Current Information:

Age-29

Born-Clerkenwell

London Rifle Brigade Cemetery, Belgium

41st Division arrived in France in early May, 1916 and had their introduction to trench warfare in the sector around Armentières and Ploegsteert straddling the French-Belgian border. During July, 1916, while all attention was focused on the great events happening further south on the Somme, 41st Division were holding a sector of the line here. On 23rd July, 1916, 10th Royal West Surrey (Queens) of 124 Brigade, 41st Division, moved into the front line and in the early hours of 27th July, 1916, a company of of the battalion, consisting of 4 officers and 154 men, raided the German line opposite after a one hour bombardment that started at midnight. As soon as this stopped the enemy began shelling the front line and no-man’s-land and there were a number of casualties as the raiding party made its way across to the German line. Here they found the wire well cut by the artillery bombardment and the trenches and dug-outs blown in. These they occupied having dealt with the few remaining enemy soldiers there, and blocked the two ends. Some men made their way down a communication trench until they were brought to a halt by enemy bombing parties. A bombing (grenade) fight then ensued. After 20 minutes the raiding party began their withdrawal back to their own lines but once again were hit by machine gun and artillery fire as they re-crossed no-man’s-land. In total the raiding party sustained 50 casualties, 9 of whom were either killed or missing. One of these was George Wakelin.