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7th Battalion, York and Lancaster Regiment
| Want to know more about 7th Battalion, York and Lancaster Regiment? There are:5230 items tagged 7th Battalion, York and Lancaster Regiment available in our Library
These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Great War.
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Those known to have served with7th Battalion, York and Lancaster Regiment during the Great War 1914-1918. - Coward Duncan Balfour. Pte. (d.7th Sep 1915)
- Dransfield John Henry. Pte. (d.22nd April 1918)
- Fletcher Ernest. Pte (d.13 May 1916)
- Goldthorpe Oliver. Pte. (d.20th May 1917)
- Hughes Hugh Elias. Pte.
- Jowle Ernest. Pte.
- Lavender John Eliott. 2nd Lt. (d.28 April 1917)
- Lawrence Robert W. Pte (d.11th March 1916)
- Leeman Wilfred George. Pte. (d.14th May 1917)
- Perry C. H.. Pte. (d.17th Aug 1915)
- Radley Charles. Pte. (d.30th Jun 1918)
- Richards Wilfred Arthur. 2nd Lt.
- Savage Arthur. Pte. (d.6th December 1915)
- Simms Edgar.
- Skidmore Harry. Pte. (d.10th May 1916)
- Skirrow Walter. Pte (d.25th October 1917)
- Skirrow Walter. Pte. (d.25th October 1917)
- Smith George. Pte. (d.12th Aug 1917)
- Smith Harold. Pte. (d.5th May 1917)
All names on this list have been submitted by relatives, friends, neighbours and others who wish to remember them, if you have any names to add or any recollections or photos of those listed,
please Add a Name to this List
Records of 7th Battalion, York and Lancaster Regiment from other sources.
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- 22nd April 2024
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2nd Lt. John Eliott Lavender 10th Btn. Lincolnshire Regiment (d.28 April 1917)  John Eliott Lavender, known as Jack, was born in Penistone in 1895 whilst the family were living on Sheffield Road. They later moved to Grimesthorpe Road Sheffield. Jack's father John Lavender worked at Atlas works and upon leaving school, Jack followed in his footsteps.
In 1915, Jack married Edith.
Jack was a member of the York and Lancaster regiment serving with the 7th Battalion, the pioneer battalion. He arrived in France on the 13th July 1915 serving first as a Corporal and then as a Sergeant. Jack was commissioned in the Lincolnshire Regiment on 6th February 1917 serving with the 10th battalion the Grimsby Chums.
Jack is mentioned in the battalion war diary on the 25th April 1917
‘Night of 25 – 26 furnished a working party of 200 men under 4 officers, 2nd Lt Lavender found 1 off and 1 Pte of the 4th Seaforths wounded in front of our line near MI Pleasant Wood. They had been lying out since attack of 23rd Casualties hit.’
Whilst on home leave in 1916, Jack and Edith conceived a child. Unfortunately, Jack was killed on 28th April 1917 at the Battle of Arleux, and never met his son John, who was born on 1st June 1917. Jacks body was never recovered.
In 1924, the Commanding Officer of the Battalion, Lieutenant-Colonel Vignoles wrote back to Edith , who had written to Mr Cox, the secretary of the 10th Lincolnshire association, asking for information on her husbands death.
â€My own view is that your husband, with many others, was killed that day, buried by the subsequent heavy shelling. â€
Jack's son grew up intensely proud of his father despite never meeting him. Jacks widow did marry again but grieved for her first husband until the day she died.
Jack is remembered on the Arras Memorial. His brother Wilfred was killed on the 1st July 1916, the first day of the Somme Offensive and is remembered on the Thiepval Memorial.
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Pte. C. H. Perry 7th Btn. York and Lancastershire Regiment (d.17th Aug 1915) C. Perrry was the son of Mr. and Mrs Perry, of Walsall and husband of Mary Ann Stone (formerly Perry) of 14 St. Quentin St., Pleck, Walsall.
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Pte. Arthur Savage 7th Btn. York and Lancaster Regiment (d.6th December 1915) Arthur Savage was my grandad's cousin. He enlisted age 30 in Sheffield, a single man on 30th of August 1914.
He died of his wounds received on the battlefield in Ypres. He has a grave in the Menin Road South Cemetery.
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2nd Lt. Wilfred Arthur Richards 28th (1st Artists Rifles) Btn. London Regiment On 31st August 1914, my father Wilfred Richards, who'd been born in South Glamorgan but was now working in London, presented himself at Dukes Road in Euston to sign up to four years’ service in the Territorial Force. He was joining the 28th Battalion of the London Regiment (Artists Rifles) as Private No. 1855. He was 21 years and 8 months old. His profession was recorded as Clerk with Wilson and Sons, and he lived in Hendon. His previous military experience was that he had belonged to the Llandovery School Corps. He had never been rejected as unfit for the Military and he listed himself as ‘Church of England’.
His battalion left for France on 31 December 1914, and he arrived at St. Omer some days later where others from the Artists Rifles joined them in motor omnibuses. He transferred to the 1st Battalion Royal Welsh Fusiliers in June
The rest of his war story is one of luck. He served on the front with the 1st RWF from June to September 1915, just after the Battalion had suffered severe losses at the Battle of Festubert, and then he was invalided home on the eve of the Battle of Loos. He spent the rest of the war doing light duties at home and finished the war with the 7th York and Lancs Regiment as Captain. He had long recurrences of fever throughout the war.
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Pte. Walter Skirrow 7th Battalion, D Coy. York and Lancaster Regiment (d.25th October 1917) Walter Skirrow was born in 1889 in Idle, a small village near Bradford and was the son of John and Elizabeth Skirrow. His father died aged 35 and left his mother to bring up the children. There were 7 boys and 3 girls. Two of his brother died within a year of being born. The family moved from Idle to Dodworth and then to Mexborough. In 1908, Walter married Annie Wilson at the parish church in Mexborough. Prior to enlisting, he had four children - Miriam, Walter, Joseph and Annie.
He enlisted in 1914 along with his brothers Joseph, James and Harry. His brother Arthur remained working in the local mines and was killed in a mining accident in 1916. Prior to enlistment Walter had worked underground at Manvers Msin Colliery. He is remembered on the Mexborough War Memorial and the Manvers colliery one in Wath.
Both his sisters had moved to Scotland and Harriet was married to Alex Craig, a Scottish footballer who played for Rangers.
With Walter's experience of working in the mines, he was assigned in 1915 to a tunnelling company and remained on the front line until he had leave in 1917 between 23rd of August and 12th of September 1917, where he returned to Mexborough to see his young family and wife.
On his return to Ypres, he joined the 7th Battalion York and Lancaster Regiment in D company, where he was part of the team building a railway line. This was an extremely dangerous job as they were often targeted by the enemy. Whilst working, he was hit by the enemy and died on the 25th of October 1917 and was laid to rest in Bard Cottage Cemetery.
From his orbitury in the local paper, his brother Joseph had been injured and his brothers James and Harry were present at his death and both went on to assist with carrying him to his resting place and burial. James wrote a letter to his widow Annie, that Walter had died a hero's death fighting for King and Country. His pals in the Battalion thought highly of him and said there wasn't a better chum to be found anywhere.
He described that once Walter had been hit, he did not speak again, dying instantly when the shell had hit him. The brothers had not realised that the end was so near, as they had been in the canteen the night before laughing and joking in the canteen. James vowed that as long as he stayed at the front he would visit Walter's grave even if he had to walk 10 miles to get there.
Following his death, his widow gave birth to his fifth child on the 19th June 1918 and the little girl was named Frances Ypres Skirrow to remind her of the father she never met. Frances because the war was in France and Ypres for the town where her father had died.
Many of Walter's grandchildren and great-grandchildren have been out to the grave at Bard Cottage Cemetery, with many mementoes remaining in the family to this day. One of his medals was found in a pawn shop and kept by the owner's family for 50 years and then it eventually returned to direct descendent of Walter himself.
His great-grandchildren have carried out research about his life and are always looking for information, which will tell them even more about his life in Mexborough, at Manvers and his time on the battlefield.
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Pte. Wilfred George Leeman 7th Btn York and Lancashire Regiment (d.14th May 1917) Wilfred Leeman, my Granfather's youngest brother died age 26. His Mother Annice Anne was a widow.
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Pte. George Smith 10th Btn. Yorks and Lancaster Regiment (d.12th Aug 1917) George Smith signed up on 6th October 1915 at Wath-upon-Dearne. He was 30 years and three months old and a miner. He needed some dental work to join the 11th (Reserve) Battalion in Pontefract. By 26th October 1915, he was at Cannock Chase. On 17th January 1916 he was transferred to the 7th (Pioneer) Battalion, as he was a miner in his civvy life. He went overseas on 16th March 1916 into the 17th Division. They worked on trenches in the front line and were billeted in Voormeezle in Belgium.
On 1st April they moved to Bailleul. While they were there, they dug bomb pits for training purposes. On 1st May, George was injured in training when a training officer threw a bomb and he was too slow to take cover. In an enquiry it was found that the fuse in the bomb was set short, so causing an early explosion. He was sent to a casualty clearing station and then home on 6th May. He suffered metal fragments in his right arm.
While he was at home, he moved between the Regimental Depot, the 11th reserves and the 3rd battalion. It appears he was transferred to the 21st Works Company (Durham Light Infantry) on 1st December 1916. He was again transferred to the 3rd (Reserve) battalion in February.
On 26th February 1917 he embarked for Folkestone with the 10th (Reserve), then to France after being reclassed as being fit for frontline duty. They arrived at the 34th Infantry Brigade depot at Etaples. He went through the infamous bull ring camp (I wonder if he was there when there was a mutiny?).
On 4th August 1917, he was sent to Wakefield Camp, at Olocre. The 10th were in a support line at Passchendaele. They were to supply fatigue parties for the front line and also ration parties consisting of up to 400 men. It was on one of these parties that George was mortally wounded. He was transferred to 53rd CCS in Bailleul and he died of his wounds on 12th August 1917. George is buried there in the communal cemetery. Such a sad story, not much luck. He left a wife and two children, one of them just an infant.
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Pte. John Henry Dransfield 7th Btn. York and Lancaster Regiment (d.22nd April 1918) John Henry Dransfield was killed at Forceville in France during hostile shelling by 105mm guns. This started at 11.00 am on 22nd April 1918 and John Henry was one of two soldiers of the 7th battalion to lose his life. John is buried in Forceville Communal Cemetery in plot 4, row B, grave 4.
He also lost his cousin, Bruce Vernon Dransfield who died on 10th July 1916. He was with the 1/5th Btn. Yorks and Lancs, service number 5/3401. He is buried in St Peters Cemetery in Hoyland Nether.
These two brave men were the cousins of my grandma who was then called Elizabeth Dransfield. Elizabeth married Harry Cassell who also served in WWI with the 4th Yorks and Lancs and was injured during 1915. His service number was 5/1890.
During WWI eleven of my extended family served, of whom seven survived and four were killed.
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Pte. Harry Skidmore 7th Btn. York and Lancaster Regiment (d.10th May 1916) Harry Skidmore was my great great grandfather. He died when my nan was a baby so she never got to know him. By all accounts he was very unlucky as I believe that he was hit by shrapnel at a time when they were not fighting. His pocket watch could have helped to save him had it been in a different position. He was by all accounts a lovely and brave man.
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Pte. Duncan Balfour Coward 7th Btn. York & Lancaster Regiment (d.7th Sep 1915)  Born 3rd September 1897 Duncan Coward must have joined up while he was 16. He landed with his battalion in France on 14th July 1915 and marched to Reninghelst Camp by 25th July. On the 27th they started work on the trenches between the Brasserie at Elsenwalle and the rear of Vierstraat. Private Searstone 13392 was the first fatality for the regiment on this first day working near the front. Three others were wounded.
They continued working on the trenches up to August 14th, when three platoons went up to the trenches for instruction with the 19th Lancashire Fusiliers and 12th Manchesters. Private Wheeler 11960 was killed that day. This was repeated on the 15th, 16th and 17th, Private Perry 16469 being killed on the 17th.
From the 19th August to the 31st, the battalion continued to work on trenches around Vierstraat with A and C Company taking over sections of trenches for 24 and 48 hours. 2nd Lieutenant TGB Dibbs, Captain FEC Palmer and Corporal JR Day were killed in this period.
1st September D Coy took over "Q3" trench and on the 3rd A, B and C Coys took over a section of "P" trenches in front of Wiltshire Farm BHQ. The Battalion War Diary for the 3rd records "Very heavy rain during relief and all remainder of night". This was Duncan's 18th birthday. The 4th was a "quiet day, rain, trenches flooded by rain and parapet dangerously damaged by wet." Private Bamforth 12947 was killed.
On the 5th "Many dugouts caved in owing to rain and more portions of parapet fell in" and on the 6th, at last "Rain stopped. Every available man was turned on to drainage and repairs to trenches". Work to repair the trenches continued on the 7th and Duncan was killed, aged 18 and 3 days, the 8th man of the battalion to die. He is buried in Ridge Wood Cemetery, alongside Private Searstone.
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Pte. Ernest Jowle 2nd Btn. York and Lancaster Regiment Ernest Jowle was posted from 7th Btn. to 2nd Btn. Yorks and Lancs on 24/6/18 and was wounded in action on 24/9/18.
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Pte. Hugh Elias Hughes 10th Battlion Royal Welsh Fusiliers Hugh Elias Hughes from Llanrhos in North Wales is mentioned in the nominal roll of 9th Queen's Royal Lancers as having joined the regiment in France on the 16th June 1916. At this time the 9th Lancers were preparing for the Somme Offensive and were to be used for the break-through (that never occurred). The battle of the Somme started on the 1st July with the men of the 9th being used as "vulture parties" to collect the dead and wounded from the battlefield,
On the 4th of October 1916 Hugh was transferred to the 10th Battalion of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers. Hugh's younger brothers, Griffith and Ivor, were also serving in this Battalion, whilst their eldest sibling, William, was transferred from the 1/6th (Territorial) Battalion to the 1st Battalion of the Regiment in February 1917. On the 13th November 1916 (Battle of Ancre), Ivor was wounded during an assault on the village of Serre, being shot through the thigh.
Sadly, less than a year later (2nd of October 1917) William was killed by a gunshot wound to the chest; he left a wife and two young children. Williams's injuries were sustained during a counter attack by the German 46th Reserve Battalion (consisting of 3 Battalions and 3 Sturmtruppe); the attack falling on the area of Polygon Wood covered by the 1st Battalion RWF and the 8th Battalion of the Leicestershire Regiment.
William would have first been taken to a field dressing station just behind the front line where morphine would have been administered and his wound dressed; from there he was evacuated to No. 3 Canadian Casualty Clearing Station at Poperinge where he finally succumbed to his wounds on the 2nd of October 1917.
William's grave is in Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery situated 12 kilometres west of the town of Leper in Belgium, grave reference number XXIV.F.12. William is also commemorated on his parent's memorial headstone in Llanrhos churchyard.
Hugh Elias Hughes continued to serve with the 10th RWF until February 1918 when the Battalion was finally disbanded; he was then transferred to the 7th (Pioneer) Battalion of the York and Lancaster Regiment. It was whilst serving with this regiment that he was injured.
The story the family passed down regarding his wounding, is that Hugh was in a dugout playing cards with four comrades; the dugout received a direct hit from a German artillery shell and all four of his pals were killed instantly. The rest of the dugout collapsed down onto Hugh but he was eventually pulled from the carnage suffering with severe head injuries and associated memory loss. The family may well have been informed that Hugh was missing because, as the story goes, Hugh's mother was convinced that he was still alive and sent a photograph of him to help with his identification.
Eventually Hugh was identified and returned home to Llanrhos in December 1918. Unfortunately the tragedy does not end here, as after leaving the Army, Hugh suffered acutely from his head wound, any loud noise would result in panic, with him displaying the terrible character changing symptoms so often associated with severe head trauma and battle stress.
In August 1920, Hugh and a former sailor called Thomas Henry Lewis decided to leave the Llandudno area to try and find work; so they walked to Chester, eventually finding temporary employment at Rake Lane farm in Eccleston.
Following an unsuccessful attempt to gain work in the mines in Wrexham, Hugh found himself back in Chester, by now separated from Thomas and in in a very drunken and distressed state. Sadly, whilst in this condition Hugh threw himself from a bridge over the river Dee and drowned.
Hugh's father Owen travelled to Chester to identify his son's body and give evidence at the inquest, the city coroner Mr E Brassey returned a verdict of "suicide whilst of unsound mind".
Hugh is commemorated on his parent's memorial stone in Llanrhos churchyard and can be considered as much a victim of the Great War as his brother William.
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Pte Robert W Lawrence 7th Battalion York & Lancs (d.11th March 1916) Robert born in 1880 killed in action on the 11th March 1916 now lies in the Voormezeele Enclosure I Commonwealth War Graves, row C, grave 17.
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Pte. Charles Radley 7th (Service) Btn. York & Lancaster (d.30th Jun 1918) My Great Uncle Charles Radley enlisted in 1914 when he was 17 yrs old. The only details I have are that he died of wounds on the 30th June 1918 in "France & Flanders" and he is buried in the Herissart Communal Cemetery. I have photographs of the cemetery and his grave. There is a memorial to him and others in Adwick village where he came from.
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Edgar Simms 7th Service Battalion Yorks and Lancs Regiment (Pioneers) My grandfather, Edgar Simms, served with the 7th Service Battalion Yorks and Lancs Regiment (Pioneers) from 1915-1917. He did survive the war, but 44 of his pals in A company did not return. My husband and I have found the final resting place of those who have known graves and in September we are returning to the Somme area to place poppy crosses on all of the graves in the area. Next year, we shall visit Belgium and place the rest of the crosses on the graves in the Passchendaele area and the final crosses at the Menin Gate during the 90th anniversary of that battle. If anyone has family members with graves in either area we will be more than happy to visit the graves and place a poppy for them.
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