Pte. William Rainsforth British Army 5th Btn. Lincoln Regt The Wartime Memories Project

Pte. William "Twinny" Rainsforth

British Army 5th Btn. Lincoln Regt

from:Gainsbrough, Lincolnshire

I am researching my Family History and have found several very interesting stories about some of my male family members who fought so bravely in WW1. Some made it through WW1 - others were not so lucky. I have found it very harrowing and yet very rivetting to take a look at the parallel stories of the WW1 encounters of each of the four men that I have selected from my own Family History research and feel it worth writing in: so that other people can feel the impact of such a senseless war: as I have felt it myself. I am torn with the futility of war and yet have so much admiration for those who fought it. Born in an era after both World Wars: I feel that I owe it to all soldiers who fought in both conflicts, and to myself, to explore the inevitable outcomes and sacrifices of precious lives in war and yet to marvel at the bravery of those who so willingly engaged for King & Country at the certain risk of loosing their souls in a foreign land. In those days: men did as they were ordered to do without question and willingly. I believe we who follow owe it to them to remember them and to delve for their personal stories, as I have been doing of late. I hope that my discoveries about 4 of my soldier ancestors will be of interest to many of you and may set you along the course of investigating your own family members who made the same sacrifices and endured memories of similar experiences and who had to live with the consequences - for the remainder of their lives - as mine did. Who knows how they managed to live "normal" lives after such events?

There are 4 soldiers in particular whose very different stories I should like to relate, the first of whom is William Rainsforth. William was my Grandad's younger brother. He was born 14th February 1887 in Gainsborough, Lincs - the youngest son of John & Christania RAINSFORTH and one of eight children. In the 1901 census, William is listed living at home at 57 Ashcroft Road, Gainsborough, Lincs and is a grocer's assistant. Just like his 3 elder brothers, William was football mad and played for the local Working Men's Club: later playing and refereeing for Gainsbro Trinity - so he could run fast!!!!! Because William had twin older brothers: Ernest (my Granddad) and George who were locally each called "Twinny Rainsforth", William also inherited that same nickname even though he was not a twin himself. It seems if your name was RAINSFORTH and you lived in Gainsbro - you were automatically and fondly nick-named "Twinny". By 1907: William was married to Nellie Forrest and he had begun to have children of his own. At the time of going to war, he and Nellie had 3 young sons. William was there, as a machine gunner, on 13th October 1915 - that fateful day - when the 46th North Midland Division were ordered to go over the top and to take the Hohenzollern Redoubt. Less than half an hour into the attack - 1309 men lay dead, masacred by machine gun fire - 357 of them from Lincolnshire. News of this terrible slaughter was slow to filter through to the local townspeople of Gainsborough: although most knew that there had been a dreadful battle that day and many were anxiously awaiting news of their fathers, brothers and sons. As even today, Gainsborough people are community spirited so when one person received word - they rushed off to the local newspaper clutching their missive and allowed their letters from their own loved ones to be published in the local paper: to give others hope or just to try to make sense of what had happened in France to their boys on that day in October of 1915. William's wife received a letter at their home at 3 Willoughby Street, Gainsborough, Lincs from William quite soon after the battle and had the enormous relief of knowing that her man had survived the carnage and the heavy machine gun fire from the German defenders of the Hohenzollern Redoubt that day. In the edition of the Gainsbro News dated 22/10/1915 was William's harrowing published firsthand account transcribed as follows: "October 13th Gainsborough Will Always Remember Sad & Glorious Day for the 5th Lincolns Thrilling letter from Gainsborough Territorial I am safe and sound thank the Lord. For we have had one of the worst experiences we have ever had. I dare not tell you how many men we have lost, but it is awful to think about and I don't know what Gainsborough will think. How on earth I got through I don't know. We did real well. we took four lines of German trenches and captured a farmhouse, a big fortified position. When we got in the second line of of German trenches, two Germans came out of a dugout. I said "Hands up" and they dropped their rifles and cried for mercy. But I thought of my pals that had gone under and shot them both. I am not telling lies it is true, as if I had gone on they would have shot me, but I daresay someone will tell you about it. I cared for nothing and I don't know how I kept my nerves. Poor old--------. He said he would get killed before we went over the top and -------said I was to let the know if anything happened to him poor lad. He was the second to be shot down in his Comapny, so they will be able to get to him to bury him properly. Gainsborough will always remember the 13th October--- you don't know the half yet. The Band were pleased to see me get through all right. Six of us have been recommended for bravery on the field. We got our gun the farthest of any,and got it into action. We did mow then down. I was rushing over the open ground when two of my mates at the side of me were shot down. I think I have been very lucky but I put my trust in God. It was a treat to see us charge. Every man went over without a flinch. When we who were left came out of it we rode way in buses. They kept asking us who we were. When we said "5th Lincolns" you ought to have heard them cheer. We had taken a position the Regulars could not take, but we have suffered for it. Hope they will semd us home to dear old England after this. Good-bye and God bless till we meet again." William lived until the ripe old age of 86 dying in Gainsbro in 1973. No doubt he carried the memories of that day with him - and of his part in the battle - for the rest of his life? I expect that there may well be some German counterparts of mine now researching their own family history and just as anxious and curious to know who killed their Great Uncle or Grandfather at the Hohenzollern Redoubt that day? Well....William, by his own written admission, killed at least two such persons in that charge that day..... but what choice did he have?

The other 3 persons who I wish to mention were my Grandfather - Ernest Rainsforth, elder brother of William whose story I have told above - who was badly injured but also survived and was repatriated to England from France with his bicep blown off and with a serious knee injury from sharpnel: whilst fighting with the 2/5th West Riding Regiment as the Germans pulled back from the Hindenberg Line in March 1917. I am lucky enough to have my Grandad's war discharge papers - discharged as being medically unfit for further war service - and the original telegram sent to his Mother advising her that Ernest had been wounded and admitted to hospital in London. I ache with sheer anguish for her when I read that telegram and know what his Mum must have felt at the time. My Grandad survived the war: met my Nan at Malden Hospital in Middlesex where she was nursing during WW1 and returned to his home town of Gainsbro with a beautiful new wife. Ernest lived until the age of 94. He never chose to speak to anyone about his experiences in France except to say to my younger brother - when my brother was a boy - that he laid on a stretcher in a field at a Clearing Station - gagging for a drink of water for over 24 hours and when he called the orderly for water the orderly said "shut-up Rainsforth, the bloke laid next to you has 16 bullits in him ". Grandad unrolled his shirt sleeve and showed my brother a massive intentation in his left arm where his bicep had been literally blown off.

Then there is my Grandmother's Uncle Albert H Dean; an ambulance man from New Malden in Surrey who survived almost to the last day of the war only to die in the 10th Military Hospital in France of bronch-pneumonia, leaving a young and devoted widow named Mabel and two very young sons. Albert had asked his cousin to "look after Mabel and the boys" should anything happen to him. His cousin married Mabel and did take good care of his boys. I am in possession of Albert H Dean's original military death certificate and I was lucky enough to meet his 95 year old surviving son, Arthur Dean, a couple of years back who was able to describe the day that they received word that his father had died and was to be buried at Rouen. Arthur Dean still commemorates his father's life - all of these many years later - on Armistice Day. He cried when I was able to hand over a small Bible (which had been left to me amongst family papers and photos and other memorabilia) that had once belonged to his father when his father was a boy.

My final candidate is another ancestor named Robert Edward Ryder from Harefield in Middlesex. Robert was born in December 1895 in Harefield and served with 12th Battalion Middlesex Regiment (Duke of Cambridge Own) enlisting in 1914. He won the Victoria Cross for " most conspicuous bravery" at Theipval on September 25th 1916. Robert was just 20 years old when he found himself fighting to take Theipval, with all Officers wounded, dead or down. He single handedly charged a German trench with his lewis gun when, for want of leadership, the attack was flagging. When I discovered that Robert's very young wife had recently died of "consumption" (more likely of asbestosis because she had been working in a local asbestos factory near Harefield), it did make me wonder if Robert just "did not give a damn" since his lovely young Bride had just died so horribly? His VC is now in the Imperial War Museum. The quote with his medals says quite simply: " I don't know what came over me...normally...I wouldn't hurt a fly".

Just a story of 4 men. As William Rainsforth said in his letter in 1915 to his wife, Nellie, "Gainsborough will always remember 13th October"... and yet...I wonder just how many Gainsborough people alive and well today even know about this piece of history and think about the impact that it had on so many lives?

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