JOSEPH WILLIAM ROBERTS
29 December 1896 - 19 August 1916
At School 1908 - 1913
Pte 36685 9th Machine Gun Corps (Infantry)
Joseph was born in Manchester and in 1901, aged 4, was living at 28 Monton Street, Moss Side, with father Joseph, a General Home Trade Merchant, mother Alice, elder sisters Mary, Alice and Susie, younger brother Thomas and one domestic servant. In 1911, Joseph senior now being described as a Blouse Manufacturer, the family had moved to 145 Withington Road, Whalley Range with the addition of brother John and another domestic servant. At School Joseph was in Heywood House and a member of The Scientific Society, assisting L Timmis, on 28 November 1912, in the presentation of a lecture on "Internal-combustion Engines", illustrated by models and diagrams. "The principle of the vapour explosion engine was very clearly pointed out an, and various types of engines, both of historic interest and of present day importance, were described and explained". In the same year he won the One Length swimming race for Under 16's in a time of 25 seconds.
The Hulmeian Magazine reports that Joseph joined the 6th Manchester Regiment in 1914, however he would only have been 17 and too young for active service when the Battalion left for Egypt and Gallipoli. He saw no service overseas with the Manchesters and at some stage in 1915/16 was transferred to the Machine Gun Corps , which was authorised in October 1915 and a training centre formed at Belton Park & Harrowby Camps near Grantham in Lincolnshire, where Joseph most likely was sent. At some time during 1916, after training,
Joseph was posted to France and joined the 9th Battalion Machine Gun Corps (Infantry). The Battalion had joined the 9th Brigade, 3rd Division on 8 February 1916 at which time the Division was in the Ypres sector of the Front. The Brigade at this time was in rest near St Omer and spent the rest of the month training. On 6 March the Brigade moved back to the Ypres sector and went into billets at Reninghelst about 4km south east of Poperinghe. Preparations were made for an attack to be made in front of
St Eloi to capture the enemy's salient and thereby gain important ground for observation and also to destroy his extensive mining system which was known to exist. this was the first action of the Brigade Machine Gun Co whose main job was to protect the flanks, keep the enemy's fire down and deal with counter attacks. Three guns also went forward with the attack, which commenced with the firing of seven mines under the German trenches at 4.15 a.m. on 27 March. The War Diary reports that the guns which went forward did very little firing due to lack of targets and the guns on the flanks kept up intermittent firing to keep the enemy's fire in check. The Battalion suffered heavy enemy artillery fire and a number of casualties. On the 29 March the Battalion was relieved by the 8th Brigade Machine Gun Co and returned to billets at Reninghelst.
The Battalion was at rest, moving on 3rd April to billets at Le Roukloshille, near Meteren. On 23rd April they moved to Locre and on the following day into trenches on the Kemmel Hill defences. Shelling was suffered from enemy trench mortars causing slight casualties and one gun was put out of action by a trench mortar falling into a dugout where the gun was kept during the day. The trenches were reported to be in bad condition and fine days were interspersed with thundery showers. The Battalion had sixteen teams of guns, four in reserve camp and twelve in
the front line, four teams to a section. Relief of one section in the front line was carried out every four days. Work was carried out in building covered gun emplacements with the assistance of the Royal Engineers, however delays were experienced owing to the weather and materials coming up too late. The Battalion was relieved by the 149th Brigade Machine Gun Corps on 23 May and returned to Le Roukoshille arriving there at 6.45 a.m. the following morning.The Battalion remained at rest, cleaning guns and ammunition, checking spare parts and training, until 4th June when it received orders to move back to Reninghelst and from there into the St Eloi sector of the Line, in the area south of Voormezeele, relieving the 5th Canadian MG Coy.On 6th June the Battalion suffered heavy shelling all day and the enemy entered their trenches but were bombed out after about four hours. Relieved by the 8th brigade MG Coy on 12th June, the Battalion returned to Reninghelst and from there marched to billets at Meteren, where on 18th June, they left for the training area at Munc-Nieurlet near St Omer, via Cassel, Lederzeele and Watten. The weather was still very wet and training continued for the rest of the month. At the beginning of
July , the Brigade received orders it was to proceed to the Montauban sector of the Line, north east of Albert, the 9th MG Coy arriving in Montauban Alley, 200 yards to the west of the village, on the 7th. The MG Coy was to take part in an attack on the German 1st and 2nd lines in Bazentin-Le-Grand and establish a defensive line about 100 yards north of the German 2nd line. 2 guns went forward with each of the 4 attacking Battalions, while the remainder took up positions to the north of Montauban to fire into the German lines at Bazentin-Le-Grand and the valley to the north of the village.
On 14th July at 3.15 a.m., the Brigade attacked and carried the German positions and Bazentin-Le-Grand. The guns moved forward to the old German lines to repulse anticipated counter attacks, one team, whose gun had been put out of action, using a captured machine gun to continue firing at the enemy. The Battalion suffered 4 officers wounded, 2 OR killed, 12 wounded and 1 missing. The next few days were spent in consolidating the position, repositioning the guns and building new gun emplacements. The MG Coy was relieved by the 21st MG Coy on 19th July and marched back to the Brigade rest area north of Talus Bois. After a few days resting, cleaning and refitting the MG Coy again went into action on 23 July in support of an attack on Longueval and Delville Wood. During this action the OC of the Coy, Lieut H B Fisher, was seriously wounded and died of his wounds on the 24th. Orders were received to withdraw the guns and the Battalion moved back to rest at Ville-sur-Ancre, south of Albert. The Battalion remained at rest until 11th August when they marched back to the front line arriving at Maltz Horn Ridge, south west of
Guillemont, on the 15th in support of an attack to be carried out on the 16th. Sections III and IV were in the firing line to provide overhead fire at a range of 2,000 yards to sweep the valley running north east from Wedge Wood and Falfemont Farm. The War Diary reports that on the 16th, 2 gun teams were put out of action by shellfire, casualties numbering 13 men. The Brigade attacked at 5.40 p.m. but the advance came under intense machine gun and rifle fire and was unable to make headway. The machine guns covered the retirement of the infantry and wounded, mounted on the parapet. During this operation the Battalion suffered 1 officer wounded, 4 OR killled and one wounded. On
The MG Coy War Diary reports that on the 19th August they were "reinforced by one section of the 8th MG Coy with 4 guns. Two were sent up on the night of the 19th in support of the 1st Northumberland Fusiliers and 2 were held in reserve. meanwhile another attack of four phases commenced at 2.45 p.m. of this date. The first phase being unsuccessful, the other phases did not take place. Casualties 1 wounded, 1 missing."
At some time during this operation Joseph was killed. His body was not recovered or identified and it is possible that he is the missing OR referred to in the War Diary. He is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, Panel 5C.
