The Wartime Memories Project - Remembering those who served during The Great War

Sgt Thomas Vayro . British Army 6th Battalion, B Company Durham Light Infantry from 71 Commercial Street, Willington, Co Durham

My Grandfather, Thomas Vayro, was born in Aldbrough St John, North Yorkshire on 24th August 1883, one of the nine children of James Vayro (1853 -1893) and Elizabeth Pounder (1854 -1892). His father was a farm hand, who was constantly on the move, seeking and finding casual farm labour in the villages of Tunstall, Gilling, Hartforth, Forcett,Aldbrough, Skeeby, Easby and Coatham Mundeville, all close to Darlington in the North East of England.

On the 1891 census Thomas’ elder brothers William (aged 17) and Edwin (aged 15) were known to be working on farms in Snape and Moulton both near Richmond in North Yorkshire. The main family group were at Low Coalsgarth Farm in Easby. Unfortunately Elizabeth died of Cancer of the Uterus in 1892 and James died the following year of Diabetes. Consequently Thomas by the age of nine was an orphan and though this has never been proved it is understood that the youngest children Alfred, Thomas, George, Elizabeth Mary, and Harry were placed in a workhouse in Darlington, and it was here that Thomas may have developed his self-sufficiency and toughness and probably learned to fight off the bullies.

It is also rumoured that Martha his sister (17 years old in 1893) may have taken the youngest children to live with an Uncle George Vayro at Angram Cote Farm in East Witton but this also has never been proved. On the 1901 Census, Thomas, aged 18 was lodging with his sister-in-law Hannah (nee Sherrington), in Wesley Street, Willington, County Durham and he and his brother George were already working at Brancepeth Colliery. His elder brother William (husband of Hannah) was boarding at Mary Street in Stanley, near Crook and working at Sunniside Colliery.

So the questions were “When did Thomas become involved in the Army? and to what extent did he serve his country, during The Great War?” My Grandfather seldom spoke of his war experience; he found it too painful, but in my childhood I had seen his 4 treasured medals, and a shell casing he had brought home, and learned that he had served in World War One in both Belgium and France as part of B Company, Sixth Battalion, Durham Light Infantry.

The publicity and interest in the Somme and “Pals” regiments made me determined to find out how exactly he had fought for King and Country in World War One. Except for a few old photographs of his time in the services, and the fact that my Aunts Ruth, Lillian, Edna and Uncles Harry and Raymond could give me very little information on where he had been and what he had done during the Great War, I had very little to work on to put together a picture of his Territorial Army life. <>At first I never really took much notice of the old photographs and certificates that I had collected from various relatives, which typically had few dates, places or names, but amongst them was a “Pioneer’s Diploma” for 50 years service from Durham Miners’ Association. There was also a “Roll of Honour” from the Willington District Working Men’s Institute showing a list of servicemen from the Willington area that had served in the forces between 1914 and 1919, “For King and Empire”. Among the 360 individuals that were listed, some with “Military Distinctions”, in copperplate script was a certain Thomas Vayro, my Grandfather.

So there were two things to tackle; I really needed to find out more about the DLI Battalion itself and also Thomas’s own contribution and movements during the War. As it also required careful detective work to identify the details in the photographs themselves I visited the Durham Light Infantry Museum, where the Military Historian, Steve Shannon identified the various uniforms and likely dates, and suggested that I should read “The Faithful Sixth” by Harry Moses.

There in the book he is shown as Thomas Vayro, Pioneer, representing the DLI at the Coronation of King George Vth, and also in the back row center of a group of officers at Souastre near Arras in 1917.

Many of the bits and pieces of information that I have found are gleaned from this book by Harry Moses, entitled “ The Faithful Sixth”, published by County Durham Books in 1995. Others have been taken from details in the photographs of Thomas “An Ordinary Soldier”, who unlike many of this comrades, survived the trench warfare, the German shelling, and the debilitating mustard gas and came back from the war relatively unscathed. I cannot guarantee that the details are 100% accurate, but being a member of the Sixth DLI Battalion, his orders would naturally take him to wherever they were at a point in time, and therefore are not simply assumptions on my part.

The earliest photograph I have found is of a company of 63 men who are all wearing “slouch hats” which were worn during the Boer War, (1899 -1902) with the peak pointing to their left. I think that the photograph dates from 1906 or 1907, and could show the point when the whole nature of The DLI Sixth Battalion changed due to the 1907 “Haldane Reforms” and when the Territorial and Reserve Forces Act became law.

Mid way through the Boer War, (in 1900) the 2nd Battalion of The DLI had been increased from 8 Companies to a total of 11, with four main companies A, B, C and D drawn from around the Bishop Auckland, Willington and Crook areas, but at this point they were virtually all “Volunteers”. Names of all these men who served in the Boer War are recorded on a bronze plaque in Bishop Auckland town hall (unveiled in 1903) as a record of the 1st Rifle volunteers of the Battalion that served abroad.

I am certain that Thomas never served in the Boer War itself, but because of the national demand for more armed forces that followed that war, Thomas enlisted in the Second Volunteer Battalion Durham Light Infantry on 7th April 1908, and shortly afterwards his Attestation Papers show he signed up at Ripon on 2nd July 1908 for 2 years. Those who served were allowed to wear an Imperial Service badge above their right breast, after volunteering for service abroad, but there is no Imperial Service badge on any of his uniforms.

Two photographs I have show him with colleagues in the dress uniform of the “Second Volunteers” D.L.I. Their uniform was at that time “Rifle Green” with red facings on collars, sleeves and shoulder bands, some with ornate sleeve decoration, small territorial volunteer army hats rather than peaked caps, and in my Grandfather Thomas’s case he is shown with a “crossed rifles” badge on his left sleeve. Both photographs show the men in front of tents, so it was obviously one of the weekend camps used for training purposes from as early as 1888 through to 1909. It is probably the Ripon camp of 1908.

The background of the men who had joined the original 2nd Battalion DLI was from local businesses, skilled and semi skilled workmen, with many employed in the local coal mines. The men who joined had been attracted by a feeling of patriotism, following the Boer War upset, and by a sense of duty and responsibility to their local communities. Drilling and rifle practice were apparently their basic routine activities.

It is well documented that the earlier 2nd Battalion Volunteers DLI was disbanded in 1908 and 8 new Battalion Companies were formed. A total of 30 officers and 770 men were transferred into the newly formed Sixth Battalion Durham Light Infantry. Presumably because he was already enrolled with the 2nd Battalion DLI Thomas would have been one of these men transferred alongside the others into this new Sixth Battalion fighting force in mid 1908. Thomas was already married at this point to his first wife Anne Dunn and the marriage ceremony had taken place at Durham Register Office on 21 st. September 1907. He was then aged 25 and was living in Park Terrace, Willington Co Durham. Anne must have been pregnant at the time, and succeeded in giving Thomas the first of his five sons. Unfortunately Anne died shortly after on February 1908 following complications. This could well have been his incentive for enlisting in the army full time, but of this I am not certain.

Returning to the 2nd Battalion Volunteers their Headquarters was at Bishop Auckland, under the overall command of Colonel the Honourable W L Vane. Two of the original companies were “B” company Bishop Auckland under the command of Captain W Wilkinson, and “C” company Crook and Willington under the command of Captain J H Ramsey. So in April 1808 the DLI was reorganised into 5 new Territorial Battalions, the 5th, 7th, 8th, 9th and the original 2nd Battalion Volunteers of which Thomas was a member, became what is formally known as the 6th Battalion DLI.

Their dress uniform was changed to Khaki with the volunteer cap badge retained. Later in 1910 all of the other Territorial Battalions in the DLI regiment changed again to uniform and badges of the “regular line” battalions. Except the Sixth Battalion, when Colonel Vane opposed the change so that the Sixth should retain its old connections as a “rifle unit”. All buttons and badges were black, Officers wore black belts and boots, and the cross belt badge stayed the same. Full dress included the Maltese Cross badge, otherwise the uniform of the 6th Battalion was the same as the King’s Royal Rifle Corps, and alongside other rifle battalions the DLI had no colours.

By October 1909 the 6th Battalion DLI had 960 on roll with 28 officers and 932 N.C.O.’s and men. This same year saw the beginning of weekend camps with the very first being held on 11th and 13th of June at Fitches Farm near Witton-le-Wear, commanded by Captain J H Ramsey. This location happens to be less than five miles from where Thomas was living in Willington. The same year a DLI camp was held at Blackhall Rocks near Castle Eden. And further annual camps were also held in 1910 at Rothbury, 1911 at Strensall, 1912 and 1913 at Scarborough and on the eve of World War One in 1914 the annual camp was being held in Conway North Wales, between 25th July and 2nd August.

Amongst the photographs that I have of Thomas are a series of images of various camps that he attended. One shows him at Strensall camp in 1911, with a home-made plaque bearing the name 6th B DLI, Cooks. Another, shows him having competed in a rifle competition, with four other colleagues, all holding lee-enfield rifles and a large shield trophy in the foreground, and could be at Scarborough in 1913. And several more in the traditional white “uniform” of army cooks at Conway in 1914.

The images of these men at Conway reveal some fascinating details. The Commanding Officer is shown not wearing black boots, but instead in his sneakers or tennis shoes. The burly butcher with his honing rod permanently slung on his waist from a chain, and at the other end, in rather grubby whites, a hard looking individual holding a cleaver.

Two further events in my Grandfathers life had occurred before he became fully involved in active service in WW1 itself. The first in 1911 was the Coronation of King George Vth, where the D.L.I. were well represented at all levels, to line the route of the procession, and possibly march in the parades.

In particular a “B” Composite Battalion had been sent including Private T Vayro “Pioneer”, who is named in the book “The Faithful Sixth”. From all accounts the term Pioneer is someone with practical skills, such as digging, carpentry, construction skills, and today may be roughly translated as an “engineer” or “craftsman”. This might reflect the work and experience that Thomas had gained from his time in the mines, and may even have been knowledge or experience with explosives as a “shot-firer” at Brancepeth Colliery.

The second event was that Grandfather Thomas married his second wife Ethel Poole (born 6th August 1887) at the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, Old Elvet, in Durham City on 15th February 1913. Grandfather Thomas was then living at 71 Commercial Street, Willington. They went on to have a further three daughters, and four sons, one of whom was my father John William Vayro. Both of his Marriage Certificates and several of the Baptisms show Thomas clearly as a miner.

I already had his DLI cap badge, and a copy of a letter from King George V th congratulating him on his release in 1918, (which infers he served time as a POW.) I had traced his medal card details in the National Archives index, as Private Thomas Vayro, Regimental number 311, B Company, No 8 Platoon, Sixth Battalion, Durham Light Infantry. His army number was 250007. He was promoted to Sergeant on 12th March 1916, and disembodied on 10th March 1919.

Letters and small pieces of notepaper reveal information that his brother George, (who had emigrated to Canada in 1909) was with the Canadian Mounted Rifles in the 2nd Contingent at Stonecliffe Camp in Kent. George was registered as No 108598, B Squad 3rd CMP, with the 1st. Brigade C.M.R. C.O.E.F. and by the time he went overseas, attached to the British Expeditionary Force to France he held the rank of Lance Corporal. Thomas’s other brother Alfred was also serving with the Army Services Corp.

At this point I began to search for the finer detail for Thomas himself, and though it had required careful detective work to identify the details in the photographs, further factual information gleaned from “The Faithful Sixth” by Harry Moses was invaluable.

On returning from Conway Camp where they had received a telegram to mobilise, the Sixth Battalion stayed overnight in Bishop Auckland and on Saturday 8th August 1914 they paraded in the market place and marched to the Bishop of Durham’s Palace in Auckland Park. The following day they were put on war stations at Boldon near Sunderland, and on 19th August were encamped at Ravensworth Castle near Gateshead, a camp that was to last for over 3 months until they were moved into winter billets in the Bensham Area of Newcastle in November.

Captain F Walton left the Battalion for Le Havre on 10th April 1915, and the transport and machine gun sections left a week later. Meanwhile the main Sixth Battalion left their Billets on the 14th, and marched to Newcastle Railway Station where they boarded 2 trains for Folkestone. The Regiment sailed on the “Invicta”, landing at Boulogne on 19th, and camped at St Martin’s, Ostrovhe. The following morning they were transported by rail to Cassel and then marched the 8 miles to Hardifort.

On the 22nd April 1915 the Sixth Battalion were ordered to defend the villages of Ryfeld, Steenvorde and Vlamertinghe before yet another march to Ypres where heavy casualties had already occurred. Yet further on to Zonnebeke, passing the ruined village of Potijze and reaching the GHQ line that ran north from Zillebeke Lake to Wieltje and Boesinghe.

At the Zonnebeke Road the Battalion were stopped by heavy shell-fire and lay in the hedgerow until daylight. They were then ordered to move in support of the 7th DLI and the Shropshire Light Infantry who had been under heavy shellfire. On reaching a ridge “B” company (and I can only assume Thomas with them) moved to the front line alongside the First Battalion Hampshire Regiment.

There began an ordeal in the trenches, being constantly bombarded by German Artillery during the day, improving and repairing trenches by night, with little food or sleep. They had no periscopes for observing enemy positions and movements, no flares for illuminating “No-man’s Land” and no previous experience of this type of situation. Fortunately they were relieved five days later on the 30th April. A short sharp shock for those involved, but with only 14 NCOs killed and 55 other servicemen wounded.

Before the war public comments about the Territorials had often been derisory, they were described as “Fireside Soldiers, playing at war” as they passed on their way to the Drill Halls. These same volunteers faced extreme danger, and were now fighting for “King and Country” and there was much worse to come.

The situation at Ypres deteriorated and in early May 1915 the Sixth relieved the First Cavalry Division on the GHQ line at Zonnebeke Lake. Along with the 7th, 8th and 9th Battalions they became the 151st Brigade of the 50th Northumbrian Division. Both the A and B Companies were attached to the Scots Greys, while C to the 12th Lancers and D to the 20th Hussars, in order to give the Sixth “more experience of front line warfare”.

In late May the Sixth DLI left their trenches and was encamped in huts near Brandhoek. The Germans began a fierce bombardment at 3.30 in the morning on 24th whilst most of the Battalion were asleep. Gas had been released and reached their huts, and this forced a speedy move to Potizje Chateau. In June the Battalion were ordered to Sanctuary Wood, near Hooge, rather inappropriately named, for it had already seen fierce fighting and sacrifice. The B Company trench had been so badly damaged it could no longer be used. Consequently, more digging and repair work was required.

With his rifle skills, I feel sure that Thomas would have been an infantry marksman, but I have no proof that he was actually in the line of fire, and may well have been providing rations, or collecting supplies for the troops.

The other theory I have is that as a miner used to heavy digging at the coal face, with his “marrars” he may well have been employed digging and repairing trenches, and tunnels under no-man’s land to lay the mines under enemy lines. The DLI men had apparently developed a reputation for excellence in digging out and maintaining their trenches, to them it may have been just another day’s work, like loading the coal into the tubs at the coal face.

Later in the war a Second Lieutenant Lyon is recorded as saying “The Miners of Durham are some of the finest fighters the country possesses, rough in manner, they possess a power of endurance and a courageous spirit, admirable in adversity”. I would like to think he was talking about my Grandfather!

In December 1915 Thomas hopefully would have received news that his first daughter Mary had been born, but the Sixth Battalion had moved to La Maison Blanche bear Bailleul. On Xmas day they remained in reserve until 3rd January and were back in the trenches at Sanctuary Wood shortly afterwards. Mid-winter conditions, icy winds and heavy rain turned the ground into a quagmire, with many soldiers suffering from “trench foot”, and only copious mugs of tea and the occasional tot of rum to raise their morale.

There is another photograph that is of interest that proves that war was obviously not all continuously digging, marching and confronting the enemy. In the centre of the back row of a group of 28 Warrant Officers and Sergeants, taken at Souastre near Arras in 1917 is Thomas now aged 34. In the foreground is a set of stumps, a bat and cricket balls. They were obviously relaxing and “out of line”, though I doubt if they were playing cricket in full dress uniform!

Thomas must obviously have received periods of leave between his terms of duty, but I have no dates for these, and his third son Alfred, wasn’t born until May 1920, well after the war itself had ended.

At the beginning of the Great War in April 1915 the Sixth Battalion had been thrown into battle against what was then a superior German force, and in May 1918 the Sixth again fought alongside their French Allies in a similar desperate battle until they were finally successful.

At some point during these final skirmishes with the enemy, Thomas was captured and held as a Prisoner of War for several months. Records of the dates and camp details have not yet been traced, and my search for information on his military life continues. The main Sixth Battalion continued to fight until 6th November 1918 (five days before the official end of the war) when they were demobilized and dispatched to base camp at É’taples.

It is only very recently that I had found out that Thomas had received a letter from King George Vth, commending him on his safe release and his return from active service for the country. At the end of the war Thomas received the 1914 -1915 Star, the 1914 -1918 War Medal, the Victory Medal and the Territorial Efficiency Medal. This latter apparently was normally awarded for long service, for being in the T.A. from 1908 to 1914, and his service years from 1914 to 1920 would count double.

After reading numerous articles about The Great War, describing the atrocities that took place, and realizing that many thousands of soldiers were lost in France and Belgium, I now understand why my Grandfather never wanted to talk about his experiences. Despite having received only small wounds, his experience of the gas released in the trenches caused him chest problems for the rest of his life.

He set about raising his family, and returned to work in the local collieries at Brancepeth, Oakenshaw and Sunnybrow where he continued until 1950, when at the age of 67 he retired having deliberately worked an extra two years to get an additional 6 pence on his weekly pension. Thomas had moved to Willington in 1900 to find work, went to war, survived the depression and he remained there until he died on 4th September 1966 aged 83. Coincidentally he was buried at St Stephen’s Church in Willington on my 25th birthday

By the outbreak of WW2 in 1939 Thomas had been in his 56th year and therefore too old to serve, but the Durham Light Infantry had set up an Infantry Training Camp near Brancepeth Castle, which continued through to 1958 and I can remember visiting the castle in the 1950s on a couple of occasions seeing the soldiers in uniform marching on parade from the camp and through the castle grounds

Historically the Sixth Battalion D L I had its early inception in the Durham Rifle Volunteers of 1859 and served through both World Wars until it was disbanded in 1968. On the second Sunday of September a reunion of the D L I Association is held each year in the Cathedral on Palace Green in Durham City.

My search for information on his military life still continues; alongside other general family research. Thanks to a fellow researcher I now have images of his full service records, which I thought were lost in the London blitz in WW2, but turned up as part of the “Burnt Documents2 in the National Archives. One area that I want to explore is the Red Cross records where I may find more information on the actual POW camp, and his dates of capture and release. He was posted missing in action on 27th May 1918, and could have been involved in the third Battle of Aisne in may 1918 where some 50,000 allied troops were taken by the Germans, and he may have ended up in the Crossen am den Oder Camp, for the rest of the war.

My own memories of my Grandfather are of a thin wiry man, hard as nails through many years of working in the mines, and because of his military discipline would take no nonsense from his children and particularly his grandchildren. Even in his late 70s his back was relatively straight, his vegetables were planted in his council house garden, and he still walked to the local club for a pint of ale with his friends who worked or fought beside him. Perhaps he had talked to them!

With my thanks to Harry Moses, author of “The Faithful Sixth”; an invaluable D.L.I. source record. Also to Steve Shannon, Military Historian, Durham Light Infantry Museum, Durham City.

1914 -1915 Star, 1915 -1918 War Medal, Victory Medal, and Territorial Forces Efficiency Medal

2 Durham Light Infantry Cap Badge

3 1953 Pioneer’s Diploma for T Vayro, from Durham Miner’s Association

4 1914-1919 Roll of Honour, Willington and District Working Men’s Clubs

5 1917 Warrant Officers and Sergeants “Out of Line” relaxing playing Cricket, near Arras in France,Thomas back row, fifth from left.

6 1906 DLI Second Volunteers in Boer War Uniform, wearing Slouch Hats

7 1908 DLI Second Battalion Volunteers, Thomas, middle row, centre

8 1908 Second Battalion Volunteers, Thomas far right, kneeling

9 1911 B Company DLI Strensall Camp, regular uniform, Thomas, far right seated

10 1913 6 th Battalion DLI Competition, Sergeant Thomas Vayro centre

11 1914 Conway Camp, “A likely looking lot “ of Cooks, Thomas next to CO in front row

12 1914 Conway Camp, Thomas seated, second right, in what looks like the cleanest “cook’s whites”

13 1913 Thomas, aged 30, before he married Ethel Poole

14 1916 Thomas and Ethel, with children, Thomas Henry standing (6), John William seated (2) and Mary Elizabeth (1)

15 1918 Letter from King George Vth

16 1917 Addresses for Private T Vayro, his future sister in law Mrs Rennison, and brother Lance Corporal George Vayro

17 1917 Addresses for his brother Lance Corporal George Vayro, and two of his sister in laws,Mrs George Vayro and Mrs Alfred Vayro

18 1915 April, Ypres Salient, Advance of the Durham Light Infantry, adapted from a black drawing in “The Faithful Sixth” by Harry Moses

19 1917 WW1 Postcards sent from France to Ethel, and his sons Thomas Henry and John William

20 1915 -16 Group of Officers, Sergeant T Vayro, back row, second right

21 1913 pre WW1, Thomas in Uniform, wife Ethel, sons Thomas Henry 4 standing and John William 1 on mother’s knee

22 1950 Thomas and Ethel at 19 Gardner Avenue, Willington, Co Durham

23 1958 DLI, Brancepeth Castle Parade, amalgamation of 1st and 2nd Battalions

The Wartime Memories Project - The Great War

Research your own Family History.

Those Who Served

Surname

Can you help us to add to our records?

Help us to build a database of information on those who served both at home and abroad so that future generations may learn of their sacrifice.

Celebrate your own Family History