PW/4873 PRIVATE ROBERT WARD
4TH BATTALION MIDDLESEX REGIMENT
KILLED IN ACTION
23RD APRIL 1917
AGE 29 YEARS
Another of the local residents to lose two sons during the Great War was William Ward and his wife Emma (née Greenard) who, prior to the war, had been living in one of the farm worker’s cottages situated on the Broadway (now Bungay Road), Halesworth. The 1911 census lists them as living there with three of their eight children, with William’s occupation being that of a horseman on a local farm. The first of their two sons to give his life was their second son Robert, known to all as Bob, who had been born in the local village of Saint Andrews during the fourth quarter of 1887. After having completed his education in 1901 Bob had found work as a stock feeder, possibly with his father’s employer, Mr John Lawn of Spexhall, where he remained for a number of years before no doubt finding better paid work with his brother William at the Quay Street maltings owned by Messrs James Parry and Sons.
At the outbreak of war in August 1914 Bob, like a number of other young men from the town, had not rushed to join the country’s armed forces, biding his time in the hope that the war would soon be over. Sadly this was not the case. The numbers of casualties rose and the number of those volunteering to serve virtually ceased, no doubt due to the news of the number of those being killed and wounded. By late 1915 the Government was forced to consider compulsory conscription for all men between the ages of eighteen and forty years of age. With the Act passed in Parliament this then became law from January 1916. For many men who lost their lives during the Great War, detailed information regarding their enlistment and service has not survived, other than the basics, such as the individual’s service number, the battalion and regiment in which he served and the date, region and country in which he died. In Bob’s case the first piece of information that helps to identify his service is the prefix of his regimental number – PW/4873. Only three battalions used the letters PW. These had been the Public Works Pioneer Battalions of the Middlesex Regiment. This regiment had been one of the largest infantry formations of the entire war, raising no less than forty-nine battalions. Ten of these had been pre-war organisations of which six had served as Regular Army battalions, two had been reserve and training units, and the remaining four had been part of the Territorial Force. Bob was enlisted to serve in the 18th (Service) Battalion, Middlesex Regiment (1st Public Works Pioneers). This battalion had been raised into one of Lord Kitchener’s new armies, having been formed at the Alexander Palace in north London on 19th January 1915. After ten months of training they crossed to France as part of the 33rd Division on 15th November 1915.
One method of identifying at least some part of an individual soldier’s service is to check the records of men who had enlisted at around the same time as, in the main, their regimental numbers would have run in sequence. By researching those with the same prefix and a similar number who survived the war (which means that their records may well be found) this may at least fill in some of the details of a soldier’s service particularly around the time of their enlistment. Using this system it would seem that Bob was called to serve some time in early March 1916. After training he may then have crossed to France to join the 18th Middlesex in the late summer of the same year, possibly as a casualty replacement towards the end of the Somme battle which had caused such huge losses to Kitchener’s battalions. Within a short time of his arrival at the front he received an unknown wound that must have been considered serious enough for him to be returned to England for treatment. This information appeared in an article published in the Halesworth Times newspaper of 22nd May 1917 in which his parents announced his death. In it they stated that Bob, after receiving wounds, had returned to France during December 1916. On his arrival back at his Division’s base depot on the French coast he was then posted to join his regiment’s 4th Battalion. This, as previously mentioned, had been a pre-war regular army battalion, which had landed in the French port of Boulogne on 14th August 1914 as part of the 3rd Divisions of the British Expeditionary Force.
By the time Bob returned to France, and had been posted to join the 4th Middlesex who at that time were serving as the only regular army battalion in the wartime raised 37th Division. From the early days of December they had been resting in billets in the area of the French town of Beauval, having recently suffered over one hundred and forty casualties when they had mounted an attack on the German line at Grandcourt. This no doubt was when Bob joined them as a casualty replacement. Due to the very inclement weather during the early months of 1917, there had been very few actions fought by either side, although the 4th Middlesex continued to lose men while taking their turn in the front line, mainly due to the enemy’s artillery fire and illness. Prior to the time of Bob’s death his battalion had been transported by military vehicles to the Arras front. On their arrival they had then relieved the 1st Battalion Royal Irish Fusiliers in the reserve line, where they prepared for an attack which their 63rd Brigade were due to make the following day, 23rd April 1917 (Saint George’s Day). The 4th Middlesex’s war diary for that day related that they ‘Went Over The Top’ at 4.45am, initially making little headway against a very heavy weight of fire by the defending German troops. They had crossed a few hundred yards of no man’s land before realising that neither of their flanking battalions had managed to keep pace with their advance. This left them vulnerable to attack on their two outer companies, with a danger also of a possible infiltration to their rear by the Germans, who could have then cut off their line of withdrawal. The battalion went to ground to await further orders. At 7.00am the battalion Commanding Officer, Lt.Col A.G. Dawson, was killed by machine gun fire. His Adjutant Captain Bowden, then took command but shortly after he fell wounded by shrapnel. This then left only a young Second Lieutenant P.W. Smith, the only officer in the area of Battalion Headquarters, to take control of the battalion, a heavy weight of responsibility for such a junior officer. At 12 noon the Germans were observed forming up to mount a counter-attack against the exposed men of the 4th Middlesex who, with superb discipline, held their fire until the enemy were clear of their trenches and advancing in open order towards them. It would have been now that the riflemen and Lewis light machine gunners of the battalion, aided by the Vickers’ machine guns of the 63rd Company Machine Gun Corps, inflicted a heavy toll on the enemy. As the German advance was halted, the men of the 4th Middlesex began to dig in to consolidate their positions which had been so dearly won. The following day they were relieved by the 10th Battalion of the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment. On reaching the rear, the casualty figures for the battalion would have been calculated. These showed they had suffered the loss of a total of two hundred and eighty-six Officers and men, including poor Bob. As with many others, his remains could not later be identified so that today he is remembered on the Arras memorial to the missing.
As mentioned previously, the death of their son was announced in the town’s newspaper of 22nd May 1917, with a second entry on the same day in which his parents, with other members of their family, had ‘Desired to thank the many friends who had extended so much sympathy to them in their sad bereavement through the loss of their son Robert Ward’.
With his father in regular employment his parents did not initially qualify for a pension for the loss of Bob although, on 8th September 1917, his father William, who his son had nominated as his next of kin, received a gratuity payment of £7.1s.8d (£7.08p). On 28th November 1918, just over two weeks after the armistice, William senior died of consumption, leaving poor Emma bereft, having lost her two sons (see William’s Junior story) within four months of each other, followed a year later by her husband’s death. This left her the sole beneficiary of the second gratuity payment for the loss of her son and she received the sum of £4.0s.0d (£4). In 1923, at the age of sixty-five years and struggling for money, Emma, now living at 43 Quay Street, Halesworth, applied for a pension in the name of Bob and received from October of 1923 the sum of 17s.0d per week (85p). As well as these sums of money, Bob’s mother would have been able to claim his medal awards of the British War and Victory medal pair, with a named memorial plaque and scroll.
The location of these is not known.
Robert as with his brother William and their family had been members of the Halesworth Congregational Church in Quay Street, where their names are remembered today on the church’s own memorial to their worshippers who had given their lives in the Great War.