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Dease M Lt VC 4th Royal Fusiliers

The graceful verses which preface this memoir are from the pen of an old friend of Lieut. Dease.

MAURICE DEASE.

The spring of his life had scarce gone by.
There was promise of fruit to be:
Summer was still in the Belgian sky.
But the autumn-harvester, Death, came nigh,
Gathering flowers for glee.
He gave his best and he gave his all
When he put his youth at stake;
He dared what he might at duty’s call, .
Eager to live but ready to fall,
If it were for his country’s sake.
The spring of his life no summer knows-
Farewell to the fields of Meath!
In his Irish home is a budding rose
Shall live perchance to the early snows,
Till the winds of winter breathe.
He held the bridge and he worked his gun-
It was what he was set to do;
For cowardly fear in his heart was none,
The thing to do he had always done,
And now he would fight this through.
He fought and he bled; he fought and he fell;
He did what a brave man could:
He faced the terrors of shot and shell.
Is it well with him? Oh, indeed, it is well,
For he died as a brave man should.
Honour to whom there is honour due,
To the soldiers that strove and died:
And here, for honour, dear Maurice, to you,
Is a posy of flowers we come to strew
With our sorrow and lasting pride. Q.Z.

The following is an extract from a letter of an officer of the 4th Bn. Royal Fusiliers :-

Maurice Dease died really gallantly, and we hope to get a special mention of him in despatches. He and all his machine gunners were killed. The whole regiment was really proud of him and the way in which he worked his machine guns on the bridge at Mons. In him everyone mourns the loss of one of the most popular and best officers of the regiment.

Maurice was the first alumnus of Stonyhurst to give his life for his country in the Great War. He was the only son of Mr. and Mrs. Edmund Dease, of Levington, Mullingar. A letter from another officer, the second in command of the battalion, dated September 5th, gives further details and appreciation of his character:-

September 5th, 1914.

You will, I expect, have heard by now of your son Maurice having been killed at the Battle of Mons. He died as a gallant soldier should, defending the passage of a bridge with his machine guns most heroically-nearly all the machine gun detachment were killed and the guns continued firing until they were put out of action by the enemy’s rifle fire and shells. Maurice set the men a most splendid example; although wounded in the arm quite early, he refused to leave the guns. We all loved him-one of the best officers we had in the regiment.

Another officer of his battalion wrote :-

. . So strong was his (Maurice Dease’s) sense of duty from the first (when he joined the regiment) that I never once remember having to find fault with his work. . . . . He had a most excellent way with his men, was always kind and thoughtful to them, but at all times dignified. Deeply religious without making a parade of the fact, he gained everyone’s respect. His gallant death is only what I should have expected; his duty was always first, and he had a complete mastery over himself. Maurice leaves a blank space in the regiment, which will not be filled as long as his friends serve in the Royal Fusiliers. We have lost a gallant comrade, and cheery and steadfast friend.

Maurice Dease was born in 1889, and came to Stonyhurst in 1903. He was distinctly a boy of character. Though good-natured and amiable, he was yet full of determination, and as Head of the Third Playroom, and later of the Second Playroom, he could make his influence felt in unmistakable fashion when he had a mind to. Among the offices held by him during his school career was that of Aviary Boy, and he discharged the duties of his charge with characteristic thoroughness. “Yo’ve nobbut to tell yon lad what wants doin’, and it’s bahn to be done,” was what one native permanent official of the aviary used to say of him. He was indeed absolutely dependable, and anything entrusted to him was “bahn to be done “-and done well.

To see old Father Myers, then a man of no small weight, limping slowly along to say Mass, leaning on the arm of his favourite server, Maurice Dease, was an object-lesson in the respectful and thoughtful sympathy of the right-minded boy for venerable old age. “There is something very lovable about that boy,” the old man used to say. “There is a Lancashire word,” he added, “which hits off his character he is jannock.” “Jannock,” says the English Dialect Dictionary, “means fair, straightforward, genuine.” It describes one who may be counted upon to stand by his faith, his friend, or his duty, come what may. And he did not fail when it came to the supreme test of manly duty.

The “Special Mention in despatches,” of which his brother officer wrote, was changed soon afterwards for a recommendation for the highest of all awards for gallantry, and on November 16th, 1914, he was formally granted the Victoria Cross, his V.C. being actually the first gained by anyone during the Great War, as we learn from the War Office (Historical Branch).

The official grounds for the award read as follows:-

WAR OFFICE,

November 16th, 1914. His Majesty the King has been graciously pleased to approve the grant of the Victoria Cross to the undermentioned Officer for conspicuous bravery while serving with the Expeditionary Force :-

Lieut. Maurice James Dease, 4th Bn. The Royal Fusiliers.

“Though two or three times badly wounded, he continued to control the fire of his machine guns at Mons on August 23rd until all his men were shot. He died of his wounds.”

War Office Official Pronouncement.

The official letter to us from the War Office, establishing the priority of Lieut. Dease’s V.C., which we print below, is actually the first official pronouncement on this much-disputed question which has yet been published. To all the officers engaged in the task of establishing the point our hearty thanks are due for their painstaking efforts, and especially to Colonel G. C. Williams, C.M.G., D.S.O., of the War Office, who initiated the investigation and carried it through on our behalf. As a preliminary to their pronouncement, the whole question was thoroughly examined by the Historical Branch of the War Office, and then submitted to the “V.C.” Committee. Their decision is embodied in their letter given here.

Sent to The Rev. Frank Irwin,
Stonyhurst College, Blackburn.

THE WAR OFFICE, LONDON SWI
October 1st, 1926.

Sir,
With reference to your letter addressed to Captain T. B. Trappes-Lomax, on the subject of awards of the Victoria Cross, I am to inform you that the question has been carefully examined, and the following conclusions arrived at.

It has been definitely established that, reckoning from the outbreak of the Great War, the first acts of gallantry to be eventually rewarded by the grant of the Victoria Cross took place at Moss on August 23rd, 1914.

The first German attack fell on two bridgeheads held by the 4th Battalion Royal Fusiliers, at about 9.10 a.m. Lieutenant M. J. DEASE was in action at one bridgehead, Private S. F. GODLEY at the other. Lieutenant DEASE and Private GODLEY earned the V.C. about 9.10 a.m., whilst engaged in repelling the attack in question.

About 4.30 p.m. the question of destroying the bridges over the MONS-CONDE CANAL, in order to safeguard retreat, became most important. Captain T. WRIGHT, Royal Engineers, and Lance-Corporal C. A. JARVIS, Royal Engineers, devoted themselves to this task, and earned the V.C. about 4.30 p.m.

The British Forces retired southwards in the course of the evening, and the retreat was duly covered by cavalry. The 15th Hussars were in action for this purpose at the village of HARMIGNIES, south-east of the canal. Corporal C. E. GARFORTH, 15th Hussars, earned the V.C. at this period; hour uncertain, but certainly after the incidents described above.

The order of priority is therefore :-

1 Lieutenant M DEASE. V.C., Royal Fusiliers. Private S. F. GODLEY, V.C., Royal Fusiliers.

2. Captain T. WRIGHT, V.C., Royal Engineers. Lance-Corporal C. A. JARVIS, V.C., Royal Engineers

3. Corporal C. E. GARFORTH, V.C., 15th Hussars.

I am to inform you that, in virtue of his rank, Lieutenant M. J. DEASE, V.C., may be considered primus inter pares, and it may be safely assumed that, as Battalion Machine Gun Officer, he had trained Private GODLEY, and formed that military character which at the opening of the first action vindicated the training received.

I am, Sir, Your obedient Servant,

(Signed) G. C. WILLIAMS, Col., for Lieutenant-General, Military Secretary.

To throw more light on the subject, and present the incident in its larger setting, we subjoin extracts from the Official Regimental Diary of the 4th Bn. The Royal Fusiliers, and from the Regimental History of The Royal Fusiliers.

(1) From the War Diary of the 4th Bn. The Royal Fusiliers, for August 23rd, the day of the Battle of Mons:

“Still holding outpost position. A certain amount of desultory firing took place in the early morning. We wounded and captured two Uhlan officers. About 11 a.m. the Germans started to attack us seriously with, apparently, at least four battalions of infantry, also cavalry and artillery. We suffered severely on the bridges over the canal by rifle and artillery fire. [These bridges, over the Mons-Condé Canal, were the Nimy Bridge, the Railway Bridge, and the Ghlin Bridge, a mile south-west of the former.]

“The machine guns had a particularly trying time. Practically all the detachment, including Lieut. M. J. Dease, the machine gun officer, were killed or wounded.”

“Lieut. Dease and Private Godley both displayed the most conspicuous gallantry in working the guns after they had been wounded.”

“The guns, having been finally disabled by machine gun fire, had to be abandoned.”

(2) Extract from the Regimental History of The Royal Fusiliers, entitled “The Royal Fusiliers in the Great War ” (by H. C. O’Neill, O.B.E., author of ” A History of the War.” London: 1922.)

in the Great War” (by H. C. O’Neill, O.B.E., author of William Heinemann) :-

“It was a body of very weary men who met the Germans on the morning of the 23rd, for many of them had been working practically all night……. [p. 28].

“An aeroplane had been making a thorough reconnaissance of the [British] position the night before, but despite this activity, the Germans were in complete ignorance of the dimensions of the force in front of them, and when, at about ten o’clock, they opened the attack, they appeared above the skyline, approaching the railway and Nimy bridges in column of route. They were only about 1,000 yards distant, and the rapid fire, assisted by the machine guns, in a few minutes destroyed their leading section of fours. The column retired out of view, and the position was thoroughly shelled before the advance was resumed in extended order. There was no reply to the German guns.”

“When the Fusiliers had first taken up their positions, there had been no thought of retreat, and ammunition boxes had been distributed about the trenches, but as the battle developed, an order came that the battalion [the 4th] was to be ready to move at ten minutes’ notice. The ammunition was then put into carts, with the result that a shortage was experienced later in the firing line. The German artillery very soon crept round the whole of the canal salient, and “Y” Company was taken in rear, in enfilade and frontally. Some of the rifle fire aimed at this company caught Capt. Attwood’s post at Lock 6, where Lieut. Harding’s platoon lay, and, taking one of the trenches in enfilade and reverse, led to its abandonment. Apart from this and periodic bursts of shrapnel, “Z” Company suffered little. They had early sunk the boats and fired the barges in case of retreat, and for the rest, they could do nothing but witness the plight of Ashburner’s company.”

“In this section of the canal the position was almost desperate. The field of fire was indifferent, but the great volume of converging German fire could not fail to tell.”

Ashburner sent to Nimy for reinforcements, and Capt. Carey sent up 2nd Lieut. Mead with a platoon. He was shot in the head at once. All this time the Company kept up a destructive fire against the German infantry, who lost very heavily. More reinforcements were sent for, and Capt. Bowden- Smith and Lieut. E. C. Smith went up with a platoon. The latter was killed and the former was left dying on the retirement. Capt. Fred Forster, of Ashburner’s Company, was also killed. The fight grew hotter and more terrible. The machine gun crews were constantly being knocked out. So cramped was their position, that when a man was hit he had to be removed before another could take his place. The approach from the trench was across the open, and whenever the gun stopped, Lieut. Maurice Dease, the young machine gun officer, went up to see what was wrong. To do this once called for no ordinary courage. To repeat it several times could only be done with real heroism. Dease was twice badly wounded on these journeys, but insisted on remaining at duty as long as one of his crew could fire. The third wound proved fatal, and a well-deserved V.C. was awarded him posthumously. By this time both guns had ceased firing, and all the crew had been knocked out. In response to an enquiry whether anyone else knew how to operate the guns, Private Godley came forward. He cleared the emplacement under heavy fire, and brought the gun into action. But he had not been firing long before the gun was hit, and put completely out of action. The water jackets of both guns were riddled with bullets, so that they were no longer of any use. Godley himself was badly wounded, and later fell into the hands of the Germans. He was cheered in his captivity to learn that he also had been awarded the V.C.”

Source : Stonyhurst War Record