Trip from Trinidad - 10 The Tikklepennys

Dear Phoebe and Philip,

Well, if you thought you had heard all there was to hear about the war, you are wrong. For we have made another two friends who had a very great part to play in it. It is a wonder that we didn’t meet up with them earlier, but I suppose we were so taken by our other friends, that we didn’t go out of our way to make sure we met everyone.

George and Symonia Tikklepenny (yes, it is their real name) worked for the Salvation Army in Trinidad. I expect we did meet up at various gatherings there, but were never introduced, and so didn’t recognise each other now. They are going home to retire. But they were very active in the war as well, and the stories they tell are almost as exciting as the ones about Mairi. (pictured above)

During the war they were in France and there George rose from the rank of Adjutant to Lieut. Colonel. On Armistice Day 1918 they were appointed to the Salvation Army hut at Boulogne, at Ostrohove, and they stayed in France for three years. During this time, they decided that part of their work would be to begin War Graves Visitation.

Symonia originally came from Cornwall and Croydon, and was commissioned in Holloway in 1908. She then served as Staff Captain in south London, where she married George in 1912. The couple commanded several well known corps in and around London, such as Deptford, Plumstead, Ilford and Leyton. George was born into a working class family in Holland then moved to Moss Side, Manchester, and at that time consisted of father, mother and five sons with another living elsewhere. George joined the Salvation Army at the age of 15 against family opposition. His younger brother Richard joined too at a later stage.

And another younger brother, James, joined The King's (Liverpool Regiment) and was killed in Flanders on New Years Day 1917 aged 40 years. He rests in a cemetery near Ypres.

George was awarded the Imperial War Medal for service during the war years although the official records have miss-spelled his name as "Ticklepenny".

After their service in France the Tikklepennys moved first to British Guiana, where they were Divisional Officers. They then did similar work in Trinidad until now, when they are going back home.

"What sort of war work did you do?" I asked Symonia, as she showed me a picture of her with Ada Le Poidevin, a young Salvationist from Guernsey, in their French town.

“Camp work,” she said.”The Salvation Army huts and hostels laid themselves out for general social work. Where it was permitted to sell food to the troops, we set ourselves to cater for the lads in real homelike style. We who could mothered them as their own mothers would."

“And what do you mean by grave visiting, actually?” I asked.

"It really was started by Mary Booth who was a grand daughter of William Booth, the Founder of the Salvation Army. In 1915 she went to France on a visit, intending to stay a few days. However when she visited the wounded in hospitals around Wimereux, and found that many were anxious to send and receive news of home, she and her Salvation Army "Sisters" began to visit hospitals all along the base, writing letters home and bringing small treats.

"She also sowed the seeds for our later official War Graves Visitation Service.

"Here is a copy of the sort of letter we got from people whose loved ones had died in France. Having visited the soldier in the hospital, who then died, we then went to the grave, prayed over it, put flowers on it, and then wrote to the family of the serviceman involved.

"A reply was not long coming. 'Thank you for what you have done for me and my dear husband, and for taking so much interest in my grief. If I could have only seen his dead body the blow would not seem so hard to bear. We have prayed morning and night, but it seems as if our prayers had not been answered. I seem to have lost all. Dear friend, there is only one thing I can ask you to do for me, that is to have a photo of his grave taken for me. It is the last thing in the world for me to look at'.

"As soon as the cross went up, we took one and sent it to her."

“What other things did the Salvation Army do in the war?” I asked.

“Early in the War, General Booth set the Salvation Army to raise money for modern ambulances, to be run under the auspices of the Red Cross. Altogether, they sent about twenty five ambulance cars and fifty drivers to France.”

“I always think of the Salvation Army in terms of the band. Did that have any function during the war?”

She handed me another article cut from a newspaper. I've copied it out.

Adjutant Mary Booth described her experiences of Christmas 1915:

On Christmas Eve our Ambulance band played outside some of the hospitals, to the delight of some hundreds of the wounded.

'It was the one thing that had been missing,' said the nurses, as they came out to thank Adj. Dalziel, and hand coffee to the band…….. The music had hardly died away on the night air;

"Peace on Earth, Goodwill towards men" still echoed in our hearts and minds, when the contrast to it all was forced upon us.

A train with three hundred cases came in, followed by another with three hundred more, and over the rough road all night the ambulances went to and fro with their burden of suffering men, until the day dawned, and we thought of the angels who sang "Glory to God in the Highest!" I wondered whether the angels this morning were not weeping!"

The Salvation Army tried to make Christmas as pleasant as possible for the ordinary "Tommy":
"Brigadier Haines and the Officers have spared no trouble to give the men a good time. Hundreds of Tommies "Somewhere in France" spent their Christmas as our General's guests…….. I quote from a letter written by a lad who spent Christmas at E…… It speaks for itself :-

"Dear Walter,
I promised to let you know how I spent Christmas on active service. You will be surprised to learn that I had a very happy one. At four o clock on Christmas Day we met round a table in the Salvation Army hut, spread like home. Fancy a white table cloth, real cups and saucers, and such delicacies- on active service! Almost like a dream yet it was real……We wish the members of the Salvation Army in Hyde to know how much we appreciate their comrades out here, in their kindly services in providing the room and waiting on the table. The Officers were like parents to us, and helped to make our little party a huge success. They presented us with souvenirs, Christmas cards from General Booth, and we placed our names on the back of each, and we are sending them to our nearest relatives as keepsakes. …

(signed) Joe

"Somewhere in France"

Several contemporary accounts note that for Christmas 1917 the band played carols to twenty thousand wounded in the base hospitals- said at the time to be a record unequalled.

They were still entertaining the troops over Christmas 1918.

Well I think that is about enough for one letter. We are off to see another film. I hope I like this one better than the last. Chicago, it is called.

Love

Grandma Louise