Heartfelt memories of the trenches

But behind those headline grabbing figures of the Battle of the Somme, which took place in northern France between July and November 1916, there are tales of hardship much closer to home.

Thomas Blakeley (Blakey) Cowing, known as Tom, was a proud family man. He doted on his beloved wife, Frances Gertrude, who he affectionately referred to as “Gertie”.

The couple, who had four children, ran a butcher’s shop on Haydon Bridge’s Ratcliffe Road, which had been in the Cowing family since 1829.

The bright, bubbly and dry-witted 33-year-old had everything to live for and felt an enormous sense of national pride when the British Army were looking for men to join the war effort.

He promptly volunteered and enlisted in November 1914, joining the 16th Service Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers.

He was sent to France, where his cooking skills were put to good use by an army which demanded hearty meals for its hungry soldiers.

But on March 2, 1916, tragedy struck. Versatile Tom had been called to the front line on the Somme battlefields and was digging out a trench with two other men, when they were shelled.

Tom’s death not only changed the lives of his wife and family forever, it also ended the Cowing’s near century-long association with the family’s butcher’s shop.

His grandson, also called Tom Cowing, never met the man who made the ultimate sacrifice for king and country. But thanks to a box of treasured memorabilia, including many letters he sent home from the trenches, Tom Jnr has built up a picture of who his grandfather was.

“It was very much a patriotic thing,” said Tom (68) who has lived in Hexham since moving there from his native Haydon Bridge, in 1962.

“All of the men who volunteered thought they were doing a good deed; they thought it was an adventure and it would soon be over and that they would soon be home.

“Even when you read the letters and he’s writing about the unpleasant conditions, he seems quite upbeat, and there’s a lot of humour about the way he describes things.

“First and foremost he was a family man, but tradesmen were needed in the Army. He had cooking skills and the grub was important to the army, because the men needed to march on their stomachs.

“I’m sure he ended up on the front line because they were short of men. His death was a tragedy and the scale of his loss to Gertie and those young children is unimaginable.”

After Tom’s death, his belongings, including Woodbine cigarettes, a pipe, pencil and pocket knife, were sent to his grieving widow.

For decades they have been boxed away, along with medals and reams of correspondence relating to the war years.

These include a letter from King George V, which expresses sympathy to Gertie, as well as an appreciation for Tom’s services, and states that he was held in high regard.

Tom said: “There’s a packet with his possessions and they were put in a box with the medals, the letters and other memorabilia.

“The ribbons haven’t even been put on the medals. I think it was all too raw and emotional for Gertie to look through them. The items haven’t been exposed to light and the pencil handwriting hasn’t faded at all.”

The letters from Tom to his family back home in Haydon Bridge reveal the living conditions in the trenches.

In one, he talks of a visit from the Duke of Northumberland and asks his wife to send him over a copy of the ‘H paper,’ presumably a reference to the Hexham Courant.

He also describes food served to him on one occasion as “mud for breakfast,” and tells Gertie that he’d “made myself ill with eating too much spice loaf” – Christmas cake which she had posted out to him.

Special messages for his family are a constant and in one letter, he writes: “Give the children an extra kiss from daddy tonight.”

On another occasion, he expressed fears for his safety: “Well, must close. I will write again, as soon as we get out of the trenches. That is if we get out all right.”

In one of her own letters to Tom, Gertie expresses her relief on receiving his latest correspondence: “Pleased to hear from you. Beginning to think the Germans had got you.”

Although time is required to decipher the pencilled letters, Tom Jnr, and his partner, Cindi Mackenzie, have studied them carefully.

Tom Jnr added: “When you read the letters, he seems remarkably upbeat considering the conditions those men were in.

“There is one occasion when he makes reference to the cold, harsh weather and the damp.

“It’s evident that he liked his food and his tobacco, but there is clearly a lot of love for his family and he was looking forward to returning home.”

Cindi said: “The letter about the children brings tears to your eyes. In his correspondence to Gertie, Tom describes the countryside around him and how it resembled Haydon Bridge, with the valley of fields and woodland. It’s sad that so much tragedy occurred in that beautiful countryside.”

Long before the First World War, the butcher’s shop at Haydon Bridge had survived previous setbacks.

The death of Matthew Cowing, aged 37, in 1857, led his wife, Jane Blakeley, to take over the reins and she remained actively involved with the business until the 1880s.

But while the war was credited with wiping out the business, the Cowing’s legacy to Haydon Bridge’s economy lived on in the form of Tom Snr’s youngest son, Charlie Cowing, who went on to become manager of the Co-operative store, also on Ratcliffe Road.

Charlie initially served his time at the Co-op, prior the Second World War. During the 1939-1945 conflict, he served his country on missions which included the seige of Tobruk in Libya, before returning to the Haydon Bridge store and becoming manager.

Tom Jnr added: “I think Charlie had his father’s personality. He was my uncle and there were certainly similarities in the way they lived their lives, the involvement with business and making a contribution to respective world wars.”

Tom Jnr, whose middle name is also Blakeley, said the name came into the family after Matthew Cowing married Jane Blakeley at Gretna Green in the 19th century. Curiously, it is sometimes reduced to Blakey.