Arras Memorial.
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The CWGC memorial does not give an address.
On the 1901 census a Robert E Archer, aged 5, is living at 22 Boosbeck
Rd.
This address is confirmed by Parish Magazine list of 1914.
His father George, from March in Cambridgeshire, is an Ironstone miner
and his mother, Mary,
comes from Littleport, Cambridgeshire.
Robert has 2 brothers, George a miner age 16 and Thomas age 2.
And two Sisters - Maud 14 and Ada 9.
The 4th Battalion, Yorkshire Regiment were formed in August 1914 in
Northallerton.
They became part of the 150th Brigade, 50th (Northumbrian) Division.
After landing at Boulogne on the 14th May 1915, the Division took part
in most of the actions on the
Western Front.
The Arras memorial commemorates 35,000 men who died in this area and
have no known grave.
One of the most important campaigns in which the BEF was engaged, yet
in comparison with the Somme of 1916 and Passchendaele of 1917,
terribly neglected by historians.
The British Army launched a large-scale attack at Arras as part of a
master plan by the new French Commander
in Chief Robert Nivelle.
Although initially successful, it soon bogged down as with most and
became a terribly costly affair, as with most.
The British attack was against the formidable Hindenburg Line, to which
the enemy had recently made a strategic withdrawal.
The battle can be considered to be composed of a number of phases: the
Battle of Vimy and the First Battle of the Scarpe were the opening
phases.
The Second and Third Battle of the Scarpe and the final Battle of
Bullecourt and other actions against the
Hindenburg Line concluded the fighting.
Robert Archer was killed in action at the time of the Second Battle of
the Scarpe.
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