Benjamin Heywood Whitley

On the 13th August the London gazette announced :- The undermentioned Cadets and ex - Cadets of the Officers Training Corps to be second lieutenants (on probation). Dated 14th August, 1915: — Benjamin Heywood Whitley, 3rd Battalion Royal Scots. He is buried in Quarry Cemetery Montauban Somme France. Grave Reference: I E 4 His name is also commemorated on his family's headstone in Ulverston Cemetery and also on the Great Gable memorial near Ulverston.

His Colonel writes as follows:"He was gallantly leading his men in a night attack; the country has lost a valuable officer,and I mourn the loss of a personal friend. The men have told me since, that nothing could equal his gallantry the night before last, and they mourn the loss of a splendid gentleman. He is buried with five others of the 11th Regt., in Caterpillar Valley just south of Longueval." The following is an extract from The Cuthbertian July 1917 issued no 2: The following extract explains itself: "Mr. Whitley and Mr.Tredgold were in charge of a party sent to clear 'the Orchard,' a corner of the village of Longueval which the Germans continued to hold after the capture of the village by the 9th Division on 14th of July. The enemy were strongly established in the gardens at the back of the houses, and our bombing party attempted to work along through the wrecked buildings and bomb them out. Mr.Tredgold and Mr. Whitley, going in front, came to what had evidently been once a barn. There was a hole in the wall looking out into the gardens of the enemy. Mr.Tredgold raised the rifle he was carrying to fire through the hole at some of the enemy whom he could dimly make out -it was night of course-and Mr.Whitley looked over his shoulder to watch the effect. In doing so he naturally exposed himself more than Tredgold, who was more or less protected by the wall. Almost immediately, before Tredgold had time to pull the trigger, a rifle was fired from the other side at very close range, and the bullet struck poor Whitley ·between the neck and shoulder, and he fell dead on the spot. The German who fired was evidently close to the wall on the other side, for Tredgold himself told me his own face was scorched by the discharge from the rifle; death must have been instantaneous. The bombing party went no further, and Tredgold brought Whitley's body back with him."