Tuesday 13th June 1916

Trenches north of Souchez

In the early morning of a dull and showery day a British mine gallery in the sector was located by the Germans and exploded, but without causing any casualties or any significant damage above ground. However, there followed an increase in German shelling and one of the shells did find its mark, making a direct hit on one the dugouts. Two men were killed, one wounded and five others admitted to hospital suffering from shell shock. One of those shell-shocked was J.B. Priestley. Writing years later he recalled, “One day it had to happen. It was June now, hot again, thirsty weather, a lot of chalk dust about, and we were in the front line on a beautiful morning*. The platoon rations had just come up. I sent Private O’Neill down the communications trench to bring up some water – and sixteen years went by before we saw each other again. I helped a young soldier, who had only just joined us out there, to take the rations into a dugout, not a deep dugout but a small one hollowed out of the parapet. In this dugout I began sorting out the bread, meat, tea, sugar, tinned milk, and so on, to give each section it’s proper share, a tricky little job. I had done it many times before, hardly ever to anybody’s complete satisfaction; but on this morning I suspect that it saved my life. After the explosion when everything had caved in, nobody was certain I was there, but several fellows knew the platoon rations were in there somewhere; that stuff would have to be dug out. There I was then, deciding on each section’s share, when I heard a rushing sound, and I knew what it meant and knew, though everything had gone into slow motion, I had no hope of getting away before the thing arrived. Just as on earlier and later occasions when I have thought all was up, the first shrinking terror was followed, as I went into the new slow time, by a sense of detachment. I believe from what I learnt long afterwards that the Minenwerfer landed slap in the trench, two or three yards away. All I knew was that the world blew up.”

*Priestley’s recollection of the weather conditions is very much at odds with the contemporary reports of conditions; it is hard to account for this as the date and details of the event are very clearly established.

Following his recovery, Priestley served out the remainder of the war in various administrative capacities and never returned to the Battalion.

The two men killed were Ptes. Harry Bower (see 11th September 1915) and Smith Hardaker; neither of them from Tunstill’s Company. However, Hardaker had lived in Crosshills and it fell to CQMS Frank Stephenson (see 23^rd December 1915) of Tunstill’s Company, who was from the neighbouring village of Cowling, to convey the news to Hardaker’s wife. News of Hardaker’s death, and the letters received by his widow, was subsequently reported in the Craven Herald (23^rd June and 7^th July).

CROSSHILLS MAN KILLED AT THE FRONT

On Sunday morning last Mrs. Smith Hardacre, of Milligan Fields, Crosshills, received news that her husband had been killed in the trenches in France. She has not received an official notification, but as the letter was written for one of his friends (Pte. Tom Ellison, of Sutton) who was with him at the time he met his death, there can be no doubt that the sad news is true. The letter is as follows:- "Dear Mrs. Hardacre, - I am very sorry to have to inform you that your husband, Pte. Smith Hardacre, has been killed in action whilst in the trenches, about dinnertime on the 13th instant. I cannot give any details of his death except that he died instantaneously and suffered no pain. You must excuse my writing, but I thought it would be best to inform you as early as possible. Private Tom Lister Ellison (see 2^nd June) brought the news to me and asked me to write to you. In all probability you will get more news from an officer of his company, but in the event of your not doing so I will make enquiries, and if you will just drop a line to me I will try to answer all you want to know. Wishing you all sympathy in your sad and sudden bereavement.

"Yours truly, Company Sergeant F. Stephenson, 10th Battalion, Duke of Wellington's West Riding Regiment, France."

Private Hardacre enlisted in the Duke of Wellington's in January last year, and was for some time stationed at Folkestone, and afterwards at Bramshott Camp, from where they were drafted to France in July (sic. August) last year. He had seen considerable fighting, and was a bomber in the trenches, having been trained at a bombing school in France. At the battle of Loos he went into the German trenches with bombs, and for his work in this engagement he won a medal and bar. He was home on leave about two months ago, but was recalled by a telegram before his time of leave had expired, and was expecting to receive another leave before very long to make up for this.

Private Hardacre was thirty years of age, and leaves a widow and two children.

Mrs. Smith Hardacre of Milligan Fields, Crosshills, has received an official communication from the military authorities, confirming the news she had already received that her husband (Private Smith Hardacre of the 10th Duke of Wellington's Regiment) had been killed in Northern France. Pte. Hardacre's bombing officer, Lieutenant Keith Lavarack (see 30^th May), has written to Mrs. Hardacre and speaks very highly of his work in the Bombing Battalion, and expresses his sympathy with her in her bereavement. Company Quarter-Master Sergeant Frank Stephenson, a resident of Cowling, has written to Mrs. Hardacre telling how her husband met his death.

He says:- "He was one of the battalion bombers, and along with another bomber he was on guard over a stock of bombs in a dugout. The Germans sent a shell over, what is commonly called by the men as a Rum jar, that is a very big shell, and it went into the dugout, bursting the bombs and blowing up the dugout. A party of men at once cleared away the debris, and when he was wrapped in a blanket he was along with the other men taken and given a decent burial."

The Army Chaplain, Wilfred L. Henderson (see 26^th May), in expressing his sorrow for the loss of a brave soldier, says:- "We all sympathise with you. He was killed by a German shell, and we buried him on the same night in a little cemetery behind the lines. A cross and number will be put over his grave, and the grave and cross reverently cared for. Your feelings must also be mingled with pride. I think I am permitted to tell you that your husband's grave lies near the village of Noulette in Northern France."

In addition, Mrs. Hardacre has received a letter from her husband's Captain as follows:- "Dear Mrs. Hardacre, I have been meaning to write to you for several days to tell you how very much we all miss your husband, and how very sorry for you we are. Your husband was, of course, attached to the battalion bombers. He was one of the most popular men in my company and I have never known a more willing and cheerful worker. A man like your husband does his bit and a good bit over, and I am sure that all who knew him will agree with me in this. I hope it will be some consolation to you to know that he could not have suffered any pain, as death must have been instantaneous.

"Captain J. C. Bull (see 24^th May), Commanding D Company, 10th Duke of Wellington's Regiment"

Both Bower and Hardaker were buried at Bois de Noulette British Cemetery, Aix Noulette.

Pte. Smith Hardaker

CQMS Frank Stephenson

(Image by kind permission of Henry Bolton)

Among the men wounded were two who had only been with the Battalion for a week. L.Cpl. Harold William Crowther (see 6^th June) suffered only minor wounds and was treated locally before resuming duty. Pte. George Edward Chapman (see 6^th June), on the other hand, was shell-shocked and would be evacuated to England three days later. 

Overnight on 13^th/14^th the Battalion was relieved by 15^th London Regiment, returning to their former billets at Sains-en-Gohelle.

Pte. John William Addison (see 9^th June) was discharged from 10^th General Hospital at Rouen and posted to 34^th Infantry Base Depot at Etaples. 

A payment of £10 8s. 11d was authorised, being the amount outstanding in pay and allowances to the late Pte. William Haste (see 23^rd March), who had been killed in action in March; the payment would go to his aunt and sole legatee, Mrs. Eliza J. Ward.