Current Information:

Age-39

129, Hamlet Gardens, Hammersmith

Le Touquet Railway Crossing 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 6th 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 was made up of 4th and 6th Divisions plus 19Brigade)

12 Brigade of 4th Division arrived in the north from the Aisne front on 11th October and two days later, on 13th October, they were involved in an eastwards advance. The 1st Royal Lancaster battalion marched for six miles and then attacked the village of Meteren but were unable to capture it. On 15th October 4th Division resumed the advance towards the Lys again and by the night 17/18th October had occupied Armentières & Houplines with 12 Brigade continuing the line to Le Gheer. At 6.30am on 18th October, 4th Division moved forward towards Frélinghien with 12 Brigade advancing along both banks of the River Lys towards their objective, the village of Le Touquet.  The German front line in front of Lille did not run straight north as presumed at first but turned west at Verlinghem and ran to Frélinghien before continuing north along the river.  This meant that the attack was bound to be enfiladed from the main enemy front line as indeed it was.  With 1st Royal Lancaster and 2nd Lancashire Fusiliers leading, 12 Brigade reached the railway without meeting resistance but once across it came under heavy fire from front and flank.  Nevertheless their attack continued and eventually nearly all of Le Touquet had been captured. There were of course a number of casualties for the battalion one of whom was John Morrah who, during the morning, was caught by machine-gun fire as he tried to signal by semaphore to the Seaforth Highlanders across the canal.