Current Information:

Age-25

27, Selborne Road, Walthamstow

Born-Tottenham

Ypres Town Cemetery

The Battle of Hill 60 (17 April – 7 May 1915)

Hill 60 is at the southern end of the Ypres Salient and is a man made mound from earth excavated from the nearby railway. It was an important vantage point for whoever controlled it which at the beginning of 1915 was the Germans. In April 1915, 5th Division took over the line here and prepared to capture it. On 17th April six mines were blown beneath it which so discombobulated the defending Germans that 13 Brigade was able to take the hill, sustaining only seven casualties. However, holding it was a much more difficult task. German artillery began to pound the position and early next morning they launched three counter attacks which were only repelled after heavy losses and only after the British had been forced back to the crest of the hill. Later that evening British counter attacks retook all of the hill The next three days saw intense German shelling of the position and numerous counter attacks until it was a mass of shell holes and mine craters. Between 1st and 5th May the Germans launched a series of attacks preceded by gas and eventually after desperate fighting, took back the hill.  

28 Brigade of the Royal Field Artillery was a unit of Britain’s pre-war regular army and went to France in August 1914 as part of 5th Division. In April, 1915 28 Brigade was in action during the fight for Hill 60 and on 21st April, the day on which Ernest Stafford was killed, they commenced firing in support of the infantry at 6am and half an hour later came under fire themselves.