Military History

Theatre of War	Medals	Commonwealth War Grave of Memorial
France and Flanders	1914-15 Star, British War & Victory Medals	Warloy-Baillon Communal Cemetery Ext
Arrived in Theatre	Medal Citation (if app)	SWFHS Area Memorials
27 Aug 1915	~	Fenny Compton
Action, Battle or Other Reason Killed	Date and Place Enlisted Date	Other War Memorials
Battle of Albert (Somme)	August 1914 at Mansfield
Place of Death	Previous Regiments or Units
Field Ambulance at Warloy-Baillon	~

Circumstances Leading to Death   

On 1st July 1916 the battalion were involved in the attack on Ovillers and with the 23rd Brigade leading out into Mash Valley, the 2nd Bn Middlesex and 2nd Bn Devonshire Regiments managed to gain the German front lines and even a distance beyond, but they found themselves being fired at from three sides and their casualties soon grew to a thousand men between them — more than half their number. 70 survivors managed to hang on in the German front line for a while but soon their grenades and ammunition ran out and they too were forced to retire.

In the centre of the Division the attack against Ovillers was carried out by the 2nd Bn Royal Berkshire and 2nd Bn Lincolnshire Regiments. Whilst in theory they were going to be afforded some shelter from fire, they felt the full weight of a German counter barrage and half their number fell before seeing the enemy’s front line.

The 70th Brigade’s leading battalions: the 8th Bn Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry (KOYLI) and the 8th Bn York & Lancaster, succeeded in crossing no-man’s land and got into the German front line but their supporting waves of infantry came under increasing fire from the German barrage.

On the Brigade’s left the defenders on the Thiepval Ridge were starting to beat off the assault by 32nd Division and now found themselves able to turn their attentions elsewhere — including the exposed flank of 70th Brigade.

Believing that the 32nd Division were in fact making headway on his left and that the 25th Brigade were getting into Ovillers, Brigadier General Gordon of the 70th Brigade ordered his support battalion the 11th Sherwood Foresters into the attack. They struggled across no man’s land in the face of a storm of bullets only to be brought to a halt by machine gun fire a few metres from the German front line.

The battalion suffered huge casualties of 537 killed, wounded or missing and were taken out of the line. It is believed that James was wounded during the attack. Thanks to the Webmatters website for most of the above