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THE GALLANT MIDDLESEX

Published in Cape Town in the ‘Cape Argus’ on 12 February 1917

The Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment, which narrowly escaped going down in the Steamer Tyndareus off this Coast last week, awoke this morning to find itself famous.

The Middlesex Regiment, needless to state, has a great tradition behind it. It has distinguished itself in many heroic campaigns, but nothing in its Annals resounds more to its credit than the behaviour of officers and men on the occasion signalled by the King’s message of congratulation.

The Steamer Tyndareus was about to call at Table Bay for fuel and supplies. The weather was fine and the majority of the soldiers were watching another transport which was coming along behind, when suddenly a terrific shock was felt and the boat began to fill with water at a great rate. It was a critical moment for everyone on board. Panic or confusion would have resulted in a terrible disaster. But the men, from the highest to the lowest, behaved like heroes. All must have realised their danger. Indeed, they could not fail to do so, for the steamer could be seen to be going down by the head and threatening to take the final plunge at any moment.

The men responded to the commands of their officers as briskly and orderly as on parade and quietly turned up – with death apparently staring them in the face, they burst into song and cheered each other by joining in popular tunes. Boats were lowered quietly and carefully, and with the arrival of assistance all were got off, down to the favourite dogs. It was a magnificent exhibition of coolness, and worthy of the highest traditions, not merely of the British Army, but also of the British maritime service, for it must not be overlooked that the Captain, Officers and seamen of the Steamer displayed equal coolness and were under equally fine discipline.

His Majesty King George, in his message of congratulation to the gallant Middlesex, compares the Officers’ and men’s conduct on board the Tyndareus after the accident, with the behaviour of the heroes of the Birkenhead, whose exceptional coolness and bravery aroused the enthusiasm of the whole civilised world, and caused the King of Prussia to have an account of the incident read to his troops on parade as an example of splendid discipline and courage.

The Birkenhead was also rounding this coast and was in the proximity of Cape L’Agulhas, when she struck a reef. At once the ship began to fill with water. The soldiers and sailors, taken by surprise, and realising the danger facing them, sprang to attention at the word of command as though on land and in safety. There was no confusion, no panic – the Birkenhead, with the Tyndareus, went down at the head, and a well-known picture painted from fact supplied by an eye-witness, shows her with her stern high out of the water just as the Tyndareus is reported to have been at one time.

The great and gratifying difference between the two disasters was that those on the Tyndareus were saved, and the ship was towed into port in a sinking condition, whilst the majority on board the Birkenhead were drowned. They stood to attention to the last, some say, watching with a grim smile the sharks swimming around, and met their death like the brave men they were, without flinching. The loss of life was heavy, the Military loss being 358, and the Naval loss 87, but the story of that tragedy stands today as one of the grandest examples of bravery on record, and it is held in honour by the Navy as well as the Army of Great Britain.

And the coolness and discipline displayed by the officers and men of the Tyndareus have shown that the spirit which held the men of the Birkenhead together, still survives.

A fact which adds lustre to the incident is that the men of the Middlesex Battalion were not old and seasoned soldiers, they were many of them, at all events, young men fresh from civilian life. That they should have so quickly become impregnated with the highest traditions of the British Army and of the distinguished regiment to which they belong, is a wonderful proof of the great qualities of the British race.

My mother quotes this in her book of the letters, but frustratingly does not say which paper it was from. However, Nick Metcalfe told me it was the Cape Argus of 12 Feb 1917. Nick’s family is even more extensive than the Berrymans and he is researching the lives and military service of the 365 men buried in the United States who are commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves. Commission

The evacuation of the troopship SS ‘Tyndareus’.
Stanley Llewellyn Wood

The evacuation of the troopship SS ‘Tyndareus’.
Stanley Llewellyn Wood.

Jim Berryman was sailing with the Middlesex Regiment to Hong Kong on the SS Tyndareus.

THE TYNDAREUS

Splendid Heroism of British Troops

KING’S MESSAGE

One of the most glorious episodes of the war, away from the actual fighting fronts, has just been revealed by the publication through Reuter’s Agency of the following telegram, which passed between the Naval Commander-in-Chief, Simon’s Town and the Admiralty, on the occasion of the accident to the transport Tyndareus, off Cape Agulhas last Tuesday evening, when the Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment displayed heroism equal to that of the men on the Birkenhead in the same spot, sixty-five years ago.

The message referred to were as follows:-

From the Naval Commander-in-Chief, Simon’s Town, to the Admiralty:-

“The behaviour of the Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment, on board the steamship Tyndareus after the accident to that ship, there being a large quantity of water on board, and the ship apparently sinking by the head in a heavy swell, was most praiseworthy, and equal to the Birkenhead tradition of the British Army in the same spot. It was only due to this that no lives were lost in the boats. The ship was saved by the coolness and perserverance of the Captain, Officers, Engineers and Engine Room Staff.”

The following message has been received from His Majesty the King:-

“Please express to the Officers Commanding the Middlesex Regiment, my admiration of the conduct displayed by all ranks on the occasion of the accident to the Tyndareus. In their discipline and courage, they worthily upheld the splendid tradition of the Birkenhead, ever cherished in the annals of the British Army.”

George R.I.

Cape Argus, Monday February 12^th 1917.

Part of a letter written to Ben, probably by Lt E L W Fox of the Garhwal Rifles

I wonder if you have really heard the true yarn of the “Persia” – I don’t fancy you have, so I am going to write it down here in just a few words. “A certain officer”, after jumping overboard a few seconds before the ship sank saw a woman floating about face upwards, and on close inspection discovered she still had room for a few more pints of salt water, so he took compassion on her and towed her about for 20 minutes & eventually got into a boat about ½ a mile away.

I daresay you can guess who it was, and I feel quite sure you will feel very proud of a member of the family who can do a thing like that, anyhow those of us who know about it, and there are not many I am sorry to say, recognise that the Huns havn’t got much of a chance so long as we have lads like this to see this show through-

It’s no good asking Ted about it, as he will of course say it was nothing, or a lie, but I got most of it out of him by degrees & you can take it from me that he gave up 80 per cent of his chances of getting to that boat simply to save someone whom he had never even seen before because she was one of your sex. It doesn’t sound much here & I am afraid I am no good at descriptions, but when it is a matter of everyone for themselves it takes a bit of doing-

Broadsground
Upton St Leonards

2 January 1916

My dear Jack,

By the time you get this I hope you will have got our wire to say that Ted is safe. We had a wire from him at Alexandria & one from Guildford this morning to say he was alright. I was at the hospital washing up when Gladys and Marjorie came & told me that the Persia had been torpedoed in the Mediterranean & in the evening we had a telephone message to say four boats had got to Alexandria. The nurse came to see us yesterday at tea and she told our fortunes in our cups & she said we were to have some good news from over the sea, of a ship from an ‘E’. Marjorie & Louie went down to Mrs Ridler in the evening & cut the cards & she said it would all come right as the cards were so good round Ted & me, & there were some very anxious thoughts coming just before.

Nell never lost her faith in the uncanny as evidenced by Mrs Ridler’s second sight.

The other notable thing about this letter is the mention of the telephone: the unified telephone service in Britain was just over three years old in the beginning of 1916 and even then it was very limited. However, Jack Fielding Sr was an engineer and a prosperous man and an early adopter of new technology. 

My dear old Jonathan,

I am so glad you are pleased to get one of your sisters engaged at last. The worst of it is that Father won’t let it be made public for six months. As you can imagine it is jolly hard to keep it a secret as lots of people seemed to know about it before it ever came  off. Ted wants me to go down to Guildford with him this weekend and spend Saturday in town and do a theatre. But if we aren’t publicly engaged Father might not let me go. I do hope he will as it would be such fun.

Do you realise I am working? I’m learning shorthand and type writing & and getting really quite brainy. I have done all my work and Mrs Tyler isn’t here to tell me what else to do so I am improving the shining hour by writing to you. I spent the weekend in Cheltenham with Ted and Jane in their rooms. It was a rag.

They had a concert on Friday and as the programme was too short, Ted sang some George Robey songs in costume and conducted the rag orchestra and it was a great success and there was a precious account of it in the Echo. We want to get him to come over here and do something at the hospital…

I am so glad you know Ted. It is rotten that Marjorie doesn’t. How funny it must not be to know your sister’s fiasco (sic).  I don’t know when it will come as it was only born this week and I think it is going to be trained first.

Yours to a cinder,

Nell

Excerpt from a letter from Nell’s mother to her brother.

I wonder if you will be very surprised to hear that Ted Berryman is in love with Nell, he spoke to Father yesterday, it is arranged that if they are in the same mind at the end of the six months they may be formally engaged then, & in the meantime nothing is to be said to anyone about it, but I do not see how it is to be kept secret for so long. What do you think about it, I like Ted very much but Nell is very young for him, however I feel sure he will be very good to her.

My mother, writing in the 1980s, said:

The six months edict lasted exactly a week, during which Ted collected Nell every day from her typing school and gave her lunch at the Gloucester Club… John Fielding, who also lunched at the club, realised that everyone else must see how things were and bowed to the inevitable, as much as to his own relief as that of the young couple.

The Berryman family were delighted.

One thing that comes through from the letters is how differently the brothers coped with the War, with the two already in the services (Ted in the army, Paul in the navy) fully engaged and understanding how it was being waged, and the younger two who signed up in 1914, Jim and Topher, finding it harder to adapt to. The eldest, Richard, is always veiled in what he writes to his mother and it is impossible to tell how he reacted to the horrors he must have dealt with as a medic. 

I am grateful to Robert Clark of www.researchingww1.co.uk for the following information.

By October 1915 Jim had been in training for a year, first in the Public Schools Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment and, once he had received a temporary commission, in the 18 (Service) Battalion (1 Public Works Pioneers). Pioneers battalions were a new idea in the British Army, intended to provide skilled labour which would relieve other infantry battalions from non-combat roles. In September 1915, the Battalion was training on Salisbury Plain. However, a medical board convened on 23 September decided that Jim was unfit for general service for a month. Shortly afterwards, he received an adverse report from his C.O. which would see him leave the Battalion a month before it was due to leave for France. 

10 October 1915

In accordance with verbal instructions from the from the General Officer Commanding Division, I beg to forward a report on the undermentioned officer.

This officer’s state of health has been more or less unsatisfactory during his service with this Battalion. I do not consider him likely to do well on active service whilst this Battalion was stationed at Rayleigh he had a months sick leave. He has a curvature of the spine which gives him an excuse for avoiding anything he does not care for. I would strongly recommend his transfer to a Reserve Battalion. [Emphasis in the original].

This was followed by another letter on the 12 October sent to the War Office.

Headquarters Salisbury Training Camp

I recommend that this officer should be transferred to another formation, and his promotion should be delayed. I shall be glad if another officer may be appointed to take his place in the 18 Middlesex Pioneers at an early date.

Major-General Herman Landon
Commanding 33 Division

Ouch, just ouch. I am curious how much of this correspondence he himself saw, and what he told his mother Gertrude, that stickler for hard work and duty who took so much status from having five serving sons.

Jim was transferred to the 25 / Middlesex, a reserve battalion formed in October 1915 and he joined them on 23 October in Hornchuch in Essex. Life would have followed a mundane patter of training new recruits and it must have been hard for him to watch them depart for the front.