The Battalion's Officers, Summer of 1915

One of the first actions of the recruitment committee which had been formed by the Mayor of Lewisham was to propose the name of Herbert L Searle as Commanding Officer of the newly formed battalion.
Major Searle was well known locally as a Commissioner of Boy Scouts for South-East London but had previous military experience. Entering the Army in 1884 he had served in Sudan and then West Africa where he had been a Major in the Niger Coast Protectorate Force.

At the outbreak of war he was given a temporary commission and went on to help with the training of the 8th East Surrey Battalion until transferred to the 11th Royal West Kent's and appointed temporary Lieutenant-Colonel. 

By the summer of  1915 Major Arthur James Annesley had been appointed second in command while Captain Edgar Stopford-Holland held the post of Adjutant until replaced by Captain George Pragnell in September.
George Pragnell was to have a major say in the shaping of the battalion, being responsible for recruitment marches, organising sporting events such as boxing and billiard tournaments and arranging the day to day orders and administration so the 11th could run smoothly.

Captain Reginald Puttock M.B was the battalions first Medical Officer after being attached from the Royal Army Medical Corps while a host of  junior officers had gained their commissions and had been posted to the 11th.

Notable amongst these were Lieutenants Dickinson, Stone and Vigers. All three were soon promoted to Captain and would have a major impact on the initial training of the battalion.
Captain Arthur Dickinson would go on to command D Company, Captain Leonard Stone would become second in command of C Company while Captain Vigers was instrumental in the training of A Company before being accidentally wounded.

There was also many 2nd Lieutenants. They included Noel Barrs who had received his commission after attending the Officer Training Corps at his school, St Bees in Cumberland, now Cumbria.

20 year old John Oswald Heath was the son of a local businessman from Lee. Having served in the Honourable Artillery Company from 1913, he received his commission and was appointed Bombing Officer of the battalion.

Robert Donovan Jackson was the grandson of the Mayor and the battalions first signalling officer while Arthur Morley was the son of Councillor Morley who was part of the recruitment committee.
Henry Richmond Prior, Bernard Purver, Peter Clarke-Richardson and Charles Yorke were all to make an impression on their fellow officers and the men under their command while with the battalion.

In August and September of 1915 other officers joined the battalion as the numbers of volunteers increased. Lieutenant Frederick Fraser formerly of the London Regiment, Henry Bainton who was 45 years of age, Spanish born Antoino Jimenez and Donald Knott would soon make their mark but the most prominent was Major Arthur Cecil Corfe.

New Zealand born and the son of a headmaster Arthur Corfe was a well known Rugby player in his youth representing Queensland and gaining a cap while representing Australia against a touring Great Britain side. In 1902 he embarked for South Africa as a Trooper with the Queensland Mounted Infantry where he took part in the latter stages of the Boer War. He went on to receive a commission and served with the 10th New Zealand Mounted Rifles reaching the rank of Captain. Another promotion followed and as Major he was appointed second in command of the 7th (Southland) Mounted Rifles.
At the outbreak of the war in 1914 he took part in South West Africa campaign where British and South African forces fought Germany and its allies.
In August 1915 he turned up at the War Office in Whitehall, London and received a letter from the Secretary of State of War himself, Lord Horatio Kitchener that he was to be given a second in command post at one of the new battalions that had been formed recently.
As the 11th already had Major Annesley in that post Major Corfe readily agreed to take up the  command of A Company as a "Junior Major" such was his keenness to immerse himself into Army life.

With this experienced fighter the 11th Royal West Kent's were lucky, fortunate or maybe blessed to have such a soldier in their midst. Here was a man who would gain the respect and admiration of not only the civilians who volunteered into the Lewisham Battalion but the subsequent drafts of reinforcements of "Derby Men and Conscripts" while Major Corfe knew that these "Men and Boys" who recently arrived from "Civvy Street" were temporary soldiers who were only there for the duration of the war.

       

Major Arthur Cecil Corfe pictured at Battalion Headquarters in the spring of 1917.