Current Information:

Born-Stratford

Quarry Cemetery, Vermelles, France

Throughout the winter of 1915-1916, a particularly cold and wet one, 7th East Surrey of 37 Brigade, 12th Division  had been in the line in northern France, mainly in the Loos sector where there was still much aggressive action by both sides following the Battle of Loos in September and October of 1915. One particularly hotly contested spot was the infamous Hohenzollern Redoubt which consisted of the Chord Trench and the nearby craters, just to the east of the village of Vermelles and on 16th March, 1916, 7th East Surrey moved into the front line here. The first 2 days here were relatively quiet but on 18th March things changed dramatically when, between 5.30pm and 6.30pm, the enemy opened an intense bombardment on the positions Everything the Germans had was used: trench mortars, minenwerfers, rifle grenades, shrapnel and high explosive shells and as a result the craters were rendered untenable and had to be evacuated. At 6.15pm the enemy blew 5 mines just in front of the British positions and followed this up with an infantry attack. Fighting went on throughout the night and the end result was that 7th East Surrey were forced out of the Chord and back to their old front line but did manage to retain control of the near lips of the craters. 14 men from 7th East Surrey were killed in this action, one of them being John Shults.