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Richard Follows was born in 1892 at Ogley Hay, Brownhills, Staffordshire and his brother Arthur Follows was born in 1893 at Morton Lanes also in Brownhills. They were the sons of Richard and Mary Ann Follows, Richard being born in 1865 at Longton in Staffordshire which is now part of the City of Stoke on Trent and his wife in 1868 in Ogley Hay.
The two brothers were the eldest of seven children of Richard and Mary their sisters Florrie being born in 1895, Mary in 1896, Ada in 1897, Bertha in 1898 and Elizabeth in 1900.
In 1901 the family were living at 42 Tunnel Cottages, Stockingford, Nuneaton the Head of the Household, Richard, being employed as a Coal Miner and also living with them was Richard’s brother William Follows born in 1879 in Green Hill, Staffordshire also employed as a Coal Miner.
Both brothers worked in the coal mining industry in North Warwickshire at the pits at Haunchwood (now a part of Nuneaton known as Whittleford) either at Haunchwood Colliery Co. Pit or Haunchwood Tunnel Pit, Nuneaton.
Richard and Arthur enlisted together at Nuneaton in the Coldstream Guards being given consecutive numbers, Arthur 11742 and Richard 11743, both living then in Ansley.
Following basic training in England both Brothers went to France landing at Havre on the 9th January 1915. They probably spent the next few days at the Guards Reinforcement Camp at Harfleur some 5 miles from Havre and were thus part of a draft of 166 men received by the 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards on the 19th January under 2nd Lieutenants R.M.Wright and J.S.Coats when the Battalion was in billets in Bethune.
On the 16th October 1914 the 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards had left the area of the River Aisne as part of the 1st (Guards) Brigade, 1st Division , for Flanders. The other battalions in the Brigade were the 1st Scots Guards, 1st Black Watch (Royal Highlanders) and 1st Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders (replacing the 2nd Battalion The Royal Munster Fusiliers, who had been destroyed whilst acting as the rearguard at Etreux (a small town some 10 miles South East of Le Cateau, Nord) holding off six German Battalions. The 1st Battalion reached Hazebrouck to participate in the First Battle of Ypres holding the line from 20th October to 20th November 1914 leaving Ypres, then in ruins, to march to Meteren, some 15 miles to the south, reduced to 3 officers and 122 other ranks moving on the 23rd November 5 miles to the West to Pradelles, by which time the 1/14th (County of London) Battalion of the London Regiment (the London Scottish) had joined the Brigade. From the 28th November to the 19th December 1914 the Battalion was billeted at Strazeele, reforming and training, being inspected by His Majesty King George V on the 3rd December.
At this time the British line before La Bassee, one of the German strong points of the German front covering Lille, was held by the Indian Corps and on the 20th December 1914 The Germans attacked in great force mainly against the village of Givenchy which commanded all the country to the west. The village was captured although later in the day part to the south and east was recovered and the 1st (Guards) Brigade was ordered south at 5 p.m. on the 20th December marching some 20 miles to Bethune and then at 12 noon on the 21st the Brigade marched East on the Bethune/La Bassee road to the south of the La Bassee Canal, the Cameron Highlanders leading followed by the Coldstream Guards to Pont Fixe, Givenchy. Brigade orders were issued on route to attack Rue d’Ouvert from Pont Fixe, cooperating if possible with 3rd Infantry Brigade on the left. The Guards Brigade attacked at 3 p.m. with the Coldstream Guards and the Cameron Highlanders in the first line. A few shells caused one or two casualties in the village while crossing the Pont Fixe, with this exception the enemy’s artillery fire caused no damage. As soon as the attack started the leading companies came under enfilade rifle and machine gun fire but owing to a heavy hailstorm which came on right in the enemy’s face, casualties were not heavy. Three Companies occupied the old French trenches on the reverse slope of the spur about 300 yards West of the trenches evacuated by the Indian troops on the 19th December, now held by the Germans. Lieutenant Colonel John Ponsonby established his H.Q. in the end house of Givenchy Village with a Company in trenches nearby. A patrol under 2nd Lieutenant Mills went forward to the end of Givenchy village and reported it clear of the enemy so far as the Church. Attempts were made overnight to straighten up the line and get in touch with the Gloucesters on the left and the Cameron Highlanders on the right but proper touch could not be obtained. Lieutenant Colonel Ponsonby assisted by Captain Daniels 15th Sikhs made a reconnaissance and found a Company of the London Scottish on the left rear of No 2 Company of the Coldstream Guards which were almost immediately withdrawn. At 5.45 a.m. on the 22nd December the three companies in the forward trenches attacked the German trench along the road leading from Givenchy to Chapelle St. Roche and took it but being without any support on their flanks they were bombed out of it about 8 a.m. and retired to the North of the ruins of the church in Givenchy having lost over 50% of their strength. With the Scots Guards and the London Scottish holding the remaining parts of Givenchy so began the daily routine of siege warfare in this area of Givenchy.
At 9 p.m. on the 22nd December the Battalion was relieved by the Black Watch and marched back to billets in a village south of the canal at Pont Fixe, billets being farm buildings around a dirty midden, the weather being wet and cold. The following day the Battalion moved to Cambrin to Brigade Reserve returning to the Givenchy trenches on the 26th December until the 28th December when the Battalion moved to billets in Bethune.
On the 29th December 1914 a draft of 100 men was received and then on the 31st December the Battalion went back to Beuvry some 2 miles South East of Bethune and the following day to Annequin South of the canal to form with another battalion the Divisional Reserve. On the 2nd January 1915 the Battalion relieved the 1st Battalion the Northamptonshire Regiment in the trenches at Givenchy until relief on the 12th January. “3rd January -The trenches occupied by Nos. 1, 2 and 3 Companies are quite good and fairly dry; those of No 4 were very wet, liquid mud everywhere up to one’s knees. The Germans shelled the road all the afternoon. Poured with rain.” “ 7th January - Owing to the heavy rains the trenches are beginning to fall in in many places. Pouring with rain as usual; our cellar is full of water, and in order not be drowned the Battalion HQ are moved down the road near Pont Fixe.”
On relief on the 13th the Battalion marched from Givenchy to billets in barracks in Bethune. The men enjoyed baths on the 15th and 19th January and on that day 166 other ranks joined with Second Lieutenants J. Coats and R.M. Wright, the two brothers probably being in this draft.
On the 21st January the Battalion was inspected by the GOC 1st Corps, Lieutenant General Sir Douglas Haig, and then the Battalion, reinforced by the draft received on the 19th January, marched to Cambrin close to Cuinchy, formerly a flourishing village, then in 1915 a desolate heap of ruins, to form Brigade Reserve. The Battalion as part of the 1st (Guards) Brigade was responsible for the British line from the La Bassee canal and to the south of it to the point where the British Expeditionary force linked with the left of the French Tenth Army. “The billets were bad – most of the houses were in ruins with no roofs or walls left.”
On the 22nd January the Battalion left Cambrin to go into the trenches at Cuinchy relieving the London Scottish.
The British sector was East of Cuinchy, the front line running some 800 yards to the East of the roofless walls of Cuinchy church and a similar distance South from the La Bassee canal to the Bethune to La Bassee road at which point the French Tenth Army held the line to the south. The line occupied formed a pronounced salient, for from the canal it ran forward towards the railway triangle, which was in the possession of the enemy, and then back to the main road. The country was absolutely flat with the Bethune-La Bassee railway running on an embankment along the south bank of the canal and parallel to the canal until the triangle formed by the junction with another line going south through Vermelles. The flat ground near Cuinchy was covered by brick stacks, big cubical heaps of bricks about 12 square yards and 16 feet high still standing in the position in which they were burnt. Each had a hollow in the centre at ground level which contained the fire with flues through the structure by means of which the fumes escaped. The bricks were packed in such a way that there remained minute spaces between each so that the mass was very elastic and practically impervious to shell-fire. The brick stacks, about 30 in total, constituted a formidable obstacle in attack and an extremely useful shelter in defence. Most were within German lines with others lying inside British territory. From a group of brick stacks, a keep or small redoubt had been constructed about 500 yards East of Cuinchy through which a partially prepared second line of the defences ran. The keep had been constructed by linking up four brickstacks with walls of loose bricks to form a square fort with the brickstacks at each corner. The railway Triangle was of importance to the Germans, giving the enemy a fort he could hold and the utilization of the embankments.
The trenches at Cuinchy had not been completed; the communication trenches were bad and the fire trenches full of water and were insufficiently supported and too far from the reserve. There was heavy rain all night. On the 24th January the Germans shelled the position most of the day with their heavy guns – most of the fire being directed on Pont Fixe making it impossible for working parties to attempt to improve the trenches. They had been undermined by the enemy ever since the 5th January, a fact of which no one was aware.
The Scots Guards held the sector from the Bethune/La Bassee road to a point where the Keep was, with platoons in the Keep, the fire-trenches and dug-outs in support, the 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards holding the remaining part up to the Canal.
At 0630 on the 25th January 1915 a German deserter stated to an officer commanding a Company of the Scots Guards that in an hour the enemy would begin a bombardment, and then fire mines blowing up the British trenches, after which there would be an assault.
At 0730 that morning heavy fire broke out along the front, the German attacks commencing with the explosion of a mine in the trench held by No. 4 Company of the Coldstream Guards under Captain Campbell. The first line of trenches were consequently rushed by the Germans. No. 1 Company on the embankment by the La Bassee Canal held its ground and No. 2 Company under Lieutenant Viscount Acheson held on to the keep and brick stacks and repelled the German attacks.
The first mine explosion was followed by more at different points, the salient was blown in by these simultaneous explosions and the enemy rushing in got possession of it. Men began to retire from the trenches east of the Keep, and it was reported that the enemy was approaching the Keep from both the North and the South. Some of the Supports from the Scots Guards who had been to the North came into the Keep as well as some men from the Coldstream Guards from the left trenches. Some troops from both the Scots and Coldstream Guards were organised into a line facing north and north-east across the tramway running north from the Keep which was handed over to Lieutenant Viscount Acheson of the Coldstream Guards and the firm resistance prevented the Germans from surrounding the Keep from the north or pressing on to Cuinchy village. Whilst the situation to the North was relatively secure there had opened a gap between the south of the Keep and the French beyond the La Bassee road when, with the Germans massing opposite this gap, reinforcements arrived and the position was secured by platoons of the Scots Guards with help from the French to the south and two companies of the London Scottish ordered up by Brigadier-General Lowther commanding 1st Brigade. The remnants of the Coldstream Guards and of the Scots Guards fell back to the second line, and endeavoured to check the German inroad. Reinforcements furnished by the three remaining battalions of the Brigade (the Black Watch, Cameron Highlanders and London Scottish) and a battalion from divisional reserve, were soon on the scene and as they arrived they prevented a further hostile advance. But the enemy having established himself among the brick-stacks, was even able to penetrate to the west, (Cuinchy side), of the keep and on either side of it. The keep however where a party of the Scots Guards were posted under Major Romilly, D.S.O., and into which No 2 Company of the Coldstream Guards under Lieutenant Viscount Acheson eventually retired, was held safe. No. 1 Company moreover under 2nd Lieutenant C. G. Mills, repulsed an attack near the embankment; and 2nd Lieutenant T.A. Tapp did great execution with a machine-gun, firing more than 7,500 rounds into the swarming German masses and effectually cooling their enthusiasm. At 1 p.m. a counter-attack was organized under Colonel Stewart, Black Watch, and ultimately the enemy was forced back, while the British held a somewhat broken line from the canal to the keep and thence to the main road. The French near this road had also been driven back, but not as far as the British right, and they were thus exposed in flank, but the enemy did not press his advantage home. During the night the 2nd Brigade replaced the 1st (Guards) Brigade who, having lost heavily, were withdrawn to Bethune into reserve.
The Battalion left Cuinchy trenches on the 26th January for billets at Bethune when 3 officers and 110 other ranks joined, remaining at Bethune until the 30th January when the Battalion marched to Oblingham and then the next day to Ecquedeques (some 14 kilometres North West of Bethune, West of Lillers) where it remained in billets until the 4th February 1915.
On the same day as the mine explosions, 25th January, an equally violent attack was directed against Givenchy, and along the north bank of the canal; but this was repulsed and there was no alteration in the British line in that quarter.
The Battalion suffered severely the casualties on the 25th January 1915 amounting to 202 killed, wounded and missing, including ten officers of whom 5 died. Captain The Honourable John Beresford Campbell D.S.O. was killed but his body was never recovered and he was probably blown up when the mines exploded. He was aged 48 years and is commemorated on the Le Touret Memorial, Richebourg-l’Avoue,Pas de Calais. 2nd Lieutenants Charles Gordon Mills (aged 19) is buried in Cuinchy Communal Cemetery, Pas de Calais and George Carlyon Armstrong (aged 18) is commemorated on the Le Touret Memorial. 2nd Lieutenant Joseph Edward Rodgers died of wounds that day and is buried in Lillers Communal Cemetery Extension, Pas de Calais; 2nd Lieutenant Harold Norton Clifton died of wounds on the 1st February 1915 and is buried in Cabaret-Rouge British Cemetery, Souchez. 2nd Lieutenants R.M. Wright, J.S.Coats and E.N. Clifton were wounded as was 2nd Lieutenant T.A. Tapp who having gone to the dressing-station to get his wound bound up, returned to the machine gun until the end of the action. Captain C.K Hutchinson surrounded in the salient and unable to escape, was captured.
The casualties among other ranks amounted to nearly 80 killed or dying of wounds, with another 54 wounded and a number counted as missing, a majority of whom were in fact killed. 77 other ranks killed in action can be identified, of whom 65 have no known grave and are commemorated on the Le Touret Memorial.
Richard and Arthur Fellows were both killed in this action on the 25th January 1915 and are now buried in Cabaret-Rouge British cemetery, Souchez, Pas de Calais. Souchez is a village 3.5 kilometres north of the outskirts of Arras on the main road to Bethune, the cemetery itself being about 1.5 kilometres south of the village on the west side of the D937 Arras-Bethune road.
Richard and Arthur Follows enlisted together, served together, were killed together and now lie buried together. They lie in plot XXV Row B, with Arthur in plot B1, Richard B2, an unknown soldier of the Coldstream Guards in B3, Private William Facey Coldstream Guards killed in action on the 25th January in B4 and Private Thomas Tudball again killed in action on the 25th January in B5. Each of these casualties were originally buried North East of Cuinchy, Arthur and the unknown soldier at map reference 44a.A15.d. 7.3, Privates Facey and Tudball at 7.2 and Richard at 70.25.
The brothers are commemorated on the Galley Common War Memorial in St.Peter’s Church Yard, Hickman Road, Galley Common near Nuneaton, Warwickshire and on a Memorial Plaque in the Haunchwood Institute, Valley Road, Galley Common.
Each of the Brothers was awarded the British War Medal (in silver to army personnel who entered a theatre of war between 5th August 1914 and 11th November 1918), the Victory Medal (in bronze, qualification similar to the British War Medal but period extended to mid January 1919) and the 1914 – 1915 Star (in bronze to those who served in any theatre of war against Germany and her allies between 5th August 1914 and 31st December 1915, except those eligible for the 1914 Star).
Two other Privates are buried in Cabaret-Rouge British Cemetery, No. 12761 Private Alfred Louis Crowe plot 1-C-8 and No.6983 Mark Gummer plot XXI-E-8.
No. 5436 Lance Corporal Howard Capewell is buried in Maroc British Cemetery, Grenay, Pas-de-Calais, during the grater part of the war a front line cemetery. No. 11826 Private Frederick William Clarke is buried in Canadian Cemetery No. 2, Neuville-St.Vaast, Pas-de-Calais, a cemetery less than a mile south of Souchez village. No. 3437 Acting Sereant William Duffield is buried in Cuinchy Communal Cemetery very close to the scene of the action on the 25th January. No. 6674 Private William Shakeshaft is buried in Arras Road British Cemetery, Roclincourt, Pas-de-Calais, a cemetery less than a mile south east of St. Vaast his grave being one of those brought in after the Armistice. No. 12053 Private Alfred James Slight is buried in Woburn Abbey Cemetery, Cuinchy, Pas-de-Calais again close to the scene of the action on the 25th January 1915
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