Old Hulmeians War Memorial 1914

BASIL TEMPEST

9 May 1892 - 25 April 1917

At School 1901 - 1906

2nd Lieut 13th Manchester Regt

Basil was born in Longsight and in 1901, aged 8, was living at 1 Clarendon Road, Whalley Range, with father James, a surgeon, mother Louisa, younger brother Harold and one domestic servant. Basil entered School aged 9 and left in 1906 to attend Manchester Grammar School. At School he was a member of the Union Society, Junior Branch and in 1905 gave a talk on "Electric Motors" showing an early interest in his chosen career of engineering. He later gave a talk on "Domestic Pets" relating the "doings" of a St. Bernard dog he had owned. In 1910 he commenced a four year apprenticeship with the Engineering Company Mather & Platt Limited based in Salford and Newton Heath, Manchester. On completion of his apprenticeship he won a County Council

Scholarship of £60 a year for three years and in October 1914 entered Manchester University, where he joined the Officer Training Corps. On 28th January 1915, he was appointed a Temporary Second Lieutenant, Gazetted with a list of fellow promoted cadets. He was posted to the 13th Manchester Regiment, which, in October 1915 became part of the 66th Brigade, 22nd Division. In March 1915 the Battalion was in training at Seaford, East Sussex and in May moved to Aldershot for final training.

On 6th September 1915, Basil, with the Battalion, embarked at Folkestone, landing at Boulogne the following day. The 22nd Division was based in the Flesselles area some 10

kilometres north of Amiens. In October, upon joining the 66th Brigade, they entrained for Marseilles and embarked for Salonika, Greece, on the 29th, arriving on 6th November. Greece was essentially neutral, but divided in its support for Germany or the Allies. King Constantine, who had married the Kaiser's sister, favoured Germany, whereas the Greek prime minister, Venizelos, favoured the Allies and, indeed, gave the Allies permission to enter Greek territory.

In October a combined Franco -British force had landed at Salonika, the objective being to help the Serbs in their fight against Bulgarian aggression, which was being supported by Germany. Unfortunately they were too late, the Serbs having been practically beaten before they landed. An attempt was made by the French to break through the Bulgarians to reach the retreating Serbs but this proved impossible. Allied forces then prepared defensive positions around Salonika expecting the Bulgarian forces to try and advance into Greece, however the expected invasion did not take place and the Bulgarians dug in along the Greek-Serb border from the Albanian coast to

Lake Doiran and the Bulgarian border. This then allowed the Allies to build a network of roads and move north and east from the Salonika fortifications to form positions opposite the enemy lines. During 1916, the surviving troops of the Serbian army were re-equipped on Corfu, with help from the British and French, and transported to Salonika in April and May. In August, the Allied forces were strengthened by two Russian Brigades and an Italian Division. The British front stretched from the River Vardar, just west of Doiran, eastwards to the River Struma and southwards down the Struma Valley along the right bank of the river. The countryside was infested with mosquitoes and disease caused more casualties than battle, the British Salonica Force suffering over 162,000 cases of malaria. On 7th July 1916, Basil was admitted to hospital with malaria and evacuated to Malta, where he stayed until the end of August, rejoining the Battalion on 2nd September.

With the knowledge that Roumania was about to enter the war on the Allied side, the Allied Commander, General Sarrail, made preparations for an attack on the Bulgarian forces in the Vardar valley. Two British Divisions were placed south of Doiran and two further Divisions in reserve, to assist if necessary the French attack. However the Bulgarians attacked first, in August 1916, in an attempt to encourage Roumania to remain neutral, and achieved early success in the west through the element of surprise, driving the Serbian troops back southwards to Lake Ostrovo. Here the Bulgarian offence was halted and a lull in the fighting followed until mid September, when the Franco-Serbian counter offensive began. Supported by the Russians and aided by British attacks in other areas to occupy the Bulgarians and prevent reinforcements being sent, the offensive culminated in the capture of Monastir on 19th November.

Fighting continued until the end of November but then winter set in and in view of the depleted Allied numbers, the lack of knowledge of the enemy strength opposing them and the threat of a potential pro German Greek force in the rear, the position was consolidated and any further thoughts of an offensive were deferred to the Spring. Reinforcements and drafts were received during the winter and reserves of ammunition accumulated. In March 1917 attacks by the French met with only limited success, but the greater part of April was spent in preparing for further offensives, and on 24th April it was the turn of the British to engage in the the most considerable action they had yet undertaken - an attack on the Bulgarian held hill positions by Lake Doiran.

The Battalion was to attack on the left flank from Horseshoe Hill along the ridge north of that position. They faced precipitous slopes, heavily fortified by the enemy, and much broken ground making the task extremely difficult. On the 16th they moved up to camp at Kidney Hill and Doldzeli in preparation for the attack. After two days artillery bombardment, beginning on 22nd April, the attack began on the night of the 24th. The objectives were to carry the enemy first system of trenches, consolidate there, then bring up the guns and renew the assault on the trench systems behind. On the left flank, the Battalion had to cross about 900 yards of ground and dig themselves in along the side of Jackson Ravine, a little behind the enemy's original front line. The length of this new front would be about 1,500 yards; but it had the disadvantage of being dominated not only by the enemy's second system of trenches further up the slope, but also by the Petit Couronné and the rest of the enemy's front line, which was the objective of the brigades on the right, so that if the attack on the left succeeded and the attack on the right did not, the troops on the left would find themselves under extremely exposed conditions in its new line. This, in fact, is what did happen. The infantry assault was fixed for 8.30 p.m., and half an hour before that time the enemy opened a barrage along the whole British front. Powerful searchlights, one in Doiran town and the other higher up the slopes behind, threw their light along the front-line trenches, which were fringed by bursting shells. Through this concentrated barrage, the infantry pressed on to the attack, and everywhere entered the enemy's lines, only to be driven out on the right by the heavy fire which the Bulgar guns opened on their own captured front trenches, and by determined counter-attacks. The Battalion gained its objectives on the left and held it throughout the night against four enemy counter attacks but were later forced to fall back owing to the failure of the Brigades to the right.

Basil was mortally wounded by a shell on the morning of the 25th, in the circumstances indicated below.

Basil was originally buried in Horseshoe Hill Military Cemetery on the Greco Serbian boundary, near where he died. However in March 1919, his parents were advised that "for various reasons it has been found necessary to exhume the bodies buried in this area and re-inter them, and the body of the above mentioned officer has been removed and buried in Kalinova Military Cemetery, Salonika." His body was moved again in December 1920 to Karasouli

Military Cemetery where it now rests - Grave Reference E1117. Administration was granted in Manchester on 24th October 1917 to James Tempest, Surgeon. Effects £327 3s 5d. Personal effects of 1 torch, 1 pair field glasses, 1 writing pad and correspondence were forwarded to his father.

Basil's officer record survives at the National Archives and part of his file relates to an enquiry from his parents regarding an "award for improvement on Lewis Gun". With his engineering knowledge it is quite possible that he could have achieved this, however, despite enquiries to the

Battalion and elsewhere it appears it was unable to be proven, the Adjutant advising "no information of a definite nature". It was unfortunate that Austen Bradbury, another Old Hulmeian, did not survive the war to support the claim. Finally, on 19th November 1920,

the claim was marked "Note. This claim was disposed of on 84 Claims 229." I have yet been unable to discover what this means.

The Hulmeian – July 1917

The School and the War

Deaths

Second Lieutenant BASIL TEMPEST, Manchester Regiment, died of wounds received in action on April 25^th. He entered the School September, 1901, and left in 1906 to go to the Manchester Grammar School. Before the war he was a student apprentice at Messrs Mather and Platt Limited, for four years,and gained a Manchester University scholarship in 1914. Joining the Manchester University O.T.C., on the outbreak of war, he was gazetted second lieutenant in the following November. He served in France and Macedonia.

Manchester University Obituary

Basil was born on 9th May 1892 at Longsight to James (Medical Profession – MRCS, 1897; LRCP London, 1897, surgeon) and Louisa Annie Tempest of 1 Clarendon Road, Whalley Range, Manchester. He was educated at Hulme Grammar School and Manchester Grammar School (1906-1910). In 1910-11 at age 18 he enrolled for 1st Year Engineers Apprenticeship Course. He entered Manchester University as a 22 year-old on 1st October 1914 to study Mechanical Engineering on a £60 a year County Council scholarship with 4 years engineering experience having completed an apprenticeship with Mather and Platt Ltd.

Basil tried to enlist in August 1914, but was forbidden by the education authorities until he had taken up his scholarship. In October 1914 he joined the University Officer Training Corps and was gazetted on 28th January 1915 to the Manchester Regiment, went to France in June 1915, then to Salonika in November that year. On 24th April 1917 he was successful in taking a trench from the Bulgarians, but was killed by a shell early on the morning of 25th April.

Effects worth £327 3s 5d were left to his father.

Manchester Grammar School Magazine - Ulula

Lieutenant Basil Tempest, 13th Battalion, Manchester Regiment (1906-10), killed in action in May,1917, on leaving School passed his Matriculation and entered the service of Messrs. Mather and Platt as student apprentice. In July, 1914, he gained a County Council Scholarship for the University. As soon as the war broke out he enlisted, but was detained by the Authorities for training in the O.T.C. He received his commission in January,1915, went out to France in July, and in the following November to Salonica.

" As the Senior Subaltern in the Company," writes Captain F. J. Taylor, " he had the option of leading the first wave of the attack on the Bulgar lines, and he jumped at the idea immediately. He guided and controlled his men across No Man's Land, and was the first to enter the enemy trenches. For the rest of the night he was in charge of the advanced sentry groups and reconnoitring patrols. Next morning at about 4-15, during a Bulgar counter-attack, he got up on the parapet, walked forward, firing a Very Light, to see how things were. A shell burst close to him, and he was mortally wounded."

CWGC
Rank: Second Lieutenant Date of Death: 25/04/1917 Age: 24 Regiment/Service: Manchester Regiment 13th Bn. Grave Reference: E. 1117.Cemetery: KARASOULI MILITARY CEMETERY Additional Information: Son of James and Louisa A. Tempest, of 1, Clarendon Rd., Whalley Range, Manchester.Bottom of Form

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Old Hulmeians War Memorial 1914 - 1919