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7th Battalion, East Surrey Regiment
7th Battalion, The East Surrey Regiment was raised at Kingston-upon-Thames in August 1914 as part of Kitchener's First New Army and joined 37th Brigade in 12th (Eastern) Division. They trained at Purfleet and spent the winter in billets in Sandgate. They moved to Albuhera Barracks in Aldershot in February 1915 for final training. They proceeded to France on the 2nd of June 1915 landing at Boulogne, they concentrated near St Omer and by 6th of June were in the Meteren-Steenwerck area with Divisional HQ being established at Nieppe. They underwent instruction from the more experienced 48th (South Midland) Division and took over a section of the front line at Ploegsteert Wood on the 23rd of June 1915. They were in action in The Battle of Loos from the 30th of September, taking over the sector from Gun Trench to Hulluch Quarries consolidating the position, under heavy artillery fire. On the 8th they repelled a heavy German infantry attack and on the 13th took part in the Action of the Hohenzollern Redoubt, capturing Gun Trench and the south western face of the Hulluch Quarries. During this period at Loos, 117 officers and 3237 men of the Division were killed or wounded.By the 21st they moved to Fouquieres-les-Bethune for a short rest then returned to the front line at the Hohenzollern Redoubt until the 15th of November, when they went into reserve at Lillers. On the 9th of December, 9th Royal Fusiliers assisted in a round-up of spies and other suspicious characters in the streets of Bethune. On the 10th the Division took over the front line north of La Bassee canal at Givenchy. On the 19th of January they began a period of training in Open Warfare at Busnes, then moved back into the front line at Loos on the 12th of February 1916. In June they moved to Flesselles and carried out a training exercise. They moved to Baizieux on the 30th June and went into the reserve at Hencourt and Millencourt by mid morning on the 1st of July. They relieved the 8th Division at Ovillers-la-Boisselle that night and attacked at 3.15 the following morning with mixed success. On the 7th they attacked again and despite suffering heavy casualties in the area of Mash Valley, they succeeded in capturing and holding the first and second lines close to Ovillers. They were withdrawn to Contay on the 9th July. They were in action in The Battle of Pozieres on the 3rd of August with a successful attack capturing 4th Avenue Trench and were engaged in heavy fighting until they were withdrawn on the 9th. They moved north and in 1917 were in action at Arras in The First Battle of the Scarpe, The Battle of Arleux and The Third Battle of the Scarpe. They remained in the Arras sector until the 30th of October when they moved to Hesdin for the Cambrai offensive in which the Division suffered heavy losses. The 7th East Surrey's were disbanded in France on the 5th of February 1918 when the army was reorganised.
15th Aug 1915 Instruction 
27th September 1915 Orders
27th September 1915 Orders
28th September 1915 Reliefs complete
1st Nov 1915 Please send Cake
1st Jul 1916 Attack Made
13th Jul 1916 Attack Made
14th Jul 1916 Wood Captured
18th Nov 1916 Advance
10th Aug 1917 Advance
5th Sep 1917 Exercise
1st Jan 1918 Training
2nd Jan 1918 Training
3rd Jan 1918 Training
4th Jan 1918 Training
5th Jan 1918 Moves
6th Jan 1918 Moves
7th Jan 1918 Training
If you can provide any additional information, please add it here.
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| Want to know more about 7th Battalion, East Surrey Regiment? There are:5248 items tagged 7th Battalion, East Surrey 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, East Surrey Regiment during the Great War 1914-1918. - Bird Francis Thomas. Pte. (d.30th November 1917)
- Budd Frederick. Pte.
- Caleno Albert. L/Cpl. (d.13th August 1916)
- Dry George Edward. Sgt. (d.10th May 1917)
- Duck Arthur. Pte.
- Gadd John. Pte. (d.6th March 1916)
- Hill Richard Harry. Pte. (d.30th September 1916)
- Hollington Charles Henry. Pte. (d.30th Nov 1917)
- Mitcell Henry Walter. Sgt. (d.3rd May 1917)
- Rollins Frederick John. Pte (d.13th October 1915)
- Smith Robert. Pte. (d.14th October 1915)
- Spittle George. (d.9th May 1917)
- Strutton Edward. Pte. (d.25th April 1915)
- Taylor Albert John . Pte.
- Wells Alfred George Daniel. Pte. (d.30th Nov 1917)
- Wells MM. Charles Hyron. Pte.
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, East Surrey Regiment from other sources.
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George Spittle 7th Btn. East Surrey Regiment (d.9th May 1917) George Spittle was my Great Uncle and all I know is that he made a tapestry for my grandmother, his sister, whilst a prisoner in the 1914 - 1918 War.
He died aged 21. I now have the tapestry.
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Pte. Albert John "Wrecker" Taylor 7th Battalion East Surrey Regiment Looking into my grandfather's contribution to the war, Albert Taylor recieved three medals, My Auntie Ann has these. As far as I can work out, he served in 7th, 13th and 8th Battalion. He was engaged in France on 1st of June 1915.
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L/Cpl. Albert Caleno 7th Btn. East Surrey Regiment (d.13th August 1916) Albert Caleno was my great grandfather and was married to Ethel Scott in Fulham, London.
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Pte. Frederick Budd 7th Btn. East Surrey Regiment Thomas Budd served with 17/21st Lancers and was later Captain 1st Battalion, Hampshire Regiment. A regular Soldier from 1899 - 1919. He was the middle of 3 Brothers who Served in WW1 in France
Frederick served with the 7th Service Battalion, East Surrey Regiment and
Arthur who served with 1st Battalion, Hampshire Regiment.
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Sgt. George Edward Dry 7th Btn. East Surrey Regiment (d.10th May 1917) My great uncle George E Dry was a Sergeant in the 7th Battalion of the East Surrey Regiment and this past week (April 2015) we visited his grave for the first time in the beautiful CWGC cemetery at Duisans, near to Arras in France. What we still do not know is the circumstances of his death and this is some thing we are hoping to find out sometime soon.
<[>In November last year we visited also for the first time the CWGC China Wall Cemetery near Ypres where my Grandfather Joseph Robert Dry is buried. He died from wounds in battle in 1915.
In both cases we are only at the beginning of a journey, all be it a rather sad one, to discover more about the military service that my two relations experienced up to their untimely deaths. It is with a lot of personal regret that I was unable to talk to my late father about the war time exploits of his late father and uncle. I suspect this was partly a generational thing and also his own horrific memories of service with the Ghurka regiment in the Burma campaign in WW2.
Whilst in Ypres we also took with us the hand written diary of my other grandfather who served in the Queen Victoria Rifles and happily survived the war. I mention this because we visited Hill 60 (also near to Ypres) and were able to trace in 'real time on the hill' my grandfather RSM Tom Forrest's exploits and valour in the fighting on Hill 60 in April 1915.
If any one recognises the references to any of these three brave men I would be delighted to hear from you. As my historical researching progresses I'll be back to update the entry if I can. Having retired from work myself I have spent many hours with my wife researching our family history from back in the early 1800s. It was the period of the First world war that really pushed us to begin both an internet search and physical battle field sites visits in Belgium and France to trace the two brothers (my Grand father and great Uncle) who died and are buried across the channel.
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Pte. Charles Henry Hollington 7th Btn. East Surrey Regiment (d.30th Nov 1917) Charles Hollington served with the 7th Btn, East Surrey Regiment.
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