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Wulverghem-Lindenhoek Road Military Cemetery, Belgium

On 2nd February, 1915, the 1st Royal West Kent battalion of 13 Brigade, 5th Division, moved into the front line at Wulverghem, just south of Messines in Belgium. The trenches here were close to the River Douvre and consequently were often flooded and up to the men’s waists in places, a situation made worse by some heavy shelling of their trenches by the enemy artillery. The battalion diary makes no mention of any casualties on this day but the enemy often seemed to know when an inter-battalion relief was taking place in the front line opposite them and then did as much as they could to disrupt it. This meant targeting the approach communication trenches with their artillery and keeping up a high level of machine-gun and rifle fire. Reliefs therefore were times of extra danger and many a soldier was killed or wounded during them. This may have been the fate of Sidney Rosendale who was killed on 2nd February.