An interview with Donald Brown
On the 30th March I met with historian, Uphill resident, and Second World War veteran Donald Brown, to discover more about the history of Uphill Village during the First World War. Donald Brown is also the author of three books: Uphill’s Great War 1914-1918, Uphill’s Second World War 1939-1945, and Victoria’s Uphill.
Brown wrote his book on the First World War because he felt that the men of Uphill who had been killed had since been forgotten. On Remembrance Sunday of 2000, Brown asked his fellow villagers whether they knew any of the fourteen names on the memorial, which had just undergone renovation; no one replied. It was then that on Brown decided to write a paragraph on every man on the memorial. His paragraphs became a book including information of the 103 soldiers who went to war, (twenty of these soldiers died, six of whom aren’t remembered on the Uphill memorial and one whose name is not on any memorial), regiments, civilian life and the medical work of the Grave-Knyfton ladies.
Uphill was a small, rural area populated mainly by working class agricultural workers. There were three land owning families, the most powerful being the Grave-Knyftons. In Downton Abbey terms, Reginald Bennett Graves-Knyfton was the ‘Lord Grantham’ of the village. Before the war, Knyfton already had an officer’s rank in the Territorial Army as all powerful men did during the Edwardian era. At the war’s outbreak, he persuaded many villagers, including his workers and tenants, to join up. The men usually joined the Weston Rifles (Somerset Light Infantry and Gloucestershire Regiment pal’s battalions) or the North Somerset Yeomanry, who trained on Uphill beach.
Donald Brown’s research shows just how unique Uphill village was during the war. At the beginning of this interview I had assumed that the roles of the villagers would have been ordinary. However, by the end I discovered that the villagers were rather extraordinary. Here are but a few things I discovered.
Two Military Medals (the 3rd highest bravery award for ranks men) were awarded, and one soldier gained a Mention-in-the-Despatches. One villager was taken prisoner by the Germans and managed to escape their captivity (Uphill’s ‘Great Escape’ moment). Soldiers from the village fought all over the world; most went to Flanders, although some went to Greece, India, Afghanistan, and Russia (to quell the Russian revolution in 1919). The famous “Your country needs you” poster was created in Weston. The creator of the Mills bomb (hand grenade) moved to Broadoak road during the war while the village grenade instructor blew his fingers off teaching recruits how to use them. Two fathers died of broken hearts after hearing of their sons’ deaths. A young Officer Cadet was tragically killed in a training incident a month before the war’s end. One man drowned in Greece while Graves-Knyfton himself died of Spanish influenza two weeks before the end of the war, making him Uphill’s first man to sign up and the village’s last casualty.
After we discussed the historiography, Donald Brown gave his opinions on the fallen and the demonisation of Britain’s enemies which still resonates today. On the subject of the deaths heralded as trivial (flu, drowning, training accidents, etc.), Brown said “the role of every man was to try and get through it. When they didn’t, the way they went meant very little to their mothers. Some fathers took comfort in knowing their son died in battle, but, at the end of the day, a heart break is a heart break.”
During the Second World War, Brown was an Army Officer who guarded German Prisoners. He recalls one prisoner in particular who could speak English. He asked him to send postcards to his family in Germany to tell them he was ‘fine.’ After the War, Brown met with this German to reflect upon the War and revel in their post-war comradery. Brown said to him, “if my father knew I was talking to a German, he wouldn’t understand why and he’d be upset.” The German agreed. At this moment, Donald Brown had a realisation. During times of war, the enemy is demonised in propaganda. Germans were not all baby-murdering brutes, but were ordinary people who were taught to demonise the enemy in the same way. “This dehumanising of races is still seen today. This isn’t me speaking politically. It is factual. I often think to myself, ‘are the Russians and Putin really as bad as the press are making out?’ Obviously I cannot say the same of I.S. because you can’t really fake beheadings, but the Russians… It almost seems like the stuff of World War Two and the Cold War.”
My interview with Donald Brown was extremely educational and inspiring. If you’d like to know more about his publications: ‘Uphill’s Great War,’ ‘Uphill’s Second World War’ and ‘Victoria’s Uphill,’ they are available at Weston Library, Uphill shop, Weston Museum and on Amazon.
