1805 Info 15: Charles Reginald Crompton (Reg)
His death in World War 1
|
Close info window
|
In Memory of
Charles Reginald Crompton
Private 59864 10th Bn West Yorkshire Regiment
(Prince of Wales Own)
who died on 25 April 1918.
Age 19.
Son of Charles W and Lily Crompton of Hall Green, Chapelthorp, Wakefield.
Buried in plot I E 31 Bagneux British Cemetery, Gezaincourt, Somme, France.
The cemetery was begun in April 1918 after the close of the German offensive in Picardy. It was
located near the 3rd, 29th, 45th and 56th Casualty Clearing Stations (CCS).
Source: Commonwealth War Graves Commission -
http://www.cwgc.org
|
 |
This information amends Reg's name to Charles Reginald, gives his birth year as about 1899 and
confirms the date of Charles William and Elizabeth (Lily) Wright's marriage as the December Quarter
of 1897 - Charles Reginald being their eldest son.
 |
 |
|
Above:
The official Director of Graves Registration photograph of Charles Reginald's original
headstone in the Bagneux British Cemetery, Gezaincourt, taken in the 1920s.
Right:
The official Director of Graves Registration Form informing of the location of Charles Reginald's grave.
|
Some time after Charles Reginald's death the family dedicated a chair, in York Minster, to his
name. However, shortly after midnight on 9th July 1984 it is believed the Cathedral was struck by
lightning. It took around 150 fire fighters from across North Yorkshire two hours to bring the
blaze under control. A letter, from the Minster assured the family that Reg's chair was safe. But
on subsequent visits it has been impossible to find the chair, even with the help of guides.
1805info15, sheet 2
Bagneux Military Cemetery in March 2007
Charles Reginald's final action took place some 19 miles / 31km from Bagneux at Mesnil Martinsart.
He would have been evacuated, from a Mesnil Advanced Dressing Station (ADS), to one of the four
Gezaincourt Casualty Clearing Stations (CCS) or the Canadian Standing Hospital, in Doullens Citadelle
for further treatment. It was the usual practice for the dead to be buried adjacent to the hospital.
In death, Charles Reginald is honoured by the idyllic Bagneux Military Cemetery which stands
isolated up a farm road that winds its way out of the centre of Gezaincourt village. Its regimented
headstones tumble on two axes toward the valley floor and the morning sun. The Stone of Remembrance
stands on a raised dais which supports sandstone pillars at each corner and over looks the flat
valley floor once strewn with hospital buildings.
1805info15, sheet 3
 |
 |
Above: Charles Reginald's headstone, March 2007 |
Above: The author at Charles Reginald's grave March 2007 |
A rough lane leads across a blood-red track
Which leads away around a curve.
It’s wooden sleepers disintegrating with time.
No train, no sign of steam and smoke
Nor engine whistle echoing across the gorge.
Both long gone. Yet in the far and distant past
A century ago, here stood a hospital
Where doctors laboured night and day,
And soldiers cried from injuries received
On these fair fields of distant France.
Here trains arrived with squeal of brakes,
Doors opened, shut and spilt out living souls,
And the dead!
For some, this was a final end,
With no family to come and mourn
And shed tears of grief at funerals,
Just buried here with simple wooden cross.
Young men with so much life to live.
|
A friend now kneels this day before the place
Where a kinsman finally rests.
The only visitor since World War One.
He pays humble honour to the man
He never knew. A fading khaki photograph.
He ponders. Alive when this was shot.
He leaves some flowers and a note,
Simple, silent symbols of respect.
He slowly rises from his knees;
And stands transfixed in the quietness
In this corner of a foreign field,
Drinking in the saddened beauty of this hour.
Then from high above this steep-side vale
There bursts the bud and birdsong of the spring.
He ponders, what may have been.
Forgotten hope.
That lingers even now as memories in his mind.
With thanks to David Holme, who shared this moment. |
1805info15, sheet 4
Above: A map locating Bagneux Military Cemetery
Also buried in the cemetery
Charles Reginald's final action
Between 19 and 22 April 1918 Charles Reginald, aged 19, was at Mesnil-Martinsart, north of Albert,
holding the line of the River Ancre as a member of the 10th West Yorkshire Regiment.
Ludendorff's advance of 23 March 1918, from the Hindenburg Line ended on 5 April 1918 with the
British 5th Army's front line behind Albert and close to Amiens. Further battles were to take place,
during a period of fluid British counter attack and advance.
One platoon of 'D' Coy had dug-in and placed their machine guns along the railway line. Two
companies were in reserve. The 10th Notts and Derby held the right flank.
Attacking over the
Thiepval ridge German pressure broke through the embankments defences causing the West Yorks to
withdraw. The Notts and Derby’s were forced back, exposing the West Yorkshire’s flank,
necessitating their withdrawal towards Mesnil. At sometime during this engagement Charles Reginald
was mortally wounded and evacuated to the one of the four hospitals at Gezaincourt. The rail rusty
and abandoned railway track, which transported the wounded to the hospitals, still lies next to the
Bagneux Military Cemetery where Charles Reginald was interned after his death on 25 April 1918.
1805info15, sheet 5
 |
|
 |
Source: Institut Geographique
National Map, Somme No 80, 1999 |
|
Source: Trench map: Beaumont,
The National Archives: WO297/1498, 17-02-1917 |
|
Double click on the maps for a large version in a
new window
|
The maps above show Charles Reginald's final action. The map on the left shows the location of
the action and the movements of the 10th Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment to the front line, and
on their relief. The map on the right is a detailed map of the Battalion action, reflecting events
in the War Diary. Charles Reginald's company is unknown.
Above: A panorama of the battlefield of the 10th West Yorkshire.
Click on the image to open a larger A4 landscape image.
1805info15, sheet 6
The War Diaries of the 10th (S) Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment reveal what may have been Charles
Reginald's last battle.
| WAR DIARIES or INTELLIGENT SUMMARY |
| Place |
Date |
Hour |
Summary of Events or Information |
|
MESNIL |
17/4/18 |
8.30pm |
Batt. relieved the 6th DORSETSHIRE REGT. in the front line, RIGHT BATTN,
LEFT BRIGADE at 8.30pm. C Coy front line; A Coy support; B and D reserve.
Batt H2 were at Q28d 1,5 - in MESNIL.
|
| |
19/4/18 |
|
On the 19th D Coy relieved C Coy in the
front line. |
| |
21/4/18 |
5pm |
The Batt was to have been relieved in the front line by the 10th LANCASHIRE
FUSILIERS, but at 5pm the enemy put down a heavy barrage, principally TMs
[trench mortar] on our front and support lines and also on those of the Batt
on the right (10th NOTTS & DERBY REGT). At 5.30pm the enemy attacked from
Q35b, and, after capturing the advanced posts situated along the Railway
Q29d 4-5 to Q29d 4-0) which were garrisoned by one platoon of D Coy. The
enemy then took up position approximately from Q29d 4-5 to Q35b 3-7. During
this attack enemy TM and MG fire was very severe.
|
| |
22/4/18 |
4.30am |
At 4.30am on the 22nd a counter attack was launched in conjunction with the
10th Batt NOTTS & DERBY REGT to recover the lost posts. One and half Coy of
the Batt. were used; one Coy in front (A Coy) and two platoons in support (C
Coy). [Around 150 men] Three of the four front platoons assembled on the
line from Q29c 55-00 to Q29c 60-50, and the fourth moved down CT
[communication trench] into RAVINE at Q29c 8-8. The attack was proceeded by
a detailed artillery barrage which was very weak and ineffective. The
advance of the 10th Batt NOTTS & DERBY REGT on the right was held up by
heavy TM barrage, and also enfilade MG fire, and they fell back to Q35b 1-7.
This left the right flank of the 10th Batt WEST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT
unprotected, and they were obliged to withdraw. At 9am the line was Q29c 5-0
to Q35b 1-7. The situation remained unchanged for the remainder of the day.
CAPT P HOWE, MC "A" Coy was in command of the counter attack force of the
10th Batt WEST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT. During the whole of these
operations the Batt had the following casualties. Lieut. FD DAMS missing
(21-4-18) Temp Lieut. JR KING killed (22-4-18) Temp Lieut. S MOULSON wounded
(22-4-18) Temp Lieut. M DAYSH killed (23-4-18) and 77 OR [other ranks]
killed, wounded or missing.
|
Major (acting Lt
Col) WE Thomas MC |
Source: War Diaries of 10th Battalion West Yorkshire
Regiment, April 1918, TNA WO95/2004
1805info15, sheet 7
 |
|
Above: These photographs show the defensive line taken by one platoon
of 'D' Coy along the embankments of the road, railway and River Ancre on 21 April. The lower photograph
shows the position, across the green field, taken by the Germans after 17.00. The tall trees mark Railway
Ravine from where a platoon of 'A' Coy tried to counter attack. |
 |
Above: The location of 10th WYR H2 in a field behind the church
and to the side of the chateau, located behind the tall trees to the right background of the picture. |
1805info15, sheet 8
Top: Looking down from Mesnil to the railway line, the River Ancre and the embankment
defended by one platoon of 'D' Coy on the night of 21 April. It was in the lower field that the
counter attack took place on the 22 April. Railway Ravine is to the left.
Bottom left: The near hedge line shows the position defended by 'A' Coy and from where
they launched their counter attack. Note the Thiepval Memorial marking the fierce fighting of 18th
Division for the Thiepval Chateau on 26-27 September 1916. To the left, on the sky line, can be
seen the Ulster Tower, the memorial to the Somme casualties of the 36th Ulster Division.
Bottom left: A modern extension to Howson Road, which extended to the railway and river.
The German army launched their attack over the sky line. Having crossed the railway they made their
line across the lower grass field. On the 22 April the 10th Notts and Derby were forced
back across the ploughed field in the direction of a line along Howson Road, compromising the
positions of the 10thWest Yorks.
1805info15, sheet 9
 |
|
Above: An aerial view of the Mesnil battlefield, showing the approximate movements of the British troops
and their defensive lines. |
Perhaps the more impressive memorial to Charles Reginald is the view from Lutyen’s Thiepval
Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, where 72 112 names are commemorated.
When the many thousands of visitors look through the central arch, over the 300 French and
300 British graves few will appreciate that they can see the whole of Charles Reginald’s final
battlefield.
Right: The Mesnil battlefield from the Thiepval Memorial. Mesnil can be seen in the trees
beyond the field. Battalion headquarters were in the field where the central trees dip. 'A' Coy
defended the thin line of trees in front of the plough land.
|
 |
|
Footnote: The 10 (Service) Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment was formed at York on 3
September 1914 as part of the K(itchener)2 recruitment. On 1 July 1916 the 10th West Yorkshire
Regiment sustained 720 casualties, the most of any battalion on the opening day of The Somme.
In Fricourt New Military Cemetery 159 of the 210 burials are of 10th West Yorkshire Regiment,
placed in four mass graves. The sea of identical regimental badges, on headstones, brings home the
enormity of that days casualties. The Battalion was disbanded in 1919.
|
 |
1805info15, sheet 10
In Chapter IX of 'Undertones of War' Edmund Blunsden describes his experiences in the
Mesnil area during the campaign of 2 September 1916. He shares many of his locations with
Charles Reginald.
'... Presently we reached
an empty village called Mesnil, which, although it stood yet in the plausible shape of farmhouses
and outbuildings, not shattered into heaps, instantly aroused unpleasant suspicions. Those suspicions
were quickly embodied in the savage rush of heavy shrapnel shells, uncoiling their dingy green
masses of smoke downwards while their white-hot darts scoured the acre below. On the west side, a
muddy sunken lane with thickets of nettles on one bank and some precarious dugouts in the other
led past the small brick station, and we turned out of it by two steps up into a communication
trench chopped in discoloured chalk. It smelt ominous, and there was a gray powder here and there
thrown by shell-bursts, with some of those horrible conical holes in the trench sides, blackened
and fused, which meant "direct hits" and by big stuff. If ever there was a vile, unnerving,
and desperate place in the battle zone, it was the Mesnil end of Jacob's Ladder, among the heavy
battery positions, and under enemy observation.
Jacob's Ladder was a long trench, good in parts, stretching from Mesnil with many angles down to
Hamel on the River Ancre, requiring flights of stairs at one or two steep places. Leafy bushes
and great green and yellow weeds looked into it as it dipped sharply into the green valley by
Hamel, and hereabouts the aspect of peace and innocence was as yet prevailing. A cow with a
crumpled horn, a harvest cart should have been visible here and there. The trenches ahead were
curious, and not so pastoral.
Ruined houses with rafters sticking out, with half-sloughed plaster and crazy window-frames,
perched on a hillside, bleak and piteous that cloudy morning; derelict trenches crept along
below them by upheaved gardens, telling the story of savage bombardment. ... The front line
lay over this brow, and descended to the wooded marshes of the Ancre in winding and gluey
irregularity. Running through it towards the German line went the narrow Beaucourt road, and
the railway to Miraumont and Bapaume; in the railway bank was a look-out post called the Crow's
Nest, with a large periscope. South of the Ancre was massive high ground, and on that a black vapour
of smoke and naked tree trunks or charcoal, which I found was called Thičpval Wood. The Somme indeed!
...
... The battalion moved up to a straggling wood called from its map reference P. 18, near the little
town of Mailly-Maillet. Here, three miles from the enemy's guns, it was thought sufficient to billet
up in tents (and those, to round off my posthumous discontent, used specimens). Mailly-Maillet was
reported to have been until recently a delightful and flourishing little place, but it was in the
sere and yellow; its long chateau wall was broken by the fall of shell-struck trees; its church,
piously protected against shrapnel by straw mats, had been hit. ...
... I went up next night with some heavy materials for the dump in Hamel, carried on the limbers.
The transport officer, Maycock, was with us, which is saying we talked all the way. At Mesnil
church, a cracked and toppling obelisk, there were great craters in the road, and when one of
the limbers fell in, it was necessary to unload it before it could be got out. While this delay
lasted, in such a deadly place, my flesh crept, but luck was ours, and no fresh shells came over
to that church before we were away. The journal into Hamel that evening was unforgettable. One
still sees in rapid gun-lights the surviving fingerpost at the fork in the unknown road. It helped
us. ...
... On the evening of September 2, the battalion moved cautiously from Mailly-Maillet by cross-country
tracks, through pretty Englebelmer, with ghostly Angelus on the green and dewy light, over the
downs to Mesnil, and assembled in the Hamel trenches to attack the Beaucourt ridge next morning.
...
...
Orders for withdrawal were sent out to our little groups in the German lines towards the end of the
afternoon. ... Mesnil was its vile self, but we passed at length. Not much was said, then or afterwards,
about those who would never again pass that hated target; among the killed were my old company
commanders Penruddock and Northcote (after a great display of coolness and endurance) - laughing
French, quiet Hood, and many more.'
Source: Blunden, Edmund,
'Undertones of War', R.Cobden-Sanderson, London, 1928
1805info15, sheet 11
Mensil-Martinsart today
Top left: The interior and east window of Mesnil church, showing the cream plaster
ashlar stucco work. Despite being closed the church is remarkably well kept and welcoming.
Top right: A painted image at the south-east corner of the rose window.
Bottom left: Looking from the Headquarters field to the churches east
window and the farm across the road.
Bottom right: The road leading from the village to the south-east and the battlefield.
Before World War One the village had a population of 800 people who were
evacuated when the village was used as a depot for British troops; the 63rd Royal Naval Division
was stationed here in preparation for the November Battle of the Ancre Heights
at the end of the Somme campaign. Many natives never returned. The church, perhaps because its tower
could be used as an observation post, was destroyed in the war and rebuilt between 19?? and 1929.
The materials and weathering of the other buildings would suggest a similar date for rebuilding.
Now about 100 people live in this tidy and well kept collection of red bricked houses and farm,
with their associated buildings. There is no shop or school and the Church, though well maintained,
is closed and shows no evidence of a rota of service. Sadly a dying village ....
1805info15, sheet 12
| Back to TOP |
 |
This page was created by Richard Crompton
and maintained by Chris Glass |
Version D12
Updated 16 December 2007 |
