Katherine MacAlister talks to Ali Crowther, daughter of Great War hero Edward Lloyd Francis, whose memory lives on at Celebration of Christmas

‘I served in France through the winter of 1914 with the 2nd Wiltshires, part of the 21st Brigade in the 7th Division.

“We held the line in front of a village called Fleurbaix, roughly halfway between Ypres and Bethune,” so speaks the quiet, moderated and unemotional voice of Edward Lloyd Francis. ‘Fuzz’, as he was known, was speaking in a rare radio interview when he recounted his experiences of the 1914 Christmas Armistice to Oxford radio broadcaster Humphrey Carpenter in 1974.

“One of our periods in the front line included Christmas Day, which was spent in an unexpected manner,” he continues. “Some of the men seized the opportunity to warm their feet by walking or running behind the trenches.

“The mist suddenly cleared and we could see some of the German soldiers doing the same thing. They waved and our men waved back. After all, it was Christmas Day.

“Soon the German soldiers opposite to us and our men were meeting in no-man’s land and exchanging small gifts. They belonged to the 45th Saxon Regiment and were mostly in their early 20s. They were very friendly and just as pleased as we were to have a peaceful interlude. My old platoon sergeant added a good deal to the informal Christmas party by going out to meet the Germans wearing a large skirt which he had found in a deserted farm house. This led to some earthy Teutonic byplay and plenty of laughs.

“Punctually at 4pm we and the Germans returned to our trenches. The Higher Command was furious and issued orders condemning the cease-fire and threatening dire penalties in case of any repetition.

“Memory is fallible,” he adds, “but the main facts concerning this most unusual episode of the Great War are still clear in my mind ...for its interest to my contemporaries and younger generations.”

Fuzz died in 1983 aged 89 and it was only when his stepdaughter Ali Crowther was going through his things after her mother died that she found the recording of his experiences. On playing the recording to friend and Oxford academic Jon Stallworthy, she immediately realised its historic significance. Jon then introduced Ali to All Souls’ military historian Hew Strachan, which got the ball rolling. The Imperial War Museum expressed an immediate interest but Ali, who organises the Celebration of Christmas concert in Christ Church Cathedral for Macmillan Cancer Support, thought it fitting, on the centenary of The Great War, to play her stepfather/godfather’s interview at the beginning of the service, to remind us all of the enormous part our ancestors played and the enormous sacrifices they made.

“Yes, but it’s about more than that. It’s about hope and Christmas and a brief moment of peace amidst such brutal fighting,” Ali points out. “I know it was a very important moment for Fuzz and one he would be delighted to be celebrating 100 years later. It’s still an amazing story,” the 68 year-old former nurse concludes.

As fascinating as his insight into the 1914 Christmas Armistice is, Fuzz’s own story is as interesting as his war memoirs. Like so many men of his generation he never spoke about his ordeal, even though half his face was blown off in the trenches in 1915 by German snipers, his daily diary entry reading simply: ”Wounded about 10.30pm and taken to Merville.”

So bad were his injuries that his eye had to be removed and so followed a lifetime of operations and reconstructive surgery, including pioneering work by plastic surgeons McIndoe and Gillies. Although Fuzz remained in the army as a captain until the end of WW1, he never returned to fight in France.

“There was no counselling in those days so they got by with a stiff upper lip,” Ali says. His beloved brother John was killed in 1915, again Fuzz’s diary entry reading simply “Telegram about John,” a study in emotional understatement.

Having gone to the Dragon School as a youngster, Fuzz returned to Oxford to read history after the war but was told that because he only had one eye, and the subject required excessive reading, he should read geography instead. Fuzz later joined the staff of The Dragon School where he taught history, much to his satisfaction, becoming the bursar, and remaining there until he retired. He died in 1983.

Oxford Mail:
Reflections: Ali Crowther with medals and the diary belonging to her late godfather and father

As if Ali Crowther’s links to WW1 weren’t concrete enough, her father Jean Noel Bentall Sergent, also schooled at The Dragon, fought for the French in the Dardanelles and was on the French liner Sontay when it was sunk by a torpedo south of Malta in 1917. He was awarded the Croix de Guerre (the French equivalent of the VC) and was later a translator at The Treaty of Versailles, dying in 1954 when Ali was 8 years old. Again she knew nothing about his war experiences.

Ali’s mother married Fuzz five years after her father’s death, moving to his house in North Oxford where Ali still lives with her own family.

“Fuzz was a terribly kind man with a wonderful sense of humour and very handsome, despite his terrible wounds. He was happily married to my mother for 30 years and loved living in Oxford. But I take my hat off to The Dragon School for taking him on as a young man despite his wounds because he must have looked awful at the beginning. Luckily they always saw the man behind the surgery, but then he was very special.”

Did his wounds mentally scar him? ”I don’t think so,” Ali says. “Occasionally people would stare but it was something we just accepted and were used to. But then he was a very private man and never spoke about it. He only lived for the future and lived a very interesting life after the war. It didn’t define him.”

For Ali as least, who suffered from breast cancer herself, it seems a fitting tribute to the men in her life to celebrate their bravery and experiences at next week’s historic service, raising money for such a good cause.

Supporting her with a series of readings this year are actors Freddie Jones, who has taken part every year since the service’s inception 18 years ago, Anita Dobson, Toby Jones, and Rula Lenska.

So how does Ali feel on the eve of Fuzz’s debut? “I’m sure he would be delighted to know that this account of his experiences in witnessing the Christmas truce of 1914 will be heard by so many 100 years later. And yet we still don’t know very much.”

A Celebration of Christmas takes place at Christchurch Cathedral on Friday December 5 at 8pm for Macmillan Cancer Support. Tickets cost from £20.
Box office on 01865 305305 or www.oxfordplayhouse.com/ticketsoxford