Edward Ingram Powell, BA

• Matriculated: 1910

• Born: 19 March 1891

• Died: 22 March 1918

• Regiment: Royal Sussex Regiment

• Grave/Memorial: Villers-Faucon Cemetery (Extension): III.B.19

Family background

b. 19 March 1891 as the eldest son of Edward Cotton Powell (1846–1919) and Anne Caroline Powell (née Ingram) (1866–1940) (m. 1890). At the time of the 1891 Census, the family was living at 20 Carlyle Mansions, Chelsea (three servants); at the time of the 1901 Census, it was living at 86 Drayton Gardens, Kensington (five servants); by the time of the 1911 Census it had moved to Fairlawn, Caversham, Oxfordshire (three servants); and it moved again later still to 38 Wilbury Road, Hove, Sussex.
Parents and antecedents

Powell’s mother was the elder daughter of the Reverend Henry Manning Ingram (1824–1911), a well-to-do clergyman who was a godson of Henry Edward Manning (1808–92). Manning converted to Catholicism in 1851, became the Archbishop of Westminster in 1865, and was made Cardinal ten years later. Ingram was the last “Under Master” (Second Master) of Westminster School from 1861 to 1880 and then became the Rector of Aldrington, Sussex, from 1879 to 1893.

Powell’s great-grandfather was James Powell (1774–1840), a London wine merchant and entrepreneur, who in 1834 bought the Whitefriars Glass Company, off Fleet Street, which had been producing glass on the site of Whitefriars Monastery since 1720, and renamed it James Powell and Sons (cf. R.E. English). Although Powell and his three sons – Arthur, John and Nathaniel – knew little at first about glass-making, they learnt quickly, developed the art, and rapidly became specialists in stained glass. By 1844 their stained-glass department was mass producing coloured “quarry glass” for the growing number of new churches.

In the late 1850s, the firm diversified into domestic glass, and its business was further stimulated when Henry James Powell (1853–1922), who had studied Chemistry at Oxford, joined the firm, applied all kinds of new techniques to the manufacture of glass, and so helped to create an international reputation. In 1919 the firm changed its name to Powell and Sons; in 1923 it moved its factory out to Wealdstone, near Harrow; and in 1981 it was bought by Caithness Glass after being the longest running glass-making firm in Britain. Powell’s grandfather was Arthur Powell, JP (1812–94), who became Senior Partner in the family firm and a respected public figure: he was Commissioner of Taxes for Surrey, a Governor of St Bartholomew’s and Christ’s Hospitals, and a Treasurer of St Luke’s Hospital. Arthur had 11 children, one of whom went into the Royal Navy and became Admiral Sir Francis Powell, CB, KCMG (1849–1927), and another of whom was Edward Cotton, Powell’s father. He became Senior Partner in Jones & Powell, wine merchants, whose business premises were in Star Yard, Carey Street, London (between Holborn and the Temple), and by the time of the 1871 Census his family (plus seven servants) was living at Milton Heath, Dorking, Surrey.

Through Hester Powell (1776–1848), the sister of James Powell and wife of Baden Powell (1767–1844), Edward Cotton was a cousin of their son, Professor the Reverend Baden Powell (1796–1860), a liberal theologian and mathematician who held the Savilian Chair of Geometry at Oxford from 1827 to 1860 and was an early proponent of Darwin’s theories. Consequently, Edward Ingram Powell was a distant cousin of Robert (later Lord) Baden-Powell (1857–1941), one of Professor Powell’s sons, the hero of Mafeking and the founder of the Boy Scout movement.

If there are any genealogical links between Edward Ingram Powell and Maurice Powell, in the male line, they are remote. But Gerald Frederick Watson Powell and Edward Ingram Powell are linked by their great-great-grandfather David Powell (1695–1784), the father of James Powell (1774–1840).

 

Siblings and their families

Brother of:

(1) Humphrey Crofts (1893–1961); married (1934) Sybil Muriel Mayor (1906–94); one daughter;

(2) Anthony Cotton (1894–1964); married (1928) Mary Eveleen Grindle (1895–1956); one daughter;

(3) Laetitia Margaret (1895–1979);

(4) Dorothea Mary (1897–1986);

(5) Thomas Clark (twin brother of Dorothea Mary) (1897–1917; killed in action near Poperinghe, aged 20, on 15 July 1917, while serving as a Second Lieutenant with the 12th Heavy Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery).

Humphrey Crofts served first in the 19th (Service) Battalion (2nd Public Schools Battalion) of the Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment), which landed in France on 14 November 1915 as part of the 98th Brigade in the 33rd Division. He may have left the 19th Battalion on or after 24 April 1916, when many of the Battalion’s members were commissioned, and he ended the war as an officer in the 32nd Heavy Brigade of the Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA). In 1939 he was a Land Agent.

Anthony Cotton attended the Royal Naval College, Osborne House, Isle of Wight, and was commissioned in the Royal Navy on 15 January 1907. He retired in 1934 with the rank of Commander, but was recalled on 1 July 1937 and began by serving as an Assistant Inspector of Naval Ordnance for the London area until 31 December 1940. He exercised the same function in the Manchester area from 1 January 1941 to 1 June 1943 and then, from 2 June 1943 to April 1946, worked as an Assistant to the Chief Inspector of Naval Ordnance at the Admiralty.

Thomas Clark was also educated at Ashdown House Preparatory School, Forest Row, Sussex, and then attended Shrewsbury School, where he became a School Praeposter and a Cadet Officer in the Officers’ Training Corps. At the end of 1915 he was elected to an Open Scholarship in Mathematics at New College, Oxford, and received a Careswell Exhibition from the School. At Easter 1916 he was selected for the artillery, did his basic training at Lydd, Kent, passed out with distinction and disembarked in France on 19 May 1916, where he was sent to the front in September as a Second Lieutenant in the 12th Heavy Battery, RGA. In early 1917 he was wounded for the first time, but during the night of 14 July 1917 he was mortally wounded while repairing telephone lines, and he died of wounds received in action at a Casualty Clearing Station, aged 20. He is buried in Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery, Grave XIII.B.13.

 

Fiancée

In September 1917 Powell became the fiancé of Margaret Ruck Keene (1890–1964), the daughter of the Reverend Edmund Ralph Ruck-Keene (1857–1932), who was at that time Rector of Copford, two miles west of Colchester, Essex. In 1920 Margaret married the Reverend William Frederick Bond, MA (1882–1964), the Vicar of Cranbourne, Dorset; they had one son and one daughter.

Education and professional life

Powell attended Ashdown House Preparatory School, Forest Row, Sussex, from 1898 to 1905 and then Eton College from 1905 to 1910, having been awarded a Foundation (King’s) Scholarship in July 1904 (cf. G.M.R. Turbutt). In March 1909, he was elected to a Demyship in Classics at Magdalen and matriculated there as a Classical Demy on 18 October 1910, after spending three months in Germany and being exempted from Responsions because he possessed an Oxford & Cambridge Certificate. During his time at Oxford he was awarded a Goldsmiths’ Exhibition. He sat his First Public Examination in the Hilary Terms of 1911 and 1912, when he was awarded a 2nd in Classical Moderations; he was awarded a 4th in Literae Humaniores (Honours) in Trinity Term 1914; and he took his BA on 22 May 1915. In 1915, he was awarded a BCL. On leaving Magdalen, he took the Civil Service Examination.

“I have always been of a nervous disposition, and during the two months that I was in France it became evident to me that I was not likely, owing to this temperamental disability, ever to be efficient in any rank or position when on active service in the field. On the other hand[,] my education (scholarships at Eton College and Magdalen College, Oxford, B.A. Oxon), and my knowledge of what my capabilities are, lead me to believe that I could do good service in an administrative or clerical capacity.”

War service

As Powell had served in the Oxford University Officers’ Training Corps throughout his time at Oxford, he was commissioned Second Lieutenant in the 1/6th (Cyclist) Battalion (Territorial Force) of the Royal Sussex Regiment on 29 August 1914 (London Gazette, no. 28,881, 28 August 1914, p. 6,816). As part of the Cyclist Corps, this Battalion, many of whom were without equipment, rifles and bicycles until well into 1915, guarded the Norfolk coast until the end of 1915. They were then moved to the Littlehampton/Worthing/Shoreham/Rottingdean area in January 1916 as part of the 66th (East Lancashire) Division, where Powell was in a Company that was tasked with looking after some 20 miles of coastline between Littlehampton and Rottingdean. But in May 1916 he volunteered for active service, and according to his medal card, he landed in France on 19 May 1916, i.e. a week before the 2/4th Battalion (Territorial Force) of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry did so, and without necessarily knowing that this was the Battalion to which he would be assigned. The documents cited below indicate that he reported to his new Battalion, part of 184th Brigade in the 61st Division, around 28 May 1916. The 2/4th Battalion had landed in France on 26 May and trained briefly at Merville, about seven miles north of Béthune, before going by companies into the trenches at Laventie, some seven miles to the east, in order to acquire experience of trench warfare in a relatively quiet sector of the front. The Battalion War Diary then records that on 4 June 1916 Lieutenant E.I. Powell was sent on a course at the Trench Mortar School at St Venant, after which it mentions him no more.

But the real reason for his departure so soon after joining the 2/4th Battalion emerges from a letter of 10 June 1916 from Major-General Colin Mackenzie (1861–1956), the General Officer Commanding (GOC) 61st Division at the headquarters of XI Corps, to the HQ of the 61st Division requesting that Powell be returned from the 2/4th Ox. and Bucks. Light Infantry (LI) to the 1/6th Battalion of the Royal Sussex Regiment for the following reasons:

2nd Lieut. Powell is in no way fitted for the command of men on active service; he is lacking in experience & capacity, and his temperament is such that he cannot inspire confidence in the men under his command. This Officer was sent to join the 2/4th Battalion, Oxford & Bucks LI from 1/6th Royal Sussex Regiment. 3 days before the battalion proceeded overseas; the Officer Commanding the battalion therefore had no opportunity of judging of [sic] 2nd Lieut. Powell’s capabilities before the battalion started on active service.

On 12 June 1916, Lieutenant-General Richard Cyril Byrne Haking (1862–1945), the GOC XI Corps, added a note to that letter recommending the removal of Powell’s commission. It is worth noting that both Generals would become responsible for organizing the disastrous diversionary attack at Fromelles on 19–20 July 1916, in which the 2/4th Battalion of the Ox. & Bucks LI was involved only peripherally but which cost the two attacking Divisions over 7,000 casualties and achieved nothing. So on 20 June 1916, Sir Douglas Haig (1861–1925), the Commander-in-Chief of British Armies in France since December 1915, wrote a note to the Secretary of State for War in which he echoed General Haking’s words: “I consider Second Lieutenant Powell unfit to serve as an officer, and I recommend that he should be called upon to resign his commission. Orders have been issued for him to proceed to England and to report in writing to the War Office on arrival.”

What had triggered these damning reports? On 12 July 1916 General Mackenzie signed a more detailed and comprehensive report on Powell’s shortcomings as an officer for XI Corps:

‘D’ Company, 2/4th Oxford and Bucks. L.I. to which 2nd Lieut. Powell was attached, went into the trenches for the first time for instruction on the night of 31st May/1st June. On rejoining his battalion the Officer Commanding ‘D’ Company reported to his battalion commander that from the time he entered the trenches it was obvious that 2nd Lieut. Powell was extremely nervous, and any report of a shell exploding made him duck his head and ejaculate timorously. During the hostile bombardment of the afternoon of 3rd June [i.e. the day before Powell’s precipitate departure from the Battalion ] he moved away from his own platoon, which was attached to the right centre company, to the extreme left of the line, passing through the left centre company in so doing. 2nd Lieut. Powell explains this by stating that the order was given to clear the trenches to the flanks of the part that was being bombarded; his company commander states that three or four fire bays were cleared. 2nd Lieut. Powell also states that having only joined the battalion a few days previously he did not notice that he was not moving with his own platoon. His company commander however, reports that he subsequently found him lying down close under the parapet, a long way on the left of the line. 2nd Lieut. Powell’s behaviour was noticed by the men who are reported to have joked about it, and I agree with the opinion expressed by his Commanding officer that the men can have but little confidence in him. On this report, which was forwarded to me through the Brigadier-General Commanding 184th Infantry Brigade, I recommended that 2nd Lieut. Powell should be sent home and returned to his unit. I did not recommend his removal from the Service nor his trial by Court Martial, as he is very young, had had no previous experience, and knew no older officers of war experience who could have shown him by their behaviour how to comport himself. In view of the instructions conveyed in M.S. to C.in.C. minute No. 14543 of 18th June 1916, I referred the matter back to the Officer Commanding 2/4th Battalion. Oxford and Bucks. L.I. through the G.O.C. 184th Infantry Brigade, who informed me that 2nd Lieut. Powell had been at duty with the Brigade Signal Section from 29th June to 4th July, and that this duty had entailed his entering the front line trenches, and that during this time he had shown no apparent lack of nerve, – He therefore recommended that 2nd Lieut. Powell should be retained with his battalion. In these circumstances, and as it appeared to be the desire of the Commander-in-Chief that he should be given every chance, I recommended his retention, though I do not consider an opportunity has yet presented itself for 2nd Lieut. Powell to remove the slur on his character or to show that my original recommendation was unjustified.

In response to this report, General Haking, who had the reputation in some quarters of being a “butcher”, signed a note dated July 1916 in which he said:

The G.O.C. 61st Division [i.e. General Mackenzie] told me in conversation “that this young officer was the laughing stock of his platoon. There are so many gallant young officers of his age & rank available that I think it is better to give them a chance of coming out to France & serving their country. I was holding a brief for these rather than for the individual. If the officer is to stay out here, I do not think he should remain in his present Battalion, because unless he really distinguishes himself his men won’t have any confidence in him now.

On 17 July 1916 the GOC 1>st Army, Sir Charles Monro (1860–1929), then noted: “His want of experience cannot be held to justify his questionable conduct when in the Trenches – I think therefore he should be called on to Resign his commission.” But on 3 August 1916, despite the unequivocally negative consensus that is contained in the preceding documents, a letter went from the War Office in London to the GOC Southern Command stating that it had been decided to give this officer another chance, that he should be posted to his “3rd Line Unit”, and that a further report should be made on him in two months’ time. One cannot help reflecting at this point that if Powell had been an ordinary soldier, he would probably have appeared before a court martial and, like over 3,000 British and Commonwealth soldiers during World War One, been sentenced to death for cowardice and/or desertion. But, it should be added, in only 306 of these cases (i.e.10 per cent) was the sentence carried out, and of this 306, only three (i.e. fewer than 1 per cent) were officers.

Powell was then sent to the 3/6th (Cyclist) Battalion (Territorial Force) of the Royal Sussex Regiment, a Reserve Battalion that had been formed in 1916 and was absorbed by the 4th (Reserve) Battalion of the same Regiment on 1 September 1916. On 17 October 1916, Lieutenant-Colonel B.J. Hodgson, the Commanding Officer of the 4th (Reserve) Battalion, wrote the following report on his progress:

I have the honour to report that this Officer has only been under my Command since Sept 1st on the request of the 3/6th Royal Sussex Regiment. I enclose a report [which no longer exists] from his late Commanding Officer. From my own observation he appears to be of a retiring, and nervous disposition, and though he may be conversant with his duties as a platoon commander, he fails to show to the best advantage his knowledge of his work, or to get proper control of his men. He appears to be lacking in initiative, and is of little use for training purposes in this battalion. His present Company Commander states that although 2nd/Lt Powell knows his work, he is of [the] opinion that owing to his lack of initiative he is unsuited for service in the field.

On the back of this report there is a note dated 30 October 1916 from Brigadier-General R. Dawson, the GOC the Home Counties Reserve Brigade:

I have seen 2nd Lieut. E.J. [sic] Powell. He has made a statement in writing which is attached. He appears to be of a nervous disposition, and acknowledges that he is so, and that he does not feel competent to command men in the Field. He is a man of some education. I do not know whether any employment could be found for him in an office; if not I must recommend that he resigns his commission.

Powell clearly agreed with the Brigadier’s assessment, for on the same day he produced the following formal written statement:

I have the honour to request that you will forward this my application to be transferred to the Administrative Branch of the Service. My reasons for making this application are as follows:– I volunteered to proceed on active service in May 1916 from the 1/6th (Cyclist) Battn[,] Royal Sussex Regiment. – the unit in which I had held a commission since August 29th, 1914. I proceeded to France with the 2/4th Oxford & Bucks Light Infantry. I have always been of a nervous disposition, and during the two months that I was in France it became evident to me that I was not likely, owing to this temperamental disability, ever to be efficient in any rank or position when on active service in the field. On the other hand[,] my education (scholarships at Eton College and Magdalen College, Oxford, B.A. Oxon), and my knowledge of what my capabilities are[,] lead me to believe that I could do good service in an administrative or clerical capacity. For two months before leaving the 1/6th Royal Sussex Rgt. I was second in command of a Company, which was on Coast Defence from Rottingdean to Littlehampton, and the administration of this Company – spread out as it was over more than 20 miles of coastline – was a task which in every way suited my abilities. I was also employed for a short time in the office of the Staff Captain of the 184th Inf. Bde., and know something of how that work is carried on.

After this extraordinary to-do over what, from today’s perspective, is a very straightforward problem that could have been solved easily and without the intervention of so many important personages during such a crucial period of the war in the west, Powell spent from 21 November 1916 to 23 November 1917 on secondment with the 1st (Home Service) Garrison Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment, which was stationed in London and Kent. And during this period it seems that Powell’s confidence increased and his abilities improved, since he was almost certainly the single officer who, together with three other ranks, reported for duty on 23 November 1917 with the 13th (Service) Battalion (3rd South Down, TF) of the Royal Sussex Regiment when it was resting out of line at Bedford House Camp, the name given to Château Rosendal, near Zillebeke, in the Ypres Salient. Powell’s obituary in The Times says very clearly that he returned to the front in November 1917 and the relevant entry in the Battalion War Diary is the only one from the month in question to record the arrival of an officer.

From 25 to 29 November the 13th Battalion trained at Winnezeele, just over the border in northern France to the west of Poperinghe, before returning to the Ypres Salient, where it provided working parties in Ypres and Wieltje, south of Ypres, until 8 December 1917. For the rest of that month the Battalion trained in various places in northern France until, on 30 December, it returned to the Ypres Salient via Elverdinghe and nearby Siege Camp. There it did yet more training and provided yet more working parties until 15 January 1918, when it relieved the 6th Battalion of the Cheshire Regiment in the Westroose Beek Sector of the front line. Here, according to the Battalion’s War Diary, the trenches were flooded so badly that the men were “drenched through” and “swept off their feet” by the volume of water, and the sentry posts were “over knee-deep in mud and water”. By 16 January “many men were exhausted”, but the Battalion had to stay where it was until 18 January, when it was relieved, briefly, by the 12th (Service) Battalion of the Royal Sussex Regiment (2nd South Down). When the Battalion returned for another short spell in the trenches, the men built latrines and generally improved their shelters until, on 21 January 1918, they moved to billets in Wieltje, where they were able to clean up and bathe, and received a new issue of clothing and boots.

They stayed here until 26 January, when they travelled southwards by train to Sailly-Laurette, seven miles south of Albert on the River Somme. From here, on 30 January 1918, the Battalion travelled by train via Corbie to the ruined town of Péronne, c.13 miles further over to the east, where the men detrained and then marched to Haut-Allaines, a mile or so to the north. On 1 February 1918 the Battalion marched another seven miles north-westwards, to the small town of Heudicourt, about nine miles south-south-west of Cambrai, where it became part of the Reserve and the men had time to attend to their feet. On 4 February 1918 it relieved the 12th Battalion of the Royal Sussex Regiment in the front line; it then spent the next two weeks sending out patrols, strengthening the barbed wire, improving the trenches, and salvaging useful materials. On 18 February the Battalion withdrew into Divisional Reserve for four days, and returned to the trenches from 22 February to 2 March, when it spent a lot of time burying cables. After five further days in Divisional Reserve, the Battalion returned to the front line on 7 March where, during the night of 9 March, it sent two strong fighting patrols out into no-man’s-land, who found that the German positions were strongly held.

From 14 March 1918, the Battalion withdrew to billets – first to Grange Camp, Villers-Faucon, just to the south of Heudicourt, and then, on 16 March, to Hamel-sur-Tincourt, some three miles further south-west. But in the early hours of 21 March 1918, the opening day of Operation Michael, the Battalion heard a heavy bombardment and in the evening was moved eastwards, to Ste-Émilie, just to the east of Villers-Faucon, in support of the 16th Battalion (TF) of the Devonshire Regiment, a dismounted Yeomanry unit. Then, at 07.00 hours on 22 March 1918, the enemy attacked and were driven off, but at noon they attacked again, this time in force, and managed to get round both flanks so that the Battalion was forced to withdraw westwards towards a line roughly three miles east of Péronne. Half of ‘B’ Company, of which Powell, now a Captain, was in command, was cut off and annihilated, and four officers and 150 other ranks were killed, wounded or missing. Although unnamed, these included Powell, who was badly wounded and died later of wounds received in action, aged 27.

In a letter of 6 April 1918 Powell’s Commanding Officer wrote to his parents that “he was commanding his company with the greatest skill and gallantry during the recent heavy fighting”. But Lance-Corporal H.A. Holmes, a non-commissioned officer from Powell’s Company who was attached to the Battalion HQ, later helped to compile a more detailed account of the circumstances of Powell’s death while he, too, was in hospital:

Capt Powell was in command of ‘B’ Coy. During our retirement from Villers[-]Faucon in March 1918[,] Captain Powell insisted on remaining behind to see his Coy safely out before he would follow himself. It was at this period that he was seriously wounded & I was told by S[tretcher] B[earer] L/Cpl A. Pettifer that he had bandaged Capt. Powell up. After this Capt. Powell told Pettifer to leave him & look after himself. By this time the village was being entered by the Germans & it is probable that Capt. Powell fell into their hands, but Pettifer managed to escape.

Pettifer reported the same details to an officer of the same Company a few hours later on 22 March, and the report continues:

This officer, 2nd Lt H[enry] L[ouis] Bothamley [1898–1976], ‘B’ Coy, 13th Royal Sussex Regiment & previously a student at Magdalen College, Oxford [1916–17 and 1919–21 (Pass Degree); ordained in 1921], was subsequently wounded & sent to hospital in London & we are indebted to him for the details of L/Cpl Pettifer’s report. Lt O. Wills, Norfolk Regiment, was the officer prisoner-of-war who communicated to us through the Geneva Red Cross the news of his finding Capt. Powell’s body on April 10th 1918 just outside the village of Villers[-]Faucon & he wrote: “I fear there is no doubt that Capt. Powell died of haemorrhage from a shattered thigh. I found his body & those of Sergt Read and Private King of the same Battalion close together. Capt. Powell had been badly hit in the left thigh & had been placed under cover. They had evidently made a glorious stand. The ground was strewn with many Lewis Gun drums & cartridge cases.

By 23 March, the remnants of the 13th Battalion had taken up positions just to the east of Péronne and they stayed there until the Péronne bridges had been blown up by Sappers. But by this time the Battalion had taken such heavy casualties that on 24 March, by orders of the Divisional Commander, the survivors were incorporated into a Composite Battalion which then withdrew steadily westwards until 30 March 1918. Powell’s body was buried by the Germans on 10 April and later transferred to the Villers-Faucon Communal Cemetery (Extension), Grave III.B.19. The news of the discovery reached C.C.J. Webb via Christopher Cookson on 20 August 1918. Powell left £399 17s 7d.

Bibliography

For the books and archives referred to here in short form, refer to the Slow Dusk Bibliography and Archival Sources.

Printed sources

[Anon.], ‘Second Lieutenant Thomas Clark Powell’ [obituary], The Times, no. 41,548 (4 August 1917), p. 4.

[Anon.], ‘Captain Edward Ingram Powell’ [obituary], The Times, no. 41,880 (28 August 1918), p. 11

Archival sources:

MCA: Ms. 876 (III), vol. 3.

OUA: UR 2/1/73.

OUA(DWM): C.C.J. Webb, Diaries, MS. Eng. misc. e. 1163.

WO95/2582.

WO95/3067/1.

WO95/5462.

WO374/54910.

On-line sources: 

Wikipedia, ‘James Powell and Sons’: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Powell_and_Sons (accessed 31 October 2019).