Cyril Bird
- Family History
- Military History
- Extra Information
- Photographs
Cyril was born in 1897 in Radford and was the adopted son of James and Mary Lane of Arnold. His father was George Bird and his step mother Nellie , his siblings were : - Arthur b1890, Harry b1906, Flora Gladys b 1894,Hilda b1903 and Harry b1907 . In the 1901 census he is living on Cross Street, Arnold with James and Mary Lane , he is 4 yrs of age. In the 1911 Cencus he is shown living with Mary Lane, a widow, at Furlong Street, Arnold, and is shown as Mary Lane 59 yrs widow living with , Ruth Hopewell 32 yrs boarder , single laundry ironer, Lucy Bacon 23 yrs boarder single, laundry ironer and Cyril Bird, 14 yrs errand boy. In his service record can be found a declaration by his father giving details of his family dated 30th May 1919 in which he states he George Bird is Cyril's father and his step mother is Nellie Bird and that Cyril has 4 siblings and the family lived at 151 Norton Street, Radford. In the 1911 census his parents are living at 30 Garfield Street, Radford and are shown as :- George 44 yrs cycle fitter , he is living with his wife (married 1901) Nellie 32 yrs and their children , Arthur 21 yrs a cycle hand, Flora 17 yrs , a lace hand, Hilda 8 yrs a scholar and Harry 4 yrs According to the Nottingham Evening Post of 3rd August 1917, he lived at 151 Norton Street, Radford, Nottingham
He enlisted on 6th May 1915 at Nottingham into The Sherwood Foresters giving his address as Furlong Street, Arnold. , he gave his next of kin as his step mother Mary Lane of Furlong Street, Arnold he gave his age as 19 yrs. He was appointed Lance Corporal on 22nd April 1916. Following his training he was posted to the 1/5tb battalion Sherwood Foresters and he embarked at Folkstone on 11th July 1916 to join the British Expeditionary Force disembarking the same day at Boulogne, he arrived at the base camp at Etaples on 13th July 1916. At 2.47 am on the 1st July 1917, his battalion attacked the enemy’s positions west of Lens in co-operation with two other battalions. By 5 am two of the attacking companies had reached their objectives but the right flank company had failed to reach their objective due to the high number of casualties. Counter-attacks were repulsed by our Lewis Gun fire with heavy loss to the enemy. At 6.30am the enemy who had been strongly reinforced launched yet another strong counter-attack by bombing along the main line trench and by advancing over the open from the direction of Cotton Trench. The attack over the open was repulsed as previously but the enemy gained some success with their bombers who drove wedges into our line, Cyril was killed in action during this engagement. He has no known grave, his name is commemorated on the Arras memorial
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