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2nd Lt. John Frederick Louis Sieber

British Army 6th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment

from:52 Mile End Road, South Shields

(d.4th Oct 1916)

John Sieber was the cousin of my maternal grandfather. His parents were German immigrants who came to South Shields in the early 1890s. John was born in South Shields, where his father was a pork butcher, on 6 Nov 1896. He attended South Shields Grammar Technical School for Boys where he was a scholar and went from there, in 1913, to Armstrong College, Newcastle upon Tyne, then part of Durham University. He joined the Durham OTC and on the outbreak of war was commissioned with the 6th Battalion, E Yorks. Apart from what I have read on websites - Gallipoli then France - I know nothing of his war history.

However, his story is an interesting one in this sense: at the time he was fighting the Germans for the British Army his parents and uncle and aunt, (my great grandparents) had been living and working on Tyneside. Although they escaped internment, they were hounded out of the region because they were Germans spending much of the war in Cumbria. His cousin - my grandfather's sister - had gone to Germany to stay with family in the summer of 1914, aged 13, and essentially was stranded in Germany for the duration of the war. Although she was not interned, she was treated as an alien, required to report twice daily to the local police in Kiel, Schleswig Holstein, and denied rations and education. The effect on this family arising from this state of internal conflict can only be imagined. They all stayed in England after the war, returning to Tyneside where my grand father's family, at least, prospered.

Additional Information:

I have gained a great deal more information. 2nd Lt. Sieber went by the name of Louis, after his paternal grandfather who, despite being baptised Ludwig, also went by the name Louis in the French style.

As already mentioned, Louis joined the Durham OTC whilst at Armstrong College which he entered in 1913. It was therefore perhaps not surprising that he was commissioned as early as 1st of September 1914 despite what must have been an appalling conflict of loyalty. Although his father had been in England for 30 years by then and Louis was born in England, he being naturalised along with his parents in 1900, the ties with Schwäbisch Hall remained. Although his paternal grandfather had died in 1898, his grandmother had only died two years before the war and, although two of his aunts had been in England at some point, by then both were back home, Lena with her husband, presumed to be in Stuttgart, and Amalie (Aunty Male) in Hall itself.

The strength of the connection with old home is perhaps best demonstrated by the fact that his sister Amalie, then 15 (and like her cousin Lily Bittermann) were in Germany when the war broke out. A teasing postcard to Amalie exists albeit it is not dated and it may pre-date the war but Amalie’s grandson has confirmed that she was indeed in Germany at outbreak although, unlike Lily, somehow she was able to make it back.

What the family made of Louis’ apparent enthusiasm to serve King and Empire is not known. Louis signed up long before conscription was introduced in 1916 which was followed by the Army Council’s decision that males born in Britain to enemy subjects (which Louis technically was at birth) would not be called up before they were 21 when they would have the alternative of signing a declaration of alienage. The problem of Germans later conscripted became such that, for example, the Middlesex Regiment was authorised by the Army Council to create a new battalion, the 30th (Works) Battalion to which such men would be sent on enlistment or transferred from existing units. The London Evening Standard eventually got wind of this and ran an article about “The Kaiser’s Own”, said to be the “Queerest Battalion in the British Army”! As the Bittermann chapter shows, this was his cousin Eddie’s fate and I wonder to what extent that played a part in what seems to have been family estrangement.

Louis’ Battalion had been raised at Beverley on 27th of August 1914 and, after initial training close to home, they moved to Belton Park near Grantham to train with other units. On 4th of April 1915 they assembled at Witley and Frensham for final training.

Despite a document that was created when Louis was injured, I am fairly certain that Louis was sent to the Dardanelles in July 1915. By then the campaign had reached a stale mate and General Sir Ian Hamilton, the Commander in Chief, had finally persuaded Lord Kitchener to provide reinforcements. The Battalion is known to have set sail from Avonmouth on 1st of July 1915 arriving, via Mudros, in time for the Suvla Bay landings which began on 6th of August.

These were, plainly, troops who were not only not battle hardened but fresh from Blightie and lacking any fighting experience at all. There was an enemy outpost under the command of Major Willmer of the Bavarian cavalry (Willmer famously had a duelling scar on his cheek) at Lala Baba, on Nibrunesi Point at the southern end of Suvla Bay. A series of Allied landings were made under the noses of the enemy and marched in land without resistance. However, after a red flare went up from Lala Baba to their left, the two battalions of Yorkshire soldiers came under heavy rifle fire.

Alan Moorhead in his classic account in Gallipoli wrote: This was the first time that Kitchener’s new civilian Army had faced the enemy, and the conditions were very difficult: they had been on their feet for seventeen hours, they could hardly see more than a yard or two ahead, and they were under orders to use only their bayonets until the day broke. A third of the men and all but three of their officers were hit, but the remainder kept trudging on until they had driven the Turks off the hill and had pursued them down to the salt lake on the opposite side. It was now midnight, and the survivors looked around for the third brigade which was supposed to have landed inside the bay and to have kept a rendezvous with them at Lala Baba. But of these others there was nothing to be seen; and so the men sat down to wait.

This is perhaps illustrative of the chaos that ensued with landing craft losing their way, troops belatedly arriving and not knowing where to go or what to do and the later discovery that, the troops that had landed under cover of darkness had not reached the hills from which they were to launch the attack on the Turks they had mere seized two arms of the bay. The more one looks into that day the more chaotic it seems, characterised by long silences and sudden frantic changes of front. Companies, battalions and whole brigades became mixed up and any resolute action tended to be the consequence of a junior commander taking some initiative.

The Suvla battles dragged on through August without a decisive breakthrough. Hamilton told Kitchener that victory could not be achieved without another 95,000 men. Although eventually promised two fresh divisions from mid September, their arrival was postponed and then Bulgaria mobilised and all bets were off as the British agreed to support Greece to enable an attack on Bulgaria via its border.

Thereafter the story becomes that of the retreat in which, miraculously, despite predicted losses of between 35 and 45% of the men, all were spirited off in the hours of darkness in the days leading up to 21 December under the noses of, but undetected by, the Turks.

I do not know whether Louis was part of the group of Yorkshire soldiers mentioned but he was almost certainly part of the Suvla landings, survived when 45,000 did not in the action that followed and, presumably, was one of the many who were largely paralysed in a life without purpose other than to worry about where the next meal was coming from as well as avoiding the sickness, dysentery that reduced so many to the ability to walk at crawling pace, the terrible flies and the dirt of the dry winds of early autumn. There came a point where men were being evacuated at a rate of 800 a day. In so far as there was action it tended to be tunnelling under the enemy and setting off mines as well as small raids and feints. They were so close to the Turks in places that they would parley with each other in friendly terms. It must have been unimaginably demoralising.

Somehow, whatever his precise role, Louis made it to the end and arrived at Imbros on 21st of December, suggesting he must have been amongst the last off. He arrived at Alexandria on 4th of January 1916 where the Battalion were engaged on duties protecting the Suez Canal. They concentrated on duties at Sidi Bishr taking on the defence of a section of the canal on 19th of February. On 17th of June they were ordered to the Western Front to join the British Expeditionary Force on 3rd of July because of the pressing need to reinforce the Third Army. There will be a record of how they travelled from Marseilles but they were on the front line at the Somme by 27th if July where Louis would have remained for the couple of months before the events that lead to his death.

Louis Sieber sustained his fatal injuries at the Battle of Mouquet Farm on 26th of September 1916.

The following account of the battle, which raged from 10th of August, is taken from Wikipedia and has a distinctively Anzac emphasis. Nevertheless, the role that the Pioneer Battalion played is acknowledged. It will be noted that Louis was injured in the final (and seemingly, so far as his company was concerned, unplanned) push in which his battalion captured the enemy:- Mouquet Farm was to the right of the modern D 73 Pozières–Thiepval road, south of Grandcourt and to the south-west of Courcelette, about 1.7 kilometres (1.1 mi) north-west of the high ground near Pozières. Following the fighting that had occurred around the village earlier in the year, the decision was made by the British to gain control of the ridge beyond the village in order to create a gap in the German lines, behind the salient that had developed around the German-held fortress of Thiepval. By capturing Mouquet Farm, the British hoped that it would destabilise the German position and enable subsequent gains.

The Battle 10 August – 3 September

During the night of 10 August, parties of the 4th Australian Division of the I Anzac Corps, attacked towards the farm and managed to establish advanced posts in the valley south of the farm and to the east. Attacks were then made from a foothold in Fabeck Graben (Fabeck Trench) to the north-east and to deepen the salient near the farm. By 22 August, the 2nd Australian Division had made several more attempts on the farm and had realised that the main defensive position was underground, where the Germans had excavated the cellars to create linked dug-outs. On 3rd of September, the 4th Australian Division attacked again with the 13th Brigade and captured much of the surface remains of the farm and trenches nearby, with hand to hand fighting in the ruins and underground. German counter-attacks repulsed the Australians except from a small part of Fabeck Graben, for a loss of 2,049 Australian casualties.

16–26 September

Mouquet farm, Pozières, by Fred Leist

During the battle, the I Anzac Corps divisions, advanced north-west along the Pozières ridge, towards the German strong point of Mouquet Farm, with British divisions supporting on the left. The approaches to the farm were visible to German artillery observers, who directed artillery-fire on the attackers, from three sides of the salient that had developed in the lines. Many casualties were caused to the attackers as they approached the farm and in August and into September, the Australian divisions were repulsed three times from the farm.

The Canadian Corps relieved the I Anzac Corps on 5 September.[ The Canadians captured part of the farm on 16 September and were then repulsed by a counter-attack. By 25th of September, further attacks had captured part of the farm on the surface but the Germans still held the cellars, dug-outs and tunnels beneath. The farm was captured on 26th of September by the 34th Brigade of the 11th Division, in the general attack of the Battle of Thiepval Ridge. The 9th Lancashire Fusiliers bombed the exits of the underground positions and also managed to reach the second objective, at the west end of Zollern Trench, where German machine-gun nests had held up previous attacks. The 6th East Yorkshire (Pioneers) overwhelmed the last defenders with smoke grenades and took 56 prisoners.

Casualties In the fighting around Pozières and Mouquet Farm, the I Anzac Corps suffered c. 6,300 casualties. During its second period on the Somme, the 1st Australian Division lost 2,654 men, having already had 5,278 casualties in August. The 2nd Australian Division had 6,846 losses from 25th of July – 7th of August and 1,267 casualties from 23rd–29th of August. From 29th of July – 16th of August the 4th Australian Division had 4,761 losses and 2,487 casualties from 27th of August – 4th of September.

War Diary of the 6th (Pioneer) Battalion

I have been able to gain access to the War Diary for the period 1st of September to the date of Louis’ injury. The extract begins on 1st of September 1916 when the Battalion was encamped at Bouquemaison, the day after they had arrived from the Arras sector. The Battalion was noted on that day to leave by buses for Acheux, south west of Arras and thereafter proceed by route march for Aveluy arriving at Usna Redoubt at 11pm.

In the week that followed, based at Usna, time was spent straightening billets, repairing dugouts, clearing a line for a light railway to Pozières and trenches. From 10 September the company carried similar work at Aveluy, periodically coming under heavy shell fire from the enemy. Further trenches were dug and casualties periodically occurred. On 26th of September work had begun on a communication trench after the capture of Zollern Redoubt. When they were forced to stop digging because of the enemy occupation, tools were downed and rifles taken up on the order of Lt Coultas who lead the attack in which he was killed.

Operations. C Company were employed digging a CT (communication trench] from Mouquet Road west of Mouquet Farm along midway line to Hessian French. No 16. Lt Coultas could not start work owing to Mouquet Farm being held by the enemy. He therefore attacked the farm in order to try and ….them out. Eventually after about 4 hours and smoke bombs had been thrown down the entrances of the passages of the farm 1 officer and 35 OR [other ranks] gave themselves up. Lt Coultas was killed whilst leading his platoon to the attack…. Casualties: 24 OR killed, wounded OR 52. Three Military Crosses, one Distinguished Conduct Medal and five Military Medals were earned. Only 13 out of the platoon’s 33 survived.

Noted in the diary outside the text box at the top of this entry are the words: Lieut J F L Sieber was wounded

The rest of the story makes for fairly harrowing reading. Louis suffered gunshot wounds to his lower back, buttock and groin. He was admitted to OC 14 General Hospital, in or near Boulogne, on 27th of September and was noted on 29th of September to be ‘dangerously ill’, a message being sent to his home address in South Shields to the effect that he could be visited. That was not an empty offer. Richard van Emden in The Quick and the Dead, Bloomsbury 2011, describes exactly what would have happened: The first indication that a trip was to be granted came in a War Office telegram, a heart-stopping moment in itself, which stated that the soldier in question was seriously ill and that relatives should reply immediately as to whether or not they wished to travel. Once that wish was confirmed, an official form (Army Form B 104-108) was sent giving details of the trip; a railway warrant would be provided, to be taken to the nearest station at which point a return ticket would be issued at no cost; other expenses would also be met if the individual was too hard up to pay them. The recipient had seven days to undertake the journey, although in practice there was little delay in packing a small suitcase and leaving, once any pressing private arrangement s had been dealt with. No passport was necessary: the form, presented to the Embarkation Officer, was enough to guarantee passage.

Families of other ranks were met at the port of arrival by representatives of the YMCA, which provided transport and accommodation for the duration of the visit. For the families of officers, the Red Cross offered a similar service with any one of five designated hostels offering accommodation. In all, almost 3000 officers’ relatives received help in this way.

There is no evidence that the offer was taken up: it is highly improbable that it was for the simple reason that it was sent to Mile End Road at a time when Louis’ parents were in Cumbria. On 5th of October a telegraph was sent reporting that he had died at 11.30 pm on the 4th of October.

The story of Louis’ war is one that in many respects, sadly, was repeated over and over again. What makes his story so remarkable, albeit far from unique, was the fact that he willingly took up arms against the people of his parents’ home country for the British cause. It was a personal tragedy for him and his family who, meanwhile, were hounded out of South Shields as supposedly enemy aliens, forced to abandon their home, their livelihood and lead a nomadic existence which, fortunately for them, ended up in Grasmere which, whilst poor no doubt, was probably as safe a place as could be found.

Simon Wood






Louis was my great uncle, my father and uncle were both named after him. I have his medals, sword and other artifacts including his letters and diaries. The family did indeed live in exile in Grasmere as a result of the Pork Shop Riots in South Shields where lots of German families were hounded out, the Siebers shop in Mile End Road was looted. If you go on the London Gazette site you can get copies of the announcement of his commissioning. His eldest sister was in Germany on holiday when the war broke out and she was kept under house arrest as you describe above.

Sean Mattimore








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