to commemorate a local war hero

John William Sayer, a Lance Corporal during the First World War - in the 8th Battalion, The Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey) - received a Victoria Cross posthumously; the highest and most prestigious award for valour in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. Sayer has been cited for having a great impact in holding back the German offensive at Le Verguier, in France, during Operation Michael. Sadly he was wounded in action and died four weeks later at Le Cateau, aged 39.

The Chadwell Heath South Residents’ Association are working to commission a life-size bronze statue of Lance Corporal John William Sayer VC, to stand in a prominent position in our Community Garden on the corner of Wangey Road/Cedar Park Gardens.

We believe that L/Cpl Sayer is a true local hero, and spreading knowledge of his significant actions during the Great War will undoubtedly inspire the people of Chadwell Heath.

History

THE SAYER FAMILY & CHADWELL HEATH

John William Sayer was born in Islington on 12th April 1879. He spent much of his early life in Chadwell Heath (Iron Yard Cottages) and Ilford (Green Lane), and was the eldest son of Samuel and Margaret Sayer. His father was a farmer and the family home was at Wangey Hall Farm, Chadwell Heath (where Wangey Road/Cedar Park Gardens now lies).

Sayer went to school in Ilford, and married Edith Louise Maynard (of 35 Old Lower Road, Hastings) in Ilford Parish Church on 15th August 1904. Over a period of thirteen years, Sayer and his wife had six children; four daughters and two sons. Eventually he moved to Cricklewood, where he managed a corn and seed merchant's business, whilst his parents continued to run the farm at Chadwell Heath.

As the eldest son of an Essex farmer, Sayer was presumably waiting to succeed the family farm. However, his fate changed due to the outbreak of the First World War. Sayer was 37 years-old when he enlisted with the British Army on 25th July 1916. He was deployed to France in December 1916, as a machine gunner for The Queen’s Royal Regiment (West Surrey), and was promoted to Lance Corporal in the 8th Battalion after an act of exceptional bravery in August 1917.

OPERATION MICHAEL

With the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk signed on 3rd March 1918, ending Russia’s participation in the Great War, the Germans were keen to deliver a major blow to the Allies before American reinforcements and supplies could reach them. Although the United States had entered the war in April 1917, Major-General Ludendorff calculated that it would be several months before American troops could make any significant difference to the course of the war. Ludendorff concluded that there was a narrow window of opportunity which would give the Germans numerical superiority on the Western Front for the first time since 1914, and the chance of a pivotal victory.

In anticipation of the Kaiserschlacht (the Great German Spring Offensive), the British had adopted a ‘defence in depth’ system – the main line of resistance was positioned out of range of German artillery fire, whilst hundreds of snipers and machine gunners were deployed closer to the enemy lines. The machine gunners, including L/Cpl Sayer’s 8th Battalion, had the sole job of inflicting as many casualties as possible before withdrawing.

On 21st March 1918 at 04:40, with a fog hanging over much of the British Line, Operation Michael commenced. The Germans massed some 65 divisions and more than 6,600 artillery guns along the 46-mile front from Arras to Le Fère, with just 26 British divisions initially holding the line.

Winston Churchill, in his role as Minister of Munitions, was close to the front line and described the heavy and sophisticated German artillery bombardment in his account ‘The World Crisis’:

“And then, exactly as a pianist runs his hands across the keyboard from treble to bass, there rose in less than one minute the most tremendous cannonade I shall ever hear...It swept round us in a wide curve of red leaping flame stretching to the north far along the front of the Third Army, as well as of the Fifth Army on the south, and quite unending in either direction...the enormous explosions of the shells upon our trenches seemed almost to touch each other, with hardly an interval in space or time...The weight and intensity of the bombardment surpassed anything which anyone had ever known before.”

More than 3,500,000 shells were fired, and this continued for five hours. The sound was said to have been heard quite clearly in London.

VALOUR

At approximately 10:00AM on 21st March 1918, having survived the German onslaught and with Stormtroopers now advancing, L/Cpl Sayer and 21 men seized a strategic position at Shepherd’s Copse, North-East of Le Verguier, close to the Hindenburg Line.

Over the next two hours, while British positions fell all about them, Sayer and his fellow soldiers put up the most extraordinary resistance. The defenders had no grenades, only limited rifle ammunition and no palatable drinking water (supplies having been stored in kerosene drums).

They repelled wave after wave of German attack. Time and again the Germans tried to surround Sayer's position in an effort to isolate him and his men, sometimes approaching to within just 30ft of his trench in the thick fog. Yet Sayer and his men denied them.

Their defence, however, came at a terrible cost. One by one his men fell, dead or wounded, until Sayer was the last man standing, braving a barrage of shells and bullets to fight on alone, and in doing so he was able to inflict heavy casualties on the Germans.

John William Sayer’s actions were witnessed by his platoon commander Lieutenant Claude Lorraine Piesse, who described the Lance Corporal in his report:

“defending against all attacks of the very much stronger enemy by bayonet and rifle with almost incredible bravery”

In repulsing repeated attacks along the trench, Sayer single-handedly killed six attackers with his bayonet while dropping others with his rifle. Piesse stated that:

“although for two hours he was continually exposed to enemy machine gun fire and bombs, he used his own rifle as coolly as if at the butts”.

He concluded by declaring that:

“Sayer showed the utmost contempt for danger and the enemy and inspired everyone by his conduct”, “it was a wonder to me every minute that he did not fall”.

Only at noon, with the fog clearing and Sayer severely wounded, were the Germans able to overrun his position and capture him. He was taken to a German field hospital at Le Cateau where, despite receiving treatment for losing his leg, he succumbed to his wounds and died four weeks later on 18th April 1918, aged 39. He was buried in Le Cateau Military Cemetery (Plot 1, Row B, Grave 59).

SIGNIFICANCE & RECOGNITION

Lieutenant Claude Lorraine Piesse, with Colonel Hugh Chevalier Peirs of the 8th Battalion of The Queen’s Royal Regiment (West Surrey), recommended Lance Corporal John William Sayers to receive a Victoria Cross. Sayer was duly awarded the honour, posthumously, in 1919.

The citation for the award of Sayer's Victoria Cross reads:

"For most conspicuous bravery, determination and ability displayed on the 21st March, 1918, at Le Verguier, when holding for two hours, in face of incessant attacks, the flank of a small isolated post. Owing to mist the enemy approached the post from both sides to within 30 yards before being discovered. Lance-Corporal Sayer, however, on his own initiative and without assistance, beat off a succession of flank attacks and inflicted heavy casualties on the enemy. Though attacked by rifle and machine-gun fire, bayonet and bombs, he repulsed all attacks, killing many and wounding others. During the whole time he was continuously exposed to rifle and machine-gun fire, but he showed the utmost contempt of danger and his conduct was an inspiration to all. His skilful use of fire of all descriptions enabled the post to hold out till nearly all the garrison had been killed and himself wounded and captured. He subsequently died as a result of wounds at Le Cateau."

(London Gazette, 9th June 1919).

Edith Sayer received her husband's Victoria Cross medal at Buckingham Palace, from King George V, on 16th November 1919. Sayer’s medals were passed down to his daughter, Ivy, and still remain privately held by her family.

Yet the stand at Shepherd’s Copse is virtually unknown to the public. Sayer's Victoria Cross citation wasn't published until 15 months after the event, and, 1919 compassion fatigue at the time meant that people had become tired of reading about stories of the Great War and its heroes.

Strangely, Sayer is also missing from the majority of Victoria Cross battle literature and most WWI books; most notably his own unit’s regimental history. The accounts that appeared in the 1920s contain errors, including an incorrect date for his Victoria Cross deed. His file at the Imperial War Museum contains only two half-sheets of paper, one of which still perpetuates the clerical mistake that he won his Victoria Cross on 31st March; thus separating the action in which he gained his award from the award itself.

In recent times, research has uncovered evidence to suggest that Sayer's actions had a significant effect on holding back the German offensive. These sources are various notes, letters and journals, with eye-witness descriptions of the war, written by Claude Piesse. Although many of these documents are in London (in the Imperial War Museum and in King’s College) others are still with Piesse’s family in Australia.

A two page letter was written to Piesse (who was captured at the time and in a German prison camp) by Hugh Peirs (who was still commanding the 8th Battalion in France) on 27th August 1918. Its essence is summarised in its opening paragraph:

“Burnham has shown me the very wonderful letter you wrote him, which I think is the finest letter I ever read. This is the first inkling l have got of what occurred in the front line on the day in question and I (am) sorry that we have not been able to do full justice to the conduct of those who played their part so well and enabled us behind to hold out so long and the Battalion to be specifically mentioned.”

Peirs went on to state that Sayer's heroics were crucial. Although The Queen’s (Royal West Surrey Regiment) lost approximately 70 men in the fighting north of Le Verguier, including the soldiers who had fought and died alongside Sayer, the Germans were forced to postpone their advance on the village until the following day allowing the British defenders to withdraw without losing a single man. Their bravery had provided time for other members of the 8th Battalion to regroup and shore up the defence of Le Verguier.

Another useful source on the battle itself is the diary of Captain Charles Lodge Patch, the 8th Battalion’s Senior Medical Officer, which can also be found in the Imperial War Museum. During the morning, the very thick fog disoriented everyone; communication with Piesse’s platoon had been lost very early. Patch, Piesse and Peirs all believed that the German advance had been aided by, and almost certainly planned to take advantage of, the predictable morning fog at that time of year. Shepherd’s Copse was therefore assumed to be in enemy hands as, according to escaped survivors, were the other outposts. A captured German officer, who spoke French and who had been injured by a Mills grenade, was questioned by Patch as he dressed his wounds. The officer informed him that their plan had been to take the village within two hours as a first step towards eventually pushing the British back to the coast. The village standing on high ground and containing numerous strong points was in fact eminently defensible in clear weather, providing that sufficient men were available to man the forts. Hence the German schedule presumably depended on completing the attack under fog cover, which the Shepherd’s Copse delay had frustrated.

The existence of the Shepherd’s Copse stand had previously been unknown and its impact had therefore been uncalculated. As communications with the outpost had been severed early, the action was not included in the Battalion’s contemporary war diaries and official regimental history. Until reading Piesse’s account of events at Shepherd’s Copse, Peirs had apparently lacked an explanation for the delay in the assault on Le Verguier. The postponed attack had allowed the Battalion to maintain its position for longer than any other unit on the entire British front, which had led to commendation in the Commander-in-Chief’s dispatches. Peirs wanted to assemble evidence for an award recognising the delaying action and he asked Piesse to send further details of Sayer’s and two of his comrades’ specific roles, with corroboration. It is due only to German leniency, in allowing uncensored correspondence between an enemy officer and a prisoner of war, as well as Piesse's foresight in retaining revealing letters, that first-hand evidence exists of the crucial nature of Sayer's actions.

By the time Sayer’s citation came to be written though, all credit for the delay had already been given to someone else: Hugh Peirs himself. Peirs was awarded a second bar to his Distinguished Service Order in September 1918. His citation reads:

“For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty in defence of a village, when he fought until surrounded, and then made his way back under cover of a fog. It was entirely due to his great courage and fine leadership that the enemy offensive was delayed...”.

The 8th Battalion’s reputation, in response to the Kaiserschlacht, had become well-established without acknowledging Sayer. Their success had been applauded in British newspapers, notably The Times on 26th March 1919 which had praised them under the headline “West Surreys Fight to Last Man”, and they had even been mentioned by Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig. Announcement of the effects of Sayer's action would mean reapportioning credit, unsettling this cumulatively built reputation.

The hint that Sayer’s Victoria Cross recommendation met resistance is in a letter from Piesse to L/Cpl Sayer in March 1919. Neither Piesse, nor Sayer's widow, knew at the time that he had died eleven months previously. The letter stated that Peirs was doing all he could but may not succeed. Yet a month later, Piesse recorded that the Victoria Cross nomination had not been turned down, but instead returned to Peirs by General Headquarters for removal of “some paragraphs in which exceptions were taken”. Copies of the earlier nomination were destroyed; so historians can only wonder whether any of the censored paragraphs may have mentioned Sayer’s role in delaying the assault on Le Verguier.

Sayer's nomination would also have received particularly lengthy scrutiny because it related to an award for an action which had culminated in his capture. Bravery medals were not typically given in these cases, although in exceptional circumstances a Victoria Cross could override the rule.

The result is that while other Victoria Cross recipients are recalled on memorials and in literature, John William Sayer, a hero of Chadwell Heath, has become largely overlooked and the significance of his place in WWI history remains unknown to many.

existing memorials

Lance Corporal John William Sayer was commemorated, along with 96 soldiers from Chadwell Heath, on a brass plaque in St. Chad's Church on 6th December 1919.

In 2009, twelve inspirational war heroes were chosen by Barking & Dagenham Council for streets to be named after them. This led to the creation of John Sayer Close in Barking.

In 2014, the Government launched a four-year scheme to honour recipients of the Victoria Cross who served in the First World War. A specially commissioned memorial stone was laid at Islington Memorial Green in remembrance of John William Sayer on 21st March 2018, one hundred years to the day of his act of bravery.

bRONZE STATUE PROJECT

The designs that we are requesting would be similar to those created for Job Henry Charles Drain VC of the Royal Field Artillery, who had a bronze statue erected in his honour on 10th November 2009 outside the Broadway Theatre in Barking. Steven Hunter, sculptor of the Job Drain VC statue, has appraised our Wangey Road/Cedar Park Gardens site choice. This is a prominent junction, with high levels of footfall close to Chadwell Heath Station and Chadwell Heath High Road, at the Redbridge/Barking & Dagenham border, that serves as one of the main entrances into Chadwell Heath.

An outlined budget has been provided below:

WORKSPACE = £5,600

MATERIALS = £6,900

MODEL, COSTUME HIRE, PHOTOGRAPHER & ADMIN = £5,300

MOULD & BRONZE CASTING = £17,500

PLINTH = £10,200

LABOUR = £40,000

TOTAL NET = £85,500

VAT = £17,100

TOTAL GROSS = £102,600

This quote may change depending on all factors when the final brief has been submitted, but is likely to be the top-end cost of a 7 1/2 ft sculpted figure.

Steven Hunter has recommended this height, which includes a plinth, as life-size statues look small and unimposing in open spaces. However, if budget constraints lead to the choice of a life-size statue, the overall cost would reduce slightly; largely due to a reduction in the amount of bronze used.

We are currently working towards seeking planning permission for the bronze statue from the London Borough of Redbridge.