Private John Courtney Hancock

As we travel through the stories our soldiers led, they interweave with the Great Torrington community and parts of it, which in hindsight, we won’t be proud of. John Courtney Hancock led such a life. John was born in Great Torrington in 1895. His mother, Mary Hancock 18 when he was born but she was unmarried, which you can imagine what issues this would have raised at the this stage in history and there would be ‘consequences’ for this. We first find John (listed as Courtney) in the 1901 census, at the age of 6, living at Gilbert’s Court, Great Torrington. He resides with his grandparents George, a general cattleman on a farm, and Susan Hancock. They also have two children, Emily, aged 16 years who is a domestic servant, and Maria, aged 11 years. His mother is not part of the household; instead she is recorded as an “inmate” at the Great Torrington Workhouse. At this time she’s 28 years of age and has an occupation as a farm labourer.

Great Torrington Workhouse

1834 saw the introduction of the Poor Law Amendment Act saw a shift in how the most unfortunate in society would be treated. The Act allowed an alliance of local Parishes to combine the way they helped the poor. Instead of direct help, citizens who were considered not just poor, but destitute, were re-housed in Poor Law Union workhouses. They were similar to prisons in all but name; certain items like alcohol and tobacco were forbidden, they weren’t allowed their own clothes and instead wore a uniform with heavy boots, baths were a weekly requirement, hair was cut and kept short ad men were shaven on a regular basis as razors were considered contraband. Families were kept separate apart from, normally weekly, allowed time to interact, otherwise men, women and children were kept separate. Those residing in the workhouse were even referred to as ‘inmates’. Despite this, inmates were free to leave at any time, however, they were aware that there would be little other alternative for them should they do so.

In Great Torrington’s case, a coalition of 23 local Parishes from Alverdiscot to Yarnscombe, represented by a Board of Guardians, commissioned the building of a new union workhouse in 1837. The site was at the west of the town on the south side of New Street. Although the workhouse is long since gone, the Woodland Vale sheltered accommodation for the elderly stands there now. The design was a standard cruciform blueprint, which created four separate blocks and courtyards, one each for men, women, boys and girls. The size of the building meant it could cope with up to 200 inmates.

Inmates were required to work. Following a medical check when moving in to the establishment, various jobs were allocated depending on age, sex, physical ability. The 1881 census for the Great Torrington workhouse illustrates a range of professions from skilled labour, such as cooper, wheelwright and gloveress, to less skilled jobs including servants and labourers.

Privileges and treats were few and far between. Newspaper records of the times do highlight the occasional extravagance. Inmates were given an annual outing, normally to Westward Ho! and there was mention of a sumptuous meal, tug-of-war, foot races on the beach and egg and spoon races [1]. The inmates would also have perks to look forward to with an annual evening of entertainment as well as Christmas benefits. Concessions needed to be made on occasions, though. As a result of difficult economic times in 1916, the usual Christmas beer allocation was cancelled for inmates [2]. Breaches of the rules and criminal offences were simply not tolerated and punishment was meted out accordingly. The case of Edward West is a good example; the disgruntled inmate skipped breakfast and was found having destroyed his bedding and clothing. The Court subsequently imposed six weeks of hard labour and a fine covering the cost of damage. West pleaded that he had been treated “worse than a dog” since living at the workhouse; his words fell on deaf ears [3].

By today’s standards, some of the language used to categorise conditions of some of the inmates would raise an eyebrow and the terms “imbecile” and “idiot” were commonplace. Workhouses were also the ‘punishment’ for those with illegitimate children; John Hancock’s mother is an example of this.

John enrols at Great Torrington Blue Coat School in 1903 and, despite his mother being housed at a different address, Mary Hancock is still listed under his parent’s name (it is not uncommon for a guardian to be here instead). It’s worth noting that at this point he’s still registered a “Courtney”. In 1911, at the age of 17, John is living at Coombe Farm, near Roborough, a few miles from Great Torrington, living with the Badcock family working as a horseman. The farm owner, James Badcock, is the head of the household along with his wife, Mary, and daughter, Jessie. A second servant and cowboy on the farm, Earnest Baker, makes up the final member. John’s mother, now aged 39 years, is still housed as an inmate at the Workhouse. It appears she paid dearly for an indiscretion in her younger years.

It’s likely that John’s residence remained the same till he enlisted as his military records show his residence as High Bickington. After enlisting in Exeter, John was assigned to the 2nd Battalion of the Devonshire Regiment. Although the 2nd Devons had seen action in the first few years of the War, things were about to get worse; much worse.

First Day of the Battle of the Somme

Whatever the extent of a person’s knowledge is for the First World War, one word reverberates with most: “Somme”. Because of the size of the event, both in terms of scale of resources committed, and losses sustained and the indescribable conditions, the Battle of the Somme has become synonymous with the effort and suffering of the campaign.

The attack was launched on the 1st July 1916. As well as seeking sweeping gains through the Somme region of France, the attack also looked to relieve the besieged French forces at Verdun, which was resulting in horrendous losses. Along an 11 mile stretch, 18 British Divisions, from across the Commonwealth, would take part. The lion’s share of the British soldiers were young soldiers with little battle experience and largely made up of conscripts from Kitchener’s Army. They would be further supported by French Divisions to their South. The strategy would see an eight day artillery bombardment, consisting of 1,500 guns, so fierce it would ‘soften up’ the German defenders from the outset. In addition, shortly before the infantry attack a series of eight enormous mines, which had been tunnelled under the German strongholds, detonated causing chaos and confusion within the German ranks, not to mention the shear devastation. At the sound of the whistles soldiers would go ‘over the top’ into no man’s land under the cover of a creeping artillery barrage. Because of the likely success of the bombardment and mines, it was predicted that the German defenders would be virtually blown into submission and their defences shattered, in which case men were ordered to walk to their objectives without the fear of any significant resistance.

The plan was hopelessly flawed. Well fortified German bunkers gave excellent protection from the explosive onslaught, the creeping barrage was badly co-ordinated and lifted too early and the barbed wire defences were largely intact. At the lifting of the bombardment, the German defenders were able to swarm out of their underground sanctuary and take their positions. What was to follow was can only be described as a massacre. Machine gun and sniper fire mowed the advancing forces down like a scythe to grass, many regiments barely covering any ground from their trenches. The ensuing catastrophic casualty count would see the worst day in the history of the British Army with around 20,000 dead and a further 38,000 wounded.

Despite these losses, the decision was made to continue the battle, which dragged on into the autumn till November. Although there had been some successful gains by the French to the south, the British advances barely totalled 7 miles at a loss of 420,000 British casualties. With the ratio of miles to casualties being a pitiful achievement, the only meagre success that could be drawn from this campaign was the diversion of German resources from Verdun.

2nd Devons in the Mash Valley

At the beginning of the Somme offensive, the 2nd Devons were assigned to a section of line between the towns of Ovilliers and la Boiselle overlooking what was referred to as the “Mash Valley”. From their starting positions, the German lines were approximately 700 – 800 yards away with little cover between the two and virtually no surprise element to be gained.

Zero hour was set at 7.30am. Just before, a volley of short range mortars would pepper the front line German trenches in an effort to pin down the defenders for as long as possible. The assault from the 23rd Brigade would be led by the 2nd Middlesex and the 2nd Devons. It was reported that the weather conditions that morning were misty, but the visibility was worsened by the smoke and dust that had been churned by the earlier explosions. Despite these apparent advantages, the advancing troops were subjected to a hail of fire from the now emerging opposing forces who were also fighting for their lives. In the fog of war, it was reported that those looking on from the British trenches originally thought that the advancing troops had stopped to take cover, not realising that they had been swept down by the gunfire. Remarkably, it is recorded that elements of the 2nd Devons were able to reach the enemy front line trenches and even managed to stretch beyond this. Around 70 men were able to gain this foothold until ammunition depleted, reinforcements were not forthcoming and they were exposed to fire from their flanks they were forced to retire. On the first day of the Battle of the Somme, the 2nd Devons were one of only a few regiments that were able to make it to their objective.

The first hours of the Somme offensive cost the 2nd Devons dearly; 232 killed and a further 199 injured. John Hancock was amongst the dead, aged 22 years old. His gravestone is found at the Serre Road Cemetery in the Somme area of France. He was single with no children. Being the only child of illegitimate birth, John had no siblings. His family lineage died with him. When we look at casualty lists from the Great War, it easy almost too easy to desensitise to the stream of figures attached to each battle. John Hancock’s death on the 1st July 1917 was 1 of some 20,000; it is only really when you understand more of this one man’s life that this single death becomes a tragedy.

[1] Western Times. September 18th 1908. ‘Torrington Workhouse Inmates Outing’.

[2] Western Times. November 28th 1916. ‘No Christmas Beer for Torrington Workhouse Inmates’.

[3] Exeter and Plymouth Gazette. February 9th 1904. ‘Disorderly Behaviour at Torrington Workhouse’.