Burial location

[Daveleic]

I’ve just read of the death of Major Edwin Lewis of 6th South Staffords, in an account of the Battle of Bellenglise. I assumed that this was during the assault on 29/9/1918. The book says he was killed by a shell. I find on the CWGC website that he died of wounds on 30/9 and lies in Brie cemetery, between Amiens and St Quentin. Does it seem reasonable to assume that he was therefore severly wounded on 29/9 and that he was presumably being evacuated to a base hospital when he died, and that this is why he is buried at Brie?

[laughton]

Sounds correct as the Brie British Cemetery was the site for the 5th, 47th and 48th Casualty Clearing Stations and he was not a concentration. I suspect that he died at one of those Casualty Clearing Stations in the area. The 1st/6th was at Jeancourt (62c.L.26 McMaster Map Longavesnes) from the 25th to 29th of the month (war diary page 427 of 449). They relieved the 1st/5th Leicestershire Regiment on the 27th and moved into position for the attack on the St Quentin Canal and Bellenglise (62b.G.34 McMaster Map Bellicourt) on the 28th. The crossed the canal and captured the Hindenburg Line and the village on the 29th. The war diary does confirm that Lewis died of wounds (page 428 of 449) but it does not give a date. There was some action with casualties on the 24th as well during the attack on Pontreut. Odd they do not mention him by name in the war diary.

 

Sounds like a case where you will get more information from the Officers Files. I don't have access to those here in Canada! A GWF Pal usually takes over at that time.

 

Cheers from across the pond,

Richard

 

 

Edited 2 August , 2018 by laughton

[Daveleic]

Thank you, Richard, for your very helpful reply. It does sound very likely that he died at a CCS at Brie. I had got the impression from the book that I was reading that he would have been killed outright near Bellenglise. I suppose there must be a great many fallen who were buried in similar circumstances, some way from where they were wounded. 

[laughton]

My pleasure. Our Canadian lads were further to the north crossing the Canal du Nord at Cambrai at that time, on the right flank of the British 11th Division. As I progress with my knowledge of the Great War, I am slowly getting a better perspective of the complete allied force in action, rather than just the Canadians.

 

A thought had crossed my mind that perhaps Major Lewis had been wounded even earlier in the month, as the war diary only says DOW in September. I read a number of other accounts, including a good one here on the GWF:

 

bellenglise september/october 1918

 

There Roy has quoted from his book, which in part says:

Quote

The Staffords pressed on with their attack towards the next lines of defence which they overcame with equal determination and here at between 9.30 and 10.00 a.m. they halted and allowed the 138th and 139th Division men to pass through in accordance with operation orders.

Major Edwin Lewis died of wounds received in this attack. The only son of Mr Rowland Lewis J.P. of Penn, Wolverhampton, after being educated at Repton he had joined the Territorial battalion some ten years earlier. He embarked upon active service with them when they first went to France in 1915, subsequently being promoted to the rank of Major. In civilian life Edwin Lewis had been running his family firm of Edwin Lewis and Sons Ltd., of Ettingshall. Having previously been severely wounded whilst acting second in command in 1917, Major Lewis died aged 36 on the 30th September 1918 and is buried in Brie British Cemetery, France.

 

Good news that there was also the link to the historic and downloadable book from Archive.org:

 

Breaking the Hindenburg line : the story of the 46th (North Midland) Division / with an introduction by G. F. Boyd

 

page 51:

Quote

The attack was carried out on a three-battalion front, the i/6th South Staffords being on the right, the i/5th South Staffords in the centre, and the i/6th North Staffords on the left. All three battalions reached the west bank of the Canal without too much difficulty, though here and there individual companies were held up by machine- gun posts and opportunity was thus given for the display of initiative by officers and N.C.O.s in overcoming these obstacles. The experiences of the different battalions at the Canal and beyond it, however, differ to such a marked extent that a clearer view of the action can be obtained if their adventures are considered separately and in detail.

 

page 58:

Quote

Perhaps the most dramatic scenes of the attack on the Canal occurred on the front attacked by the left battalion, the i/6th North Staffords. This battalion was given a frontage of attack of 800 yards, and formed up with two companies in line and two in support. It was known to the staff that the Riqueval Bridge on the left of the battalion objective was the main artery of supply for the German troops on the west side of the Canal and that this bridge had remained undestroyed up to the previous evening. There was therefore a possible chance of the bridge being seized intact, and Captain A. H. Charlton with his company were detailed to attempt its capture. This officer led his company by compass bearing towards the bridge, but when descending the ravine leading towards it was held up by machine- gun fire from a trench defending the approach to the bridge. Captain Charlton, realizing the urgency of the situation, took forward a party of nine men, captured the gun, killing all the crew with the bayonet, and then rushed the bridge. The sentries on the bridge and the pioneers who had been detailed to blow it up had been forced to take shelter from our bombardment, but seeing our men approaching rushed out to fire the charges. A race ensued, which was won by the assaulting troops, the nearest N.C.O. shooting all four of the Germans, while the officer seized the leads, cut them, and threw the charges into the Canal. Sentries were then posted on the bridge, and the whole of the company stormed across and mopped up the trenches and enemy posts on the east side of the Canal.

 

There is no mention of Major Edwin Lewis.

 

From what I have been able to discern from a number of similar cases is that if the man is marked as "Died of Wounds" then he had made it to a Field Ambulance or Casualty Clearing Station. If he died on the battlefield, whether instantly or in minutes, he was reported as "Killed in Action". I expect there are exceptions to that situation.

[Daveleic]

Thanks for the links and other info, Richard. I find this an especially interesting period in the war. 

I know that information in contemporary documentation can sometimes be confusing or lacking. One of my relatives killed in the Battle of St Quentin (British Tank Corps supporting the Australians) is documented as “wounded” by the battalion war history but he was in fact killed in action (probably blown up and/or burnt beyond recognition) on the battlefield and his body never identified.