CONTACT DETAILS: Please send post to: The Curator, Museum of Wagoners’ Special Reservec/o The Estate Office, Sledmere, nr Driffield YO25 3XQ
• email [email protected] museum may be viewed at times other than Sledmere Opening times (see website)
by appointment.
Opening times and Dates for the diary
The Museum
is open 6 days a week 10am to 5pm Tuesday to Sunday inclusive
Stately Home Charity Car Boot Sale
Sun 8th July 9:00 am – 3:00 pm.
Charity Car Boot Sale with over 100 stalls in support of St Mary’s Church; SledmereVillage Hall; The Wagoners’ Special Reserve Museum Trust; Sledmere School and
Yorkshire Air Ambulance. This is a major fund raiser for the Museum so please comealong and support. The Museum will be doing the Raffle.
Keith Ireland donated anintriguing post cardpurchased in Bridlington. Itshow three GS wagons ona road. We feel that it isbefore the war because thesoldiers are wearing leathergaiters or possibly kneelength riding boots and notputtees. There is somewriting on the canvas coverbut it is impossible to makeout what it says. There is arelaxed atmosphere as theymake their way down anun-metalled road.
Car boot SaleA huge thank you to everyone who donated prizes for the Car Boot Sale Raffle thisyear. Over £9,000 was raised for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance and local charitiesincluding the Museum. A particular thank you to Tony Brehaut from the Triton Inn who once again donatedthe star prize of a Weekend break for Two at the renowned Triton.
MUSEUM OF
The Wagoners’ Special ReserveNEWSLETTER
Reg. Charity No. 1119052 No. 19 Spring 2018
A great day at the Festival of the Horse
Nick Carter rides postilion and Jake Collins is brakeman on the Royal Logistic corps GS wagon that came to the Festival of theHorse held at Sledmere.
LEFT Rodney Greenwood takes his shires round the challengingdriving course. ABOVE Men from the Durham Light Infantry re-enactors take part in the bale loading challenge loading a rulleywith Heath and Liz Darley and their Clydesdale.
Phot
ogra
ph D
ave
War
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Can you tell us anything more about this mystery picture?
BELOW Road Master ErnestByass carries his rifle in a saddleholster. This may be a LeeEnfield cavalry carbine based onthe Short Magazine Lee Enfield303 (SMLE). It had a much shorter barrel, almost 5 and a half inchesshorter than the standard SMLE, making it easier to extract from theholster when on horseback.
3
Wagon Days
The Museum is joining forces with the Sledmere stablesto demonstrate a Wolds wagon with two of the latestarrivals at the Stables, shire horses Amy and Polly. Theyhave come from, and were bred by, Rodney and LindaGreenwood. Together with the first shire to arrive atthe stables, Diana (also bred by Rodney) they will bein harness and working a wagon on the Wagon Days.Museum staff will also be on hand to show just howthe wagons were designed and made and how they arecentral to the story of the Wagoners’ Special Reserve,and Stable staff will explain the harness and drivingthe horses.The demonstrations will be at regular intervals duringthe day and there is no need to book for this event asit is included in your normal entry price.Contact www.sledmerehouse.com for more details Wagon Days:–April 28th; May 20th; June 24th; July 15th;August 12th
Mrs Jennifer McGinty daughter of Wagoner WilliamMoor CHT 962 donated a collection of objects relatedto Wagoner Moor. His razor and strop used by himthroughout the war, some wonderful photos and an IDbracelet hand made in brass. What is intriguing aboutthis is the size of the chain. It is made for a narrowwrist certainly not a blacksmith's! It may well havebeen a bracelet that he made for his wife Ada.
William Moor was born in Market Weighton in 1879and as a child was expected to be a tailor as his fatherand family were before him. However this was not tohis liking and he became a Farrier/blacksmith. Hetrained in Hutton Cranswick where he initially livedand where he first set up home with Ada Briggs hiswife. They had several children Irene, Norah, Harry,Thomas, Linda who sadly died as an infant and Clara.
He moved back to Market Weighton and although hehad previously been in the Territorial Force he joinedthe Wagoners Special Reserve in February 1914. On theoutbreak of war he was called up to Bradford, and likeall wagoners joined the Army Service Corps (ASC).From there he went to Ireland with the RoyalEngineers Pontoon Parks.
New Acquisitions
Wgnr William Moor CHT 962
A rifle pull-through from theMuseum collection
“mad minute” in practice many soldiers could fire 15to 20 rounds1From ‘Yorkshire Wagoners with the ASC’, the Journal of the Royal ArmyService Corps 1935 by ‘Contact’ – almost certainly Lt Beveridge, an eyewitness serving in the 5th Reserve Park).
LEFT Wagoner Harman has arifle with a slightly longer barreland it could be either a LeeMetford rifle first made in 1888,or the long magazine Lee Enfieldthe LMLE from 1895 . Both theserifles were older than the SMLEand were often issued to non-frontline troops and Territorial Forceregiments.
RIGHT Wagoner StephensonCHT 1072. This photograph
was taken when he was servingin the front line with the
Wiltshire Regiment. He has aSMLE rifle and infantry
webbing to hold hisammunition. His rifle is also
fitted with a bayonet.
2
Wagoners had no military training before they werecalled up and arrived at Moor Barracks at Bradford in1914. At the barracks they were issued with a uniformand kit. Within a fortnight those going to France withthe Reserve Parks picked up their horses in the channelports and were sent to the front.
“Most of the last week of mobilisation was taken up with fitting
of harness and the pairing of horses, which was a task full of
interest. Two or three convoys were arranged to practise march
discipline, and finally, before leaving Hilsea the wagoners were
given elementary instruction in the care and handling of rifles.”1
Some wagoners recall that they had no training in the
use of a rifle. However they were required to use one,most particularly when on guard duty. WilliamThompson MM CHT 1030 recalls going on guard dutyon the retreat from Mons with a rifle and WilliamMaltby CHT 530 also recalled going on guard duty witha rifle.
There are a number of photographs of wagoners withrifles, there are also many more with wagoners wearingthe ammunition bandolier, and so it must be the casethat these men also had a rifle. The ammunitionbandolier carried 10 rounds in each pouch and had 5pouches. Bandoliers were used by soldiers onhorseback because the standard infantry webbing beltand pouches normally used to carry ammunition werea considerable hindrance when riding a horse. Thebandolier in the Museum collection belonged toDesmond Williamson brother of Wagoner E WilliamsonCHT 380.
Once issued with a rifle you were responsible for itand soldiers would be sure to keep it with them, evento the lengths of taking it on leave. Pictures of soldiers
catching a train to andfrom leave show themwith their rifle.
The rifle most associatedwith WW1 is the ShortMagazine Lee Enfield orSMLE. First introduced in1902 it underwent manychanges and improve-ments. The Mk111 madein 1907 was the rifle usedby most soldiers in WW1and many in WW2. It wasthe rifle that in experthands could fire a greatmany rounds veryquickly. In 1914 SergeantAlfred Snoxall gave aworld record breakingdemonstration of 38aimed rounds in aminute. Known as the
Wagoners armed
Wagoner Fred Baron CHT 451has the Short Magazine LeeEnfield (SMLE) and anammunition bandolier. A largepocket knife with a blade and aspike for cleaning horses’ hoovesis hanging from his belt.
“Return to the Front Victoria Railway Station’ by Richard Jack(1886–1952), 1917, York Art Gallery© The Estate of Richard Jack/York Museums Trust
Mercury and the WhitbyGazette all ran the story overthe next two days. Everyarticle is identical as theyprinted the simple Admiraltystatement
The sailors and soldiersincluding Wagoner Snowballwho died on theCameronian are commemorated on theCommonwealth War Graves commission Chatby WarMemorial in Alexandria.1Dictionary of Disasters During the Age of Steam 1824-1962, CharlesHocking
This year June 2nd sees the anniversary of the sinkingof HMT Cameronian in 1917. The Cameronian wassailing 50 miles north of Alexandria in theMediterranean. In command was Captain R Robertswith another officer and nine sailors as crew. On boardwere a large number of mules destined for the armiesfighting in Salonika in Greece. To look after the mulesthere were two officers and thirty soldiers includingWagoner Louis Snowball CHT 1052. He had beenserving with the 3rd Reserve Park in France and wasposted to the Base Horse Transport Depot in Salonika.In the early morning of June 2nd 1917 a U-boattorpedoed the Cameronian. The explosion flooded alower deck where many men were asleep, the shipsank in five minutes and all the men were drowned1.
The Admiralty announced the sinking on Monday 18thof June and the Sheffield Independent, Yorkshire Post,Leeds Intelligencer, Huddersfield Daily Examiner, Leeds
Sinking of the Cameronian
