Collins’ draft paraded during the morning and nominal roll completed. Casualty roll also completed to date.

Date: 20 August 15 Hour: 8pm
Trenches of 1/5th Bedfordshire taken over. Uneventful night. Reconnoitring patrol reported small numbers of Turks in immediate vicinity of trenches.



Date: 21 August 15
Heavy firing on right of line during early morning. Companies in reserve warned to be prepared to stand to arms.
Lieut Maxwell badly wounded in front line trenches. Battalion warned to be prepared to take part in possible advance during afternoon.

Date: 21 August 15 Hour: 3pm
Batt Hqrs and companies in reserve moved up to immediate vicinity of front line trenches. Very heavy artillery bombardment of Turkish positions on extreme right of the line and advance by the 53rd Division (29th & 11th). 162nd Brigade not called upon and after a quiet afternoon, half battalion withdrawn into next trenches. Night uneventful on our front.

It was probably during the heavy firing in the morning of the 21st August alluded to that Barnard came a cropper. His medical sheet provides the following insight.

“Bullet Wound to Left Thigh and (rather innocuously) Septic Great Toe. Admitted to hospital where he spent 18 days the Doctor’s reported thus: “Situation – Outer and upper surface above patella. Bullet extracted on the beach at the Dardanelles, from inner surface (superficially placed). Wounds clean. Knee joint weak. Septic toe little discharge.

15 September 1915 – Wounds healed, septic toe better. Discharged 27/9/1915 on 10 days leave and then for light duty.”

By the time the Medical staff wrote the above Barnard had been invalided to England from Mudros on 23 September 1915 aboard the H.M.H.S. “Arcadian”. After 42 days of high drama he was never to return to the field of combat being discharged on termination of his period of engagement on 31 March 1916.

In August 1921 he wrote from 2 Hardinge Street, Islington applying for his General Service and Victory Medals “having served in the 1/11 London Regt. (Finsbury Rifles) was wounded at Suvla Bay on August 21st 1915. My late number was 280 Sgt. W.R. Barnard, D. Coy. 1/11 London Regt.”

But Barnard wasn’t quite done! As was the case with the Boer War fourteen years before, the Great War was from over while he languished at home. On 21 May 1917 he enlisted with the Royal Flying Corps. Initially posted to 62 Training Squadron at Filton in Gloucestershire he was transferred to 158 Squadron on 4 September 1918. 158 had been formed on that exact date at Upper Heyford in the county of Oxfordshire. The Squadron was scheduled to receive Sopwith Salamander aircraft but may not have received any. They didn’t see any action before the First World War came to an end and were disbanded in November 1918 by which time Barnard had moved on to Mobile Squadron Station at Upper Heyford. This would appear to have been a “journal entry” as he moved on the next day to 28 T.D.S. Having been posted to 97 Squadron in Deolali, India on 18 July 1919 (by which time the war was over) he was finally discharged on 7 February 1920.

Back home with his family once more, the 1921 England census revealed that he was now a 41 year old Ornamental Iron Fitter in the employ of Mr. Cole’s of 11 Hanway Place, Oxford Street, London. The family were still living at 2 Hardinge Street, N.I.

Our next encounter with Barnard came courtesy of the 1939 Register. He had taken his family back to Dagmar Place in Islington to live at no. 12 and was still, incredibly, an Ornamental Iron Fitter at the age of 60.

William Russell Barnard, a man loyal and faithful to his trade, his family, his regiment and his country, passed away in his beloved London in October 1960 at the age of 80. He had done his bit.

Acknowledgments:
- Friends of Islington Museum
- John Stirling
- Long Long Trail, Great War Forum