The Baldock brothers

Frank and Harold Baldock

The First World War was particularly tragic for Frederick and Annie Baldock who ran Baldock's Mill in South Street, Bourne. They lost two of their sons and a third was wounded.

Frank Baldock enlisted in the 6th Battalion, the Lincolnshire Regiment, one of the first batch of lads from Bourne, and was soon promoted lance corporal and posted to the Dardanelles where he took part in one of the early engagements. He was killed in action at Gallipoli on 9th August 1915 in the vicinity of the Scimitar Hill area of Suvla and is commemorated on the Helles Memorial in Gallipoli and the war memorial in Bourne. Little is known about his death other than he was posted missing for several months before being presumed dead and his age is unknown.

He had been taking part in the attack on Scimitar Hill (Hill 70) which the 6th Battalion thought was still in the hands of the British but had been reoccupied and fortified by units of the Turkish army during the night, resulting in heavy casualties. Frank Baldock helped to bandage one wounded soldier but his movements after that are not recorded and he was later reported killed together with other friends from Bourne, Private Percy Cleary and Lance Corporal Robert Benstead, and as their bodies lay in the Turkish area their identity discs could not be collected and so at the time it was not known whether they had been killed or captured. In addition, the area had become so dry that it caught fire which created even more confusion and it was during this action that the battalion adjutant, Captain Percy Hansen, was awarded the Victoria Cross for rescuing some of the wounded men who would otherwise have been burned to death.

Frank Baldock had only been married for a few years before his death and the Lincolnshire Free Press of Tuesday 14th September 1915 carried a report that he had been listed as wounded and missing accompanied by a picture of his small daughter and the caption: "This is the little girl who wants to know where Daddy is. Much sympathy has been expressed with the wife and parents of Lance Corporal Baldock in the great tension."

Private Cleary had worked as a ticket collector at Bourne railway station and his name is therefore commemorated on a total of eight war memorials.

Harold Baldock was a boy 1st Class with the Royal Navy and he died with the sinking of HMS Natal in 1915 at the age of 17 and two weeks after he had been home on leave to visit his family at Baldock's Mill in Bourne. The ship, a 13,550-ton armoured cruiser, was destroyed by an accidental internal explosion in the harbour at Cromarty in Scotland that caused the death of 405 men out of a complement of 704. His name has been included on the Chatham Naval Memorial and the war memorial in Bourne and a World War One memorial plaque bearing his name (pictured right) is preserved in the Heritage Centre.

Harold Baldock memorial plaque

On that fateful day, 30th December 1915, when the Natal blew up in Cromarty harbour and sank with the loss of 25 officers and 380 ratings, nearly half the crew were enjoying shore leave but eight civilians were on board at the invitation of the captain.

The official inquiry concluded that the cause of the disaster was faulty ammunition and as almost every officer remaining on board had perished there was apparently no one to dispute the theory. However one person on board at the time of the explosion was Able Seaman James McDade who on passing the aft magazine saw one of his friends smoking while on duty there. As this was strictly forbidden, and not wishing to be seen with the culprit, he made his way immediately up on deck. A few minutes later he was blown overboard by the explosion which destroyed the ship and apart from mild hypothermia from being in the water, he suffered no other injuries.

McDade recounted the story to his family many years after the war and on being questioned as to why he did not report the incident to the Board of Enquiry, he simply replied: "I was never asked and anyway he was my friend."

Jack Baldock was wounded during the Great War but survived and returned home to help his father run the mill.

NEXT OF KIN MEMORIAL PLAQUES

The memorial plaque sent to the Baldock family described above was found during a house clearance in the town in March 2009. Until then, its whereabouts were unknown. It was originally sent with a letter from King George V to Frederick and Annie Baldock who ran Baldock's Mill in South Street, and the plaque bore the name of their son Harold.
The plaque was one of thousands made to remember our war dead. In 1916, the government decided that some form of memorial should be established for presentation to the next of kin of those soldiers and sailors who had died and the scheme was first made public in The Times on Tuesday 7th November 1916 under the headline "Memento for the Fallen - State Gift for Relatives" and a committee was appointed to consider what form it should take.
In August 1917, it was decided that it would be a bronze plaque, the design to be decided by a public competition with a winning prize of £250. The announcement aroused tremendous interest, especially from overseas, and by the closing date of 31st December 1917 there were more than 800 entries from all parts of the Empire, the Western Front, the Balkans and Middle Eastern theatres of war and from many artists based at home in Britain.
The winning design was chosen by the committee at its meeting on 24th January 1918 and subsequently approved by the Admiralty, the War Office and the King. The winner was Edward Carter Preston, of the Sandon Studios Society in Liverpool, who received the first prize for a plaque measuring 4¾ inches in diameter (121 mm) and depicting the figure of Britannia, classically robed and helmeted, standing and holding a laurel wreath crown in her extended left hand and supporting a trident by her right side with a lion in the foreground. There were also prizes for the entrants in second and third places while another nineteen were given honourable mentions and all of the prize-winning designs were exhibited for a time during the spring and early summer of 1918 at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Production of these next of kin memorial plaques began at Acton in West London in December 1918, later transferring to the Woolwich Arsenal and other munitions factories. Over one million were made, commemorating the sacrifice of men and women who died while serving at home establishments or in Western Europe and the dominions between 4th August 1914 and 30th April 1920, and were sent to next of kin through the post in stiff card folders. They were inscribed "He died for freedom and honour" and bore the name of the recipient and were accompanied by a signed letter from the King saying: "I join with my grateful people in sending you this memorial of a brave life given for others in the Great War."
Today, they have become rare and collectable items and occasionally appear at auction, often with the campaign medals of the recipient, and fetching between £50 and £100. But they are also a reminder of a conflict which became known as the war to end all wars, a promise made by politicians amid the jingoism of the time and a phrase which now has a hollow ring while the memorial plaques serve as a reminder of the sacrifices that were made in the futility of the fighting by many who did not even know what it was all about.
Ironically, Harold Baldock’s plaque was handed over for safe keeping to the Heritage Centre in South Street, formerly Baldock’s Mill run by Frederick and Annie Baldock and where it would have been originally delivered by the postman ninety years before. Sadly, the family also received a second plaque in respect of another son, Frank Baldock, whose circumstances are described above, but the whereabouts of this one is unknown.