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Part I
Details of casualties buried or commemorated in the churchyard
Summary 1914 deaths listed in order of the date of death
6th November 1914
Grave in Zillebeke Churchyard of Captain Norman Neill, 13th Hussars (Brigade Major 7th Cavalry Brigade) killed in action 6th November 1914 aged 34 years. Son of Robert Neill. Husband of Eleanor de Courcy Neill, Yew Tree Cottage, Merrow, Guildford, Surrey.. Born in 1880 and educated at Harrow School, Norman Neill was a Lieutenant in the 5th Militia Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers and served in the South African War (1899-1902). Whilst serving in South Africa Norman NeillI was gazetted into the 19th (Queen Alexandra’s Own Royal) Hussars. In July 1910 he was promoted Captain. By 1914 he had completed a course at Camberley Staff College. When serving with the 13th Hussars, he was selected by Brigadier General Charles Kavanagh CVO, CB, DSO commanding 7th Cavalry Brigade to be Brigade Major. The Brigade Major was the Chief of Staff of a brigade and head of the Operations and Intelligence section, overseeing Administration and Quartermasters sections. He was responsible for the planning of brigade operations and also ensuring that the Brigadiers orders were transmitted to the units in the Brigade. Frequently he would undertake that duty personally, especially in times of crisis. The three Cavalry Regiments in the Brigade were 1st Life Guards, 2nd Life Guards and the Royal Horse Guards, supported by XV Brigade Royal Horse Artillery. All three cavalry regiments landed at Zeebrugge on the 7th / 8th October 1914 and with the 6th Cavalry Brigade formed the 3rd Cavalry Division. On the 21st November 1914, the Royal Horse Guards moved to the 8th Cavalry Brigade but remained in the 3rd Cavalry Division.
At 12.30 a.m. on the 9th October 1914 Operation Orders No. 1 was issued by Captain Neill, as Brigade-Major 7th Cavalry Brigade ordering the Cavalry Regiments to concentrate in the Bruges area. By the 14th October 1914 1st Life Guards at least had arrived at Ypres.
On the 20th October the Brigade took up a defensive position from Zonnebeke to cross roads north east of St. Julien with the 6th Cavalry Brigade prolonging the line to Langemark. There were casualties from shrapnel, in the 1st Life Guards a Corporal being killed and 4 other ranks wounded and Captain Neill was also wounded being evacuated to British General Hospital No. 13 at Boulogne but he was back on duty on the 1st November 1914. In his absence, on the 23rd October the 7th Brigade had relieved the 6th Brigade in trenches on the line of the Zandvoorde-Hollebeke road and the officers and men in the three Cavalry Regiments fought as infantry until the end of the 1st Battle of Ypres on the 22nd November 1914.
By the 1st November 1915 Captain Neill was back with his Brigade and he was issuing orders up until the early hours of the 6th November 1914. He was killed that afternoon whilst returning to Brigade Headquarters at Verbranden Molen from ordering the Royal Horse Guards to act in support of 2nd Life Guards in stemming the German advance at Zwarteleen. Captain Norman Neill was awarded the Victory and British War Medals and the 1914 Star.
At 12.30 a.m. on the 9th October 1914 Operation Orders No. 1 was issued by Captain Neill, as Brigade-Major 7th Cavalry Brigade ordering the Cavalry Regiments to concentrate in the Bruges area. By the 14th October 1914 1st Life Guards at least had arrived at Ypres.
On the 20th October the Brigade took up a defensive position from Zonnebeke to cross roads north east of St. Julien with the 6th Cavalry Brigade prolonging the line to Langemark. There were casualties from shrapnel, in the 1st Life Guards a Corporal being killed and 4 other ranks wounded and Captain Neill was also wounded being evacuated to British General Hospital No. 13 at Boulogne but he was back on duty on the 1st November 1914. In his absence, on the 23rd October the 7th Brigade had relieved the 6th Brigade in trenches on the line of the Zandvoorde-Hollebeke road and the officers and men in the three Cavalry Regiments fought as infantry until the end of the 1st Battle of Ypres on the 22nd November 1914.
By the 1st November 1915 Captain Neill was back with his Brigade and he was issuing orders up until the early hours of the 6th November 1914. He was killed that afternoon whilst returning to Brigade Headquarters at Verbranden Molen from ordering the Royal Horse Guards to act in support of 2nd Life Guards in stemming the German advance at Zwarteleen. Captain Norman Neill was awarded the Victory and British War Medals and the 1914 Star.
Grave in Zillebeke Churchyard of 2nd Lieut. Baron Alexis George de Gunzberg 11th (Prince Albert’s Own) Hussars (attached Royal Horse Guards) killed in action 6th November 1914 aged 27 years. Youngest son of the late Baron and Baroness Henriette de Gunzberg 199 Boulevard, St. Gennain, Paris. Born in Paris in 1887, a Russian National educated at Eton College, Windsor from 1901 to 1904. He had lived permanently in England from 1907. On war being declared he offered his services as an intelligence officer, was granted British nationality by mid August and was commissioned into the 11th Hussars. The Regiment landed in France the same month as part of 1st Cavalry Brigade becoming part of 1st Cavalry Division on the 16th November 1914. It seems that although commissioned into the Hussars he was acting as an interpreter for Lieutenant Colonel Gordon Wilson as he had received no military training whatsoever and was killed while crossing a field and relaying the commanding officer’s orders at the same time as Colonel Wilson was himself killed. His is one of two private memorials in the churchyard paid for by his family. He was awarded the Victory and British war Medals and the 1914 Star.
Grave in Zillebeke Churchyard of Lieut.Colonel Gordon Chesney Wilson M.V.O. Royal Horse Guards killed in action 6th November 1914 aged 49 years. Eldest son of Sir Samuel Wilson Kt. Husband of Lady Sarah Wilson R.R.C., of 23c Bruton Street London. Born in August 1865 in Melbourne, Australia, he went to Eton College, Windsor and then Christ Church College Oxford. In 1888 he was commissioned into the Royal Horse Guards. In 1891 he married Lady Sarah Spencer-Churchill, the sister of Lord Randolph Churchill. He served in the South African War as ADC to Major General Robert Baden-Powell, being promoted in 1911 to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel to take command of the Regiment. The Royal Horse Guards landed at Zeebrugge on the 7th October 1914 as part of 7th Cavalry Brigade, 3rd Cavalry Division. Whilst the 7th Division was fighting a successful action in the neighbourhood of Ghent on the 11th October, in the period from the 7th to the 12th October the 3rd Cavalry Division was holding lines of protection. On the 13th October in accordance with an operation order the 3rd Cavalry Division marched to join up with the 2nd Cavalry Division passing through Ypres then going on towards Menin, reported as held by the enemy, and the 7th Cavalry Brigade was preparing to attack when it was ordered to retire to billets. By the 16th October the Division was occupying a general line Poelcappelle Station-St. Julian and 4 days later, 20th October, the 7th Cavalry Brigade was taking up a defensive position from Zonnebeke to a position North East of St. Julian. At 6.15 a.m. on the 22nd October the Brigade moved to Hooge where it remained until retiring to billets in Klein Zillebeke. At 8.30 a.m. on the 23rd October the Brigade was ordered to relieve the 6th Cavalry Brigade in trenches on the line of the Zandvoorde-Hollebeke and remained in the general area of Zandvoode-Klein-Zillebeke-Verbranden Molen until early November, the Royal Horse Guards coming into action on the 2nd November supporting infantry before Gheluvelt. Lieutenant Colonel Wilson was killed whilst leading his Regiment in the attack to retrieve the situation when 1st Irish Guards and 2nd Grenadier Guards had been exposed by the retirement of French troops. Headstone bears inscription “Life is a city of crooked streets Death the market place where all men meet.” (Inscription probably based on the poem on the reverse of the Grave of James Handley (died 11th March 1694) in Redmile Churchyard, Leicestershire “This world it is a city full of crooked streets Death is a market place where all men meet If life were marchandice that men could buy Rich men would ever live and poor men die.”) Lieutenant Colonel Gordon Wilson was awarded the Victory and British War Medals and the 1914 Star.
Grave in Zillebeke Churchyard of 2nd Lieutenant William Sinclair Petersen Royal Horse Artillery attached 2nd Life Guards killed in action 6th November 1914 aged 22 years. William Petersen was born in July 1892 and was the only son of Sir William and Mrs. Petersen. Sir William was chairman of Petersen and Co. Ltd., ship owners and had further considerable interests in the shipping world. William Petersen was educated at Glenalmond College, Perthshire and then Dieppe before going to Trinity College Cambridge in October 1910. In the Summer of 1914, William Petersen was commissioned into a Territorial Unit, Essex Field Artillery, but on the outbreak of the war applied successfully for a transfer to the 2nd Life Guards being commissioned as 2nd Lieutenant in late September 1914. He landed in France on the 20th October 1914 joining his Regiment when it was north of Ypres. Lieutenant Petersen was killed whilst attacking with his Regiment in the advance to retrieve the situation when 1st Irish Guards and 2nd Grenadier Guards had been exposed by the retirement of French troops. He was awarded the Victory and British War Medals and the 1914 Star.
Grave in Zillebeke Churchyard of Lieutenant Carleton Wyndham Tufnell 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards killed in action 6th November 1914 aged 22 years. Son of Carleton Fowell Tufnell and Laura Gertrude Tufnell of Watendone Manor, Kenley, Surrey. Carleton Tufnell was one of 4 sons and had a sister. He was educated at Eton College Windsor from 1905 to 1910 and then Sandhurst being commissioned into the Grenadier Guards in September 1912. The 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards was in 4th Guards Brigade in the 2nd Division, landing at Havre on the 15th August 1914. Not directly involved in the Battle of Mons, by the 26th August 1914 the Battalion was at Landrecies and by the end of the month had retreated to Soissons. On the 6th September the Brigade had crossed the Petit Moin and now heading north crossed the Marne and on the 14th September the Aisne River. At the beginning of October the BEF began its transfer to Flanders and by the middle of the month the 4th Guards Brigade was at Hazebrouck. On the 20th October the Battalion was in billets at St. Jean and on the 21st October took up defensive positions to the east of the Zonnebeke-Langemarck road. On the 25th October the Brigade was ordered to take the Reutel spur, north west of Becekaere, but the advance of the 1st Battalion Irish Guards and the 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards was fiercely opposed and the next day the German machine-gun and artillery superiority prevented any material progress being made. On the 29th October the Germans launched a heavy attack upon the point of junction between the 1st and 7th Divisions in the neighbourhood of the cross-roads south-east of Gheluvelt and for a time the British line was broken. The 2nd Battalion was then in divisional reserve. At about 3 p.m. on the 30th October Brigadier the Earl of Cavan got news that there had been a serious break in the line about 2 miles to the south and was instructed to send up the 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards and 1st Battalion Irish Guards and the 2nd Battalion Oxfordshire Light Infantry to protect the right flank of the 2nd Brigade and the three battalions left Polygon Wood to march towards Klein Zillebeke to a position of readiness a mile south of Hooge. By this time the rain and mud began seriously to affect the arms of the troops. The rifles, almost choked with mud would not properly eject the cartridge cases. Rifle oil was unobtainable, and it was practically impossible to keep the weapons clean.
Lieutenant Tufnell landed in France on the 11th September 1914 when the Battalion was in the area of the Aisne River. At Hazebrouck he took over as battalion machine-gun officer and was successful in stopping a German attack on the 2nd November. On the 6th November Lieutenant Colonel Wilfred Smith, C.O. 2nd Battalion, sent Lieutenant Tufnell with his machine-gun section and Lieutenant Lord Congleton with one platoon from No. 3 Company to stop the Germans passing through a gap at the rear of the Battalion. Lieutenant Tufnell’s machine-gun section had been posted to guard a ride through the wood across which the Germans would have had to come to get behind the Grenadier Guards line of trenches. However he went with the machine-gun section with Lord Congleton’s platoon and he was shot through the throat and mortally wounded on the 6th November 1914 shortly after taking up a position where he could find a good target in the advancing enemy. Described as a “first rate Officer and a great loss.” He was awarded the Victory and British War Medals and the 1914 Star.
Special Memorial for Lieutenant the Honourable William Reginald Wyndham Lincolnshire Yeomanry attached 1st Life Guards killed in action 6th November 1914 aged 38 years. Second son of Henry Wyndham 2nd Baron Leconfield of Petworth House, Sussex. William Wyndham was born in 1876 and was educated at Eton College Windsor between 1889 and 1893. He went to Sandhurst until January 1896 and on the 24th March was a 2nd Lieutenant in the 17th (Duke of Cambridge’s Own) Lancers. The 17th Lancers went to South Africa in 1900 but 2nd Lieutenant Wyndham remained behind in Ireland with the reserve squadron not going to South Africa until March 1901. The Regiment returned from South Africa in 1902 but in 1903 he was badly injured in a riding accident and, the Regiment being under orders to serve in India, resigned his commission. He later obtained a commission in the Lincolnshire Yeomanry, being resident for most winters in Grantham, and at the outbreak of the war, aged 38 years, got himself attached to the 1st Life Guards. He landed with the Regiment at Zeebrugge on the 8th October 1914. On the 11th October he led a patrol towards Thielt but could find no sign of the enemy. On the 27th October the Regiment, dismounted, took over the trenches at Zandvoorde and remained there until about 10 a.m. on the 30th October when a heavy German artillery bombardment was followed by a German infantry attack. There was no ammunition for the Maxim machine gun, although the troops had inflicted substantial losses on the attackers, and this forced a retirement. Almost the whole of Captain Lord Hugh Grosvenor’s Squadron was lost, most including Lord Hugh, being killed. Lieutenant Wyndham was probably in the 1st Life Guards Squadron to the right of the machine guns of the Royal Horse Guards. The Regiment returned to Verbranden Molen and moved into woods south of the village to await orders. In the period up to the 6th November 1914 the Regiment remained in support during a time of some confusion with uncertainty as to the enemy’s intention until on the 6th November 1914 the 4th (Guards) Brigade asked for support, on the retirement of some French units, when the Regiment dismounted advanced with 2nd Life Guards on the right and Royal Horse Guards in support. During the course of this attack, Lieutenant William Wyndham was killed his body being recovered that night and taken back to the Churchyard for burial but the grave was subsequently lost through shellfire and he is now commemorated by a Special Memorial. He was awarded the Victory and British War Medals and the 1914 Star.
7th November 1914
Grave in Zillebeke Churchyard of No. 16387 Private Walter Fredrick Siewertsen, 3rd Company 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards killed in action 7th November 1914 aged 20 years. Son of Hans Christian Siewertsen and Mary Ann Siewertsen of 4 Biggerstaffe Road, Stratford, London. He had enlisted in the Grenadier Guards in April 1913 and landed with his Battalion at Havre on the 13th August 1914. The Battalion was in 4th Guards Brigade, 2nd Division and with the 1st Division formed First Corps commanded by Lieutenant General Sir Douglas Haig.
See the entry above for Lieutenant Carleton Wyndham Tufnel for the background of the 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards in France prior to the affair at Zillebeke.
When darkness fell on the 6th November Lord Cavan instructed Colonel Smith to try and establish a new line and at 1 a.m. on the 7th November, although dead tired, the men began to dig and the trenches were completed by 4 a.m., a fine performance on a pitch-dark night. For the next three days the Battalion remained in the trenches at Klein Zillebeke without any direct attack being made but shelling went on all day with monotonous regularity. On the 7th November 19 men of the Battalion were killed, 46 wounded and 3 were missing, one of those killed was Private Siewertsen and he was taken back to the Churchyard for burial. He was awarded the Victory and British War Medals and the 1914 Star.
Grave in Zillebeke Churchyard of Major Robert Edward Rising D.S.O., 1st Battalion the Gloucestershire Regiment killed in action 7th November 1914 aged 43 years. Headstone bears inscription “Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori.” Son of Thomas and Kate Rising of the Manor House, Great Ormesby, Norfolk. Husband of Constance Elizabeth Rising of The Old Hall, Great Ormesby, Norfolk.
Robert Rising was born on the 23rd May 1871 the eldest of four children. In April 1885 he began attendance at Charterhouse School where he remained until 1890 when he went to Trinity College, Cambridge in October 1890. He did not complete his degree course because in September 1891 he went to Sandhurst. In November 1892 he was commissioned into the Gloucestershire Regiment. In 1896 he married Amy Worship. The 1st Battalion went to India where his wife died within a year of their arrival from peritonitis. The 1st Battalion was sent to South Africa and took part in the South African War 1899-1902. In early 1901 Robert Rising was married again to Constance Elizabeth Edis and the couple had two children. By March 1914 he was a Captain in the Gloucestershire Regiment and on the outbreak of the War the Battalion was at Bordon as part of 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, landing at Havre on the 13th August 1914. Captain Rising landed with the Regiment. The Battalion participated in the Battle of Mons and then, in common with all units of the B.E.F. retreated from Mons to the Marne River continuing south to cross the Petit Morin and Grand Morin Rivers to reach Rozoy some 30 miles South East of Paris on the 5th September. the next day the Advance to the Aisne began, the Marne was crossed by the 9th, the Aisne by the 13th and by the 14th September the Battalion was in the area of Vendresse. On the 15th September the Battalion was relieved by French forces and the following day began its move North to Flanders. By the 19th September the concentration of the 1st Division in the area St. Omer – Cassel was complete. A month later Field Marshal Sir John French was proposing a general advance in the direction of Thorout using the road Ypres-Passchendaele-Roulers and the roads to the North but the enemy was attacking towards Ypres and there was severe fighting on the 21st October which resulted in the German advance being stemmed. The 1st Battalion Gloucesters were involved in the fighting on the northern outskirts of Langemarck and sustained many casualties. Captain Rising who commanded three of the platoons was awarded the D.S.O. the citation stating that “he went up with supports and conspicuously controlled the defence of the Battalion’s trenches against a determined attack by the enemy. But for this stout defence the line must have been penetrated”. Next came the Battle of Gheluvelt 29th – 31st October when again the Battalion was involved. On the night of the 5th November the 3rd Brigade was relieve by the 6th Cavalry Brigade and moved back to Railway Wood near Bellewaarde Farm. The morning of the 6th was spent in reorganizing but the Germans had resumed their attacks on the southern end of the Salient, French troops defending the line south of the Zillebeke-Zandvoorde road had been forced back uncovering the right flank of the Irish Guards who put up stout resistance and a dangerous gap existed. At the same time as the Household Cavalry arrived and restored the situation the 1st Battalion Gloucesters were ordered down to this part of the line arriving in the dark and ordered to relieve the cavalry north of Zwarteleen. However, the Battalion was unable to muster sufficient rifles despite being reinforced a few days before by 200 men to effect a relief of the 1st and 2nd Life Guards and only the 2ndLife Guards were relieved, the 1st Life Guards having to remain until2.30 a.m. when Companies from the Royal Sussex and Royal Munsters came up. The morning of the 7th November was misty and first the Battalion was ordered to assist in an attack by firing into a wood but the fog led to that operation being cancelled, then came a message that the adjoining attack had been successful and the enemy trenches opposite the Gloucesters had been captured. The Battalion pushed forward in two lines, the first led by Captain Rising (now 2nd in command of the Battalion) and the second 50 yards behind by Major J O’D Ingram (in command of the Battalion) but were assailed by intense rifle fire and machine-gun fire, the enemy holding houses at the eastern end of the village. Both officers and men were exhausted, and many men had to lie down all day in the open unable to get back to the trenches dug the night before. Major Ingram was shot in the knee whilst crossing the road for the fifth time whilst attempting to point out the line to be held and was carried back to the dressing station and shortly afterwards Captain Rising was brought in as well mortally wounded. His promotion to Major was recorded in the London Gazette in January 1915.
As well as the D.S.O., he was awarded the Victory and British War Medals and the 1914 Star.
10th November 1914
Grave in Zillebeke Churchyard of Lieutenant Michael George Stocks 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards killed in action 10th November 1914 aged 21 years. Son of Michael and Charlotte Stocks, Woodhall, Downham, Norfolk. Michael Stocks was born in November 1892 and he was educated at Eton College, Windsor from 1906 to 1910. He then went to Sandhurst in 1911. By the 12th August 1914 he was a Lieutenant appearing on the Roll of officers embarking for France, landing at Havre on the 13th August 1914. See the entry above for Lieutenant Carleton Wyndham Tufnel for the background of the 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards in France prior to the affair at Zillebeke and the fighting on the 6th November.
From the early hours of the 7th November the 2nd Battalion was in the trenches due that morning until the 11th November. The 10th November was a bad day for the Battalion. After a quiet night, terrific shelling started soon after daybreak and lasted practically without intermission throughout the day. Trenches were taken in enfilade and badly knocked about by direct hits from German shells. The casualties that day were 24 killed, 37 wounded and 16 missing. Lieutenant Stocks was one of those killed by this shell fire.
He was awarded the Victory and British War Medals and the 1914 Star.
Grave in Zillebeke Churchyard of Lieutenant the Right Honourable Henry Bligh Fortescue Parnell (5th Baron Congleton) 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards killed in action 10th November 1914 aged 24 years. Eldest son of Major General Henry 4th Baron Congleton C.B. and Baroness Congleton. Lord Henry Parnell was born on the 6th September 1890 in Ireland the son of Major General Henry Parnell the 4th Baron and Elizabeth Peter Dove. He had two brothers, John Brooke Molesworth Parnell, a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy, who succeeded him as 6th Baron and William Alastair Damer Parnell who joined the Grenadier Guards in 1915. He was educated at Eton College, Windsor. He succeeded to the title of 5th Baron on the 12th November 1906 his country seat being Minstead Lodge, Lyndhurst, Hampshire. He graduated from New College Oxford in 1912 but had already joined the Grenadier Guards that year as a University candidate. His commission was ante-dated to July 1911. He was promoted Lieutenant in March 1913. He joined the 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards in France on the 19th September 1914 when the Battalion was engaged in the crossing of the Aisne River. He was mentioned in Despatches for the skilful handling of his platoon on the 6th November 1914 when his platoon had stopped a lot of Germans getting through the gap which he had been able to hold between the Royal Sussex and the Cavalry. On the 10th November again there had been a terrible shelling by the enemy which continued throughout the whole day all over the wood, many trenches were blown to pieces, many men buried and the trees fell in dozens. Lord Congleton was killed in action on the 10th November, shot through the heart when leading No. 3 Company. Headstone bears inscription “Son of Major General Parnell 4th Baron Congleton. Beloved and Honoured.”
He would have been awarded the Victory and British War Medals and the 1914 Star.
Grave in Zillebeke Churchyard of Major Lord Bernard Charles Gordon-Lennox 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards killed in action 10th November 1914 aged 36 years. Third son of Charles Henry Gordon-Lennox, the 7th Duke of Richmond and Gordon. Husband of Lady Evelyn Gordon Lennox of Halnaker House, Chichester, Surrey. His brother, the eldest son, the Earl of March, was Commanding Officer of the Sussex Yeomanry in 1914 and 1915, the second eldest Esme Gordon-Lennox served with the 2nd Battalion Scots Guards and later in the war commanded the 95th Infantry Brigade. Lord Bernard was educated at Eton College, Windsor and Sandhurst and joined the 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards in 1898 and served in South Africa 1899-1900. He was promoted Captain in 1905. He married in July 1907 Evelyn, sister of Edward 2nd Baron Loch, and was promoted Major in 1913. The 2nd Battalion landed at Havre on the 13th August 1914 as part of 4th Guards Brigade, 2nd Division with Major Lord Gordon-Lennox commanding No. 3 Company. Major Gordon-Lennox served at Mons on the 23rd August and the subsequent Retreat; the battles of the Marne and Aisne. In October 1914 the Battalion moved North arriving at Hazebrouck on the 14th October. The Battalion arrived in the Ypres sector going into trenches at St. Jean north of Ypres on the 20th October 1914. “Marched off at 6 a.m. to Ypres, through which we marched. Crowds of people in the streets to see us march through, and there seemed to be a tremendous lot of priests and nuns. Rather a nice old town with narrow, cobble-stoned streets, and some fine buildings. We marched through to St. Jean where we took up a position and entrenched facing north east.” On the 27th October there was a redistribution of the line and the 2nd Division moved near the Moorslede-Zonnebeke road, the 2nd Battalion moving back to Nonne-Bosschen Wood on the 28th October. For the beginning of the action on the 10th November, see the record of Lieutenant Stocks above. “After a quiet night terrific shelling started soon after daybreak and lasted practically without intermission throughout the day. Our trenches on the right where the line was thrown back were taken in enfilade and badly knocked about, and as they (German artillery) have now located us pretty well there were a few direct hits and consequent casualties. The trees too were knocked down.” Lord Bernard Lennox-Gordon was one of the casualties, killed in action on the 10th November 1914 by a high explosive shell.
He would have been awarded the Victory and British War Medals and the 1914 Star.
11th November 1914
Grave in Zillebeke Churchyard of No. 743 Private William Gibson “F” Company, 1/14th (County of London) Battalion, London Regiment (London Scottish), killed in action 11th November 1914. Son of John and Janet Gibson 38 Mayfair Avenue, Ilford, Essex. Born Glasgow. The 1/14th Battalion London Scottish was the first chosen from the whole Territorial Force to go to the front, landing at Havre on the 16th September 1914. Private Gibson landed with the Battalion which had been employed on line of communication duties until on the 25th October Lieutenant Colonel G A Malcolm the C.O. received orders to concentrate the Battalion at St. Omer going on to Ypres, reached at 3 a.m.on the 30th October and St. Eloi about 7 p.m. that night. The Battalion paraded at 4 a.m. on the 31st October to take its part in the Battle of Messines Ridge to sustain a casualty roll of 394 officers and men. The Battalion had a short spell in billets in Bailleul and then on the 4th November was ordered back to Ypres to join the 1st Guards Brigade but was diverted almost at once to the 4th Guards Brigade under Lord Cavan then desperately trying to hold the line to the south of the Menin Road. On the 6th November the Germans began a series of furious attempts to break through the line near Klein Zillebeke and the trenches, little more than rifle pits, in the wood were under shell fire for 6 days and nights. The Battalion had to hold on in the woods with bursting shells shearing off branches, bringing down tees and scattering showers of splinters. “Soaked to the skin, and when you lay down, lying in mud. I put my waterproof down, and in the morning cannot find it. I suppose buried in the mud.” German infantry attacks were met with rifle fire at close range which inflicted serious loss on the enemy culminating on the 11th November with an attack along the whole front, the right of the London Scottish nearly being enveloped being finally checked by a counter-attack led by the Commanding Officer. The failure of the offensive on the 11th and the ensuing bad weather led to the gradual end of the battle.
Private Gibson was probably killed during the course of the infantry attacks, his body being taken back to the churchyard for burial.
He was awarded the Victory and British War Medals and the 1914 Star.
15th November 1914
Grave in Zillebeke Churchyard of 2nd Lieutenant Howard Avenel Bligh St. George, 1st Life Guards, killed in action 15th November 1914 aged 19 years. Son of Howard Bligh St. George and Florence Evelyn St. George of Coombe House, Kingston Hill, Surrey. Educated at Eton College, Windsor he joined the 1st Life Guards in January 1914 as a probationary officer. The Regiment landed at Zeebrugge on the 8th October 1914 as part of 7th Cavalry Brigade, 3rd Cavalry division. 2nd Lieutenant St. Bligh landed with his Regiment, which was first in the area of Bruges. The Regiment passed through Ypres on the 13th October going on down the Menin Road. On the 30th October 1914 the troops of the 1st Life Guards with the 1st Royal Welch Fusiliers, the 2nd Life Guards, the Machine Gun section of the Royal Horse Guards under the command of Charles Sackville Pelham, Lord Worsley (see entry for him in Belgium cemeteries-Ypres Town Cemetery and Extension) and other troopers from the Royal Horse Guards, formed the rim around Zandvoorde facing the German attack from the south and east. See the entry above for Lieutenant William Wyndham for the background of the 1st Life Guards in France prior to the affair at Zillebeke. From the 7th to the 11th November the Regiment was in billets at Verloren Hoek. On the 11th November the 1st Squadron belonging to the Composite Regiment joined the Regiment on absorption and in the late afternoon moved to south of Bellewarde Farm to support a counter-attack. On the 14th November 1914 the Regiment carried out reliefs providing 200 rifles to occupy the front trenches. The Regiment was in trenches all day on the 15th November with their position being shelled. 2nd Lieutenant St. George was shot by a sniper. Headstone bears inscription “Firmitas in Coelo.” He was awarded the Victory and British War Medals and the 1914 Star.
17th November 1914
Grave in Zillebeke Churchyard of Captain Cholmeley Symes-Thompson, 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards, killed in action 17th November 1914 aged 33 years. Son of the late Dr. Edmund Symes-Thompson FRCP and Elizabeth Symes-Thompson. Husband of Grace E J Symes-Thompson nee Churchill of 43 Argyll Road, Kensington, London. He had been in the army since 1899 after leaving Harrow School. He was commissioned in 1st Grenadier Guards and had landed in France in August 1914 with the 2nd Battalion and had been involved in the Retreat to the Marne and Advance from the Aisne. The last serious attack on Ypres began on the 17th November with the 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards in the trench line across Brown Road. At about 8 a.m., a terrific German bombardment began, the shelling lasting all morning and about 1 p.m. the enemy infantry attacked in force but was driven back with very heavy loss. The brunt of the attack fell on Nos. 1 and 2 Companies An early casualty was Captain Cholmeley Symes-Thompson commanding No. 1 Company shot by a sniper. Headstone bears inscription “Your Joy No man taketh from you. John 16/32.” He would have been awarded the Victory and British War Medals and the 1914 Star.
Grave in Zillebeke Churchyard of Lieutenant John Henry Gordon Lee Steere 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards killed in action 17th November 1914 aged 19 years. Husband of Mrs. Lee Steere of Jayes Park, Ockley, Surrey. At Eton College, Windsor from 1908 to 1912 and Sandhurst in 1913, he was commissioned in the Grenadier Guards and left England in October 1914 landing at St. Nazaire on the 12th October 1914 when on the 29th October he was posted to the 2nd Battalion, arriving at the front on the 3rd November 1914. On the night of the 14th November the Battalion marched back to Klein Zillebeke to relieve the Royal Munster Fusiliers in the woods near Klein Zillebeke. 2nd Lieutenant John Lee-Steere from No. 2 Company was called up to take over command when Captain Symes-Thompson was shot and came up the trench to make sure Captain Symes-Thompson was dead. John Steere sent back word that ammunition was very short and then, trying to locate and deal with the sniper, was himself shot through the head. “a very good boy, who had only lately come out.” Unusually his headstone remains as the private headstone originally placed at the grave by his family and is inscribed, after details of the action in which he lost his life, “He asked Life of Thee.” He was awarded the Victory and British War Medals and the 1914 Star.
Grave in Zillebeke Churchyard of No. 9451 Lance Corporal James William Whitfield, 2nd Battalion Coldstream Guards, killed in action 17th November 1914 aged 22 years. Only Son of William and Sarah Whitfield of 25 West View, Medomsley Edge, Medomsley, Co. Durham. The 2nd Battalion Coldstream Guards was in 4th Guards Brigade in the 2nd Division, landing at Havre on the 13th August 1914. James Whitfield landedwith his Battalion. Not directly involved in the Battle of Mons, by the end of August 1914the Battalion had retreated to Soissons. On the 6th September the Brigade had crossed the Petit Morin and now heading north crossed the Marne and on the 14th September the Aisne River. At the beginning of October the BEF began its transfer to Flanders and by the middle of the month the 4th Guards Brigade was at Hazebrouck. In the period from 29th October to 17th November the Battalion was in the trenches in Polygon Wood and whilst no serious attack developed against them and they were not moved from point to point to defend other positions, nonetheless for 23 consecutive days and nights the Battalion was in open earthworks exposed to bitter cold winds, rain and snow without fires or light and subjected to constant sniping. Long before dawn on the 17th November the Battalion left Polygon Wood on the march to Zillebeke, a march that was slow and tiring, the road being deep in liquid mud with large holes and as they got nearer to Zillebeke found the village a mere heap of ruins. The Battalion was placed in Reserve but that night Companies were sent forward to the firing line to support the Grenadier and Irish Guards and it is likely that that was when Lance Corporal Whitfield was shot but his body was recovered for burial in the churchyard. He was awarded the Victory and British War Medals and the 1914 Star.
20th November 1914
Grave in Zillebeke Churchyard of Captain Richard Long Dawson, 3rd Battalion Coldstream Guards, killed in action 20th November 1914 aged 35 years. Eldest son of Captain the Honourable Richard Maitland Westenra Dawson and Mrs. Dawson of Park Holme Ashburton, Devon. His father the Honourable Richard Dawson (who died in August 1914) was the 3rd son of Richard Dawson 3rd Baron Cremorne and 1st Earl of Dartrey, Monaghan, Southern Ireland. At Eton College Windsor from 1893 to 1895 and then Sandhurst in 1897, gazetted 2nd Lieutenant in the Coldstream Guards in 1898, he served in the South African War but resigned his commission in 1907 and was placed on the Reserve of Officers. On mobilisation he was ordered to report to the 4th (Reserve) Battalion of the Coldstream Guards being formed at Windsor. The 3rd Battalion Coldstream Guards was in 4th Guards Brigade in the 2nd Division, landing at Havre on the 15th August 1914. Not directly involved in the Battle of Mons, by the 26th August 1914 the Battalion was at Landrecies and by the end of the month had retreated to Soissons. On the 6th September the Brigade had crossed the Petit Morin and now heading north crossed the Marne and on the 14th September the Aisne River. Captain Dawson landed in France on the 11th September 1914 and by the 24th September was commanding No. 2 Company of the Battalion. At the beginning of October the BEF began its transfer to Flanders and by the middle of the month the 4th Guards Brigade was at Hazebrouck. Captain Dawson commanding No. 2 Company during its period in Polygon Wood, was with the 3rd Battalion when it relieved about midnight on the 18th November the 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards and remained in the front line under the usual heavy artillery fire until the 20th November. There were four killed and 10 wounded and Captain Dawson was one of those killed in action, struck on the 20th November by a high-explosive shell that burst some 50 yards away from him. Still his body was recovered for burial in the churchyard. He was awarded the Victory and British War Medals and the 1914 Star.
5th May 1915
Grave in Zillebeke Churchyard of Lieut. Colonel Arthur de Courcy Scott, 1st Battalion Cheshire Regiment, killed in action 5th May 1915 aged 49 years. Eldest son of the late Major General A de C Scott (R.E.) and Mrs. Scott, “Hawley” Parkstone, Dorset. Husband of Phyllis Auber formerly Scott of Heatherlands, Lilliput, Dorset. Born in 1866, he was educated at Wellington College and then Sandhurst being commissioned in 1855 into the Cheshire Regiment. At the outbreak of the war he was a Major and 2nd in command of the 2nd Battalion stationed at Jubbulpore in India. The Battalion arrived in England on Christmas Eve 1914 and joined 84th Brigade, 28th Division landing at Havre on the 17th January 1915. At the beginning of May 1915 the 1st Battalion was in casemates at Ypres and was so short of officers that Colonel Scott, Captain Savage and Lieutenant Mills had been sent to them from the 2nd Battalion. On the 4th May the 1st Battalion was called upon to move to the support trenches facing Hill 60. The whole area was being shelled by both British and German artillery. Two companies then deployed between the railway and the Zwartelen and commenced an advance with the object of re-capturing the position but suffered considerably from rifle and machine-gun fire. Lieutenant Colonel Scott, the Commanding Officer, was killed but his body was recovered and taken back to Zillebeke Churchyard. Headstone bears inscription “Jesus Put Forth his hand and touched him.” He was awarded the Victory and British War Medals and the 1915 Star.
9th December 1915
Grave in Zillebeke Churchyard of No. 12647 Lance Corporal Neill Thomson 11th Battalion The Royal Scots (Lothian Regiment) killed in action 9th December 1915. Son of Mr. N Thomson of Crosscroes Farm, Avonbridge, Stirlingshire. The Battalion was a Service Battalion raised at Edinburgh in August 1914 which landed in France in May 1915 as part of 27th Brigade, 9th (Scottish) Division. Lance Corporal Thomson landed with his Battalion. The Battalion took part in the Battle of Loos in September 1915 when the Battalion sustained very heavy casualties, and then at the end of the month was, with other units from the Division, moved North to the Ypres salient, the Brigade relieving units of the 17th Division on the 5th October 1915 in the trenches near Hill 60, the line taken over laying south of Zillebeke and extending from north of Hill 60 to a point south of the Ypres-Comines Canal near Oosthoek. The Division was in this area for 3 months and when not in the trenches went 10 miles back through Ypres to dismal and repellent shelters at Dickebusch and Canada Huts.
No. 12647 Lance Corporal Neil Thomson was killed in action on the 9th December 1915, the only fatal casualty that the Battalion sustained that day, from German shell fire. He was awarded the Victory and British War Medals and the 1915 Star.
16th December 1915
Special Memorial for Private William John Stewart, 11th Battalion The Royal Scots (Lothian Regiment) killed in action 16th December 1915 aged 20 years. Son of William and Susannah Stewart of 1 George Drive, East Linthouse, Goven, Glasgow. Born Harwich, Essex. See the entry above for Lance Corporal Thomson for the summary of the Regiment’s service in France and Belgium.
No. 13239 Private William Stewart was killed in action on the 16th December 1915, again the only fatal casualty that the Battalion sustained that day. Private Stewart would have been awarded the Victory and British War Medals and the 1915 Star.
It is therefore probable that both Lance Corporal Neil Thomson and Private William Stewart were killed by German shellfire whilst in working parties near Zillibeke when their fellow Royal Scots took their bodies back to the Churchyard for burial.
23rd March 1916
Grave in Zillebeke Churchyard of No. 568 Sapper Charles Preston Ilsley 6th Field Company, Canadian Engineers, Canadian Expeditionary Force killed in action 23rd March 1916 aged 23 years. 6th Field Company Canadian Engineers were the 2nd Canadian Division Engineers. The Company left for England on the 24th April 1915, disembarked in England 29th April 1915. In France by September 1915 in the Kemmel sector, the Company moved to the Zillebeke area in March 1916. Son of Freeman A Ilsley, Charles was born on the 11th September 1892. Husband of Adelia Blance Ilsley.
No. 568 Sapper Charles Preston Ilsley was shot and killed instantly on the 23rd March 1916 whilst loading material at Bull Dump in Maple Copse and his body was taken back for burial in Zillebeke Churchyard, about 1000 yards West of Maple Copse.
3rd June 1916
Grave in Zillebeke Churchyard of No. 27611 Corporal Charles Coyde 15th Battalion, Canadian Infantry (48th Highlanders of Canada), Canadian Expeditionary Force killed in action 3rd June 1916 aged 21 years. The 15th Battalion disembarked in England 14th October 1914, landed in France on the 14th February 1915 and served in 3rd Infantry Brigade 1st Canadian Division from 15th February 1915 until the Armistice.Only son of Charles and Isabella Coyde, he was born on the 28th November 1892. His parents lived at 6 Marine Terrace, Banques, Guernsey, Channel Islands.
No. 27611 Corporal Charles Coyde was killed in action either by artillery or machine-gun fire. The Battalion had crossed Observatory Ridge Road and was attacking towards Maple Copse. His body was recovered and taken back to Zillebeke Churchyard for burial.
7th June 1916
Grave in Zillebeke Churchyard of No. 438053 Sergeant Walter William Davison 52nd Battalion Canadian Infantry (North Ontario), Canadian Expeditionary Force, killed in action 7th June 1916 aged 23 years. The 52nd Battalion left for England on 23rd November 1915 and landed in France on the 21st February 1916 and served in 9th Infantry Brigade 3rd Division until the Armistice. Son of John and Rachel Davison of 331 Bathurst Street, Toronto, Walter Davison was born on the 13th November 1893.
A ration dump had been established near Maple Copse and on the 7th June 1916 a German shell burst on the dump inflicting several casualties amongst the men of the battalion including No. 438053 Sergeant Walter William Davison the Orderly Room Clerk reporting for duty. Sufficient of his body remained to enable his comrades to take these remains back to Zillebeke Churchyard for burial.
Grave in Zillebeke Churchyard of No. 65891 Private John Carron Sime 24th Battalion Canadian Infantry (Victoria Rifles) Canadian Expeditionary Force, killed in action 7th June 1916 aged 23 years. The 24th Battalion embarked for England on the 11th May 1915, landing in France on the16th September 1915 and served in 5th Infantry Brigade 2nd Division until the Armistice. Son of John and Catherine B Sime of 5 Temple Crescent, Crail, Fife, Scotland, John Sime was born on the 19th September 1892.
Private Sime was a member of “B” Company and the Battalion was marching forward to front line trenches at Maple Copse and at about 11.45 p.m. “B” Company was passing in single file in front of the church in Zillebeke when without warning a heavy shell burst in the midst of No 5 Platooon. At first it seemed No 5 Platoon had totally disappeared but Lieutenant G V Walsh and C.S.M. L A Sewell were unwounded. 12 men lay dead in the road with 11 severely wounded amongst them. The remains of No. 65891 Private John Carron Sime were recovered and buried in the Churchyard opposite.
Grave in Zillebeke Churchyard of No. 445160 Private William John Croft 24th Battalion Canadian Infantry (Victoria Rifles) Canadian Expeditionary Force killed in action 7th June 1916 aged 19 years. The 24th Battalion embarked for England on the 11th May 1915, landing in France 16th September 1915 and served in 5th Infantry Brigade 2nd Division until the Armistice. Son of William and Sarah Croft of Chatham, New Brunswick, he was born in 1897.
Private Croft was a member of “B” Company and the Battalion was marching forward to front line trenches at Maple Copse and at about 11.45 p.m. “B” Company was passing in single file in front of the church in Zillebeke when without warning a heavy shell burst in the midst of No 5 Platooon. At first it seemed No 5 Platoon had totally disappeared but Lieutenant G V Walsh and C.S.M. L A Sewell were unwounded. 12 men lay dead in the road with 11 severely wounded amongst them. The remains of No. 445160 Private William John Croft were recovered and buried in the Churchyard opposite.
10th June 1916
Grave in Zillebeke Churchyard of Lieutenant Frederick Johnston Watson 43rd Battalion Canadian Infantry (Cameron Highlanders of Canada) Canadian Expeditionary Force, killed in action 10th June 1916 aged 27 years. The 43rd Battalion disembarked in England on the 9th June 1915, landing in France 20th February 1916 and served in 9th Infantry Brigade, 3rd Division until the Armistice.
Son of Edwin Alexander and Harriet Elliot Lee Watson. Born Arbroath on the 24th June 1888.
On the 10th June 1916 the 43rd Battalion came forward to relieve the 52nd Battalion with Battalion H.Q. at Dormy House. This is a position about 500 yards East of Zillebeke with Maple Copse a further 500 yards away to the East. There was heavy artillery fire by both the enemy and the Canadian artillery all evening and there were 33 casualties, 4 being killed in action and one of these was Lieutenant Frederick Johnston Watson. His body was recovered and taken back to Zillebeke Churchyard for burial in the Churchyard.
Part II
Outline of the fighting around Zillebeke
At daybreak on the 30th October 1914 a storm of shrapnel and high explosives fell on the Household Cavalry trench lines at Zandvoorde, the trenches being literally blown to pieces. The line ran from East to West on the outskirts of the village of Zandvoorde at the point where the Household Cavalry Memorial now stands, the enemy advancing generally North West from the Lys River/Comines and at this point almost directly along the line of the road running South from Zandvoorde to Comines. From left to right the line was held by a squadron from 1st Life Guards, a squadron from 2nd Life Guards, the machine guns of the Royal Horse Guards and then a 2nd squadron of 1st Life Guards and on the right a 2nd squadron of 2nd Life Guards. A German infantry attack by at least a division on the 7th Cavalry Brigade followed and the brigade was forced to retire slowly down the hill but the onslaught was so ferocious and concentrated that Captain Lord Hugh William Grosvenor’s 1st Life Guards, extreme left, and Captain A. M. Vandelour’s 2nd Life Guards, next on the left, and Lieutenant Charles Sackville Pelham, Lord Worsley’s machine-gun section from the Royal Horse Guards suffered many casualties. In addition to Captain Lord Grosvenor, 1st Life Guards had 13 killed in action, all like Lord Hugh commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial. In addition to Captain Vandeleur, 2nd Life Guards had 4 killed in action, all like Captain Vandelour commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial. The Royal Horse Guards had 11 killed in action as well as Lieutenant Lord Charles Sackville Pelham 9 of whom are commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Lord Pelham being buried in Ypres Town Cemetery Extension, Trooper Molineux in White House Cemetery and Corporal of Horse J C Harris in Larch Wood (Railway Cutting) Cemetery.
Soon after 9 a.m. the Zandvoorde trenches passed into the hands of the enemy, the Cavalry Brigade and the 7th Division on its left falling back towards Zillebeke. It became necessary to call upon the battalions in reserve to the 2nd Division and the 2nd Grenadier Guards, 1st Irish Guards and the 2nd Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry, stationed at the western edge of Polygon Wood under the command of Brigadier General Lord Cavan, were ordered to move at once towards Klein Zillebeke.
The 31st October 1914 is usually reckoned the most critical day in the whole struggle to keep the Germans out of Ypres. On the 31st October the Cavalry Corps was swept off the Messines Ridge after heavy fierce fighting. That morning the enemy had opened a heavy shell-fire on Lord Cavan’s force, holding a line from East of the Ypres-Comines railway line running East and along the Northern edge of Shrewsbury Forest, hitting particularly the Irish Guards. It lasted for 4 hours and was evidently designed to hold the troops in their trenches whilst a heavy attack developed around Gheluvelt. About 11.30 a.m. the Germans broke into Gheluvelt and annihilated the 1st Battalion of the Queen’s Royal (West Surrey) Regiment, leaving only 32 other ranks, and the 2nd Battalion of the Welch Regiment – out of a Company of 130, by 10 a.m. there were only 45 alive and only 16 rifles were firing and by 11.45 a.m., the 37 survivors were captured. Later in the day the counter-attack by the 2nd Battalion of the Worcestershire Regiment resulted in the greater part of the village of Gheluvelt coming back into British hands.
The 6th November was another critical day at Ypres. The German advance from the Zandvoorde area continued towards the Ypres-Comines Canal. The woods west of Hollebeke were lost. North of the Canal were 5 French battalions with 2 artillery groups, De Moussy’s force, with Lord Cavan’s Force on its left and then 1st Division’s 2nd Brigade (2nd Royal Sussex, 1st Loyal North Lancs., 1st Northamptons and 2nd K.R.R.C.) stretching North to the Hooge – Gheluvelt road. A particularly heavy bombardment practically annihilated two companies of the French 90th Regiment by 10 a.m. while on their way up to relieve two others reported to be completely exhausted. The enemy then attacked the French troops on the right of the 1st Battalion Irish Guards, and the French fell back towards Zillebeke so opening the flank of No. 2 Company of the Irish Guards which in good order and fighting fell back to its support trenches. This left No. 1 Company of the Irish Guards practically in the air and as the Germans occupied the French trenches so they opened enfilade fire on the Irish Guards. Next to the Irish Guards was the 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards with enemy shell fire particularly affecting the right company. Just before midday on the 6th, Lieutenant Colonel Smith, commanding the 2nd Battalion received instructions from Lord Cavan that his position must be retained at all costs. Shortly afterwards it was reported that the Germans had passed on penetrating to Zwarteleen (a mile south east of Zillebeke) and almost to Verbranden-molen, where was situate 7th Cavalry Brigade’s H.Q. In common with all Cavalry Brigades, the 7th Brigade had three Cavalry Regiments, 1st Life Guards, 2nd Life Guards and the Royal Horse Guards. Each Cavalry Regiment had a H.Q. establishment of 7 officers and 35 other ranks, 3 Squadrons of 160 men and 7 officers with nearly 200 horses and a Machine Gun section with 2 Vickers guns, 25 men and 4 officers supported by a Battery of the Royal Horse Artillery with 6 13pounder field guns. However in the 7th Cavalry Brigade each regiment had only two squadrons because one from each regiment had been formed into the Composite Regiment which landed at Havre on the 16th August 1914 and it was not until the 11th November 1914 that the third (composite) squadrons were released back to their parent regiment. Due to mounting casualties, like most cavalry regiments, 7th Brigade’s were below strength. In their advance the enemy had reached Brown Road – a track which runs from the Zillebeke – Klein Zillebeke road, just south of Zwarteleen skirting the northern edge of Shrewsbury Forest and so called because it was metalled and coloured brown on the map – and were thus advancing round the rear of the 2nd Grenadier Guards. Colonel Smith posted Lieutenant Tufnell with one machine-gun to guard a ride across which the enemy would have to pass and sent Lieutenant Lord Congleton with a platoon to stop the enemy from getting through. Apparently Lieutenant Tufnell thought a better position for the machine-gun would be if he went with Lord Congleton’s party and took up a position from where he could command the advancing enemy but had not been there long before he was mortally wounded and was probably therefore the first of the 1914 casualties buried in Zillebeke Churchyard. At about this time the Household Cavalry was called in to retrieve the situation. Lord Cavan sent off his Staff Captain at full gallop to Sanctuary Wood, the place of readiness for the Regiments, with orders for the Household Cavalry to come up at once. Captain Norman Neill had been sent on a similar mission by Brigadier General Kavanagh, and he was actually shot on his way back just before reaching Verbranden-molen. Ordered to mount in Sanctuary Wood, the 1st and 2nd Life Guards and the Royal Horse Guards galloped round by Maple Copse to within 500 yards of Brigade H.Q. where they dismounted and fixed bayonets. The Western edge of Sanctuary Wood is about 2000 yards North East of Zillebeke and Maple Copse about 1000 yards East of Zillebeke. They advanced on foot along and astride the road from Zillebeke to Zwartelen and deployed just before reaching that village, 1st Life Guards on the left were given the task of restoring the Irish Guards position, while the 2nd Life Guards attacked the position from which the French had been driven, the Royal Horse Guards being behind the centre of the line in support. Within an hour, the 1st Life Guards had regained the whole of the position which had been lost. “B” Squadron of the 2nd Life Guards was sent to connect with the right of 1st Life Guards and clear the wood on the Klein Zillebeke ridge, “D” Squadron was to cover the right flank of the whole movement by advancing along the edge of the Ypres – Armentieres railway, separated from the wood by about 500 yards of open ground while Major the Hon. Hugh Dawnay, commanding 2nd Life Guards with “C” Troop attacked the village of Zwartelen, the Royal Horse Guards being on their left, led by Colonel Wilson heading down towards Brown Road. In the course of this attack, Colonel Wilson was shot through the head, probably by fire from the houses at the southern end of Zwarteleen, and 2nd Lieutenant Baron de Gunzberg was killed at about the same time and probably a little later in the day 2nd Lieutenant William Petersen by enemy rifle fire from houses they retained for a while in Zwartelen itself. The Commanding Officer of the 2nd Life Guards, the Hon. Hugh Dawnay, son of the 8th Viscount Downe of Wykeham Abbey, North Yorkshire, was also killed whilst (like Colonel Wilson) leading his regiment and he was certainly buried somewhere in the general area, he now being buried in Harlebeke New British Cemetery north of Courtrai, a cemetery wholly created after the Armistice from isolated graves from battlefields in West Flanders. Lieutenant the Honourable William Wyndham 1st. Life Guards was the only officer from that Regiment killed in action on the 6th November whilst leading his troop, with 4 other ranks also being killed. The total casualties in the 7th Cavalry Brigade were 17 officers and 78 other ranks.
At dusk on the 6th November 1914 the 7th Cavalry Brigade was relieved by the 3rd Infantry Brigade but the Gloucestershire Regiment was too weak than do more than take over the section of the line held by 2nd Life Guards, the 1st Life Guards remaining until 2.30 a.m. on the 7th November when they were relieved by Companies from the Royal Sussex Regiment and the Royal Munster Fusiliers.
The 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards had been instructed to establish a line between the Brown Road trench and their original line and at 1 a.m. on the 7th November the men began to dig, although dead tired and the trenches were completed by 4 a.m.
The Battalion remained in their trenches at Klein Zillebeke from the 7th to the 9th November without any direct attack being made upon them although shelling went on all day occasionally resulting in a piece of trench being blown in and burying some of the men. One of the casualties on the 7th November 1914 was Private Walter Siewertsen.
The situation near the Comines Canal was still the cause of gravest anxiety to General Haig it being obvious that if the Germans made a further effort there the whole of the British line north of Zwarteleen might have to go back to a north and south line through Ypres and likewise Lord Cavan realized that the situation could not wait until a move by the French and at 4 a.m. on the 7th November he despatched Brigadier Lawford’s 22nd Brigade towards the junction of 3rd Brigade and his own group and the attack began at 6.15 a.m. in a heavy mist against the German trenches partly in the open and partly in the woods. The 2nd Queen’s led the attack supported by the 1/South Staffordshire and with 2nd Warwickshire in reserve. The 1st Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment from 3rd Brigade was ordered to assist in the attack by firing into the woods but on account of the fog that order was cancelled although the Brigade’s attack was partially successful to the extent that the first enemy trench was occupied and 3 machine-guns captured, all further attacks being broken down by enfilade fire. The Gloucesters having been told the enemy trenches were empty, pushed forward in two lines , the first led by Captain Rising and the second by Major Ingram 50 yards in the rear but in issuing from Zwarteleen the Battalion was met by intense rifle and machine-gun fire, the enemy still holding some houses at the eastern end of the village. Officers and men were exhausted and could do no more than clear a few of the houses and only a few could get back to the trenches they had dug the night before. In crossing the road Major Ingram was shot in the knee whilst attempting to point out the line to be held but he managed to crawl to Captain Rising and discuss the situation with him before he was carried back to the dressing-station. A few minutes later Captain Rising himself was brought into the dressing-station mortally wounded and died the same day of his wounds. There were four surviving officers, Captain Pritchett who had taken over command of the Battalion, Lieutenant Duncan (acting Adjutant) Lieutenant Morris (B Company) and the Quartermaster. Estimated losses for the 6th and 7th November were 43 killed, 47 wounded and 8 missing. In the London Gazette of 18th January 1915, Captain Rising’s promotion to Major was announced.
On the 10th November 1914 the enemy launched major attacks against the French front from Langemarck to Dixmude whilst at Klein Zillebeke 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards lost 3 officers and 74 men mainly by enfilade fire delivered according to German accounts by three batteries of heavy howitzers, three batteries of mortars, a battery of 4 inch guns and a battery of 5.9 inch guns. The enemy had the range of the British trenches accurately and obtained a large number of direct hits. The wood itself became more and more difficult to hold, trees cut down by the shells came crashing to the ground and made communication impossible. Major Lord Bernard Lennox and Lieutenant Michael Stocks were both killed by shell fire and Lieutenant Henry Blight Fortescue Parnell (5th Baron Congleton) was shot through the heart. That night the Battalion went into Corps Reserve at Bellewarde Farm immediately to the north of Hooge but achieved little rest as at 9 a.m. 11th November the Battalion was sent out as support against the attack of the Prussian Guards against the 1st Brigade from Polygon Wood to the Menin-Ypres road.
Shortly after 4 a.m. on the 31st October 1914 the London Scottish had paraded along the St. Eloi road prior to orders to move to Wytschaete to reinforce the 4th Cavalry Brigade then fighting as dismounted troops and struggling to hold the Wytschaete – Messine Ridge. In the fighting the Battalion had losses of 394 officers and men and was on the 2nd November moved to billets in Bailleul when it was expected the Battalion would remain some time to re-organise with the help of a large draft of officers and men from England but on the 4th November there came a sudden order to return to the Ypres front and were that night at Bellewaarde Farm to the north of Hooge. On the 5th November the Battalion was directed to join 1st Guards Brigade at Gheluvelt but were then transferred to 4th Guards Brigade under Lord Cavan in the woods near Klein Zillebeke to take over the defence of a line in what was then called Brown Road Wood, the trenches being little more than rifle pits. The line in the woods was so extensive that with their reduced numbers the London Scottish could only man it with a rifle to every 6 yards leaving no reserve. The Battalion was in the woods therefore from the 6th November when the Germans began a series of furious attempts to break through near Klein Zillebeke putting the woods under shell fire for 6 days and nights. On the 11th November the Battalions two machine-guns, the latest Vickers pattern, were knocked out by mortars, the officer in charge 2nd Lieutenant Reginald Glover Ker-Gulland being mortally wounded. He is buried in Railway Chateau Cemetery, Vlamertinghe. The German attack in the Zillebeke woods culminated with the enemy pouring across a clearing and nearly enveloping the company of the London Scottish on the right, the rush being checked by a counter-attack led by Colonel Malcolm, the Commanding Officer of the Battalion. After the defeat of this attack, the Battalion went into close support of the 1st Guards Brigade in a wood near Gheluvelt but that wood was itself heavily shelled and there were further casualties. On the 15th November the London Scottish were relieved and marched with the 1st Brigade to Pradelles near Hazebrouck. Private William Gibson was amongst those killed on the 11th November 1914.
After the actions on the 6th/7th November 1914 the Household Cavalry Regiments were in billets. On the 11th November 1914 the 1st and 2nd Life Guards’ and Royal Horse Guards’ Squadrons belonging to the Composite Regiment of the Household Cavalry joined their respective Regiments. (For the Composite Regiment see the entry for Trooper William Waspe – Monks Kirby Village War Memorial).
On the 12th November the 1st Life Guards Squadrons were in trenches in the Hooge area to support an attack which did not in fact develop and then at 5 p.m on the 14th November 1914 the 1st Life Guards were ordered to carry out reliefs of Cavalry units in the front trenches at Zwarteleen.
On the 15th November 1914 the Regiment was in trenches all day and their position was shelled with high explosive shells for nearly 2 hours in the morning although no damage was done. About 3 p.m. 2nd Lieutenant Howard Bligh St. George came to HQ from the advanced trenches to report that the enemy seemed to have evacuated their own advanced trenches at the edge of the wood near Zwarteleen possibly as a consequence of the heavy British shell fire directed onto that area. On setting out to return to the trenches 2nd Lieutenant St. George was shot dead by a sniper apparently posted in a house on the Zillebeke-Klein Zillebeke road. Corporal of Horse Haywood and Sergeant Roantree were both wounded that day again by sniper fire. The Regiment was relieved by the 3rd Dragoon Guards and North Somerset Yeomanry at 7 p.m. and returned to billets at Verloren Hoek.
On the night of 10th November 1914 the 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards went into Corps Reserve and bivouacked in dugouts but any thoughts of a rest were soon dispelled. On the 12th November with the 1st Battalion Irish Guards and the Royal Munster Fusiliers, the Battalion was to take part in an attack from Polygon Wood but this was abandoned when Brigadier General Fitzclarence was shot. It was in the trenches again on the 13th-14th and then in Sanctuary Wood when there were further casualties from German shell fire. After four days “rest” all ranks welcomed an order sending them back to the Zillebeke trenches to positions either side of 6th Cavalry Brigade holding a line across Brown Road, 2 platoons on the left of the cavalry and two on the right. During the 15th November and following days the relief of I Corps and the reorganisation of the British line took place. The Expeditionary Force evacuated the Ypres area and was reassembled on the front between the La Bassee Canal and Kemmel so that its two wings were no longer separated by a considerable French force. Light snow fell on the 15th November, followed by a hard frost and heavy snow on the 19th November. Then on the 20th November intelligence reported a steady flow of troop trains heading east and finally on the 25th November General Erich von Falkenhayn German Army chief of Staff ordered the armies in the west to take up defensive positions and make secure their conquests down the whole length of the Western Front.
The last serious attack on Ypres in 1914 began on the 17th November with the 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards in the trench line across Brown Road. The day opened with a terrific bombardment, the shelling lasting all morning and about 1 p.m. the infantry attack itself developed. An early casualty was Captain Cholmeley Symes-Thompson commanding No. 1 Company shot by a sniper. 2nd Lieutenant John Lee-Steere from No. 2 Company was called up to take over command and came up the trench to make sure Captain Symes-Thompson was dead. John Steere sent back word that ammunition was very short and then, trying to locate and deal with the sniper, was himself shot through the head, command of the Company devolving onto Captain Beaumont Nesbitt. Colonel Smith, commanding the Battalion, sent 30 men with some ammunition up and by then the enemy was entrenching in a spinney about 400 yards to the Battalions front, numbers estimated at 500. The enemy then attacked in great force but was quite unable to make any headway against the Grenadiers rifle fire. Subsequently Lord Cavan wrote “No words can ever describe what the devotion of the man and officers has been under the trials of dirt, squalor, cold, sleeplessness and perpetual strain of the last three weeks. Their state of efficiency can, I think, be gauged by the fact that twelve attacks have been repulsed and two companies of Grenadiers fired 24 boxes of ammunition on the 17th, so persistent were the enemy’s assaults.”
Late on the 15th November 1914 the relief of the 1st Corps by the French IX and XVI Corps began and on the night of the 16th – 17th November the French took over the section of the front near Polygon Wood from the other two Regiments forming the 4th Guards Brigade with 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards and 1st Battalion Irish Guards, namely the 2nd and 3rd Coldstream Guards. For 23 consecutive days and nights the Coldstream Guards Battalions had been in open earthworks exposed to bitter cold winds, rain and snow, without fires or light and being unable to move on account of the constant sniping that always went on. The line ran from Black Watch corner, the south western corner of Polygon Wood, along the southern edge of the wood and then ran North through the wood itself. In 1914, Polygon Wood was a thick wood of pine trees with dense undergrowth of oak, beech and chestnut. In about the middle of the wood there was a horse trotting course. No really serious attack against the Coldstream Guards was made and unlike the other units in 4th Guards Brigade the Battalions were not moved from point to point to defend any other position but for over 3 weeks the Battalion had been constantly on watch in the front line
On the night of 16th-17th November 1914 as part of the relief of the British forces by the French, the 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the Coldstream Guards left Polygon Wood with orders to move to Zillebeke, the march beginning long before dawn on the 17th November and it was slow and tiring. The road was deep in liquid mud and in many places there were large holes made by high explosive shells into which the men were constantly stumbling. Zillebeke was now a heap of ruins and all hopes of a rest vanished with the 4th Guards Brigade preparing to resist the enemy attack. The two Coldstream Battalions were placed in reserve although Colonel C E Pereira commanding the 2nd Battalion sent forward No. 2 Company and later No. 3 Company to support the cavalry. Colonel Feilding commanding either the 4th Guards Brigade or the 3rd Battalion (his role changed on the 17th) sent up No. 4 Company to reinforce the Grenadier Guards and the Irish Guards. This was when Lance Corporal Whitfield was killed.
In the evening of the 19th November 1914 the 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards was relieved by the 3rd Battalion Coldstream Guards, the Grenadiers marching to St. Jean. The 3rd Battalion remained in the front line under the usual heavy artillery fire until the 20th November and in this period Captain Dawson was killed.
On the 20th November 1914 the 4th (Guards) Brigade was relieved when the French took over the sector from Zonnebeke to the Ypres-Comines Canal.
By the 21st November 1914 the 4th Guards Brigade had reached Meteren for hot meals, rest and refitting. Movement of German forces to the East had been detected on the 20th November and on the 22nd November the German heavy guns that had shelled the town of Ypres for more than 3 weeks targeted the Gothic heart of Ypres leading to the destruction of the Cloth Hall and the cathedral of St. Martin, immediately to the North of the Hall. For the BEF the date of 22nd November when the occupation of the new line was completed became that on which men ceased to be eligible for the 1914 Star and marks the end of the First Battle of Ypres.
At the outbreak of the Great War, the 1st Battalion Cheshire Regiment was in Northern Ireland but landed at Havre on the 16th August 1914 as part of 15th Brigade 5th Division commanded by Lieut. Colonel D.C.Boger. The 2nd Battalion was at Jubbulpore in India commanded by Lieut.Colonel F.H.Finch Pearse and Major A de C Scott was 2nd in command. That Battalion landed also at Havre on the 17th January 1915 in 84th Brigade, 28th Division. The 1st Battalion, by the time of arrival of the 2nd Battalion in France, was so short of officers because of its losses in the First Battle of Ypres, that Colonel Arthur de Courcy Scott, Captain Savage and Lieutenant Mills had been transferred to the 1st Battalion from the 2nd.
On the 6th April 1915 the 5th Division had taken over a sector in the Ypres Salient which ran from East of St. Eloi by the Bluff, “Hill 60”, and Zwartelen to Armagh Wood to the west of the Zillebeke – Zwartelen road. Running parallel to this road is the Ypres-Comines railway and in the course of construction of the railway in the 19th century the earth from a cutting was deposited, on the west side two small hillocks The Caterpillar and the Dump and on the east, on the highest point of the ridge, Hill 60 which gave excellent observation of the ground around Zillebeke and Ypres. It had been held by the Germans since 10th December 1914. Following the explosion of mines, on the 17th April 1915 Hill 60 was captured by British forces and there followed periods of intense fighting. On the 1st May 1915 the Germans opened fire on the Hill with a heavy bombardment followed by the release of gas which caused considerable casualties – nearly 150 from gas alone – but the German infantry was thwarted. By then Hill 60 was like a rubbish heap of shell and mine, torn earth, timber and dead bodies – the fighting had churned up and pulverised the scene of desolation – the British trenches were shapeless cavities, there was no other kind of shelter and the enemy was less than 100 yards away. At 8.35 a.m. on the 5th May 1915 the Germans released gas again against part of the line held by the 2nd Battalion Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding Regiment), the half-suffocated remnants of the Battalion being overwhelmed by the Infantry attack which followed. The Germans then obtained possession of the front-line positions from Hill 60 to Zwartelen and orders were then sent to the 1st Battalion Cheshire Regiment in reserve in and around Ypres to move up and counter-attack the Hill. The Battalion had been out all night digging trenches near Hooge and had only arrived back in billets in the ramparts at Ypres at dawn. It was broad daylight when the Battalion set off passing many groups of men dead or dying, some wounded and all badly gassed. One Company was detached to take up a position covering Zillebeke and the Lake, as there were no troops between the Germans and that village. The other three companies proceeded to Larch Wood, which abuts the Ypres-Comines railway at the beginning of the cutting. The gas clouds had disappeared but the British line was completely broken from the cutting to the Zillebeke-Zwartelen road, from where the 1st Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment held on to Armagh Wood exposed to heavy fire from the flank and rear. The whole area was being shelled by both British and German artillery. Two companies then deployed between the railway and Zwartelen and commenced an advance with the object of re-capturing the position but suffered considerably from rifle and machine-gun fire. Lieutenant Colonel Scott, the Commanding Officer, was killed but his body was recovered and taken back to Zillebeke Churchyard. The Battalion continued its advance and by 1.30 p.m. had driven the Germans back and were occupying the old support trenches. When the fighting at Hill 60 ended, the combination of the shelling and the effect of the mines meant that little of the original hill remained. The British held the lower trenches, while the Germans occupied the summit of Hill 60 such as it was. Hill 60 remained in German hands until the Battle of Messines in 1917 although mine warfare continued on both sides so that by 1916 No Man’s Land directly below the hill was one long line of mine craters.
The next burials in the Churchyard were not until December 1915 and the casualties were both serving with the 11th Battalion, the Royal Scots (Lothian Regiment). This Service Battalion was formed at Edinburgh in August 1914 and formed part of 27th Brigade, 9th (Scottish) Division. Advance parties from the Division left for France on the 8th May 1915 the infantry brigades leaving from the 10th May and the troops travelled from Folkestone to Boulogne. By the 15th May the Division was concentrated around St. Omer. The Battalion played a part on the 25th September 1915 in the Battle of Loos and then on the 29th September 1915 the 9th (Scottish) Division was ordered north to join V Corps in the Salient. On the 3rd October Divisional H.Q. was established at Hooggraaf, 2 miles South of Poperinghe, and on the morning of the 5th, the 26th and 27th Brigades relieved the 17th Division in the trenches near Hill 60. The line taken over by the 9th Division lay south of Zillebeke and extended from North of Hill 60 to a point south of the Ypres-Comines canal near Oosthoek and Triangular Wood. The enemy’s line ran along the higher ground and the distance between the British and German trenches varied from 25 to 400 yards. The salient feature on the British front was the Bluff which rose steeply from the ground on the North side of the Ypres-Comines Canal, south west of Battle Wood, and completely dominated the sector. It is on a ridge and was probably created out of spoil from the excavation of a cutting for the canal. The 11th and 12th Royal Scots after being withdrawn from Loos, sampled the miseries of the Salient for three months. “The perpetual rain, the leaky shelters, the ubiquitous mud, the unsightly ruins, and the general gloom of the Flemish landscape, even if there had been no shelling, would have predisposed the mind to melancholy. It was possibly a blessing in disguise that the sodden ditches which passed for trenches necessitated unflagging labour on the part of the Royal Scots to prevent them tumbling in. Systematic training was impossible on account of the mud and the men kept themselves fit by the daily exercise which they derived from the wielding of pick and shovel.” In this period Lance Corporal Thomson and Private Stewart were both killed. The Division was relieved on the 20th December 1915, the day after the enemy had bombarded the whole of the Divisional front line and let loose clouds of gas.
The final burials were in 1916, all being of soldiers serving with the Canadian Expeditionary Force. The first was on the 23rd March 1916 but the remaining five were all involved directly or indirectly in the Battle of Mount Sorrel (known by the Canadians as the Battle of Sanctuary Wood) and Hooge between 2nd and 13th June 1916.
On the 4th April 1916 the Canadian Corps was holding a front which extended from south-west of St. Eloi, through St. Eloi, the Bluff and Hill 60 (in German possession) to a point 500 yards north-west of Hooge (that is across the Ypres-Menin road). The total length of front line trench was just over 5 miles. The German line followed the crest of the Ypres ridge and overlooked the British line except for a portion of about 1000 yards in length where the Canadian trenches commanded observation over the enemy’s line. This was where the front line between Zwarteleen (near The Dump and Hill 60) and the low ground near Sanctuary Wood mounted the crest of Ypres ridge skirting the edge of Armagh Wood and over a flat knoll with farm buildings called Mount Sorrel climbing to Hill 61 and Hill 62 (the site of the Canadian Memorial) and then passing through Sanctuary Wood down to Hooge and the Ypres-Menin road. At Hill 62, also called Tor Top, a prominent spur, Observatory Ridge, runs west towards Ypres. From the area of Hill 62 and the Ridge there was extensive views over the ground on either side of them, the woods now composed of bare tree trunks and stumps.
At least one Field Company of Engineers of the Canadian Expeditionary Force were in the Zillebeke area earlier, however, and this was the 6th Field Company which moved from the Kemmel sector as Engineers to the 2nd Canadian Division in March 1916.
On the 31st May and 1st June 1915 enemy artillery and air activity was distinctly above the normal and on the 1st June 8 enemy observation balloons were up indicating an offensive operation but the enemy artillery did not fire on the Canadian trenches from 8 p.m. on the 1st June until 3 a.m. on the 2nd. At 6 a.m. on the 2nd June Major-General Malcolm Smith Mercer C.B. commanding the 3rd Canadian Division with Brigadier General Williams of 8th Brigade set out to make a reconnaissance of the front when at 8.30 a.m. the firing increased and at 9 a.m. a veritable storm of artillery fire was bursting on the 3rd Canadian Division’s positions, steel and iron fragments pierced the flesh and cascades of earth were thrown over bodies, trenches melted away and mounds and craters appeared where none existed before. A litter of broken wood, burst sandbags and human remains encumbered the earth and then the German artillery lifted to the Canadian second line and groups of the survivors crept out, wild-eyed and stupefied, like men just risen from the tomb to see the solid lines of the enemy advancing at a walk or jog-trot. At just after 1 p.m. the Germans exploded three mines at Mount Sorrel, just short of the British position. Major General Mercer was amongst the casualties and died the next day and is buried at Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery, Poperinge. The result of the German advance was that the British line which, before the attack ran around the Southern and Eastern edge of Armagh Wood and the Eastern edge of Sanctuary Wood, was pushed back to the Western edge of Armagh Wood and ran through the middle of Sanctuary Wood.
At 4.25 p.m. on the 2nd June, preliminary orders were issued to the 3rd Canadian Division for a counter-attack to take place either that night or in the early morning, about 2 a.m., of the 3rd June. This proposal was changed so that the 1st Canadian Division would counter attack in the southern sector and the 3rd Canadian Division in the north but again this was changed so that finally only two Brigades from the 1st Canadian Division would attack. These changes caused delays and the attack actually started at 7.10 a.m. on the 3rd June after half an hour’s intense artillery bombardment, so the Canadians were attacking in broad daylight over bare ground.
The 15th Battalion, part of 3rd Brigade, was to attack in the centre in a day which had dawned dull and stormy with dashes of driving rain which drenched the troops many of whom had been marching all night. All the chilled soldiers of the 7th, 14th and 15th Battalions could see in front of them was some hundred yards of open ground and behind a tangled irregular piece of woodland, sloping up to a low crest. Somewhere in that thicket lay the enemy’s trenches but the precise spot was largely a matter of guesswork, not of certainty. The 15th Battalion attacked at 8.35 a.m., they were already astride the end of Observatory Ridge but the ground in front of them had absolutely no cover, they were attacking towards Maple Copse and were hit by German artillery and machine-gun fire, and after pushing just beyond Rudkin House (on the Western edge of Armagh Wood) they were compelled to stop and dig themselves in under a withering fire. The Battalion lost 11 officers and 297 other ranks, killed, wounded or missing.
The position gained by the Germans was not only highly important from the point of view of observation, but lay little more than two miles from the gates of Ypres and the British and her allies were naturally anxious to recover it. However Sir Douglas Haig was averse to any large scale operation which would interfere with his plans for the offensive on the Somme in the Summer of 1916 but it was agreed that a substantial number of heavy guns and an Infantry Brigade would be provided to support the Canadian Corps in its attempt to recover the loss ground. Fighting continued in the interim period and in particular on the 6th June 1916 the enemy exploded four mines at Hooge, across the Menin Road and to the West of Chateau Wood. German Infantry then attacked and obtained possession of the front and support trenches manned by the 28th Battalion, one entire company of the Battalion perishing almost to the last man. The result of the fighting on that day was the Germans could be imagined as sitting on the rim of a saucer around Ypres and that were on the threshold of conquering the salient.
The plan was to mass the Canadian battalions in great strength for the night of the 12th – 13th June.
The 52nd Battalion of the Canadian Infantry was part of the 9th Brigade 3rd Division of the Canadian Expeditionary Force and on the afternoon of the 6th June was ordered to relieve the 43rd Battalion in the Maple Copse trenches. The relief was completed at 1.30 a.m. on the 7th June.
On the evening of the 7th June 1916 the 24th Battalion had moved to Vlamertinghe and was marching to the front line Maple Copse trenches. On the way to the front line the Battalion had been harassed severely by German shell fire.
The 43rd Battalion was part of 9th Brigade Canadian Infantry which was in Divisional Reserve on the 2nd June 1916. On the 3rd June neither the 58th nor the 43rd Battalions were called forward. Despite the planned 12th – 13th June counter-attack in strength it was necessary to carry out the usual system of relief of units holding the front lines and on the 10th June 1916 the 43rd Battalion came forward to relieve the 52nd Battalion with Battalion H.Q. at Dormy House. This is a position about 500 yards East of Zillebeke with Maple Copse a further 500 yards away to the East. There was heavy artillery fire by both the enemy and the Canadian artillery all evening and there were 33 casualties.
At 8 a.m. on the 11th June orders were issued for the recapture of Mount Sorrel and Tor Top, zero hour being fixed for 1.30 a.m. on the 13th June. During the 12th June a deliberate 10 hour bombardment of the German positions between Hill 60 and Sanctuary Wood was carried out and the result of the attack on the 13th June was to re-establish the front line in broadly speaking the same position that it had been before 2nd June 1916 but the Canadian Corps in the period 2nd to 14th June 1916 had 73 officers killed, 257 wounded and 57 missing with 1,053 other ranks killed, 5,010 wounded and 1,980 missing, a total of 8,430.
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