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3rd Battalion, Middlesex Regiment
3rd Battalion, The Middlesex Regiment (Duke of Cambridge's Own) was in Cawnpore, India when war broke out in August 1914. As soon as a territorial unit arrived to take over the garrison, they returned to England arriving in December and joined 85th Brigade, 28th Division who were assembling near Winchester. They proceeded to France, via Southampton landing at Le Havre on the 19th of January 1915. The Division concentrated in the area between Bailleul and Hazebrouck, being joined by additional Territorial units. In 1915 they were in action in The Second Battle of Ypres and The Battle of Loos. On the 19th of October 1915 orders were recieved to prepare to sail and five days later the first units left Marseilles for Alexandria in Egypt all units (with the exception XXXI and CXLVI Brigades RFA) arrived the by 22nd of November and the 2nd East Surreys moved to Salonika on the 2nd of December. Later in the year they were in action during the occupation of Mazirko and the capture of Barakli Jum'a. In 1917 they were involved in the capture of Ferdie and Essex Trenches (near Barakli Jum'a) and then the capture of Barakli and Kumli. In mid 1918 a number of units returned to France. The remainer of the Division, including the 2nd East Surreys were later in action at the Battle of Doiran and the pursuit to the Strumica valley. When hostilities with Bulgaria ceased at the end of September the 28th Division was in the area of Trnovo. They moved in early November to Gallipoli and occupied the Dardanelles Forts.
22 Apr 1915 French retreat near Ypres In the early evening the Germans employed gas against French troops to the North of Ypres, causing a retreat. Two battalions from the 2nd Buffs and 3rd Middlesex were ordered into a stop formation at the cross roads in the centre of Sint Jan was hordes of French Turcos and Zouaves fled towards Ypres, leaving a gap in the Allied lines.
23rd Apr 1915 Allies close gap near Ypres The 2nd Buffs and 3rd Middlesex holding the line at the cross roads in the centre of Sint Jan, were joined by the 5th Kings Own and the 1st York and Lancs, to form the Geddes Detachment under the command of Col Geddes of the Buffs. They joined with the Canadian Division to fill the gap left by the French Colonials who had fled under a gas attack the previous evening. Later in the day the Geddes Detachment was reinforced and the seven battalions counter-attacked as part of a wider effort to stabilise the line.
6th Feb 1915 Instruction
10th Feb 1915 Rounds Fired 
13th Feb 1915 Artillery Support
14th Feb 1915 Attack Expected
15th Feb 1915
16th Feb 1915 Barrage
17th Feb 1915 Relief
18th Feb 1915 Reorganisation
22nd Feb 1915 Reliefs
26th Feb 1915 Reliefs
4th Mar 1915 Reliefs
13th March 1915 Standing by.
8th May 1915 Heavy Fighting in Ypres Salient On the morning of 8th May, the 3rd Monmouths had three companies in the front line and one in support. Half a mile to the north the 1st Monmouth's were fighting with the 83rd Brigade. The German bombardment began at 5.30 am followed by the first infantry attack at 8.30. In the words of Pte W.H. Badham: "They started bombarding at the same time in the morning and….afterwards we could hear a long blast of a whistle, and the attack started. We were only a handful of men, and they came on in thousands, but we kept them at bay"
Private A.L. Devereux carried this story forward in a letter he wrote to his family a day or two after the battle:
"Hundreds of them were put of action with shells and it left very few men to man the trenches. After, the Huns shelled all the country for a couple of miles…stoping any reinforcements from being brought up and thousands of the rabble charged our trenches in their favourite massed formation. The few boys that were left in our trenches showed then the kind of stuff Britain can turn out and thousands of the Germans were put out of action"
Almost immediately, the shelling started again and at 09.00am the Germans attacked again and were again driven back. The Germans realised that their attack was making no progress, and they fell back so that the artillery could return to its task on the front line trenches. By 9.10 am the bombardment was as intense as at any time that morning and there was little that the soldiers could do except find what little cover they could.
Orders reached the 3rd Monmouth's and 2nd King's Own from Brigade HQ about 10am to evacuate the front line trenches. Captain Baker began withdrawing his Company, but immediately the enemy opened up an intense machine gun fire, followed by shrapnel, which practically swept away the few survivors of A and D Companies. Captain Baker was killed a few yards behind the front line. The order apparently never reached Lt Reed and he and few men of A Company, with some machine gunners held on gallantly and resisted to the last. Lt Reed was finally killed and no officer of A Company was left, and only 13 survivors amongst the men could be mustered. D Company stuck it gallantly. They lost their only officer Captain J Lancaster. Every Sergeant in the company was killed and only 16 men answered the roll call next morning. Of the 500 men in A and D Companies only 29 were left. B Company (under Captain Gattie) throughout the battle was separated from the rest of the Battalion. They were in the front line in a wood near Red Lodge. Rations and letters came up regularly and one fortunate officer even received a tin of cooked sausages! What the war diary does not record is that the new trenches had been hastily prepared and it was not as deep or as wide as had been hoped for by those men retiring to it. One member of the 3rd Monmouths noted: "….when we occupied this new line of trenches we found them very badly made and up to our knees in water, and the poor men had no chance of getting any sleep unless they wished to i.e. down in the water".
So dawned the most critical day of the great battle, the 8th May, The 3rd Monmouth's lay astride the Zonnebeke road, the apex of the Salient, two companies in the front line with one in support and the fourth company not far away to the south. Half a mile to the north was their sister battalion the 1st Monmouthshire's in the 84th Brigade. Holding the position with them were their comrades of the 83rd Brigade, the nd Kings Own to the north and to the south the 1st KOYLI who relieved the 1st York and Lancs and B Coy. 3rd Monmouth's on the night of the 7th May. The Brigade had been in the line without relief since April 17th . Its numbers were greatly reduced, and the artillery behind were few in numbers and woefully short of ammunition. As indicating the desperate position of the British troops in respect to artillery support, it is now authoritatively stated that the heavy British guns during this period of the 2nd Battle of Ypres were limited to:- One 9.2 inch howitzer, Eight 60 pdrs, Four old six inch howitzers, Twelve obsolete 4.7 inch guns.
Against them the Germans brought up at least 260 heavy guns and howitzers. There was nothing except the Division between the enemy and Ypres on that day and they got as far as Verlorenhoek, but the British soldier proverbially does not know when he is beaten and the Germans were kept back somehow till fresh troops were brought up in the evening to fill the many gaps. The enemy on their side were all out to push through. They had guns on the high ground enfilading the British position and smothering our artillery, they had field guns well forward, and they had innumerable machine guns, and six divisions of their best and freshest troops, against the depleted ranks of the war-worn and weary 27 th and 28 th Divisions. Their bombardment opened up at 5.30.a.m. and the trenches lying on the forward slope were badly damaged and almost untenable.
The wood came under heavy shelling and Lt Groves and Lt Palmer were killed by a direct hit on their dug out. After two German attacks on the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry in the front trenches, B Company charged across open ground to reinforce them. A dip in the ground favoured the advance and casualties were few, but Capt. Gardner was shot through the heart as he entered the trench, a great loss. He was one of the finest looking and best soldiers in the Battalion. 2/Lt. Paul was wounded at about the same time.
The first enemy infantry attack took place at 8.30.a.m. and was driven off. The bombardment re-opened and at 9.a.m. the enemy again attacked and were driven back. After a further hours intense shelling the front line was practically obliterated and the enemy found few survivors to hold up the attack. In A Coy 3rd Monmouths, Capt Baker and C.S.M. were killed and Lt Reed with a few survivors of his company held gallantly on and resisted to the last. This party and the machine gun section took heavy toll of the advancing enemy, but were finally overwhelmed by numbers.
Lt. Reed was killed and no officer of A Coy was left and only 13 survivors amongst the men could be mustered. D Coy stuck it gallantly. They lost their only officer, Captain James Lancaster, beloved of all who knew him, and that fine type of Territorial soldier C.S.M. Lippiatt, who did such wonderful work training recruits almost single-handed at Abergavenny in August and September 1914. Every Sergeant in the company was killed and only 16 men answered the roll next morning. The machine-gun section were involved in this slaughter, and had one gun destroyed but one of the few survivors brought back the lock of the other.
Early in the day C Coy came into action in support, but little by little was forced back to Battalion HQ owing to the exposure of their flank from the north. Stragglers were coming down the road, so Col. Gough ordered Sergeant Jenkins to collect them in a trench in the rear, and for his fine services on this occasion coupled with the good work on the telephone; this old soldier received the DCM. This party and other remnants of the Battalion was led by Col. Gough in counter attack, but could only advance as far as the eastern edge of Frezenberg. In this advance R.S.M. Hatton was seriously wounded. He had accompanied the adjutant Capt. Ramsden, in many visits to the front line during the last terrible days and with him had often helped to stiffen the defence by cheery encouragement. He now refused to be carried back and was taken prisoner. His wounds were of such a nature that he was one of the first prisoners of war to be exchanged, but unhappily he died much regretted before the end of the war. He was a fine type of regular soldier from whom all ranks learnt much.
After hanging onto this position for some time and holding up the advance, orders came at about 11.a.m. from the Brigade to retire on the GHQ line near Potijze.
Lt. McLean, M.O., 3rd Monmouth's and Lt.Marriott, M.O., 1st Monmouth's had established a dressing station just east of Verlorenhoek; at 11.a.m. they received orders to retire their detachments, but after sending back the stretcher bearers they found a number of wounded still coming back and so decided to carry on, till the enemy were practically in the village and Lt. McLean was wounded.
Just before mid-day the 2nd East Yorks were ordered to counter attack and after reaching Verlorenhoek with heavy casualties had to fall back on the G.H.Q. line. At 2.30.p.m. 1st York and Lancaster and 3rd Middlesex counter-attacked north and south of the railway, remnants of the 2nd East Yorks, 1st KOYLI, 2nd Kings Own, 3rd Monmouth's, 5th Kings Own going up into support. At 3.30.p.m. 2nd East Surreys, 3rd Royal Fusiliers arrived and were sent up in support. The counter attack, practically unsupported by artillery, made slow progress and by 5.30.p.m. was held up at a line running from Verlorenhoek south over the railway. This line was consolidated with fresh troops during the night and eventually became the approximate position of the front line until the British advance in 1917.
In the meantime the 3rd Monmouth Battalion with the exception of B Coy was withdrawn and marched back to huts at Vlamertinghe. B Coy throughout the battle was separated from the rest of the battalion. It reinforced 1st York and Lancs, coming under orders of the CO of that Battalion, and took over a trench on the extreme right of the Brigade and Division from a company of K.R.R.C. 27 th Division. The next unit on the right was the "Princess Pats". The position was in front of the wood near Red Lodge, about 300 yards south of the Roulers railway. The trench was newly dug like the rest of the line and not deep. It was also on a forward slope and the only communication trench was full of mud and impassable. Further, it lay along a lane with a hedge on one side and a line of poplars on the other, so that it was an admirable mark for the enemy's artillery observing on Westhoek Ridge. On May 5 th and in a smaller degree on May 6 th and 7 th the enemy bombarded the trench, but it was so narrow and well traversed that the damage was comparatively slight and casualties not as heavy as might be expected from such a bombardment. Sgt. Nash, a Territorial with much service, was killed on the 6th .
The attack in front was beaten off and the afternoon in the immediate neighbourhood proved quiet, but there was a great danger of the company being surrounded.. The P.P.C.L.I on the right were forced back to their support trench and on the left to the north of the wood there was a large gap and both flanks were more or less in the air. Accordingly Capt. Gattie went to the HQ of the Rifle Brigade, near Bellewaarde Lake, for reinforcements to protect the exposed flanks, especially to the north, and was able to guide them as far as the P.P.C.L.I. support trench, but machine gun fire prevented them from advancing further until dark. Meanwhile a party of the Monmouth's and KOYLI were in fact in advance of all other British troops with both flanks exposed. Towards the evening the bullets of our troops counter-attacking up the railway were beginning to take them in the rear, so that it was clearly impossible to hold on.
The party was now completely cut off from its own HQ, so Capt. Gattie proceeded to Brigade HQ for orders, leaving the remains of B Company under 2/Lt. Somerset. Under cover of darkness the men of both units filed out of the right end of the trench and were sorted out, and the men in the wood were ordered to re-join. This party had received no orders to advance in the morning and had been left behind. The senior soldier, Cpl. Sketchley, had kept them together during the day and now led 30 men out to join the Company. The enemy attack up the railway on his left had come so near that his party had taken a prisoner and they now brought him with them. Cpl. Sketchley received the D.C.M. for his great initiative and pluck at this period. Capt. Mallinson was awarded the D.S.O., for his fine leadership in maintaining this position and finally in extracting his party from a very difficult position. The enemy did not attempt to harass the withdrawal and the whole mixed party got safely back to Rifle Brigade HQ. After a halt there they proceeded across the railway to the Potijze road intending to rejoin the Brigade at Vlamertinghe.
21st May 1915 Into the Trenches
22nd May 1915 In the Line
23rd May 1915 Withdrawn
24th May 1915 In Support
17th Sep 1915 Keeping in Touch
27th September 1915
28th September 1915
29th September 1915
16th Oct 1915 The Derby Scheme
1st Dec 1915 Derby Scheme Armlets
11th Sep 1915 Last day of Derby Scheme Recruitment
10th Jan 1916 Group System Reopens
9th February 1916 Call Ups
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These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Great War.
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Those known to have served with3rd Battalion, Middlesex Regiment during the Great War 1914-1918. - Burley James. Pte. (d.2nd May 1915 )
- Carter George William. Pte. (d.1st July 1915)
- Day Alfred John. Pte. (d.10th Feb 1915)
- Donovan Reginald. Pte.
- Ellams Herbert John . Pte. (d.30th September 1915)
- Fielder Alfred John. Pte. (d.15th Feb 1915)
- Firman Harold. L/Cpl. (d.23rd Mar 1918)
- Hunt Frederick. Pte. (d.2nd July 1915)
- Joyce Arthur George. Pte. (d.15th Feb 1915)
- Moore Ralph Edgar. Pte. (d.13th Feb 1915)
- Nash John. Pte. (d.13th Oct 1915)
- Smith Herbert Sydney. Pte. (d.28th March 1915)
- Steele Harold. Pte. (d.15th Feb 1915)
- Turner Edward. Pte. (d.13th March 1915)
- Vie Francis George. Pte. (d.4th June 1915)
- Wiles William George. S/Sjt.
All names on this list have been submitted by relatives, friends, neighbours and others who wish to remember them, if you have any names to add or any recollections or photos of those listed,
please Add a Name to this List
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Pte. John Nash 3rd Btn. Middlesex Regiment (d.13th Oct 1915) Great great Uncle John Nash served with the 3rd Btn. Middlesex Regiment. He is buried in Le Treport Military Cemetery.
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L/Cpl. Harold Firman 3rd Btn. Middlesex Regiment (d.23rd Mar 1918) Harold Firman served with 3rd Middlesex Regiment.
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Pte. Reginald Donovan 16th Battalion Middlesex Regiment Reginald Donovan was my father. He joined up in London at the Cockspur Street recruiting office in Autumn 1915 when he was 18 years old and got to France in November 1915. He was with the 16th Battalion, Middlesex Regiment, which we discovered was the Public School Battalion as he went to St. Dunstan's College.
He told me very little about his time in France but I know he was at Ypres (Wipers) and he would say that in the trenches he felt sorry for the Indian soldiers who were always so cold. He told me about the bully beef they had to eat. He somehow survived the Somme but said he was shot, not seriously, early on and lay in No Mans Land until dusk when he crawled back to the trench.
After two months he returned to France and was transferred to 3rd Battalion and shipped off to Salonika. Sometime during his service he was shipped to Malta with malaria which I believe he caught there. He said that the quinine they were given ruined his teeth. But he came home at the end of the war and lived on until 1983.
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Pte. Herbert John Ellams 3rd Btn. Middlesex Regiment (d.30th September 1915) Herbert Ellams was born 10th January 1895 in Acton son of John and Eliza Amelia Ellams. The 1911 census shows him living at 23 Steyne Road, he is a greengrocers assistant. On the 7th September 1914 he commenced employment with the Great Western Railway at Old Oak Common. He married Florence White at St Mary's Church on the 16th of December 1914, his marriage certificate describes him as an engine cleaner. It appears he resigned from his employment in December 1914.
He served with the 3rd Battalion Middlesex Regiment, arriving in France on the 18 May, 1915. He was killed in action on the 30th September 1915 (probably during the Battle of Loos), He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Loos Memorial, Pas de Calais, France. He is remembered on the War Memorial, St Mary's Church, Acton, London.
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Pte. Edward Turner 3rd Btn. Middlesex Regiment (d.13th March 1915) My Great grandfather Edward Turner was killed age 31. He was the husband of Jane Elizabeth Turner (nee Elvine), father of 7 children and son of Mr Turner of 42 Fredrick St St. John's Wood London. I still have his death penny.
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Pte. Frederick Hunt 3rd Btn. Middlesex Regiment (d.2nd July 1915) Fred Hunt served in the 3rd Battalion, Duke of Cambridge's Middlesex Regiment. He was killed in action on 2nd of July 1915 in Flanders.
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Pte. George William Carter 3rd Btn. Middlesex Regiment (d.1st July 1915) My Grandad's eldest brother, George Carter, died of wounds on 1st July 1915 and is buried at La Clytte in Belgium. Rest in peace George, the Family have always remembered your sacrifice.
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Pte. Harold Steele 3rd Btn. Middlesex Regiment (d.15th Feb 1915) Harold Steele is commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) memorial.
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Pte. Alfred John Day 3rd Btn. Middlesex Regiment (d.10th Feb 1915) Alfred Day had been serving in India for 3 years and 347 days when he came back to England on the 19th Nov 1914. After a Christmas in England he went with the British Expeditionary Force on the 18th Jan 1915 to France and was killed in action just 23 days later on the 10th Feb 1915 at France and Flanders. He was serving in 3rd Battalion, Middlesex Regiment. He is remembered on the Ypres Menin Gate Memorial.
He was the son of James and Rebecca Harriett Day, of 46A, Telford Rd., West Hendon, London.
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S/Sjt. William George Wiles 3rd Battalion Middlesex Regiment  I am led to believe that my great grandfather, William George Wiles enlisted into the Middlesex Regiment in 1907 and comparing the very limited information passed down to me about his service history with what I have researched about the regiment thus far, I think he probably served in the 3rd Battalion (Regulars) for the duration of the Great War. I am told the photograph was taken while he served in India with his battalion from 1911 until 1915 when he and the 3rd Battalion moved to the Western Front. However, the photograph shows him as a Serjeant which makes me question the India connection. By the end of the war he was a Staff Serjeant and like many servicemen received the 1914-15 Star alongside the British War Medal and the Allied Victory Medal which ties in with the deployment of the 3rd Battalion but I think the photo was probably taken sometime from the second half of the war when his battalion was in battle with the Bulgarians in Macedonia. I wish I knew more.
Editors Update: The rank badges in the photograph indicate he is a Staff Sergeant and he has three war service stripes on his cuff (one for each year served in the war) so it must have been taken in 1917 or later.
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Pte. Arthur George Joyce 3rd Battalion Middlesex Regiment (d.15th Feb 1915) Arthur George Joyce served with the 3rd Battalion Middlesex Regiment, he was aged 30 who died on 15th February 1915. He was born in Twickenham Middlesex in 1884, the son of Mr. and Mrs. H. Joyce of 4 Enmore Villas 4th Cross Road Twickenham Middlesex. He was the husband of Amy Ada Joyce (nee Bourne) of 118 The Crescent Monkton Jarrow. On the 1911 census Arthur George Joyce age 26 Jobbing Gardener is listed as living with his wife Amy Ada Joyce and children at 2 Albion Road, Twickenham . He enlisted in Richmond Surrey.
Arthur is remembered on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial.
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Pte. Francis George Vie 3rd Battalion Middlesex Regt (Cambridge's Own) (d.4th June 1915) My Great Grandad was Pvt G7541 Francis George Vie enlisted in Hounslow Middlesex. We know he was in the 3rd Battalion Middlesex Regt (Duke of Cambridge's Own). He was as far as we know a Coal man who having had his horse requisitioned for the war enlisted himself. All we know is that he was in France from 18/05/15 and was killed on 04/06/15 near Ypres. He is buried in Ridge Wood Cemetery.
As for any other detail we have nothing other than a few family tales and half remembered stories. The reason being that his newly wed bride who had recently given birth to my Grandad got rid of any photos medals etc etc.
Francis' family saw little of her after his death and she herself died when my Grandad was a young boy. My father found his younger brother still alive in the 80's and he was able to tell my Grandad more about his dad and told him that he was shot in the head after looking over the top of the trench. I have a feeling this is possibly what most relatives were told!
Unfortunately, my poor research skills have not been up to the task of finding anything more about the Battalion's movements and activities during his very brief time with them.
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