Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial

A  single span Hall of Memory on the Menin road in Ypres, West Flanders, built of reinforced concrete faced with stone and brick, with staircases up to loggias which run the length of the North and South sides of the Building designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield with sculpture by Sir William Reid-Dick and unveiled by Lord Plumer in the presence of the King of Belgians on the 24th July 1927.  The names of 54,896 officers and men who fell in the Ypres Salient before 16th August 1917 and who have no known grave are engraved in stone panels fixed to the inner walls of the Hall, the sides of the staircases and inside the loggias except for New Zealand and Newfoundland casualties who have their own memorial. The names of the remaining 34,888  officers and men who fell in the Salient after the 16th August 1917 and who have no known grave are inscribed on the memorial at the rear of Tyne Cot Cemetery. The names on the Menin Gate Memorial are  listed under the Regiment in which the casualty served, the Regiments following the order of precedence, under the title of each Regiment by ranks and under each rank alphabetically. First come Commands and Staff, Cavalry and Yeomanry Regiments, Artillery and Engineers, then the Foot Guards and Infantry. 

Commemorated here and on the listed Village War Memorial

Brandon Village Memorial
Private Elliott Glostilow Halford
9th Battn Cheshire Regiment
Killed in Action 7th June 1917

Brinklow Village War Memorial
Private James Ernest Watkins
2nd Battn Royal Warwickshire Regiment
Killed in Action 25th October 1914

Private James Watkins
1st Battn Royal Warwickshire Regiment
Killed in Action 8th July 1915

Harborough Magna Village Memorial
Private James (Jim) Harris
8th Battn Gloucestershire Regiment
Killed in Action 28th July 1917

Monks Kirby Village Memorial
Private William Harris
1st Battn Coldstream Guards
Killed in Action 29th October 1914

Wolston Village Memorial
Private George Ernest Owens
1st Battn Royal Warwickshire Regiment
Killed in Action 25th April 1915

Commemorated here.

Lieutenant Aidan Chavasse

Lieutenant Chavasse served with the 17th Battalion The King’s (Liverpool Regiment) and was killed in action on the 4th July 1917.  He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial.
Youngest son of The Right Reverend Francis James Chavasse,   Bishop of Liverpool and Mrs. Edith Jane Chavasse of The Palace 19 Abercromby Square Liverpool.  His eldest brother Captain Noel Godfrey Chavasse V.C. and Bar died of wounds on the 4th August 1917 and is buried in Brandhoek New Military Cemetery, Vlamertinghe, West Flanders.

With the 18th, 19th and 20th Battalions of the King’s (Liverpool Regiment) the 17th Battalion formed the 89th Brigade of the 30th Division which landed at Boulogne on the 7th November 1915.

The Battalion took part in the Battle of the Somme, from the 1st July in the attack at Montauban until the end of October 1916.  As part of 89th Brigade, the Battalkon moved into the Ypres sector on the 20th May 1916 and went into the line at Hooge on the 29th May.   In the period before the principal operation on the 31st July 1917 one of the infantry tasks was to obtain information as to the identification of the units holding the German lines and the extent to which the German front line was being held. 

Just after midnight on the 3rd/4th July 1916 a fighting patrol under Lieutenant Chavasse and 8 other ranks went out from trenches east of Zillebeke to ascertain dispositions of the enemy.  On nearing the German wire the patrol encountered a German patrol which opened fire on the British party.  A stiff fight led to the British withdrawal with Lieutenant Chavasse bringing up the rear but on reaching the British lines, he was missing.  A search party went out, including his brother Captain F B Chavasse the Battalion Medical Officer, to search No Man’s Land and he was found wounded in the thigh in a shell-hole.  His wounds were bandaged but assistance was required to bring him in but on returning just before dawn his body could not be found.  A party went out again on the 5th July but could not find him but another party found and recovered the body of 2nd Lieutenant Cyril Aubrey Peters who had been killed on going back to the British front line for assistance in getting Aidan Chavasse’s body in and his body  is buried in Perth Cemetery (China Wall) Cemetery, Zillebeke east of Ypres.   

Awarded the Victory and British War Medals and the 1915 Star.

Commemorated here

Private Charles Ponder

No. 8959 Private Charles Ponder D.C.M.  2nd Battalion the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry was killed in action on the 15th February 1915 aged 26 years.  He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial.

He was born in Stoke Coventry about 1889 the eldest son of Thomas Martin Ponder and Mary Ann Ponder.  In 1901 Thomas and Mary were living at 1 Ball Hill, Coventry, Thomas aged 50 worked as a Polisher in the Cycle Trade and the couple had 4 children, Rhoda (20) a machinist also worked in the cycle trade, Polly (18) worked in cigar manufactory, Charles (12) and his younger brother Harold (3) all the children were born in Stoke Coventry.  Living with them was Nancy Ponder aged 80 a widow.  Charles enlisted in Warwick whilst resident in Coventry: By the early 1920s Thomas and Mary Ann Ponder were living at 171 Walsgrave Road Coventry.

At the outbreak of War, the 2nd Battalion was in Hong Kong arriving in England early November 1914 to become part of 82nd Brigade 27th Division, the other Battalions being the 1st Battalion the Prince of Wales’s Leinster Regiment (Royal Canadians), 1st Battalion Royal Irish Regiment and 2nd Battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers.  The 1st Cambridgeshire Territorials were attached early in March 1915 in the St. Eloi sector in France.

The 27th Division assembled at Winchester and on the 19th December 1914 marched from Winchester to Southampton for embarkation to France on a number of different vessels, disembarkation being completed by the 23rd December 1915. The 2nd Battalion D.C.L.I. landed at Havre on the 21st December and entrained for St. Omer and by the 1st January 1915 the whole Division was established in the St. Omer area.  Private Charles Ponder had landed with his Battalion.

Orders to the Division required the Division to take over trenches near St. Eloi from the French 32nd Division which happened on the nights of the 5th/6th and 6th/7th January 1915, the trenches taken over being from the Kemmel –Wytschaete road (just north of Hollandscheschuur Farm, in the German lines) north-eastwards to a position east of St. Eloi.  The Battalion H.Q. of the Leinster Regiment was at Shelley Farm, 800 yards East of St. Eloi village, the village itself and the Mound (an artificial heap of earth about 30 feet high and about half an acre in extent), about 200 yards south of the village centre being within the British lines. the German front line being about 500 yards from the village centre. The troops of the Division had to make a 17 mile march to reach the trenches and were wearing only indifferent foreign service boots – no new ones being available – suffering subsequently severely from trench feet.  The French trenches taken over were in an exceedingly poor state, both as regards protection and drainage and were far from the continuous line but were nothing more than a series of detached trenches at intervals of 30 to 50 yards between them and either no communication trenches or nothing but  water-logged ditches in which water stood 2 feet deep. There were no dugouts, the bottom of the trenches was mud, the water in the rear trenches coming up to the knees and in the fire trench was waist deep, there was no possibility of movement in the trenches for these were barely 3 feet wide and with no where to put down a rifle and keep it dry so every rifle had to be held the whole of a 48 hour tour.  The men simply stood motionless in water for two days and nights and on relief marched out, if they were then capable of movement.  No blankets were taken to the trenches and the cooked rations when they came up at night from Vormezeele were because of the mud and dirt usually uneatable .  Half a mile behind the trenches were the ruins of the village of Vormezeele which afforded some shelter otherwise there was no cover for anything until the village of Dickebusch was reached, one and a half miles from the lines with Westoutre another 8 miles in the rear.

The German position was wholly different, with their Artillery being unfettered by ammunition constraints, the British artillery being limited to 3 rounds per day with even that not being fired.

On the 12th January 1915 the 2nd Battalion D.C.L.I. began its first tour in the front-line trenches with little of moment, desultory firing took place at night and throughout the day intermittent shell-fire with the enemy introducing rifle grenades which were fired at night.   The Battalion was relieved on the 14th January with a total of 3 other ranks killed and 17 wounded.

On the 11th February 1915 the D.C.L.I. took over Trenches 19, 20, 21 and 22 from the Leinster Regiment, being on the extreme left of the Left Sector, east of the village and facing south towards the German front line.  The relief was completed about 10.20 p.m.  The front was held by the D.C.L.I until the night of the 13th, when again the Leinster Regiment took over, the D.C.L.I. going back to Dickebusch.

The general situation on the morning of the 14th February was the 1st Battalion Leinster Regiment was occupying the line of trenches 19 to 22 near Shelley Farm when about 7.30 a.m. on the 14th firing rather heavier than usual was heard to the left of the Leinsters with some British troops retiring under a furious rifle and machine-gun fire with some shrapnel and then High Explosive shelling began, with the village, the Mound and Shelley Farm being hit.  In the early afternoon the German infantry attack began and they quickly over-ran trench 21 only some 12 yards from the enemy.  German machine gun fire and artillery fire was then concentrated on the Leinster machine guns at Shelley Farm.  Later a major force from the enemy advanced, hand to hand fighting began, a Vickers machine gun was captured by the enemy and then reinforcements from the reserve and support lines came forward but trenches 19, 20, 21 and 22 had fallen to the Germans and the Leinster Regiment was left holding a ridge around Shelley Farm. Casualties were 3 officers killed, 1 captured and 2 wounded, 17 other ranks killed, 39 wounded and 41 missing.

About 4.30 p.m. on the 14th February the D.C.L.I. had been ordered to stand by ready to turn out at a moments notice but it was impossible to get a true report of the situation: about 7.30 p.m. two companies of the 2nd  Battalion D.C.L.I. with a machine-gun section had been hurried off to Voormezeele, followed later by the H.Q. and the other two companies.  On reaching Voormezeele, the Battalion was ordered with the support of the 3rd Battalion King’s Royal Rifle Corps to deliver a counter attack and retake the four trenches lost by the Leinsters.  Brigadier-General J. R. Longley had placed the organisation and details of the attack in the hands of Lieut. Colonel H. D. Tuson (commanding the 2nd Battalion D.C.L.I.) and the troops, first having deposited their packs in a barn, moved along the road to St. Eloi and then struck off across country to reach a sunken road at the rear of Shelley Farm.  It was a difficult march in the dark with men falling into shell-holes and ditches full of water.  The plan was for B and C Companies of the 2nd Battalion were to lead followed by A and D in support with three companies of the 3rd Battalion K.R.R.C. to follow in support, one company of the K.R.R.C. and a company of the Leinsters with two machine-guns were to act as a reserve near the farm house.  The attack was to be directed in the first instance against Trenches 21 and 22 and on their capture the K.R.R.C. were to move to the right and attack Trenches 19 and 20.

At 3.20 a.m. the attacking troops deployed and the British artillery quickened its fire.  The attack began at 4 a.m.  Details do not exist.  The Battalion Diary of the 2nd D.C.L.I. just states “Trenches 21 and 22 were successfully taken and the 3rd K.R.R. were then ordered to retake 19 and 20, assisted by the Battalion.  The counter- attack was successful and all four trenches were retaken.” In fact Trenches 21 and 22 had been taken by 4.30 a.m. and 19 and 20 by 5.30 a.m.

Captain Francis Cayer Campbell  Rogers and twelve other ranks were killed and Lieutenant H.C Carkeet -James and 28 other ranks were wounded.

In this action Private Ponder was awarded the D.C.M. for conspicuous gallantry in bringing in a seriously wounded officer, presumably Lieutenant Carkeet-Jones, who survived his wounds.

Throughout the remaining daylight hours of the 15th February 1915 the 2nd Battalion D.C.L.I. held onto the recaptured trenches, the day being fairly quiet excepting that the enemy shelled the support area violently.  The Battalion was relieved by the 1st Battalion Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, the relief being completed by 1.20 a.m. on the 16th February when the Battalion moved back into billets in Reninghelst.

Captain Francis Rogers and the following twelve, all killed in action on the 15th February 1915, have no known grave and are all commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial.

No.10249 Private James Edward Adams
No. 9291 Private Albert Bellett
No. 12600 Acting Sergeant Arthur Thomas Birkett
No. 11872 Private Arthur Flower
No. 8655 Lance Corporal Malcolm Humphrey
No. 9507 Private George Lock
No. 10529 Private Thomas William Meader
No. 7643 Lance Corporal William James Mudge
No. 8959 Private Charles Ponder
No. 9177 Lance Corporal Abraham Rose
No. 9151 Acting Corporal Frederick Arthur Staples
No. 3/5563 Private William Veale.

The Citation in the London Gazette  of 1st April 1915 records “8959 Private C Ponder 2nd Bn., D.C.L.I. For conspicuous gallantry near St. Eloi on the 15th February, 1915, when he rushed forward at great risk under a heavy fire and dragged back to his trench a seriously wounded officer.”

Private Charles Ponder was also awarded the Victory and British War Medals and the 1915 Star.

Commemorated here all being killed in action on the 30th October 1914 in the trenches at Zandvoorde.  For further information see the entries for Lieutenant Lord Charles Sackville Pelham (Ypres Town Cemetery Extension) and those buried in Zillebeke Churchyard.
 
1st Life Guards

Captain Hugh William Grosvenor “C” Squadron 1st Life Guards killed in action 30th October 1914 aged 30 years.  Son of Hugh Lupus Grosvenor, 1st Duke of Westminster and his second wife the Honourable Katherine Cavendish.   Born 6th April 1884.  Married Lady Mabel Crichton, two children Gerald Hugh Grosvenor born in 1906 and became 4th Duke of Westminster and Robert George Grosvenor born in 1910 who became the 5th Duke of Westminster.  Lady Mabel Grosvenor re-married and became Lady Mabel Hamilton Stubber 9 Southwick Crescent London.

Captain Edward Denis Festus Kelly

Lieutenant the Honourable Gerald Ernest Francis Ward aged 36, Son of 1st Earl of Dudley of Great Witley Court, Worcestershire.  He was born on the 9th November 1877.  He married Lady Evelyn Selina Louisa Crichton on the 7th November 1899. He served first with the Worcestershire Regiment before transferring to the 1st Life Guards going overseas with the Regiment on the 6th October 1914.  First posted as missing on the30th October 1914 subsequently established he had been killed and was perhaps the first officer of the 1st Life Guards to be shot that day.

Lieutenant John Charles Close-Brooks

No. 2966 Trooper Albert John Blackmore

No. 2686 Trooper Sidney Ernest Sollars aged 28 years, Son of William and Mary Sollars of Uplands, Stroud, Gloucesteshire

No. 2979 Trooper James John White

No. 2345 Trooper Harry Streeter aged 30 years, Son of Samuel Alfred and Harriet Streeter of Newick, Sussex.

No. 2529 Trooper Frederick Paget aged 24 years, Son of the late Frederick and Louise Paget.

No. 2759 Trooper James Proburts

No. 2061 Squadron Corporal Major Charles Leslie Holmes, Husband of Ada Louisa Holmes of 32 Pond House, Pond Place, Chelsea.

No. 2350 Corporal of Horse Herbert William Dawes

No. 2025 Trooper David Hedley Fair and

No. 2565 Corporal of Horse John William Wise aged 27 years, Son of Elizabeth Wise 7 High Street, Brandon, Suffolk and the late William Wise.

2nd Life Guards

Captain Alexander Moore Vandeleur 2nd Life Guards killed in action 30th October 1914 aged 30 years.  Son of Hector Stewart Vandeleur and Charlotte Vandeleur of Kilrush and Cahiracon, Co. Clare.  Husband of the Honourable Violet Ethel Meysey-Thompson daughter of 1st Baron Knaresborough now the Honourable Mrs. A. H. S. Howard Thornbury Castle Gloucestershire.

No. 2783 Trooper Frank Edward Mills aged 23 years, Son of William and Emily Mills of 8 Burley Road, Sittingbourne, Kent.

No. 2867 Trooper Arthur Gordon Hagues

No. 2596 Corporal of Horse Martin Garner Taylor aged 28 years and

No. 2782 Trooper Frederick Charles Keene aged 21 years, Son of Albert and Mary Keene of 94 Faircross Avenue,  Barking, Essex.

Royal Horse Guards
 
2nd Lieutenant The Honourable Francis Lambton Royal Horse Guards killed in action 30th October 1914 aged 43 years, ninth son of the 2nd Earl of Durham and Countess of Durham of Lambton Castle, County Durham, he was unmarried.  Francis Lambton was in a trench with his troop when a German shell burst on the parapet, burying the men.  He managed to get out but as he rose to his feet he was shot through the head by the advancing German Infantry.

No. 1252 Trooper George Edward Meyer

No. 1417 Trooper Samuel Colton Oatley aged 23 years, Son of Albert Edward and Eliza Colton Oatley.

No. 1548 Lance Corporal Frank Edwin Augustus Harper aged 19 years, Son of Mr and Mrs. W G G Harper 187 Oxford Road, Reading.

No. 1222 Corporal of Horse Hugh Glass Ervin

No. 1636 Trooper Cecil King aged 25 years, Son of Alfred and Eliza King of 42 Warwick Road, St. Albans, Hertfordshire.

No. 1541 Trooper Willliam Charles Perry aged 19 years, Son of Charles and Ada Diana Perry, The Plough, 58 Hatcham Road, Old Kent Road, London and

No. 1412 Corporal of Horse Arthur George Thomas Few aged 26 years, Son of Martha Jennings (formerly Few) and husband of Mrs. D H Tilling (formerly Few) Glouceste Road, Regents Park London.  Native of Huntingdon.

Commemorated here all being killed in action on the 31st October 1914 at Gheluvelt whilst serving with the 2nd Battalion the Welsh Regiment.

Captain Waldo Alington Gwennap Moore

No. 667 Private Arthur Ace,
No. 10156 Lance Corporal Harry Bridge,
No. 11005 Private Oliver Percival Biggs,
No. 1188 Private Walter Bramble,
No. 9209 Private Robert Joseph Broadis,
No. 9015 Private James Archibald Chalmers,
No. 8981 Private Robert Edward Cousins,
No. 7294 Sergeant Christopher Davies,
No. 7278 Private Howell Morgan Davies,
No. 7971 Private Edward Dimond,
No. 8115 Private John Donovan,
No. 9559 Private Edward Evans,
No. 10683 Private Frank Evans,
No. 11076 Private William Charles Faulkner,
No. 10251 Drummer Spencer William Friston,
No. 9109 Private William Henry Gadd,
No. 1265 Private Jonah Griffiths,
No. 419 Private Thomas Gwyn,
No. 1200 Private Alfred Hawkins,
No. 10114 Lance Corporal Richard Gilbert Cooper,
No. 10851 Private William Hopkins,
No. 1271 Private Owen Jackett,
No. 1191 Private Ivor Jenkins,
No. 9225 Private Thomas John,
No. 10520 Lance Corporal John Allen Jones,
No. 9526 Private Lewis Jones,
No. 10999 Private Edward Mitchell,
No. 1222 Private Arthur Newsome,
No. 8252 Private Thomas William Nicholls,
No. 8449 Private William O’Hara,
No. 450 Private Lawrence Peake,
No. 874 Private Thomas Pearce,
No. 10577 Private Fred Poole,
No. 8423 Private Charles Pountney,
No. 5115 Company Sergeant Major Josiah Kinsey Price,
No. 9446 Corporal Joseph Pring,
No. 7687 Private Francis Pullen,
No. 9094 Private Leonard Robinson,
No. 8263 Private Michael Scully,
No. 8995 Private William Henry Smith,
No. 448 Private Daniel Sullivan,
No. 8892 Private Allen Taylor,
No. 10789 Private James Trible,
No. 1248 Private Ernest Watkins,
No. 9839 Private Thomas Watkins,
No. 8944 Private Thomas William,
No. 11019 Private Samuel George Writer.

Two members of the Battalion died of wounds that day;

No. 8925 Private Charles McKenzie

No. 6350 Private Edward Redding

For further information see the entry for Lieutenant Colonel Charles Morland,  Ypres Town Cemetery.

Commemorated here

No. 3/1302 Private Thomas Sykes 2nd Battalion the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry killed in action on the 2nd April 1915 aged 19 years has no known grave and is commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial.

Thomas Sykes was born in Liverpool the eldest son of George and Elizabeth Sykes moving with his parents to Halifax. After the War, George and Elizabeth lived at 11 Cross Street, Winding Road, Halifax.

On the 4th August 1914 the 2nd Battalion was based in Dublin as part of 13th Brigade.  The other Battalions in the Brigade were the 2nd King’s Own Scottish Borderers, the 2nd Duke of Wellington’s Regiment and the 1st Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment.  The Brigade was part of the 5th Division.

The Battalion landed at Havre on the 16th August 1914, and by the 18th August was at Landrecies, crossing the frontier into Belgium on the 22nd August to hold the canal line at Mons on the 23rd August.  The Battle of Mons took place over the 23rd and 24th August and on the 25th August the Division was retreating towards Le Cateau where the 1st Corps of the British Expeditionary Corps made a stand holding up the German advance “one of the most brilliant feats of the British Army during the Retreat.”

The Battle of Le Cateau took place on the 26th August ending at about 4.30 p.m. the Battalion sustaining heavy losses in resisting the German advance, 18 officers, 43 N.C.Os., 539 other ranks.   Later it was established that of this number 310 were later reported to be prisoners in Germany 170 of whom were wounded.

On the 27th August 1914 the remains of the Battalion with 13th Brigade retreated through St. Quentin to reach Ollezy about 9 miles south-west of St. Quentin.  The following day the Brigade continued to retreat generally in a south-west direction passing through Noyon to cross the Aisne Rive at Attichy some 11 miles South of Noyon.  On the 31st August the march was resumed heading to Crepy-en-Valois, 23 trying miles in great heat.  On the morning of the 1st September, the enemy who had been following the Division attacked the rear guard as the Division was moving out of Crepy but brought up no guns and the attack was more in the nature of a reconnaissance.  The 2nd Battalion then was rearguard until Nanteuil where the Battalion went into billets.  On the 2nd September they moved on to Cuisy and on the 3rd September crossed the Marne River at Isles-les-Villenoy, going into billets at Couilly.  On the 4th September the Division had a trying night march to reach Tournans about 10.30 a.m. on the 5th September and it was there that the retreat from Mons came to an end.  The town is about 15 miles East from the centre of Paris. Whilst in billets south of the town the Battalion welcomed its first reinforcements, 80 other ranks joining and one of these would have been Private Thomas Sykes.

At 5 a.m. on the 6th September 1914 the Battalion began, with the rest of the British Expeditionary Force, an advance, the Battalion crossing the Marne River at Saucy on the 9th September.  After crossing the Marne the direction was north and by the 12th September the Battalion was in the neighbourhood of Serches about 5 miles South East of Soissons, finding the enemy in strong positions covering the crossings of the Aisne.  The Germans were forced out of Serches and the 13th Infantry Brigade went into billets there.  On the 13th September the 13th Infantry Brigade was allotted the task of seizing the bridge over the Aisne at Missy, north of Serches and about 4 miles East of Soissons.  The 2nd Royal West Kents and the 2nd King’s Own Scottish Borderers were in the first line, the other two battalions in support.  It was soon discovered that the northern bank was strongly defended by the enemy.  Missy is overlooked by the Chivres ridge: the Germans intended to make the crossing of the river a costly one and were entrenched in strong positions on the ridge.  The bridge itself had been destroyed but the two leading battalions managed to cross after dark by using improvised rafts.  At 1.45 a.m. on the 15th September the 2nd Battalion advanced, the intention being to cross at Missy to join the rest of the 13th Brigade on the northern bank but this plan was foiled by the absence of any pontoons and the Battalion retired just before dawn to shelter in a belt of trees 400 yards from the river.  However the position was heavily shelled causing substantial losses, the horses and mules of the transport section stampeded and the battalion had hastily to entrench itself along the edges of the wood.  53 were killed or wounded.  There was no possibility of crossing the river and the Battalion was drawn further back at night on the 16th September.

Troops had crossed at Bourg, Vailly and Missy and bridgeheads had been maintained to cover those towns and on the 24th September the 2nd Battalion relieved the Duke of Wellington’s north of the river in trenches near Missy, companies crossing by night by ferry at 2 hourly intervals.  The trenches were only about 400 yards from those of the enemy, who shelled the British trenches heavily all day on the 27th but fortunately with no casualties in the Battalion.

At the end of September Sir John French commanding the British Expeditionary Force suggested to General Joseph Joffre the French Commander in chief that the BEF should resume its designated pre-war position, on the extreme left flank of the French armies and on the 3rd October 1914 the cavalry of the BEF began to move north, followed by the 2nd and 3rd Corps with the 1st Corps starting north on the 13th October and the last troops leaving on the 17th October.

The 2nd Battalion was relieved by a Battalion of the Essex Regiment on the night of 1st/2nd October and after some marching travelled by train to Abbeville.  By the 11th October 1914 the 5th Division was on the La Bassee Front billets being in and around Bethune.

At the end of October the Germans opened their offensive at Ypres their objective being the Channel Ports and the 5th Division with others were sent North and the three Brigades were separated as were the individual battalions, 2nd King’s Own being engaged on the Messines front in support of the Cavalry and later in an attack on Hooge Chateau and then occupying trenches in the woods East of Zillebeke.  By the 22nd November 1914 the German offensive had been halted and by the end of the month the units of the 5th Division were collected together again.  In the period from November 1914 to March 1915 the Division held the line in the Wulverghem sector to the West of Messines Ridge.  The line ran in a North Westerly direction from the Douve River.  That river has its source in the area of Kemmel Hill, running East to join the Leire/Lys river East of Warneton, the Lys flowing North East to join the Scheldt river near Ghent.  The line ran up the slope to the Wulverghem-Messines road and then along the crest of the ridge East of Wulverghem to trenches East of Lindenhoek on the slopes of Hill 75, about a mile East of Lindenhoek itself.  The British trenches were on the Western slope, the highest point of the hill being in the area of Spanbroekmolen, a German stronghold, the trenches in many places being waist deep in water.  This was a divisional frontage of 3500 yards with the German line roughly parallel at a distance varying from 30 to 800 yards but always on higher ground so that the enemy was able to look down upon the British troops.  The fighting activity was small but the period spent in this sector was an extremely arduous and trying one for the troops.

On the 1st February 1915 the 28th Division arrived in the southern sector of the Ypres Salient.  On the 17th February 1915 orders were received for the 13th Brigade to join the 28th Division and 10 days later the 15th Brigade were also ordered to join the same Division.  The 13th Brigade from the 5th Division took over the sector previously held by the 83rd Brigade of the 28th Division. The line taken over ran from the Mound at St. Eloi to the Bluff on the East side of the Ypres-Comines Canal and consisted mostly of breastworks, commanded by the enemy position at White Chateau south of the canal and The Bluff. The canal was begun in 1864 but never completed and never used for shipping, the stagnant canal intersecting the front line in this sector.  The Bluff was created in the 1880s by the digging of a cutting for the canal, the spoil being arranged in mounds on either side of the canal, the highest mound on the north side ending abruptly and precipitously becoming the main defensive position on the British side.  It was 30 feet high giving views over the enemy lines towards Hill 60 to the left and St Eloi to the right.  At the Bluff was International Trench originally held by the British but towards the end of February the southern half had been lost and part was  held by the British and part by the Germans the occupying troops being divided by trench blocks.  Drainage of the trenches was better than at Wulverghem but the ground to the rear of the trenches was swept by rifle-fire day and night and a number of casualties used to occur while reliefs were going on.  As well the enemy artillery was very active using 5.9 or 8 inch howitzers and heavy trench mortars.  The Bluff was also exposed to enfilade fire from the hostile guns behind the Messines-Wystchaete Ridge.

 “The lines at this time (1915) were very close together and at one point less than 50 yards separated our parapet from the Boche’s. One’s parapet in this area was one’s trench, for digging was impossible and we lived behind a sort of glorified sandbag grouse butt, six feet thick at the base and two to three feet at the top, sometimes, but not always bullet-proof.”

Unlike The Bluff and Hill 60, the result of spoil from a cutting for the Ypres-Comines railway constructed in the 19th century, The Mound was a prehistoric tumulus.  In that sector it was suicidal to show one’s head above the parapet.  The trenches were water-logged and described as a continuous nightmare of mud.  The line held by the 28th Division was shortened early in March 1915 by the 27th Division taking over The Mound which remained until British mines blown on the 27th March 1916 eliminated it.

The relatively quiet period lasted until the 14th March when the enemy opened a bombardment on the British position from the canal to St. Eloi and exploded a mine under the Mound at St. Eloi but with the exception of the Mound a gallant counter attack restored the position.

At the beginning of April 1915 the relief of the Division from the Wulverghem Front was completed although both the 13th and 15th Brigades remained in the sector from East of the Mound at St. Eloi, by the Bluff, Hill 60 and Zwartelen to the western edge of Armagh Wood, about 800 yards North East of Zwartelen.  13th Brigade held the sector from St. Eloi  to, probably, the Bluff. 

However Private Sykes, whilst being killed before the Divisional Relief took place, was probably killed in the sector held by the 13th Brigade on the relief of the 5th Division from the Wulverghem sector.

 Private Sykes was the only casualty of the Battalion on the 2nd April 1915 and the Battalion had had no casualties before then until on the 29th March 1915 No. 3/1205 Private Hardy Morrell was killed in action and is commemorated on the Ploegsteert Memorial.  After Private Sykes was killed, again there were no casualties (although the Battalion could well have been in billets) until on the 4th April 1915 Private Edmund Froggatt was killed and then on the 5th April Privates Harry Archer, Richard Daly, William Haigh and William McGrady were killed in action, none of whom have any known grave and like Private Sykes are commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial.

Private Thomas Sykes was awarded the Victory and British War Medals and the1914 Star with Clasp, this being because he had served in France or Belgium between 5th August and midnight on the 22nd/23rd November1914 and had served under enemy fire.

Commemorated here

No. 9261 Lance Corporal Albert James, 2nd Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment was killed in action 18th February 1915 aged 23 years. 

Albert James was born in Cirencester in about 1892 the son of William James and Alice James of 181 Smerrill Cottages, Kemble, Cirencester, Gloucestershire.   In 1901  William and Alice were living in Smerrill Cottages with their children Francis (18) Labourer on a farm, Ellen (14), Frederick (13) Walter (11) Albert (9), Ada (7) Victor, Muriel and Harold.  Albert James enlisted in Bristol.

Albert James was the youngest of three brothers who enlisted, served in the Army and died in the War.  The eldest, Francis, was born in 1883.  Following enlistment Francis did not serve overseas and died on the 5th November 1918.  Particulars of his service are annexed to Albert’s elder brother Walter (born 1890) who was killed in action on the 18th April 1918 and is commemorated on the Loos Memorial.  For particulars see under France-Memorials-Loos.

At the outbreak of the War, the 2nd Battalion was stationed at Tientsin, China but was ordered home arriving at Southampton on the 8th November 1914.  The Battalion joined 81st Brigade, 27th Division which assembled at Winchester  The Division consisted almost entirely of regular troops on foreign service at full war strength.  Every soldier had at least 18 months service the average being 5 years or more.  With the 2nd Battalion in 81st Brigade were the 1st Battalion Royal Scots, 2nd Battalion Cameron Highlanders and 1st Battalion Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. 

In December 1914 the Division marched from Winchester to Southampton for embarkation to France on a number of different vessels, disembarkation being completed by the 23rd December 1915. The 2nd Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment  landed at Havre on the 19th  December and entrained for St. Omer and by the 1st January 1915 the whole Division was established in the St. Omer area. The 2nd Battalion Gloucesters spent the rest of the month at Aire near St. Omer, digging trenches mostly in the rain.   Lance Corporal Albert James had landed with his Battalion and served in “C” Company.

Orders to the Division required the Division to take over trenches near St. Eloi from the French 32nd Division which happened on the nights of the 5th/6th and 6th/7th January 1915, the trenches taken over being from the Kemmel –Wytschaete road (just north of Hollandscheschuur Farm, in the German lines) north-eastwards to a position east of St. Eloi.  The village of St. Eloi itself and the Mound (an artificial heap of earth about 30 feet high and about half an acre in extent), about 200 yards south of the village centre were within the British lines, the German front line being about 500 yards from the village centre. The troops of the Division had to make a 17 mile march to reach the trenches and were wearing only indifferent foreign service boots – no new ones being available – suffering subsequently severely from trench feet.  The French trenches taken over were in an exceedingly poor state, both as regards protection and drainage and were far from a continuous line but were nothing more than a series of detached trenches with gaps of 30 to 50 yards between them and either no communication trenches or nothing but  water-logged ditches in which water stood 2 feet deep. There were no dugouts, the bottom of the trenches was mud, the water in the rear trenches coming up to the knees and in the fire trench was waist deep, there was no possibility of movement in the trenches for these were barely 3 feet wide and with no where to put down a rifle and keep it dry so every rifle had to be held the whole of a 48 hour tour.  The men simply stood motionless in water for two days and nights and on relief marched out, if they were then capable of movement.  No blankets were taken to the trenches and the cooked rations when they came up at night from Vormezeele were because of the mud and dirt usually inedible.  Half a mile behind the trenches were the ruins of the village of Vormezeele which afforded some shelter otherwise there was no cover for anything until the village of Dickebusch was reached, one and a half miles from the lines with Westoutre another 8 miles in the rear.

The German position was wholly different, being on higher and drier ground with well built trenches and some of the enemy back lines could be seen made of masses of sandbags. The German Artillery was unfettered by ammunition constraints, the British artillery being limited to 3 rounds per day with even that not being fired.

The best method of occupying the line was difficult to judge.  The French had held the line very lightly relying entirely on their artillery but the 27th Division had inexperienced Artillery and very little ammunition and so had to hold the line in far greater strength.  It took about a brigade actually in the front and support trenches to make the position anything like secure.  The trenches themselves were either barricades of earth too thin to keep out bullets or shallow broad trenches which soon became water courses.  Several men were lost on the first night because of the mud, drowned or smothered.  The Division was holding a line about 3,500 yards in length with no communication trenches and so all reliefs had to be carried out over the top.  In the centre portion of the line even by day movement by small parties was possible with care because of woods and the uneven nature of the ground but to both the left and right of this portion the country was flat and open making movement by day impossible.  In places the enemy’s trenches were not more than 20 yards away.

On the morning of the 7th January the 81st Brigade set out to march to Dickebusch where it was to be in support of the 80th Brigade, then holding the front-line trenches.  The 8th and 9th January were spent in work and on the 10th the Brigade began the relief of the 80th Brigade in the front line.  Two days were spent in the trenches standing knee deep and often nearly waist deep in mud and water in bitterly cold weather.  The War Diary for the 11th January 1915 sets out what happened that day which was the norm for that period and sector. “Artillery fire carried on all day, particularly heavy between the hours of 2 p.m. and 4 p.m.  From observation our artillery fire seemed good.  Artillery fire ceased at nightfall.  At 6.30p.m. there was very heavy rifle-fire which lasted about 20 minutes: after that there was continual sniping all night.  Snipers between our fire trench and Battalion Headquarters were very annoying.  Great difficulty about water and rations which had to be fetched from Kruisstraathoek, a mile in rear of H.Q.  Rations were eventually man-handled to H.Q. and issued from there, this took from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m.  Platoons sent men direct to Kruisstraathoek for water.”

At 9 a.m. on the 12th January the relief of the Battalion began, the 2nd Battalion Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry taking over the 2nd Battalion Gloucesters trenches and on relief the Battalion marched back to Dickebusch.  The first tour in the line resulted in the loss of 12 men wounded and 5 missing.

The pattern of the 11th January 1915 continued throughout January and February 1915.  However on the afternoon of the 14th February 1915 following a heavy Artillery bombardment of the British lines mainly to the East of St. Eloi, a German infantry attack developed resulting in the loss of two Allied trenches in the vicinity of Shelley Farm, about  800 yards East of St. Eloi village.  A successful counter attack in the very early hours of the 15th February led to the re-capture of those trenches.

At 5 p.m. on the 14th March 1915 the Germans made a surprise attack on a larger scale at St. Eloi firing two mines.  They captured the village, the trenches near it and The Mound from the 82nd  Brigade of the 27th Division.  There was severe hand to hand fighting.  A counter attack in the early hours of the 15th March led to the recovery of the village and the trenches but The Mound remained in the enemy’s hands because of their immediate consolidation of the captured position and this gave them good observation over the British positions.  The Battalion was holding the front line in the New Farm area and did not participate in the counter attack.

The 2nd Battalion the Gloucester Regiment remained in this sector until relief on the night of 23rd/24th March 1915.  During the period from January to March 1915 the Battalion casualties were two officers and 33 other ranks killed, four officers and 131 other ranks wounded.  Reinforcements had brought the Battalion up to a strength of 23 officers and 833 other ranks.

Lance Corporal Albert James was the only casualty of the Battalion on the 18th February 1915.  He was awarded the Victory and British War Medals and the 1915 Star.

In the period from the 11th January 1915 to the 24th March 1915 when occupying the trenches in the neighbourhood of Dickebusch, the 2nd Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment had 33 other ranks who died, died of wounds or were killed in action and 2 officer casualties, 1 died of wounds the other killed in action.

Sixteen of those killed in action, including Lance Corporal Albert James are commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial.

The remaining casualties are buried in cemeteries west of St. Eloi and south west of Ypres, near to where the 2nd Battalion was fighting in 1915.

In Voormezeele Enclosure No. 3, Voormezeele, originally a regimental burial ground are buried;
No. 17381 Private Vincent Howard Allen
No. 7031 Private Thomas John Millard
No. 10046 Private George Warren and
No. 11614 Private Arthur Worley

In Elzenwalle Brasserie Cemetery, Voormezeele are buried;
No. 3195 Private George Edward Trow
No. 8916 Lance Corporal Edward Westwood

In Dickebusch Old Military Cemetery is buried;
No. 8499 Private Benjamin William Price

In Dickebusch New Military Cemetery are buried;
2nd Lieutenant Robert John Croft
No. 9357 Private Samuel Freke
No. 9198 Private Thomas Griffiths
Lieutenant Henry Malcolm Harrison and
No. 7757 Lance Corporal Arthur Sumsion

In La Clytte Military Cemetery, de Klijte is buried;
No. 2315 Private Percy Parpworth Noble.

Commemorated here

In the period from the 11th January 1915 to the 24th March 1915 when occupying the trenches in the neighbourhood of Dickebusch, the 2nd Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment had 15 other ranks who died, died of wounds or were killed in action and who have no known grave:

No. 15370 Private Alfred Agg
No. 9920 Private Thomas Broadhurst
No. 9437 Private Frederick John Collins
No. 9294 Private Francis John Davis
No. 8635 Lance Corporal Robert Edward Dawson
No. 12327 Private William Hitchcock
No. 9466 Private Henry Marsh
No. 11889 Private George Herbert Morris
No. 9087 Corporal George Thomas Phillips
No. 9048 Private Percival Price
No. 9692 Private Albert Thomas Victor Roberts
No. 2077 Private Frederick George Walling
No. 11870 Private Frederick Ward
No. 9017 Corporal Joseph Holliday Wiggall and
No. 7173 Private Edwin Wilkins



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New Zealand Memorial, Messines. Commemorates the capture of the Ridge in 1917 with the inscription “from the uttermost ends of the earth.”

John McCrae Lieutenant Colonel

Albertina Marker/Memorial - See Entry under Belgian Cemeteries - Essex Farm