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The Middlesex Regiment, "The Duke of Cambridge's Own", was an infantry regiment. It served with distinction in the Great War, sending 46 regular and territorial battalions to various fronts.

This website is concerned with the 1st Battalion in the Great War, their actions and the associated maps.

Most of the text on this site is taken directly from the Regimental History of the Middlesex Regiment with only very minor changes (all marked in red). No date is given in either volume of this history but the Foreword was written in 1926, at least 7 years after the armistice. The language used, the attitudes to officers and "other ranks" etc. all belong to a bygone era, but in the narrative, between descriptions of routine life in and out of the trenches, are some chilling passages. The intention all along has been to extract from the Regimental History, all that concerns the 1st Battalion. Although other equally interesting Battlions are mentioned, my wish is to provide a picture at battalion level of what happened to one set of soldiers in the Great War.

Like so many people with an interest in the Great War in general, I had relatives who served. My Grandfather was lucky to survive, arriving in France on 14th September 1914 with the 1st Middlesex and surviving in the army until 1920, dying fairly peacefully in 1961. So many received one of these letters, but luckily he was only captured when with the 2nd Middlesex on the Aisne, 1918.

One of the "Old Contemptibles", L10103 Corporal Albinus (Albert) Edward Allen was Mentioned in Despatches three times, always for staying behind with the wounded. He fought with 1st Middlesex at Loos, the Somme and Passendale and with 2nd Middlesex during the German 1918 Spring Offensives, names now part of a deep collective memory. This web page is intended to help keep that memory alive.

Also in memory of Arthur Worby of the "Queens", Royal West Surrey Regiment. Arthur was Albert's brother-in-law who died of the Spanish 'flu on 16th November 1918 just 5 days after the Armistice. Another of Albert's brothers-in-law, Thomas Woodley, 1/4th Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry, died 15th June 1918 during the Battle of Asiago. They are both remembered on the Stockwell War Memorial, Arthur is also on the Screen Wall in Lambeth Cemetery, Tooting.

Albert is also remembered on Les Amis du Bois des Buttes

Howard Anderson. December 1999-2023.

 

Technical details on the preparation of this site