News:

Welcome to the Golf Club Atlas Discussion Group!

Each user is approved by the Golf Club Atlas editorial staff. For any new inquiries, please contact us.


James Boon

  • Karma: +0/-0
Golf and the 100th Anniversary of the end of the Great War
« on: November 10, 2018, 05:23:53 PM »


As tomorrow, 11th November 2018, is Remembrance Sunday and the 100th Anniversary of the end of the Great War, I thought it was worth highlighting a series of articles by Andrew Picken writing for Golfshake, about the First World War and Golf...
 
Private John Parr, the first British soldier killed, was a caddie from North Middlesex GC:
https://www.golfshake.com/news/view/13096/Wartime_History_of_Golf_1_Caddie_was_the_First_Casualty_of_WW1.html
 
Andrew's articles and research were inspired by his coming across the memorial at my club Notts GC (Hollinwell) which also commemorates Lieut W L Rockley who was a junior member at the club, was killed at the Battle of Ypres 11th October 1917, in his 22nd year. Our vice-captain doing a bit more research has confirmed that there were 328 members at the start of the war, 61 joined the forces and 12 died:
https://www.golfshake.com/news/view/13097/Wartime_History_of_Golf_2_Memorial_at_Hollinwell.html

Memorials in the clubhouse and out on the course at Erewash Valley GC:
https://www.golfshake.com/news/view/13125/Wartime_History_of_Golf_3_Erewash_Valley_Memorial.html
 
A member of a golfing family who served his country, was awarded the MC and then went on to play in the first Walker Cup:
https://www.golfshake.com/news/view/13126/Wartime_History_of_Golf_4_JLC_Jenkins_and_Royal_Troon.html
 
Golfs very own "Pals Brigade":
https://www.golfshake.com/news/view/13152/Wartime_History_of_Golf_5_The_Niblick_Brigade.html
 
We will remember them.
 
James
2023 Highlights: Hollinwell, Brora, Parkstone, Cavendish, Hallamshire, Sandmoor, Moortown, Elie, Crail, St Andrews (Himalayas & Eden), Chantilly, M, Hardelot Les Pins

"It celebrates the unadulterated pleasure of being in a dialogue with nature while knocking a ball round on foot." Richard Pennell

Jeff_Mingay

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Golf and the 100th Anniversary of the end of the Great War
« Reply #1 on: November 10, 2018, 06:28:21 PM »
Thanks for posting these links, James.


Reminds me that Canada's pioneering golf course architects, A.V. Macan and Stanley Thompson, both fought with the Canadian Armed Forces at the defining Battle of Vimy Ridge in France. Macan lost a leg from the knee down as a result of injuries sustained during the battle.
jeffmingay.com

Richard Fisher

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Golf and the 100th Anniversary of the end of the Great War
« Reply #2 on: November 11, 2018, 05:59:20 AM »
One of the most poignant spots in British golf is the entrance to the course at Brancaster, where you go through the war memorial gate (shown elsewhere on GCA) saluting the fallen of both the Royal West Norfolk Golf Club (officers) and the Brancaster Village Golf Club (other ranks). Interestingly, war memorials of this kind were almost unknown in the UK until the 1920s.

One of the most famous accounts of the Western Front remains Goodbye to All That by Robert Graves. The latter had been a junior member at Harlech, where the Graves family owned a large house just to the north of the little town, and it was the founding secretary of RStD, William Henry More who played a key role at the outset of Graves' military career. Graves recalls in his celebrated semi-memoir that 'I had just finished with Charterhouse and gone up to Harlech, when England declared war on Germany. A day or two later I decided to enlist...The Harlech golf club secretary (More) suggested my taking a commission instead of enlisting. He rang up the nearest regimental depot - the Royal Welsh Fusiliers at Wrexham and told the adjutant that I had served in the Officer Training Corps at Charterhouse. The adjutant said 'Send him right along' ' and thus are celebrated military (and literary) careers born. This, incidentally, is the same More described by Bernard Darwin as 'just about the best golf club secretary in the world'.

Very sadly the golfing pride of Harlech at that time, Henry Stokoe, a recent Oxford Blue  who had swept all before him in the RStD summer meeting of August 1914, immediately prior to the outbreak of war, was killed at Ypres in October 1915, just after his twenty-first birthday, when a rifle grenade exploded prematurely. This was the sort of sad story that can be traced across the honours boards of all too many of the historic golf clubs of the British Isles (remembering that  large numbers of men from what is now the Republic of Ireland also served).

Thomas Dai

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Golf and the 100th Anniversary of the end of the Great War
« Reply #3 on: November 11, 2018, 06:05:53 AM »

atb

Jim Tang

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Golf and the 100th Anniversary of the end of the Great War
« Reply #4 on: November 11, 2018, 03:14:13 PM »
I am a history teacher and this past Friday we hosted 40 veterans at my school, ranging in ages from 30 to 93, for a breakfast and assembly.  In speaking with many of the veterans, sadly, most said this was the first time they had ever been honored at any type of ceremony.  We will continue to hold this event as long as I chair the department.


If you know a veteran or see one out in public, please thank them for their service.  Veterans are special people.

Jon Wiggett

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Golf and the 100th Anniversary of the end of the Great War
« Reply #5 on: November 11, 2018, 06:24:46 PM »

I have never come across a feature on a golf course like that found in the middle of the 8th fairway at Abernethy Golf Club in the Scottish Highlands. It is a fine example of how a golf course can be imbedded into the community. Below is a link to an earlier thread which show it. 


http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,63974.msg1523193.html#msg1523193










« Last Edit: November 11, 2018, 06:27:30 PM by Jon Wiggett »

Steve Okula

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Golf and the 100th Anniversary of the end of the Great War
« Reply #6 on: November 12, 2018, 03:51:01 AM »
George C. Thomas (LACC anong others) served in the Army Air Service in WWI, and as I recall crashed three times, though not from enemy fire.
The small wheel turns by the fire and rod,
the big wheel turns by the grace of God.

John Mayhugh

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Golf and the 100th Anniversary of the end of the Great War
« Reply #7 on: November 12, 2018, 10:18:17 AM »
Seeing the WWI memorials at most every English club I have visited gave a stronger sense of the impact of that war than anything I had simply read. The losses seem more staggering when viewed on that sort of scale.

Thanks for this thread, James.

Jon,
Quite a memorable memorial indeed.

James Boon

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Golf and the 100th Anniversary of the end of the Great War
« Reply #8 on: November 12, 2018, 04:47:06 PM »
Thanks all for the responses.


Jon, I've driven past Abernethy a few times but not played it. I must stop for a quick nine next time to see the memorial in what is an odd but unforgettable location on a hole.


[size=78%]Cheers,[/size]


James
2023 Highlights: Hollinwell, Brora, Parkstone, Cavendish, Hallamshire, Sandmoor, Moortown, Elie, Crail, St Andrews (Himalayas & Eden), Chantilly, M, Hardelot Les Pins

"It celebrates the unadulterated pleasure of being in a dialogue with nature while knocking a ball round on foot." Richard Pennell

Mike Sweeney

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Golf and the 100th Anniversary of the end of the Great War
« Reply #9 on: November 13, 2018, 08:54:46 AM »
Not sure how he does it, but they keep it together in one of the most complicated places on earth:



http://www.kabulgolfclub.org/history.html

Posted today on Facebook:

« Last Edit: November 13, 2018, 08:57:41 AM by Mike Sweeney »
"One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us."

Dr. Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

Mark Chaplin

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Golf and the 100th Anniversary of the end of the Great War
« Reply #10 on: November 18, 2018, 04:43:11 PM »
Out of many thousands there are 52 “thankful villages” in the UK who didn’t lose a man in WW1.

Cave Nil Vino

Jon Wiggett

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Golf and the 100th Anniversary of the end of the Great War
« Reply #11 on: November 18, 2018, 04:51:12 PM »
Thanks all for the responses.


Jon, I've driven past Abernethy a few times but not played it. I must stop for a quick nine next time to see the memorial in what is an odd but unforgettable location on a hole.



[size=78%]Cheers,[/size]


I have long championed the course which is well worth a look if passing by.


Jon

James

Tags:
Tags:

An Error Has Occurred!

Call to undefined function theme_linktree()
Back