Richard Cleland Square

Family

Richard Cleland Square was born in Dartmouth on 20^th March 1892 and baptised at St Petrox on 20^th April of that year. He was the youngest son of Henry Square and his wife, Ann Christie Cleland.

Henry Square was the second son of John Henry Square, a successful solicitor in Kingsbridge. He was educated at Sherborne School, and on 18^th June 1874, having passed the necessary examinations, was articled as a Clerk to his father for five years. He went into practice in his own right as a solicitor in 1881, his father helping him to establish a practice in Dartmouth. The following year he married, the wedding being the subject of much interest locally. The Western Times of Saturday 22^nd April 1882 reported that:

Ann was the youngest daughter of Richard Browne Cleland, who came to Dartmouth in 1858 after a successful career in the merchant navy, during which he captained Sir Samuel Cunard's first transatlantic ocean liners, including the RMS Britannia and RMS Caledonia. He was Mayor of Dartmouth in 1860-61 and 1861-62, subsequently serving as an Alderman for many years. Soon after his arrival in Dartmouth, Richard Cleland built Rock Hill, in Warfleet, opposite Ravensbury, and he and his family lived there for several years.

In 1887, he built another house for himself, called Penlee Villa at that time, on Matt's Point, overlooking Blackpool Sands. Henry and Ann Square moved into Rock Hill, and were recorded there in the 1891 Census, with their five children:

• twins Annie Cleland and Mary Blanche Cleland, baptised privately at Stoke Fleming on 30^th November 1882
• Henry Cleland, baptised at Stoke Fleming on 29^th November 1885
• Jean Cleland, baptised at Stoke Fleming on 23^rd January 1887
• Margaret Isabel, baptised at St Petrox, Dartmouth, on 17^th November 1890

Sadly, their second son, named John Henry for Henry's father, born at Rock Hill on 19^th May 1888, died there on 11^th April the following year, aged 11 months.

Richard Browne Cleland died at Penlee on 27^th February 1892 "after a somewhat protracted illness", according to his obituary in the Dartmouth Chronicle (4^th March 1872), and was buried at Stoke Fleming. Richard Cleland Square was born three weeks later, at Rock Hill, and named for his maternal grandfather.

At about the time of his marriage, Henry Square had obtained the receivership of a substantial estate in Thurlestone, owned by the Brunskill family, which was being administered in Chancery. Until it was wound up in 1900, this generated a steady and sizeable income - about £300 per year. On the strength of it he opened his own practice in Dartmouth, while continuing to work closely with his father. That year he was appointed Borough Treasurer in Dartmouth, treasurer to the Urban Sanitary Authority, and to the Port Sanitary Authority, his father and brother standing surety for him. Although he was the only applicant for the post, it can have done no harm to his application that his father in law, Richard Cleland, was an Alderman; Henry held these posts until 1897. Henry was appointed Commissioner for Oaths in 1887, and the following year joined the Committee of the new Dartmouth Cottage Hospital as treasurer. He was elected to the Board of Guardians in 1901. Meantime, his legal practice continued to grow, and he opened a practice in Paignton in 1900.

Richard was thus born and brought up in comfortable circumstances. The family continued to live at Rock Hill - Henry, Ann, and Annie were recorded there at the time of the 1901 Census. The other children were at various schools - Henry (junior) was at Kingsbridge Grammar School; Mary, Jean and Margaret were boarding at Stroud Ladies College, Beeches Green; and Richard, aged 9, was the only boy, and youngest pupil (on the night of the Census) at a small private boarding school in Paignton.

In 1903 Henry bought the legal practice of Onesimus Bartlett, a Paignton solicitor, with whom he had worked when Borough Treasurer. Onesimus Bartlett had been Dartmouth's Town Clerk since 1883 (also Clerk to the Urban Sanitary Authority and Port Sanitary Authority), but in 1903 was convicted of fraudulently misappropriating the money of one of his clients, and was sentenced to three years' penal servitude.

But gradually, things began to go wrong for Henry. The circumstances were described in a bankruptcy case of 1908, which was closely connected to his arrest for fraud at more or less the same time - indeed, Henry was unable to attend the first creditors meeting on 27^th February, because he had been committed for trial, and, not being able to obtain bail, was in prison in Exeter. The Official Receiver did not think it "advisable to put the estate to the expense of bringing him to Paignton" (Dartmouth Chronicle 28^th February 1908).

At the first creditors' meeting, the Official Receiver said that:

Henry had "become aware of his insolvency early in 1907". In May 1907 he sold both his practices, for £1,100 (receiving £900 at the time with the balance to come over the next two years). Rock Hill was apparently sold (or possibly let), and the family moved to Kingsbridge. The practices had generated an income of £700-£750 per year, which the Official Receiver commented "seemed exceedingly good, derived from professional practice with which no appointments were connected". However, since moving to Kingsbridge, "debtor had done very little", other than sell his furniture to pay the rent. Two houses he owned in Paignton were mortgaged; he had sold his watch "and bought a cheaper one". He also owed his wife £740.

Henry's liabilities as assessed at that stage totalled £3,171 5s 3d, while his assets were "2s 5d balance at the bank, a watch, furniture at Kingsbridge valued at £59, out of which the landlord's rent had to come, and a small quantity of furniture at Paignton". Equivalent monetary values are problematic, but the Bank of England inflation calculator gives a value in 2016 of about £350,000 for Henry's liabilities. The next stage of the bankruptcy case was adjourned pending the outcome of the criminal proceedings, brought by one of Henry's clients, a Mrs Lyde, of Paignton.

On 22^nd June 1908 Henry Square pleaded guilty at the Devon Assizes "to a series of charges of unlawfully converting large sums of money to his own use at Paignton, and was further charged with unlawfully obtaining the sums by false pretences". Mrs Lyde was an old lady, widowed, and comfortably off. Henry had acted as her "confidential man of business" for many years; she trusted him, and "signed anything he put before her". He had defrauded Mrs Lyde in two ways - firstly, by saying that he had good investments available, usually a mortgage secured on land, and thereby obtaining sums of money from her to (ostensibly) loan to others; and secondly, by going to other clients to say that Mrs Lyde wished to borrow money from them, using as security some property she no longer in fact owned, but whose title deeds she had retained and to which Henry had access. The money thus obtained had been used to fund his increasing debts. There were six charges of fraudulent conversion and seven of false pretences - Henry pleaded guilty to two.

In seeking mitigation, Henry's defence counsel argued that

Mr Justice Phillimore responded that

At the public examination in his bankruptcy case, held the following month, which Henry attended from Exeter Prison in charge of two warders, Mrs Lyde was the principal creditor, for £12,421. At the end of the examination, the "Official Receiver remarked that he had no observations to make, the case being sufficiently sad". Henry was "struck off" the solicitors' rolls for professional misconduct in October, and removed from the roll of notaries public in December.

The case was widely reported in newspapers, not just those in the south-west. Ann Square's financial interests may have been protected to some degree because, at the time of her marriage, Richard Cleland had settled £2000 in trust for his daughter, requiring all property subsequently acquired to be subject to the trust. The reports of the case indicate that, although Henry had not wholly complied with this condition, nevertheless the trustees were still acting on Ann's behalf - indeed, she was listed as one of Henry's debtors. Nonetheless, the effect on her and the children, must indeed have been devastating.

It is probably no coincidence that Richard (junior) was apprenticed to the shipping company Scrutton Sons & Company shortly after his father's conviction. On 20^th October 1908, aged sixteen years and seven months, he joined the company for three years. Scruttons were a merchant shipping company trading principally to the West Indies. Perhaps Richard was keen to follow in his grandfather's footsteps, and to develop a career in the merchant navy - but the arrangement must also have had the advantage of getting him well away from all the difficulties at home.

By 1911, Ann Square was living at Pembroke Lodge, 4 Station Road, Newton Abbot. Clearly the family was in reduced circumstances. With her were her eldest daughters Annie and Mary Blanche, who described herself as a "boarding house keeper", and her son Henry Cleland, who, aged 25, was working as an engine fitter on the Great Western Railway. Her youngest daughter Margaret was working as a domestic nurse (or nanny) in the household of Reverend William Webber Preedy, in Exeter. Jean had emigrated to Canada in 1908.

No occupation was given for Ann on the Census form, who may well have been in poor health - she died soon after the Census, on 12^th July 1911, in Newton Abbot.

On the night of the 1911 census, Richard, coincidentally, was in Dartmouth - or strictly speaking, just outside the entrance to the port. Aged 19, he was in the final stages of his apprenticeship, on board the Scrutton & Sons steamship Spheroid, on her way from London to the West Indies. The Customs Officer recorded on the ship's census form that:

The 1911 Census also records Henry Square as a prisoner in Maidstone Prison - "solicitor struck off roll". However, on 30^th August 1912 he was released, not quite two years before the due date of 18^th June 1914. On 16^th September 1912 he remarried, at the Registry Office in Exeter, in the name of Henry Square. His second wife was Jessie Seymour, from Holcombe, near Dawlish.

Henry's service

On 1^st October 1914, aged 58, Henry attested for the Remount Company of the Army Service Corps in Brentwood, giving his name as Henry Edward Sanders and that of his wife as Jessie Seymour Sanders. He joined the Army Service Corps in Woolwich the following day, and was ranked Foreman Corporal. Twelve days later he was on his way to No 2 Base Remount Depot at Le Havre, in France. The Remounts Service was responsible for the provisioning of horses and mules to all other army units, and generally consisted of older men. Henry's attestation form states that he had tried to join up before, but had been rejected because he was over age.

Henry served at the Base Remount Depot for about eighteen months, but was discharged on 12^th May 1916 "no longer physically fit for war service" due to emphysema, with the acting rank of Sergeant.

Richard's service

It seems that Richard had remained in the merchant navy until a little after the outbreak of war, for his attestation papers, which have survived in his army service record, show that his "trade or calling" was that of Seaman. His medical record shows that he had also picked up other useful skills, for he was also described as "motor driver (6 months)". He volunteered to join the Army at Newton Abbot on 9^th November 1914. For the period, he was unusually tall, at 5ft 11ins; the same height as his father.

He joined the Royal Garrison Artillery and reported to Fort Rowner, Gosport, the following day, for initial training. He was posted first to 21 Company, Leith, responsible for Scottish coastal defences, on 4^th December 1914, and then to 33rd Siege Battery on 13^th February 1915.

Marriage

Whilst still training with 33^rd Siege Battery, in Leith, and having been appointed Acting Bombardier on 4^th April 1915 (equivalent to Lance Corporal), Richard came back to Dartmouth. On 17^th April 1915 he married Bessie Carlile Ward at St Saviours. Bessie was the only daughter of John Ward and his second wife, Bessie Wilcox. John Ward was born in Ireland and had joined the Royal Navy as a Boy 2^nd Class in 1868. He came to Dartmouth in 1877 when he joined HMS Britannia as a Leading Seaman. The following year he was rated Petty Officer 1^st Class and Quartermaster in June, and in December married his first wife, Maria Coaker, at St Petrox, Dartmouth.

In 1879 John left Dartmouth for HMS Royal Adelaide, but was back in HMS Britannia by 1882, where he remained. Sadly Maria died only two weeks after the birth of John Samuel, their fourth child, in 1887. John remarried in 1889, in Brixham, and his second wife Bessie took on the care of his young family. Bessie's daughter, also named Bessie, was born in Brixham on 15^th July 1892.

John was invalided out of the Navy in 1893, but continued to work at the Royal Naval College. At the time of the 1901 Census he was working as a Cadets Servant and in 1911, aged 61, he was working as a College Cleaner. His naval service record shows that he briefly rejoined the Royal Navy very shortly after the outbreak of war (notwithstanding his age) and served at the College for a short period.

Richard and Bessie settled at Riversea, Above Town, Dartmouth, close to Bessie's parents, who also lived in Above Town. 33^rd Siege Battery remained in England until 8^th August 1915, and it seems that Richard was able to obtain leave before the departure for France, for the couple's only child, Nancy Isabel, was born on 16^th March 1916. Richard was given a short period of leave to England from 19^th - 27^th February 1916, so he must have seen Bessie only a couple of weeks before their baby was born. His records show that he also had a week's leave early in 1917 (26^th January - 5^th February) when he (presumably) saw his daughter for the first and only time.

Siege Batteries in the Royal Garrison Artilley were equipped with heavy howitzers, which fired large high explosive shells. 33^rd Siege Battery was armed with four 8-inch howitzers, which had entered service in February 1915, to meet the need for heavy artillery. The Battery went out to the Western Front with 26^th Heavy Artillery Brigade (or Group) (HAG), but during the period of Richard's service, was reallocated to several different Artillery Groups, depending where it was needed:

• 15^th HAG 5^th April 1916
• 40^th HAG 14^th June 1916 (Northern Heavy Group) - for the beginning of the Battle of the Somme
• 36^th HAG 26^th July 1916
• 45^th HAG 12^th December 1916
• 14^th HAG 21^st March 1917
• 9^th HAG 29^th March 1917
• 51^st HAG 16^th May 1917 (joined 20^th May 1917)
• 73^rd HAG 12^th June 1917

Richard did well, being promoted Bombardier on 6^th June 1916, acting Corporal on 6^th February 1917 immediately after his return from leave, and Corporal on 23^rd February 1917.

On 22^nd June 1917, the Battery joined 88^th Heavy Artillery Group, and on 30^th June 1917, the number of howitzers increased to six. Heavy artillery was essential not only to destroy heavily defended positions, in support of attacking troops, but as the war progressed, was used increasingly on "counter battery work" - destroying or neutralising enemy guns. From the references quoted below, it appears that by 1917, 33^rd Siege Battery was being used predominantly in this latter role, working with spotter aircraft to identify targets and assess success.

88^th Heavy Artillery Group joined II Corps, Fifth Army, on 12^th June 1917, as part of the build up for the Flanders Offensive, known to posterity as "Third Ypres". (For the background, see the story of William John Farrow Bates, who died on the first day of the battle). II Corps were located on the right of Fifth Army's front, to the south of Ypres; the heavy artillery was well to the rear.

The 88 HAGroup war diary does not mention 33^rd Siege Battery every day, but the following references give some idea of the Battery's activity, as preparations continued for the opening day of "Third Ypres".

Richard was promoted Acting Sergeant on 23^rd July 1917, as the massive bombardment before the attack intensified.

On 31^st July, as the infantry attack went forward, 88 Group's War Diary reported:

During the next five days the bombardment continued, though at a far lesser rate - total 8" rounds fired were:

• 1^st August: 329
• 2^nd August: 184
• 3^rd August: 98
• 4^th August: 152
• 5^th August: 167

Death

The Group War Diary makes no reference to the circumstances of Richard's death, but a series of letters written to Bessie afterward, and published in the Dartmouth Chronicle on 17^th August 1917, give an account of what happened:

Bessie placed an accompanying announcement:

In fact, Richard had been killed in Belgium. As the Chaplain's letter stated, Richard was buried in The Huts Cemetery, six miles to the south-west of Ypres, which, as Lt Wallace's letter indicates, was close to the Battery's position. According to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, nearly two thirds of the burials in the cemetery are of gunners, as many artillery positions existed nearby.

In December 1917, Bessie received Richard's effects: his identity disc, his letters, a holdall containing two razors, a hairbrush, shaving brush, comb, two tooth brushes, laces, a toilet bottle, his housewife, a mirror in a wooden frame, a writing pad and loose paper, and a registered envelope.

In January 1918, authority was posthumously given for Richard to be promoted to the substantive rank of Sergeant, with effect from 23^rd July 1917.

Commemoration

Richard is commemorated in Dartmouth on the Town War Memorial, on the St Saviour's Memorial Board, and on the St Petrox War Memorial.

He is also commemorated on the Newton Abbot War Memorial, perhaps because his sisters Annie and Mary Blanche were still living in Newton Abbot after the war.

Sources

Army Service record for Richard Cleland Square from the National Archives, accessed through subscription websites

Army Service record for Henry Square, in the name of Henry Edward Sanders, from the National Archives, accessed through subscription websites

Naval Service record for John Ward from the National Archives, fee payable for download, references ADM 139/713/31252 and ADM 188/59/73000

War Diary of 88 Brigade Royal Garrison Artillery February 1917 - 31 March 1919 from the National Archives, fee payable for download, reference WO 95/396/4

Information Held on Database

Surname:	Square
Forenames:	Richard Cleland
Rank:	Sergeant
Service Number:	51080
Military Unit:	33rd Siege Battery Royal Artillery
Date of Death:	06 Aug 1917
Age at Death:	25
Cause of Death:	Killed in action
Action Resulting in Death:	Third Battle of Ypres
Place of Death:	Ypres
Place of Burial:	The Huts Cemetery, Belgium
Born or Lived in Dartmouth?	Yes
On Dartmouth War Memorial?	Yes
On St Saviour's Memorials?	Yes
On St Petrox Memorials?	Yes
On Flavel Church Memorials?	No
In Longcross Cemetery?	No
In St Clement's Churchyard?	No
On a Private Memorial?	No
On Another Memorial?	Yes
Name of Other Memorial:	Newton Abbot War Memorial

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