Current Information:

Born-Paddington

Gorre British & Indian Cemetery

18^th Middlesex were the pioneer battalion of 33^rd Division. Each infantry division had a pioneer battalion. Their ranks were made up from labourers and skilled and semi-skilled workers and although they were trained to fight as infantrymen, their role was one of construction , road making and building. However this did not mean that they were not in danger as 18^th Middlesex found out on 22^nd June 1916. At that time they were at Annequin, just south of Festubert. At 2 o’clock in the morning the Germans blew several mines making a huge crater and destroying the front line near the Duck’s Bill. This was followed by heavy shelling and a 150 strong German raid.  There were two platoons of 18^th Middlesex working in a nearby communication trenches named Coventry Street and Cambridge Terrace and they got caught up in the fighting to the extent that they came away, when it was all over, with thirty casualties, seven of whom had been killed.