Current Information:

Age-25

Enlisted-London

Le Trou Aid Post Cemetery, Fleurbaix, France

On 10th December, 1914, the 1st Grenadier Guards of 20 Brigade, 7th Division moved into front line trenches near Rue de Petillon to the south of Armentières where they remained until relieved on 14th December. The battalion diary provides very little information about this time spent in the trenches so the circumstances of the death of Joseph Dobson who was killed on 12th December are not known. 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.