By Isle of Wight Observer
An Isle of Wight-educated First World War officer, who was killed during the Battle of the Somme, will be among those honoured in a special illumination of Parliament’s Elizabeth Tower, better known to many as the home of Big Ben, on Remembrance Sunday.
The projection, which will take place between 7pm and 11pm on Sunday, November 8, marks 110 years since the Battle of the Somme, and will tell the stories of five servicemen who fought and died during one of the war’s most devastating campaigns.
Among them is Lieutenant The Hon Vere Harmsworth, the son of newspaper proprietor Harold Harmsworth, later Viscount Rothermere. Born in 1895, Vere attended the
Royal Naval College at Osborne House. The junior officer training college operated there from August 1903 until it shut down in May 1921.
Facing the enemy
After finishing his training at Dartmouth, Vere initially pursued a naval career, serving as a midshipman aboard HMS Defence. However, hearing damage caused by prolonged exposure to gunfire led to his discharge from the Royal Navy in 1914.
Following the outbreak of the First World War, he joined Hawke Battalion, part of the Royal Naval Division, an infantry division formed in September 1914 by Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty. He was captured in the bombardment of Antwerp in October 1914, escaped, and then took part in the Gallipoli campaign, where he wrote vivid letters describing the harsh realities of trench warfare. In July 1915 he wrote: “We have spent four days in the fire trench. We had only a few casualties. We were put there just after a big attack, which had partially failed and the ground between our trench and the Turks were strewn with bodies. It strikes me that they will be there for a long time. In this heat the body and face turn quite black in less than 24 hours and the smell is terrific. The flies – which are myriad – also add to the general discomfort.”
He used his father’s wealth to try and improve conditions for his men. He sent many requests for practical items such as 150 pairs of wool-lined leather gloves, dust-proof goggles and periscopes for use in the trenches. Food was also a priority: “Our food here is scanty and at no times good. We can’t buy any. So send out plenty of tins of cocoa and milk (combined) cakes of all kinds – chocolate biscuits – Oxo cubes – potted meats – plum pudding.”
Service in the Somme
He was later deployed to France and, by November 1916, Hawke Battalion was preparing for the Battle of the Ancre, part of the final stages of the Somme offensive. In a letter to his uncle, written shortly before the assault in which he was killed, Vere wrote: “We came into the trenches this morning and go over the top tomorrow. It will be about dawn… Whether I am to emerge from this show, I do not know. Fate has not definitely informed me… I may have been born to live my 21 years and then fade away.
It may have been my mission in life. If I fall, do not mourn but be glad and proud. It is not a life wasted but gloriously fulfilled. The crowning consolation is the knowledge that one will have done one’s utmost to leave the world better than one found it.”
The attack began before dawn on November 13. Despite being wounded by a bullet to the throat, he continued to lead his men forward. After suffering a second wound, this time to the right shoulder, he again pressed on, rallying troops and leading an attack against German positions. He was killed by shellfire during the advance.
His commanding officer later praised his courage and determination of the 21-year-old, saying: “The men of his battalion who survived the action are thrilled with pride in his name.” He described how Vere repeatedly led his men forward at a critical moment in the battle, despite being wounded.
Today, Vere Harmsworth is buried at Ancre British Cemetery in France, where he remains one of the many young officers whose lives were cut short during the Somme campaign.
The life of the young man who trained at Osborne House will, on Sunday, form part of a national tribute, to those who served and sacrificed everything during the First World War.