'Isaac Favell
Isaac Favell was born in 1882. He was the son of Henry and Susan Lavinia Favell of Hemingford Grey. The photograph on the right, taken with his wife Constance and five of their seven children was taken just before his second posting to France. When Isaac volunteered to join the Army on October 29th 1914 he stated that he had previously served three years in the Huntingdonshire Volunteers. The Huntingdonshire Volunteers could trace their ancestry back to the county volunteers of Bedfordshire raised in 1805. By 1860 they were known as the 1st Bedfordshire Volunteers with two battalions (3rd and 4th) allocated to Huntingdon. In the 1908 reforms the regiment became the 5th Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment with four companies administered by Bedfordshire and four companies (based at Huntingdon, St Ives, Fletton and St Neots) administered by Huntingdonshire. In 1911, Isaac lived at High Street, Hemingford Abbots, St Ives. In 1913, after much local campaigning, it was decided to re-organise the companies of the Bedfordshire Regiment, so that Huntingdonshire could have its own volunteer force. It was agreed they should raise a cyclist battalion. Cycling was in its heyday and the bikes afforded soldiers greater speed, mobility, and range without the expense of keeping horses. The cyclist companies could also provide effective signallers and scouts. Each battalion had 613 all ranks. The men were allowed to “adopt drab stockings and spats instead of puttees and a drab waterproof cape in place of, or in addition to, the great coat”. Today, a hundred years later, the “innovative” method of providing police and paramedic patrols in city-centres is by bicycle. By February 1914, the old Bedfordshire Volunteers who lived in Huntingdonshire had become the Huntingdonshire Cyclist Battalion. The battalion headquarters was at St Mary’s Street in Huntingdon, and one of the local drill halls was at St. Ives.
When Isaac returned to his old drill hall in October 1914 the volunteers had become cyclists and the number of volunteers was such that a second battalion could be formed. The original battalion became the 1st/1st Huntingdon Cyclist Battalion and the second battalion became the 2nd/1st Huntington Cyclist Battalion. It was into the new second battalion that Isaac was attested (i.e. swore to serve his king) and given the number 866. He was aged 33, married, and had three daughters and a step-daughter. The battalion was allocated to Home Defence but it started life with a problem: the men had no rifles and no bicycles. The men were allowed home at Christmas 1914 for three days and after they returned to duty the bikes and rifles arrived. During the time the men were training, England was alert to enemy spies, Zeppelin raids and coastal shelling from enemy ships in the German Ocean, which was patriotically re-named the North Sea. The 2/1st Bn H.C.B. was despatched to coastal defence work at Sutton near Mablethorpe on the Lincolnshire coast, although one company appears to have been sent to Whitby for two months after that town was shelled on December 16th 1914, killing and wounding many civilians.
On August 30th 1916, Isaac was transferred to the Royal Warwickshire Regiment and was allotted the regimental number 30310. The reason for the transfer is not stated. It may have been a voluntary move from Home Defence to see action abroad or it could have been a compulsory transfer “in the interests of the service” which became common after conscription was introduced in January 1916. Isaac probably went to the depot of the Warwickshire Regiment at Budbrooke Barracks, Warwick. At some stage he sprained his left ankle and was admitted to the 3rd Southern General Hospital at Oxford on September 10th 1916. He was then posted to the 3rd Battalion which was a training and replenishment battalion normally based at the depot but was by then based at Portsmouth and then the Isle of Wight. He went to France with the Royal Warwickshires on December 14th 1916 as part of a draft of reinforcements and after a few weeks at a base depot, training for the front, he was posted to 1st Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment on January 14th 1917. The battalion was in 10th Brigade in the 4th Infantry Division. The Battalion was at Camp 111 near Bray sur Somme where they were engaged in building a drying shed to improve the camp.
On the 16th January they moved to Camp 18 North-east of Suzanne, a village to the East of Bray and then moved into trenches, relieving the French troops. The trenches were more like dug-outs in the mud and the men spent a lot of time improving them with duckboards. A few days spent on working parties at Moulin de Fargy were followed by a move into the front line trenches with intermittent shelling. On January 24th they moved to camp 112 at Bray which was bombed by enemy aircraft. They stayed at Bray until February 2nd when they moved again to Suzanne. The weather was fine and cold for many days and on February 10th the battalion moved in motor lorries to Maurepas and then marched to Bouchavesnes where they went into trenches. There was daily shelling and on the 12th they lost one man killed and five wounded. On the 16th they came out of the line and were billeted at Asquith Flats near Maurepas where they formed working parties employed on trench repair for 12-hour shifts at night-time from 5pm to 5 am. On February 21st they moved to Camp 13 at Chippily where they cleaned-up and underwent physical training and working parties. The weather had thawed and the ground became a quagmire. On March 4th the battalion marched to Corbie where they were billeted in houses and barns. The next day they marched to Villers-Bocage; the following day to Beauval and the day after to Mezerolles (where they were “isolated for measles”).
From the 8th to the 13th March they spent their time at Mezerolles in company training exercises. They then moved to Savy near Arras before marching North via Frevillers and Ourton to Camblain-Chatelain which was South of Lillers. The conditions on the roads were very bad; the weather varied from fine to cold, wet and snow. Isaac became ill and was diagnosed as having “trench rheumatism” which may have been trench fever: a rheumatic fever caused by infection (Bartonella quintana) of wounds by, or bites from, infected body lice. Body lice were ubiquitous in the trenches. The disease was of a passing five day fever, which could re-occur; with high fever, headache, pain in the joints and particularly the shins. It would be treated over a few weeks. On March 24th 1917 he came under the command of the depot battalion while he was treated in hospital at Edgbaston, Birmingham for two months. He left hospital on May 23rd and was posted to the 3rd Battalion again, at Parkhurst on the Isle of Wight. On June 16th 1917 he was back in France and went to an infantry base depot (IBD) for physical training and to be imbued with the “offensive spirit”. A week later he was posted to the 11th Bn Royal Warwickshire Regiment which was in 112th Brigade, 37th Division. He had been re-classified as “P.B.” which meant that he was not fit enough for the front and was suited to work in a Permanent Base only. This meant he was either in the reserve of 11th Battalion or he stayed at a base depot.
On August 10th 1917 he was back at the Warwickshire’s depot from where he was transferred to the Labour Corps. He was posted to the 620th Agricultural Company Labour Corps with the regimental number 483513. This company appeared to share the Budbrooke Barracks at Warwick . The Labour Corps employed men who had been medically re-classified as well as men with trade skills. Agricultural companies were employed on the land to help increase food production. Isaac was de-mobilised in March 1919. His medal index card gives his service numbers as Private 30310 Warwickshire Regiment, Private 483513 Labour Corps and confirms his qualification for the British War and Allied Victory medals. Photos courtesy of John Tiller, Isaac’s Grandson. service information researched by Alan Greveson, Circle Cities Communities World War Forum.