Current Information:

Age-20

24, Tooting Grove, Tooting

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 consisted of 4th and 6th Divisions as well as 19 Brigade.

On 24th October, 1914, the 1st Royal Fusiliers battalion of 17 Brigade, 6th Division moved into trenches at Rue Petillon, a few kilometres to the south of Armentières, and stayed there through to mid –November as the stalemate of trench warfare asserted itself. At 11am on 5th November, the day on which William Long was killed, the enemy began shelling the battalion’s positions with the road in front of C Company receiving special attention. On the right of the line a farmhouse in which some of the supports were sheltering was set on fire.