William Henry Elliott

William Henry Elliott enlisted in July 1912 and joined 2nd Battalion Sherwood Foresters after his initial training. The 2nd battalion were based in England at the time. On 8 September 1914 he went to France with them. At some point he was posted to the 1st Battalion. On 9 May 1915, the battalion attacked at 5.55 towards Rouges Blancs and immediately it was obvious that the British artillery had been totally inadequate. The enemy's parapets were undamaged and they held their trenches in force. Despite horrendous machine gun and artillery fire, the battalion got to within 40 yards of the enemy wire, only to find it uncut. At this point an order came to 'stop advance' and the battalion fell back to reorganize. At 7.35 am, another attempt was made but immediately the murderous machine gun and artillery fire began again. The men lay down wherever they had advanced to until 1.15 pm, when a withdrawal was ordered. It was then fairly quiet until at 7.30pm, the enemy opened up with high explosive shells, causing many casualties and also severely damaging the breastworks. At 10 pm, the battalion was relieved and ordered back to Rouge de Bout. The battalion sustained over 350 casualties of which 86 were fatalities. The lack of planning and adequate artillery shells had for the second time in two months, cost the battalion heavily. Possibly others would have died if it was not for Corporal James Upton who rescued and bandaged seriously wounded men in full view of the enemy, He was awarded the Victoria Cross. Many men including William Henry Elliott have no known grave and are commemorated on the Ploegsteert Memorial, Belgium. John Morse

Unknown