BY RICHARD MADDOX
WANDERING DOWN WHITEHALL towards the end of this year’s London Marathon I came across a fleet of buses barricading the road to traffic. Not the normal red London buses, these had come from Purfleet in Essex and a number were named after men who had died in World War One.
This is the story of one of them and how the buses came to be named.
John was born in 1871 and joined the Royal Navy straight from school, serving later in the Nelson Battalion, Royal Naval Division (RND).
The RND was formed at the outbreak of the war from around 20 – 30,000 Royal Navy and Royal Marine who were not required for service at sea.
From these men two Naval Brigades and a Brigade of Infantry were formed. All three Brigades fought at Antwerp in October 1914. In the rush to get men to the Continent around 80% of the men in the units went to war without packs, mess tins or water bottles.
They were armed with outdated weapons which they received three days before setting sail and had no artillery, engineering or medical units attached.
Following the withdrawal from Antwerp in mid-October 1914 (in which some 1,500 RND troops crossed into Holland and were interned) the Division spent much of 1915 re-equipping and re-training before moving to Egypt prior to being deployed to Gallipoli in support of the ANZAC troops.
He was killed in action 3 May 1915 and is commemorated at the Helles Memorial, Gallipoli, Canakkale, Turkey and the Purfleet War Memorial. He was 44 year old and a Chief Petty Officer.
Image: Ensignbus’ ‘Chief Petty Officer John Northmore’ on Whitehall. 23 April 2017. Image © R Maddox
‘John Northmore’ was the first of five new buses for the Ensignbus bus company and was named at a local ceremony on 4 May 2015. John Northmore was also the first man from Purfleet killed during the First World War.
In all Ensignbus have named 26 buses after those from Purfleet who died in the 1914 – 1918 conflict and the Purfleet Heritage Centre has a booklet about the men for sale.
For more information click on the links:
http://www.focustransport.org/2015/05/ensignbus-commemorate-local-world-war-1.html
http://www.ensignbus.com/news/ensignbus-commemorates-the-centenary
http://www.treasurebunker.com/forums/index.php?/topic/1657-the-royal-naval-division-in-ww1/
http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/3054885/NORTHMORE,%20JOHN
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