|
Monks Kirby is a large village in Warwickshire some 6 miles North West of Rugby.
The War Memorial takes the form of a Stone Cross in Brockhurst Road, Monks Kirby recording those who laid down their lives in the Great War 1914 – 1918 and the Second World War 1939 - 1945 with a Plaque in St. Edith’s Church, Monks Kirby.
Those who laid down their lives in the Great War 1914 - 1919 and recorded on the War Memorial in Monks Kirby
Fergus John Benson Private No. 3123 1st/7th Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment (Territorial Force). Killed in action 27th November 1916 and buried in Warlencourt British Cemetery Pas de Calais, 3 miles SW of Bapaume on the Albert – Bapaume road. Records 2,765 UK., 461 Aust., 126 SA., 79 NZ., 4 Can., and 2 French burials and 71 special memorials.
Son of Mr W H Benson of 13 Charles Street, Wolverhampton formerly of Stretton Wharf, Stretton under Fosse, enlisted at Coventry joining the Royal Warwickshire Regiment in 1914. He had been expected home for Christmas. His Platoon Officer wrote “He met his death instantaneously by explosion of a shell a splendid soldier a cheerful little hero who they highly esteemed and in whom they had great confidence.”
1st/7th Battalion was a Territorial Battalion formed at Coventry on the 4th August 1914 and with the 1st/5th, 1st/6th and 1/8th formed the Warwickshire Brigade part of the South Midland Division. The Brigade entrained for Southampton crossing the Channel and landing at Le Havre on the 23rd March 1915. On the 12th April 1915 the Brigade had taken over a sector of the front south of Ypres on the north-east side of Ploegsteert village.
On the 13th May 1915 the formation became the 143rd Brigade of the 48th (South Midland) Division.
Private Benson himself landed in France on the 25th June 1915 as part of a draft of replacements.
In June 1915 General Joffre was proposing two offensives against the German forces; from Champagne northwards and from the Artois plateau eastwards. The offensive from Artois – as planned at the beginning of June – was to be the main operation and formed a sequel to the expected capture of Vimy ridge with a greatly re-enforced French 10th Army attacking eastwards from about Arras and Lens into and across the Douai plain. The offensive from Champagne was to be delivered from about Reims northwards along the foothill of the Ardennes following the eastern border of the plain.
On the 4th June General Joffre sent a draft of his scheme to British G.H.Q. with the British being asked to assist in two ways; by taking over 22 miles of the French line south of Arras from Chaulnes (33 miles south of Arras) across the Somme to Hebuterne (13 miles S.S.W. of Arras) in order to free for the offensive in Champagne the French Second Army the holding that sector of the line and also participating in the French 10th Army offensive by attacking either on its immediate left, north of Lens, or on its right across the Somme uplands south of Arras.
In principle Sir John French agreed to these proposals and the newly formed Third Army was to become responsible for the extended front, in fact of 13 miles rather than 22 miles, from Curlu on the Somme River to Hebuterne,
The first units into the trenches were on the 20th July 1915 1/5th Gloucesters, 1/8th Worcesters and 1/4th Oxford and Bucks. from the 48th (South Midland) Division to hold the area Fonquevillers to north of Serre. On the 24th July 1915 1st Kings Own (Royal Lancasters) and 2nd Essex from the 4th Division, Serre to Beaumont-Hamel. On the 30th July 1915 1/6th Seaforth Highlanders and 1/8th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders from 51st (Highland) Division, Thiepval to La Boisselle. On the 2nd August 1915 1st Norfolks and 1st Bedfords from 5th Division, Becourt to theSomme River.
Shortly after his joining the Battalion, the Brigade moved south to Lozinghem about 4 miles west of Bethune and then in July 1915 the Brigade moved further south to relieve the French 42nd Brigade in trenches north and east of Hebuterne, Somme, one of the most peaceful sectors of the British line. In September 1915 the Brigade moved further north to take over a sector of the front near Fonquevillers north of Hebuterne from the 111th Brigade of the French 56th Division. Christmas 1915 was celebrated in the line with the observation that strict orders have been given against any fraternizing with the enemy. Private Benson was sent a Xmas parcel and wrote home to acknowledge receipt stating; “I think we are getting on fine now and the war will not last much longer. The Germans don’t retaliate as they did a few months ago. We are turning the tables on them.”
The Somme Offensive was the main Allied attack on the Western Front in 1916. Planned in late 1915 as a joint Franco-British operation it was concerned with territorial gain but also aimed at the destruction of German manpower reserves. French troops were expected to bear the main burden of the operation but the German Army’s assault on Verdun in 1916 turned the Somme operation into a large-scale British attack. After a preliminary bombardment which was expected to completely destroy German forward defences the plan called on the first day for the penetration of the German front line from Serre in the north to Maricourt in the south. In the second phase it was planned to take the high ground between Bapaume and Guinchy, followed by a breakthrough towards Arras and a general advance in the direction of Cambrai. Instead on the 1st July 1916 the attacking troops were cut down with insignificant gains by the French and the British right wing units near Montauban being off-set by total failure to the north. The attacks nonetheless continued in a series of limited and costly advances until in mid July the German second line was finally broken around Bazentin Ridge. On the 20th July a new offensive was launched by the Australians on the ridge at Pozieres and the French well to the south in the region of Foucaucourt but the front remained substantially unaltered throughout August. In September a renewed British attack the Battle of Flers-Courcelette was launched using tanks for the first time but only a small gain was achieved. Renewed attacks in September, the Battles of Morval and Thiepval, continued in October with a pattern of limited Allied advances whenever the weather allowed. British offensives beyond the Flers-Courcelette line, the Battles of Transloy Ridges and the Ancre Heights, were matched by French attacks in the south and the BEF made one last effort on the far east of the salient from 13 November 1916 the Battle of the Ancre (or Beaumont Hamel) before snow on the 19th November 1916 caused the final suspension of the operation.
On the 3rd November 1916 the 48th (South Midland) Division of which the 143rd Brigade was part transferred to Sir William Pulteney’s III Corps and on the 9th the Brigade moved south taking over a part of the front line at Le Sars, on the Albert-Bapaume road. On the 10th November the Battalion had its first spell in the trenches in the front line just to the East of the village of Le Sars, described as most foul and full of dreadful heaps that had once been a community, with a track through it. The Battalion was in the sector to the right of Le Sars holding the line until relieved by the 1st/8th Royal Warwickshire on the 12th November. The Battalion provided working parties on the 13th, 14th and 15th November before moving into Bivouacs at Bazentin Le Petit Wood providing working parties on building new Battalion Headquarters from the 19th to the 22nd, then on the 23rd November the Battalion relieved the 1/6th Gloucester in trenches in the right sector at Le Sars. Over the next four days the Battalion lost 1officer and 1 other rank killed in action and 1 officer and 4 other ranks wounded. On the 27th November 1916 the Battalion was relieved by the 1/8th Royal Warwickshire Regiment and proceeded into support losing 2 other ranks killed in action, and 5 wounded, all by enemy shell-fire. Private Fergus Benson was one of the two killed in action, the other being Private No 4537 Ernest William Darvill who is buried in Martinpuich British Cemetery Pas de Calais which is about 2 miles West of Le Sars, with Warlencourt British Cemetery being about 1 mile east of the village. The 1/8th had 1 officer wounded in the relief and 1 soldier killed, this being Private 5085 George Frederick Baker (the relief being described as very trying commencing at 5 pm and being completed at 11 pm). Private Baker has no known grave and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial.
The appalling conditions under which the Army fought in this period were described by Sir Douglas Haig in a report dated 21st November 1916; “The ground, sodden with rain and broken up everywhere by innumerable shell-holes, can only be described as a morass, almost bottomless in places: between the lines and for many thousands of yards behind them it is almost – and in some localities, quite – impassable. The supply of food and ammunition is carried out with the greatest difficulty and immense labour, and the men are so much worn out by this and by the maintenance and construction of trenches that frequent reliefs – carried out under exhausting conditions – are unavoidable.”
Between the front and the reserve positions on the reverse slopes of the Bazentin ridge – Ginchy, Guillemont, Longueval, the Bazentins, Pozieres – stretched a sea of mud more than two miles in extent, and the valley of the Ancre was a veritable slough of despond. Movement across these wastes was by duckboard tracks which, exposed as they were to hostile shell-fire and the disintegrating action of the mud and rain, could only be maintained and extended by arduous and unending labour. The front line was mud with holes in it. If the holes were roundish they were called posts; if oblong they were called trenches with names such as Gusty Trench and Spectrum Trench. They connected with nothing except more mud. The only certainty was that, beyond a certain unidentifiable point you would be shelled continuously from over the bleak horizon.
Percy Bishop Sergeant No. 70261 Berkshire Yeomanry. Distinguished Conduct Medal. Died of wounds 15th November 1917. Commemorated on Jerusalem Memorial in Jerusalem War Cemetery which records a total of 3366 missing from General Sir Edmund Allenby's victorious campaign against the Turks in the Great War.
George Smith Busby Corporal No. 307750 1st/8th Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment (Territorial Force). . Died of wounds 24th October 1918 aged 34. Buried Premont British Cemetery Aisne France.
The Honourable Hugh Cecil Robert Feilding Lieutenant Commander Royal Navy. Killed in action on 31st May 1916 aged 29 on HMS "Defence" at Battle of Jutland. Commemorated Plymouth Memorial on north side of The Hoe Plymouth which lists over 7000 lost at sea in the Great War.
The Honourable Henry Simon Feilding. Lieutenant (Acting Captain) 2nd Battalion Coldstream Guards died of wounds 11th October 1917 October aged 23. Buried Dozinghem Military Cemetery, Westvleteren, West Flanders. This cemetery was one of three created at the outset of 3rd Ypres, the others being Mendinghem British Cemetery, Proven, West Flanders and Haringhe (Bandaghem) Military Cemetery, Rousbrugge-Haringhe, West Flanders.
Sydney Hammond Rifleman No. R4004 12th (Service) Battalion Kings Royal Rifle Corps.. Killed in action 2nd April 1918. Commemorated Pozieres Memorial which is the wall surrounding Pozieres British Cemetery Ovillers-La-Boiselle Somme.
William Harris Private No. 7472 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards. Killed in action 29th October 1914. Commemorated on Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial Belgium.
Albert Norman Henderson Major (Acting Lieutenant Colonel) 10th (Service) Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment. M.C. Killed in action 23rd July 1916. Commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France and on a stone Plaque in St. Ediths Church, Monks Kirby.
Clifford Izzard Private No. 4450 2nd Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment. Killed in action 8th June 1916. Buried Citadel New Military Cemetery Fricourt Somme France.
Roland Isaac Kenney Sergeant No. 2096 1st/7th Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment (Territorial Force). Killed in action 14th July 1916. Buried Pozieres British Cemetery Ovillers-Ia-Boiselle Somme France.
Crofts Edward Lea Private No. 21121 16th (Service) Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment. . Killed in action 30th July 1917. Commemorated Memorial to the Missing Arras
George John Plant Lance Corporal 20724 2nd Battalion Coldstream Guards Military Medal. Died of Wounds 27th August 1918 aged 25 and buried in St Hilaire Cemetery Extension, Frevent, Pas de Calais, France.
John William Southam Private No 41765 8th (Service) Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. Killed in action 16th August 1917 aged 19. Commemorated on Tyne Cot Memorial Passchendaele West Flanders
Born 1898 at Monks Kirby Warwickshire. Son of Thomas and Harriet Southam. In 1901 Thomas Southam (43) living in Main Street Monks Kirby with Harriet (30) and John, aged 3 years. In 1891 Thomas Southam was a widower with no children living with him.
John Southam enlisted at Warwick. Resident Butterworth, Lancashire. Brother of Mr. Wilfred Southam of Monks Kirby.
On the 11th September 1914 the War Office issued an order authorising the creation of six divisions numbered from 15th to 20th to form the 2nd New Army. During September the formation of the 16th (Irish) Division began and Lieutenant General Sir Lawrence Parsons was appointed to command on the 23rd September 1914. The four Brigades were the 47th Brigade: 6th Royal Irish Regiment, 6th Connaught Rangers, 7th Leinster Regiment and 7th Royal Irish Rifles. The 48th Brigade: 8th Royal Munster Fusiliers, 9th Royal Munster Fusiliers, 8th Royal Dublin Fusiliers and 9th Royal Dublin Fusiliers. 49th Brigade: 7th Royal Iniskilling Fusiliers, 8th Royal Iniskilling Fusiliers, 7th Royal Irish Fusiliers and 8th Royal Irish Fusiliers.
The 49th Brigade was formed on 1st October 1914 with Brig.–Gen. R. D. Longe appointed to its command with headquarters established in Tipperary Barracks. In September 1915 the Division moved to the Woking area for intensive training; before going to England, the 49th Brigade had received no trench warfare training. On the 5th December 1915 Sir Lawrence Parsons, aged 66, was replaced by Major-General William Bernard Hickie and on the 17th December 1915 the Division, except the 49th Brigade, sailed from Southampton landing at Le Havre on the 18th. Brig.-Gen. Longe departed and was replaced by Brig.-Gen. Philip Leveson-Gower and then, finally up to strength, the 49th Brigade sailed from Southampton on the 17th February 1916, landing at Le Havre on the 18th February with the 8th Royal Iniskilling Fusiliers going into billets West of Bethune on the 26th February 1916.
The Division had been despatched to the Loos Sector of First Army where units of the Division were attached to battalions serving at Givenchy and Festubert on the Western Front, for example those of the 15th (Scottish) Division, for initiation to front-line duty. On the 24th March 1916 the Division began to take over the line from the 15th (Scottish) Division in the Hulluch Sector, East of Loos and in front of Hulluch.
The first real test of the Division was on the 27th April 1916 when the Germans launched a large scale attack under cover of gas in the Hulluch sector, the attack falling upon the 48th and 49th Infantry Brigades and particularly heavily on the 8th Royal Irish Fusiliers, 8th Royal Dublin Fusiliers and 7th Iniskillings. Two days later, on the morning of the 29th, the Germans lauched another attack under cover of a heavy gas release from 3,600 cylinders on the Hulluch front. A vast amount of work was being done on a daily basis to repair, strengthen and tidy the division’s defences on this sector, the trenches having been fought over and shelled many times, and dug in very flat, low-lying and waterlogged terrain.
1916 was the year of the Battle of the Somme. The 16th Division arrived in the Somme sector on the 29th August 1916 and on the 3rd September the 47th Brigade of the Division was brought up to replace the 60th Brigade in the attack on the Northern part of the village of Guillemont. The units involved were the 6th Connaughts, 7th Leinsters, 8th Royal Munsters and 6th Royal Irish. “The men of Munster, Leinster and Connaught broke through the intricate defences of the enemy as a torrent sweeps down rubble. The place was one of the strongest of all the many fortified villages in the German line and its capture was the most important since the taking of Pozieres.”
Guillemont fell to the 20th (Light) Division and the 47th Brigade of the 16th Division. There is next to the church in the village the 16th (Irish) Division Memorial.
The 8th Battalion of the Iniskillings was on the 5th September in the frontline at Leuze Wood, suffering heavy casualties under a heavy bombardment on the 6th September whilst digging a forward trench in preparation for the attempt to capture the fortress village of Ginchy just south of which was the German strongpoint known as the Quadrilateral, a loop trench bristling with machine-guns and covered by wide belts of barbed wire, some 60 yards wide, in dead ground covered by long grass and weeds and so concealed from observation.
Units of the 7th Division had initially captured Ginchy on the 3rd September but by late afternoon the Germans had re-occupied the village. On the 5th September the 16th Division had assaulted the village again but failed to take it and also could not capture the Quadilateral.
Another attempt was made on the 9th September 1916 the left of the attack to capture Ginchy to be delivered by the 16th Division already weakened by the previous fighting. 48th Brigade moved off at 1645 and on its right was 47th Brigade soon stopped by machine-gunfire when 7th Royal Iniskillings were brought up as reinforcements. 8th Royal Munsters pressed on beyond Guillemont, 7th Royal Irish Rifles and 8th Royal Dublin Fusiliers began to clear the village when the 8th Battalion of the Royal Iniskillings came up to complete the capture of the village. A few Germans surrendered and some fled towards Flers and Lesboeufs. However 47th Brigade was checked in front of the Quadrilateral which did not fall until the 18th September 1916 when it was captured by the 6th Division.
The total casualties of the 16th (Irish) Division in the period 3rd to 9th September 1916 was 224 officers and 4090 other ranks.
On the 19th September 1916 the Division moved by rail to the sector south of Ypres serving with the Second Army responsible for that part of the line centred around Spanbroek, Vierstraat and Wytschaete, with divisional headquarters at Locre. In the period up to the Spring of 1917 all the infantry battalions received heavy reinforcements after the losses on the Somme and the Division contained many young and inexperienced troops and many fresh young officers. Whilst speculative it is likely that Private John Southam joined the Battalion at that time.
The Third Battle of Ypres was the major British offensive in Flanders launched on 31 July 1917 and continued until November. The ultimate aim was to rob the Germans of command of the high ground surrounding the salient by capturing the immediate ridges, and Passchendaele Ridge and Klerken Ridge beyond that and thrust north-east to Roulers and Thourout and then swing due north towards the Belgian coast to destroy the German submarine bases on the coast but until Messines Ridge was in British hands any such advance was deemed impossible because of German observation over the area between Ypres itself and the Passchendaele Ridge.
Messines Ridge runs from the village of St. Eloi about 2 miles South of Ypres through the villages of Wytschaete and Messines and down to the Douve River about 1 mile South of Messines. Nowhere is it higher than 200 feet but it dominates the surrounding countryside, had been held by the Germans since November 1914, and was an important part of the enemy’s defensive positions on this sector. The German front line was on the lower slopes of the Western side of the Ridge and consisted of shallow trenches with reinforced concrete machine-gun posts. It incorporated Maedelstade and Peckham Farms, Spanbroekmolen, Ontaria and Petit Douve Farms before heading in a South Easterly direction towards Ploegsteert. The Second line was on the crest of the Ridge running just to the West of the fortified albeit ruined villages of Wytschaete and Messines, with bunkers, concrete gun emplacements and reinforced cellars beneath the remains of the villages themselves. Between the First and Second lines was a network of trenches the main one having machine gun posts and shell proof concrete shelters. On the Eastern slope of the Ridge was the German Third or Support line passing through the village of Oosttaverne and to the East of Bethlehem Farm and through la Potterie Farm.
Planning for the offensive to capture Messines Ridge began in January 1916 but the Battle of the Somme resulted in the scheme being postponed until the Summer of 1917. The surprise factor in the offensive was to be the detonation of a number of mines placed beneath the German lines, the tunnelling work for these having begun as early as August 1915. 24 mines were completed running from Hill 60 North of the Ridge itself down to four at the Birdcage to the East of Ploegsteert Wood. The increase in British activity in the early part of 1917 alerted the Germans who increased their counter-mining operations by the use of camouflets (small charges designed to cause the collapse of British tunnels) or where appropriate boring down and channelling water into the subterranean workings: by this method the British mine under Petite Douve Farm was flooded and was in fact the only mine that was totally lost. The Germans believed that they had destroyed most of the British workings and advised that a British attack preceded by mine explosions was not going to occur.
Zero hour for the attack was set at 0310 in the morning of the 7th June 1917. On the 21st May the British artillery began bombarding the German positions, 800 heavy guns and 1,500 field pieces and howitzers had been assembled. The 16th Division’s sector lay between Maedelstede Farm and the Vierstraat-Wytschaete Road and the Division would assault with the 47th and 49th Brigade, each Brigade would have two battalions in the first wave and two to follow up. The 47th would have 7th Leinsters and 6th Royal Irish Regiment in the first wave with 1st Munsters and 6th Connaughts to follow up. The 49th would have 7th Iniskillings and 7/8th Royal Irish Fusiliers in the first wave with 2nd Royal Irish Regiment and 8th Iniskillings to follow up. A brigade of the 11th Division was available as reserves to the 16th Division. Nine Divisions were to participate in total; the front to be attacked ran from Mount Sorrell in the North to St. Yves in the South and from the North southwards the attacking Divisions were the 23rd, 47th 41st, 19th, 16th, 36th , 25th, New Zealand and 3rd Australian. So the Nationalist 16th (Irish) Division were to attack alongside the Unionist 36th (Ulster) Division.
During the weeks before the 7th June the infantry also were playing a part in wearing down the German defenders by for example by trench raids, the 16th Division almost every night on its sector. On the 27th May a raid by 12 officers, 300 men of the 2nd Dublin Fusiliers from 48th Brigade with 12 Royal Engineers led to the capture of 30 Germans with 50 being killed and valuable paperwork was seized. At 1025 p.m. on the 5th June the 8th Battalion Royal Iniskillings carried out a raid and reported that the German Front Line hardly existed, in one area there was no sign of occupation, a number of dugouts showed no sign of occupation and in some cases were water logged, there was practically no wire. In Nail Switch however the trench was in better order, with dug outs still intact although the wire had all but disappeared. A number of prisoners were taken, 9 from one dugout.
At 0310 in the morning of the 7th June 19 mines erupted in sheets of flame throwing clouds of dust, smoke, earth and bodies into the air; a total of 933,200 lb of ammonal had been blown up and taken thousands of hapless German soldiers with it. There had not been a single failure, 4 mines laid East of Ploegsteert Wood had not been used. The shock of the explosions were felt in London. At the same time the artillery with 700 machine guns began a massed bombardment of the German communication centres and gun batteries coupled with creeping barrage to cover the advancing infantry. There were three mines in the sector to be attacked by the 16th Division, that at Maedestreele Farm in front of the 47th Brigade and two in the Petit Bois salient before the 49th Brigade. These were fired some 12 seconds late and as the troops in the 49th Brigade had already left the front line some casualties were caused by the falling debris and the smoke and dust caused problems with some of the men putting on respirators. The biggest crater, some 430 feet in diameter, was at Spanbroekmolen in front of the 36th Division. The 16th Division met no opposition at first advancing under the creeping barrage to find the German wire smashed to pieces, the 7th Iniskillings taking their first objectives within 20 minutes and with only a few Germans alive dazed by the mine explosions and the shelling. The 7th Battalion Royal Iniskillings were on the left of the 49th Brigade’s attack with the 7/8th Battalion Irish Fusiliers on the right with the 8th Battalion Iniskillings following in the second wave to mop up, a task refreshed by stores of beer and cigarettes left behind by the enemy in the dug outs.
In the attack the troops captured the villages of Messines and Wytschaete and the enemy’s defence system including many strongly-organised woods and defended localities on a front of over 9 miles. Later in the day the troops moved forward to carry the village of Oosttaverne and the enemy’s rearward defence system east of the village. A counter-attack was completely broken up by British artillery fire. The Germans sustained heavy casualties with over 5,000 prisoners passing through the collecting stations by 430 pm with the losses as well of guns, trench mortars and machine-guns.
The 16th Division had 9 officers killed and 56 wounded and 125 men killed and 844 wounded and 149 missing.
The capture of the Ridge could well be regarded as a triumph for the Allies. It was to be followed by the tragedy of the Third Battle of Ypres.
After the capture of the Ridge and subsequent operations ending on the 14th June 1917 there followed an extended pause while Sir Duglas Haig introduced into the Ypres sector the inexperienced Sir Hubert Gough to command the main campaign. Haig’s action caused operations to lose momentum and gave the Germans further time to strengthen their defences in the salient. From early 1917 in addition to the German front line, there were three trench systems although between these lines ran the Steenbeck, a river which on account of constant shelling had by June become an extended bog. Because of the terrain few deep dugouts had been constructed and instead the Germans had erected hundreds of mutually supporting pillboxes, low concrete shelters built up several feet above the ground and covered with turf and soil to house machine-gun nests or garrisons of men supplemented by the fortification of the many stone farmhouses characteristic of that area of Flanders. The pill boxes could only be knocked out by the largest shells since they made small targets and were difficult to see.
On the 9th June the 16th Division on its relief from the Messines sector moved North to the Ypres sector again with the month of July given over mainly to training and reorganising for the offensive at Ypres. With the 15th, 36th and 55th Divisions the 16th Division formed XIX Corps.and two of its divisions were to be used in the opening phase of the campaign, keeping two in support for subsequent operations.
The offensive opened on 31st July 1917 with an attack by the 8th, 15th and 55th Divisions supported by the 25th, 16th and 36th Divisions. Although gains were made, not all of the objectives were taken and the attack was to be renewed the next day. However that evening heavy rain fell and the attack was eventually postponed. It was decided that the operation against the Gheluvelt plateau would begin on the 9th August with the main operation to begin on the 13th but on the 8th August a violent thunderstorm accompanied by heavy rain again turned the sodden battlefield into a quagmire and both operations were postponed for 24 hours. The rain continued for about a month which contributed to the failure of the British plan, creating appalling battlefield conditions with shell-cratering through which the heavily laden troops would have to drag themselves to come to grips with the German strongpoints in the shape of the pill boxes.
Until the 4th August 1917 the 16th Division was kept in XIX Corps. Reserve. However during the afternoon of the 31st July reinforcements were called for by the 15th (Scottish) Division having regard to the casualties that Division had sustained leading to two Battalions from the 48th Brigade going into the original British front line which in the afternoon of the 1st August were replaced by two Battalions from the 47th Brigade of the 16th Division.
In early August 1917 the 15th (Scottish) Division was relieved by the 16th (Irish) Division. The preparation had begun on the night of the 1st/2nd August when the leading elements of the 16th Division went forward across the moon-like landscape pock-marked with linked shell-holes filled with water with every trench knee-deep in watery mud. At about the same time the 36th (Ulster) Division was relieving the 55th (West Lancashire) Division.
The 16th (Irish) and 36th (Ulster) Divisions were selected from XIX Corps. to lead the attack to capture what had been the original German Third Line on the 31st July, on the Anzac and Zonnebeke spurs which in essence involved crossing a mile of open ground chequered with pillboxes and strongpoints but neither Division could be described as in a fit state for such a task. Whilst in Corps Reserve having taken over the line on the 4th August, at least half their infantry, 1000 men each day, had been continuously employed in the forward area as carrying parties and on other duties, digging trenches, repairing tracks and burying telephone cables, since the last week in July; they had lived and worked throughout a most trying fortnight in the quagmire of the Hanebeck and Steenbeck valleys, the ground being in a state that defied description, men becoming caked with mud to their eyes, horses were up to their breasts in mud, what passed for trenches were completely underwater, weapons especially Lewis guns were clogged up with mud and unable thus to fire, overlooked by German machine-gunners and artillery observers on the opposite spurs and subjected to intense shelling at its worst being as heavy as experienced at any moment of the war, so that with casualties and sickness, troops suffering from “trench feet” foot rot caused by standing too long in water for which amputation was sometimes the only remedy the battle strength of the two Divisions was reduced to one third with some battalions being down to half of their establishment. For example the 16th Division had suffered over 2000 casualties and attacked with a strength of 330 men per battalion instead of the regulation 750. Facing these understrength divisions was the impressive array of fortified farmhouses and pill boxes which the Corps artillery had failed to eliminate, continuous direct hits from 5.9 inch guns had no effect on the pill boxes their thick walls being reinforced with iron bars.
On the 16th August the 16th Division was to attack with two brigades, the 48th and the 49th, with each brigade assaulting with two battalions and a third in support. Whilst the 47th Brigade was in reserve, three of its battalions had been detached to each of the attacking brigades and the third on carrying duties. In the 49th Brigade the front battalions were the 7th and 8th Royal Inniskillings with the 7th/8th Royal Irish Fusiliers in reserve, the 7th Iniskillings on the left with the 8th on the right. The attacking battalions were in position on the night of the 15th August even though it was not until 11 p.m. on the 15th August that some of the troops in the 49th Brigade were informed of zero hour, 0445 on the 16th August. The position was aggravated further by the fact that a German gas bombardment on the evening of the 15th August struck the Brigade Headquarters of 49th Brigade with Brigadier Leveson-Gower and most of his staff being gassed and evacuated so that Lt.-Col. K C Wheldon of 7th/8th Irish Fusiliers had to assume command of the Brigade.
Zero hour was at 0445 on the 16th August 1917 when the 48th Brigade attacked on the right of the Divisional sector and the 49th Brigade on the left; the 8th Battalion of the Iniskillings were on the right of the 49th Brigade sector with the 7th Battalion on the left. Both Battalions moved off promptly and so escaped the German barrage which fell on the British front line. Met with a withering blast of machine gun fire nonetheless the 7th Iniskillings stormed the main German strong point Beck House and then took the strongpoints Iberian Farm and overran Delva Farm but had not cleared out all the enemy who were firing from “pill boxes” in the rear of the troops who were then checked about 400 yards from their objective Hill 37.
The 8th Battalion was heading for the strong point of Borry Farm, a concrete block house impervious to gun fire which dominated the area and the Battalion was well nigh annihilated by the resolute German Company with three machine-guns in the fortified Borry Farm. On the left of the 7th Iniskillings a unit of the 36th Division had been unable to advance and this flank was open so subjecting the Iniskillings to enfilade fire and their position became untenable. Heavy loss of officers and lack of communication, by runners who were being killed or wounded, led to supporting troops being misdirected or being badly used or misused and the fragmented battalions clingong on to their positions to face the German counter-attack. The 8th Iniskillings reported that Borry Farm had not been mopped up and they were being sniped from their.
At about 0900 waves of fresh German infantry streamed over the crest of the Zonnebeke spur preceded by an intense crushing German artillery barrage, a German concentration undetected by air observation and whilst a few of the Division were captured the majority must have been blotted out by the bombardments.
The 7th Iniskillings held on resolutely to the position captured in the area of Iberian and Delva farms until their position also became untenable forcing their withdrawal to the original line held by the 2nd Royal Irish who until relief by the 6th Connaught Rangers held the entire 49th Brigade sector with 1st Munsters performing a similar role on the 48th Brigade sector on relieving the 2nd Dublins. Then began the work of evacuating the hundreds of wounded to the Regimental Aid Posts on the reverse of Frezenburg Ridge. The stretcher parties were in full view of the enemy until they crossed the ridge. performing there task in terrible conditions of knee-deep mud and under heavy and unrelenting shell-fire.
The tattered and scant remnants of 48th and 49th Brigades trudged slowly back to Vlamertinghe where they bivouacked until 18th August when they were joined by units from 47th Brigade, when the division embussed from Vlamertinge for the Watou area.
In the period between 1st and 20th August 1917 the 16th Division lost 221 officers and 4,064 men; 2,167 casualties occurring between 16th and 18th August. The recovered dead numbered 280, but another 718 were missing, many of them killed: blown into nothing by shells, drowned in the water-filled crates or dead behind German lines.
The casualties of the 7th and 8th Royal Inniskillings were so severe that they could not be recruited up to strength again and were amalgamated to form the 7/8th (S) Battalion, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers.
Private John Southam was awarded the Victory Medal and the British War Medal.
Both the Memorial in Brockhurst Road Monks Kirby and the plaque in St. Edith’s Church record John Southam as serving in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment but his name is not in the Warwickshire Regiment Roll of Honour for 1914 – 1919. All sources refer to his service as being with the Royal Iniskilling Fusiliers although his Army Service Record has seemingly not survived, 60% of Other Ranks Records being totally destroyed in a bombing raid in 1940.
It is probable that his initial service was with a Warwickshire Regiment Training Reserve Battalion first established in September 1916 following the losses in the Battle of the Somme.
At the age of 19, such recruits were able to go abroad on active service. On reaching a main Army base such as that at Etaples it was not unusual for batches to be sent to another infantry battalion, for example following its losses on the 1st July 1916 the 22nd Battalion of the Manchester Regiment received 434 reinforcements, of whom 105 came from the Manchester Regiment but 121 came from the Middlesex Regiment, 119 from the Royal West Kent Regiment, 77 from the Royal Sussex Regiment, 10 from the Royal Fusiliers and 2 from the Border Regiment.
John Southam probably went to France in the Spring of 1917 so would not have fought on the Somme but probably was involved in the action at Messines Ridge.
William Edward Waspe Corporal of Horse No. 2960 1st Life Guards. Killed in action 19th May 1918 aged 25. Buried Etaples Military Cemetery Pas de Calais France.
George Henry Watkins Private No. 2321 10th (Service) Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment. . Killed in action 25th September 1918. Commemorated on the Loos Memorial to the Missing in Dud Comer Cemetery Loos
Thomas Truelove Wright Private No. 4500 1st Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment. . Killed in Action 2nd August 1915 aged 24. Buried Sucrerie Military Cemetery Colincamps Somme France.
Those who laid down their lives in the Second World War 1939 - 1945 and recorded on the War Memorial in Monks Kirby
Reginald Colin Gunner No. 1786770 Royal Artillery (9 Coast Regiment). Died 17th December 1942. Commemorated Singapore Memorial. .
Ian Hillman Dick Warrant Officer (Obs.) No. 1167736 Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. Died 25th May 1944. Buried Massicault War Cemetery. Massicault War Cemetery is about 25 kilometres south-west of Tunis in Tunisia.
Thomas G V Foxon Lance Corporal No. T/213710 Royal Army Service Corps. Died 9th October 1943. Buried Tripoli War Cemetery.Tripoli War Cemetery is in the Mansura district of Tripoli.
Arthur John Haytree Lance Corporal No. 5729108 2nd Battalion Dorsetshire Regiment. Died 27th April 1944. Buried Kohima War Cemetery. Kohima War Cemetery is close to the centre of Kohima, the capital city of Nagaland State, India.
John Henry Walker Corporal No. 3966750 4th Battalion Welch Regiment. Died 3rd August 1944. Buried Brouay War Cemetery. Brouay is a village in Normandy about 2 kilometres south of the main road from Bayeux to Caen and roughly midway between these two towns.
Those commemorated and buried in The Priory Churchyard of St. Ediths, Monks Kirby, Warwickshire
Grave of George Dean No M/11786 Engine Room Artificer 4th Class Royal Navy died 15th March 1919.
At about 0200 on Thursday the 15th March 1919 the mutilated body of a sailor aged about 40 years was found near the side of the fast line in Stretton under Fosse. On arrival of the train at Rugby from Preston the door of a 3rd Class Compartment was found open with a sailors cap on the luggage rack. His identity was later established and he was travelling from Liverpool to presumably London, returning to his unit H.M.S. Victory H.M. Naval Base at Portsmouth. He had been serving on H.M.S. Eaglet, the shore based Royal Naval Reserve Training Centre in Liverpool and accidentally fell from the train.
The interment took place on Saturday the 17th March his coffin being carried by a party of soldiers in the area.
Grave of Mary Grace Smyth Assistant Administrator Queen Mary’s Army Auxiliary Corps died in Queen Mary’s Army Auxiliary Hospital Isleworth aged 26 years on the 22nd February 1919 and is buried in St. Edith’s Churchyard, Monks Kirby, Warwickshire. The cause of death was certified as (i) Meningitis (2 days) (ii) Pneumonia. She was transferred direct to Isleworth from Boulogne having been taken seriously ill in France a few days before her death.
The Headstone in the form of a cross has the inscription “Death is swallowed up by Victory” at the head and at the foot “In loving memory of Mary G Smyth who died at QMAAC Hospital Isleworth February 22nd 1919 aged 26 years.”
In a side chapel in St. Edith’s Church is a brass plaque inscribed “In Loving Memory of Mary Grace Smyth. Died 22nd February 1919 aged 26. This tablet has been placed here by the members of unit 1 Boulogne to whom she endeared herself by her gently and unselfish disposition.” In the bottom left hand corner is inscribed QMAAC and in the right corner BEF.
Mary Smyth was born in the late Spring/early Summer of 1892 at Southwick near Trowbridge in Wiltshire the daughter of the Reverend Arthur Worsley Smyth and his wife Marie. Her father held a living in Weston super Mare from 1887 to 1891 and then from 1892 to 1903 was the Vicar at Great and Little Abington in Cambridgeshire.
In 1901 the family was living at St. Mary’s Vicarage in Little Abington. the Reverend Arthur Smyth aged 41 and his wife Marie (31), Mary (8), Dorothy (6) Arthur (4) and Frances (3 months) with a German Governess, a Domestic Nurse, Cook and Housemaid.
Her parents moved to Warwickshire when her father was appointed the Vicar of Monks Kirby in 1915 and they lived initially in Pailton. In 1917 the family moved to the Vicarage, Millers Lane, Monks Kirby. The Reverend Arthur Smyth almost certainly selected the inscription at the top of the cross based on a passage in the First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians. He conducted her funeral on the 6th February 1919 and he remained as the Vicar at Monks Kirby until 1923.
The formation of the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps had its origins in the heavy losses in the fighting in 1916, particularly in the Battle of the Somme, and the establishment of the Lloyd George Coalition Government in December 1916 marking a stage towards direct State control of all aspects of the war effort replacing the mixture of Government and voluntary action. On the 8th December 1916 the War Office instructed Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Lawson to report on the number and physical categories of men employed out of the fighting area in France. His report recommended employing women to replace men carrying out certain administrative jobs in Britain and France so that the men could then be sent to fight at the front. Sir Douglas Haig gave his views to the War Office on the 11th March 1917 that, despite a long list of supposed difficulties, the principle of employing women in France was acceptable. Selection Boards were set up, applicants had to have two references and go before a Medical Board with all the doctors on the Board being women. Army Council instruction, recognising that the employment of women at the Base and on the Lines of Communication abroad, appeared on the 28th March 1917 when recruitment had already begun with the formal basis of the Corps being Army Council Instruction No. 1069 which appeared on the 7th July 1917. The Corps was organised in four sections: motor transport, clerical, household and mechanical miscellaneous, denoted by differently coloured shoulder straps. Women in the Corps were not given full military status, enrolling rather than enlisting and were subject to civil courts rather than military courts. There were no military ranks in the Corps but Grades. Instead of officers, there were controllers and administrators “other ranks” became workers, forewomen replacing NCOs. The members or workers had brief training before being sent to Folkestone for inoculations and embarkation. Official trained for 3 weeks followed by a 14 day probationary period before going to France.
In February 1917 Mrs Mary Chalmers Watson, a distinguished Scottish doctor, was gazetted Chief Controller in overall charge of the newly formed Corps serving as such until February 1918 when she was succeeded by Mrs Burleigh Leach. Mrs (later Dame) Helen Gwynne-Vaughan, a botanist before the war, was appointed Chief Controller Overseas in 1917 and her Deputy was Miss Violet Long until Miss Long was drowned in the Channel on the 3rd August 1918.
Six base camps for the Corps were initially set up at Etaples, Calais, Abbeville, Le Havre, Boulogne and Rouen; later base camps were formed at St. Omer and Dieppe. For each of these areas there was an Area Controller and a Deputy and the Area Controller for Boulogne was Miss A Low who arrived in France on the 23rd July 1917.
In 1917 there were Units I, II and III in the Boulogne area; by February 1918 Unit IV was established as the billet for women chauffeurs. For each of these units there was a Unit Controller and her Deputy and a number of Administrators and Assistant Administrators. A number of Workers were attached to each Unit and a draft received in the Boulogne area in 1917 contained Assistant Cooks, Head Waitress, Assistant Waitresses and Waitresses, Housemaids, Hostel Forewoman, Gardeners, Shorthand Typist, Forewoman Clerk, General Clerks, Ledger Clerk, Typists, Motor driver, Scrubber, Orderly, Pantry Maids, Forewoman Cook, Postal Workers and Sorter and Vegetable Maid. The women worked long hours being allowed one day off and a half-day off, on alternate weeks.
The uniform consisted of a wide brimmed felt hat, khaki jacket and skirt and a calf length coat. All had to do physical exercise every day to maintain fitness and between January 1917 and the Armistice over 57,000 women served in the Corps. On the 9th April 1918 the Corps was renamed the Queen Mary’s Army Auxiliary Corps, with Queen Mary becoming Commander in Chief, mainly in recognition of the sterling conduct of the Corps during the German Spring Offensive in March 1918.
Although not on combat duties, women in the Corps like all military personnel were subjected to German shelling from Heavy artillery and bombing raids by German aircraft. Abbeville was an important Base, a centre of communications, supply and transport with several hospitals and training areas in the vicinity. The main British base was outside the town with many wooden huts erected to house the troops. In 1918 the town and the surrounding area was subjected to frequent air raids and in a raid on the 30th May 1918 a bomb struck a trench in which members of the Corps were sheltering. Eight workers were killed outright, one died of wounds and a further six were wounded. The nine workers who died are buried in Abbeville Communal Cemetery Extension. These were 31503 Worker Mary Mclachlan Blaikley: 31673 Worker Beatrice Campbell aged 20: 15703 Worker Margaret Selina Caswell aged 22: 34767 Worker Catherine Connor: 31918 Worker Jeannie McKerral Grant aged 22: 15695 Worker Annie Elizabeth Moores aged 27: 9048 Worker Ethel Frances Mary Parker aged 21: 35588 Worker Alice Thomasson and 34864 Worker Jeanie Watson aged 25. All are buried together in Plot 4 Row C. Nine artillery wagons carried the coffins, draped in Union Jacks, to the cemetery, pilots from the Royal Flying Corps circled the cemetery during the service and the route was line by soldiers who saluted the coffins as the wagons passed.
Eight officials died during the War, Margery Martin, Assistant Administrator 17th May 1918, buried in Edinburgh (Warriston) Cemetery: Violet Long, Deputy Chief Controller on the 3rd August 1918 at sea from enemy action, when HM Hospital Ship Warilda was torpedoed by UC 49 between Le Havre and Southampton, commemorated on the Hollybrook Memorial at Southampton recording 1900 who have no known grave and were lost in Home Waters: Margaret Gibson Unit Administrator on the 17th September 1918, buried in Mont Huon Military Cemetery, Le Treport, Northern France: Mary Westwell Assistant Administrator on the 10th October 1918 at sea from enemy action, buried in Grangegorman Military Cemetery, County Dublin, Ireland: Marie Stiebel Assistant Administrator 1st December 1918, buried in Manchester Southern Cemetery: Anna Whall Assistant Administrator on the 6th December 1918, buried in Ste. Maria Cemetery, Le Havre, Northern France: Eleanor Russell Assistant Administrator 21st February 1919, buried in Leicester (Welford Road) Cemetery and Mary Smyth the next day, the 22nd February 1919.
A total of 75 Workers or Forewomen in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps died whilst serving of whom 14 died on the Western Front, 9 of whom were killed in action in the same incident referred to above on the 30th May 1918. The remaining 5 were 30438 Worker Dorothy Aspden, died 21st July 1918 and is buried in St. Marie Cemetery, Le Havre, Northern France; 1923 Forewoman Rose Mabel Holborow died 5th October 1918 and is buried in St.Sever Cemetery Extension Rouen; 36156 Worker Margaret Ann Barrow, died 3rd November 1918 aged 24 and is buried in Terlincthun British Cemetery, Wimille, Pas de Calais; 2108 Worker Clara Gosling died 7th November 1918 and is buried in St. Sever Cemetery Extension, Rouen, 1667 Worker Mary Ann Spittle died 12th February 1919 aged 26 also buried in Terlincthun British Cemetery.
The remaining 61 Workers or Forewomen died at Home and are buried in Cemeteries in the United Kingdom.
There are no surviving records of service of female officials of the Corps.
Assistant Administrator Smyth was awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. The War Medal is in silver and was awarded to army personnel who “either entered a theatre of war on duty, or who left places of residence and rendered approved service overseas other than the waters dividing the different parts of the United Kingdom” between 5th August 1914 and 11th November 1918.
The Victory Medal is in bronze, with the winged figure of Victory and the reverse is “The Great War for Civilisation 1914 – 1919 within a wreath and the eligibility qualifications are almost identical to those for the War Medal.
Mary Smyth served for probably most of her time with the Corps in Unit 1 at the Base Camp at Boulogne.
The signing of the Peace Treaty triggered the beginning of the end of the Corps on 1st January 1920, demobilisation having begun immediately the war ended, and by February 1920 there remained some 280 staff at Corps Headquarters in London with 60 women involved in grave registration remaining in France. On the 30th April 1920 all members, apart from those serving at St. Pol in the grave Registration Unit were demobilised the women at St. Pol remaining until September when the numbers had dwindled to 34. The Corps ceased to exist on the 27th September 1921.
| 
