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Those Who Served
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Those Who Served
2nd Lt. H. I'Anson . Army 8th Btn. Durham Light Infantry
Pte. Arthur Samuel Ibbotson . Australian Imperial Force 42nd Btn. from Hemmant, Brisbane, Queensland.
(d.10th Jun 1917)
Pte. George Leonard Ingham . British Army 19th Battalion, A Company, 3 Platoon Lancashire Fusiliers from Rochdale
(d.15th July 1916)
I knew that my Grandmother and Grandfather on my Mother's side had both lost a brother in WWI. Stupidly, I never asked any questions. Last Nov. 11, I decided to research them on the internet as I knew their names. My Grandmother's Brother was named George Ingham. I easily found him on the Commonwealth War Graves' site. After finding his details I input his info in Google and was taken to a page that showed his gravestone and a scan of a letter. The letter was put there by the niece of its recipient, Alf Plater. Alf was a friend and co-worker of George's in a small mill call Thornton's outside Rochdale.
The letter is dated July 8th, 1915, one week before George's death. It describes the 3rd Salfords' disastrous attack on the Leipzig Redoubt near Thiepval on the first day of the Battle of the Somme on July 1, 1916. The Salfords were depth reserve for several other battalions in the first wave. When it came time for them to advance, the British front line and communications trenches were so clogged with wounded that the battalion had to advance over open ground to the British front line. Similar to the preceding Lonsdale battalion (11th Border) and the 1st Dorset battalion, the Salfords suffered crippling casualties form German machine guns firing in enfilade from a fortification call the Nordwerk. Of the battalion's 4 companies, only A, B and one half of C were sent 'over the top.' The other half of C and D company both remained under cover once it was realized that committing them would just add to the massacre.
From the battalion war diary: "In the meanwhile A, B and part of C Company had continued their advance from the front line trenches in waves of 30 or 40 men. The leading wave, led by Lt Huxley, got within 10 yards of the German trench but out of forty men only four remained and they could get no further."
"Capt Hibbert led the next wave and succeeded in getting into the German trench. He was followed by Lt Musker and 2nd Lt George with all the men that could be collected. These were the only three officers left with the two and a half companies that had advanced, the remaining officers having been killed or wounded."
"During these operations the battalion experienced 268 casualties, that’s to say 50% of its fighting strength, having 20 officers and 577 other ranks when going into action." Note that this 50% battalion casualty rate was incurred but just over one half of the battalion. Casualties in A, B and the part of C company that advanced were at a much higher rate. In George's A company, the CO Lt. Huxley was wounded at duty and all three platoon commanders were killed in action.
George's understated letter describing this catastrophe says:
'July 8th, 1916
Dear Alf
Excuse me being so long in writing to you. I am in the pink and best of spirits. Charles told me you had been inquiring about me so I thought I should write when I had the chance. Things have been pretty hot here lately. We went over the top last week and I shall never forget it. I lost a good many of my chums and it was heartbreaking to see some of the wounded men. There were many German helmets to be got but they would be in the way. We have quite sufficient to carry. The German bayonets are awful things one edge is like a razor and the other like a double saw. The sight of them makes you ratty. Well Alf I hope you don't have to come up. How many more have listed at Thorntons. I have nothing more to write about so I will close wishing you the best of luck.
George L. Ingham"
After July 1, the 3rd Salfords were reorganized into only 2 companies. They were next in the line on July 12 at Ovillers. Interestingly one of the neighbouring battalions was the 11th Lancashire Fusiliers, where JRR Tolkien was serving as the battalion signals officer. George's battalion had Tolkien's best friend, Lt. Geoffrey Bache Smith, as its Intelligence Officer. Smith would be killed weeks later, leaving Tolkien the only survivor of his school friends who joined the British army.
In the vicious close quarter warfare in the Ovillers trenches, George's combined company was heavily engaged, again losing two of three plat0on commanders killed and one wounded. George Ingham was mortally wounded, likely by a German sniper. Per the battalion war diary most of the casualties of this fighting were due to snipers. The fact that he was evacuated to the clearing station at Warloy Baillon in the rear supports this assumption as this clearing station focused on serious head and abdominal injuries. George Ingham died of his wounds July 15th, 1916 aged 19 years. He is buried in the Communal Cemetary Extensionn at Warloy Baillon.
Pte. Joseph Ingham . British Army 250th Tunnelling Company Royal Engineers. from 406, Huddersfield Rd., Millbrook, Stalybridge
(d.26th Jun 1917)
Pte G Ingledew . British Army 9th Btn Northumberland Fusiliers from 1 of 16, Sarah St, Gateshead-on-Tyne.
(d.16th Apr 1918)
Ingledew, G. Private 19/1188, Died of wounds on 16th April 1918. Aged 25 years.
Buried in Haringhe (Bandaghem) Military Cemetery, Poperinge, West-Vlaanderen,in grave II. E. 7.
Husband of Lily Maud Cox (formerly Ingledew), 1 of 16, Sarah St, Gateshead-on-Tyne.
Was in the 19th Btn Northumberland Fusiliers. However the 19th Btn records show, Private Ingledew, as posted to the 9th Btn Northumberland Fusiliers at the time of his death.
From the 19th Btn Northumberland Fusiliers Roll of Honour.
Pte. Herbert Ingoe . British Army 18th Battalion Manchester Regiment from Manchester
(d.1st July 1916)
Herbert Ingoe was a Manchester clerk, born in 1892. Joined up on 04/09/14. He is described as having Dark hair, sallow complexion, hazel/grey eyes. 5 foot 3-and-a-half; Chest 31-and-a-half inches when fully expanded (with 2 inches expansion). Weight, 106lbs. Eyesight, D6.
As 180411, Private Ingoe, Herbert, in the 18th City Battalion of the Manchester Regiment, he seems to have stood up well to basic training. By the end of 1915, his unit would have been in France. They celebrated Christmas there. His time was divided between travel, general duties and some spells in the front line. During his service, he committed one breach of King's Regulations: reported by Corporal Beattie for losing an oil-cloth 'by neglect' - and was required to pay for a new one. The case was heard on Nov the 21st, 1915.
Preparations were in hand for the Battle of The Somme. He was killed on July the 1st 1916, during the attack on Montaubon. He was in C Company, but we do not know precisely what part he tried to play in events at Montaubon. We have heard one story, possibly apocryphal, that he was badly wounded and left in a shell-crater by comrades, and that when they returned for him, he was nowhere to be found and the crater had doubled in size.
His last effects were returned to his father, George William Ingoe, in two parcels: The First contained One note book and one hair-ribbon. The Second contained Two notebooks, a diary, a French/English dictionary, a New Testament, two letters, one postcard, three visiting-cards and two newspaper-cuttings. We wonder if the two letters were addressed to his family and sweetheart, Alice (surname unknown), rather than from home, or if the postcard was of the kind for use in the field, a form to let relatives know how things were with him at the front.
He is commemorated at on the public memorial at Boggart Hole Clough, on a Weslyan Sunday Schools Roll of Honour at Blackley and at Thiepval, on the Commonwealth monument for personnel whose bodies were lost without trace. Herbert was a Wesleyan Methodist, teetotal.
His brother Alfred (1896- 1939), joined the RAMC as a stretcher-bearer in March, 1915; served out the war in the Dardanelles and on the Western Front, and was demobilized in 1919.
Capt George Morby Ingram VC MM. Australian Imperial Force 24th Btn Citizens Military Force from Australia
Pte. William Herbert Ingram . British Army 2nd Btn. Northumberland Fusiliers (d.18th Feb 1915)
Innes . Army 9th Btn. Durham Light Infantry
Lt.Col. C. H. Innes-Hopkins . British Army 20th Btn. Northumberland Fusiliers
Sgt. Reginald Roy Inwood VC.. Australian Army 10th Battalion from Australia
Pte. Horace Edwin Irons . British Army 6th Battalion Northamptonshire Regiment from Kingsthorpe
(d.2nd April 1916)
Horace Irons was my Grandfather and I have been trying to find out how he was killed. I have been unable to find out anything except where his grave is, which I visit occasionally.
David George "Dave" Irvine . Australian Imperial Force 30th Battalion from Balmain, Australia
David G. Irvine embarked to join the REF Alexandria ex Hororata on June 16 1916. He disembarked in Marseilles France one week later on June 23, 1916 and less than one month later on July 20 1916 in France he sustained a major gunshot wound to his left leg and was shipped out on the hospital ship St David to England on July 21, 1916. During recovery he was admitted to the Ontario Military Hospital also known as The Orpington Hospital, in Sevenoaks Road, Orpington Kent, England on July 22, 1916. After Orpington, David was moved to the 2nd Scottish General Hospital on January 20, 1917. He returned to Australia on HMAT Euripides on September 19, 1917 and was discharged from AIF on October 16, 1917 as medically unfit.
Pte. S. Irvine . British Army 11th Btn. Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers (d.1st Jul 1916)
L/Cpl William John Irvine . Army Kings Own (Royal Lancaster Rgt.)
Pte. David Irving . British Army 12th Btn from 5 Back St, Longtown
Lt Cdr. Ernest Kirkbank Irving DSC, MID.. Royal Navy HMS Bittern from Carlisle
I have the medals of Lt Cmdr Irving. He was the Captain of the HMS Bittern, a destroyer. He had an injury a few hours before the Bittern sailed and he went ashore for medical care, his second in command took the ship out and the ship was hit and sank by the SS Kenilworth Castle 12,700 tons. All lives where lost as it was a very heavy sea that night. The Captain was a very lucky man.
He was was an Captain in the Merchant Navy with an Extra Masters Certificate before also getting a commission in the RNR in 1909. He regularly sailed from Liverpool to Sydney on the White Star Line ships Runic and Celtic.
CSM. Ernest Irving . British Army 2nd Battalion Coldsteam Guards from London
(d.27th Sep 1918)
My grand-father, Ernest Irving, was killed on 27 Sept 1918 near Cambrai, I presume on the first day of the Battle of the Canal du Nord. >He was a professional soldier and appears to have served at the Front throughout the war. His daughter - my mother - was born only 5 months before his death. I wonder if he ever actually saw her. To compound the family tragedy, Ernest's wife was killed in the Blitz on London in 1942
Pte. William Allan Irwin DCM.. Australian Imperial Force. C Company 33rd Btn. from Moree, NSW
(d.1st Sep 1918)
William Allan Irwin DCM was an Aboriginal soldier in the 33rd Battalion, C Company from Moree NSW. He is the only Aboriginal serviceman to receive mention in CEW Bean's History of the Great War.
William was born as William Irwin Allen at Coonabarabran NSW in 1878. He gave his occupation as shearer and stated that he was single and living at Moree, when he enlisted at Narrabri, NSW on 3.1.1916.
He embarked on the "Marathon" for England on 4.5.1916 and was wounded at Messines on 16.6.1917. He was also wounded at Villers-Bretonneux on 6.4.1918 and again during the assault at Road Wood, Mont St Quentin & Hindenburg line on 31.8.1918 as a result of which he died of wounds on 1.9.1918. William is buried at Daours Communal Cemetery Extension, Somme, France. His grave Reference is VIII. B. 32. and I would love a photo of his grave, if anyone where to visit the cemetery.
William was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM) on 27.10.1918.
He had already been wounded on two previous occasions before an engagement at Road Wood on 31st August 1918 in which he was mortally wounded and died on the following day. He was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal - his citation reads as follows:
No. 792, Private William Allan Irwin - "For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty during the operations at Road Wood on August 31st 1918. Single-handed, and in the face of extremely heavy fire, Private Irwin rushed Three separate Machine-gun posts and captured the three guns and crews. It was while on the point of rushing a Fourth Machine-gun that he was severely wounded. On his irresistible dash and magnificent gallantry, this man materially assisted our advance through this strongly held and defended Wood, and by his daring actions he greatly inspired the whole of his Company."
Two of his 4 medals were presented by the Australian War Dept to his brother (my late wife's Great Grandfather), in the late 1920's - early 1930's the medals were borrowed by an official of the Walhallow Aboriginal Reserve and never returned.
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