Current Information:

Born-Poplar

Enlisted-Canning Town

Tilloy British Cemetery, Tilloy-les-Mofflaines, France

The Battle of Arras was a series of offensives by the British Army between 9th April 1917 and 16th May 1917. It had been planned in conjunction with the French who would attack in Artois and between them the Allies would force the Germans out of the large salient they had held since the line of trenches was first established. But the Germans had spoiled this plan by falling back to the new and very strong Hindenburg Line in January 1917 and the salient no longer existed.  For the want of an alternative plan the attack went ahead anyway. It all started well for the British who made substantial gains on the first two days but then the offensive ground to a halt and by the end their losses amounted to over 150,000.

On 9th April 3rd Division attacked at Tilloy-les-Mofflaines, just to the south of the Cambrai road. At 5.30am 76 Brigade advanced and captured their objective after which 9 Brigade, with the 2nd Suffolk battalion attached, passed through. 4th Royal Fusiliers attacked an enemy position known as the String after which 2nd Suffolk passed through and captured the eastern half of the Harp. They remained here under heavy shell fire until they were relieved at 6pm by which time they had suffered over 100 casualties, one of whom was Francis Lloyd.