Inspiration for WW1 Song

James Harry Edwards is standing back left with arms folded - mistakenly noted as John in handwritten club records

There are two versions of the song online

Come on the Durhams or Jamie's Song

Come on, the Durhams

Below are the two case studies that inspired the song. I did over 250 case studies 2014-18 - Get in touch if you want a free online copy of the book. I have hi-lited the reference that led to the song

keith.gregson@talk21.com

SCFC/FWW/54 EDWARDS JOHN H/K.I.A –WO 339/21070

James (not John) Harry Edwards was another of the rugby players who travelled to Sunderland to play and appeared in the back row for the single season before the war. There is little doubt that James (if this was how he was known to his family) was a first team player. His picture appears as a member of the 1913/14 1st XV and there are numerous references to him in team lists published in the Newcastle Journal and Sunderland Echo. In January 1915 while in training for the forces his name was posted in the Bucks Herald as part of an army side (his name published with Sunderland RFC beside it). Although he played for Sunderland, James Harry Edwards was more of a ‘general north easterner’. He was born in the Heaton Suburb of Newcastle in July 1894 (and would thus have been only 18 or 19 when he first appeared for the 1st XV). His father was a ship repairer and employer and the family later moved to the Harton area of South Shields. He attended the South Shields Grammar Technical High School until he was in his mid-teens when he went to finish off his education at Uppingham School in Rutland. His name appears there in the 1911 census – a boarder age 16. His father was Managing Director of the Middle Dock in South Shields and after leaving school James started an engineering apprenticeship in Southwick, Sunderland. His days at a rugby playing public school plus his work placement in Sunderland might have been reasons for his attachment to rugby and the Sunderland club. According to the Army lists James joined the 14th (Service) Battalion of the DLI as a temporary 2nd lieutenant on 22 September 1914 – weeks out of his teenage years. The battalion trained for months in the south (including Buckinghamshire which explains the Bucks Herald reference) and in June 1915 he was made a temporary full lieutenant. The men embarked for France on 11 September 1915 and within two weeks disaster struck the entire battalion at Loos. James officer’s record takes up the young man’s individual tale. According to his record on 25 September ‘he was buried in a trench near Hill 70’ and ‘was unconscious for 24 hours’. The trench had taken a direct hit from a shell. On the next day he was said to be suffering from ‘shock’ and within a few days was in hospital. The Medical Board decided that he was ‘unfit for service’ and he allowed him to be on leave for eight weeks. He returned to the north east and his home – which had moved to Gosforth - which is now a suburb of Newcastle. After the eight weeks he was examined for a move to ‘general service and home light duties’ but was still considered unfit for duty. He was required to report to medics again and again at weekly intervals and until May 1916 was still registered as unfit. His thick file of medical records – which can be viewed at The National Archives, Kew - makes for uncomfortable reading – ‘shock on active service’; ‘effects of shock 57 concussion’; ‘ headaches and arms pains … pains in the nervous system’. One writer added a lengthier note - ‘he is suffering from nervous shock, insomnia, headaches, uncertain appetite and tremulous muscles’. Needless to say modern advances in the field of physical neuroscience - (a field in which my own wife works) – would explain his state of health both mental and, more importantly perhaps physical. However it still comes as a surprise to discover that on 16 May 1916 an instruction came from on high that the medical board should ‘please order him to join the EF (Expeditionary Force)’. On 27 May 1916 he was appointed lieutenant in the 14th DLI. By August he was at Etaples although his record then notes that he was ‘in hospital’ again in October. On 1 December 1916 he was promoted to full lieutenant. Two days later he re joined the battalion. Four days later he was shot by a sniper. The writer of the 14th DLI war diary (WO 95/1617-2) noted; ‘Cambrin sector – ‘ 20 officers – 735 other ranks – 7 Jan – a little shelling near Munster Parade, Old Boots Back Street – Enemy snipers active – Lieut J H Edwards and 1 OR (ordinary ranker) killed’. James’s body was buried in Cambrin Churchyard – between the Somme and Ypres battlefields. At the time, his grave was said to have had ‘a durable cross’. A telegram was sent to 22, Windsor Terrace, Newcastle and returned ‘house empty’. A few weeks later his father received an official letter at his Gosforth address. In July 1917 his father was sent his pay and his effects. Transcribed here from his war record, they present as a pitiful list; 1 pocket book 1 pipe 1 fountain pen 1 wristwatch and guard 1 extra guard for wristwatch 1 officer’s advance book Letters etc 1 cheque book 4 tubes for pipe 3 pencils 1 iodine ampule 58 Until the closure of the DLI Museum his medals were located in Medal Case 34, Display Group 4 and some of his career details feature on his old South Shields’ school web site. His name appears on a number of north east war memorials especially one in St Nicholas Church, Gosforth put up by his parents in memory of their son and other local men killed in the conflict. The bulk of James Harry Edwards case study featured on the World Rugby Museum’s ‘From The Vaults’ web site on the centenary of his death.

Death of a Forward

SCFC/FWW/113 LONGDEN F CECIL - SEC LIEUT 4th BATT DURHAM L I/K.I.A WO 339/22811

Frederick Cecil Longden played in the front row for the two seasons prior to the war. He was born in Durham City on 28 March 1888. He was at Bow School at the time of the 1901 census and moved on to Durham School, Armstrong College and University College, Durham. He also appears twice on the 1911 census – once as a trainee solicitor living in the family home in Castle Eden and again as a visitor to his old school in Durham. He was a clerk with the family law firm as his father was the official receiver based in John Street in Sunderland. He was 26 when war broke out and had just been admitted to the family firm as a solicitor. He was already a 2nd lieutenant in the territorial 3rd DLI by the outbreak of war, mobilised in August 1914 and 92 gazetted as a 2nd lieutenant in the 4th Battalion of the DLI on 21st August. He entered the Front on 16 June 1915 and was then attached to the 2nd Battalion of the Northumberland Fusiliers. He became Acting Captain in the 15th DLI in 1918 and was killed on 24 August 1918 at Miraumont. He is remembered on the Vis-en-Artois British cemetery at the Pas de Calais as his body was not recovered. His record suggests that he has previously been ‘gravely wounded’. His brother, a recruiting officer (SCFC/FWW/114), claimed Frederick’s three medals in 1920. He too had played for the 1st XV in his youth.

Frederick Cecil’s officer’s record is one of the most fascinating and harrowing encountered in research for this book. His mother was next of kin and had moved to Manchester by the time of his death. From there she wrote to the War Office on 9 September 1918 stating that another son - her eldest - had been ‘laid in an honoured grave in Sheffield’ on 24 August ‘after months in hospital’ and that he had been a robust man before the war’ and ‘served with distinction in South Africa’ qv . Also My next son left a lucrative practice to join up and has done well in France – from which he has returned disabled and lieutenant colonel. The next one A A Longden is at Torquay recovering from gassing and has gained a DSO. The next is an army chaplain 2nd class with Military Cross. Now the last is reported killed in action on August 24 – not a word but a brief official announcement. I am distracted and want to know more.

Exactly a week later she wrote again

61, High Street Oxford Road Manchester

It is more than twenty days since your telegram telling me the distressing news that my youngest son was killed on 24 August. Is it not possible to tell me where he died and if he was buried? The name of the place. Is there an army chaplain or colonel of the regiment – all have been written to but no answer comes. It is surely hard that when all a woman’s sons 93 (five) have gone to the service of King and Country and one died three weeks ago on the very day of his brother’s reported death. Can you do nothing to mend my broken heart? (Book title)

Yours Annie Longden

It is also clear from the record that Annie had already had a scare with Frederick. On 4 October 1915 she had received a telegram stating that he had been wounded and was ‘dangerously ill with bomb wounds to the buttocks and legs’. She was also told that she could visit him in Rouen ‘without a passport’. His sister was allowed to accompany her and it is clear that both went across. Frederick’s officer’s record also includes a copy of the telegram announcing his death, his probate record for £151 and his work address as part of Longden, Mann and Longden, Somerford Buildings, Sunderland. As if to answer the mother’s desperate plea, the last record in the file states ‘place of burial -‘(viz unknown).

His entry in de Ruvigny runs as follows;

FREDERICK CECIL LONGDEN youngest s. of the late James Appleby Longden of Sunderland Solicitor by his wife, Annie Walker, dau. of William (and Mary) Morely : and brother to Major E. W. Longden (q.v) : b. Durham, 28 March, 1888 ; educ. Durham School and Durham University (Scholar), B.A. (Classical) ; was a member of the University O.T.C, and President, of University Boat Club and Union; was a Solicitor at Sunderland, being Honorary Company Secretary, Durham Boy Scouts Association; gazetted 2nd Lieut. 4th Durham Light Infantry 13 Oct. 1913 ; promoted Lieut., and subsequently Capt.; served with the Expeditionary force in France and Flanders from 1916, being attached to the 2nd Northumberland Fusiliers; was seriously wounded on the Somme, and invalided home ; on recovery returned to France, when he was attached to the 15th Durham Light Infantry, and was killed in action at Miraumont, on the Anere, 24 Aug. 1918. Buried at Petit Miraumont.

The Chaplain wrote:

“Our brigade received orders to attack Miraumont, on the Anere Dawn just beginning to break, showed our men that they were practically surrounded by the 94 enemy, who poured in a galling fire from the front and flanks. Seeing that, Capt. Longden led his company forward in the most gallant manner possible, leading his men by a good forty or fifty yards, and inspiring them to advance by his coolness and bravery. His voice could he heard from the other parts of the field, shouting out: ' Come on, the Durhams.' He was almost on top of the enemy when he was hit in the head by a machine-gun bullet, which killed him instantaneously. But his gallantry, and that of some other officers, was not in vain. Our men cleared the ridge, and took some hundreds of prisoners as well. May I add a personal appreciation of Capt. Longden's character I don't want to be affected or unreal, but I can honestly say that very seldom have I met one who appealed to me so much as a type of fine, clean manhood. He was constantly volunteering to lead fighting patrols."

Unmarried. His Durham School record is very full.

KG 10 November 2025