 |
|
|
| |
A TOUGH LIFE IN TWO SERVICES
Until 1900 the London Fire Brigade recruited exclusively from the ranks of the Royal Navy and merchant navy. Indeed, the majority of firemen continued to come from these two sources until the Second World War. As a result, there are many interesting medal groups around which include awards for the recipient's service as both seaman and fireman. They can provide rich ground for the medal collector who has the challenge of two careers to research. One such recipient was Arthur Banfield, born in Chelsea in February 1856, who, after some 12 years in the Royal Navy, joined the London Fire Brigade in July 1885. He eventually retired on pension in 1907. His service record illustrates a career afloat which began in January 1873 when he joined the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class, surviving the tough life of the training ships until his first posting to the 9,290-ton battleship HMS Sultan in July 1874. In all, he was to spend nearly four years with her, eventually rising to able seaman.
Tension continued to mount and the following year Russian declared war on Turkey, now a scene of bankrupt chaos after years of revolution in her Balkan states. After a great deal of government vacillation back in Britain, the fleet was at last ordered to be ready to support the Turks. In January 1878, according to a letter published the following month in the Times, stretchers for the wounded were being made aboard the Sultan in case of hostilities. Eventually Adm Phipps Hornby, commanding the Mediterranean Squadron, received orders to sail for Constantinople to protect the life and property of British subjects. On February 15 a force including Banfield's ship appeared off the city; the Russians, believing the ships were crowded with troops, withdrew from the outskirts. The Sultan was slow under sail but she made a good gun platform so she would no doubt have given an excellent account of herself had she been called on to fire her guns in anger. The whole situation attracted considerable press attention and in February 1878 an artist for the Illustrated London News drew a series of impressions of the British Fleet in the Dardanelles, one of which depicts the Sultan firing her guns as she salutes the Turkish flag at Chanak. The Times of course kept its readers abreast of events. In one of its extensive reports, it said of the Sultan's captain when his ship was ready for action at Constantinople: "The Duke of Edinburgh felt and bore himself on that occasion like an Englishman, made a neat speech to his crew, and was as ready as anyone to perform his duty." Did Banfield, however, somehow fail in his duty? Later, with the fleet still in the Sea of Marmora, he spent seven days in cells, although no details of his offence are included on his service sheet. One can only speculate about what sort of misdemeanour he may have committed as he and his fellow seamen faced a potentially explosive situation in the face of a possible enemy. In May 1878 the Sultan's tired boilers, now virtually worn out, meant that she was replaced by HMS Devastation. As early as January 5 the Times had reported that she was expected to return to Portsmouth to be fitted with new boilers.
On Christmas Eve Banfield was back in barracks at Malta, after which he began a series of mundane postings, including time with HMS Penelope, the armoured corvette then doing duty as guardship at Harwich. On 6 June 1881 he was sent to HMS Warrior, then serving with the First Reserve Squadron, commanded by the Duke of Edinburgh, now a rear admiral flying his flag in HMS Hercules. Eleven days later the squadron, now on its annual six-week cruise, was anchored off Heligoland, which was then British. The cruise was not merely a training exercise. The Duke planned to make full use of his close relationships with the royal families of Denmark, Russia and Germany to reinforce the ties, which already existed with those countries. It was therefore only natural that the King of Denmark should call on the flagship before the squadron sailed for Cronstadt, the island fortress guarding the approaches to St Petersburg. Later, following a four-day stay at Kiel, a German ironclad squadron joined company for two hours of evolutions. With the cruise over, Banfield returned to Devonport and in May 1882 he was sent to the iron armoured frigate, HMS Northumberland. She went on to play a modest part in the Egyptian campaign for which Banfield earned the Egypt Medal without clasp. The lack of a battle clasp did not, however, mean that the Northumberland failed to see any action. On July 17 she and other ships landed troops at Alexandria and a month later a number of her crew were among the 565 officers and men who were landed to deal with trouble at Ismailia. The European part of the town was occupied without difficulty, but there was skirmishing in the Arab quarter where some guardhouses had to be shelled. Commander Henry Kane, of the Northumberland, was wounded during this action. In September the Northumberland and Agincourt were despatched to keep watch on the Damietta forts on the mouth of the eastern branch of the Nile. In all 820 officers and men from the Northumberland were awarded the Egypt Medal, most of them without a bar. Nearly two years later, in March 1884, when Banfield was still with the Northumberland, a small number of her men were involved in the action at Tamaai, earning the appropriate bar to their Egypt Medal. Men from the ship who landed at Suakin or Trinkitat in February and March also received the Suakin 1884 clasp. In January 1885 Banfield was in hospital at Devonport but he was back with the Northumberland the following month when a number of her men were included in the naval brigade which landed at Suakin. Banfield was now nearing the end of his naval career. In May 1885 he was posted back to the UK, to HMS Duncan, base ship at Chatham, where he was discharged on completion of his continuous service engagement on 20 June 1885. Nine days later he was wearing uniform again, this time as a London fireman. The London Fire Brigade Museum holds the service sheets of men who did duty with the LFB and the documents detailing Banfield's career as a fireman are full of information about his postings and the station officers under whom he served. His disciplinary record also shows how tough the authorities could be with anyone who was careless or otherwise failed to toe the line. In 1885 he went first to the drill class at brigade headquarters and then, after three months' training, to the station on his home patch in Chelsea. It was not many months before he was in trouble. In June 1886 his station officer accused him of carelessness when he was responsible for damaging the main ladder on one of the escapes. On that occasion he was given a conditional discharge, but within two months he was fined 2s for another offence, the details of which are unfortunately indecipherable on his service sheets. No more offences are recorded against his name until 1901 when he was charged with 'not carrying out the orders of his officer and speaking to him an insolent manner when spoken to about it'. Posterity does not record just what provoked this confrontation but it was clearly a serious matter as he was removed from the post of sub-officer after ' being allowed to resign'. Banfield faced one more disciplinary hearing before he retired. That was in 1903 when he was fined 3s for allowing a coil of rope to drop overboard, presumably into the Thames, while he was taking it from the storeyard to the fire float at Blackfriars. These disciplinary hearings punctuated what otherwise seems to have been a satisfactory career in the fire service. When he left the brigade on 9 October 1907 with a pension of 18s a week, he was awarded a certificate that showed his character and ability both to have been very good. Much of his time had been spent on fire duties afloat although for a couple of years he had been put in charge of a land steam fire engine at Hammersmith. The life of a fireman can be hazardous and in September 1901, when he was one of 200 men fighting what was London's most destructive fire for several years, Banfield was buried when a wall fell on him. The Bunhill Row premises of a firm of manufacturing joiners, next to the Honourable Artillery Company's ground to the north of the Barbican and Moorgate, caught fire. Weather conditions could hardly have been worse. Fanned by a gale, the blaze quickly spread to a huge neighbouring timber yard; flames were being fanned towards Whitbread's nearby brewery when the first firemen arrived. In a dramatic report the Times described how fire brigade units from all parts of London were called in until there were eventually 30 steam fire engines at the scene. As it was a Saturday afternoon, men from the London Rifle Brigade had assembled for a march but when the blaze threatened the destruction of their headquarters they quickly turned to and emptied the contents, taking them out of reach of the flames. The firemen, said the Times, had many narrow escapes... "Overhanging walls constantly crashed down and roofs collapsed without a moment's warning." Two who did not escape were the brigade's second-in-command, Mr Gamble, who had left his Southwark headquarters to personally direct fire-fighting operations, and Arthur Banfield. Mr Gamble was struck heavily on the shoulder and leg, but Banfield was buried beneath a collapsed wall until his colleagues dug him from the rubble. The two injured men were taken to St Bartholomew's Hospital but neither was detained for very long. Banfield no doubt regarded himself lucky to need treatment for only a sprained shoulder and injured ankle. The Metropolitan Fire Brigade was renamed as the London Fire Brigade in 1904, a change which is reflected in. Banfield's three bronze fire service awards. These were the Metropolitan Fire Brigade issue of the 1897 Diamond Jubilee Medal, the 1902 Coronation Medal and the London Fire Brigade Long Service Medal which he was awarded on 28 July 1906. The latter medal, usually seen on a yellow ribbon, would have been among the first of that pattern to be issued. It shows a seated female figure with a shield bearing the arms of London. The dome of St Paul's Cathedral can just been discerned in the background and there is a panel carrying the words Awarded by the London County Council for Good Service. The reverse shows a fire engine drawn by two eager horses, with the legend London Fire Brigade in the exergue. The design was changed in 1923, the obverse now showing a standing female figure with a shield bearing the arms of the London County Council. The reverse is a plain design with similar wording to the obverse of the earlier issue. An example of this award is included in my collection with a later naval and fire brigade group awarded to William Henry Sheldrick, a naval reservist recalled for the First World War. He was, however, released in August 1917 and sent back to the brigade in London, perhaps in the wake of the June and July German air raids that caused widespread alarm in the city.
|
|
