Remembered on GWF

[Terry Denham]

Here is today's casualty....

Pte Martin TEW

17863 6 Bn, Northamptonshire Regt

who died aged 30 on 23.03.18

Pozieres Memorial, France

[Will O'Brien]

As per the CWGC

Name: TEW, MARTIN

Initials: M

Nationality: United Kingdom

Rank: Private

Regiment: Northamptonshire Regiment

Unit Text: 6th Bn.

Age: 30

Date of Death: 23/03/1918

Service No: 17863

Additional information: Son of Mrs. S. Tew, of 57, Palk Rd., Wellingborough; husband of Ethel M. E. Tew, of 129, Newcomen Rd., Wellingborough, Northants.

Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead

Grave/Memorial Reference: Panel 54 to 56.

Cemetery: POZIERES MEMORIAL

[Will O'Brien]

& the memorial info

Cemetery: POZIERES MEMORIAL

Country: France

Locality: Somme

Location Information: Pozieres is a village 6 kilometres north-east of the town of Albert. The Memorial encloses Pozieres British Cemetery which is a little south-west of the village on the north side of the main road, D929, from Albert to Pozieres. On the road frontage is an open arcade terminated by small buildings and broken in the middle by the entrance and gates. Along the sides and the back, stone tablets are fixed in the stone rubble walls bearing the names of the dead grouped under their Regiments. It should be added that, although the memorial stands in a cemetery of largely Australian graves, it does not bear any Australian names. The Australian soldiers who fell in France and whose graves are not known are commemorated on the National Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux.

Historical Information: The POZIERES MEMORIAL relates to the period of crisis in March and April 1918 when the Allied Fifth Army was driven back by overwhelming numbers across the former Somme battlefields, and the months that followed before the Advance to Victory, which began on 8 August 1918. The Memorial commemorates over 14,000 casualties of the United Kingdom and 300 of the South African Forces who have no known grave and who died on the Somme from 21 March to 7 August 1918. The Corps and Regiments most largely represented are The Rifle Brigade with over 600 names, The Durham Light Infantry with approximately 600 names, the Machine Gun Corps with over 500, The Manchester Regiment with approximately 500 and The Royal Horse and Royal Field Artillery with over 400 names. The memorial encloses POZIERES BRITISH CEMETERY, Plot II of which contains original burials of 1916, 1917 and 1918, carried out by fighting units and field ambulances. The remaining plots were made after the Armistice when graves were brought in from the battlefields immediately surrounding the cemetery, the majority of them of soldiers who died in the Autumn of 1916 during the latter stages of the Battle of the Somme, but a few represent the fighting in August 1918. There are now 2,755 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in this cemetery. 1,375 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to 23 casualties known or believed to be buried among them. The cemetery and memorial were designed by W H Cowlishaw.

No. of Identified Casualties: 14651

[Will O'Brien]

Martin Tew's online MIC index entry can be seen here

[Will O'Brien]

Martin Tew is listed on the Wellingborough war memorial..................he's in good company as so is Edward Mannock VC DSO & 2 Bars MC & Bar...............Britain's highest scoring fighter ace of the Great War who lived in the town circa 1911-1912

[Myrtle]

SDGW

Born: Rushden, Northants

En: Wellingborough, Northants

KiA

1901 census: 12 years old born: Rushden. Res: Wellingborough

[steve fuller]

Martin would have been holding the line at the Crozat Canal around Mennessis from early in the morning until midday on the 23rd, when the 54th Brigade was ordered to withdraw to the ridge East of Faillouel, as they were in danger of being surrounded. French shelling forced their withdrawal through the village, where they discovered the Germans were already there, and had to fight their way through.

The hottest action of the day for the Northants would have been at the Montagne Bridge in the Mennessis area, where (amongst other events) Lt Herring won a VC. Their 'highest casualties' for that day were recieved whilst A,C and D Co's of the Northants retook the bridge with C Company of the 7th Beds.

The Northants and Bedfords lost around 200 soldiers each that day, but the 11th Royal Fusiliers only mustered 26 at the end of the 23rd March, after their engagements on the Brigade's open flank in the fog that day.

The 54th Brigade conducted a coherent, fighting withdrawal and ended up on the South bank of The Oise by the 24th March, and under French leadership for a while. Most of the Brigade that fell that day have no known grave and are remembered on the Pozieres Memorial.