Current Information:

19, Sunfields Place, Blackheath

Hargicourt British Cemetery, France

On 20th January, 1918, ‘D’ Company, 3rd Rifle Brigade of 17 Brigade, 24th Division undertook a raid on the enemy trenches near Malakoff Farm, east of Hargicourt on that part of the Somme recently take over from the French army. The month had started off very cold but by now a thaw had set in, the ice had melted and the battlefield was once again a morass of mud. At 6.45am  a party of fifty plus another group of fifty sappers from the 104th Field Company of the Royal Engineers set off. They were divided into four groups, two to form blocks, one to mop up the German front line and the fourth to move forward to the support line. One of these groups were unable to find any gaps in the enemy wire and the other three were held up by three rows of concertina wire until an unknown rifleman trampled down the wire so the rest could cross. The sappers then threw a mobile charge into a dug-out where the Germans had holed up but this charge also killed two of the raiders who had not cleared the entrance. The support trench party set off in two groups one of which was not seen again while the other group found the support trench empty. At this stage the raiders withdrew having suffered fifteen casualties. One of these was William Murton of 3rd Rifle Brigade.