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2nd Lt. William Hirst
British Army 14th Btn York and Lancaster Regiment
from:Wombwell, Barnsley
(d.1st July 1916)
After helping to defend the Suez Canal in February and early March the 13th and 14th Yorks and Lancs sailed on the White Star Liner Megantic with the 1st Kings Own Scottish Borderers to Marseille before entraining for Flanders. William Hirst kept the menu card with signatures which came back to his widow (my childless grandmother Bertha who remarried later) with his diary covering the entire time of his overseas service from departure from Devonport an the Andania to death vainly attacking the German Lines at Serre on 1st July 1916. We have three testimonials from his fellow officers reassuring Bertha that his death was instant and that he experienced no pain. Is that what all the letters said? His death is described by the soldier next to him in Jon Cooksey's excellent book. So in his case it might have been true.
