Stanley Hughes — Portrait Of Pembridge

Stanley George Hughes, Private, 2nd Battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers

Above photo: Stanley Hughes (2)

Stanley Hughes was born in Luston in 1897.

The 1911 census records that he was the son of George Hughes, a farmer, and Sarah Hughes, the former having been born in Eyton and the latter in Orleton. Stanley Hughes resides, along with his parents, a younger sister and grandfather, Edward, aged 70, at Little Bury Farm, Luston. The farm appears to have been in the Hughes’s family for at least one generation previously. According to the 1881 census, in which Stanley's grandfather is a “farmer” at Little Bury Farm, the land at this time amounted to 15 acres.

By 1911, the family, except for Stanley Hughes’s grandfather but with the addition of another daughter, is living at Little Broome Farmhouse, Pembridge (now Little Broome Cottage).

Above photo: Little Broome Cottage, Pembridge, today (2)

“At some early stage in the war, Stanley Hughes signed up in the Royal Horse Artillery (RHA) in Woolwich, South London. He was then transferred from the RHA to the Royal Irish Fusiliers (RIF) and was posted to C Company of the 2nd Battalion.” (3)

“The Great War 1914-1918 had started with the attack on Serbia by Austria-Hungary. By the late summer of 1915 Serbia was under dire threat from Austria-Hungary and from the entry of Bulgaria on the side of the Central Powers. Greece was neutral but Allied pressure to intervene to support Serbia pressured Greece into accepting an Allied expedition of French and British troops.”

The Gallipoli campaign against Turkey was crumbling and the Allies saw an opportunity to support the Russians and the Balkans. With the Austrians controlling the Adriatic the only suitable port for the Allied expedition was Salonika.” (4)

“From there the Allies could advance north to Serbia and Bulgaria.

In November, 1915, the battalion as part of 228th Brigade, 28th Division was ordered to Salonika and embarkation began on the 17th with the 2nd Irish Fusiliers sailing in mid-December.

The geography of the area north of the port of Salonika was mountainous with steep ridges and deep gorges but was swampy in the south. Malaria was prevalent in the swampy areas which was served by many pools, ponds, lakes and rivers.

Above photo: British Army soldiers on parade for their daily dose of quinine, Salonika (AWM)

First there was the bitter cold -

“Very bad night – no shelter from the cold and wet. I had a rotten passage around the line, falling and stumbling up to my shoulders in some places. The snow kept on falling yesterday evening and part of the night and then changed to a most intense frost. This morning everything is frozen hard and every track is too slippery to walk on….

Our overcoats are frozen hard, and when some of the men tried to beat theirs to make them pliable to lie down in they split like matchwood. The men can hardly hold their rifles as their hands freeze to the cold metal. Everyone is tumbling and falling about in the most ludicrous way...We had an enormous sick parade this morning nearly 150 men reporting. There are many bad cases of frostbite in hands and feet.” – Diary of Captain Noel Drury, 6th Battalion The Royal Dublin Fusiliers 27th-28th November 1915 (NAM)

And then there was the scorching heat -

“Marching is very hot and tiring and we get a thirst which no amount of drinking will satisfy; our water bottles are very precious things. Our bottles are filled before moving off and no man must drink until the order is given, although we get a longing to empty the bottle in one glorious drink. The water men have difficulty in keeping up the supply, which has to be carried in leather bags on the mules.

We go a long way up the Seres Road, one of the few decent roads in the country, then branch off… I begin to lose interest in life and when we lie down again would like to stay there and die, but there is some strange force which says “stick it” until you drop from sheer exhaustion… Through the endless night we put one foot in front of the other, aching in every joint.” Diary of Private George Veasey, 8th Battalion The Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, July 1916 (NAM)

From a logistical point of view the area was poorly served by roads and the Allies were at the end of a long lifeline served by shipping and a single railway.” (5)

Apart from artillery exchanges, little fighting took place until 6 December 1916, when the Bulgarians attacked following a heavy bombardment. Fighting alongside the French, British units fought off several assaults on their positions.

Above photo: British forces in the Salonika Campaign (IWM)

In 1917, the battalion was in action at The Battle of Doiran (April 1917). Doiran was a strategic position held by the Bulgarians.

Above photo: A Bulgarian telephone station with trench periscope observing the enemy's position at the Doiran front, March 1917 (Wikipedia)

The British Salonika Force attempted to capture Bulgarian positions around Doiran.

Above painting: The Doiran Front Seen from Sal Grec de Popovo (artist William T. Wood) (IWM)

When this offensive failed, static trench warfare continued until autumn 1918.

Above photo: Wounded being sent to hospital on a light railway, Salonika (NAM)

Above photo: Remains of Bulgarian trenches in Star Dojran (Doiran), North Macedonia (WIkipedia)

A war diary -

“13th May Bombardment Artillery began to cut gaps in the Bulgarian wire in the Struma Valley area in preparation for an an attack.

15th May 1917 Attack made XV1 Corps began two phrases of their operations in the Struma Valley.” (7)

Above photo: Enlarged Section of 'The Lower Struma - Enemy Front Line Positions' panorama (8)

Another war diary -

“10th (Irish) Division were to occupy the line Kalendra-Prosenik-Bairakli while 85th Brigade of 28th Division (which 2nd Battalion Royal Fusiliers were part of) were to take the Bulgarian outpost positions known as Ferdie and Essex Trenches. On 10th Division’s front, the 6th Royal Irish Rifles, 29th Brigade attacked Kyupri under cover of an artillery bombardment. They met little resistance and by 22.45 hours has established touch with the 30th Brigade on their right and 6th Leinsters on their left. A number of posts were established and Kyupri was held as an outpost.

16th May 1917 Counter attack at 0200 hours on a more determined counter attack was launched by the Bulgarian but was again beaten off. Later that morning Bulgarian artillery activity at1 000 hours a major counter attack was launched against the Second Buffs in Essex Trenches. This too was beaten off.” (9)

“British troops in the Struma Valley used cyclists and cavalry to patrol and fortify villages in order to deny them to the Bulgarians and Turks.

Above photo: Patrolling the Struma Valley on bicycles, 1917 (NAM)

Both sides evacuated the valley in the summer, owing to the prevalence of diseases like malaria, which alone caused 160,000 British casualties during the campaign.”

Stanley Hughes, having been wounded in the Struma Valley, was evacuated to 27th Casualty Clearing Station where he caught malaria. He failed to recover and died on 23rd July 1917.

Above photo: 28th Casualty Clearing Station, Salonika (8)

He is buried at Lahanna Military Cemetery, which is about 56 kilometres north-east of Thessaloniki.

Above photo Lahanna Military Cemetery (CWGC)

The cemetery was begun in July 1916 for burials from the 27th Casualty Clearing Station to which sick and wounded men were brought from the Struma front. The cemetery was also used from June to August 1917 by the 18th Stationary Hospital. The cemetery now contains 279 Commonwealth burials of the First World War. There are also 16 Bulgarian and four Greek war graves.

Inscribed upon Stanley Hughes’s headstone is the following -

“NOT GONE FROM MEMORY NOT GONE FROM LOVE BUT TO A FATHER’S HOME ABOVE”

Also, he is commemorated at a gate near Eardisland.