Lest We Forget. This page has nothing to do with my Mallinder paternal line! Eugene was the first husband of my Grandmother (maternal side), Elizabeth Hannah Griffin; late McCarthy formerly Davidge. He was born at Pontlottyn, Glamorgan, Wales and killed in action during the First World War on 2nd October 1915 at the Battle of Loos. His rank was a Private in the Welsh Regiment; 1st Battalion that was attached to and remained with 84th Brigade in 28th Division.
Pontlottyn was well known for its neighbouring collieries which employed nearly the entire local population in the early 20th century. Eugene was working in one of these coal mines when he enlisted into the army during 1914; at Bargoed which was south of Pontlottyn connected by the railway line. Pontlottyn is located next to Abertysswg where my mother Kathleen Mallinder (nee. Griffin) was born in 1920. After enlisting in 1914 he would eventually have moved to Hursley Park near Winchester in Hampshire. His war record shows he landed in France on 18th January 1915.
August 1914 in Chakrata, India, part of Dehra Dun Brigade in Meerut Division.
Returned to England, landing at Plymouth on 22 December 1914. Moved to Hursley Park.
Then attached to and remained with 84th Brigade in 28th Division.
Landed at Le Havre 18 January 1915.
Embarked at Marseilles for Egypt and eventually Salonika, 24 November 1915.
Rank: Private, Regiment Number: 2699, Theatre of War served in: France, Date of Entry: 18th January 1915, KIA 2nd October 1915, Victory Medal: Roll J/1/104 B, Page 218, British Medal: Roll J/1/104 B, Page 218, Star Medal (1915): Roll J/1/B1, Page 55.
I have extracted this information from 1st Welch Regt Diary 1st to 20th October 1915 at the National Archives Catalogue Reference: WO/95/2277. This gives us an idea of how Eugene gave up his life. On October 1st 3 p.m the Battalion moved forward to attack LITTLE WILLIE. The attack took place at 8 p.m. The orders state, “ to take a trench called LITTLE WILLIE with fixed bayonet regardless of all costs.” The picture below indicates the location of "Little Willie"; on one side of the Hohenzollern Redoubt (marked Willie below), the other side of the Redoubt had a trench called Big Willie.
The Battle of Loos (25th September – 4th November 1915) was one of the first major British Offensives of the Great War. After the initial success of the first day of the battle in September a bloody stalemate ensued.
The 1st Battalion of the Welsh Regiment was to attack a trench called "Little Willie", adjacent to a strongpoint known as the Hohnzollern Redoubt, during the night of 1st October 1915. The attack began well with the Battalion getting to within 100 yards of their objective before being discovered.
‘Then from both flanks machine guns opened fire. The commanding officers voice rang out “forward the 41st, get at ‘em Welsh” In 20 seconds there were 250 men and a proportion of officers on the floor the remainder were in the trench bayoneting those in the trench and firing at the retreating Prussian Guards……………It was a gallant little affair.' (extracted from the War Diary of the Regiment).
The confusion brought about by the poor state of the trenches left the battalion cut off from food, water, ammunition and reinforcement. The battalion attempted to link their isolated position with the British line by digging towards the front line trenches. At one point the regimental history describes an incident where 14 men in succession were killed whilst attempting to continue trench digging in an exposed position, the area so small that only one person at a time could work. The battalion was under almost continual artillery fire and suffered numerous grenade attacks.
‘The whole night and morning was spent in bombing battles on each flank. The Welsh had the best of these battles wounding and taking prisoners – by 10 am the bombs were finished – the enemy’s supplies were unlimited. The situation was serious. Having no bombs the enemy moved up gradually from both flanks. The enemy opened up with a minenwerfer shell this is what the soldiers call “sausage up”. The shell, having reached the distance it is regulated for, drops down perpendicularly and can be seen all the way and can be dodged – the men were now so congested it was impossible to get out of the way. When one lands in a trench six men in the vicinity disappear.'
On 2nd October 1915, 96 men from the 1st Welch were killed in action including Eugene.
The diary goes on to say that, ‘These operations were carried out with tired troops who had been in the trenches and moving from one position to another as reserve troops for eight days and eight nights’. All officers behaved magnificently but the casualties were very severe 370 N.C.O.’s and men along with 15 officers.
On the 3rd of October the 1st Welsh were relieved and moved back to Vermelles after being without food or water for 48 hours. The attack failed to meet any of its key objectives.
On Friday 10th July 2009, Nicholas Dowling (my eldest nephew) and I visited the Loos memorial to honour Eugene McCarthy. We took with us Eugene's first world war medals that would have been sent to his wife (my maternal grandmother) after his death.
The video was taken at the Loos memorial viewing point. This memorial is positioned just behind the WW1 German front-line and is known as Dud Corner. The video looks out over the killing fields, a vast flat area where the Battle of Loos was fought.
Dud Corner Cemetery stands almost on the site of a German strong point, the Lens Road Redoubt, captured by the 15th (Scottish) Division on the first day of the battle. The name "Dud Corner" is believed to be due to the large number of unexploded enemy shells found in the neighbourhood after the Armistice. The Loos Memorial forms the sides and back of Dud Corner Cemetery, and commemorates over 20,000 officers and men who have no known grave, who fell in the area from the River Lys to the old southern boundary of the First Army, east and west of Grenay. On either side of the cemetery is a wall 15 feet high, to which are fixed tablets on which are carved the names of those commemorated. At the back are four small circular courts, open to the sky, in which the lines of tablets are continued, and between these courts are three semicircular walls or apses, two of which carry tablets, while on the centre apse is erected the Cross of Sacrifice. The memorial was designed by Sir Herbert Baker with sculpture by Charles Wheeler. It was unveiled by Sir Nevil Macready on 4 August 1930.
The video was taken at the Loos memorial viewing point. The video pans from the “Double Crassier” (behind German lines), along the Lens Road Redoubt in the direction of Bethune, taking in Fosse 7 (behind allied lines) and ending up looking toward the Hohenzollern Redoubt (behind German lines) where Eugene died. Note that “Fosse” is what the Welsh miners would have called a “slag heap” that was created from coal mining. The “Double Crassier” is nothing more than two slag heaps left over from coal mining. Eugene would have seen these. This whole area prior to the first world war was being mined for coal, welcome home Eugene!!! Since the discovery of coal in the nineteenth century, the area west of La Basee had become home to a number of collieries, known as Fosses. Mining villages, composed of a mixture of pithead buildings and poorly built houses, soon appeared. As work continued underground huge slagheaps sprung up, dominating the skyline. Meanwhile, farmers continued to till the soil on the unaffected areas. It was the terrain that formed the battlefields for Eugene.
The video was taken at the Hohenzollern Redoubt looking out toward Fosse 7 in the allied lines. The German main line crossed the track, from left to right, in 1915. The power lines are going toward Vermelles. Between the 28th September 1915 and 30 October 1915 the Redoubt was the scene of continuous fighting, typified by fierce bombing contests and incessant shelling. Eventually the Germans regained the Redoubt, bombing their way along the Little Willie Trench where Eugene would have died. On the 1st October 1915 the 1st Welch managed to enter the Little Willie Trench, only to find themselves isolated. They were forced to evacuate Little Willie the following afternoon on October 2nd 1915, the date of Eugene's death. An attempt by the 1st Suffolks on the night of October 2nd 1915 was a disaster, no one managed to reach the trench. Both Nicholas and myself were deeply moved by this experience and we found wild poppies growing in the fields. Eugene had come all the way from one mining village in Wales to another mining village in France where his life ended.
The video was taken at the Loos memorial. His name is one among 20,000 other allied soldiers who died on this small piece of land. The grave stones mainly have no names, they just hold remains of the unknown. In 1915 there were no “dog tags” carried by the soldiers and therefore it was difficult to identify any remains. I feel very privileged to have had this day with my nephew Nicholas and shared so much together in honouring Eugene McCarthy. My cousin Josie shared this with me: “Elizabeth told me about the trip you made to France to visit Eugene McCarthy's grave, with Nicholas. I'm sure such an act honours the infinite preciousness of an individual's life as well as being a significant gesture in terms of both restoration and reconciliation within our family history. It is even more emotive when one considers that, Eugene's departure (in both senses of the word) indirectly contributed to our own existence!”