The Wartime Memories Project - The Great War

Sergeant Samuel Beecher Horsman British Army 21st Btn. King's Royal Rifle Corps


Great War>


This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site you agree to accept cookies.


If you enjoy this site please consider making a donation.



    Site Home

    Great War Home

    Search

    Add Stories & Photos

    Library

    Help & FAQs

 Features

    Allied Army

    Day by Day

    RFC & RAF

    Prisoners of War

    War at Sea

    Training for War

    The Battles

    Those Who Served

    Hospitals

    Civilian Service

    Women at War

    The War Effort

    Central Powers Army

    Central Powers Navy

    Imperial Air Service

    Library

    World War Two

 Submissions

    Add Stories & Photos

    Time Capsule

 Information

    Help & FAQs



    Glossary

    Our Facebook Page

    Volunteering

    News

    Events

    Contact us

    Great War Books

    About


Advertisements

World War 1 One ww1 wwII greatwar great 1914 1918 first battalion regiment

211326

Sergeant Samuel Beecher Horsman

British Army 21st Btn. King's Royal Rifle Corps

from:Scarborough

(d.7th Aug 1917)

Taken from ‘Neath a Foreign sky’ by Paul Allen –

After the battle of Flers the Yeoman Rifles had lost the identity that it had gone into battle with on the 15th September, the replacements for the men lost in the action coming predominately from the London area. Despite its change in character the Yeoman Rifles had soldiered on, and during 1917 had taken part in the Third Battle of Ypres. Perhaps better known simply as ‘Passchendale’, ‘Third Wipers’ had opened on Tuesday the 31st of July 1917 with the so called Battle of Pilckem Ridge, however, during these operations the Yeoman Rifles had played little part, nevertheless, by Saturday the 4th of August the Battalion had been stationed in trenches near to the village of Hollebeke, where during that day the Germans had mounted a ferocious counterattack which, despite suffering heavy casualties, the Yeoman Rifles had managed to beat off. During the following day the Germans had continued their assault a by mounting another two counterattacks which had also been driven out. However, severely weakened by this time, the Yeoman Rifle had been unable to stem a third assault which had eventually seen the Germans getting a foothold in the by then shattered village of Hollebeke.

During these attacks the Yeoman Rifles had suffered many casualties including a Scarborough born ‘Yeoman’ who had been hit in the face by a splinter of enemy shell. This deadly piece of shrapnel had lodged in the soldier’s brain, and despite being evacuated to a Base Hospital at Boulogne the Scarborian had succumbed to his wounds on Tuesday the 7th of August 1917.

Born in Falsgrave during 1887 at No.50 West Bank; C/12137 Sergeant Samuel Beecher Horsman had been the sixth of seven children of Sarah [formally Bilham] and ‘clerk’ Enos Horsman. A pupil of Falsgrave’s Council School, during 1901 the outstandingly bright Samuel Horsman had graduated to Scarborough’s prestigious Municipal School and had remained at ‘The Muni’ until 1905. Having chosen to lead a career in teaching, Horsman had subsequently become an assistant teacher at Scarborough’s Central School for boys. Located in Trafalgar Street West, Horsman had remained at the Central between 1906 and 1907, when he had duly left town to undergo teacher training at York’s St. John’s College. In 1909 Samuel was captain of the first eleven as cricket. Graduating as a fully-fledged teacher during 1909, Horsman had returned to Scarborough to teach at his old Falsgrave School, where he had reportedly especially excelled as a teacher in sports activities.

Along with elder brother Enos, Sam Horsman had also built an enviable reputation as a player with Scarborough’s football team before the war, during the season of 1911-12 Samuel had appeared on forty occasions for the club, thus scoring the highest attendance record of any ‘Boro’ player that year. However, with the coming of hostilities sport had been put aside and the two Horsman brothers had prepared for war.

At the outbreak of war Samuel Horsman had been residing with his widowed mother in ‘The Garlands’, a house located in Seamer Road. Enlisting into the Yeoman Rifles at Scarborough on the 4th of November 1915, Horsman had duly joined the Battalion at Duncombe Park, Helmsley, five days later. With his advanced education it had been obvious that Horsman had been Non Commissioned Officer, if not Officer material, and had soon been promoted to the rank of Corporal and shortly to that of Sergeant.

Taken ill with ‘trench fever’ shortly after the Battle of Flers, Sam Horsman had eventually been evacuated to ‘Blighty’ for treatment and had thus had the fortune to miss most of the horrors that had been experienced by the remainder of the Yeoman Rifles during the winter of 1916/17. However, pronounced fit for duty by May 1917, Horsman had duly returned to war and had rejoined the battalion in Flanders, where the unit had shortly [June 1917] taken part in the Battle of Messines and eventually the start of ‘Third Wipers’

Following the demise of one of Scarborough Football Club’s most respected players at No.13 General Hospital, the remains of Sergeant Horsman had been interred in a large civilian burial ground located in Boulogne’s ‘St. Martin Boulogne’ district just beyond the eastern [Chateau] corner of the Citadel [Haute Ville] known as ‘Boulogne Eastern Cemetery’. Amongst over five thousand casualties that had been interred in this Cemetery during the Great War, the former school teacher’s final resting place is located in Section 4, Row A, Grave 57.

In addition to being commemorated on Scarborough’s Oliver’s Mount War Memorial, elsewhere in the town Samuel Horsman’s name can be found in Falsgrave’s St James Church on a magnificently carved ‘Rood Screen’ memorial which bears the names of fifty former members of the church who had gave their lives during the First World War [including three civilians that had lost their lives during the Bombardment of Scarborough during December 11914]. In addition, Sergeant Horsman, a former pupil of Scarborough’s Municipal School had also been remembered on that School’s ‘Roll of Honour’ that lists the names of over sixty ‘old boys’ who had lost their lives whilst on active service between 1914 and 1918. Originally erected by ‘The Old Scholars Club’, this large memorial is located in the present day Graham School, located in Scarborough’s Woodlands Drive.









Related Content:







Can you help us to add to our records?

The names and stories on this website have been submitted by their relatives and friends. If your relations are not listed please add their names so that others can read about them


Did your relative live through the Great War? Do you have any photos, newspaper clippings, postcards or letters from that period? Have you researched the names on your local or war memorial?

If so please let us know.

Do you know the location of a Great War "Roll of Honour?"

We are very keen to track down these often forgotten documents and obtain photographs and transcriptions of the names recorded so that they will be available for all to remember.

Help us to build a database of information on those who served both at home and abroad so that future generations may learn of their sacrifice.




Celebrate your own Family History

Celebrate by honouring members of your family who served in the Great War both in the forces and at home. We love to hear about the soldiers, but also remember the many who served in support roles, nurses, doctors, land army, muntions workers etc.

Please use our Family History resources to find out more about your relatives. Then please send in a short article, with a photo if possible, so that they can be remembered on these pages.














The free section of The Wartime Memories Project is run by volunteers.

This website is paid for out of our own pockets, library subscriptions and from donations made by visitors. The popularity of the site means that it is far exceeding available resources and we currently have a huge backlog of submissions.

If you are enjoying the site, please consider making a donation, however small to help with the costs of keeping the site running.


Hosted by:

The Wartime Memories Project Website

is archived for preservation by the British Library





Copyright MCMXCIX - MMXXIV
- All Rights Reserved -

We do not permit the use of any content from this website for the training of LLMs or for use in Generative AI, it also may not be scraped for the purpose of creating other websites.