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Lonsdale Cemetery, Authuille.
5k North of Albert, France.
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Allan H Rooks.
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At the census of 1901, Allan aged 8, was living at 8 Thomas St and had been born in Skelton.
His father, who was a Sandstone quarryman, came from Danby, Yorks and his mother, Mary from Gt Ayton, Yorks.
He had 4 older sisters - Mary A Gott, aged 26, who was married and lived at 18 South Tce, Skelton;
Hannah Jane, aged 24, who was a domestic servant in the Huddersfield area;
Isabella, aged 22, who was a nurse domestic at 11 Nevern Sq, S Kensington, London;
and Ada, aged 20, still living at home.
His four older brothers were - Edward 18, an elementary school teacher; William 16, a
farm labourer; Thomas 13, a newsboy; and James aged 11.
Thomas fought in the War with the 17th Bn, Northumberland Fusiliers and survived.
James was in the 4th/5th Bns Grenadier Guards and after being invalided out with tuberculosis, took his own life on
the 24th April 1919.
The 6th Bn were formed at Richmond on the 25th August 1914.
They were attached to 32nd Brigade, part of the 11th (Northern) Division.
In 1915 the Division fought in Gallipoli.
In December 1915 it was withdrawn to Egypt. On July 1916 it landed at Marseilles and spent the remainder of
the War on the Western Front.
The Battle of the Somme began with a massive bombardment at the end of June 1916 and
a series of offensives were continued into the winter of that year.
Allan Rooks appears to have lost his life at the start of one of these, the Battle of Flers-Courcelette, which commenced
on the 15th September and lasted until it was called off on the 22nd of that month.
It was notable for the introduction of tanks, 49 in all, by the British.
Only 15 made it to No Mans Land, but they were considered to have had a devastating effect on German
morale.
The British forces made initial gains of some 2 km within the first three days, something of an achievement at the time,
and particularly during the Battle of the Somme.
Led by tanks the villages of Martinpuich, Flers and Courcelette fell to the Allies, as did the much sought-after High
Wood.
Nevertheless, a combination of poor weather and extensive German reinforcements halted the British and Canadian advance
on 17 September; the Allies had again suffered heavy casualties, including Raymond Asquith, the son of the British Prime
Minister Herbert Asquith.
The village of Authuille, where he is buried, was held by British troops from the summer of 1915 to March, 1918,
when it was captured in the German Offensive on the Somme.
It was ruined by shell fire even before that date.
The Military Cemetery was used by Field Ambulances and fighting units from August 1915 to December 1916.
