Current Information:

Age-24

41, Revelon Road, Brockley

Brown's Road Military Cemetery, Festubert, France

The Battle of Festubert (16–25 May 1915)

This followed quickly on the heels of  the Battle of Aubers Ridge and was an offensive operation by the British Army in the Artois region of France in conjunction with a French attack further south.  Initial success soon ground to a halt and although there had been an advance of two miles in some places the end result was not the hoped for breakout but merely more muddy trenches which became the new front line. British casualties over the ten days amounted to nearly 17,000, three times as many as inflicted on the Germans.

The 6th London battalion arrived in France in March 1915 as part of 4 Brigade, 2nd London Division, soon to be renamed 140 Brigade, 47th Division. On 19th April they went into the trenches for the first time at Givenchy and on 4th May they took over some trenches facing Festubert. They were out of the line when the Battle of Festubert began on 15th May, 1915 but on the next day they moved up to a line of support trenches where they remained for four days providing working parties, mainly building breastworks near the shell swept Willow Road to form a defensive flank. They suffered many casualties here, doing this dangerous work and it was almost a sense of relief when they moved into the front line on 20th May, 1915. They remained in the front line here for ten days taking an active if stationary role in the battle. The enemy kept up a heavy bombardment of their trenches. Breastworks were destroyed by high explosive shells and shrapnel targeted the broken parapets. On 23rd May the Canadian Division on the right of 6th London attacked and captured the German trenches at the ‘Orchard’ opposite Givenchy. The Germans counter attacked in the afternoon moving across the front held by 6th London and the fire from here was partly responsible for the failure of this counter attack. One of the battalion’s many casualties during this time spent in the Festubert trenches was George Fussell who was killed on 23rd May.