Current Information:

43, Shakespeare Road, Acton

Merville Communal Cemetery, France

On 10th April, 1915 the 2nd Rifle Brigade battalion of 25 Brigade, 8th Division were relieved from the trenches and moved back to billets in the Rue du Quesne near Fleurbaix from where they provided large working parties at night . These tasks meant either providing carrying parties to take supplies of all kinds to the front line or working at trench digging, road making, railway laying and host of other tasks, sometimes under command of the Royal Engineers. The activities usually took place at night and were often very dangerous. Harassing artillery and machine-gun fire from the enemy would be kept up intermittently throughout the night designed to disrupt the work as much as possible. Tracks along which carrying parties had to travel to reach the front line were known to the German gunners and targeted accordingly. Many a soldier met his death while employed on a working party as was the case with William Snuggs who was killed on 16th April.