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1631 Pte James Henry Thomas.
Photograph probably taken at Hummersknott Camp, Darlington in September 1914.
James was to be seriously wounded at Ypres and was repatriated to his home in Brotton, where he died on the 11th September
1915. He is buried in Brotton Cemetery.
[Photograph kindly contributed by John Sheen, author of Tyneside Irish, Durham Pals, & Wearside Battalion.]
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Col W H A Wharton of Skelton Castle.
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Squire Wharton, of Skelton Castle also spoke a few words.
He regretted that his time in command of the Battalion was over last year, and also said that it was with great effort
to him to see them go without him. By this time he would have been around 55 years of age.
From now on it was home defence, hard drill and training.
The Army List for August 1914 showed the following Officers as belonging to the 4th Battalion.:-
Colonel A F Godman. CB.VD. Hon Colonel.
Lt Col M H L Bell. VD in Command.
Major H G Scott.
Capt H C Matthews - Capt B Jackson - Capt A Graham - Capt R A Constantine
- Capt G H Bowes-Wilson - Capt W W Constantine - Capt J V Nancarrow -
Capt B H Charlton.
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Section of Army Form B111. Attestation.
Recruits were flocking to join up. Isaac Dobson, Ironstone miner of Lingdale
enlisted on the 2nd September 1914.
He was to be killed on the 15th September 1916 at Martinpuich, Somme.
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Lieutenants - W F Mott, J Maughan, N W Stead, T H Hutchinson, L P I'Anson, T W P L Chaloner, G W Samuelson, A C P de
la P Beresford-Pierse.
Second Lieutenants - C R Scate, E Williams, C C Jervelund, A J B Richardson, H T Fawcett.
Adjutant - Capt G D P Eykyn.
Quartermaster - Lt W H Colton.
Medical Officers - Major H L de Legh. RAMC and Surgeon-Captain C B Whitehead.
Chaplains - Rev H C Holmes and Rev F L Perkins.
23 AUGUST. The Battle of Mons in Belgium. Outnumbered and outgunned, British and French forces retreated into
France.
SEPTEMBER . The 4th Battalion were at Camp in Darlington.
5 SEPTEMBER. The German advance came within 30 miles of capturing Paris, but their lines were severely
stretched.
The allies counter-attacked and forced them to stop at the Battle of the Marne.
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Men of the 4th Battalion at Camp.
[Photo kindly donated by Peter Appleton of Skelton, N Yorks.]
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14 SEPTEMBER. - The local 4th Battalion moved to Newcastle where the whole of the Northumbrian Division was billeted.
It would not move to the Continent until the following April and there followed a period of intense training.
About this time the War Office announced that if 80 percent of the Battalion were to volunteer for service abroad,
it would be permitted to embark as a unit.
90 percent did so and such was the enthusiasm to fight for the cause, another two hundred recruits were ready and
waiting to join.
The Battalion was redesignated the 1/4th, as a new 2/4th Battalion was be formed to take over their role of
Home Defence and train new recruits.
15 SEPTEMBER. The Germans retreated to strong points and began to "dig in".
Each side tried to outflank the other, north and west, digging trenches as they went.
This "race to the sea" ended with bloody warfare around Ypres, where the last gap was left and it was vital to
prevent the Germans capturing the Channel ports.
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14 OCTOBER to 22 NOV. The First Battle of Ypres.
In early October the British Expeditionary Force drove the Germans back and recaptured this Belgian town driving a wedge
into the German line - the Ypres Salient.
On the 15th October the Germans, with a superiority in numbers of something like 5 to 1, launched a counter attack and in
the fierce fighting that followed lost 135,000 men.
However British losses had also been severe. By the end of November 1914 Britain had lost a large proportion of its
Regular Army - 86,000, since the War began.
The German Kaiser had called the British Expeditionary Force "a contemptible little Army" and they were thereafter called
the "Old Contemptibles".
By their actions they had saved the vital Channel ports and given Britain time to reinforce.
By the end of the year it was impossible for one side to outflank the other, for a line of trenches stretched some
400 miles, from the Channel coast all the way across Northern France to the Swiss border.
The scene was set for four years of bloody attrition.
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