On the drive home from
Scarborough one Sunday evening I got onto the A59 to get down to Ilkley. I’d seen a place called Blubberhouses
on the map and just wanted to see if it existed (it does.) What a brill name - so brill I'm changing
my name. In future call me Fairfax Blubberhouses. I
made my way down to Ilkley Cemetery to look for
Thomas Maufe who was born here in 1898 and was
lowered into the soil aged 43 after an accident.
It was a large cemetery with only one field
remaining for Ilkley’s dead and I searched for the
headstone for about forty minutes. I had a photo of a grimy headstone and
dismissed bright white ones. I was tired and hungry and wanted to head home for
a late tea and watch The Durrells at 8pm. I had one last look and found the
headstone - now bright white after a cleanup. It was partly hidden behind a
tree that probably wasn't so big when Thomas was buried here in 1942.
He was born locally and the family name was Muff.
His dad - Frederic Muff - was a draper but ambition would later propel him to become
Chairman of Bradford’s leading department store called Brown Muff & Co Ltd
(quite posh and known as “the Harrods of the North”.) Thomas had four siblings
and was about 20 when the family name was changed by deed-poll to Maufe.
The family was wealthy enough to send Thomas away
to be schooled. He attended the posh Uppingham School
in Rutland and went from there to the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich to
become a soldier fit to fight. Aged 18 he was ready. Only days after one of
this brothers was killed in the First World War Thomas was on a ship to France
to join the war effort.
On Monday 4th June 1917 the 19-year-old was
fighting in Feuchy (east of Arras). As with most
trench warfare his battalion was under intense artillery. Thomas - now a second
lieutenant - found that the telephone line between the front and back positions
didn't work. This meant coordinated strategic attacks couldn’t happen (uncontrolled
attacks usually caused more deaths.) Alone he ventured out of the trenches and,
under heavy gunfire, repaired the telephone wire. How long this took is
unknown. With communications working coordinated attacks could go ahead
probably resulting in far less fatalities. Strangely not one bullet touched Thomas
as he carried out repairs (soldiers were told not to watch out for bombs but
for snipers.) Later he extinguished a fire that broke out in an advanced
ammunition dump and prevented a heavy explosion. Gas shells could have exploded
at any moment but again Thomas survived against the odds.
Thankfully the efforts of this teenager were
witnessed and later King George pinned a medal on the chest of one of the
youngest Victoria Cross recipients. Back at home in Ilkley
Thomas was presented with a silver casket by the townsfolk and later promoted
to Captain.
After the war he studied civil engineering at
Cambridge University and went to worked at industrial mines at Gravesend and
Cornwall. Aged 34 he married at St Margaret’s Church in Ilkley
exactly fifteen years since the anniversary of his VC action and a boy and a girl
arrived later. He joined the family business as a director of Brown Muff &
Co Ltd of Bradford. As World War Two erupted he tried to rejoin the army but
had been diagnosed with diabetes and was rejected. Wanting to help he served as
a Private in the West Riding (Otley) Battalion Home
Guard.
Sadly the deadly dice of destiny rolled against
him and he was killed prematurely. After surviving the steam and smoke of
trench warfare he died in a simple army accident. He was involved in a training
exercise at Manor Farm on Blubberhouses Moor (which
I’d passed that day) when a mortar bomb exploded while stuck in the tube.
Another soldier was killed and another seriously injured. The VC is still owned
by the Maufe family and I’m sure they visit this
grave.
There wasn't a wreath under the headstone. I left
one of my weatherproof leaflets over the brave bones in the hope that someone
reads about the heart of the man that dwelled within them. I did a hearty
salute and left.