Current Information:

Age-32

69, Landseer Road, Holloway

Coxyde Military Cemetery, Belgium

The Royal Garrison Artillery operated larger and less mobile guns than the Field Artillery and the Siege Batteries operated the largest guns and howitzers. These were either mounted on concrete emplacements or on railway carriages and consequently they usually remained in the same sector of the line for long periods, coming under the orders of a Heavy Artillery Group.

Operation Hush was a British plan for amphibious landings on the Belgian coast in the summer and autumn of 1917 in conjunction with the Third Battle of Ypres that began on 31st July, that year. The landings would be supported by attacks from Nieuwpoort and the Yser bridgehead and a number of units were sent there with this purpose in mind. However the plan was cancelled in October, 1917 after the failure of the British to break out of the Ypres salient.

William Lambert was killed on 25th August, 1917, while serving with the 219th Siege Battery of the Royal Garrison Artillery during Operation Hush but the exact circumstances of his death are not known. Artillery men faced many dangers and during the course of the war nearly 50,000 of them were killed. Their gun batteries were targeted by the enemy’s guns which accounted for many of their casualties. Others were sent forward to act as ‘spotters’ which meant going forward to the front line and signalling back to the guns necessary changes in target and other vital information. Keeping the batteries supplied with ammunition was a dangerous task as the enemy guns would target the known supply routes, especially at night. Battery Diaries rarely shine any light on casualties sustained, unless of course they were officers and even then information is sparse.