Over a year before Albert Mattley enlisted, both Bertie Farmer and Harry Partner had volunteered at Leicester and had been first posted to the 2nd/4th Leicesters. Their time in the second-line territorials was short as both were sent to France in a draft of reinforcements to the 1st/4th Leicesters.

Pte. Harry Partner's original army number was 3559, and Cpl. Bertie Farmer's was 3561. Close enough to make you think they were recruited together, but such are the vagaries of army numbering that it turns out that Bertie Farmer was the first to volunteer on 16/11/1914 at Leicester, while Harry Partner was to volunteer a week later on 23/11/1914, again at Leicester. Both men were transferred to the 1st/4th on 15th August 1915, just over a year since war had been declared, and in preparation for embarkation at Southampton on 19/08/1915, landing at Rouen on the 20th.

Bertie Farmer, a miner, gave his address as Battram Road in Ellistown when he volunteered, while his parental home was in Bagworth. Harry Partner, also a miner, gave his address as 6 Battram Road Ellistown, his family home. It's hard not to conclude they worked together and could have been good friends. I wonder if Bertie Farmer's decision to volunteer had finally persuaded Harry to do the same, hoping they might serve in the same unit, if not even the same section.

The history of the 1st/4th Leicesters is described in the book, “Footprints of the 1/4th Leicestershire Regiment: August 1914 to November 1918, by (Captain) John Milne”. Their disposition in the long years of the Great War mirrors that of the 1st/5th Leicesters, being in the same 138th Brigade.

Farmer and Partner were to join a battalion that had been thoroughly bloodied in the Ypres Salient and after a short breather at the end of September 1915 were to move south with the rumours of a battle to come. Their destination was Hohenzollern. The events of the 13th October 1915 are well documented elsewhere and the bland report in the War diary belies the scale of suffering:

The fact that both Bertie Farmer and Harry Partner were still alive after this seems remarkable. But while only fragments of Harry's service papers exist, there are more pages for Bertie Farmer and they offer an explanation. It was Bertie Farmer's good fortune to have been attached to the “no.9 Entrench Bn.” on 16/9/1915 and he did not rejoin the 4th Leicester until 15/10/1915, just a matter of days after the assault on the Hohenzollern Redoubt. Possibly Harry Partner was in the same position.

The 1st/4th Leicester were in sore need of reconstruction after this and the rumours of a move to Egypt via Marseilles which came at the end of 1915 must have been seen as a chance to escape the misery of the Western Front. But a last minute change of plans meant the 1st/4th Leicester were to remain in France after all.

Bertie Farmer gets his first promotion to L/Cpl on 5/02/1916. From early February to early May in 1916 the 4th Leicesters were opposite Vimy Ridge before moving to Monchy au Bois and then the Gommecourt sector in preparation for the 1st of July assault. The 4th Leicesters were to remain in reserve that day, while other battalions in the 46th Division were to suffer badly. This is not the place to re-tell this story, Alan MacDonald's website and books are what you should look at. The 4th Leicester movements on the Somme between July and November 1916 can be summarised as:

Bertie Farmer is out of the line for two weeks suffering with scabies in the summer of 1916. During the the long year of 1917 the 4th Leicesters were to return to Gommecourt, move to Lens, then St.Elei and finally Cambrin. In this year Bertie Farmer is awarded a good conduct badge on 2nd January, and just over twelve months after being on the Somme he gets 10 days leave on 13.8.1917, it was his last chance to go home.

You might think the year ends well for Bertie Farmer as he is promoted full Corporal on 7th November 1917, but sickness strikes again and at Christmas he passes down the evacuation chain from RMFA to CCS and finally to no.14 GH on the coast at Wimereux. After a matter of a few days he is moved a little down the coast to Boulonge and no.3 rest camp. With fresher air in his lugs and perhaps even a glimpse the Channel, there was brief chance to blot from his mind all that was hated about the trenches. Within 10 days Bertie Farmer is attached to a training battalion were he stays for next five months.

Without Harry Partner's papers, we can only speculate as to his progress through 1916 and 1917 and whether he came through those years unscathed. But he had remained with his battalion and in early 1918 they were in the Cambrin sector, an area of craters, tunnels and interconnecting trenches. About early May the 4th Leicesters simply says:

On the 4th of May 1917 , the 1st/4th Leicesters war diary entry reads:

Harry Partner is one of the two killed that day, his final resting place is the Fouquieres Churchyard Extension cemetery, gravestone I. 76. The cemetery contains the graves of many Territorial Soldiers, with 249 of them from the 46th (North Midland) Division. Harry's parents receive his personal effects in September 1918, and just over year later are asked to provide details of Harry's living relatives in order that that may receive his plaque and scroll. His mother Agnes takes the form to be countersigned at the Ellistown Vicarage. His medals will not arrive until 1920.

I can only speculate as to level of contact between Bertie and Harry since they had first volunteered in November 1914, and if, or when, news of Harry's death may have reached him. Bertie rejoined the 4th Leicesters 20/06/1918 where they were still in the same sector near Essars. The history mentions that lots of patrolling was done this month to put pressure on the enemy and this continued until the 20th, when it was noted that they were retiring in front of the Leicesters. Around this time, Bertie Farmer is killed in action on 16/08/1918, no incident is recorder in the battalion's war diary for this date. Like Harry Partner, his final resting place is the Fouquieres Churchyard Extension cemetery, gravestone IV. B. 14.

Now it's Bertie's parents who receive notification of the death of a son, and his personal effects on November 27th 1918. They have to perform the same task of taking the NOK form to the local vicarage, Bagworth in their case, which is completed by Bertie's father Albert on 1st September 1919. They receive Bertie's medals at the end of 1920.