LEATHERHEAD WAR MEMORIALS - WWI
Second Lieutenant Bernard Clement Stenning
5 Bn East Surrey Regiment
Taken, Not Given, Liam Sumption, L&DLHS
2nd Lt
Bernard C Stenning
5th East Surrey
Regt
Hollebeke
July 26 1917
Because he was a member of the prominent local family, it is possible to
know little more about Bernard Stenning than many others who lost their
lives in the Great War. Also we are able to fill in the gaps in his unit's
War Diary about the actual details of his death.
Let
us begin with his family and two plaques in the Parish Church of
St Mary and St Nicholas, Leatherhead which gives some indication
of their involvement in parochial matters:-
THE TOWER OF THIS CHURCH WAS
PUT INTO GOOD REPAIR TO THE GLORY OF GOD AND FOR THE MAINTENANCE
OF HIS WORSHIP IN THIS CHURCH BY MARY LOUISA STENNING AND CLAUD
JOHN STENNING (CHURCHWARDEN) IN MEMORY OF THEIR PARENTS ALBERT
EDWARD AND LOUISA FANNY STENNING AND THEIR BROTHERS EDWARD
HERBERT AND BERNARD CLEMENT AND THEIR SISTER AGATHA EMILY
STENNING WHO DURING THE PAST SIXTY YEARS WORSHIPPED IN
THIS CHURCH AND WORKED FOR THE CHURCH IN THIS
PARISH. 1955
IN MEMORY OF
CLAUD JOHN STENNING
WHO WORSHIPPED IN THIS CHURCH FOR
MANY YEARS
AND SERVED AS ITS HONORARY TREASURER AND CHURCHWARDEN.
HE WAS A CONSTANT FRIEND TO ALL LEATHERHEAD PEOPLE.
BORN 8.6.1880. DIED 15.6.1968
So much for his family, but what do we know about Bernard Stenning
himself?
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His name appears on the War Memorial in St John's School where he was
educated, and which had been established for the education of the sons of
[poor] Anglican clergymen.
The Parish magazine of September 1917 (1) states in his obituary that he
was a solicitor by profession, secretary to the Unionist [sic], an officer
in the Church Lads' Brigade and the Superintendent of All Saints' Sunday
School from 1907 onwards. It states that he enlisted in the Church Lads'
Brigade Battalion of the Kings Royal Rifle Corps (the K.R.R.s) and that he
received his commission in the East Surreys in 1916 "in the course of the
same year".
The KRRs advertised in the parish magazine regularly for recruits for the
Church Lads' Brigade Battalion based at Winchester.
He was obviously a mature man at the time of his death, and not a young
subaltern who had just left St John's.
However the regimental records of the Queens (2) indicate that he was
serving with the 12th Bn. East Surreys and not the 5th which departed to
India in 1914.
The War Diary of the 12th East Surreys tells us a little about his
service. Some extracts are of assistance.
Bernard Stenning joined his battalion in
Flanders on 15 January 1917.
On 12th February he proceeded to attend a course at the Divisional
Trench Warfare School at Abeele and returned on 12th March [1917].
Between 1-4 May the Battalion "continued training for coming offensive"
and the 12th East Surreys performed well. However Bernard Stenning does
not appear amongst the list of officers detailed for various
responsibilities in the attack on the DAMSTRASSE position on 6 June
1917.
On 18 July the War Diary mentions that an unnamed officer has been
wounded, and then on 27 July notes "2nd Lt. Stenning reported died of
wounds". The wording implies absence elsewhere, but he was not the
officer wounded on 18 July.
The mystery is resolved by his obituary in the church magazine to which
reference has already been made (1). This says that he was terribly
wounded on 26 July and died the following day and that he been attached to
the Royal Engineers at the time.
A later issue of the magazine [October 1917] amends the obituary to say
that he had both sustained and died from his wounds on the 26th. This is
in accordance with the inscription on the War Memorial.
His loss, like that of all others, had brought tragedy to his family.
Notes on sources
1. Parish magazine of St Mary and St Nicholas, Leatherhead, issues of
September and October 1917.
2. Records of the Regimental Museum of the Queens, Clandon Park, Surrey.
3. File W095–2634 War Diary of the 12th Bn. The East Surreys - Public
Record Office, Kew, Richmond.
Further research
Second
Lieutenant
STENNING, BERNARD CLEMENT
Died 26/07/1917
Aged 35
5th Bn. East Surrey Regiment
attd. 228th Field Coy. Royal Engineers
Son of Herbert Edward and Louisa Fanny Stenning, of "Overdale,"
Leatherhead, Surrey. Native of Caterham.
INSCRIPTION
OF LEATHERHEAD, ENGLAND R.I.P.
Buried at GODEWAERSVELDE
BRITISH CEMETERY
Location: Nord, France
Cemetery/memorial reference: I. A. 10.
Dorking and Leatherhead Advertiser
Saturday 20 February 1915
DISTRIBUTION MEDALS, CHURCH LADS'
BRIGADE AND CHURCH SCOUTS.
Owing to the war, the annual popular entertainment held in connection with
the Church Lads' Brigade and Church Scouts was dispensed with, and the
prize distribution took place quietly at the Drill Hall on Monday evening.
A numerous gathering attended the
ceremony, among those present being the Vicar (Rev. T. F. Hobson) and Mrs.
Hobson, Mr. H. H. Gordon Clark. J.P., and Mrs. Gordon Clark, Rev. B, T.
Pitts, Mr. Claude Stenning, Miss Stenning, and parents of lads. Altogether
about fifty lads of the Brigade and Church Scouts were on parade under the
command of Capt. B. C. Stenning, and after having been inspected by Mr.
Gordon Clark, the lads were put through various drills and exercises by
Captain Stenning. the work being carried out in a very smart and efficient
manner.
Mrs. Gordon Clark then
distributed the prizes and medals follows:
CHURCH LADS’ BRIGADE. Shooting.—
Miss Cunliffe’s Challenge Cup for shooting and memento presented by Mrs.
Still. Lce-Corpl, Bevand (33 out of a possible 35); second prize, Corpl.
Abell.
First class medals. — Sergts. Blunden and Cook, Lce-Oorpl. Lewis, Ptes
Coleman. Gutsell, G. Read and T. Read. (Capt. Stenning stated that Sergt.
Cook recently joined Royal Marines, and had already been appointed section
commander.)
Second class medals — Ptes Clarke, Collis, Simmonds and Tudgay.
CHURCH SCOUTS. First class
medals. — 1st Guides Brooks and Otway, 2nd Guides Outsell, Lewis and Read.
Second class medal — 1st Guides Powell, Richardson and Simmonds. 2nd
Guides Blunden and Tudgay.
Mr. H, H. Gordon Clark, in brief
and encouraging address to the lads, expressed the pleasure it gave him to
be present that evening, and said he envied them their drill, he thought
it was extremely smart. One point he noticed was that they got very well
off the mark and made a good beginning, and nearly everything in life
depended on making a good beginning.
After all their drill ought not
to have surprised him, because they had good hall to drill in, and further
they were among the most fortunate in the land in having an officer like
Captain Stenning to look after them, and lead them and direct them in the
right way (applause).
He supposed there were not many
of them who knew what it was to be dog tired after a long day's work, but
that feeling came to men who had been at work with their brains just as
much as it did to those who worked with their hands or a pick. He could
tell them that it was not one in a hundred who, after a hard day's work,
would give up his evenings and take the greatest pleasure in doing work
for the good of others.
So long as the Brigade and Scouts
had a man like Capt. Stenning at their head so long would they continue to
prosper, and when each of them left the Brigade to into other walks of
life they would leave with the happiest recollections of their officer and
the corps (applause).
He understood that there were
sixty Church Lads' Brigade boys who had joined the Army or were serving
with the forces. That was a record to extremely proud of — (applause) —
but it was only natural that boys who could drill as he had seen them
drill that evening, who had the sense of discipline they had shown, and
who had that high sense of duty which he knew animated that corps, should
jump into use and be of service to their country as soon they were needed.
That movement was started that
country, but it had now spread other countries, and only that evening a
Belgian lady had been telling him of the extremely good work the Belgian
Scouts had done for their country in the present war (applause). It might
be that those whom he was speaking that evening would have fight for their
country. It might be that the war would last longer than they anticipated,
and that they would be drafted into the Army by their own voluntary desire
before the war was over. They had already made a very good start, and they
would very soon be fit to walk into the ranks. He understood that most of
the members of the Brigade who had joined the Army got their stripes
before very long, and that showed them how useful the training was they
received in the Brigade (applause).
In conclusion, Mr. Gordon Clark
said they had joined the Brigade because they were triers, and hoped they
would do their best to show their neighbours that they cared for the
things for which the corps was founded, and that they meant to be servants
of God as well as servants of the King. Although they might be sneered for
being religious, they should remember that when people were in danger or
distress they all turned to that only hope.
The Vicar, in proposing a vote of
thanks to Mrs. Gordon Clark for distributing the prizes, said he was very
pleased to hear the remarks which Mr. Gordon Clark had made. He had been
there for five years, and at every inspection it seemed him that the boys
carried out their drill better and smarter than ever (applause).
There were many public school
corps, who gave much more time to drill, to whom they could give points
smartness and drill — (applause) — and if they were smart in their drill
they would be smart in their work as well (applause).
Referring to the lads of Brigade
who were serving with the forces, the Vicar said there were one or two he
would like particularly to mention. Mr. W. C. Johnson, who was a
lieutenant in the Brigade, was now a sergeant in the King's Royal Rifles.
Mr. Johnson set them an exceedingly good example by his hard work and
smartness in that Brigade, and he had now proved himself a smart man
elsewhere (applause).
He was very grateful to hear the
remarks Mr. Gordon Clark had made about their Commanding Officer. Those
who lived in Leatherhead knew, even better than Mr. Gordon Clark, the
devotion and self-sacrificing labours of Mr. Stenning, not only for the
Brigade, but for much other good work in Leatherhead (applause).
The proceedings concluded with
cheers for Captain Stenning and Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Clark.
The
Passchdaele Archives show a photo and give his date of
enlistment as 28 April 1914 in the City of London.
De Ruvigny's Roll of Honour shows his first Regiment as
the Kings Royal Rifles, he may have had service number 23285 whilst
serving in that Regiment, and that he received a Commission in December
1916 in the East Surrey Regiment. There is a photo of him on their page
for him.
On the 3 March 1916 at Leatherhead, his appeal to delay
'call up' on the basis of 'time to settle up business affairs' was
refused. He was described as a Solicitor, Leatherhead. He is also
connected to Talbot House (Toc H). Talbot House, Poperinge, was a
sanctuary for half a million men on their way to and from the front of
the Ypres Salient. The Visitors'
Book on the Talbot House Website can be used to find many of
them.
A letter of 'Tubby' Clayton's (Army Chaplain Philip
(Tubby) B. Clayton) dated the 29th June 1918 writes of a Requiem being
held for "Bernard Stenning" he gives the reason for choosing that day to
remember Bernard Stenning as it was at the request of Bernard's mother
to hold it on the day of her son's birthday.
A memorial plaque bearing his name is to be found on a
wooden prayer desk in the Upper Room at Talbot House. He was a 2nd
Lieutenant in the East Surrey Regiment, 5th Battalion attached to 228th
Field Company, Royal Engineers when he died of his wounds at the
casualty clearing station, Godewaersvelde, France on 26 July 1917
Of the background to his death, according to the Passchendaele
Archives:
Bernard Clement Stenning was
2nd Lt to the 5th Battalion East Surrey Regiment, at the time of his
death attached to the 228th Field Company Royal Engineers.
The 41st Division, of which the
228th Field Company Royal Engineers was a part, took over the sector Klein
Zillebeke to Hollebeke on the 25th of July 1917.
The 228th Field Company Royal
Engineers was responsible for all work in the Brigade's sector south of
Canal, including:
Stocking up of the forward
consolidation stores, at Oak Dump and Oak Avenue.
Improvement of Oak Dump road and Oak Avenue.
Improvement frontline and Optic Road from St. Eloi to Hollebeke.
Bernard must have been wounded
during this work in the sector Klein Zillebeke - Hollebeke (on the 25th or
26th of July) and was taken to a casualty clearing station in
Godewaersvelde. Where he died of his wounds on the 26th of July and was
buried at the Godewaersvelde British Cemetery. [from other sources he died
on the same day he was wounded]
Leatherhead Parish Magazine
September 1917
BERNARD CLEMENT STENNING.
Early in 1916 Bernard Stenning enlisted in the C.L.B. Battalion of the
King’s Royal Rifles, and in the course of the year received his commission
as Lieutenant in the East Surrey Regiment, and went to France last
January. He was subsequently attached to the Royal Engineers, and while
serving with them was terribly wounded on July 26th and died on the
following day.
His death causes a profound sense of personal loss among all classes of
our community. His professional work as a solicitor was characterized by a
keen personal interest in his clients; he was absolutely unsparing of
pains on their behalf, and his acts of kindness more especially to the
poorer among them were innumerable. All sorts of people learned to look
upon him as their friend. His work as Secretary of the Unionist Club was
marked by the same self-lessness and thoroughness, and was the main
element which contributed to its character and success: and as Secretary
of the Mercantile Association he was brought into the closest touch with
the commercial life of the place.
But it is of his work for the Church here that I wish especially to speak.
An ardent High Churchman himself, he set himself to carry out in action
the principles which he professed; and was unceasing in his efforts to
live the Christian life, and to do all that lay in his power towards
helping others to do the same. He gave up the whole of his spare time to
labour for this end.
In 1907 he became Superintendent of All Saints’ Sunday Schools: and by his
efforts, and those of other members of his family, the excellent influence
exercised by that School has been greatly inspired down to the present
time. In 1906 he became Lieutenant of our Company of the Church Lads'
Brigade and was gazetted as its Captain in 1908, an office which he felt
it necessary to resign, owing to his absence on active service, just a
month before his death.
He brought the Letherhead Company
to a very high state of efficiency in external matters; but the essence of
his dealing with it was to make its members realise, that the sole reason
for its existence was that it should be a help to them in training them to
live the kind of life which a Christian man ought to live. He spent night
after night throughout the year with the lads, made friends not only of
them but of their parents, and kept in touch with them when the time came
for them to leave the Brigade.
The influence which he gained
over them, and the example of his transparent sincerity, devotion and
whole-heartedness, has been a permanent power for good in the lives of
many scores of lads who came into contact with them. He was a most loyal
and true-hearted servant of our Divine Master and Lord, and many indeed
are they to whom he, though dead, will speak as an encouragement to
upright living through all their days on earth.— R.I.P.
T.F.H. [TF Hobson, Vicar]
The Johnian
October 1917
BERNARD CLEMENT STENNING, 2nd Lieut., East Surrey Regt., attached R.E.,
youngest son of the late Herbert Edward Stenning, of Leatherhead, died
from wounds received in action in France on the 26th July. (95 - 99).
Dorking and Leatherhead Advertiser
Saturday 29 December 1917
The list which present has been
compiled from the names that have been recorded in our Columns during the
past year....
JULY
STENNING, Lieut. Bernard C., East Surrey Regt., died from wounds, youngest
son of the late Mr. A. E. Stenning. and Mrs. Stenning, Overdale,
St.Nicholas Hill, Leatherhead.
LEATHERHEAD
IN THE GREAT WAR
Lorraine Spindler
Bernard
Stenning and the Church Lads’ Brigade
Bernard Clement Stenning was born in Caterham in 1882, the son of
Herbert Edward Stenning, a wealthy solicitor, and Louisa Fanny
Thompson.
The census of 1891 shows Bernard with his parents, older brothers
Edward and Claude, older sister Mary, younger sister Agatha plus
the family’s live-in cook, housemaid and groom all resident at a
house called Greenlands in Caterham.
[according to the Bourne
Society this was in Buxton Road, Caterham and was renamed
Buxton Lodge]
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The Stenning family moved to Leatherhead
in 1895. [though he was still an elector in 1895 and 1896 in at
Mountside, Caterham. The addresses for him in the Leatherhead Electoral
Registers are Fir Croft, ?Epsom Road and Leith House, ?Station Road]
Herbert, secretary of the Surrey Foxhounds and a prominent Freemason,
swiftly settled into the community and won the Leatherhead Urban
District Council elections in 1899 in the Conservative interest.
To celebrate he decided to travel to the Channel Islands aboard the
London and South Western Railway
passenger
ferry Stella on Maundy Thursday, 30 March 1899.
Bernard was 17 when he heard his father had tragically died at the age
of 55 in the English Channel, despite wearing a life jacket, when the
Stella
hit the Casquets reefs and sank in eight minutes, between Southampton
and Guernsey.
Adding to the family’s
distress, Herbert’s body, according to the Surrey Mirror of 30
May 1899, was not found until the end of May, in the sea off Wimereux.
Herbert was buried in
Leatherhead Parish Churchyard on 27 May 1899. He was one of 105
passengers and crew to die in the disaster. The passenger lists do not
show any other members of the Stenning family travelling on the ship.
Forty bereaved families, including the Stennings, immediately brought
actions for compensation. The L&SWR tried to avoid their
responsibilities and a number of widows and orphans ended up in the
workhouse. Edward Stenning was more fortunate and employed an
experienced QC and the family claim was paid in the sum of £6,200, plus
costs.
The compensation enabled
Bernard’s brother Edward, in partnership with a Leatherhead’s local
builder W.H. Brown, to purchase land to build the St Nicholas Hill
development on the south side of Highlands Road in Leatherhead.
Until the claim was settled, the family experienced a period of relative
hardship but by 1910 Louisa and four of her five children were able to
move into the newly built Overdale, [later the home of of well
known parishioners Peter & Marguerite Rodier] whilst Edward lived in
Beechlands, Reigate Road.
In partnership, following their
father’s career path, Bernard and Edward ran a solicitor’s practice with
offices in London and Bank Chambers, North Street, Leatherhead. [above
the Capital and County Banking Company, later the National Provincial
Bank and later still, Bartons Bookshop]
Bernard became Captain of the Leatherhead company of the Church Lads’
Brigade Cadets in 1908. The Dorking and Leatherhead Advertiser of
13 November 1915 reported the ninety-strong Sunday cadet parade,
commanded by Bernard, to celebrate the twenty-third anniversary of the
formation of the brigade. This was followed that week by a Drill Hall
inspection, the first since the corps had khaki uniform, once again
under the orders of Captain Stenning and complimented as being of ‘a
very high standard’.
It cannot be underestimated the loss felt by the residents of
Leatherhead when Bernard died. A relatively long obituary in the Dorking
and Leatherhead Advertiser of August 1917 stated:
"There must be few of us here
this morning to whom the death of Bernard Stenning does not mean the loss
of a personal friend. Having to work as hard as any man at his own
profession, he has for many years given up almost every moment of his
spare time to the services of others, and his aid was ever at the disposal
of anyone who needed help of any sort.
It is impossible to do justice
in words to his constant readiness to do any possible act of kindness or
to express what this place owes to his work and influence for good amongst
the young, more especially in connection with All Saints' Sunday School,
the Church Lads’ Brigade and the Scouts ... Words cannot tell how much he
will be missed amongst us here."
Whilst in the Army Bernard
Stenning found himself at Talbot
House (Toc H, a soldiers’ rest and recreation centre
founded in December 1915 at Poperinghe, Belgium). It aimed to promote
Christianity and was named in memory of Gilbert Talbot, son of Edward
Talbot, then Bishop of Winchester, who had been killed at Hooge in July
1915. [the Bishop's letters were a feature of the monthly Leatherhead
parish magazine]
The founders were Gilbert’s elder brother Neville Talbot, then a senior
army chaplain, and the Reverend Philip Thomas Byard (Tubby) Clayton.
Talbot House was styled as an ‘Every Man’s Club’, where all soldiers
were welcome, regardless of rank. It was (an alternative for the
“debauched” recreational life of the town.
Stenning made quite an
impression on Tubby Clayton, for in the chapel, which is up a steep
staircase and remains the same as it was then, there is a small pew with
the inscription, ‘Pray for the soul of Bernard Stenning who received the
sacrament in Talbot House chapel. He passed from War to Peace July 26,
1917' engraved on a plaque.
Tubby Clayton wrote in 1925 "To
me there is but one road, and that – the road to Ypres. Literally
millions went by this one way; and over a quarter of one million did not
live to re-pass it homeward."
The Dorking and Leatherhead Advertiser reported the sad news
that Lieutenant Bernard C. Stenning had died of his wounds in July. It
listed him as the youngest son of Mr A.E. Stenning and Mrs Stenning of
Overdale, St Nicholas Hill, Leatherhead.
Bernard’s younger sister Agatha Emily Stenning, born in 1884, was
photographed leading the Nightingale Girl Guides during the Leatherhead
Peace celebrations on 19 July 1919, no doubt her brother was on her mind
during the march. Agatha never married and stayed living at Overdale
until her death in Leatherhead Hospital in October 1953. She is buried
in St Mary and St Nicholas Churchyard alongside her father.
His life
Bernard Stenning was born on 1 July 1882, Caterham,
Surrey and baptised on 3 August 1882 at St Lukes, Whyteleafe,
Surrey. When he was called up he was a Solicitor.
As detailed above he was educated at St John's School,
Leatherhead (95-99). The Johnian April 1898 recorded that he
gained a Pass in the 1897 Cambridge Local Examination. He followed his
brother Claud at St John's (95-97).
His father was Herbert Edward Stenning, baptised 6
March 1844, Godstone, Surrey, a son of Edward Stenning (1806-1876), a
Solicitor from Godstone, Surrey and Emily Head (1816-1905) from Croydon,
Surrey.
His mother was Louisa Fanny Thompson, born September 1846, from Bury St
Edmunds, Suffolk, a daughter of John Thompson b 1805 and Mary Ann
Thompson b 1817.
Herbert and Louisa were married in September in 1873 at Thingoe,
Suffolk.
Bernard's siblings were Edward Herbert b1874, Mary Louisa b 1878, Claud
John b 1880, Agatha Emily b 1884.
He was not married.
He lived at
1891 Census: Greenlands, Caterham, Surrey [renamed Buxton Lodge,
Buxton Road, Caterham] and possibly later Mountside, Caterham Valley
1896-99: Fir Croft, ?Epsom Road and Leith House, ?Station Road
1910 Overdale, St Nicholas Hill, Leatherhead
After the war
As noted above his father died in the sinking of the Stella in
1899. His mother Louisa died on 6 January 1933, still at Overdale, St
Nicholas Hill, Leatherhead. His brother Claud died on 15th June, 1968, a
well-known member of the congregation of Leatherhead Parish Church, he
was until his retirement a solicitor in the Public Trustee Office.
Opposite Leatherhead Parish Church are two blocks of old
people's flats in the care of Leatherhead United Charities, Skeet
House and Stenning Court. The latter is named in honour of
the contribution of the Stenning family to local life.
Bernard Stenning is remembered on these memorials
Leatherhead Town Memorial
Leatherhead RBL Roll of
Honour, Leatherhead Parish Church
Ladies War Shrine, Leatherhead
Parish Church
Church Lads Brigade Memorial
Tryptich, All Saints Leatherhead
Law
Society, Solicitors and Articled Clerks - WW1 Memorial
Surrey
in the Great War
Talbot
House
the website editor would like to add
further information on this casualty
e.g. a photo of him, and of any recollections within his family
with thanks to St John's School, Leatherhead and to
Lorraine Spindler
last updated 11 Aug 20: 4 Dec 20