Arthur Winch, L/Corporal 15/997 West Yorkshire Regiment
Also Percy Winch, Private 348555/279476 RE and 94266 RAMC
Arthur Winch was born on 25th April 1885 in Seaforth, Liverpool, not the ideal beginning for a man who would later join the Leeds Pals. Fortunately his parents were both Yorkshire born. Frederick Edward Winch was born in Leeds and his wife Eliza Harwood in Dewsbury. They had married in Dewsbury on 19th May 1881, and two years later their first son, Percy was born, in Dewsbury. Arthur followed two years after that, and finally, the following year, a daughter, May, born in Waterloo, Liverpool. There were also during this period, according to the 1911 Census, three other children who did not survive. One of these was christened Florence, in Dewsbury on 30th July 1884, and buried in Liverpool on 26th August that same year. I have not been able to trace the other two children, but at least Florence gives us a date for the move to Lancashire, if not a cause. Frederick was a tailor, an occupation ideally suited for Leeds it would have seemed, but the address given at the time of the funeral was 15 Northumberland Street, Toxteth Park, Liverpool. However, by 1891 the family was safely back in Leeds, living at 28 Ebor Place, Headingley. In addition to the three children there was also a servant, general domestic, Paninnah Saville, so everything appeared to be going quite well But it was not to last.
In March 1897 Frederick died, aged just 42. The cause of death is not known, but tailoring was not generally considered a dangerous trade. Percy was 14, Arthur was 11, May was 10, and Eliza was a widow. However, on the 1901 Census Eliza was given as the head of the household, living on her own means. Percy, at 18, was a civil engineer, Arthur a mechanical engineer, and May probably still at school, though as a girl no occupation is listed for her. The boys must have had good educations to be both pursuing careers as engineers, and the family had moved to 67 Louis Street, in Potternewton. By 1911 May had left home, having married John Sugden in 1906, and I can find no sign of Percy anywhere in the census records. Arthur was still at home, now an architect, and Eliza was still living on her own means. But then came the war.
In 1914 Arthur was 29 and Percy 31, both relatively old to be volunteering, and initially neither man did. Arthur was the first to go, signing up probably in December 1914. He was not on the original list of applicants but his service number suggests this date. He appears on the Nominal Roll, drawn up in the Spring or Summer of 1915, where he is shown as being in C Company, No.12 Platoon, and he would have done his basic training at Colsterdale, followed by time at Ripon and then Fovant. His Medal Card shows that he was awarded the 1914-15 Star for serving abroad before the end of 1915, the battalion being sent to Egypt at the start of December. They went to defend the Suez Canal against possible attack by the Turks, who had recently entered the war on Germany’s side. This danger never materialised, and at the beginning of March 1916 the Pals sailed again, this time for France.
They landed at Marseilles on 8th March 1916, and proceeded by train and then a twelve mile march, to the Somme region of northern France. Here they were to train for the forthcoming offensive, a joint British-French attack which would, they were told, break through the German line and end the war. It would be preceded by a week-long bombardment that would destroy the German barbed wire, flatten their trenches and severely damage their morale. The result would be a walkover. Then in February 1916 the Germans attacked the French at Verdun, starting a battle that would last for virtually the whole year. So many French troops were needed to defend Verdun that very few could be spared for the Somme attack, which thus became a mainly British affair. Originally planned for the end of June it was delayed by the weather until 1st July, and the bombardment had to be stretched out to cover the longer period. It failed in its objectives, consisting of a large number of shrapnel shells, which had little effect on either the wire or the dugouts, and a large number of duds. The wire was not cut in most places, the trenches and bunkers were much deeper than had been realised, and the Germans knew when and where the attack would fall, and were waiting.
At 0730 on the morning of 1st July 1916 around 750 men of the Leeds Pals joined thousands of other British troops and some French and climbed out of their trenches into No Man’s Land. Their objective was the little village of Serre, but they were met by a ‘storm of steel’ and with the possible exception of just a handful of men none of them got any distance at all. By the end of the day 209 men had been killed and a further 24 were to die of their wounds. 24 officers went over the top, 13 were killed and all of the rest wounded, 2 more dying later. It was the worst day in the history of the British Army, with almost 60,000 casualties, nearly 20,000 of whom were killed. Among the dead was Arthur Winch. His body was found, unlike so many others, and he was buried in Serre Road Cemetery No.2. The battle dragged on until November, and Serre was finally captured in February 1917, by the Accrington Pals.
Percy, meanwhile, had also decided to join up, but not in the Pals. He attested on 10th December 1915, probably about a year after Arthur, and was put into the Royal Engineers. His height was given as 5ft 6½ ins, his weight as 12 stone. He gave his address as 45 Saville Road, Leeds, and his next of kin as his sister May Sugden, who was living in Scarborough. After an apparent two weeks in the RAMC he was returned to the RE where he served for the rest of the war. He was finally discharged to Class Z in November 1919, and in 1939 was recorded as living in Grosvenor Crescent, Leeds, working as a civil engineer and surveyor. Both brothers were awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal, while their widowed mother would have received the Memorial Plaque and Scroll for Arthur. Percy died in Leeds in June 1943.
Sources:
Ancestry – Medal Records, Census Records, Service Records, 1939 Register, Baptism Records, Marriage Records
Find my Past – Census Records, Service records
CWGC – Death Record
Free BDM – Birth, Marriage, Death Records
Researcher: Peter Taylor
Please Note:
- All opinions and inferences are the researcher’s own.
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