This story will appear in two parts in the next two issues of ‘Stand To!' [Editor's update January 2010: part 1 is now in in Stand To! No 87 and is a featured article on the website.]. It documents the fate of eleven ‘old contemptibles' who were cut off from the British Army in the retreat from Mons to the Marne in 1914, and were taken in by the villagers of Iron, Aisne. These soldiers refused to surrender. They ignored appeals to give themselves up and rejected German threats of execution. They eschewed the offer of a relatively quiet life in a PoW camp, preferring to remain in hiding. Eventually they were caught by the Germans and executed in Guise Chateau on 25 February 1915 along with a French civilian who had been one of their principal carers. They were killed in cold blood, almost certainly after some type of judicial or administrative process. It remains the largest single incident of its type to have happened on the Western Front.
These soldiers were armed, trained and presented a threat to the German Army which they managed by detailing men to find them, resources which could otherwise have been used at the Front. In their own way these soldiers hiding behind the lines contributed to the war effort. Further, in refusing to give themselves up they demonstrated one of the key qualities of the British soldier over the centuries, and one which has made them such a dangerous adversary - they did not know when they were beaten.
Similarly, as the story shows, the French villagers who sheltered them placed their own lives in peril. They did not listen to appeals to give up the British soldiers sheltering in their midst. They paid for their loyalty with their lives, their livelihoods and their health. While the British soldiers today lie commemorated in graves maintained by the CWGC, their French helper lies a few yards away in an unmarked and utterly neglected grave. This is hardly a fitting end for a man whose courage was such that he was one of only about fifteen French and Belgian citizens considered by the British government for the award of an OBE.
Yet today there is no memorial to these men and women. A small committee has been established to remedy this. We are working with the Mayor of Iron to erect a monument to the eleven soldiers, the French civilian who died with them, and the villagers who sheltered them, and a decent headstone for the French civilian. A design for the memorial has been commissioned, and we estimate that we will need to raise about £12,000. We hope, too, that the monument will serve as a memorial to the unknown number of British soldiers and their French and Belgian helpers who met a similar fate. We have opened a bank account and we would ask all members of the WFA to give generously. All donations will be gratefully received
We hope to open a website about the story and our fundraising efforts. In the meantime should you wish to be updated about the project's progress, then please drop me an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
Details of how to pay are given below:
Iron Memorial Fund
Donations by Credit Transfer:
Name of Account: Iron Memorial Fund
Bank: HSBC,
Address: 12 Westgate, Guisborough TS14 6BE, United Kingdom
Account No. 01457055
Donations by Cheque:
Cheques should be made payable to: ‘Iron Memorial Fund 402227 01457055' and sent to:
HSBC Bank plc
12 Westgate
Guisborough TS14 6BE
United Kingdom
Electronic Payments
The codes for the above account are
IBAN code GB54MIDL40222701457055
SWIFT code MIDL GB21 32P
Yours sincerely
Hedley Malloch
WFA Member 12229
