Like lambs to the slaughter
HE DIED 100 YEARS AGO ONE OF THE 700,000 BRITONS WHO FELL IN WORLD WAR I
LATER this year the nation will mark the 100 years that have passed since the end of World War I.
Fought between 1914 and 1918, it was the most brutal of conflicts.
The industrialised blood-letting played out on the Western Front, and at other points around the globe, claimed 700,000 British lives.
Virtually no city, town, village or community was left untouched.
Daniel Steanson, from Gateshead, was just one of those 700,000 feathers in the wind blown away by the hurricane of the Great War.
Sunday marks the 100th anniversary of his death. He was just 19.
Tom Steanson, a retired businessman, has been looking into the story of his tragic great-uncle.
“Daniel Steanson, the youngest of five brothers, was born on January 23, 1899. His mother, Elizabeth, died of typhoid when was eight,” Tom recalls.
“Daniel loved horses and even kept his own pony, Kemp, in the back yard.
“He followed his father and four brothers into the Teams Glassworks in Gateshead.
“He was 15 when war broke out in 1914, but as soon as he turned 17, Daniel enlisted and followed his brothers Thomas, Robert and Edward into the Durham Light Infantry, joining the cavalry division and being sent to the Western Front.”
Little did he know what fate awaited him.
After battling hard on the Somme, Daniel’s cavalry division was sent to recover on the Chemin des Dames ridge in the Aisne sector.
It was at this location that the full might of the German Army’s last major offensive of World War I began on May 27, 1918.
Seventeen divisions under German General Ludendorff attacked the French Sixth Army there.
Daniel was in the thick of it and was killed on the first day of the battle.
His body was never found. His name is commemorated on the war memorial at Soissons in Northern France.
Tom continued: “Daniel’s three older brothers survived the war.
“Thomas was badly wounded by shrapnel and the field surgeon strongly advised that the badly damaged leg should be amputated. Thomas refused and he was evacuated back home.
“After a long stay in Dunston Hill Hospital, Gateshead, the leg was saved and he Tom Steanson “I’d hate to think they died in vain, but they were lambs to the slaughter. “May 27, 2018, will be the 100th anniversary of the death of young Daniel Steanson, my great uncle. “He was just one of the millions of casualties in World War I, but he is still remembered with affection and gratitude by our family.”