Current Information:

Born-Hoxton

Perth Cemetery (China Wall), Belgium

On 8th October, 1915,  4th Middlesex of 8 Brigade, 3rd Division moved into the front line near Hooge in the Ypres salient, a sector where there had been heavy fighting over the past two weeks. The next day, 9th October the enemy lobbed mortar shell into the reserve line occupied by D Company, which killed 3 men and wounded another four. Another man from A Company was killed by a sniper.

During the morning of 10th October there were more German mortars coming down on 4th Middlesex. These blew in some trenches and the enemy followed this up with bombing attacks up Trench B3. These were dealt with by the bombers of 4th Middlesex but that night there was a desperate digging race to see who would gain possession of the blown in portion of the trench.  The Germans did. By morning they had gained two bays, built a block and wired it.  Despite these setbacks 4th Middlesex had to hang on in these exposed positions until relieved on 13th October.