Current Information:

55, Vansittart Road, Forest Gate

29, Malmesbury Road, Bow

On 28th April, 1915, the 2nd Essex battalion of 12 Brigade, 4th Division, and the rest of the Brigade, left the area around Ploegsteert in Belgium where they had been holding the line for a number of months and two days later arrived at Wieltje just to the north of Ypres. Here the Allied line was under strain after the gas attack made by the enemy on 22nd April. Territory had been lost, the German pressure continued and the British line was in urgent need of reinforcement. 2nd Essex had been shelled at Ouderdom as they made their way forward and that evening relieved the hard pressed battalions of 13 Brigade in the trenches. At some stage of the day Robert Hunt was killed most likely as a result of the heavy shell fire here.