Current Information:

Age-20

21, Great Charlotte Street, Blackfriars

Pargny British Cemetery, France

When the German offensive began on 21st March, 8th Division were out of the line undergoing training near St. Omer but the events further south meant that reinforcements were desperately needed. On 23rd March, the 2nd Royal Berkshire battalion, along with the rest of 25 Brigade moved to the battle front by rail detraining at Rosière-en-Santerre and moving by lorries to Morchain. 25 Brigade were ordered to occupy the line on the west bank of the canal from Rouy-le-Grand to Pargny, relieving the hard-pressed 50th Division. 2nd East Lancashire were on the right, 2nd Royal Berkshire in the centre and 2nd Rifle Brigade on the left. Moving towards Pargny  they had to face heavy artillery fire whilst crossing the high ground  before taking over the line on the river and canal from south of Fontaine-les-Pargny to north of the Pargny bridge. For the rest of the month the battalion, along with the rest of the brigade and division and indeed the entire British Fifth Army and most of the Third Army retreated across the Somme battlefield that had been won at such a cost in 1916, until the 1st April, 1918 when they were relieved by French troops and moved back to billets in Cottinchy near Amiens. The Battalion Diary gives no detail regarding this confused period of fighting and nearly all the casualties, over sixty men killed, are recorded as being on 2nd April when the 2nd Royal Berkshire were still in billets and away from the fighting. This was obviously when there was time to take stock of the situation and count the cost. Among these casualties was Arthur Styles and although his actual date of death is not known, the cemetery in which he is buried suggests it was at the beginning of the retreat.