gommecourt

Probate records states: LIGHT Eric of Redcot Linton-road Hastings died on or since 26 March 1918 in France. Administration Lewes 20 April 1920 to Reginald Hough Light gentleman. Effects £196 17s 8d while the British Commonwealth War Graves Register states: LIGHT, 2nd Lt Eric "B" Coy, 40th Bn. Machine Gun Corps (Inf) 26th March 1918. Age 20. Son Lt Col R H Light (Indian Army, retired) and Mrs R H Light, of Redcot, Linton Road, Hastings

Familysearch has the following: name:Eric Light gender:Male baptism/christening date:04 Jul 1897 baptism/christening place:Bhuj, Bombay, India birth date:03 Jun 1897 birthplace: death date: name note: race: father's name:Reginald Hough Light father's birthplace: father's age: mother's name:Maud Mary mother's birthplace: mother's age: indexing project (batch) number:C99916-5 system origin:India-EASy source film number:523879 reference number:

Again I am grateful to Mr Graham Sacker, custodian of the Machine Gun Corps historical archive who provided the following detail on Eric Light. Monkton Combe School Register (1868-1964): Eric Light b 1897, 1st XI 13-14-15, Hockey XI 13-14, 1st XV 1913, Shooting VIII. Gt War - 2Lt MGC, w.front 1917-18. Kia. Lt Light was educated at Monkton Combe School, near Bath and at Hertford College, Oxford. He enlisted with No 4 Officers Cadet Battalion at Oxford on 11 July 1916 while the Battle of the Somme was in progress on the Western Front. He received his commission and was posted to the Western Front with 188 Company, Machine Gun Corps on 4 July 1917, joining the Company in the field on 21/7/1917. He fought in the Battle of Passchendaele and was wounded on 14 November 1917. On returning to active service, he joined 120 Company, Machine Gun Corps and fought in the action at Bullecourt on 25 February 1918. He was reported missing, aged 20, at Gommecourt during the Allied retreat on the night of 26 March 1918 whilst serving with the 40th Battalion MGC. He is commemorated on the Arras Memorial, Faubourg-d'Amiens Cemetery. Other memorials which bear his name include those at Monkton Combe School near Bath, Alexandra Park at Hastings, Sussex and St Mary-in-the Castle Church also at Hastings. Eric Light was the brother of Hilton Light (Lt.Col. IA).//

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From the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website: Name:ADAMS, DOUGLAS G. Initials:D G Nationality:United Kingdom Rank:Lance Corporal Regiment/Service:London Regiment (London Rifle Brigade) Unit Text:1st Bn. Age:20 Date of Death:01/07/1916 Service No:300432 Additional information:Son of Charles and Louie Adams, of Cromer Lodge, 2, Herne Hill, London. Casualty Type:Commonwealth War Dead Grave/Memorial Reference:Pier and Face 9 D. Memorial:THIEPVAL MEMORIAL

Douglas George Adams. Medal Index Card shows he arrived in France on the 14th March 1915.

Note that the service number 300432 belongs to the series issued to the 5th (City of London) Battalion, The London Regiment (London Rifle Brigade) in early 1917. This battalion is confirmed on L/Cpl Adam's entry in Soldiers Died in The Great War. Lance-Corporal Adams' original number with the 5th Londons was 521 and he joined the battalion in the first week of September 1914. Aftre the action on 1st July 1916 he was presumably posted as missing in action and wouldn have still officially been noted as missing in 1917 when the Territorial Force was re-numbered. This explains why he was given a new number in early 1917, even though he had, by that time, been dead for five or six months. For regimental number information about the 5th Londons see: armyservicenumbers.blogspot.com/2008/08/5th-city-of-londo...

SDGW Info: Name: Douglas George Adams Residence: Herne Hill Death Date: 1 Jul 1916 Death Location: France & Flanders Enlistment Location: London Rank: L/Corporal Regiment: London Regiment Battalion: 5th (City of London) Battalion (London Rifle Brigade) Number: 300432 Type of Casualty: Killed in action Theatre of War: Western European Theatre

In 1901 the Adamses lived at 39 Bartholomew Road, St Pancras maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf... Mr Adams had his own Grocer's business. In 1911 the family were living at 39 Holmdene Avenue, Herne Hill, London maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf... and Douglas was a 15yr old schoolboy. His father, Charles, was now a Florist Buyer for Stores and had been married to Louise Maria for 18yrs. They had had only 2 children: Douglas and his older brother Ernest Charles who, at 17, was working as an Electrician Assistant. The family employed 17yr old Maggie Ryder as a Domestic Servant.

According to the 1901 Census Lt Layard was born in 1897 in Malvern, Worcestershire. He was living at Lorraine Cottage, Great Malvern with his father George S Layard, an author and barrister, his mother Eleanor B, a brother and sister and four servants. According to www.cwgc.org he died on 23 August 1918 and is buried at Douchy-les-Ayette British Cemetery in the Pas de Calais, France

Peter Clement Layard was born on 7 June 1896, the youngest of the 4 children of George Somes Layard and Mary Byng (Gribble). His siblings were George Anthony, b. 1884 (d. 1890); Nancy, b. 1886; and John Willoughby, b. 1891, (a noted anthropologist and psychologist). Extracts of Lieutenant Layard's letters from the Front were posthumously privately published by his father (John Murray, Albemarle St, London 1919). These reveal a remarkable naivete and almost schoolboy attitude towards the war which he nevertheless hated with a passion. In a touching insight to the family grief that his death caused, the book is dedicated to "Peter's Mother for of All People in the World he Loved Her Best". The letters, which include an extensive and insightful character sketch by his father, are available on the internet at: www.archive.org/stream/peterclementlaya00layaiala/petercl... He was certainly asked for as a Trench Mortar officer in May 1916, but it is unclear if he took up the appointment before he was wounded on 19 June 1916. He received a fragmented bullet wound to the head, rendering him semi-conscious, and the tibia of his left arm was severely broken. He reached 14 General Hospital at Wimereux on 20 June 1916 and was soon returned to 'Blighty' to the Northumberland War Hospital near Newcastle upon Tyne (as Wimereux was cleared for the coming Somme offensive). His recovery took some time and he was not passed fit for light duties until September 1917. He returned to his Battalion in France on 24 June 1918, reaching the Front around 1 July 1918 where, now a Temporary Captain, he was soon appointed as a Company Commander. At about this time his Cousin, Captain Julian Royds Gribble serving in the Royal Warwicks, was awarded the VC. (Captain Gribble was posted as Missing - later found to be a PoW, he died of influenza whilst a prisoner). T/Capt Layard was killed in action not at Gommecourt on the Somme, but at Gommiecourt, a village 16 kms S of Arras and 6 kms NW of Bapaume in the Pas-de-Calais Departement. Gommiecourt was captured by 3rd Division on 23rd August 1918 during the final Hundred Days Advance and it would appear that it was in the reorganisation after this attack that T/Capt Layard was reported "shot in the heart by a German sniper". Only Peter Layard and one other officer in his Company had reached the objective, a German strongpoint, unwounded. Whatever the exact nature of his death, having led his Company with considerable bravery, he was almost certainly killed whilst helping a wounded German soldier, having gone back over the route of the Company advance to find more of his men.//

Such a gentle hero.

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