TheFirst of Ninety Seven

Robert Henry BarkerPte. 8853

2nd Battalion Durham Light Infantry

Coxhoe local History Group

The village of Sleetburn was a small mining community situated in the Deerness Valley and is now better known as New Brancepeth just to the West of Durham City, and it was there in 1887, at 8, Hepworth Street that John and Margaret Barker added to their family when Robert Henry was born, a young brother for sister Alice.

1895 Map of New Brancepeth

Father John was aged 31 and was employed as a miner in the local colliery at New Brancepeth (Sleetburn Colliery). Houses would be small but you would often find many people occupying what were often 2 up 2 down dwellings. The Barker household was no exception with four lodgers from Roscommon, Ireland living with them in their small miners cottage and working a farm and mine labourers. This was often a way of scratching out a decent living given that the wages of miners were low, and with families to raise every means of increasing income was considered.

1891 Census

In the ensuing years to the next census in 1901 the Barker family appear to have split up and we find Robert residing with a travelling pleasure fair in Keighley, Yorkshire. Living in a small community of 4 caravans, Robert is listed as the adopted son of William Scott.At this time, spring 1901 the Keighley Spring Fair was underway and *Randal Williams one of the group of showmen had a “bioscope” (early projector) and was showing films of the Boer War amongst other attractions.*1901: Keighley Spring Fair: Randall Williams bioscope (exhibiting local films, Boer war scenes, comical trick pictures) (The Showman: 10 May 1901)

1901 Census

Steam Fairs were a feature of British life from the mid 1850’s until the advent of electricity and its widespread use. In the 1860's. Frederick Savage, an Agricultural Engineer from Kings Lynn in Norfolk, produced a Roundabout powered by a Stationary Steam Engine, supplied by Charles Burrell, another Agricultural Engineer & Steam Engine Manufacturer in Thetford, Norfolk. The Ride consisted of a centre four-wheeled truck containing a Steam Engine, With a central rotating column branching out to a circular frame, from which was suspended a circular platform & rods supporting wooden horses.

In 1872, Burrell invented a Steam Engine that could move itself by a series of gears to the Road Wheels & with a Steering Mechanism. Thus the Basic Steam Traction Engine was Born!! These Engines were basically for agricultural use.

In 1875, Burrell produced his First "Showman's" Traction Engine. This was a very large Basic Traction Engine with an ornate full-length wooden canopy above. The Engine was elaborately painted with polished brass fittings & twisted brass rods supporting the canopy. These were incredibly powerful machines, capable of hauling very heavy loads.

Now the problems of Mechanical Power & Transport were solved... It was time to produce bigger & more elaborate Fairground Rides!

At the time of the 1901 census, John Barker is lodging in Skelton in Cleveland, working in as a foreman in a mine and is listed as a widower, presumably his wife, Margaret having passed

away. Daughter Alice is now living in Coxhoe and is in service with the Swinton family who live in West Parade. Robert Swinton is a Greengrocer.

Regular Army Service

Robert Barker joined the British Army as a Private Soldier on 3rd May 1904, he enlisted in Bradford and elected to join his county regiment, The Durham Light Infantry. He was allotted the number 8853 He was assigned to 2nd Battalion Durham Light Infantry, a regular battalion and was stationed in Newcastle on home service.

At the time of enlistment Robert gave his age as 18 years and 6 months in 1904. One wonders if he did not add a year on so that he could join up, given the fact that he born in 1887 and on the 1901 census is listed as 14 years old. Odd then that 3 years later he is heading towards 19.

In terms of employment in 1904 he states he is a groom and this may have been his role with the travelling fair he resided with.

Indeed in 1907 he is still a groom but by now he is back in Coxhoe and residing in West Parade.

Robert remained with the battalion for 3 years, leaving on 3rd May 1907 and immediately became a reservist the day following.

To maintain his skills as a soldier Robert would have to attend camps every year and undergo additional training to ensure he could fulfill his duty as a soldier and be proficient in all aspects of his role should he be called upon. The use of a rifle was one such skill and the certificate of proficiency with a gun (below) demonstrates that.

Family Life

We know that by searching marriage index for the period that Robert had married a girl by the name of Margaret Mary Hogg, the daughter of coal miner Mark Hogg, from Station Street West, Trimdon Station (Deaf Hill) on 12 May 1909. Margaret, born in 1893 can have been little more than 16 years old when she and Robert married at Sedgefield Registry Office.

By 1911 Robert and Margaret were living in Commercial Road, Coxhoe, he being employed as a Pork Butcher and they had a son Mark Robert aged 11 months.

Robert and Margaret extended their family in 1914 with the birth of a daughter, May, who was born on the 7th of May.

Off to France and war.

At the outbreak of war, on 4th August 1914 and being a reservist, Robert was immediately mobilized the following day and received orders to report to barracks in Newcastle upon Tyne. There he would be medically examined, passed as fit for service and receive his kit. The Battalion then entrained at Newcastle Central stationed and travelled to Lichfield in Staffordshire where they underwent further training. Eventually the 2nd Battalion Durham Light Infantry arrived in Cambridge and on the 8th September 1914 marched out to Newmarket where they boarded trains that would take them to Southampton and the troop ships that would land them in St. Nazaire, France at 6.00pm the following day 9 th September 1914.

The battalion through a series of train journeys and route marches pushed on east of Paris and eventually took over the front line of the trenches north of the village of Troyon on the 19th of September. At this point they had taken no part in any fighting but had witnessed the destruction that war brings as they marched towards their chosen destination.

The following day, 20th September 1914, Robert along with his chums would come under attack from the German army. The following extract from the war diary for that date tells the story of the day and its devastating outcome for 2 DLI.

2nd Durham Light Infantry War Diary for 20 September 1914

20th September 1914, Troyon.

Owing to the battalion on the night giving way, reported to be caused by a white flag incident, our right flank was enfiladed by a German machine gun and suffered loss until the battalion in reserve reoccupied the trenches on the right flank. One company and a half on the left flank, left their trenches and advanced and suffered loss until they returned to their trenches.

Casualities killed:- Major Mander, Captain Hare, 2nd Lt Stanuell, 2nd Lt Marshall, Major Robb ( died of wounds)Wounded:- Lt Twist, Lt Grey-Wilson, 2ndLt Gales, 2nd Lt Mearns, 2nd Lt. BakerLieutenant and Adjutant Godsal was wounded by shrapnel in the morning.NCO’s and men killed 36. Wounded 92.

Pte. 8853 Robert Henry Barker was among those killed. Officially listed as missing, killed in action, on 21st September 1914, only 12 days from landing in France.

In the following days letters would begin to arrive at the homes in County Durham and further afield announcing the news that no one wished to hear. One such letter arrived in Commercial Road, Coxhoe and the local newspapers also reported the casualties.

Of Robert Henry Barker, The Durham Chronicle, reported the following piece:-

Word has been received at Coxhoe that Private Robert Barker of the 2nd Durham Light Infantry has been killed in action. No particulars were furnished. The deceased who was a reservist resided at Front Street, Coxhoe, and was employed at East Hetton Colliery. He leaves a widow and two children

Robert has no known grave and is remembered on the LA FERTE-SOUS-JOUARRE MEMORIAL in Seine-et-Marne, a small town 66 miles to the east of Paris. On the memorial are the names of 3,740 officers and men of all regiments who give their lives during the Battle of the Marne. Robert Henry Barker is remembered alongside the other 50 of his comrades of the 2nd Battalion Durham Light Infantry who died in the fighting on the 20 th and 21st September 1914.At no time did the 2nd Durham Light Infantry suffer loss as great as they did that fateful day.

What of those left behind?

A little over 6 weeks from waving her husband goodbye, Margaret Barker was a widow with 2 young children to raise. Having been informed of Roberts death on the 15th October 1914 she quickly made the decision to leave Coxhoe and by January 1915 was living with her Mother in Deaf Hill, instructing the British Army to send all correspondence to her there.

The army awarded her a war pension of 18/- 6d per week for herself and two children and was effective from April 1915. Perversely this sum would be more than twice that Robert would receive every week as a Private soldier which at that time would amount to 1 shilling per day.

Margaret re-married in 1916 to William McGregor, who was widowed and worked as a Tailors cutter. They lived in Hartlepool and raised Mark Robert and May, the son and daughter whom Robert would never see grow, children who would never know their father.

In Remembrance of Pte 8853 Barker. Robert Henry2nd Battalion, Durham Light Infantry

The First of the 97

The British Expeditionary Force at the Battle of the Marne.

By the beginning of September 1914, the German Imperial Army had swept through much of Belgium and north eastern France and was fast approaching Paris. By 3 September, the British and French forces had been retreating south west for over two weeks, German victory was a definite possibility, and the Allied Commander, Général Joffre, prepared to launch a major counter offensive. As night fell on 5 September, the men of the British Expeditionary Force began to halt approximately 40 kilometres south east of Paris and their gruelling retreat was at an end. For the next two days, British I, II and III Corps advanced north eastward, encountering only minor resistance from the German forces in the area, which had reached the limit of their advance and were now carrying out a tactical retreat.

On 8 September, British infantry brigades advancing toward the Marne came under heavy machine-gun and artillery fire from German units in La Ferté sous Jouarre and on the north bank of the river where they had formed a bridgehead. The British withdrew, began bombarding the German positions, and by mid-afternoon had entered the town in force. Both of the local bridges had been blown, but the Royal Engineers immediately began to construct a floating bridge, over which III Corps crossed the Marne on 10 September and joined I and II Corps which had crossed the river further to the east the previous today.

The German armies were now in full retreat to the north and east, hotly pursued by the combined British and French forces. Retreating German units fought rearguard actions under heavy rainfall throughout the day on 11 September and by the morning of the 12th they had occupied defensive positions on the high ground overlooking the northern banks of the River Aisne.

The Battle of the Marne, referred to in the French press as the ‘Miracle of the Marne’, halted the month-long advance of the German forces toward Paris and decisively ended the possibility of an early German victory. The battle also marked the beginning of trench warfare as Allied and German forces entrenched during and after the Battle of the Aisne in mid-September. By November battle lines had been drawn that would remain virtually unchanged for almost four years. The British Expeditionary Force suffered almost 13,000 casualties during the Battle of the Marne, of whom some 7,000 had been killed.