Kate: A wartime romance

Apart from explaining his scars my grandfather, William John Roberts, never spoke about the war. 

He was a school teacher. He enlisted at 19 as a private in the South Wales Borders 10th Battalion. 

In 1915 the battalion landed at Havre France. In July 1916 the Division moved to the River Ancre for the Battle of the Somme. 

During five days of hard fighting in Mametz Wood, the division suffered severe casualties. My grandfather lay for ten days in a shell hole in no man’s land. Badly wounded and with gangrene spreading from his wounded arm he heard angels singing. 

While recovering in Margate, England my grandfather was out walking and saw my grandmother Kathleen. She was working for the Land Army, growing potatoes on a farm.  He asked her out for a walk, but her father disapproved and whipped her for going about with a soldier. Undeterred she falsified her age and married my grandfather before he returned to the front in 1917.

Back to the front

Now the 10th Battalion was involved in the attack at Pilckem Ridge on 31st July 1917, the first day of the Third Battle of Ypres. Their three objectives were to capture the German line east of the Ypres Canal, the German second line on the Pilckem Ridge, and a further ridge east of Pilckem known as Iron Cross Ridge.

The attack started at 3.50am with rain, mud and shelling making conditions very difficult. Although suffering 550 casualties the Battalions achieved their objectives and consolidated the ground won the following day.

After the battle of Langemarck in late August when the battalion lost another 100 men, the Welsh Division was sent to Armentieres. In this sector they distinguished themselves by their vigorous patrol work, taking prisoners and making valuable identifications.

In August / September 1918 they took part in the British offensive across the old Somme battlefield. In this advance “the gallantry and initiative of the junior leaders was conspicuous”, NCOs taking over when their officers were hit and privates leading platoons forward.

My grandfather was made a captain in the field and awarded the Military Cross for “conspicuous daring and initiative” as intelligence officer. On one occasion he met six enemy, shot four and took two prisoners.

The battalion fought throughout the remaining stages of the war and ended the war near Aulnoye, France.
~ Kate Graham