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Volunteers died fighting Irish rebels
The Newark Advertiser's deputy news editor, Sharon Hodkin, traces the story behind the graves of four Sherwood Foresters killed on the streets of Dublin during the Easter Rising of 1916. The regiment's campaign in Ireland has been documented by Mr John McGuiggan, a former Army photographer now working as a barrister in Dublin.
Hidden among the headstones in Newark Cemetery and Balderton Churchyard are four simple graves that bear the names of young soldiers who died for their country.
Behind each name is a story of bravery and honour in a battle during the first world war that is now barely mentioned in the history books.
These four men, all under 24, did not die in the trenches of France or Belgium, but in a massacre on the streets of Dublin in April 1916 as the British Army tried to quash the Easter Rising.
Sergeant-major Henry Dixey, Lance-corporal George Barks, Private Albert Kitchen and Private Albert Wood responded to Lord Kitchener's call to volunteer, and enlisted at Newark.
Sergeant-major Dixey, whose family still live in the town, was an apprentice pattern maker with a company in Northgate when he enlisted at a meeting chaired by the Duke of Rutland in September 1914.
Educated at the Wesleyan School in Newark, he was a Sunday School teacher at the United Methodist Church and a member of the United Works Band.
Less than two years later, having been promoted to sergeant-major, he joined colleagues from the 2/8th battalion of the Sherwood Foresters aboard the SS Patriotic heading to Ireland.
The troops, most with just three months training behind them, landed at Kingstown Harbour, Dublin, at 5.30am on April 26, less than six miles from the scene of the bloodshed that would follow later in the day.
After breakfast, at 8.30am, the troops were given their orders. The 2/8th battalion was to support the 2/7th marching to the heart of Dublin in the spring sunshine.
They had left their Lewis machine guns in Liverpool and were armed only with Lee-Enfield rifles and bayonets.
Waiting for them in heavily reinforced buildings was a determined group of rebels, including the future President of Ireland, Eamon de Valera, who were better trained, better armed and more experienced.
De Valera commanded the Boland's Mills Garrison during the Easter Rising and was one of the last commanders to surrender.
The Sherwood Foresters had orders to take a school just south of the Mount Street Bridge over the Grand Canal before pressing on towards Trinity College.
The exact order given was: "Your battalion will storm the Mount Street Schools at all costs, at all costs mind. Penetrate further if you can."
As they marched along Northumberland Road they came under fire from rebels holed up in number 25.
With the source of the gunfire identified, the poorly armed troops, Sergeant-major Dixey among them, charged the house.
More rebels opened fire from the nearby Clanwilliam House, inflicting heavy casualties on the troops caught in the crossfire.
Over the next few hours the young soldiers courageously charged on command of a whistle towards 25 Northumberland Road, Mount Street Schools, Clanwilliam House and Mount Street Bridge.
Each time they met the guns of the rebels and more and more men were cut down.
Finally, the Dublin Military Garrison provided the beleaguered troops with Lewis guns and hand grenades.
By then, 230 men from the Sherwood Foresters lay dead or wounded in the streets of Dublin.
Sergeant-major Dixey died attempting to charge the Mount Street Bridge, shot down by the rebels at the age of 22.
Very few details are known about where and when the three comrades from Balderton died during the fighting.
Private Alfred Kitchen, who was born in India but lived in Balderton when he enlisted, was killed on April 26, aged 23. On the same day Lance-corporal George Barks died at the age of 19.
Southwell-born Alfred Wood, whose parents lived at Balderton, survived the onslaught but died of his injuries on May 17, 1916, aged 18.
While many of their fallen comrades are buried in cemeteries in Ireland, the bodies of three men were brought home to Newark and Balderton, probably at the request and cost of their families.
Privates Wood and Kitchen and Lance-corporal Banks lie side by side in graves marked by simple white crosses in St Giles' Churchyard, Balderton.
Sergeant-major Dixey was buried in Dublin but was later brought back to Newark.
His body now lies in Newark Cemetery near the first world war memorial.
Mrs Beryl Dixey (87) who lives at the Troc Residential Home in Newark, is related to Sergeant-major Dixey by marriage.
Her husband, Mr Harold Henry Dixey, who died two years ago, was the soldier's nephew and was named after him.
She said her husband had few memories of his uncle and the family had little knowledge about his death.
"My husband could only remember the telegram coming to say he had died," said Mrs Dixey.
"He knew he had been mentioned in despatches but did not know anything else."
Mrs Dixey's son, Mr David Dixey of Hayside Avenue, Balderton, regularly visits his great-uncle's grave when he is at Newark Cemetery as part of his work as a funeral director.
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