SKELTON - IN - CLEVELAND
IN HISTORY
"WE WILL REMEMBER THEM"

21062 Private J W LONGSTAFF.

12th Bn, Yorkshire Regiment.

who died on the 9th August 1916.


Lillers Community Extension Cemetery, Pas de Calais, France.
About 15km WNW of Bethune.
[Photograph shown by kind permission of ww1cemeteries.com.]

Skelton War Memorial shows J Longstaff, but from the record "Soldiers died in the Great War" the only J Longstaff shown is J W Longstaff of the Yorkshire Regiment.
A Skelton Parish Magazine list gives his address as 61 Wharton St and 4th Bn.
CWGC site gives 12th Battalion.

The 12th (Service) Battalion of the Yorkshire Regiment were called the Teesside Pioneers.
They were formed in Middlesbrough in December 1914, by the Mayor and Town.
In September 1915 they were attached to the 40th Division as Pioneers.
The 40th Division served between June and late October 1916 on the front near Loos during the Battle of the Somme.
Lillers, where Pte Longstaff is buried was an important town for the BEF in the Loos and Bethune areas, for it was used as a headquarters, medical centre, stores and billet from as early as September 1914.
The Cemetery holds 980 British soldiers.