Can you shed light on the deaths of our First World War ancestors?
QMy partner and I have discovered that we have ancestors who both fought and died on the same day at the Battle of Cambrai.
Neither have graves, but both are commemorated on the Cambrai memorial at Loverval, which we plan to visit on the 100th anniversary of their deaths on 3 December 2017. We would love to learn about their roles in the action that day.
Their names were Lieutenant Colonel Donald Knox Anderson of The Buffs ( East Kent Regiment) Machine Gun Corps and Private Frederick Stockley of the 2/ 8th Battalion, Worcestershire Regiment. Karen Drinkwater and Moira Anderson
AOn 30 November 1917, the Germans launched a sudden counter-attack against British troops near Gouzeaucourt and Villers Guislain, south-west of Cambrai. Donald Anderson and Frederick Stockley, serving in 61st (2nd South Midland) Division, were sent forward to help hold the line, though their roles were very different.
The CWGC website ( cwgc.org) says that Fred Stockley was a Private in 2/ 8th Battalion, Worcestershire Regiment. No service record survives, but the Battalion War Diary will say what his unit was doing. It’s available on
ancestry.co.uk (or downloadable for £3.50 from discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk).
The battalion was defending an area of trenches named Corner Work near the village of La Vacquerie on 2 and 3 December. Although most of the battalion was pulled back, one company remained at Corner Work and was attacked on 3 December. There was heavy fighting with 131 killed, wounded or missing. Fred must have been one of these.
Donald Anderson was a Lieutenant Colonel in charge of 61 Division’s machine guns. The Divisional Diary merely records “The Div. Machine Gun Officer… was killed in the early afternoon”. By 1917, machine guns were grouped together in companies to increase firepower. Presumably Donald had gone forward to direct them. Diaries for 182, 183 and 184 Brigade Machine Gun Companies may help. Donald’s Officer File is at The National Archives ( WO 339/6943) but not online. It contains mainly paperwork about his estate and widow’s pension problems but it does contain a note that reads “Place of Burial R9 b 1 4”.
This is an army map reference referring to a 50-yard square near Ferme du Bois Veillard just north of La Vacquerie (Series Bleu Map 2570E). Presumably his grave was lost in later fighting or not located later. Corner Work ran round the north of the village, so the two men fell very near each other. Phil Tomaselli