Commander Buckle: Teacher, Soldier, Sailor

The Distinguished Service Order and Three Bars

The Distinguished Service Order (DSO) was instituted in 1886 to award “individual instances of meritorious or distinguished service in war.”[1] Some 20,000 awards have since been won, with Bars issued for subsequent awards after 1916. Only 16 individuals have been awarded Three Bars to their DSO – five of whom did so in the Royal Navy.[2] Brigadier General Frederick Lumsden was the first person to be awarded the DSO four times and the only Royal Marine. Amongst the surface fleet, Adm Sir Richard Onslow, Capt Frederic ‘Johnnie’ Walker, and Capt Edward Albert Gibbs all earned theirs in World War II. The fifth?

Cdr Archibald Walter Buckle RNVR earned his four DSOs in less than a year in the First World War – the only reservist of any Service to achieve this honour. He may not be well remembered today, but Winston Churchill named Buckle as one of the “salamanders born in the furnace” of the Great War who “survived to lead, to command, and to preserve the sacred continuity.”[3] Cdr Buckle’s story exemplifies leadership, the core value of courage, and maintaining coolness in battle. He is a testament to the contribution reservists have made, and the value in having a trained complement of naval personnel that can be flexibly deployed to fill emergent needs.

Life before the war

Petty Officer Walter Buckle RNVR, December 1913.[4]

Archibald Buckle was born on 16^th February 1889 in Chelsea, London; and worked as a teacher at St. Augustine’s Boy’s School in Paddington. On 23^rd January 1908, aged 18, he joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR) as a rating. He trained on HMS President, moored in West India Docks, and in July 1912 was made a Petty Officer in charge of a section. In the summer of 1914, he married Elsie Meeks at St. Mary’s Church in Fulham, with a guard of honour from his RNVR shipmates. War broke out a few days into his honeymoon in Scotland, and he rushed back to London to report for duty.

The Royal Naval Division

As First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill decided that the RNVR would not be required at sea but would instead be needed to fight as brigades on land. At the time the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) only consisted of six divisions, while the Fleet didn’t have any obvious manpower shortage.

The newly formed Royal Naval Division was organised into two brigades, each consisting of four battalions and named after admirals. Petty Officer Buckle joined the Drake Battalion, led by Cdr Victor Campbell, who had been Capt Scott’s First Officer on his Terra Nova expedition.

On 22^nd August 1914, the day of the first British engagement on the Western Front, they moved to their new camp on Walmer Downs – near Deal, Kent. Towards the end of September, they were issued with antiquated charger-loading rifles. A few days later, around 5 am on 4^th October 1914, PO Buckle was woken for the march to Dover.

The Siege of Antwerp

On 2^nd October the Germans had broken through near Antwerp and were in danger of outflanking the Allied line in the ‘Race to the Sea’. That same evening, Churchill had arrived in Antwerp and agreed to send the Royal Naval Division to bolster the beleaguered defenders. They arrived in the city on 6^th October to the indescribable enthusiasm of cheering crowds.

Despite being untrained and ill-equipped the Official History recounts that the Division, “showed most creditable firmness under heavy artillery fire; without any training in field fortification, they entrenched themselves; without training in musketry, they used their rifles with effect; without any supply service or regimental transport, they lived on such food as could be procured locally from time to time”[5]

But their position was untenable, and on 8^th October they were ordered to retreat. Huge reservoirs of oil on the banks of the Scheldt had been set on fire by the Belgians. The chaotic evacuation of Antwerp was a scene of, “streams of refugees pouring over the bridges and along the roads, huddled together, hurrying on, impelled by the crash of the cannonade and lighted on their way by the blaze of the great oil reserve flowing in rivers of fire along the ditches.”[6]

A Chaplain recounts how the retreating brigade was forced to pass alongside and through the almost unbearable heat of the flames, “it was like entering the infernal regions… there was a tremendous explosion, flames leapt up to a terrific height, and when I stopped running I felt scorched all over.”[7]

For Buckle, the salamander born in the furnace of war, this was his first trial by fire.

The fall of Antwerp, October 1914.[8]

Training for Gallipoli

Buckle had been “of material assistance” to the Drake Battalion during the retreat from Antwerp, and a couple of months after their return to England he was commissioned as a Sub-Lieutenant. Three months later in March 1915 he was promoted to Lieutenant.

A Divisional Depot was established in the Crystal Palace in Sydenham, and the job at hand was to train and rebuild the depleted battalions. Lt Buckle was found to be a “supremely useful” training officer, perhaps deriving from his experience as a teacher. The future success of the Division was claimed to be due “in no small measure to those responsible for the early training of officers and men at the Crystal Palace Depot.”[9]

The sight of innocent Belgians driven from their home in Antwerp would have provoked Buckle, as for him, “to see injustice roused his fighting ire.”[10] He wanted to return to the front, but as the Division embarked on the journey to Gallipoli in February 1915, Lt Buckle was retained at Crystal Palace due to his value in training. “Like a hound straining at the leash, he longed to take part in what he felt to be his job in the line, and many were the passages at arms with those in authority in which Buckle was bound to come out second best.”[11]

By January 1916 the Gallipoli Campaign had failed. The Division would be re-deployed to the Western Front. In May 1916 Lt Buckle would finally get his wish, he was to join the Hawke Battalion in France.

Return to the Western Front

Lt Buckle was now experiencing life in the trenches on the Somme. The Division’s living situation at this time was described thus, “The trenches were swarming with rats and great rat hunts were instituted; water was brought up from the support lines by parties of two or three men, each man taking his turn; the water was carried in petrol tins which were very useful, although sometimes too much petrol had been left in them.”[12]

Lt Buckle transferred to the Nelson Battalion, and in early 1917 fought in the Operations on the Ancre. In one action on 3^rd February, they were to assault an enemy trench only 300 yards away. It was a surprise raid calculated to last eight minutes by the Brigade Headquarters but instead saw over fifty hours of fighting. In this action Lt Buckle “played a brave part, and, although the old Burberry which he was wearing was riddled by bullets, he sustained not a scratch.”[13]

What was Buckle like as an officer in battle? Around this time a non-commissioned officer said that if given a choice of which Company to join when out of the line, then Lt Buckle “wouldn’t have many in his Company.” But if choosing when going into the line, then Lt Buckle would “have pretty well the whole Battalion” because “he looks after his men, he never tells you to do a job unless he knows what he is talking about. He knows what he’s doing.”[14] On 16^th March 1917 Buckle was promoted to Lieutenant Commander.

A month later the Arras Offensive would begin. The Royal Naval Division was tasked with capturing Gavrelle, a village east of Arras which had been in German hands since 1914. In the fighting on 23^rd April 1917, Lt Cdr Buckle was wounded but “again proved his worth and firmly established his position as a redoubtable military leader.”[15] It was urban warfare amid the village: “The continuous sniping and machine-gun fire from close quarters, the dense cloud of smoke and dust which clung round the ruined houses, the danger from falling masonry, as the buildings crumbled beneath the indiscriminate bombardment of the heavy artillery of two armies, made it impossible to find most of the men, or to concentrate or reorganise even those who could be found.”[16]

A comrade recalled Lt Cdr Buckle’s “calm parade ground air” and “coolness in organising the men when practically every officer had been lost.” He was recommended for recognition but not yet honoured, though “his undoubted gift for leadership then displayed, laid the foundations for his future promotion and success.”[17]

Passchendaele and the action of Welsh Ridge

Buckle had no love of war, he longed to return to his wife Elsie and to see their son, Geoffrey, born in 1917 whilst he was striving on the battlefield. Such thoughts would no doubt have carried him along as he trudged through the swamp of mud at the Battle of Passchendaele. The situation for the Royal Naval Division on their return to Belgium was bleak, “the attackers clung precariously to muddy shell holes, and worked forward as best they could; communications were practically impossible, men who wandered from the recognized paths were liable to be drowned in mud, which also choked the barrels of the rifles.”[18]

After the battle, the surviving Division was transferred on 15^th December 1917 to a new sector running along a low mound known as Welsh Ridge. They immediately began fortifying the trenches. It was bitterly cold work, with snow on the ground and many days of severe frost.

On 18^th December Arthur Asquith, the Prime Minister’s son, was promoted to Brigadier General. In the re-organistion of the Division Lt Cdr Buckle was transferred to the Anson Battalion as second in command under Lt Col Harry Kirkpatrick. Then two days later disaster struck as Brig Gen Asquith was seriously wounded by a sniper. Lt Col Kirkpatrick took temporary charge of the brigade, and Lt Cdr Buckle temporarily replaced him in command of the Anson. Lt Cdr Buckle had been in charge for 10 days when, at 6.30 am, “an intense and very destructive bombardment smote the divisional front, smashing in trenches and shelters and exploding dumps. Fifteen minutes later the Germans were seen advancing in long lines through the morning mist: they were clothed in white to match the snow, and with the infantry came Flammenwerfer detachments.”[19]

The Germans forced their way into the trenches and engaged in hand-to-hand combat, securing a lodgment in the line. Under extremely heavy artillery fire Lt Cdr Buckle carried out a daring reconnaissance enabling him to “form sound dispositions.” He waited until dusk, then launched a counter-attack in which, “The Germans were so surprised that not one shot was fired at their attackers. They retreated so rapidly before the pursuing Ansons that all the day’s losses were regained with the loss of only three lives.”[20] Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig described this as “an admirably executed counter-attack” which “regained all the essential parts of our former positions.”[21] For this Lt Cdr Buckle was awarded the Distinguished Service Order. The citation again referred to his “coolness” that inspired all ranks.[22]

John Nash captured the action of Welsh Ridge in his painting: ‘Over The Top’. 1st Artists’ Rifles at Marcoing, 30th December 1917.[23]

The Kaiserschlacht 

Throughout 1917 “on the Ancre, at Gavrelle, at Passchendaele, and at Welsh Ridge” the Royal Naval Division was “taking part in active fighting almost continuously and almost as a matter of routine.”[24] If they were not yet exhausted, they were about to be. With the Russians out and the Americans yet to join, the Germans had a slender window to deliver a knockout blow to end the war. The principal objective of their Spring Offensive was to ‘beat the British’, forcing the French to capitulate. There were extensive gas attacks on the Allies in March 1918 to soften them before the offensive. The Royal Naval Division lost around a third of its strength, as those affected by mustard gas “had to be led from the front in long lines of men holding each other’s hands as they stumbled, coughing and blind, to the rear.”[25]

On 21^st March the ‘Kaiserschlacht’ began, with artillery, gas, and stormtrooper attacks. The Division was forced into a difficult and exhausting retreat so that, by 26^th March, “The troops had fought continuously and heavily for six days and the march over the old Somme Battlefield had severely tested their endurance. Many were now weary and footsore for the weather had been hot, the roads dusty, and full marching order was carried, and to add to their discomfort there was a shortage of water.”[26] That night around 1 am, Brigadier General Hugo de Pree was riding behind the line when he was fired upon from about five yards and had to drive his horse through a barbed wire barricade to escape. Reports were received that 2,000 Germans had penetrated the line under the cover of darkness at Mesnil near Aveluy Wood. There was machine gun fire on both flanks and the situation was obscure.

The Anson Battalion alongside the two Royal Marine Battalions were ordered to restore the line. Lt Col Kirkpatrick had been seriously wounded during the retreat, so Lt Cdr Buckle was once more in temporary command. The counter-attack was launched just before 3 am, and as the three Battalions swept through the wood the enemy broke and fled in disorder. Lt Cdr Buckle was awarded a Bar to his DSO, as the success of the action was “largely due to his courage, initiative and leadership.”[27] In the words of Brig Gen de Pree this “most gallant feat of arms” had, “frustrated the most dangerous attempt which the Germans made to get through on this front. It showed what could be done by a sudden and vigorous counter-attack, even under the most depressing circumstances. It also spoke volumes for the men of this Brigade, that, worn out with fatigue… they could turn on their pursuers and drive them before them like chaff.”[28]

Later that same day of 27^th March, Lt Col Kirkpatrick died from his wounds. Buckle was promoted to Commander and placed in permanent charge of the Anson Battalion.

Archibald Buckle was 29 years old when promoted to Commander.[29]

The Advance to Victory

What was Buckle like as a Commander? Anson’s Chaplain said he “was strict with the men of his battalion – but he was even stricter with himself” and that “there are many parents and wives of the men who fell in France who will cherish his letters of sympathy to their own dying day – letters he so faithfully wrote out yonder when the rest of the tired battalion were asleep.”[30]

The German Spring Offensive had been the moment of greatest jeopardy, but it had failed to end the war. It was now the Allies’ turn to push for victory in what became known as the Hundred Days Offensive. It began in August 1918 with the Royal Naval Division at the forefront. Adapting to open warfare, Commander Buckle “had again shown inexhaustible determination in the final stages of the advance”[31] at the Battle of Drocourt-Queant. He was awarded another Bar to his DSO,“when the progress of the brigade at a critical moment was checked by machine-gun fire, he went forward himself with his battalion staff, reorganised his battalion and led it forward on to commanding ground, seriously threatening the enemy’s retreat. The success of the operation was largely due to his courage and fine leadership.”[32]

Storming the Hindenburg Line

“On September 30^th, begins that astonishing advance of the Division towards Cambrai,” wrote Churchill, and with, “Buckle once more in the front of the battle, we see them forcing the passage of the Canal du Nord, carrying Anneux and Graincourt, storming the almost impassable defences of the St. Quentin Canal.”[33]

After all this heavy fighting the Division was about to entrain for leave behind the lines. Their General Officer Commanding, Major-General Cyril Blacklock, was already on his way to England. That was until it was decided to use the Division for one more push, to capture Niergnies, the key to Cambrai. The attack was launched on 8^th October 1918, exactly four years since the retreat from Antwerp was ordered. The Germans were driven clear by early morning. Later, seven British tanks approached the village. When they were at close range, they suddenly opened fire on the Division. They had been captured by the enemy. The infantry was taken by surprise and fell back as “this was the first experience the Division had had of the terrifying effect of these monsters.”[34] In this chaos Cdr Buckle showed “great courage and powers of leadership.”[35] He found a German anti-tank rifle left from earlier, engaged three tanks, and put the lead one out of action. Commander Henry Pollock of the Hood Battalion destroyed another tank with a captured fieldgun.  Cdr Buckle then restored order, rallying men of various units in his vicinity and leading them forward to the positions they had been forced from.

It is reported that Cdr Buckle was recommended for the Victoria Cross in 1918,[36] which “was no surprise to those who served with him.”[37] It is probable that it was this engagement that warranted his recommendation, but he would instead be awarded a third and final bar to the DSO. He was one of only seven officers in the Great War to achieve this accolade.

If this was the battle where he was recommended for the highest honour, it was also his last. He had been shot in the left shoulder and was invalided from the front. On 11^th October 1918, exactly four years since he had escaped Antwerp, exactly one month before the Armistice, he was taken on a hospital ship back to England. He had been promoted from Petty Officer to Commander, five times mentioned in dispatches, four times awarded the DSO, and thrice wounded. For Archibald Buckle, not yet 30 years old, the war was finally over.

Parade’s End

On the morning of Friday 6^th June 1919 Cdr Buckle was back in charge of the Anson Battalion, formed up on Horse Guards Parade with the rest of the Royal Naval Division. A gathering of two or three thousand people came to watch the ceremony, including Winston Churchill, the current First Sea Lord Rossyln Wemyss, and two predecessors Jacky Fisher and Arthur Wilson. The Prince of Wales, mounted on horseback, rode along the lines and then addressed the parade, “…In every theatre of war your military conduct has been exemplary. Whether on the slopes of Achi Baba, or on the Somme, or in the Valley of the Ancre, or down to the very end of the storming of the Hindenburg line, your achievements have been worthy of the best traditions both of the Royal Navy and of the British Army.”[38]

According to Churchill this was the end of one of the seven or eight most famous Divisions of the Great War. He wrote further that, “Their memory is established in history and their contribution will be identified and recognized a hundred years hence from among the enormous crowd of splendid efforts which were forthcoming in this terrible period,” and deriving from the Royal Navy, “they in turn cast back a new lustre on that mighty parent body which it will ever be proud and for which it must ever be grateful.”[39]

On Horse Guards Parade the Prince took the salute as Cdr Buckle led the Anson Battalion in the march past. The Royal Naval Division had suffered some 47,000 casualties, of whom 11,000 died. A newspaper report describes the scene as the Division came to an end, “Three cheers rang out for the Prince at the end of his speech, and each cheer echoed back from the tall cliff of the Foreign Office with a startling promptness. It was as though the others – the men who were not there – had cheered, too. Then the band rolled out, and the hollow khaki square marched away through the crowd until the last bit of khaki was swallowed up in the Park.”[40]

Commander Buckle (far right) leads the Anson Battalion on the Royal Naval Division’s final parade, June 1919.[41]

Life after the war

After the war Archibald Buckle returned to teaching. He became headmaster of the London Nautical School which trained boys for careers in the Royal and Merchant navies. This school was established in 1915 following a government inquiry into the Titanic disaster. Its alumni include a former First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope. At Crystal Palace Buckle had trained the next generation of the Royal Naval Division, now at Rotherhithe he was educating the next generation of sailors; and he spent a lot of time helping men from his old battalion in getting boys to sea. A newspaper report from his time stated, “There is a great demand from the mercantile marine for the sailor boys trained under the London County Council. Many of the lessons are given on board vessels in the Surrey Docks, but a staggering amount of algebra and trigonometry has to be mastered before the future marines can begin demonstrations at the modern helm. The boys learn Morse, semaphore and the international code, and the lights and rules of the road for night duty.”[42]

Although wounded several times during the war, his wife Elsie said he, “made light of his injuries and would never complain.”[43] The motto of the Anson Battalion was Nil Desperandum – Never Despair. One of his hobbies was mending cars, and in 1927 whilst doing so he scratched his arm above the wrist. A boil developed, and despite objecting he was taken to Westminster Hospital, but to no avail. The “poison crept into his old war wounds” and he died on 6^th May 1927 aged just 38 years old. The coroner concluded that shrapnel wounds had accelerated his death.

He was conveyed to the cemetery in Brockley on a gun carriage drawn by six horses with outriders. Members of the Anson Battalion escorted the coffin, which was covered in the Union Jack and bore his sword and medals, and boys from the nautical school formed a guard of honour in the church grounds. He left behind a widow and three sons.

Headmaster Buckle teaching the next generation of sailors, February 1922.[44]

Remembrance

What was Archibald Buckle like? A comrade described him as having, “a nature honest and blunt, abhorring cant and pretence, asking favours from none; of a man’s man, yet singularly ignorant and innocent of the grosser facts of life; of a nature devoted to the stern dictates of duty; anxious to please, but not afraid to criticise; appreciating recognition, yet scorning to seek popularity; a nature which some did not appreciate, but which everyone trusted,” [45] and they wrote further that,“the memory of a simple honest gentleman, whom scenes of strife could not coarsen and whom plaudits and honours could not spoil, will remain untarnished while memory lasts.” [46]

Whilst his portrait and medals are in the possession of the Imperial War Museum, unfortunately the memory of his deeds has dimmed with time. His grave in Brockley Cemetery had fallen into disrepair when in 2005 it was ‘re-discovered’ under brambles by Tony Green of the Royal British Legion. In 2012 Mr Green would install a memorial to Cdr Buckle in the gardens of the Bellingham Ex-servicemen’s Club in Catford.

Cdr Buckle deserves to be better remembered. Throughout his service, in his repeated acts of gallantry and devotion to duty, he represents the best of the reserves and the best of the Royal Navy.

As Churchill wrote of the Royal Naval Division: “Long may the record of their achievements be preserved, and long may their memory be respected by those for whom they fought.”[47]

References

[1] London Gazette, 9^th November 1886, pg. 5385

[2] Bernard Freyberg was commissioned in the RNVR after the outbreak of the First World War and earned the DSO before transferring to the army, where he was awarded Three Bars.

[3] D. Jerrold, The Royal Naval Division, 1923, London, Hutchinson & Co., pg. xiv

[4] RND Journal, Issue No 18. September 2002, pg. 1744 <https://www.westernfrontassociation.com/media/12354/rnd-issue-18-lo-res.pdf>

[5] J. E. Edmonds, Military Operations: France and Belgium: Antwerp, La Bassée, Armentières, Messines and Ypres, October-November 1914, London, Macmillan, 1925, pg. 63

[6] Jerrold, The Royal Naval Division, pg. xvii

[7] H. C. Foster, At Antwerp and the Dardanelles, 1918, London, Mills and Boon, pg. 38

[8] Imperial War Museum – Catalogue Number: Q 109126 <https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205351858>

[9] Ibid, pg. 161

[10] ‘Royal Naval Division Personality’, RND Journal, Issue No 18. September 2002, pg. 1742

[11] Ibid, pg. 1743

[12] H. E. Blumberg, Britain’s Sea Soldiers: A Record of the Royal Marines during the War 1914-1919, 1927, Devonport, Swiss, pg. 314

[13] ‘Royal Naval Division Personality’, RND Journal, Issue No 18. September 2002, pg. 1743

[14] Ibid

[15] Ibid

[16] Jerrold, The Royal Naval Division, pg. 231

[17] ‘Royal Naval Division Personality’, RND Journal, Issue No 18. September 2002, pg. 1743

[18] Blumberg, Britain’s Sea Soldiers, pg. 333

[19] W. Miles, Military Operations: France and Belgium, The Battle of Cambrai, 1948, London, HMSO, pg. 276

[20] E. C. Coleman, Khaki Jack: The Royal Naval Division in the First World War, 2014, London, Amberley, pg. 173

[21] Jerrold, The Royal Naval Division, pg. 269

[22] London Gazette, 16^th July 1918, pg. 8735

[23] Imperial War Museum – Catalogue Number: IWM (Art.IWM ART 1656) <https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/20015>

[24] D. Jerrold, The Hawke Battalion, London, Ernst Benn, pg. 143

[25] Coleman, Khaki Jack, pg. 177

[26] Blumberg, Britain’s Sea Soldiers, pg. 345

[27] London Gazette, 26^th July 1918, pg. 8735

[28] Jerrold, The Royal Naval Division, pg. 292

[29] RND Journal, Issue No 18. September 2002, pg. 1744 <https://www.westernfrontassociation.com/media/12354/rnd-issue-18-lo-res.pdf>

[30] ‘Royal Naval Division Personality’, RND Journal, Issue No 18. September 2002, pg. 1741

[31] Jerrold, The Royal Naval Division, pg. 315

[32] London Gazette, 11^th January 1919, pg. 577

[33] Jerrold, The Royal Naval Division, pg. xix

[34] Blumberg, Britain’s Sea Soldiers, pg. 375

[35] London Gazette, 4^th October 1919, pg. 122137

[36] ‘Inquest On Commander Buckle’. Times, 11 May 1927, pg. 9

[37] ‘The Late Commander Buckle’. Times, 13 May 1927, pg. 11.

[38] ‘The Prince And Canada’. Times, 7 June 1919, pg. 14

[39] Jerrold, The Royal Naval Division, pg. xiii

[40] ‘Royal Naval Division Personality’, RND Journal, Issue No 18. September 2002, pg. 1735

[41] RND Journal, Issue No 18. September 2002, pg. 1734 <https://www.westernfrontassociation.com/media/12354/rnd-issue-18-lo-res.pdf>

[42] ‘London’s Young Marines’ Western Mail, 25 January 1923, pg. 6

[43] ‘Inquest On Commander Buckle’. Times, 11 May 1927, pg. 9.

[44] Daily Mirror, Monday 13 February 1922, pg. 5

[45] ‘Royal Naval Division Personality’, RND Journal, Issue No 18. September 2002, pg. 1743

[46] Ibid, pg. 1745

[47] Jerrold, The Royal Naval Division, pg. xix