Gerald Maitland Sproat

• Matriculated: 1912

• Born: 26 September 1883

• Died: 1 July 1916

• Regiment: Manchester Regiment

• Grave/Memorial: Thiepval Memorial: Pier and Face 13A and 14C

Family background

b. 26 September 1893 at 14, Rock Park, Rock Ferry, Birkenhead, Cheshire, as the eldest son (of three children) of Thomas Sproat (1865–1927) and Mary Caroline Sproat (née Hicks) (1869–1954) (m. 1892). At the time of the 1901 and 1911 Censuses, the family was living at 1, Rock Park, Rock Ferry, Cheshire (three servants and two servants respectively); in August 1914, Sproat was living at Rhianon, Rhosneigr, Anglesey.

 

Parents and antecedents

Sproat’s paternal grandfather, James (1820–95), was born in Kirkcudbright and was initially a merchant; but together with his younger brother David he founded the shipping firm of D & J Sproat & Co., which was active from at least 1854, initially trading timber from Canada out of Kirkcudbright. From 1872 while D & J Sproat was still based in Kirkcudbright they also traded from Liverpool as the Loch Fleet, initially involved in the South American trade. James Sproat was Provost of Kirkcudbright from 1870–77, when he resigned because of his move to Liverpool. However, true to their Scottish background all their ships, new or bought second-hand, were named “Loch …” and they were known as the “Loch Liners”. The ships were involved in the Colonial trade, sailing between their home port and Australia and New Zealand. In his book Last of the Windjammers, Basil Lubbock has the following to say about the “Lochs”: “Amongst the smartest little ships in the Colonial trade must be numbered the “Lochs” of James Sproat”, and:

From the beginning of the seventies to the end of the eighties these little 700 and 800-ton ships and barques made rapid passages out to Australia and New Zealand with their cabin accommodation always fully engaged. Indeed there is many an Australian and many a New Zealander who will remember his passage in one of these tiny “Lochs” with pleasure.

 

 

When James Sproat died, he left £63,170 1s. 10d. William (1872–1919), his youngest son, was involved in the business, while Quintin Macadam (1871–1934), his second son, was a cotton broker, and Gerald Maitland’s father was a fairly prosperous solicitor in the Liverpool firm of Morecroft, Sproat and Killey (8, Castle Street). He left £37,146 on his death, and in his will he stipulated that on the death of his wife, £1,500 each should be paid to Winchester College and Rugby School “for scholarships or exhibitions to Oxford University” in memory of his two sons who died on the Somme.

Sproat’s mother was the daughter of Captain Edward Hicks, RN (1843–1902). From 1888 until his death in 1902 he was Captain Superintendent of the Akbar Reformatory School Ship in Rockferry. During his active service he had specialized in naval gunnery.

 

 

Siblings and their families

Brother of:

(1) James McCosh (later MC) (1895–1916); killed in action on 11 July 1916 at Trônes Wood, aged 20, while serving as Second Lieutenant with the 17^th (1^st Liverpool Pals) Battalion, The King’s (Liverpool) Regiment; (2) Francis Edward Weston (1901–69); married (1927) Averil Rachel Hansford (1905–89); one son, two daughters.

James McCosh was at Rugby 1909–13 and then became a medical student at Liverpool University. He was commissioned as a probationary Second Lieutenant on 29 September 1914 (London Gazette, no. 28,926, 6 October 1914, p. 7,924), landed with his Battalion at Boulogne on 7 November 1915, and was confirmed as Second Lieutenant in March 1916 (LG, no. 29,588, 19 May 1916, p. 4,979). He died shortly after 22.30 hours on 11 July 1916, while his Battalion was advancing from the sunken road east of La Briqueterie towards Trônes Wood, not far to the south of Delville Wood. He was awarded the MC (LG: no. 289,724, 25 August 1916, p. 8,466) and recommended for the Croix de Guerre.

Francis Edward entered Trinity College, Oxford, in October 1919 and in 1925 became a barrister of the Inner Temple. In 1934 he joined the Stock Exchange and worked there for 33 years. On the outbreak of World War Two he was commissioned Second Lieutenant in the Royal Artillery and rose to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel.

 

Education

Sproat attended The Leas Preparatory School, Hoylake, Birkenhead, Cheshire (since 1974 the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral), from c.1900 to 1906, and was awarded the third best Scholarship to Winchester of that year in July 1906. At Winchester he was a member of College House from 1906 to 1912 and showed a special aptitude for the study of Ancient History. He was a member of the Sixteen Club, where in June 1912 he contributed to a discussion about astrology and its effect on astronomy, and of SROGUS (the Shakespere [sic] Reading Society) where, on 12 October 1911, he read the part of the Gardener in Richard II. In the same context, on 26 October 1911, he “gave an entirely original but hardly successful interpretation of the young Emperor [Augustus]”. He played Winchester’s brand of six-a-side soccer and cricket for his House (1908–12) and was a reserve for his House XV from 1909 to 1911. He won the Divinity Prize in 1911 and got an honourable mention in the competition for the English Historical Essay Prize in March 1912. According to his “Chamber Annals” (House Notes, see L.W. Hunter) for summer 1907:

[He] was not a Scotchman, as far as we know, though his nationality is to us uncertain, and no chance disclosures from his lips have thrown any light upon the question. […] he was much addicted to School Shop and all its works, though we do not know whether Nemesis followed upon his predilections. A somewhat silent youth, with a cheerful smile. He entered in spirit if not always in fact into the ragging and amusements of his fellow juniors.

He was elected to a Demyship in History at Magdalen in December 1911 and matriculated there on 15 October 1912, having passed Responsions in Hilary Term 1912. In Hilary Term 1913 he took both parts of the First Public Examination (Holy Scripture and Classical Literature), but he sat no more examinations after that and left without taking a degree in August 1914 in order to join the Army. During his time at Magdalen he played cricket for the College’s 2^nd XI.

 

 

 

War service

On 15 August 1914, Sproat, who was 5 foot 10 inches tall, wrote to President Warren announcing his intention of volunteering for duty “in [the] hope of receiving a temporary commission in the regulars”. He continued: “Apart from myself, my people are most anxious for me to do this. My Mother’s father and two uncles having been in the service.” He attested on 31 August 1914 and was eventually, on 3 November 1914, gazetted Second Lieutenant in the 17^th (Service), 2^nd City (2^nd Manchester Pals) Battalion, the Manchester Regiment (formed at Manchester on 28 August 1914 as part of 90^th Brigade, 30^th Division). Later in November he was attached to the 11^th (Service) Battalion, the Manchester Regiment (formed at Ashton-under-Lyne in August 1914 as part of 34^th Brigade, 11^th (Northern) Division).

On 30 June 1915, the 11^th Battalion set sail from Liverpool as part of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, and travelling via Devonport and Malta, arrived at Alexandria on 18 July, where it disembarked 24 officers and 682 other ranks (ORs). It then sailed northwards towards the islands of Mudros and Imbros, just off the west coast of the Dardanelles, where it arrived on 23 and 24 July respectively. During the night of 6/7 August the Battalion landed at Suvla Bay, under heavy rifle fire and on beaches that were mined, as part of the newly formed IX Corps. The plan was to seize the ring of hills that surrounded the plain behind Suvla Bay and formed Kiretch Tepe Ridge, and then move southwards in order to link up with the forces that were pinned down at Anzac Cove, about five miles away. But the landings rapidly degenerated into chaos and inactivity, mainly because of poor leadership, a state of affairs that eventually led to the dismissal on 15 August of the ageing and inexperienced Corps Commander, Lieutenant-General Frederick Stopford (1854–1929), who had been given command of the Corps only because of his seniority. Sproat’s Battalion’s rations were rendered useless by sea water and one of its two machine-guns was lost during the crossing from Imbros, while its second machine-gun plus 300 rifles were out of action for several hours after the landing because of sand and salt water.

Nevertheless, the Battalion went into action immediately and arguably achieved the greatest success of the landing, since it managed, as ordered, to get onto Kiretch Tepe Ridge at the northern end of the bay by daybreak, capture the hills known as Karakol Dagh, and fight its way for about three miles along the Ridge as planned. But the terrain was difficult, the Turks resisted strenuously, it was extremely hot during the daytime, the men had no water since the contents of their water-bottles were needed to stop the Battalion’s one machine-gun from overheating, and there was no way in which the Battalion could communicate directly with Brigade headquarters during 7 August. Moreover, by the time the exhausted Battalion was relieved at 01.00 hours on 8 August, it had lost 15 officers (out of 25) and 250 ORs (out of 725) killed, wounded and missing. Even so, the Commanding Officer later said that in his opinion, the Battalion could have advanced further, and on 9 August it supported an attack in the direction of Anafarta. After that, the Battalion spent most of the rest of its time on the Dardanelles in trenches, where sickness, especially dysentery, was rife. Sproat fell ill with dysentery on 8 August and was admitted to hospital on the Dardanelles on 19 August, one of a steady stream of young officers to fall seriously ill. He did not return to his Battalion, but was sent back to Britain, and on 20 August he embarked from Suvla Bay on the HMHS Caledonia (1904–25; scrapped).

 

 

Sproat arrived at Devonport on 1 September 1915 and was immediately taken to the Royal Free Hospital, Gray’s Inn Rd, London WC1. He was discharged on 15 September, having lost two stone in weight over the past 5–6 weeks. Because he also appeared to be “anaemic and tremulous”, a Medical Board at Liverpool on 25 September sent him on sick leave from 15 September to 24 December 1915. After appearing before another Medical Board in Liverpool on 28 December 1915, Sproat was declared fit enough for home service even though he was still suffering from intestinal symptoms of dysentery, and he was then attached to the Regiment’s 14^th (Service) Battalion at Lichfield. The last survivors of the 11^th Battalion were evacuated from Imbros to Egypt on 26 and 27 January 1916.

While on sick leave, Sproat was promoted Lieutenant on 22 October 1915 (London Gazette, no. 29,492, 3 March 1916, p. 2,356), but he did not return to active service until May 1916 – this time on the Somme, where he became a subaltern in ‘C’ Company of the 17^th Battalion of the Manchester Regiment – which had been in France since 8 November 1915 – just as it was beginning a stint in and out of the trenches near the village of Vaux. By 11 June the Battalion was in the trenches at Maricourt, where it stayed until 18 June. On the following day the Battalion marched to Heilly and travelled by train to Briquemesnil via Ailly-sur-Somme, where it stayed until 26 June, when it returned to Etineham camp, near Vaux, for four days. On 30 June, the Battalion took up position in Cambridge copse, north of Oxford copse and west-north-west of Maricourt. At 08.30 hours on 1 July 1916 the 17^th Battalion advanced northwards, in eight waves, as part of 30^th Division’s assault on the village of Montauban, one-and-a-half miles away to the north. Even though a lone machine-gun inflicted 700 casualties on the attacking troops and Sproat’s ‘C’ Company lost nearly all its non-commissioned officers (NCOs), Sproat himself survived the attack, and reached Montauban, the first village to be captured during the battle, but lost most of his NCOs in the process. According to a letter from Major Charles Leslie Macdonald, DSO, to Sproat’s father on 5 July 1916:

He led his men forward to the attack on [Montauban] with great spirit. During the subsequent bombardment of the Village by the enemy when our task was to hang on grimly without any possible cover and await the enemy’s counter-attack, I met your Son at the Northern and more dangerous end of the Village, strolling about among his men where sniping was hottest, directing them where to dig, as cool and cheery as if on parade. It was shortly after I saw him that he was struck by a shell and killed instantaneously. It was a death that any soldier might well be proud of.

The Commanding Officer of ‘C’ Company, Captain John Greville Madden, DSO, also wrote a letter to Sproat’s parents in which he complemented Macdonald’s account as follows:

Early in the afternoon [of 1^st July] I paid him a visit and found him as cheerful as usual – and you will know well how cheerful he could be – in spite of a heavy bombardment. As he had taken up a particularly exposed and difficult position, I ordered him to retire until the bombardment was over, to a safer position a few yards away. It was during this retirement that he was killed by a shell which killed him instantly. This is the only consolation I have in a very cruel loss, that his end came in the heat of battle and instantaneously. He was smiling to the end and had been smiling through the whole terrible business. He was a very gallant young gentleman, and I would have lost anybody rather than him, and it was wonderful the way in which he controlled his platoon[,] half of whom he did not even know yet.

His younger brother James’s Battalion was part of 89^th Brigade, also in 30^th Division, and involved in the same action, half a mile to the east and due north of Maricourt, and in an undated letter to President Warren, which must have been written shortly after James’s death (11 July), Sproat’s father wrote “but now we are bowed down with vast sorrow having heard this morning of another much loved son who has fallen in action”. James has no known grave. Gerald and James are commemorated respectively on Pier and Face 13A and 14C, and Pier and Face 7D, 8B and 8C, of the Thiepval Memorial.

 

Bibliography

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

 

Printed sources:

[Anon.], ‘Lieutenant Gerald Maitland Sproat’ [obituary], The Times, no. 41,218 (13 July 1916), p. 6.

[Anon.], ‘Second Lieutenant James M. Sproat’ [obituary], The Times, no. 41,239 (7 August 1916), p. 4.

Rendall et al. (1921), vol. iii, p. 102 (photo).

[Anon.], ‘Gifts for Scholarships at Oxford’, The Times, no. 44,590 (25 May 1927), p. 19.

Basil Lubbock, The Last of the Windjammers (Boston, Mass.: Charles E. Lauriat Co., 1927).

[Anon.], ‘Stockbroker Expelled by Exchange’, The Times, no. 56,115 (12 September 1964), p. 8.

[Francis Edward Weston Sproat], ‘Sproat’ [in memoriam], The Times, no. 56,672 (1 July 1966), p. 2.

Leinster-Mackay (1984), p. 256.

Middlebrook (1984), pp. 179–84.

McCarthy (1998), p. 16.

 

Archival sources:

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

MCA: PR 32/C/3/1099–1102 (President Warren’s War-Time Correspondence), Letters relating to G.M. Sproat [1914–16].

 

OUA: UR 2/1/81.

WO95/2339.

WO95/4299.

WO95/4588.

WO339/12041.

WO339/15468.