Old Hulmeians War Memorial 1914

HAROLD JOHN HILTON BEVAN

25 July 1899 - 20 October 1918

At School 1911 - 1916

Pte 65519 13th Welsh Regt

Harold was born in Stalybridge, Cheshire and in 1901, aged 1, was living at 223 Mottram Road, Stalybridge, with father William, an Oil Merchants Agent, mother Emily and elder sister Lucy. By 1911 the family had moved to 12 Clifton Road, Chorlton cum Hardy and Harold was attending School.

Harold's Service Records survive and show that he enlisted in Manchester on 23rd July 1917 just two days before his eighteenth birthday. His medical examination took place on 27 August 1917 in which he was described as 5 ft 7½ inches tall, weighing 8 stone 7 lbs with a 33 inch chest and moderate physical development.

On his attestation form his trade or calling was stated as "schoolboy" but by his medical he had graduated to ""clerk". On 24th August he was mobilised and posted to the 48th Training Reserve Bn at Prees Heath, near Whitchurch,Shropshire. On 8th December 1917 he was transferred to the 53rd Young Soldiers Bn, The Welsh Regt and granted leave from 14th December to 18th December. Following his return, on 31 December he was posted to the 51st Graduated Bn Training Reserve, Welsh Regiment, based in Yarmouth. On 20th March 1918 he was granted "Draft Leave" but was recalled on 29th March following the massed German offensives on the Western Front. Harold embarked at Southampton on 5th April landing at Le Havre the following day. He was posted to B Company, 13th Bn Welch Regiment, 114th Brigade, 38th (Welsh Division), and left for the Front on 14th April arriving "in the field" on the 16th. The Bn was in Brigade Reserve near Albert, having recently moved from the Armentieres area. The 16th was by coincidence the day that the Battalion war diary reported that:

"The Cathedral tower of Albert with the leaning statue of the Virgin was hit by our Artillery fire and fell at 3.30 p.m."

Albert had been captured by the Germans in the Spring 1918 offensives and it was rumoured that whoever brought down the statue would win the war, or lose it depending on whether you believed the Allied or German version, but in any event it would signal the end of the war. The Germans had positioned a machine gun in the tower, which was causing heavy casualties amongst the front line troops and the Artillery was requested to deal with it.

The German version proved correct, the Allies brought down the statue and won the war.

In reserve, B Company provided working parties for trench construction under the supervision of the Royal Engineers. On 19 April 1918 the Battalion relieved the 14th Battalion in the Left Front Sector of the line just to the west and north west outskirts of Albert, squares W19, W20 and W26 below. The usual activities of patrolling, wiring and trench maintenance were carried out. On the 22nd a two Brigade attack was carried out to the left of the Battalion front, the war diary remarking that the British Artillery consistently fired short, the Brigade diary suggesting that retaliatory fire from the enemy fell chiefly on the 13th Battalion. Wherever the artillery fire came from, fortunately, casualties were light. On the 24th the enemy made two local attacks to regain ground lost during the Brigade attack two days earlier, but these were repulsed although casualties occurred. When the Brigade was relieved by the 5th and 6th Australian Infantry Brigades the Battalion had suffered 13 killed and 27 wounded during their time in the trenches. The Battalion initially went to billets at Warloy (Square U23) and the following day to baths at Contay (Square U27) and from there to tents in Toutencourt Wood to the west of Toutencourt (Square U1).

Training was carried out in woodfighting in preparation for the Brigade's objective to advance on Aveluy Wood and on 3rd March the Battalion moved to Hedauville (Square 34 Top Middle) in Brigade Reserve in support of the 14th and 15th Battalions in the front line north of Martinsart (Square W3). An attack was made by the front Battalions on the 10th but this was unsuccessful and no ground was gained. On the night of the 11th the Battalion moved up to the left front sector but Harold appears to have been accidentally injured during the move, or on a working party,and spent the next 10 days recovering in the Brigade Field Ambulance Stations and the Divisional Rest Station. On his return to duty, the Brigade had been relieved by the 104th Infantry brigade and was again in reserve around Toutencourt.

The Brigade remained in the area north of Albert throughout June and July and at the beginning of August the Battalion was in Brigade Reserve just to the west of Martinsart, supplying the usual working parties on trench improvements and defence works. Although enemy artillery was light, the Battalion recorded gas shelling took place. On 16th August, Harold was admitted to hospital suffering from "Influenza", whether as a result of the gas or the pandemic sweeping the world at that time is not known. Harold was transferred to No 74 General Hospital at Trouville, on the coast near Rouen and, after a week, to No. 13 Convalescent Depot in the same town. On 19th September, after recovery, he joined the Welsh Regiment Depot at Rouen and was posted back to the Battalion, arriving "in the field" on the 23rd.

During his time away, the Allied line had advanced considerably and the Battalion had moved eastwards across country to the line in front of Gouzeaucourt. On the 23rd the Battalion was in reserve at Lechelle, some 7 miles west of Gouzeaucourt, after having taken part in a Brigade attack on the 18th and 19th, suffering heavy casualties of 7 officers and 146 other ranks, of whom 4 officers and 40 other ranks had been killed. Despite being so far behind the front the Battalion was still in range of enemy artillery and on the night of 24th/25th September the Quarter Master's stores hut was hit, killing 8 other ranks and wounding a further 4.

The Battalion remained in reserve, training, until 4th October when they were ordered up to the Hindenburg Line in support of the Division attack. Although they were not required to advance, casualties were suffered from enemy shelling in the movement up to the assembly positions on the 8th. The Battalion lost 1 officer killed, 4 wounded and 11 O.R. killed, 83 wounded and 18 missing.

On the 9th, the 33rd Division took over the advance and the Battalion returned to reserve. Training was continued and after a brief flurry in the front line on the 12th, curtailed by orders to return to the back lines, the Battalion practised over a replica of the Selle River and Railway their attack scheduled for 19th October.

On the 19th it rained continuously during the night and there was considerable mist, which assisted the Battalion in moving up across the river and the road undetected to their assembly positions to the west of the railway in Square K16 above, about 150 yards from the enemy, by 1.00 a.m. on the 20th. At zero hour, 2.00 a.m., a 4 minute barrage was put down on the railway and when it lifted, A & D Companies rushed forward taking the enemy by surprise and consolidating their position on the first objective some 200 yards east of the railway. B & C Companies followed on in quick succession and went on to the final objective, the ridge in Square K11 above. 100 prisoners were taken and 4 field guns and several machine guns captured. The Battalion lost 3 officers wounded, 5 O.R. killed, 59 wounded and 5 missing. Harold was one of those killed and he was buried on the battlefield at K16.B.9.5., approximately ¾ of the way up the right hand boundary of Square K16.

Harold was buried in a joint grave with another private of B Company, S A Dann, identified by a cross with both names. In late 1919 bodies buried at this location were exhumed and reburied in Highland British Cemetery, Le Cateau. Strangely only one body was found under the cross and it was not possible to be identified. Consequently the body was reburied under one double named cross, and later when headstones replaced the crosses, two headstones were produced as Plot 6, Row B, Graves 5 and 5a. Was this the body of Harold or Private Dann, or were the remains such that the two bodies may perhaps have been hit by shellfire and so intermingled that they were buried together in one grave?

On 2nd September 1919 the War Office sent a memorandum to the Officer in charge of Infantry Records to the effect that any articles of personal property, belonging to Harold, coming into his possession should be despatched to his father, William.

On the 7th August 1920 Harold's personal effects were sent to his father: Diary, Letters, Religious Book, Pouch, Disc.

It remains somewhat of a mystery that Harold's property was forwarded nearly two years after he was killed and correspondence only commenced in September 1919. Was this discovered on the body of the soldier exhumed or had his belongings lain neglected in some army warehouse since his death? We will no doubt never know the truth.

Old Hulmeians War Memorial 1914 - 1919