Current Information:

86, Peckham Rye

Royal Irish Rifles Graveyard, Laventie, France

At the start of the war the 2nd Middlesex battalion were in Malta but they soon returned to England where they joined 23 Brigade of 8th Division. The division landed in France on 5th November, 1914 and on 14th November 2nd Middlesex had their first experience of the trenches at Neuve Eglise. On 3rd December, 1914 they moved into the front line at Rue de Bacquerot near Laventie and remained there until relieved on 6^th December when they moved back to La Flinque in brigade reserve. Ernest Dorling was killed on 5th December but the battalion diary provided no information concerning his death. The attrition rate among British soldiers on the Western Front was on average 300 each day and 60% of these were as a result of shellfire. When not involved in an actual battle it was either shell fire or a sniper’s bullet that caused most deaths and injuries.