Current Information:

Age-18

13, Seyssell Street, Cubitt Town

Fosse 7 Military Cemetery (Quality Street), Mazingarbe, France

On 7th June, 1915 the 20th London battalion of 141 Brigade, 47th Division moved into billets in Mazingarbe and Philosophe from where they provided working parties every 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 quite likely the case with John Elliott who was killed on 10th June.