Current Information:

Born-Hackney

Rue-Petillon Military Cemetery, Fleurbaix, France

At the start of the war the 2nd Lincolnshire battalion were in Bermuda but they soon returned to England where they joined 25 Brigade of 8th Division. The division landed in France on 6th November, 1914 and spent the winter months either in the front line or in billets in and around Laventie in France. One of their periods in these trenches started on 1st January, 1915 and lasted through to 4th January during which time five men were killed, including William Lamb on 2nd January. The battalion diary provides no further information about these deaths but 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.