Jack Whitehouse MM

James Whitehouse worked as a railway platelayer in Colton with John Holmes and married John’s daughter, Phoebe, there in 1889. Over the next few years, he had a number of labouring jobs in the Rugeley area and had several children baptised in the neighbouring villages – Gentleshaw, Brereton, Longdon and Rugeley itself before moving back to Colton where one daughter, Eliza Ethel was buried aged 21 months in 1897, and John William Whitehouse was baptised, in 1898. By the time of the 1901 census though the family had moved to Old Road in Armitage (where two more daughters were born), and James had got himself a job at Cannock & Rugeley colliery, stoking the boilers.

On 30^th July 1915, just turned seventeen, he finally arrived in France and joined C Battery of the 24^th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery, who were stationed in the Ypres area as part of the Sixth Division. He was a Driver – the Artillery equivalent of an Army Private – and his first job was to ‘drive’ the teams of horses used to pull the guns. He would have been responsible for a pair of horses with often six horses to a team. Just after his arrival in early August the Brigade made a 35-mile march to Croix Dubae where they assisted an extensive raid by the Anzac Corps for ten days before returning to their Division.

As a driver he was still a member of the gun team but during action his post was in the wagon lines. Drivers looked after all the transport requirements – driving the supply and ammunition wagons or the guns and limbers. He was obviously also there to replace casualties.

For the next 12 months the Brigade stayed at Ypres and at the end of July 1916 the Division, after losing nearly 11,000 casualties in its 13-month stay in the Ypres Salient, was sent South to join the Fifth Army on the Somme. On the 15^th September the Division were joined, for the first time, by tanks. A grand total of three tanks joined the Division but two broke down before the attack and the third failed to make an impact and, after being riddled with armour piercing bullets and having its periscopes shot off, it had to retreat. After taking part in three general attacks and numerous minor, subordinate attacks on the Somme the Division was withdrawn in November 1916 and moved to the Loos salient.

Jack was promoted to the rank of Bombardier – the equivalent to an Army Corporal – and his job then was as part of a 6-man gun team. He would have been trained to fill any of the necessary roles, whether that be as the gun layer, loader, ranger or indeed the NCO in charge.

March and April 1917 were notable for raids and counter raids and by this time John had been promoted to the rank of Bombardier – the equivalent to an Army Corporal. There was considerable artillery activity and because of the commanding heights on the German side the choice of positions for the artillery was often poor and they suffered as much as the infantry. In October they marched to take part in the Battle of Cambrai where the artillery supported the infantry as closely as possible and were continually having to change positions. The actual frontline was continually shifting and this was where he earned his Military Medal. The battery had to retreat and one of his comrades was injured and left behind in the move. Jack crawled on his belly into the no-man’s land between the lines, picked up his wounded comrade, and crawled back out with the injured man on his back. The exact date isn’t known but he was awarded the Military Medal for his bravery. On the 10^th December 1917 the Division was pulled out of the line – apart from Jack and the rest of the 24^th Brigade who had to stay and support the incoming Division.

During 1918, 24^th Brigade saw pretty continuous action and John celebrated his 20^th birthday back on the Ypres salient. His Brigade had been pushed back by the German Spring offensive and had taken part in the subsequent attacks to recover the lost ground. The Division saw more stiff fighting as the year progressed and in a period of just six weeks in September and October lost over 6,000 men. By the end of October, the Divisional infantry had finished their fighting, but the artillery remained in till the end and finished up in the Avesnes area in Northern France.

By the age of 21, Jack was back in Armitage having seen enough horrors to last him a lifetime. Nearly 300 men from the village fought in the war and about 20% of them were killed. He had lost friends from home and friends from his unit. He returned, no doubt thankfully, to the family home in Hood Lane and settled down to his job hewing coal down the pit.

In 1921 he married Ethel Faulkner, (whose father also worked down the pit), and they moved to a cottage in Old Road, Armitage. They had five sons – John William, James George, Dennis Walter, Eric Bernard and Gordon Victor and one daughter, Patricia Ann. Both his first two sons though were killed in tragic circumstances. His first son, John, was run over in the road outside their house aged just three when he ran out of the entry straight in front of a car. Eleven years later, twelve-year-old Jimmy was run over by a lorry whilst cycling home from the school at the top of Church Lane.

Like most men in the village his evenings were often spent in the pub – the Swan in his case – where he played dominoes, cribbage and other games or at the Progressive Working Men’s Club in Rugeley. He played darts for the British Legion and was in fact a leading light in the Legion. For many years he had been the standard bearer and in 1959 he carried the branch standard when he attended the Armistice remembrance rally at the Albert Hall. (At the local Remembrance Day service the branch had to borrow the County Standard for the day).

In the late 1930s the state of the housing in the Parish was really poor and a lot of people felt that the Parish Council was not serving the interests of the whole village. Jack was part of a group who called themselves the Free Council of Armitage and campaigned for better housing and sanitary conditions. With the appointment of a Labour Government the makeup of the Parish Council changed considerably, and Jack was elected as a Parish Councillor and served into the 1950s.

More houses were made a priority and the family moved into the new Chapel Road estate at number 6. His three sons were all married in 1951 and the 1955 electoral roll shows all three living within a hundred yards of each other at Uttoxeter Road and Croft Leys in Handsacre.

Jack continued to work down the pit until he retired early for health reasons in late 1961 and he died in May the following year. The bearers at his funeral were all Legion members – Frank Simpson, Hiram Morecroft, Albert Conway and Neville Jones – whilst the standard bearer was Ron Goodall. Also present at the funeral were Walter Hully (President), Joe Simpson, George Farrington, John Clews, Ken Ewing, Bill Rowley and a Mr T Brown. [I would love to hear from anyone who could tell me more about Mr Brown].

As the eldest, Dennis received his Dad’s medals. For many years Dennis had been heavily involved with Armitage F C which in 1964 built a Social Club behind the Crown in Handsacre. In 1969 they extended the club to include a store and office accommodation and Dennis took advantage of the security that was offered by a safe in the office to store Jack’s medals. In the late 80’s though,  vandals burned down the club and the medals were pretty badly damaged in the fire. The medals were passed on to Dennis’ son who has had them fully cleaned and restored to the condition they deserve as shown in this photo – the Military Medal is on the left of the picture.