Historian Barrie Bertram has been in touch with the story of a soldier, awarded the Military Medal for bravery while serving under a false name, and who had previously served with the Jersey Militia.
He seeking information about the time that Captain Coutart de Butts Taylor lived in the Island.
He writes:
It is difficult to find the right adjective for Captain Coutart de Butts Taylor, an officer who, like many others, would be disgraced during the Great War for a misdemeanour, that we today would regard as trivial, and who would be removed from his commission in August 1916.
Yet, having been so disgraced, he would re-enlist as a private soldier, assume an alias as Charles Edward Collins, state that he was single, and, at the age of 46, state that he some seven years younger, all of which, were actions that we can assume as being taken to eradicate his shame.
For two years he would maintain this fiction, his wife Lilian Florence Blunden Taylor not even knowing of his whereabouts. Having re-enlisted as Collins he would soon be promoted to Sergeant and, according to his personal files at the National Archive at Kew, his service was exemplary and he would demonstrate a selflessness and heroism that bordered on the reckless.
Having previously been wounded four times, he would be shot in the chest on 4 November, 1918 leading an assault on a German machine position for which he would receive an immediate award of the Military Medal. Medically evacuated to England, his injuries and associated illnesses were such that he would die on Christmas Eve that year and was buried soon after while still Collins.
(Pcture of headstone at Brighton, supplied by Roger Frisby)
Behind the scenes things had been moving for, as Sergeant Collins, he had been recommended for a commission and during this process he declared his true name to the authorities. His case was reviewed, the reasons for his original removal were reconsidered, and in early 1919, his original commission was correctly and posthumously restored as of 23 December, 1918, the day prior to his death! It is believed that only two other officers were similarly restored, but Coutart de Butts Taylor’s may be unique as it was posthumous.
The Jersey connection comes about because between 1902 and 1915, Coutart was an officer with the Jersey Militia before heading off to the Royal Irish Rifles in Salonika.
He and his wife Lilian lived at Clifton, Mont Felard in St Lawrence where he was probably a tenant farmer. His going off to the war in 1915 seems to have coincided with Lilian heading off to nurse as a St John’s nurse, first at Southampton and then later at an Officer’s Convalescent Home at Thornleigh Hall, Bolton, Lancashire.
There are letters and papers in his file that place her there in 1920 while she was seeking on officer’s widow’s pension. The entry in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Register indicates that she subsequently returned to Clifton and may have lived there for a period.
From the file, it seems that the Taylors had three children, who were Lilian Mary, aged 17, Terence D’Aubrey, aged 16, and Doreen, aged 14 at the beginning of 1920.
Of course, this is a condensed account, but it is hoped that there is much that could be added to Coutart and Lilian de Butts Taylor’s story which has been subject to research by Barrie, of the Channel Islands’ Great War Study Group (CIGWSG) over the last few years.
Barrie would greatly welcome further information and photographs of the Taylor family if there are readers who would be good enough to provide it. In the first instance, he can be contact via the CIGWSG website: www.greatwarci.net
Alternatively, Barrie may be contacted by phone on 01 524 770 112, or by post to his home address: 22 Hornby Road, Caton, Lancs, LA2 9QS.
• Picture (supplied by Len Rowlands): The silver kettle presented to Mrs de Butts Taylor by the St John’s Company that formed the 1st (or West) Battalion, Royal Militia of Jersey, possibly on the birth of their youngest child, Doreen.
• Mr Rowlands will be in the Island in the New Year and if a direct descendant of Coutart and Lilian is found, he would like to return the kettle to them. If not, he intends to present it to the Jersey Museum.
