2nd Battalion Middlesex Regiment

1914 to March 1915

The 2nd Battalion (the 77th Foot) was at Malta and formed part of the Mediterranean garrison ; Lieut. Colonel R. H. Hayes commanded the Battalion. Went out to Western Front with 23rd. Infantry Brigade, 8th Division, November 1914.

On 5th November, the 2nd Middlesex had embarked at Southampton with other units of the 23rd Infantry Brigade, 8th Division. The latter consisted of the 23rd, 24th and 25th Infantry Brigades. The 23rd Brigade was formed of the 2nd Devons, 2nd West Yorks, 2nd Scottish Rifles and 2nd Middlesex Regiments. Havre was reached on the 6th, but the battalions remained on board, and it was not until 8 a.m. on the 7th that disembarkation began, and on getting ashore the troops marched out to the Rest Camp, 5 miles away. At 4 p.m. on the 8th, the Battalion (in Brigade) entrained, and, after spending all night and the whole of the next day in the train, eventually detrained at Merville at 10 p.m. on the 9th and went into billets.

On 12th the 23rd Brigade moved to Steenwerck, coming under the orders of the Cavalry Corps. The same night one Battalion of the Brigade went into the front-line trenches, the right flank of the Brigade resting on the "La Hutte-Warneton road at a point due south of Messines. The trenches turned thence through the 7th kilometre on Ploegsteert-Messines road to the junction along unmetalled road running southwards from River Douve, half mile west of 7th kilometre referred to above. Route taken to enter the trenches via Wulverghem and thence along south bank of River Douve." The first sector held in France and Flanders during the war is an interesting memory to many units. On 14th the 2nd Middlesex moved from Steenwerck to Neuve Eglise, and at 5 p.m. on 15th moved off to relieve the 2nd West Yorkshires in the front line. The relief was completed by 10 p.m. Details of that first tour in the front line are very meagre. 'C Subjected to shrapnel fire for about an hour 16th inst., 12 noon, while the right of our trenches held by ' C ' Company was subjected to an attack by some infantry at 6 p.m. and again at 9 p.m." And the casualties (the first reported) are given as " 1 killed, 1 wounded, 15 missing."

The Battalion was relieved on 17th November and marched to billets in Estaires. From this date until the end of the year the Battalion Diary omits all details of the severe time spent in the front line before the New Year dawned, though casualties were frequent. Two officers were killed-Lieut. C. M. Harvey on 25th November and Captain A. C. Wordsworth on 6th December. In other ranks the 2nd Middlesex lost during that period 24 killed and 36 wounded. The last day of 1914 found the Battalion in reserve billets in La Flinque, the 23rd Brigade then holding a sub-sector of the line just south of Chapigny.

Thus at the end of the year there were three battalions of the Regiment in France and Flanders, i.e., the 1st in Armentières, the 2nd at La Flinque and the 4th at Locre.

16th November 1914 At 2 p.m. on the 16th the 8th Brigade (4th Middlesex) marched out of Bailleul, and arrived near Neuve Eglise at 4.30 p.m., where a halt was called and hot tea served out to the men. At 6 p.m. the march was continued to Wulverghem, where the 2nd Suffolk Regiment relieved a battalion of French troops near the Wulverghem-Messines road; the 2nd Royal Scots relieved the 2nd Middlesex, with their right flank near the Armentières-Messines road, and the 4th Middlesex took over the trenches of the Scottish Rifles between the French troops and the 2nd Middlesex. The Royal Scots and the 4th Middlesex suffered about a dozen casualties from shell fire whilst approaching the trenches. Of the 2nd Battalion and its first winter in the trenches little can be told, for all reference to trench life from the 15th November, 1914, until the early days of March, 1915, when the Battalion was moving up to take over trenches previous to the battle of Neuve Chapelle (10th March), is omitted. On the 5th March, however, all officers of the Battalion and 8 N.C.Os. proceeded by motor 'bus to Rouge Croix and thence on foot to Rue de Tilloy (west of Neuve Chapelle) for the purpose of reconnoitring the position. The Battalion spent the 7th March in billets in Estaires, and on the 9th March moved off after dark to take up its assembly positions from which the attack was to be made. (Part of The Battle of Neuve Chapelle)