Remembering Louis Doffman 29th September 1918 and Percy Honeybill 2nd September 1918

Two of the poems from my forthcoming collection, Voices from Stone and Bronze, have been published on London Grip for the winter.
 
The first poem, What Louis Doffman knows, is in memory of a young man, Louis, who fought under an assumed name. I was introduced to his story by Jeremy Banning  who took me and a group of writers to Pigeon Ravine where Louis was killed in September 1918 with most of his company. I don't know about his family but he will have had a life before then.

The other poem, One of the Honeybills is about a distant cousin and member of the Honeybill family. Thanks to his grandson, Peter, who shared details about his grandfather more is known about Percy. He left behind a wife and three daughters and must have been hoping he would be able to return to his normal life.

Percy's brothers and sisters

Percy Honeybill 20th May 1887 - 2nd September 1918

Percy grew up in a family of boys. His parents, William and Harriet, had eleven children of whom only two, Evelyn (born 1880) and Edith May (born 1894) were girls.

Percy had four older brothers, Albert, Evelyn's twin (born 1880), Alfred (born 1882) , William A (born 1883) and Frederick (born 1885) and four younger brothers, John (born 1888) the year after Percy, Granville (born 1890), George (born 1892) and Edward (born 1896). Two or more of his brothers died in childhood, baby Granville died in 1890 his birth year and Frederick died five years later in 1985 having only lived for ten years. It is possible that his oldest brother, Albert, Evelyn's twin also died as a baby as there is no mention of him in the 1881 census which simply records William and Harriet and Evelyn as living at The Lodge, Brighton Grove, Rusholme so we can assume that Percy will never have known Albert.

In 1891 the family were living at Portland Grove, Withington with his thirty eight year old father William still working as a Coachman and domestic servant. By then there were six children, Evelyn aged 10, Alfred aged 9, William A aged 7, Frederick aged 6, Percy aged 3 and the toddler John aged 2.

By the time of the 1901 census they had moved to what was then called 1 Lancaster Road, South Manchester and the three older children were working; twenty year old Evelyn as a dressmaker, nineteen year old Alfred and seventeen year old William A were both Joiners (Journeyman). Percy was aged thirteen and with his younger siblings,John, George, Edith May and Edward, will have been at school. Percy attended the Manchester Dulcie Avenue School from 1892 until 1901.

By 1911 Percy was the oldest child still living at home aged twenty three and working as a bookkeeper. John aged twenty two was a plumber and George was a joiner apprentice. Even the fourteen year old Edward was working as an office boy and the sixteen year old Edith May's occupation is described as 'at home'. 

Percy got married in 1914 to Dorothy Mabel Lummis and presumably left home that year. In the National Probate  calendar just four years later on 1st November 1918 their address is recorded as 15 Wilton Road,Cholton-cum-Hardy.

Percy Honeybill 20th May 1887 - 2nd September 1918

Back in 2012 when I first visited the Vis en Artois memorial where Percy Honeybill  is remembered I applied for a copy of his birth certificate. If you look online you will find the year of his birth given in various places as 1888 or 1887. The message I received then was that no record could be found.

My new year resolution was to try again with success this time. Here is his birth certificate which arrived in the post this morning.

By eerie concidence he was born on the twentieth of May which is the same day as my mother's birthday although they were born forty six years apart.  My mother was someone to whom family were important so I'm not surprised that I thought of her when I was at Thiepval and decided to look for a Honeybill.

Who was Percy?

As well as finding out about Percy Honeybill’s war the other thing I wanted to know about was his family. How were we related? A chance on-line conversation with writer Donna Gagnon led to my reading a sea faring entry on her family history blog and discovering I was in the hands of another expert. Not only is Donna a first rate writer who runs the popular on-line Writers Forum The Write Idea but she also knows her way round the archives and was more than willing to start researching mine. I had already found out a little about Percy.

He was the son of William Arthur Honeybill and Harriet Honeybill, (nee Spencer) and their sixth child. His older siblings were Evelyn and Albert b1880, Alfred b1882 William Arthur Honeybill b 1884 and Frederick Honeybill b1885. He also had younger siblings.

At the time of the 1911 census Percy aged 23 was still living at home with his parents at 1 Lancaster Road, Fallowfield, Manchester and earning his living as a book-keeper in the calico industry. By then his parents had been married for 31 years and the record notes that eight out of their ten children were still alive. Living with Percy and his parents were his brother John Honeybill aged 22 Plumber, George Honeybill born 1892 aged 19 Joiner (apprentice), Edith May born 1895 aged 16 (at home), Edward Honeybill born at 1897 aged 14 (office boy grey cloth agent). Later in the year in September 1911 Percy was a witness at his brother John’s wedding to Bertha Parker at St John Chrystom, Rusholme. In early 1914 Percy got married to Dorothy Mabel Lummis who was born in about 1890 in Fallowfield but had been living with her mother and sisters in Stoke-on-Trent at the time of the 1911 census.

Percy and Dorothy had a daughter, Elsie May Honeybill born later in 1914 and two more daughters Joan born in March 1916 and Dorothy born on 4^th April 1917. They lived at 15 Wilton Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy.  Did he ever see his third daughter or had he been sent out to France by the time she was born? His other daughters will have been little girls when he was killed and as far as I can tell his widow Dorothy Mabel never re-married. At least she is still described as a widow when she died on 1^st December 1955.

And how are Percy and I related? Well... his grandfather, Joseph Honeybill, b 13 Oct 1827 in Stradbroke, Suffolk, had a brother, James Lot Honeybill b1830. James Lot Honeybill is my great, great grandfather. His son John Honeybill b 5 December 1864 and daughter, were orphaned at a young age when their father died in 1872. According to my cousin they kept running away from the various places in Sandbach and so were sent off to relatives in Holyhead.

Percy Honeybill's War

Once I was back home I applied myself to finding out more about Percy Honeybill and what might have happened to him. As always Jeremy Banning was an invaluable source of information. He confirmed that Percy would definitely have been in the first battalion of the Kings Own (Royal Lancaster Regiment) and would have been killed in the attack on the Drocourt-Queant line - a strong defensive line not far from Vis-en-Artois.

This was one of the strongest systems of field fortifications that the British Army will have come up against. Though described as ‘a line’ it was in fact a position of great depth incorporating several mutually supporting lines. It comprised ‘a front system and a support system, each with two lines of trenches provided with concrete shelters and machine-gun posts, and very heavily wired.

Adapted from Commonwealth War Graves Commission Website

Jeremy produced Percy’s medal card with basic information about him and explained that Percy would have been a reinforcement for men killed or wounded and that he would have joined the battalion after 1 Jan 1916 (as he was not entitled to the 1914-15 Star). You see what I mean about expert guidance I would not have known that. Then in fairly short order a copy of the war diaries of the First Battalion arrived in the post from Jeremy.


The battalion began September by relieving the 1st Battalion Somerset LI in front of Eterpigny, There was an enemy gas attack in the valley and considerable numbers of casualties.

The entry for 2nd September – the day Percy was killed reads


The Battalion attacked at 5-0am on DROUCOURT-QUEANT line E of ETERPIGNY – D.Coy [D company] to occupy furthest line. C Coy. to occupy third line – B Coy to occupy second line and A Coy. to occupy first line. The Coys places bombing blocks on their left flanks and at 8-0am began to bomb northwards with the object of taking ETAING under cover of a barrage. The attack was held up by M.G. fire from PROSPECT FARM. Casualties were 13 killed and 36 wounded.

Officers wounded:-Capt t.R. Carr MC, DCM, Lieut. Dobson, 2/Lieut Myers, 2/Lieut Barber, 2/Lieut Kennedy, 2/Lieut Rowlinson, 2/Lieut Maywood. All the officer casualties occurred early in the advance. A Coy. was left without Officers and 2/Lieut Cook (Intell. Officer at Bn.H.Qrs) took over command.

The barrage as arrange for 8-0am to cover our advance on ETAING, did not materialise and heavy M.G. fire from the left prevented any attempt being made to capture the position. the enemy shelling was not intense and somewhat scattered. Battn,H.Qrs was established about 600 yards E of ETERPIGNY. During the advance the Battalion took 300 prisoners .



As well as Percy thirteen other men (all with the rank of Private) from his Battalion are remembered at Vis-En-Artois as being killed on 2nd September. Their names are



George Bell

Lawrence Brown

Ernest James Caville -  Son Of Frederick Ernest And Gertrude Evelyn Caville, Of 76, Melville Place, Liverpool.

Percy Dunitis - Cousin Of Mrs. A. Seskus, Of 62, Elizabeth St., North Woolwich, London.

Bertie Fletcher - Son Of Joseph And Eliza Fletcher, Of 11, Ashwell St., Hyson Green, Nottingham.

Albert Gale

Walter Edgar Hammond

Ernest Higham

James Hope

David Jones

Frank Lawrence

Thomas Price

Clarence Riley

Private Percy Honeybill 1887 – 2nd September 1918

My mother always used to say that if you came across a Honeybill anywhere in the world the chances were that we were related – Honeybill was her maiden name. It turns out she was more correct than she realised as the surname was ‘created’ by a clerk’s error in the mid eighteenth century which turned Honeyball into Honeybill.

During our visit to the Thiepval memorial I noticed a bank of computers for visitors to use to look for records of the dead. I sat down and typed in HONEYBILL – half expecting nothing to come back. My grandfather who was born in 1903 was mercifully too young to fight. His two older brothers were probably already seamen and therefore unlikely to have been conscripted.

Back came an entry for

Percy, Honeybill – killed 2^nd September 1918

Our guide, Jeremy, ever alert to the possibility of providing one of his charges with a more personal story suggested that we could go and look for him the following day at Vis-En-Artois. Percy was in the first battalion, Kings Own (Royal Lancaster Regiment). That evening I had a text conversation with my brother, Phil about our family tree. It being ten o’clock at night back home he was not about to go into the attic to find it but thanks to a couple of internet searches identified Percy as being from the Manchester side of the family – he was resident in Fallowfield at the time of the 1911 census and Phil told me he was remembered at Vis-en-Artois but ‘not in a grave’. 

 

The cemetery at Vis-En-Artois
is on the edge of the town by the main road. Many of the other cemeteries we visited were smaller and surrounded by fields and farmland. In contrast Vis-En-Artois is relatively urban – a more familiar environment for a lad from Manchester.

 “Look for Panel 3” Phil had said. Jeremy led the way past all the graves, under the arches of the memorial to the white stone panels at the back. I’d already learned from the earlier memorials that these would be organised by regiment and there on panel 3 were all the names of the dead of the Kings Own Royal Lancasters. When I turned to comment to Jeremy I found he had tactfully and surprisingly swiftly disappeared. The panel had been damaged by the ingress of rain which in places had spoiled the stonework making the names blurry and difficult to read but in the middle his name, Honeybill, P was quite clear – as if he’d been waiting.

So I’d found Percy and yet he was among the missing. One of the soldiers with no known grave perhaps because there wasn’t enough of him left after death to find and bury or because he is in the grave of an unidentified soldier – known only to God (there are 1,458 of these in this cemetery alone) or because he is one of those whose remains are still out there somewhere on the battlefields.

Photographs are by Vanessa Gebbie.