As a result of the initial post on the Staffordshire Regiment Museum Facebook page, John Clews contacted the local newspaper, The Lichfield Mercury and I was asked by one of their reporters to provide the story.
L-R: Adrian, Eunice, Nick, John P, Jan, John C
The Staffordshire Regiment Museum
19th October 2019.
The Battle for Normandy is nearing its bloody conclusion as German forces are forced into an easterly retreat. Men of the 59th (Staffordshire) Division are engaged in bitter fighting on both banks of the River Orne. 176 Brigade have forced a crossing and are in a desperate struggle to hold a fragile bridgehead, repelling determined enemy counter-attacks launched from the Fôret de Grimbosq. To the south, 177 Brigade are fighting to control the successive ridges of high ground that are a feature of the terrain that leads to the section of the river that overlooks the Norman town of Thury Harcourt.
It is 10th August and a soldier of ‘C’ Company of the 5th Battalion South Staffordshire Regiment lies injured in front of the Company position close to the river bank in the area of the small settlement of Fresnay. Company Commander, Major Bernard Pearson, accompanied by his Batman, Private Percy Clews and a stretcher bearer approach the stricken soldier in an effort to bring him in. They get close to the casualty when the stretcher bearer steps on a shrapnel mine, one of several that the retreating enemy have callously placed around the wounded man. The blast injures the stretcher bearer and the Major and kills Private Clews instantly.
29th August 1944 – Abergavenny, Wales
‘My Dear Mrs Clews’ wrote Major Pearson from the Monmouthshire hospital in which he was recovering from the wounds that he had received on 10th August, ‘You have no doubt been wondering why I have taken so long to write, and offer not only my sympathy, but those of the whole Company at the loss of your Husband, my Batman.
I was hit by the same mine, and I have only just heard officially that Percy was killed, as I had feared.
It isn’t an easy story to tell, Mrs Clews, and I am sure you don’t want to know all the full details.
I found it necessary to lead a patrol with stretcher bearers to recover one of my boys who had been wounded sometime before, and who was in need of treatment. Percy would not think of leaving me behind. We found the man but the Germans had surrounded him with shrapnel mines, I presume they realised that we would try to recover him. A stretcher bearer, after giving aid, trod on a mine which exploded, causing the death of your husband and wounding two of us.
I had the lives of the others to consider so I ordered them back whilst I tried to give Percy some help, but poor lad, he had gone – without pain and without knowing what had happened. He looked very peaceful, his job well done. I had him recovered the same day and he was given a Military funeral, although I regret that I was not present, being on my way to hospital’.
Major Pearson went on to describe his own relationship with his diligent orderly ‘Between an Officer and his Batman there develops a spirit of comradeship far above expression by words – we thought such a lot of each other, and I have grieved for him very much indeed. He was killed giving help to his comrades and myself, and all of the Company have missed him so much. His determination to make sure that I was not left unprotected at any time caused him to be killed’.
The Officer drew the heart-rending letter to a close with the words ‘With best wishes for the future, and rest assured that your Husband will not be forgotten by
Yours sincerely,
B. Pearson. Major.'
Thus it was that Annie Clews joined an ever increasing number of young war widows facing an uncertain future for herself and her son, John, just two-years old at the time of his Father’s death.
1st July 2019 – Bayeux Military Cemetery, Normandy
A small group of people gather around plot XXIII. D. 6. For here lies 4923121 Private Percy Clews of the South Staffordshire Regiment. In the unrelenting high temperatures of a record breaking heatwave over the Continent we, as Anglo-French representatives of the 59th (Staffordshire) Division Association, paused for reflection around the weathered Portland headstone. John Clews, accompanied by his wife Jan, took up position behind the grave and he related the circumstances of his Father’s death as gleaned from Major Pearson’s letter to his Mother sent 75 years ago.
19th October 2019 – The Staffordshire Regiment Museum, Whittington Barracks, Staffordshire
The relatives of three late veterans of the 5th South Staffordshire Regiment sit in the ‘Colonel Butler’ room within the Museum, each somewhat bewildered as to the circumstances that brought them there….
Upon returning from Normandy in July I posted a picture of John’s tribute to his Father, along with a photograph of Private Clews himself on the Museum’s Facebook page. The photographs were accompanied with the outline story and the text of the letter of condolence sent to Percy Clews’ widow. 24 hours later I looked back at the post and amongst the anticipated ‘crying’ and ‘heart’ emojis that are part and parcel of the social media world was a rather excited message from one Nick Parry, which informed me that he was the Grandson of Major Bernard Pearson, author of the quoted letter and the man with Private Clews at the moment he was killed! A rapid correspondence followed from which a plan was hatched to bring the two families together in a meeting at the Museum.
A date was set and arrangements made to meet.
Participating in this most poignant of reunions was Major Pearson’s son, also named John, daughter Eunice, along with Percy’s son and daughter-in-law, John and Jan. Nick and myself as instigators looked on, both very pleased indeed with the outcome so far. Over tea and coffee, memories were shared and photographs compared. It came as some surprise to John and Eunice that their Father and the Clews family had met previously, Major Pearson having maintained a correspondence with Percy’s widow and then later with John himself.
John Pearson had a couple of surprises in store for John Clews. Out of a bag beside the table he produced his Father’s canvas bedroll which John duly opened up to reveal the owners details ‘Major B. Pearson, S. Stafford R.’. In re-rolling the canvas and looping the now musty leather straps through rusted buckles, John was performing the often repeated task of his Father, as maintaining Major Pearson’s personal kit would have been one of his responsibilities as Batman. The relevance of John’s task was not lost among those seated around the table and I believe that some tears were shed.
John Clews opens up Major Pearson’s wartime bedroll.
In addition, Major Pearson’s modified 38” Webley revolver (now an exhibit in the Museum) was handed around the table. This weapon also links the two soldiers. In a letter to the Museum in which he passed the gun over for ‘safe custody’ he recounted a moment in time during the fighting to take the fortified village of Noyers Bocage, a bloody snapshot of the Normandy experience. On 18th July 1944, the Major was passing through some damaged buildings when, alerted by a noise in the rubble, he turned so see a German soldier bearing down on him with fixed bayonet. The blade passed through the Major’s leg. As the German exerted his effort to withdraw the bayonet, in a ‘kill or be killed’ instant, he fired the Webley hitting the enemy soldier fatally in the chest. On seeing their comrade lying dead, three further soldiers emerged from the interior to surrender and were escorted back to Battalion HQ under the watchful eye of Percy. Major Pearson noted further in the letter that whilst the killing of the soldier was in no way a matter in which to take pride, the subsequent recovery of a machine gun and ammunition from the position made it clear that this action in all probability saved the lives of many men in ‘C’ Company. Once again, at a time of great danger, Percy was at Major Pearson’s side.
The family were at great pains to assure John and Jan that the name and character of Percy Clews was well known to all in the Pearson household. He was described as ‘the best Batman I ever had’ having been personally selected rather than allocated to the post. So the story goes, Percy was chosen in an attempt to keep him out of trouble, which tended to follow him around….. nothing too serious you understand, just uniform violations and such like. In the new role Percy proved himself to be highly adept, capable of conjuring up a brew within moments of Major Pearson calling a halt.
After the war, Bernard Pearson remained in the Army in the capacity of Recruitment Officer and Chaplin. In 1987 he returned to Normandy for the first time in 43 years, where within Bayeux Military Cemetery he conducted a service at the graveside of his fallen Batman. This act evidenced the sincerity of his words to Annie Clews written in August 1944, ‘rest assured that your Husband will not be forgotten’. His expressed feelings for his killed Batman and friend were in no respect platitudes intended for the comfort of a grieving widow.
With stories now shared, thoughts turned to food, but the day had yet one more surprise to serve up to John and Jan. At some point in the late ‘80’s Major Pearson and the Clews family lost contact and as such they had no information concerning Bernard’s passing in 1998 at the age of 86. It then came as a bolt out of the blue to learn that he lies in the Churchyard of St Giles in Whittington, the very village in which John grew up and where he still lives with Jan. Lunch could wait another half hour as we paid an unplanned visit to St. Giles. Whilst there I took a photo graph of John at the grave in a deliberate attempt to mirror the 1987 photograph of Major Pearson at the grave of Percy Clews.
Top: Major Bernard Pearson at the grave of Private Percy Clews in 1987, Bayeux Military Cemetery
Bottom: John Clews at the grave of Major Bernard Pearson on 19th October 2019, Whittington.
At the end of an excellent meal, all were in agreement that this had been a very special day indeed and something that should be repeated in the not too distant future. For my part I am just content to have been the catalyst that kick-started the efforts that culminated in this poignant yet happy gathering.
Right: Private Percy Clews (18th September 1912 – 10th August 1944)
Left: Major Bernard Pearson (10th February 1912 – 25th March 1998).
It only remains for me to thank Nick, John, Eunice, John and Jan for their part in such a meaningful event. Thanks are also due to the staff of the Museum for their hospitality as well as their interest in this small detail within the long and illustrious history of the South Staffordshire Regiment.
Major Bernard Pearson post war
Adrian Andrews
(Grandson of L/Cpl James Kitchener Heath ‘A’ Coy, 5th South Staffordshire Regiment (1914-1995))
October 2019.
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