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Pte. Thomas Martin
British Army 14th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles
from:314 Springfield Road, Belfast, Northern Ireland
(d.6 May 1916)
This story was given to me by Mark Scott and involves an incident which took place on the night of 5th May 1916 in Hamel, Thievpal Wood and the 'Sunken Road' near Authuile, Somme, France. My great Uncle, Tom Martin, was one of the men killed. He is buried in Authuile Cemetery.
"A few months ago I was handed a diary by a relative which had belonged to my Great Grandfather, Company Serjeant Major James Scott of the 14th Royal Irish Rifles who was killed in action at Messines in January 1917. When I say 'diary' I mean a pre-printed 1916 pocket diary similar to what we would buy today only with a military slant. For instance maps of France, morse code, semaphore diagrams and general 'field craft' aide memoirs. It then had the usual day/date sections to be written in by the owner. James had not filled it in on a daily basis, in fact only six pages had been written on. The first of these pages was headed "Killed on the night of 5th May Authuile Nr. Martinsart." There was then a list of 10 names. The other pages contained surnames and addresses around Belfast.
I decided to investigate what had happened on the night of 5th May on the assumption that these were my Grandfathers' men. The addresses had ticks or crosses added beside them and at first I could not work out why but I now know that James was granted home leave in October/November 1916 and I now believe that he visited these addresses, and those ticked he got to visit, those with crosses he didn't or couldn't before returning to the front and his death a few months later. Looking back down the years, and with not much left to give us the character of the man, It gives me a good feeling to know that for whatever reason he noted down the names in the book with the intention perhaps of visiting the next of kin of his platoon who had fallen. At the end of the day, he didn't have to write anything at all. Unfortunately James couldn't finish the job.
I now know that on the night of 5th May 1916 the Battalion were holding the front line at Thiepval Wood, Somme in France. They were warned to 'stand to' as the Battalion on their right flank, the 15th Lancashire Fusiliers, had planned to carry out a raid on the German lines opposite and they wanted the Rifles to be at the ready in support if required. On the stroke of midnight a British bombardment opened up on the German lines, ahead of the raiding party. In retaliation, about 20 minutes later, the German artillery bombarded the R.I.R. lines thinking that this was where the then anticipated raid would come from. As a result a trench collapsed and the men manning it were buried alive. The remaining men struggled for hours in attempting to dig out those buried as a result 10 men were killed there and then and around 20 wounded with a few more dying of wounds and injuries at later dates. Five men were awarded the Military Medal for their actions and gallantry that night in trying to free their colleagues while under bombardment and machine-gun fire from the enemy lines. The result being the line of graves at Authuile Cemetery (all of the men killed that night are buried in a row alongside each other)."
