Current Information:

Age-27

57, Radipole Road, Fulham

Le Cateau 26th August 1914

By the evening of the 25th August, after their withdrawal south following the Battle of Mons on 23rd August, II Corps of the BEF, commanded by General Smith-Dorrien, had reached Le Cateau, in France. They had been retreating, but still fighting rearguard actions for two long days and they were done in. The Commander-in-Chief, Sir John French ordered them to continue the next day but Smith-Dorrien chose instead to stand and fight.  He reasoned that with the Germans on their heels a retreat would be disastrous without first halting the enemy advance. So, on the next day II Corps turned and faced the enemy. The town of Le Cateau saw little of the actual fighting on 26th August, the main actions taking place along the line of the road running between Le Cateau and Cambrai. A fierce battle ensued when the Germans began an artillery bombardment at dawn. Their infantry followed up in the wake of this barrage and became the targets of both the British artillery and infantry. The Germans were held at bay until the afternoon but by then they were threatening the flanks of II Corps which withdrew, whilst the enemy reorganised. British casualties for the day, killed, wounded or taken prisoner, were nearly 8,000.

As the main body of the British Expeditionary Force retreated from Mons, 4th Division hurried east across France to join up with them. By the 25th August they had reached Solesmes, an important town because roads from the north, north-west and north-east converged on it, roads down which the retreating army would travel and which the pursuing Germans would also use. Overnight they moved further south.

By the following morning 4th Division including the 1st Royal Irish Fusiliers battalion of 10 Brigade were in a position around the village of Haucourt where they could cover the left flank of II Corps. Le Cateau was five miles to the east. During the morning, as the enemy came closer to their positions, they came under shrapnel fire and 1st Royal Irish Fusiliers fell back for about half a mile to take up positions just east of St Aubert Farm from where they repelled a German advance from Longsart, a village just west of Haucourt. At 5pm, 4th Division began their retreat south which on 27th August took them as far as the small village of Voyennes, near Nesle. The death of James Mercer, along with a number of other men from the battalion was recorded as being on 27th August, but the battalion diary makes no mention of any deaths on this day and it is much more likely that they were killed on 26th August during the Battle of Le Cateau but that  in the confusion of battle they were not recorded until the next day.