Current Information:

31, Craven Cottages, West Kensington

Born-Whitechapel

Boulogne Eastern Cemetery, France

The Battle of Festubert (16–25 May 1915)

This followed quickly on the heels of  the Battle of Aubers Ridge and was an offensive operation by the British Army in the Artois region of France in conjunction with a French attack further south.  Initial success soon ground to a halt and although there had been an advance of two miles in some places the end result was not the hoped for breakout but merely more muddy trenches which became the new front line. British casualties over the ten days amounted to nearly 17,000, three times as many as inflicted on the Germans.

The Battle of Festubert was preceded by a three day bombardment of the enemy positions and at 11.30pm on 15th May 2nd Division and the Meerut Division from the Indian Army attacked with mixed results. This was unfortunate because their failure to get forward on the left meant that they were not in a position to support the attack at 3.10am on 16th May by 7th Division.

The 7th London battalion had arrived in France in March, 1915 as part of 140 Brigade, 47th Division, but at the start of the Battle of Festubert they were under the orders of 22 Brigade, 7th Division. The 2nd Royal West Surrey (Queens) and 1st Royal Welsh Fusiliers battalions led 22 Brigade’s attack which went in at 3.15am on 16th May and at 8am 7th London moved forward to occupy the old German front line. They had difficulty in crossing the dykes with all their heavy equipment and on arrival, B Company’s trench was found to be full of water. Parapets were reversed and souvenirs collected though most had to be dumped later. Two platoons of C Company moved up to the German support line, occupied by 2nd Bedfordshire, 21 Brigade many of whom were wounded after a strong German position in the ‘Orchard’ had held up their attack.  D Company moved up a long communication trench and then over the open to a position near the orchard where they dug in but heavy machine-gun and sniper fire made it impossible to entrench properly and after an hour they moved back 1000 yards to the old German front line. On 17th May, 7th London returned to 140 Brigade but remained in the captured trenches for the next three days, under heavy shell fire, until they were relieved on 19th May and moved back to Le Quesnoy. One of their many casualties during this battle was Edward King who died from wounds on 24th May, after having been sent to a base hospital on the coast.