200030 CORPORAL STANLY EDWARD CLOW
1/1ST BATTALION CAMBRIDGESHIRE REGIMENT
KILLED IN ACTION
26TH MARCH 1916
AGE 30 YEARS
Stanley had first seen the light of day in the small village of Cookley that lies one and a half miles south west of Halesworth. He was the sixth child born to John, an Agricultural Labourer, and Mary (née Stannard). The 1911 Census shows that Stan and his father (now a widower) were both living with John’s older married daughter Annie Welton at No.4 Steeple End, Halesworth, with Stanley’s trade listed as a boot riveter. In his spare time, he was also a keen member of Halesworth Town Football Club. In 1906 he had enlisted as a part time member in ‘F’ Halesworth Company of the 1st Volunteer Battalion, Suffolk Regiment. Two years later, with the disbandment of the Volunteers and the formation of the Territorial Force, he transferred his service to the Territorials, becoming a Private Soldier with the regimental number of 367. At the outbreak of war in August 1914 the Halesworth Times listed all of the townsmen who were members of the armed forces. It showed that Stanley, although serving, had not signed the Imperial Service pledge to serve overseas. This however soon changed, possibly due to peer pressure, and now with the rank of full Corporal he crossed to France with the 1/4th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment on the 8th November 1914.
As with so many of the men who lost their lives, very little remains of Stanley’s service history. It is therefore difficult to record what time he spent in the front line etc. However, in an article in the town’s newspaper that announced his death, some of the details became clearer. It mentions that between arriving in France and being posted as missing in action he had returned to England three times. Whether this was due to being granted home leave or due to wounds or illness is not known but during the third quarter of 1915 he married Rose Hurren of Halesworth. This may have been because, having been in France for a year, he might have received his first furlough. One of his later visits home could well have been due to him having been wounded or gassed, as on his return to France he had been posted to the Suffolks sister regiment, the 1/1st Battalion, Cambridgeshire Regiment.
Research as to the situation of his new regiment during the period leading up to Stanley’s death shows them having been heavily engaged during what became known as the German Spring Offensive which had been mounted against the forces in the region of the Somme, between the 21st and the 30th March 1918. This battle proved to be the last attempt by the Kaiser’s troops to inflict a major defeat on the Allies and ultimately win the war. During the opening four days the British front line was breached in several areas, forcing the defending troops to withdraw. On the second day of the Battle the Cambridgeshires found themselves in trenches to the front of the village of Peronne where, during the next few hours, they were forced to pull back from their positions. This was due to the neighbouring Battalion’s being forced out of their sections of the line. This situation repeated itself several times with the Battalion forced to fight many rear-guard actions. By the early morning of the 26th March the Cambridgeshires were situated in a new section of line near Herbecourt. They hoped that the front had been stabilised but just before 8am the situation on their right flank became critical as the troops holding this sector once again withdrew leaving Stanley and his comrades no choice other than to follow their lead. It was during this withdrawal, whilst in in contact with the enemy, that many small parties of the Cambridgeshires were over-run or killed. This was the last time Stanley and some of his comrades were seen.
During the period of the Offensive the British forces lost a total of almost thirty-seven thousand Officers and Men killed in action with more than twenty-three thousand of these having no known graves, including Stanley who is now remembered, with a total of fourteen thousand, six hundred and fifty-seven others, on the Pozieres memorial to the missing (see below).
It would be a full nine months before the War Office would finally record Stanley as being Killed in Action. Up until this time he had been reported as Missing, but with the return of some of those who had been taken Prisoners of War (from which the Cambridgeshires numbered over one hundred and thirty), his death could be confirmed. Therefore, from the 16th November 1918 his wife Rose now living at No.10 Wissett Road would receive a weekly pension of 15s 0d (75p) and later a gratuity totalling £39.6s.1d (£39.30p).
She could also receive his medal entitlement of the 1914 Star trio Memorial Plaque and Scroll.
The location of these is not known.
