Current Information:

Age-35

Served as SMITH

40, Andrews Road, Hackney

Hazebrouck Communal Cemetery, France

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.

The Battle of Armentières - 12th October-2nd November 1914

The official History pinpoints the battle of Armentières to a series of battles that took place between the river Douve and a line between Estaires and Foumers. It was part of the Race to the Sea and it determined the line of the Western Front in that sector. It was fought by III Corps which consisted of 4th and 6th Divisions as well as 19 Brigade.

On October 12th, the 2nd Essex battalion of 12 Brigade, 4th Division arrived at Hazebrouck and on the following morning they moved forward six miles with the rest of the brigade to attack Meteren. After they reached Les Ormes they came under heavy machine-gun fire and were held up but managed a further advance with fixed bayonets that evening. However, despite these efforts, Meteren remained in enemy hands. George Carpenter died from wounds on 15th October.