A Classic & Outstanding
1st DAY BATTLE OF THE SOMME
(Redan Ridge, Beaumont Hamel-Serre)
“CASUALTY”
1914-15 Trio & Plaque, To:
S/11987 Rifleman, Pte. HENRY SLATER.
1st Battalion Rifle Brigade.
(Previously, 3324. 9th Lancers)
KILLED-in-ACTION 1st July 1916
[THE MEDALS]...All officially impressed
1914-1915 Star: S-11987 Pte. H. SLATER. RIF: BRIG:
War & Victory Medals: S-11987 PTE. H. SLATER. RIF. BRIG.
[BIOGRAPHY & FAMILY HISTORY]1895-1916 (21)
Henry Slater was born in the village of Over Alderley, near Macclesfield, Cheshire in 1895. He was the son of Fred and Ann Slater.
At age 6 in 1901 Henry was living on The Common, Mottram St Andrew near Prestbury with his parents and brothers Frank and Frederick William and his 1 year old sister Margaret Ann, born 28th June 1900.
By 1911 the Slater family had moved to New Road, in nearby Butley where his dad Frederick was working in the position of “Clerk in Holy Orders”. Henry was employed as a gardener & agricultural labourer.
By now he had another sister, 9 year old Jessie, born 28th March.
Both Margaret and Jessie Slater attended Mottram St. Andrew School in Priest Lane, which was then a Wesleyan Methodist School.
The school is still there and is now an academy.
Henry originally left home and joined the army at MACCLESFIELD age 19 & 298 days on 10th September 1914 when he initially signed up as 3324. Pte H. Slater in 9th Lancers, (reserve cavalry) for three years.
He was a Church of England lad, 5ft 5” tall of 134 lbs with grey eyes & dark brown hair.
While in training with the cavalry on 29th March 1915 he’s seen being “Absent Without Leave” for several hours at Woolwich, for which he was admonished by his officer and fined 1 day’s pay which was then One Shilling. (1/-)
However, as the fighting situation in France had quickly changed from the old cavalry charge system into trench warfare it became pointless to train more cavalrymen as many of the existing mounted troops had already converted into trench based infantry. As a result of the army’s current needs for front line infantrymen, on the 12th May 1915 Henry was transferred to the K.R.R.C (R) aged 20 and onward for immediate service as a rifleman in the 1st battalion Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort’s Own).
[TO FRANCE] 13th July 1916
Rifleman S/11987 Henry Slater entered France on 13th July 1915 and on his Casualty & Active Service document (Army Form B.103) he is described as a “Bomb Thrower”. We’ve never seen this description before. He served in France for 355 days.
He was killed in action on 1st July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme, when the 4th Division (part of VIII Corps) attacked Redan Ridge between Beaumont Hamel and Serre. The 1st Rifle Brigade and several other battalions took and held for many hours a now infamous German salient called the Heidenkopf (British: The Quadrilateral). They were part of the 11th Brigade.
The Germans actually judged this Heidenkopf area to be untenable and did not intend to make a determined stand if attacked. They mined the redoubt and left it occupied by only a machine-gun team and a party of engineers, who were to blow the mine as soon as attacking British troops entered it.
When the British 4th Division attacked the Heidenkopf (Quadrilateral Redoubt to the British) at 7:30 a.m. on 1st July 1916, the German machine-gun jammed, the engineers then sprung the mine too soon and were caught in the explosion before the British arrived. The magnitude of the blast was far greater than the Germans expected and it blocked the entrances to many of the German Stollen (deep dugouts) in the vicinity. The 3rd Company, on the right flank of Reserve Infantry Regiment 121, was overrun and 600 yds of the German support trench was captured.
[1st RIFLE BRIGADE]1st Day Battle of The Somme,7:30am Saturday 1st July 1916.
The battalion strength of the 1st Rifle Brigade was 42 officers and 1040 other ranks. The rest were transport, carriers, stretcher bearers, etc., and 10% were held in reserve in case of severe casualties.A total of 22 officers and approx 700 men went into action at 07:30 on 1st July and the battalion sustained a very large number of casualties which were 20 officers and 454 other ranks of which 180 were killed or died of wounds.
The *Commanding Officer Lt Col Donald Wood, (*three times mentioned) and the Adjutant were both killed. Both men have no known grave and are commemorated on The Theipval Memorial to the missing.
As all of Henry’s attestation & many other papers have “miraculously survived” the early official paper weedings & the WW2 blitz fire at Arnside Road, we can clearly see the somewhat confused situation which prevailed just after the battle. The papers initially state that he was “wounded in action” on 1st July 1916, and then “wounded missing” on 30th July.
Eventually on 29th May 1917 he was: “regarded for official purposes as having died on or since 1/7/16”
His brother Frederick William Slater (19) was wounded in France and after evacuation spent time in Lord Derby’s Hospital in Warrington.
The casualty rate was a shocking 62%. Most casualties fell either in No Man's Land or in trenches then recaptured by the Germans through 1st July and the morning of 2nd July (by which time the Heidenkopf was being held by a company of the 1st Royal Irish Fusiliers). The 1st Rifle Brigade men were withdrawn during the previous evening. A large proportion of the lost mens’ names are to be found on the Theipval Memorial to the Missing. Tragically, many of the British casualties who were found dead within the German lines were buried in a mass grave near to a German redoubt called the Feste Soden which was about 1000 metres behind their front line.
Henry has no known grave and is also commemorated with eternal honour on The Theipval Memorial to the missing, but it is highly likely that Henry Slater rests with eternal honour amongst these fine and brave British soldiers.
[SUMMARY]
This is a very rare & seriously excellent assembly. It is extremely unusual to find a group which has survived with all the man’s official paperwork where in the vast majority of cases not a single sheet of records have survived for these lost men of the Somme. The result being that there are thousands of these brave, lost and historic soldiers about whom we know nothing.
In many cases, they will for eternity, remain “Ghosts of The Great War” with not a clue known about them or where they came from, lost in the turmoil and mud of battle, with the only trace of their existence now being their medals and their names surviving on the walls of a monument.
1st Day of The Somme casualties are notoriously difficult to find like this with full papers, plaque, private papers and even a photo of the soldier.
All three medals are EF+ Never cleaned and are complete with original mint WW1 silk ribbons. The plaque is uncleaned in GVF with a very slight edge colour variation from a previous mounting in a circular wooden frame.
Comes with a typical and original “first uniform” studio photo of the recipient and with a touching memorial card which was obviously produced for attendees at his local memorial service. “AT NIGHT WHEN THE STARS ARE SHINING, OVER A SILENT GRAVE, THERE LIES OUR DEAR ONE SLEEPING, WHOSE MEMORY WILL NEVER FADE”
You’ll go a VERY long way before you’ll see anything as comprehensive as this again.
£1950
(With Quality Part-Exchanges Very Welcome) .
S/11987 Rifleman, Pte. HENRY SLATER.
1st Battalion Rifle Brigade.
(Previously, 3324. 9th Lancers)
KILLED-in-ACTION 1st July 1916
[THE MEDALS]...All officially impressed
1914-1915 Star: S-11987 Pte. H. SLATER. RIF: BRIG:
War & Victory Medals: S-11987 PTE. H. SLATER. RIF. BRIG.
[BIOGRAPHY & FAMILY HISTORY]1895-1916 (21)
Henry Slater was born in the village of Over Alderley, near Macclesfield, Cheshire in 1895. He was the son of Fred and Ann Slater.
At age 6 in 1901 Henry was living on The Common, Mottram St Andrew near Prestbury with his parents and brothers Frank and Frederick William and his 1 year old sister Margaret Ann, born 28th June 1900.
By 1911 the Slater family had moved to New Road, in nearby Butley where his dad Frederick was working in the position of “Clerk in Holy Orders”. Henry was employed as a gardener & agricultural labourer.
By now he had another sister, 9 year old Jessie, born 28th March.
Both Margaret and Jessie Slater attended Mottram St. Andrew School in Priest Lane, which was then a Wesleyan Methodist School.
The school is still there and is now an academy.
Henry originally left home and joined the army at MACCLESFIELD age 19 & 298 days on 10th September 1914 when he initially signed up as 3324. Pte H. Slater in 9th Lancers, (reserve cavalry) for three years.
He was a Church of England lad, 5ft 5” tall of 134 lbs with grey eyes & dark brown hair.
While in training with the cavalry on 29th March 1915 he’s seen being “Absent Without Leave” for several hours at Woolwich, for which he was admonished by his officer and fined 1 day’s pay which was then One Shilling. (1/-)
However, as the fighting situation in France had quickly changed from the old cavalry charge system into trench warfare it became pointless to train more cavalrymen as many of the existing mounted troops had already converted into trench based infantry. As a result of the army’s current needs for front line infantrymen, on the 12th May 1915 Henry was transferred to the K.R.R.C (R) aged 20 and onward for immediate service as a rifleman in the 1st battalion Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort’s Own).
[TO FRANCE] 13th July 1916
Rifleman S/11987 Henry Slater entered France on 13th July 1915 and on his Casualty & Active Service document (Army Form B.103) he is described as a “Bomb Thrower”. We’ve never seen this description before. He served in France for 355 days.
He was killed in action on 1st July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme, when the 4th Division (part of VIII Corps) attacked Redan Ridge between Beaumont Hamel and Serre. The 1st Rifle Brigade and several other battalions took and held for many hours a now infamous German salient called the Heidenkopf (British: The Quadrilateral). They were part of the 11th Brigade.
The Germans actually judged this Heidenkopf area to be untenable and did not intend to make a determined stand if attacked. They mined the redoubt and left it occupied by only a machine-gun team and a party of engineers, who were to blow the mine as soon as attacking British troops entered it.
When the British 4th Division attacked the Heidenkopf (Quadrilateral Redoubt to the British) at 7:30 a.m. on 1st July 1916, the German machine-gun jammed, the engineers then sprung the mine too soon and were caught in the explosion before the British arrived. The magnitude of the blast was far greater than the Germans expected and it blocked the entrances to many of the German Stollen (deep dugouts) in the vicinity. The 3rd Company, on the right flank of Reserve Infantry Regiment 121, was overrun and 600 yds of the German support trench was captured.
[1st RIFLE BRIGADE]1st Day Battle of The Somme,7:30am Saturday 1st July 1916.
The battalion strength of the 1st Rifle Brigade was 42 officers and 1040 other ranks. The rest were transport, carriers, stretcher bearers, etc., and 10% were held in reserve in case of severe casualties.A total of 22 officers and approx 700 men went into action at 07:30 on 1st July and the battalion sustained a very large number of casualties which were 20 officers and 454 other ranks of which 180 were killed or died of wounds.
The *Commanding Officer Lt Col Donald Wood, (*three times mentioned) and the Adjutant were both killed. Both men have no known grave and are commemorated on The Theipval Memorial to the missing.
As all of Henry’s attestation & many other papers have “miraculously survived” the early official paper weedings & the WW2 blitz fire at Arnside Road, we can clearly see the somewhat confused situation which prevailed just after the battle. The papers initially state that he was “wounded in action” on 1st July 1916, and then “wounded missing” on 30th July.
Eventually on 29th May 1917 he was: “regarded for official purposes as having died on or since 1/7/16”
His brother Frederick William Slater (19) was wounded in France and after evacuation spent time in Lord Derby’s Hospital in Warrington.
The casualty rate was a shocking 62%. Most casualties fell either in No Man's Land or in trenches then recaptured by the Germans through 1st July and the morning of 2nd July (by which time the Heidenkopf was being held by a company of the 1st Royal Irish Fusiliers). The 1st Rifle Brigade men were withdrawn during the previous evening. A large proportion of the lost mens’ names are to be found on the Theipval Memorial to the Missing. Tragically, many of the British casualties who were found dead within the German lines were buried in a mass grave near to a German redoubt called the Feste Soden which was about 1000 metres behind their front line.
Henry has no known grave and is also commemorated with eternal honour on The Theipval Memorial to the missing, but it is highly likely that Henry Slater rests with eternal honour amongst these fine and brave British soldiers.
[SUMMARY]
This is a very rare & seriously excellent assembly. It is extremely unusual to find a group which has survived with all the man’s official paperwork where in the vast majority of cases not a single sheet of records have survived for these lost men of the Somme. The result being that there are thousands of these brave, lost and historic soldiers about whom we know nothing.
In many cases, they will for eternity, remain “Ghosts of The Great War” with not a clue known about them or where they came from, lost in the turmoil and mud of battle, with the only trace of their existence now being their medals and their names surviving on the walls of a monument.
1st Day of The Somme casualties are notoriously difficult to find like this with full papers, plaque, private papers and even a photo of the soldier.
All three medals are EF+ Never cleaned and are complete with original mint WW1 silk ribbons. The plaque is uncleaned in GVF with a very slight edge colour variation from a previous mounting in a circular wooden frame.
Comes with a typical and original “first uniform” studio photo of the recipient and with a touching memorial card which was obviously produced for attendees at his local memorial service. “AT NIGHT WHEN THE STARS ARE SHINING, OVER A SILENT GRAVE, THERE LIES OUR DEAR ONE SLEEPING, WHOSE MEMORY WILL NEVER FADE”
You’ll go a VERY long way before you’ll see anything as comprehensive as this again.
£1950
(With Quality Part-Exchanges Very Welcome) .