Pte Lawrence Shadbolt, 2nd Battalion Essex Regiment - died 03/05/1917 in the Battle of Arras

[tashhh]

9 hours ago, WhiteStarLine said:

Hi Tash,

Here is all the data I think you need.  What a hero he was and it is great to see your persistence and that lovely photograph!

You did nothing wrong at all splitting this into threads - however, I had to go right back to first principles of where everyone was and I personally would have given up pulling from 3 separate threads.  Also I've edited my earlier post as once I went through the Brigade Operation Order position by position, your black cross and squiggly line was not relevant and neither was an entire paragraph of mine.

To keep the illustration uncluttered I've shown the same analysis on the Official History, a modern map and a 19 May 1917 trench map as the trenches had not changed in the last 14 or so days.  They advanced from left to right and the top line is the left hand boundary of A Company as they advanced towards Plouvain.  The April / May front line is a long dash with a single dot and the series of red dots were the new front line a few days after he was killed.  Image two shows the area they occupied more clearly.  The line at the bottom represents the right hand boundary of C Company.  Split the triangle into an upper and lower half yourself and the upper half is where Lawrence was.  The assault companies would have started from the front line itself and realistically he probably only lived long enough to last 3 or 400 metres.  The last map shows all named trenches.  His company would have been involved with fighting in Crook trench, particularly the part of the trench heading towards Curly.  He was nowhere near the railway line itself as the LF had one company either side.

Your notes are very comprehensive and I was able to use them to plot Division, Brigade and Battalion boundaries from the trench names you included. 

Cheers, Bill

 

Thank you so much for your kind words, it truly means a lot. I have thoroughly enjoyed researching his wartime activities. Having learned more about him, what he went through, and sadly, how he died, I feel closer and in awe of my very brave great-great-grandfather. This is only my second research on a soldier (the forum helped me tremendously with my great-grandfather Bertie, who though gassed, did survive the War), so I am a tad rusty with all of this. I certainly couldn't have done it without you guys!

 

Thank you for those maps and your clarification, I completely misunderstood the direction, I think! So, to confirm I have understood your description of their movements correctly, are my annotations below correct? Thank you so much for your help.

 

[WhiteStarLine]

Yes Tash, that's it.  Unless you find someone's memoirs, you probably won't get any further now, but you have narrowed down the last steps of a man well worthy of remembrance and you will be able to retrace his steps one day.  Here is a nice summary from the Official History: 

[tashhh]

15 hours ago, WhiteStarLine said:

Yes Tash, that's it.  Unless you find someone's memoirs, you probably won't get any further now, but you have narrowed down the last steps of a man well worthy of remembrance and you will be able to retrace his steps one day.  Here is a nice summary from the Official History: 

Thank you so much for your help, I will correct my maps and add them to my report on him, before sharing it with my Great Uncle (his grandson). It will be quite the privilege to visit Arras and walk along (assuming the farmer doesn't yell at me) the fields where he lost his life.

[tashhh]

16 hours ago, WhiteStarLine said:

Yes Tash, that's it.  Unless you find someone's memoirs, you probably won't get any further now, but you have narrowed down the last steps of a man well worthy of remembrance and you will be able to retrace his steps one day.  Here is a nice summary from the Official History: 

 

WhiteStarLine, if you have a spare few minutes, would it be possible for you to check the last few pages of my report, to confirm I have correctly marked the maps within it now? No problem if not, but it is worth an ask, given how helpful and knowledgeable you have been

Lawrence Shadbolt - updated.pdf

[tashhh]

Hi anyone,

I was hoping you might be able to check those maps at the end? I'd love to get this printed today and take to my mum in hospital for her to read, this evening.

 

Thanks in advance ☺️ 

 

Tash 

[WhiteStarLine]

Hi Tash,

My apologies - I read this and replied but somehow the reply got lost or I didn't click the Submit Reply button!  I wondered why you had sent me a PM and I should have checked.

The answer is that you have written a really good document and made some impressive 3D maps that show what he did.  Print it off and give it to her - she will be thrilled.  Over ten years ago, two of my grandfather's children were still alive and knew nothing of his Great War service because he never mentioned it.  I was able to show them where he served, what he actually did and thanks to Google StreetView, match some of the photographs he took with the modern scenery.

Well done!

Bill

[tashhh]

5 minutes ago, WhiteStarLine said:

Hi Tash,

My apologies - I read this and replied but somehow the reply got lost or I didn't click the Submit Reply button!  I wondered why you had sent me a PM and I should have checked.

The answer is that you have written a really good document and made some impressive 3D maps that show what he did.  Print it off and give it to her - she will be thrilled.  Over ten years ago, two of my grandfather's children were still alive and knew nothing of his Great War service because he never mentioned it.  I was able to show them where he served, what he actually did and thanks to Google StreetView, match some of the photographs he took with the modern scenery.

Well done!

Bill

Thank you for checking, and for all your help, WhiteStarLine! I thought you might be bogged down in the many pages of it, haha! My mum was unexpectedly taken to hospital with a burst appendix two days ago, so this will be perfect bedtime reading whilst she is stuck in there, as this was her mum's granddad 😁

 

That's wonderful that you were able to do the same. I think a lot of people do forget as time passes, or never knew enough and didn't have the means to research it as we can today. The folk on this forum have been a massive help, too, as I am new to this! 

I heard a phrase recently that you die twice in this life: once when your body dies, and once when it's the last time anybody says your name. I didn't want that for my relatives, I want them to be remembered as heroes 😊

 

I can't wait to visit Arras and where he fell, so I can pay my respects to him and all those who were lost.

 

Thank you again!!

[charlie962]

40 minutes ago, tashhh said:

didn't want that for my relatives, I want them to be remembered as heroes

Well done for the 'professional' way you have approached this research and ended up with a completed report. Not many of us get that far. White Star Line is the star with that mapping facility. 

Charlie

[tashhh]

24 minutes ago, charlie962 said:

Well done for the 'professional' way you have approached this research and ended up with a completed report. Not many of us get that far. White Star Line is the star with that mapping facility. 

Charlie

Thank you for the kind words 😊

 

You've all been fantastic with your contributions, this is such a wonderful forum.