Memories of Spelsbury: Colonel Henry Dillon

A letter Colonel Henry Dillon, Kathleen Dillon's brother (then a Captain in the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry) wrote home in October I9I4 gives a terribly vivid picture of what war was like on the Western Front.  He was describing the first Battle of Ypres :-

     “Far the most exciting thing that has happened to me happened on the evening of the 22nd.  In my section, about 200 yards, I had about 150 men, and just where I was, was the thinnest portion.  The night came on rather misty and dark and I thought several times of asking for reinforcements, but I collected a lot of rifles off the dead, and loaded them and put them along the parapet instead.  All of a sudden about a dozen shells came down and almost simultaneously two machine guns and a tremendous rifle fire opened on us.  It was the most unholy din.  The shells ripped open the parapet and trees came crashing down.  I was well underground and did not care much, but suddenly the guns stopped and then I knew we were for it.  I had to look over the top however, for about 10 minutes, under their infernal maxims before I saw what I was looking for.  It came with a suddenness that was the most startling thing I have ever known.  The firing stopped and I had been straining my eyes so that for a moment I could not believe them.  But luckily I did not hesitate long.  A great mass of humanity was charging, running for all God could let them, straight onto us not 5o yards off - about as far as the summerhouse to the coach-house.

“Everybody's nerves were pretty well on edge as I had warned them what to expect, and as I fired my rifle the others all went off simultaneously.  One saw the great mass of Germans quiver.  In reality some fell, some fell over them and the rest came on.  I have never shot so much in such a short time, it could not have been more than a few seconds and they were down.  Suddenly one man, an officer I expect, jumped up and came on; I fired and missed, seized the next rifle and dropped him a few yards off.  Then the whole lot came on again, and it was the most critical moment of my life.  Twenty yards more and they would have been over us in thousands, but our fire must have been fearful, and at the very last moment they did-the most foolish thing they could possibly have done.  Some of the leading people turned to the left for some reason, and they all followed like a great flock of sheep.  We did not lose much time I can give you my oath.  My right hand is one huge bruise from banging the bolt up and down.  I don't think one could have missed at the distance and just for one short minute or two we poured the ammunition into them in boxfuls.  My rifles were red hot at the finish, I know, and that was the end of that battle for me.  The firing died down and out of the darkness a great moan came.  People with their arms and legs off trying to crawl away; others who could not move gasping out their last moments with the cold night air biting into their broken bodies and the lurid red glare of a farmhouse on fire showing up clumps of grey devils killed by the men on my left further down.  A weird, awful scene; some of them would raise themselves on one arm or crawl a little distance, silhoutted as black as ink against the red glow of the fire.  Well, I suppose if there is a God, Emperor Bill will have to come to book some day."

Colonel Dillon died of penumonia, while still on Active Service, in 1918, and is buried in Spelsbury.

Captain FitzGibbon R.N., a cousin of the Dillons, whose wife lived here during the 19I4-18 war, presented the White Ensign flown by H.M.S. Shannon at the Battle of Jutland to our church, where it now hangs above the War Memorial Tablets to both World Wars and the stained glass window given by Kathleen Dillon in memory of her two brothers.

During the war Mrs. FitzGibbon, who had rented Spelsbury House, had a working party for making and carbolising vermin-proof underclothing for the troops.  And the Mothers' Union, started by Mrs. Tanner, the Vicar's wife, knitted socks and other comforts for them.

The Village Hall was built as a War Memorial, the foundation stone being laid with Masonic ceremonial because the vicar was a Freemason.  It was opened by Lady Dillon in December 1920.

The above was taken from E.Corbetts History of Spelsbury.