Current Information:

Age-21

6, Market Road, Richmond

Sanctuary Wood Cemetery, Belgium

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. Here they were in action all night as they came face to face with enemy troops who themselves were in Vierhouck. The next day they moved to Strazeele and then to Locre for three days. On 17th October they were in Neuve Eglise and then in the early morning of 18th October they moved to Ploegsteert to take part in an attack along the River Lys. They were ordered to capture the bridge at Pont Rouge but were unable to do so in the face of heavy rifle and machine-gun fire that hit them as they tried to cross a railway embankment. By evening they had fallen back to Ploegsteert. One of their casualties during this operation was George Barnett.