This year marks 100 years since the first day of the battle of the Somme. The day when the British Army suffered its heaviest losses on a single day. 19,240 British servicemen lost their lives.
My great-grandfather lost a leg at the Somme and was also gassed, he was one of the lucky ones who survived. R.i.p. to all those brave men
We should remember them on Thursday evening, the apprehensive eve of the battle as well as on Friday morning at 7am when they went over the top. The East Yorkshire Regiment and the Hull Pals weren't too involved on the 1st July 1916, they joined the later Somme battles in September-October around Flers-Courcelette, Morval and Thiepval Ridge. The main Hull Pals sacrifice was of course later at Oppy Wood in June 1917. So I'm going for Yorkshireman Donald Simpson Bell VC, the only professional footballer to win a VC 5 days in to the Battle of the Somme, his medal is in the National Football Museum.
dr Unfortunately 7th EYR played a role in the fighting around the village of Fricourt on the first day of the battle.
I have no connection to this person, I just thought it was worth a mention as my little bit of offering respect having read it on Tom's excellent link. It makes me grateful for how lucky I have been, and how much I owe to others. Hull Pals Memorial Post. PRIVATE CHARLES BALDWIN 11/727. Born in July 1896, Charles was the eldest of four children to Joseph and Phoebe Baldwin of 1 South View, Willerby, Hull. A Farm Servant before the war, he enlisted on Wednesday 9th September 1914 at Hull City Hall telling the little white lie that earned so many boys a tin hat and a rifle: "Yes sir, I am 19." One of the Originals, Charles appears to have come through all the major set-piece battles of the Pals war completely unscathed. There is no record anywhere of even the slightest wound or spell out of the line with illness. Perhaps his farm job made him better able to stand the creeping cold of winter in the trenches than a clerk would, who knows. He survived Egypt, the Somme, Oppy Wood, Arras, the German Spring Offensive.....all without so much as a scratch. Then his luck ran out. Charles Baldwin was killed in action on 11th August 1918, exactly three months from safety, and is buried in Outtersteene Communal Cemetery Extension; he was 22 years old. Thank you Mr Baldwin.
My Grandad Arthur Oxtoby didnt die in France but he was invalidated out from that horrible War shell shocked and a shadow of the man who left to join up two years earlier. He left his home in Beverley a few months later on Christmas Day 1916 (my mothers fourth birthday) and was discovered dead in Barmston Drain soon afterwards. He left my Nan with six young kids, who all went to Hessle Road Orphanage until they were old enough to work. Fortunately they all turned out ok and had good lives. RIP Grandad..see you soon. And my thanks to all the other fine young men from our area who gave their lives in the cause of freedom.
My uncle fought his first battle at the Somme and survived being a Private in the 4th Battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment. Fought in other campaigns until his luck ran out in April 1918 when he died after combat injuries. Following that action he was awarded a Military Medal. Lived off Hedon Road in a family of 13 kids where he was the eldest son.
Forgive me as only tangentially related but something I am currently researching and finding fascinating. My grandad from Mayo, Ireland joined the Grenadier Guards in 1915 to fight alongside the English. He was gassed, and fought in many battles including the Somme. He never went back to Ireland after the war and moved to the East Riding. Apparently, death threats were being issued by the IRA to Irishmen who fought alongside the English. It is only in the last few years that Ireland has acknowledged that between 2 and 3 hundred thousand Irish men fought in the First World War. To its credit Dublin will be hosting a 100 year anniversary next week in memory of the many Irish men who gave their lives at the Somme.
George Dugdale Banning, from 270 St Georges Road, enlisted in the 17th Northumberland Fusiliers. This was a Pals battalion made up of North Eastern Railway workers. He died of wounds on the 5th July 1916 leaving his fiancée Annie. He was one of 12 ‘pals’ from Hull who died with this battalion. RIP
You are correct. The 7th East Yorkshire’s (a Pals battalion formed in Beverley) were in action on July 1st and it looks like they were right in the middle of the very worst carnage. As a support battalion they followed the 10th West Yorkshire’s disastrous 7.28 attack on Fricourt from the same trench’s, this first wave had suffered the worst battalion casualties on what became the worst day in British military history and some of our East Yorks lads must have witnessed this horror before going over the top themselves at 2.30 to face the same carnage at Wing Corner! Fricourt wasn’t taken until the 2nd before the slaughter on their section moved on to Mametz Wood. An interesting witness to this whole section of Somme front line was the poet Siegfried Sassoon who was alongside with the Welsh Fusiliers at Fricourt and Mametz. We will remember them.
91 MEN OF HULL DIED 01 JULY 1916 Albert Barker of the 7th East Yorkshire Regiment aged 16 GEORGE THOMAS WALTON Age 20 RICHARD PURCELL Age 32 WILLIAM EDWARD CHAPMAN Age 24 ALBERT JOHN BRETT Age 18 WILLIAM WANLESS Age 21 CHARLES DRIFFILL Age 18 CHARLES ARTHUR SMITH Age 28 WILLIAM HENRY BAGLEY Age 19 HAROLD SMITH Age 25 FRANK BOWES Age 27 EDWARD FRANCIS ASHTON Age 27 FRED LEDGER OLIVER Age 35 JOHN JOE MOXON SCHOFIELD Age 26 JAMES WILLIAM SMITH DCM Age 29 CHARLES W FEATHERSTONE Age 31 WILLIAM STREETS Age 31 CLIFFORD LEE Age 28 ARTHUR MOORE Age 21 JOHN YOUNG GILDER Age 26 JOHN WILSON Age JAMES MULVEY Age 39 PERCIVAL JOHN RAM Age 20 PERCIVAL BEWMAN ROBINSON Age 22 WILLIAM EDWARD RAWLINGS Age 36 WILLIAM HENRY DALTON Age 31 WILFRED HANDLEY Age 22 JOSEPH WEBSTER Age 54 JOSEPH COOPER Age 36 SAMUEL SNOW Age 34 WILLIAM STANIFORTH Age 27 ROBERT SMITH Age 34 WALTER KIRLEW Age 33 HARRY WEST Age 21 JAMES WILLIAM KIRKWOOD Age 19 REGINALD PERCIV JONES Age 27 MAURICE WILLIAM GALLON Age 26 FRANK WHITE Age 21 THOMAS BOLTON Age 31 WILLIAM HARE Age 29 THOMAS MACAULAY Age 22 JAMES LEEMING Age 38 JOSEPH MARSH Age 23 FRANCIS ORR Age 17 ERNEST BROOKS Age 23 JOHN ARTHUR BARTRAM Age 21 JOHN THOMAS NOYLAND Age 22 JOHN ANDREW Age 29 GEORGE SANDERS Age 28 GEORGE HAROLD HARRISON Age 19 BENJAMIN SMALES Age 19 THOMAS WILLIAM HARRISON Age 24 HAROLD ROBERT HENRICKSEN Age 21 THOMAS DIXON Age 29 WILLIAM CECIL MARTIN Age 20 JAMES NAVEN Age 35 JOHN THOMAS R. TUTTLE Age 24 ROBERT WILLIAM JOHNSON Age 23 GEORGE ROBERT TATTERSALL Age 18 CHARLES WILLIAM HARSLEY Age 25 WILLIAM HOLBROOK Age 34 THOMAS FRANCIS WALSH Age 36 FRED PARKINSON Age 20 THOMAS ATKIN Age 22 LEONARD ANTHONY POWERS Age 18 EDWARD JAMES MARTYN Age 22 RALPH VICTOR PROCTOR Age 20 ARTHUR HILL CASELTON Age 22 OLAF STEPHEN STEPHENSON Age 29 THOMAS T. DEVANEY Age 26 GEORGE HALL Age 22 HAROLD DICK Age 26 HAROLD BINNINGTON Age 21 ARTHUR HUNTER Age 36 THOMAS O`MARA Age 33 ARTHUR WEST Age 28 ALEXANDER BLAKELEY Age 25 GEORGE WILLIAM DIXON Age 22 HENRY DIXON Age 32 WILLIAM TULLEY Age 19 DAVID HENDERSON Age 24 JAMES HENRY KETLEY Age 16 WILLIAM NORMAN Age 40 JOSEPH EDWARD ROBERTS Age 23 RICHARD ROBERTS Age 26 CHARLES HENRY NASH Age 22 HERBERT RICHARD JOHNSON Age 27 JOHN ANDREWS Age 29 JOHN TOALSTER Age 25 EDWARD ALEXANDR STEWART Age 19 JOHN ROBERT JUDE Age 20 WILLIAM HENRY HODGSON Age 35 JAMES H. (JIM) AARON MM Age 23 ROBERT HARRISON Age 24 FRED GLASBY Age 17 THOMAS WILSON SCOTT Age 40 GEORGE WILLIAM DAYES Age 23 JAMES EDMUND BELL Age 25 JOHN WILLIAM RUDDERFORTH Age 27 ALFRED REGINALD GREASLEY Age 21 SAMUEL LOCKWOOD Age 21 WILLIAM BERRIDGE Age 22
Are you related to the Oxtoby who joined Hull Grammar School in 1966 and played in goal alongside me in the school football team? Thoughts with all families who suffered in the Great War.
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My Grandad was 19 in 1916. He was in the cavalry. I helped my brother move house last Friday and we came across his leather pistol holster..He died before I was born. Apparently never talked about ww1...
My grandad served right through WW1, came out with a few medals. He never spoke about it, ever. He lost a few brothers in the war. Again something only whispered from my Grandma. Makes you realise how lucky i am and all my family are to even be here when you see how many gave up their lives.
