Attested 31 August 1914 4th Battalion at Londesborough Street Barracks Hull – Re-numbered 200577 – Medal Index Card Entered Boulogne France 17 April 1915 with 1/4th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment – Photo and write up – Posted 1st Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment – Effects to Widow and sole legatee Gertrude – Former service Royal Navy Discharged Sevices No Longer Required 31 March 1913 unsatisfactory and character – Commemorated North Eastern Railway War Memorial York – Commemorated East Yorkshire Regiment War Memorial Beverley Minster East Yorkshire – Commemorated Bean Street Anlaby Road Hull Roll of Honour Hull Daily Mail 11 October 1916 – Photo North Eastern Railway staff magazine July 1917 page 148
WAR DIARY
8th April 1917
Easter Day (April 8th) was a gloriously fine and warm day, and all day long small groups of men wandered, about in the fields on each side of the Henin-St. Leger Road, where Headquarters lay. Everyone was excited, as the great attack of the Spring was to be launched next day, and what was in store was an unknown and anxious quantity. On Easter Monday morning, very early, the troops went to the new trenches below the German wire, and Headquarters moved forward to the next sunken road, i.e., the road from Henin to Croisilles.
Easter Sunday was fine and warm, and everything that Easter should be, but on the morrow a biting wind swept across the treeless plains of Artois, and with it a blinding snowstorm. We were wakened by a terrific bombardment all along the British front, stretching to the north as far as we could see, but extending no great distance to the south. Our Division was about the most southerly of the attacking Divisions. Our orders were not to advance until certain objectives further north had been obtained, and everyone was more and more apprehensive as daylight approached, and wore on through the whole course of a long, cold morning, up till two or three in the afternoon, before our orders came. Early in the morning the German rear guards had been driven out of Heninel, a hamlet on our left front, and through the course of the long morning messages came in of progress further to the north. On our front the bombardment had quietened down the Germans had not retaliated at all, and so far we had no casualties.
In the afternoon our turn came, and after a fresh bombardment our men advanced in line form over the fields, now thinly covered with an inch or more of snow. This was at four o’clock, and the men advanced in perfect order up to the German wire, which had not been appreciably cut by the artillery bombardment. The lanes through it were found wherever possible, and this was usually the case, but other assistance had to be obtained in one or two places, where Stokes mortars were set to cut it more. In one of these places Capt. Piza, the O.C. Trench Mortar Battery, one or our own officers, was killed with a bullet whilst attempting to cut wire by means of his Stokes guns. He was a perfectly fearless officer, and never thought for an instant to take shelter. One had seen him often in the Cambrin sector standing on a fire-step in the front -line, and exposed over the parapet from his waist upwards, whilst observing the result of his Stokes mortar practice.
Little difficulty seemed to be encountered getting into the Hindenburg front line, and surprisingly few casualties occurred at the first, although Pipe, who was in charge of B. Coy., was wounded through the arm, and had a deal of trouble for many months from a severed nerve. When C. Coy. arrived in the enemy trench, they found a German post orderly delivering the day’s mail, so evidently our attack on that sector had been very unexpected for Fritz. Capt. Robinson shot a number of Germans and an officer emerging from a deep dug-out, and Pte. Fitzgerald, his servant, aged 19, was seen chasing a big German round and round a circular piece of trench, with a bayonet at his hindquarters. On coming to the Hindenburg support line, however, a great deal of uncanny resistance was offered, and a good number of casualties were inflicted. Only a few men managed to get into the second objective, and these had promptly to retire again, and dig in and consolidate the old Hindenburg front line. The Battalions to the left of ourselves had not such an easy time, and met with very great resistance from the enemy. A great deal of uncertainty seemed to prevail at Brigade Headquarters as to what had happened, but at the end of the day it was evident that we were in the air, and occupied a few hundred yards of the German front line, with no British troops on our immediate right or left. There was no real organised counter-attack that evening and our troops settled down to consolidate their gains. As I said previously, our starting trenches were in dead ground, but the old German front line was by no means in dead ground as seen from the support line, or, as it then became, the enemy front line, so that it was necessary at once to make communication trenches to our new positions. Large parties of other British troops, including our own R.E.’s and Pioneers, took in hand this work, and as soon as darkness came on a couple of trenches were started on the two flanks of the Battalion. Of course, these were not finished by day break, although only about 30 or 40 yards remained to connect up with our front line troops. However, provisions of food, ammunition, bombs, etc., had to be sent forward next day, and it was then that the last forty yards of the journey up to the front line had to be made in full view of the Germans, who promptly turned machine guns and snipers on to the unfinished ends of the communication trenches. Single men, mostly runners, usually managed to run the gauntlet of the last few yards, but carrying-parties fared not so successfully, and men carrying dixies of tea and stew, and other heavy impedimenta, were shot pretty freely, so that by mid-day there was quite a small heap of dead men at the end of the communication trench. Although thus objecting to men carrying equipment to the front line, the enemy proved himself very chivalrous to stretcher-bearers, and these, with their human freight; he allowed to pass quite at their ease, and without molestation.

Casualties among the rank and file were —killed 44, wounded 149, missing 81.