Current Information:

Age-17

31 Compton Road, Canonbury

The 13th Sussex Battalion  was part 116 Brigade, 39th Division which had arrived in France in February 1916. At the end of June, 1916, when all attention was fixed further south on the great battle that was about to unfold on the Somme, 13th Sussex were plunged into the thick of the action in the Ferme du Bois sector of the front line near Richebourg. They took over the trenches here on 28th June and that afternoon there was a bombardment of the Boar’s Head, a small salient in the German lines which destroyed much of the wire but also gave the enemy good warning that something was going to happen. And that happened at 3.05am on 30th June when 13th Sussex and 12th Sussex of 116 Brigade attacked the German trenches at the Boar’s Head. The wire on the right of the battalion front had been largely destroyed and here the enemy front line was captured. On the left however this was not the case and only a few were able to make it through the wire and into the German trenches. A further impediment to the attack came when a smoke cloud, designed to mask the attack, moved across the front and was more of a hindrance than a help. Some of 13th Sussex got into the enemy support line but this success was sort lived. German artillery plastered the British front line and the communication trenches leading to it and this prevented much needed ammunition and reinforcements from being sent across no-man’s land. Eventually after four hours the men of 13th Sussex were unable to hold their gains any longer and withdrew back to their own lines having sustained many casualties in this fruitless episode.