Current Information:

Age-29

24, Cumberland Market, Regents Park

Outtersteene Communal Cemetery, Bailleul, France

After having been on the defensive since March 1918, by August of that year the Allies were ready to move to the attack and on 8th August, The Battle of Amiens began, a battle that marked the beginning of what came to be known as the Hundred Day Offensive that culminated in the collapse of the German army and the end of the war.

The attacks by the British Army extended all the way along the line from the Somme up to Ypres in Belgium and on 18th August, they attacked and captured the Outtersteene Ridge near the town of Bailleul in northern France, close to the Belgian border. Although only 120 feet above sea level the Outtersteene Ridge afforded the enemy a good observation of the low lying country around it and its capture was deemed important. 27 Brigade of 9th Division  attacked behind a powerful artillery barrage and within an hour the ridge was in British hands. At 5pm on the following day, 19th August, the 12th Norfolk battalion of 94th Brigade, 31st Division, and the 2nd Royal Fusiliers of 86 Brigade, 29th Division continued the attack and in less than an hour and a half gained the further objectives of Lyndé Farm and The Trucks. They then went on to reach the Vieux Berquin-Outtersteene road. Successful as it was, not all of those involved in this attack lived to tell the tale, one of these being Frederick Nelson of 2nd Royal Fusiliers who was killed in action.