Geoffrey Snead-Cox, 2nd Lieut, 1st Battalion Royal Welsh Fusiliers
Richard Mary Snead-Cox, 2nd Lieutenant, Royal Scots Guards
Herbert Arthur Snead-Cox, Midshipman, Royal Navy
The three Snead-Cox brothers were the sons of John Snead-Cox, Lord of the Manor, Broxwood Court, Herefordshire and Mary Snead-Cox.
Above photo: Broxwood Court (1)
The Manor had been in the hands of the Snead and Cox families for over 300 years. It once belonged to the nuns of Limebrook Priory and after the dissolution it passed to the Lingen family. Dame Alice Lingen sold it to Richard Snead of Baton Bishop in 1664. Later the Sneads married into the Cox family, hence the name Snead-Cox.
“In the late 1850s Richard Snead-Cox (1820-99), a substantial landowner in Herefordshire and Oxford, commissioned a new house, Broxwood Court, and employed W. A. Nesfield to design its gardens. The family (who remain at Broxwood) were Roman Catholics, and the wooded landscape which was developed west of the formal gardens reflects their strong faith, with walks and other features named after biblical figures.
Having settled in with his wife Maria Teresa and their eleven children, Richard embarked on a large building programme - a Roman Catholic school, new cottages to house estate workers, and a fine Roman Catholic church. Richard Snead-Cox left diaries written daily from 1840 to 1899, describing vividly the life of a country gentleman of the day. There were apparently few substantial changes at Broxwood until the 1950s when Col R J F Snead-Cox (d 1968) demolished the old house and built a smaller replacement, simplified the gardens and undertook new plantings.” (2)
In 1855, the above-mentioned Richard Snead-Cox served as High Sheriff of Herefordshire and was among the first to vindicate for Catholics occupying that position the right to attend their own church officially.
John Snead-Cox, born in 1855 and the son of Richard Snead-Cox, was the editor of The Tablet, an influential Catholic weekly review. He also wrote a two volume biography - “The Life of Cardinal Vaughan”.
John Snead-Cox married an American, Mary Porteous. Mary Porteous had been brought up in New Orleans but while away at boarding school, a virulent cholera epidemic had wiped out her entire family back home.
Richard Snead-Cox was born on 25th November 1892. He was educated at Downside School and then New College, Oxford, reading Honours when war broke out.
Geoffrey Snead-Cox, Richard’s younger brother, was born in Marylebone, London on 20th February 1895 and was, likewise, educated at Downside School and The Royal Military College, Sandhurst.
Herbert Snead-Cox was born on 1st February 1900 and educated at The Royal Naval College, Osbourne which was a training college for Royal Navy officer cadets on the Osbourne House estate, Isle of Wight.
Boys were admitted to The Royal Naval College, Osbourne at about the age of thirteen to follow a course lasting for six academic terms before proceeding to the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth.
Prior to the beginning of The Great War, the three brothers would have spent considerable time as children at their parents’ house in London. In the Electoral Register of 1902-1903, John Snead-Cox is recorded as having “a dwelling house” (town house) at Queensgate, South Kensington and in the Electoral Register of 1914-1915, a “dwelling house” at Egerton Gardens. Both residences were in The Borough of Kensington.
On 17th September 1913, Geoffrey Snead-Cox was gazetted as a 2nd Lieutenant, Royal Welch Fusiliers after which he qualified as an interpreter in French.
Above photo: 2nd Lt. Geoffrey Snead-Cox
“1st Battalion, Royal Welch Fusiliers were in Malta when war broke out in August 1914. They returned to England landing at Southampton on 3rd September 1914. They joined 22nd Brigade 7th Division who were concentrating in The New Forest. The division landed at Zeebrugge on 7th October 1914 to assist in the defence of Antwerp. They arrived too late to prevent the fall of the city and took up defensive positions at important bridges and junctions to aid in the retreat of the Belgian army.
The 7th Division then became the first British troops to entrench suffering extremely heavy losses in the 1st Battle of Ypres.” (3)
It was here that Geoffrey Snead-Cox was killed in action aged 19.
On the day before he was killed, a war diary describes action he would have been involved in-
“19th October Hard Fighting. The attack developed on the lines intended but before on the left 22nd Brigade (which 1st Welch Fusiliers were part of) could carry the first of the enemy’s trenches at Klaytoek, the attack was taken in flank by a very strong hostile movement from the direction of Courtrai and further Earth of that place. This movement also involved the Fifth Cavalry Brigade on our left at a heavy fight at Ledeghem. These mounted troops became so involved in this fight that they could not give any protection to the left flank of the 7th Division further south of Ledeghem. The actual details of this action by the 7th Division are set out in a report to the 4th Corps the same evening. The attack on Menin thus failed or rather was checked before being taken in flank before it could develop.
In connection with the fighting this day, the dash and steadiness of the 1st Royal Welch Fusiliers (22nd Brigade) was conspicuous” (4)
The IWM states the following concerning The Royal Welsh Fusiliers on that same day.
“After holding position at Ghent, on the 14th Oct they were ordered to march to Ypres and were in position at Zonnebeke by the 16th. On the 19th they attacked Kleythoem, assaulting the enemy and setting up HQ at Kezelberg where they came under heavy artillery fire. When ordered to retreat from Kezelberg the battalion had lost 3 officers, 14 NCOs and men killed with 4 officers and 84 NCOs and other ranks missing. On the 20th Oct the battalion found themselves entrenched along Passchendaele Road being heavily shelled and attacked by the Germans.” (IWM)
On 20th October, 1914, Geoffrey Snead-Cox was probably killed by “a very hot artillery fire” or the enemy advancing against a line held by The Welch Fusiliers – see another war diary below.
“20th October 1914 - Entrenched about 1000 Hours (10am) orders were received to entrench from the Zonnebeke to Paschendale road, which the 1st Royal Welch Fusiliers were holding, to about one and a half miles north of the railway station. B & D companies, 2nd Queens entrenched this line. Meanwhile the French were engaged to the east of the Passchendale Road and our cavalry were prolonging the lines towards Passchendale. A Company was brought up to point 3 and D company put in reserve at 4. A company came under fire at 3 and Captain Eadaile was wounded. The French began to retire and the 1st Welsh Fusiliers came under a very hot artillery fire which increased towards the evening.
20th October 1914 In action 3rd Cavalry Brigade came up on the left of 22nd Brigade and the French further to the left occupied Paschendaele. The enemy attacked all along the line advancing in particular strength against Paschendaele and a portion of the line held by The Welch Fusiliers.
12 noon the French fell back from Paschendaele and their flank exposed our cavalry also held back. 1st Roayl Welch Fusiliers suffered heavy casualties…” (5)
In “The Records Of Officers Effects”, Geoffrey Snead-Cox left the sum of £11 7s 6d to his father.
Geoffrey Snead-Cox is commemorated at Le Touret Memorial.
Above photo: Le Touret Memorial (CWGC)
Above photo: Indefatigable blowing up after being struck by shell, photo taken from HMS New Zealand (WIkipedia)
Above photo; 1st Battle of Ypres, artist William Wollen (Wikipedia)
The Le Touret Memorial commemorates over 13,400 British soldiers who were killed in this sector of the Western Front from the beginning of October 1914 to the eve of the Battle of Loos in late September 1915 and who have no known grave.” (CWGC)
Above photo: 2nd Lieutenant Richard Snead-Cox (IWM)
When war broke out, Richard Snead-Cox was gazetted as a 2nd Lieutenant, 3rd Royal Scots Guards. After seven weeks training he was sent to St Nazaire, France and thence on 7th October with seven other officers and a draft of 94 men to reinforce the 2nd Battalion Royal Scots Guards who were already at the front.
Above photo: Soldiers of the 2nd Battalion, Scots Guards digging trenches near Zandvoorde, October 1914 (IWM)
The First Battle of Ypres
A war diary -
“On the 27th (October) the Battalion was relieved in the front line and moved into reserve trenches from where it prepared to support a battalion of Sikhs who were to make a night attack on Neuve Chapelle. That attack was postponed and, instead, 2RS (Royal Scots) were ordered to take the village the following day. The attack started at 1 pm and soon came under rifle, machine gun and artillery fire. Before leaving our own lines, however, the Battalion was ordered to stand fast and occupy trenches and, at 6 pm, to fall back to a new position at Pont Logy where it endured further shelling.” (6)
The next day Richard Snead-Cox was involved in the following attack near Neuve Chapelle.
A war diary -
28th October “Orders Received 2nd Royal Scots left billets about 0300 hours and moved to Reserve trenches occupied yesterday. Major Dyson sent for to H.Q. and given verbal orders for the Battalion to attack Neuve Chapelle, through trenches occupied by the Northumberland Fusiliers.
At 1300 hours the Battalion advanced in attack formation with the church in Neuve Chapelle as objective. The advance was made difficult by rifle & machine gun fire from our left front, necessitating one platoon and a machine gun being detached to keep down this flanking fire. The Battalion also came under considerable shrapnel fire but with few casualties.
On passing through the trenches held by the Lincolns and 5th Fusiliers orders were received to stand fast and occupy trenches, a further order for the withdrawal of the Battalion to a position covering Neuve Chapelle at Pont Logi was received about 1800 hours.The Battalion was withdrawn, reorganised and marched to Pont Logi, relieving 15th Hussars.
Lt. Snead-Cose (sic) was killed during the advance.” (7)
This was just eight days after his younger brother, Geoffrey, had been killed. Richard Snead-Cox was 21 years old. He had been shot through the heart.
From the Royal Scots Guards website -
“Way beyond all others the battle that most marked the Scots Guards was the First Battle of Ypres. The deaths recorded in the four weeks from 18 October 1914, to which must be added those who died of wounds later or as prisoners of war after being captured at Ypres, exceeded the total number of Scots Guardsmen who died in each of the years 1917 and 1918. The 2nd Battalion lost four men out of five” (8)
Richard Snead-Cox is commemorated at The Menin Gate Memorial.
Above photo: Menin Gate Memorial (CWGC)
“The Menin Gate is one of four memorials to the missing in Belgian Flanders which cover the area known as the Ypres Salient. Broadly speaking, the Salient stretched from Langemarck in the north to the northern edge in Ploegsteert Wood in the south, but it varied in area and shape throughout the war.
The Salient was formed during the First Battle of Ypres in October and November 1914, when a small British Expeditionary Force succeeded in securing the town before the onset of winter, pushing the German forces back to the Passchendaele Ridge. The Second Battle of Ypres began in April 1915 when the Germans released poison gas into the Allied lines north of Ypres. This was the first time gas had been used by either side and the violence of the attack forced an Allied withdrawal and a shortening of the line of defence.”
The site of the Menin Gate was chosen because of the hundreds of thousands of men who passed through it on their way to the battlefields. It commemorates casualties from the forces of Australia, Canada, India, South Africa and United Kingdom who died in the Salient.
The YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL now bears the names of more than 54,000 officers and men whose graves are not known.” (CWGC)
After the deaths of these two Snead-Cox brothers, it would not have been a surprise if the parents of these two dead soldiers did not have some doubts about their youngest son, Herbert, serving in the war yet Herbert’s mother, Mary, insisted that Herbert must do his duty and so he did as a midshipman in The Royal Navy. A midshipman was a person in training for a naval commission above the rank of a naval cadet and below the rank of a sub-lieutenant. The minimum age at that time to enlist in The Royal Navy was 16 and if the person concerned was under 18, he would have needed the consent of his parents.
Herbert Snead-Cox was born on 1st February 1900 which would have meant that he would only have been eligible to join The Royal Navy (with the consent of his parents) on 1st February, 1916. However, according to The London Times obituary (6th June 1916), he was appointed to H.M.S. Indefatigable on January 1st 1916.
Above photo: HMS Indefatigable (Wikipedia)
“The Battle of Jutland (31s May-1st June 1916) was the largest naval battle of the First World War. It was the only time that the British and German fleets of ‘dreadnought’ battleships actually came to blows.
The German High Seas Fleet hoped to weaken the Royal Navy by launching an ambush on the British Grand Fleet in the North Sea. German Admiral Reinhard Scheer planned to lure out both Admiral Sir David Beatty’s Battlecruiser Force and Sir John Jellicoe’s Grand Fleet. Scheer hoped to destroy Beatty’s force before Jellicoe’s arrived, but the British were warned by their codebreakers and put both forces to sea early.
Jutland was a confused and bloody action involving 250 ships and around 100,000 men.” (IWM)
31st May 1916 -
“Around 16:00, Indefatigable was hit around the rear turret by two or three shells from Von Der Tann (a German battle cruiser). She fell out of formation to starboard and started sinking towards the stern and listing to port. Her magazines exploded at 16:03 after more hits, one on the forecastle and another on the forward turret. Smoke and flames gushed from the forward part of the ship and large pieces were thrown 61 metres into the air.
“It has been thought that the most likely cause of her loss was a deflagration or low-order explosion in 'X' magazine that blew out her bottom and severed the steering control shafts, followed by the explosion of her forward magazines from the second volley.
More recent archaeological evidence shows that the ship was actually blown in half within the opening minutes of the engagement with Von Der Tann which fired only fifty-two 28cm shells at Indefatigable before the fore part of the ship also exploded. Of her crew of 1,019, only three survived.” (Wikipedia)
Above photo: The Indefatigable sinks, photo taken from HMS New Zealand (Wikipedia)
Herbert Snead-Cox was 16 years old.
“Indefatigable, along with the other Jutland wrecks, was belatedly declared a protected place under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986, to discourage further damage to the resting place of 1,016 men.
Mount Indefatigable in the The Canadian Rockies was named after the battle cruiser in 1917. The wreck was identified in 2001 when it was found to have been heavily salvaged sometime in the past. The most recent survey of the wreck by nautical archaeologist Innes McCartney revealed that the initial hits on the ship by Von Der Tann caused 'X' turret magazine to detonate, blowing off a 40m-long portion of the ship from forward of the turret to the stem. The supersonic shock-wave such an explosion generated was probably the reason for the very heavy loss of life on board. The fore part of the ship simply drifted on under its own momentum, still under fire, until it foundered. The two halves of the wreck are separated on the seabed by a linear distance of over 500m. The stern portion had not previously been discovered.” (Wikipedia)
Herbert Snead-Cox is commemorated at The Plymouth Naval Cemetery.
Above photo: Plymouth Naval Cemetery (CGWG)
“After the First World War, an appropriate way had to be found of commemorating those members of the Royal Navy who had no known grave, the majority of deaths having occurred at sea where no permanent memorial could be provided.
An Admiralty committee recommended that the three manning ports in Great Britain - Chatham, Plymouth and Portsmouth - should each have an identical memorial of unmistakable naval form, an obelisk, which would serve as a leading mark for shipping.” (CWGC)
On June 1st, 2016, The Jutland Memorial Park, Denmark was inaugurated. It lies about 100 kilometres east of where The Battle of Jutland took place.
“The memorial consist of 26 granite blocks, which commemorates each ship sunk in the battle, and one for casualties on other ships which did not go down. 400 human figures around the stones symbolize the fallen sailors. The granite stones symbolize the bow of the sunken ships just before they disappear into the depths.” (Wikipedia)
Above photo: Sea War Museum, Jutland (Wikipedia)
On 3rd September 1939, following the start of the Second World War, the British government needed to conduct an accurate count of Britain’s civilian population to enable issuing of ration books and ID cards, the direction of labour and conscription into the armed forces so The England & Wales Register 1939 was compiled. In 1939, John Snead-Cox was residing with his wife, Mary, at Broxwood Court along with two domestic servants. John Snead-Cox’s “personal occupation” is described as retiree while Mary Snead-Cox’s is described, like other women at the time who were not officially employed, as “unpaid domestic duties”.
John Snead-Cox died in December of that year. His wife, Mary, died at the age of 86 in 1959.
Rory MacColl
Sources
1/ http://www.lostheritage.org.uk/houses/lh_herefordshire_broxwoodcourt_info_gallery.html
2/ https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1000876?section=official-list-entry
4/ https://www.wartimememoriesproject.com/greatwar/allied/battalion.php?pid=7366
5/https://www.wartimememoriesproject.com/greatwar/allied/battalion.php?pid=7366
6/ https://www.theroyalscots.co.uk/2nd-bn-in-the-bef-2/
7/https://www.wartimememoriesproject.com/greatwar/allied/battalion.php?pid=6956
8/https://scotsguards.org/historical-overview/the-first-world-war/