Current Information:

Age-37

Wambaix Communal Cemetery, France

Le Cateau 26^th 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.

In the early hours of 26th August two companies of the 2nd Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers battalion of 12th Brigade, 4th Division marched from Beauvoir and Bévillers for Longsart, just north-west of Haucourt where they moved up on either side of 2nd Lancashire Fusiliers and straight away became engaged with dismounted enemy cavalry.  An attack developed along the whole front and to the west of Esnes, where the remaining two companies of the battalion were well concealed, the unsuspecting enemy advanced against them in open order. 2nd Inniskilling opened fire and, caught them out in the open, forcing them to seek cover behind corn stooks, which proved powerless to stop the bullets. The Germans fell back leaving 47 dead behind. 2nd Inniskilling withdrew too, except for one company on the left which was later surrounded and where they all became casualties. 12 Brigade retired to the line Ligny-Esnes and at 2pm there was a strong attack against the half of 2nd Inniskilling covering the west of Esnes but their rapid fire managed to check this. At 5pm 4th Division began their retreat and 2nd Inniskilling moved back to Walincourt along a road plastered by shrapnel forcing them to move on either side of it.  Gerald Ponsonby died from wounds on 31st August, by which time the British had fallen back many miles to the River Aisne. He is buried in a cemetery near Le Cateau where he must have been wounded on 26th August and subsequently died in captivity.