Current Information:

Age-22

Enlisted-Camberwell

Guards Cemetery, Windy Corner, Cuinchy, France

The Battle of Festubert (15–25 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 three kilometres in some places the end result was not the hoped for breakout but merely more muddy trenches which became the front line. British casualties over the ten days amounted to nearly 17,000, three times as many as inflicted on the Germans.

After having been in action during the Battle of Festubert, the 21st London battalion of 142 Brigade, 47th Division, were relieved and moved back to billets in Beuvry from where they provided working parties. 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 Arthur Mullins who was killed on 29th May.