Current Information:

Age-30

Born-Barnet

The Race to the Sea - September-October 1914

By the middle of September 1914, the Aisne battlefield had stagnated into trench warfare and in order to break this impasse, both sides tried to outflank each other in a general movement northwards. Moving up through Picardy, Artois and Flanders, the race was over by 19th October when the North Sea was reached. The Western Front, a line of trenches stretching from Belgium to Switzerland, was now a reality. Initially it was the French army that conducted this movement whilst the British Expeditionary Force remained on the Aisne but by 6 October British reinforcements were needed to help beat off German attacks around Lille. They moved north and along with reinforcements from Britain, they took up new positions in Flanders, on the left of the Allied line and much closer to the Channel ports.

On 1st October, 1914, the 9th Lancers of 2nd Cavalry Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division began their journey north when they left their  billets at Longueval-Barbonval, just south of the Aisne. By 10th October they had reached Villers-Brulin to the north-west of Arras, and the next day, 11th October, they arrived at Merville and that evening took up a line of outposts from Caudescure to Vierhouck. For the rest of the month as trench warfare developed and the cavalry found themselves without their traditional role, they were used as foot soldiers and took to the trenches. At dawn on 28th October, the day on which Mark Hickman lost his life, they left their billets in La Couture and marched to support an attack made by two infantry battalions against Neuve Chapelle which had been captured by the enemy on the previous day. The attack failed and 9th Lancers remained in the support trenches until relieved on 29th October.