Abstract: His Au Revoir to the trenches [photo] -- A wounded Anzac's romance [photo's] -- Have our pilots been murdered? --  Relief expedition to the antarctic -- Every-day articles that cost much more -- What about the married man's home? --  British capture 600 yards of German trenches -- United as one -- The chances of invasion -- Echoes of the town -- Not to be seen on the London stage [photo's] -- What women are doing -- Jimmy Wilde's K.O. -- Air M.P. talks of "dud" machines -- The love cheat.  photo's. 

Old Bradfordians—’We will remember them’:
GEORGE NORMAN TAPP - 28th March 1916

Second Lieutenant, 14th Battalion Cheshire
Regiment, attached 2nd Battalion King’s
Own Yorkshire Light Infantry.  George Norman
Tapp was born in Bradford in 1887, the only son of
Henry Dawes Tapp and Sarah Kate Onions.  They
also had a daughter, Frances Muriel.  Henry and his
younger brother Clement were printers and partners
in Tapp and Toothill, a successful company of stationers,
printers and office furnishers with a substantial
print-works in Stanningley (now the site of a Morrisons),
and shops in Bradford, Leeds, and London. 
Sarah was the daughter of an Independent Minister
and eleven years older than Henry.  She married in
her mid-thirties after teaching at her mother’s school
for ladies.  Norman attended Bradford Grammar
School from 1897 until 1903, leaving aged fifteen. 
In his final year, he was in the Commercial and Civil
Service Form, winning the Form Prize.  His strengths
were French, Science and Arithmetic (he came 1st,
2nd and 3rd respectively). 
After school, Norman joined the family firm and at
the time of the 1911 census was managing the office
furniture department.  Doubtless in time he would
have succeeded his father as managing director.  By
this time the family lived at Springfield Hall, Hightown,
Liversedge.  Norman was involved at the very
beginning of the Boy Scout movement.  LieutenantGeneral
Baden-Powell held his first camp on Brownsea
Island, Dorset in 1907.  In July that year, a lad
named Harry Rayner from Hightown called on Norman,
now 19, to request his help to found a Scout
Patrol.  Tapp also became scoutmaster of a second
Patrol at Dewsbury.  These provided opportunities for
boys of diverse social and educational backgrounds. 
When war broke out Tapp was quick to volunteer. 
Disappointed to be posted to the Army Service
Corps, in September he transferred to the ‘Leeds
Pals’, the 15th West Yorkshire Regiment.  In December,
while training at Colsterdale Camp, Ripon, he
stepped on a broken bottle.  Infection set in and he
became dangerously ill, requiring treatment at the
Royal Military Hospital, Beckets Park, Leeds.  In the
era before anti-biotics, it was feared he would die,
but he recovered and applied for a commission.  Although
lacking military training perhaps his scouting
experience qualified him to be an officer.  On 8th July
1915 he was appointed Second Lieutenant in the
14th Cheshire Regiment, a reserve battalion training
at Rhyl in North Wales.  Tapp was subsequently attached
to the 2nd Battalion King’s Own Yorkshire
Light Infantry, and landed in France on 12th March
The 18th March was, according to the battalion War
Diary, a ‘Quiet day, except for the normal rifle grenades
and the occasional “oil cans.” [ discharged from
German trench mortars] At 10pm 2nd Lieut.  G.N.Tapp
was wounded in the foot by an “oil can”.  L/Cpl Sellars
was badly wounded at the same time and … died of
wounds.’  Tapp’s own letter home related, ‘I was going
along a trench with L/Cpl Sellars when an “Oil can”,
about a dozen yards in front of us, burst in the trench. 
These things are very big and travel slowly, so we
saw it falling and had time to run back a few yards
before throwing ourselves on our faces.  Then the
thing burst, and we were covered with earth and
sandbags.  Poor Sellars, being behind got the worst of
it ... It was sometime before I could extricate myself. 
There was nobody anywhere, about, and I dare not
shout, lest the Germans might hear and knowing they
had made a hit, send another one in the same place...
so we had to wait until someone came, which they did
after a time.  They sent for a stretcher-bearer for
Sellars, and helped me back to the dug out, where I
found that a fragment had cut through the sole of my
boot!’  Infection again set in and on 28th March Tapp
died at 56th (South Midland) Casualty Clearing Station. 
He was buried at the St Pierre Cemetery, Amiens. 
The telegram announcing the news precipitated
his mother’s death.  Henry sold up Springfield Hall and
moved to East Keswick. 

Jesse Eugene Wallis was born in December 1896 and lived in Alwalton near Peterborough.  He arrived at Laxton Grammar School in September 1908 at the age of 11, leaving six years later on the eve of war in the summer of 1914.  He won a school prize on Laxton Speech Day 1910.  After leaving school, he became a student teacher at Fletton Secondary School in Peterborough, before moving down to London to study at the Chelsea Training College.  In January 1916, he enlisted as a private in the London Scottish Regiment. 

He was killed in France on 28th March 1917.  He was probably one of 15 men from the London Scottish Regiment killed by German shell-fire that day, as his company moved forward from the village of Agny, near Arras, towards the new Hindenburg Line, which the Germans had retreated to a few weeks earlier.  He is buried in Agny Military Cemetery.  The cemetery holds over 400 British dead from the War and was one of the cemeteries designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens. 

This record has not been digitised and cannot be downloaded.  You can order records in advance to be ready for you when you visit Kew.  You will need a reader's ticket to do this.  Or, you can request a quotation for a copy to be sent to you. 

A few weeks back, while chatting about a Russian offensive on the Caucasian Front (16 February, 1916: The Walrus in Winter), I mentioned operations along the Black Sea coast.  It occurred to me then that I hadn’t been giving the Black Sea the attention it deserved, given that it was a war zone from the autumn of 1914 until after Russia’s October Revolution in 1917 – so I’ve been looking for an excuse to get back there, and here it is. 

On 28 March 1916, Russian torpedo boats in the Black Sea destroyed a Turkish munitions depot and ten merchant ships (most of them sailing craft).  Though this was a bumper haul and received some publicity in the Allied press, it had no great significance for either the Black Sea or the War in general, but it does sum up the first 18 months of the campaign quite nicely.  I’ll try and do the same. 

I’ll start with why the Black Sea was a war zone, and a map (stolen, and used before) makes it fairly obvious. 

Ottoman-Empires-rail-system-1914-1024x890The Russian and Ottoman Empires had been competing for decades to control the Caucasus region, and Russia’s ultimate territorial fantasy had long been to break into the Mediterranean by seizing the Dardanelles Straits, so the Black Sea was a natural area of contest and both sides had plans for a naval campaign before 1914. 

They were modest plans.  The Turkish Navy had been undergoing rapid expansion, but was still desperately short of modern warships and could barely cover its commitments in the Mediterranean, while the bigger, more modern Russian Navy was primarily concerned with defending St. Petersburg from German warships in the Baltic.  Both sides therefore envisaged an essentially defensive campaign in the secondary theatre of the Black Sea, focused on disrupting the other’s supply routes, and the Russians expected – with some justification – to dominate proceedings. 

Russian prospects looked even better when, on the outbreak of war in August 1914, the British government decided to hold on to the two modern dreadnoughts it was building for Turkey – but a few days later the Turkish Navy suddenly acquired two modern German warships, the battlecruiser Goeben and the light cruiser Breslau.  They weren’t as big, powerful or deterrent as dreadnoughts, but once renamed (as the Yaviz Sultan Selim and the Midilli) and deployed in the Black Sea they were the fastest ships in the theatre, and only Russia’s five slow, pre-dreadnought battleships could match the Goeben‘s firepower. 

The captain of the Goeben, Wilhelm Souchon, was nominally under Turkish command but – like ‘military advisers’ as we know them today – was actually working for Berlin and committed to pursuing German strategic interests.  In control of what was, for now, the region’s ultimate deterrent, its big guns an obvious threat to Constantinople, he enjoyed considerable autonomy and exerted an understandably powerful influence on Ottoman naval policy.  Once Turkey was committed to joining the Central Powers, at the end of October 1914, Souchon’s priority was distraction of Russian forces from other fronts, and he secured navy minister Djemal Pasha’s agreement to announce Turkey’s belligerent status by leading a surprise raid on the Russian naval bases at Odessa and Sevastopol. 

The attack failed to do any lasting damage to ships or facilities, but it did convince the Russians to deploy their old battleships as a defensive unit.  During the next few months they operated only as a group and, apart from an inconclusive, 14-minute skirmish in November, the threat of their combined guns was enough to keep Goeben at bay.  Major warships on the both sides undertook occasional sorties as coastal raiders or escorts, but avoided each other, and the campaign quickly developed a pattern similar to that emerging in the Baltic.  Largely fought by small craft, it centred on disruption of enemy supply lines with minefields, backed by nuisance attacks on enemy coastal installations or harbours. 

With more ships, better ships and better crews (their training much improved since a lousy performance against Japan in 1904–05), the Russians held the advantage from the start.  They had already laid more than 4,000 mines in the Black Sea by Boxing Day 1914, when the Goeben hit two of them and suffered serious damage.  The Ottoman Empire didn’t have a shipyard big enough to handle the Goeben, so repairs took months rather than weeks.  Although able to limp out for brief escort missions in February and March, by way of keeping the Russian fleet cautious, the battlecruiser was not fully operational until May 1915, and by then nothing an increasingly frustrated Souchon could do was going to shake Russian dominance. 

Most Russian minelaying and commerce raiding – by destroyers, submarines and torpedo boats – was concentrated on the port of Zonguldak, some 200km east of the Bosphorus and the sole entry point for vital Turkish coal imports.  By the middle of the year the Turks had lost dozens of colliers, and before its end coal supplies had been effectively throttled, creating fuel shortages all across an Ottoman war effort heavily distracted by the demands on land and sea of the Gallipoli campaign. 

While Russian strength was steadily reinforced by new destroyers and submarines, and Russian raids on the Turkish coast were a regular occurrence throughout 1915, the Turkish Navy lost a cruiser during its only coastal raid of the year, in April, and lost the Breslau for seven months after it hit a mine off Constantinople in July.  The first of Russia’s new dreadnoughts, the Imperatrica Maria, reached the Black Sea at about the same time, and in theory its arrival cemented Russian dominance of the theatre – but in practice it made little difference at first. 

Like its counterparts all over the world, the Russian Navy didn’t like taking risks with dreadnoughts, or for that matter with any other big, expensive ships.  Although Berlin ignored most of Souchon’s incessant calls for reinforcements in the Black Sea, two German U-boats had been sent there in the early summer, and the threat was enough to prompt a Russian ban on all offensive operations by major units from June.  With more U-boats expected (six had arrived by March 1916) the ban stayed in force until October, and when Russian offensive patrols resumed they took few risks. 

The arrival of the second Russian dreadnought, Imperatrica Ekaterina II, in December didn’t immediately change anything.  With the blockade of Turkish coal supplies running smoothly, and the Ottoman Navy less and less of an offensive threat, the campaign was still dominated by the ‘mosquito’ warfare of smaller craft into early 1916 – but by March the Russian Black Sea fleet was in the process of finding a new role.  On 4 March, Russian fleet units supported troop landings on the Black Sea coast at Atna, and in April they would perform the same task on a larger scale as General Yudenich took the major port city of Trabzon. 

In a theatre complicated by Bulgaria’s alliance with Central Powers in late 1915 and Romania’s in mid-1916, the minelaying and raiding of commerce war would continue and intensify, but from now on the Russian fleet would also perform an important army support role, transporting and landing thousands of troops during the next two years.  The turkey shoot enjoyed by Russian torpedo boats in late March was just a small propaganda event at the time, but with hindsight it was the firework display that marked the end of the campaign’s first phase. 

I’ll finish with a tease of a ‘what if’.  In May 1915, just before fear of U-boats triggered a burst of caution, the Russian high command toyed with sending the Black Sea fleet into the Bosphorus to support the Anglo-French attack on the Dardanelles.  The idea was soon dropped (as unlikely to make much difference to the disaster brewing on Gallipoli), but if imagining where we’d be with a different history floats your boat, have fun picturing the twentieth century with Russian warships all over the Mediterranean. 

March 1917
Wednesday 28
Fine day.  Down to
office.  Down to Kuripuni &
saw P Lett re selling his
house in Bentley Str [Street].  Agreed
to sell at £ 800.  Arranged
to show Keen over it during
the afternoon.  Went round with
the latter for about an hour &
had a look at several places
finishing up at Lett’s.  Keen
arranged to take Mrs Keen
to see the latter. 
At night I cut wood & sol-
dered our enamel bath
making a fair job of the
latter by inserting some gal
vanised iron into the hole in
the bath & then soldering it on
both sides. 
War news state German sub
marines sunk the hospital
ship Asturias, about 45
people being drowned. 

Wed 28 Mar 1917 - Got up at 5 am.  Went on deck & had wash & smoke & turned in again at 6.  Got up at 6.30 for breakfast & then got away on deck ready to disembark.  Tended came alongside at 8 am & J Coy was first to board her at 8.30.  About 9.15 she left the Waitemate for the docks.  It was a five min run.  We landed on the Quay & embarked by train straight away for Salisbury.  We was told it was a three hour run but we was eight hours getting there, The train went very fast at times but on the whole very slow, The scenery was lovely all the old fashioned villages & towers & fields.  We passed fields that were absolutely brick red & we also passed a back train about every 20 mins.  At ……….we got tea & a large bun each from the Mayor & Mayoresses fund & also two tins of bully beef & a dozen biscuits per carriage of six men.  I bought pack of cards.  On arrival near camp we saw 13 aeroplanes doing manoeuvres.  We had to carry our kits about two miles to huts in the N.Z. camp.  They are good huts a fireplace in each.  I never got a paliass so I got some blankets to sleep on as there was about 30 extra ones in the hut.  We had tea soon after arrival boiled rice. 

Wet canteen here.  I bought 3/- worth of cigarettes.  Woodbines & Golden Flake & they are 5d.  for tin lollies are dearer here than in N.Z.

Mr. GILBERT asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department the number of neutrals and their nationality residing in this country on 28th February this year; and can he say how many of the males are of military age? 

Sir G. CAVE The latest figures available show that there are about 52,000 aliens of neutral nationality residing in this country, of whom 43,000 are males and 9,000 females.  If the hon.  Member desires to have the figures of any particular nationality I shall be happy to furnish them; but I am unable to state how many of the males are of military age. 

The late Lieutenant-Colonel M. J. Whitty, M.D., who died recently in Liverpool, was born in Carrick-on-Suir about 54 years ago.  He was a brother of the late Dr. P. J. Whitty, who was one of the best known and most respected medical men in Waterford a quarter of a century ago, and of Mrs. Cleary, Carrick-on-Suir.  Two other brothers of the deceased joined the Church, and one of them was a very popular member of the Vincentian Order and was stationed at Castleknock for some years.  The late Lieutenant-Colonel Whitty studied medicine first at the Queen’s College, Cork, and took out his M.D. degree in Dublin.  He joined the R.A.M.C. at the age of 23, and saw service in Hong Kong, Capetown, and Egypt and was for a number of years stationed at the military barracks at Cahir, where he was very popular.  For some years past he was stationed at Liverpool, and his name appeared a short time ago in the ” Gazette” among those who had done valuable service during the war.  Deceased was a gentleman of a very quiet and unassuming disposition.  and his skill as a medical man and thorough devotion to duty won for him the respect and esteem of all who knew him.  He had five sons, four of whom have been in the war.  One of them, who got the Military Cross, was killed in action. 

DEATH OF LIEUTENANT-COLONEL M.J. WHITTY. -  Lieutenant-Colonel Michael Joseph Whitty, M.D., R.A.M.C., who died on Wednesday at his residence, Percy-street, Liverpool, was a native of county Waterford, and was educated at Castleknock College, Cork, he joined the R.A.M.C. at the age of twenty-three, putting in service in Ireland, Cape Town, Hong Kong, and Egypt.  Since the war began he acted as medical inspector of recruits in the Western Command.  He had been a number of years stationed in Liverpool, and was a familiar figure at the Old Haymarket Recruiting Depot.  His name recently appeared in the “Gazette” among those who had done valuable service during the war. 

He was of a quiet and unassuming disposition, and came of an old Irish stock, hailing from a part of Ireland which has given many brilliant men to the Army.  He had five sons, four of whom have been in the present war.  One, who belonged to the Royal Flying Corps, was killed in action in July, 1916.  Another, who has been the recipient of the Military Cross, is attached to the Machine Gun Section of the Royal Irish Regiment.  He has seen much stiff service in the Salonika campaign.  A third son just reached Liverpool from the Somme three hours before his father’s death. 

The funeral takes place to-morrow at the roman Catholic Cemetery, Yew Tree, preceded by a service at St.Philip Neri’s Church. 

When Ezra Pound contacted Joyce for the first time in December 1913, he claimed to work on behalf of four magazines, two in England and two in the US.  The two US magazines he mentioned were the Smart Set and Poetry in both of which works by Joyce were later published.  However, it was only in 1917 the Pound became foreign editor of the Little Review, a magazine that was to become synonymous with the publication of Ulysses. 

The Little Review was founded by Margaret Anderson in Chicago in 1914 and later moved to New York.  When Ezra Pound became its foreign editor one of his chief aims was to use the Little Review as a vehicle for Joyce’s writing.  In his letter of 28 March 1917, Pound appealed to Joyce to find “SOMETHING” that he could publish in the Little Review.  He told Joyce that the Little Review had 3000 readers and that it would be important for Joyce to be in touch with them. 

Pound wrote that he didn’t want to interfere with Joyce’s work on “Odysseus,” as he called it, but hoped he would find some short pieces somewhere that could be offered to the Little Review.  Desperate that there should be something, Pound even suggested that if Joyce has absolutely nothing for publication, that he might write a note saying that he had nothing at the moment because of his poor eyesight and promising something for the future. 

Joyce replied to Pound on 9 April to say that he really didn’t have anything that he could publish.  He had the “Hamlet” chapter of Ulysses but he felt it could not be cut down to the size Pound had suggested for the Little Review.  He said he had some prose sketches but that they were locked in a drawer in Trieste, far from Zurich where Joyce was then living.  However, following Pound’s suggestion, Joyce included a note to say he hoped to send something as soon as his health allowed, but that he was still under doctor’s orders.  The note was published in the June issue of the Little Review. 

In the March 1917 issue of the Little Review, Jane Heap announced that she had received Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and she promised “Next time I shall have something more to tell of Joyce, – something thrilling and personal,” probably anticipating from Ezra Pound that they would soon have something to publish.  However, it was only in March 1918 that the first part of Ulysses was published in the Little Review.  Over the next two years, despite the efforts of the US postal authorities, the Little Review serialised parts of Ulysses up to the ‘Oxen of the Sun’ episode which appeared in September 1920. 

The St James’ War Memorial Project: 28th March 1918: the first battle of Arras

This blog presents information about the 62 men named on the WW1 memorial from St James Church, Toxteth.  Use the tabs below or the search bar to navigate the site.  The Names page has links to each man. 

Troops of the 4th Australian Division engage with the advancing German Army at Dernancourt on the Western Front.  Fighting extends from Dernancourt to Albert; the Division is successful in repelling all attacks.  Sergeant SR McDougall of the 47th Battalion is awarded the Victoria Cross. 

Stanley Robert McDougall VC MM (23 July 1889 – 7 July 1968) was an Australian recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award given to British and Commonwealth forces for gallantry in the face of the enemy. 

Early life - McDougall was born on 23 July 1889 at Recherche Bay, Tasmania, where he was raised and educated.  He was the son of John Henry McDougall, a sawmiller, and Susannah (née Cate).  In civilian life, he was an amateur boxer, and a blacksmith by trade, and was considered an excellent horseman, an expert marksman, and a competent bushman. 

War service - Illness prevented him from enlisting in the Australian Imperial Force to fight in the First World War until 31 August 1915.  He was 27 years old and a sergeant in the 47th Battalion, Australian Imperial Force during the First World War when he performed the actions for which he was awarded the VC. 

On 28 March 1918 at Dernancourt, France, when an enemy attack succeeded in securing a foothold in the Allied line, McDougall charged the second wave single-handedly, killing seven men and capturing a machine-gun, which he turned on the attackers, routing them and causing many casualties.  He continued his attack until his ammunition ran out, when he seized a bayonet and charged again, killing three men and an officer.  Then, using a Lewis gun, he killed many more of the enemy and made it possible for 33 prisoners to be taken.  His prompt action saved the line and halted the enemy's advance. 

Eight days later he repelled another enemy attack at the same spot, for which action he was awarded the Military Medal. 

Later life - On 19 August 1918, he was invested with the Victoria Cross at Windsor Castle by King George V. He returned to Australia and was discharged on 15 December 1918. 

McDougall subsequently worked for the Tasmanian Forestry Department and became an inspector in charge of forests in the north-western part of Tasmania.  He returned to London for the V.C. centenary in 1956.  He died on 7 July 1968 at Scottsdale, Tasmania, and was survived by his wife Martha (née Anderson-Harrison), whom he had married in 1926; they had no children.  He is buried at Norwood Crematorium, Canberra. 

A street in Canberra is named after him.  His Victoria Cross is displayed at the Australian War Memorial. 

On this day in 1918, anti-conscription riots break out in Quebec City on the eve of Good Friday.  The initial disturbance occurred when Federal officers were assaulted by a crowd after arresting a young man for not possessing his certificate of exemption.  Although the crowd was able to release the arrested man, rioting continued to escalate over the Easter weekend. 

On 29 March, Good Friday, Quebec City’s Military Service Registry office was destroyed by fire, with all records lost.  By Saturday, 30 March, the Commanding Officer of the District had requested reinforcements of 1000 troops, in addition to the 890 already on-hand.  In the evening of 30 March and the following day, rioters broke into hardware stores, hoping to obtain firearms, and began to assault the troops, throwing snowballs and ice at those manning the picquets. 

The riots reached their climax on the evening of 1 April.  Now reinforced by 700 troops from Ontario, the military began moving through the city, breaking up gatherings of civilians.  While doing so, rioters again bombarded the troops with ice, bricks and improvised missiles.  Those who were armed also began shooting at the troops, wounding some.  Under orders, the soldiers returned fire with rifles and machine guns, killing four and injuring many more.  Despite the sudden escalation, order was restored by one o’clock in the morning.  The Quebec Conscription Riots were over. 

Isaac Rosenberg (1890 - 1918) is one of finest, if lesser known, of the First World War poets.  While some of Isaac's records were destroyed during the Second World War, remaining records provide an insight into his life. 

(...) Arras - Tragically, Isaac was killed at the age of 27.  During a German offensive, the English made an attempt to capture Arras on the 28th of March 1918.  Isaac's brigade was holding the line south of Gavrelle when the front line was overwhelmed and pushed back to Fampoux.  Isaac was at rest behind the line on the 28th but his company was brought up to the north of Fampoux to help reinforce the new front line. 

3rd Grenadier Guards – WW1 – War Diary ~ Transcription of the war diary and other info

27 – 28 Mar 1918 - That night the following allocations in dispositions took place No 3 & 4 Coys were relieved by 2 Coys of 13th York & Lancs up to road at S26c97.  After relief No 3 came into reserve about S26a50 & S26b58 (2 platoons at each point).  No 4 Coy relieved B Coy Y & L who was between our No 1 & 2 Coys.  The Y & L the side slipped to right of No 2 Coy then withdrew into support at work at S26b57 (where HQ had moved to during afternoon but had vacated and moved back to junction of roads S20a50).Finally No 3 Coy moved up to S28c38 to get in touch with 2 C.G. to S22a65.  No 3 Coy had 3 platoons in front line and 1 in support.  Above dispositions were completed just before dawn. 

28 Mar 1918 - At 7.0 am a heavy barrage was put down on support Coy (No 2) and at 7.30 am enemy attacked posts of No 4 Coy & of 13th Y & L Regt.  Strength of enemy was about 200 advancing in 4 to 5 waves. Our posts gave, but Lt G. Fitzgerald who was Commanding No 4 Coy quickly organized a counter attack from the support platoon of Y & L Regt & having launched this, organized a similar one from No 4 Coy.  These counter attacks entirely defeated the enemy, who were ejected from our posts and retired 3 to 400 yds behind.  No 2 meanwhile had formed a strongpoint in rear of No 4 Coy.  Remainder of day was uneventful except for heavy bombardments lasting for 15 minutes on our front line posts. 
Casualties following officers wounded 27th Capt Parke, Capt.  Carrington, Lt ? Berwell?,  2/Lt Tate, Lt Van ? Raining?,  Lt Fish (Medical Officer).  28th Lt Ellison, Lt Orriss.  30 O.R. killed 98 O.R. wounded 4 OR missing. 

Cracroft's Peerage - The Complete Guide to the British Peerage & Baronetage: Order in Council - 28 March 1919

ORDER IN COUNCIL ACCEPTING REPORT OF COMMITTEE OF THE PRIVY COUNCIL UNDER THE TITLES DEPRIVATION ACT, 1917 (7 & 8 GEO.  5 c. 47) AS TO FORFEITURE OF BRITISH DIGNITIES AND TITLES OF CERTAIN ENEMY PEERS AND PRINCES. 

1919 No.  475

At the Court at Buckingham Palace, the 28th day of March, 1919. 

PRESENT,

The King's Most Excellent Majesty in Council. 

Seeing that there was this day presented to His Majesty at the Board a Report of a Committee of the Lords of His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council (Present: The Lord Chancellor, The Marquess of Lansdowne, The Marquess of Crewe, the Lord Chamberlain, the Lord Newton, the Lord Stamfordham, the Lord Sumner), dated the 1st day of August, 1918, in the words following, viz.: 

" Whereas by virtue of the powers granted under ' The Titles Deprivation Act, 1917', Your Majesty in Council was pleased by Order of the 27th day of November, 1917, to appoint a Committee of Your Privy Council to inquire into and report the names of any persons enjoying any dignity or title as a peer or British prince who have during the present war borne arms against Your Majesty or Your Allies or who have adhered to Your Majesty's enemies, and inasmuch as the Committee have considered the matters submitted to them in accordance with the aforesaid terms of reference and have carefully examined the evidence set forth in the two affidavits sworn to by Your Majesty's Procurator-General and Solicitor for the affairs of Your Majesty's Treasury, dated respectively the 25th and 27th July, 1918, copies of which are annexed to this Report:

"Their Lordships do humbly report to Your Majesty that the persons hereinafter named have adhered to Your Majesty's enemies during the present war:—
His Royal Highness Leopold Charles, Duke of Albany, Earl of Clarence and Baron Arklow. 
His Royal Highness Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale, Earl of Armagh. 
His Royal Highness Ernest Augustus (Duke of Brunswick), Prince of Great Britain and Ireland. 
Henry, Viscount Taaffe of Corren and Baron of Ballymote." 

And seeing that the Report has been laid before Parliament in the manner prescribed, and there has not been passed in either House a motion disapproving thereof:

His Majesty, having taken into consideration the said Report, was pleased, by and with the advice of His Privy Council, to accept the same. 

Whereof Garter King of Arms, Ulster King of Arms, and all other persons whom it may concern are to take notice and govern themselves accordingly. 

28th March 1919 - There has been a petition to the Government asking for the release of Conscientious Objectors now that the war is over.  Hope mentions the case of the pianist Frederic Lamond, who was interned as an enemy alien during the war. 

At 3 a.m. the Germans start to shell the Arras Road and the ridge in M.36.a. &  c. By 4.15 a.m. the Germans put a heavy barrage on the 7/K.S.L.I.'s line, the Battalion's forward trenches offer little cover and it suffers casualties.  The barrage lifts at 5.15 a.m., and Germans are seen close to the wire.  These Germans make determined attempts to break into the Battalion's line but are driven held off by rifle and Lewis Gun fire. 

The Germans bring back the barrage at 7.15 a.m., with great intensity.  The Germans again attack and this time break into the Battalion's line at the junction of the two front companies, and then commenced to bomb outwards.  The right company held them up for until their bombs ran out they then tried to hold him by rifle fire but bombs will always out do rifles in the confines of trenches; about 25 survivors of this company had to retire to the junction of the Front Line and Reserve Line.  This company had lost all bar two, of it's officers and senior N.C.O.'s, killed and wounded.  The left company had also suffered heavily from the bombardment, losing all of it's officer and senior N.C.O.'s but it managed to form a block and made an attempt to held them back but the Germans worked their way behind the left company.  The 15 survivors of the left company then retired into the right company of 13/King's.  The German's then worked their way behind the right company of the King's, who along with the 15 K.S.L.I. men fought their way back to the Reserve Line.  All this time the Reserve Line and Battalion H.Q. had been under heavy fire.  The Right Support Company's Commanding Officer had been killed early on but they along with the 25 survivors of the Right Front Line company held off German coming over the top with rifle fire.  Likewise the left support company were holding off determined attacks.  All this time the Battalion's runners had shown great courage in carrying message though the heavy shell and machine gun fire. 

By noon the 7/K.S.L.I.'s right flank had become very exposed, and fearing the German's would get behind them the right company retired to a sunken road about M.36.d.8.8.  This exposed the left flank and they too retired to the sunken road about M.36.b.5.7.  At this point the both Battalion H.Q. of the 7/K.S.L.I. nd the 1/R.S.F. (they were sharing the same dugouts) moved forward to reinforce the sunken.  German machine guns become very active on the sunken road causing several casualties. 

At about 1.45 p.m. three German batteries were seen coming through Henin and crossing the form British front line trenches, they were at too great a range to bring effective rifle and machine gun fire on them and the wires had been cut to the Artillery, although an attempt was made by flags (the report in the Battalion War Diary does not say if the Artillery replied but later in the report it praised the Artillery and report a direct hit knocked out a German gun moving through Henin).  Due to lack of numbers and out of touch with units on the flanks, the 7/K.S.L.I.'s commanding officer decided to withdraw at 2 p.m. through the Green Line to a sunken road in M.35.a.,  and reorganise, the retirement was covered by Lewis and machine gun fire. 

Once reorganised the Battalion manned a trench running between M.34.b.7.1.  and M.35.a.2.7.  At 7.30 p.m. they were ordered to dig and occupy a line between M.29.b.1.9.  and M.29.c.6.3.  but no tools were available, so some existing posts and trenches were occupied. 

The report in the 7/K.S.L.I. War Diary makes praise of the last draft that they had received, it consisted mainly of boys of 19, it reports that in spite of shelling, they did considerable execution with their rifles on the Germans as they attempted to advance on the Reserve Line.  The report also praises the Stretcher bearers who displayed marked gallantry in carrying out their duties and evacuating casualties under heavy fire. 

The Battalion total casualties between the 21st and 29th March 1918 were 4 officers killed, 3 missing and 9 wounded, and 47 other ranks were killed, 157 missing, and 174 wounded. (...)