Herbert Adshead
Regiment or Corps:Manchester Regiment, West Riding Regiment
Regimental Number:3830 (Manchester Regiment), 405567 (Labour Corps), 27059 (West Riding)
Herbert Adshead was born in Hurst, Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire, in 1885. Aged 15 he lived with his parents, and worked as a waggoner whilst by 1911 he was the head of a family, married to Ann Adshead (neé Brierley), and had two children, Robert (born out of wedlock) and Lily. He worked as a coal miner filler (filling conveyances with coal to be taken away from the face), probably at the Ashton New Moss Colliery and lived with Ann and Lily at 2 Seel Cottages, Hurst Nook, Ashton-under-Lyne.
He enlisted on 25 August 1914 at Ashton-under-Lyme, one of 25% of the pit workforce to do so, a record for the local area. His terms of enlistment being for one year or the duration of the war. He was aged 29 years four months at the time and working as a labourer. On attestation he was posted to the 11th (Service) Battalion, The Manchester Regiment, a battalion which was raised in Ashton-under-Lyne in August 1914 as part of 'K1', Kitchener's first hundred thousand.
He would have moved with the battalion to Witley Camp, Godalming, in April 1915 entered France (presumably en route to the Mediterranean theatre of war) with the battalion on 6 July 1915 and so was entitled to the 1914-15 Star. From 6 July 1915 to 15 October 1915 he served with the 11th Battalion, 34th Infantry Brigade, 11th (Northern) Division as part of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, probably landing with the battalion at Suvla Bay, Gallipoli on 6 August and taking part in the subsequent night assault on the Karakhol Dagh and Hill 10, when they cleared the Turkish positions at the point of the bayonet.
During the month of September the battalion history notes that the health of the battalion was very bad (indeed it was forced to join with the 5th Dorsets to become a composite battalion of 630 all ranks on 25 August owing to losses incurred.) Private Adshead was posted to the Manchester Regiment Depot on 16 October 1915, presumably (given his absence from the daily casualty lists) due to sickness or injury not due to enemy action. At this point the battalion was back on the beaches at Suvla, preparing to go back into the line at Jephson's Post. His depot posting was probably for pay and rations purposes whilst he underwent treatment and convalesced.
From there, after a period of three months he was posted to the 3rd Battalion, one of the regiment's reserve battalions, on 17 January 1916, a month after his old battalion had evacuated the Gallipoli peninsula. The battalion had been based at Ashton-under-Lyne in August 1914 but at the time of his posting would have been at Cleethorpes, manning the Humber defences.
Once fit again for combat service, he was posted to the British Expeditionary Force in France on 24 August 1916, joining the 22nd (Service) Battalion (7th City Pals), The Manchester Regiment. This most probably took place whilst the battalion was in Reserve at Montauban Alley on 5 September, Pte Adshead therefore being one of 13 Other Ranks from his battalion and 26 from the 12th Manchesters who joined the same day. The battalion entered the trenches before Ginchy the following day but the intended attack was postponed and the battalion was relieved on 7 September. On the 18th the battalion entrained for the Second Army sector, near Bailleul and Douvre. The rest of the month was spent in and out of the trenches save for a raid on a German sap near Black Shed on 30 September. The month of October was spent similarly. In November the battalion spent most of a week in billets before joining the 91st Brigade on 9 November, returning to the Somme later in the month and taking over the Reserve Line on Hawthorn Ridge. Pte Adshead continued to serve 1until 5 December 1916 with the 22nd Manchesters; on this date, whilst the battalion was resting at Bertrancourt, he was hospitalised (via 23rd Field Ambulance, attached to 7th Division) with a serious wound in the foot from a pointed iron stake, incurred whilst undertaking salvage work on 30 November (according to the record, but more likely to have been on the 29th) near the old German front line which protected Beaumont-Hamel. He was adjudged not to blame as the stakes, which were in front of the German wire, were inconspicuous being painted brown.
He was posted to home depot again on 15 December 1916, then to a Command Depot (one of the military convalescent establishments which had by then been set up, for the benefit of soldiers too fit for convalescent camps but not fit enough to return to unit) on 3 February 1917 and finally to the 3rd Battalion again on 4 April 1917. Having been cleared for active service he was posted to an Infantry Base Depot with the BEF on 24 October 1917. After a short stay at the depot, possibly undergoing some refresher training, he was posted to the 12th Battalion, The Manchester Regiment on 2 November 1917, whilst they were in billets at Louches, one of 29 Other Ranks reinforcements joining on that date. The battalion went into the line at Turene on 9 November and were immediately faced with enemy action, losing a whole platoon to enemy action at Gravel Farm on the 10th. The battalion spent the remainder of the month in and out of the line (where the waterlogged conditions were so poor that a number of cases of trench feet were reported on thr return to Dragon Camp on the 14th. The first half of the month of December was quieter, being taken up with training, re-equipping and travel down to the Somme area.
Unfortunately, it seems likely that either Pte Adshead's health broke down under the strain of active service or he was returned to unit too early as just six weeks later, whilst the battalion was in training at Rocquigny Camp on 17 December 1917, he was transferred to 866 Area Employment (Garrison Guard) Company, The Labour Corps under an AGS of 23 (possibly a mistake for 28) August 1917. This would have accompanied a medical downgrading to category B I.The duties of the Garrison Guard companies (which had only been taken into the Labour Corps in September) included guarding prisons, dumps, railway communications, hospitals and providing escorts for PoW labour Companies. 866 Company was one of the group employed on the Lines of Communications. Private Adshead would have remained with the company when it was embodied into the 3rd Provisional Guard Battalion of 199th Brigade, Reserve Army between 18 and 21 April 1918 (a response to the urgent need for more men for defence in the face of the German Spring Offensive which began the previous month), and put into the line between Saulty and Harbacq, south west of Arras. When it was designated an infantry garrison battalion and became the 13th (Garrison) Btn, Duke of Wellington's Regiment on 25 May 1918, he would have gone with it, although it appears that he was not compulsorily transferred-in to the regiment, under the authority of AGS 833 (M) of 11 April 1918, until 29 June 1918. At the time of formation the Company had 225 Other Ranks under the command of Lieutenant H A S Walter, RNVR. It became 'B' company of the new battalion, containing 5 through to 8 Platoons. By this point, the battalion had been attached to the 177th Brigade and then attached to the 178th Brigade, both part of the 59th (2nd North Midland) Division, which was being reconstituted after its rough handling during the German Spring Offensive. The battalion was engaged in digging trenches on the BB Defensive Line and training for the remainder of May and early June.
It is probably reasonable to suppose that he was in grade BI or possibly B II, and thus considered unfit for frontline service, hence his drafting into a garrison battalion. This position crumbled, however, in light of the manpower demands of the Western Front and during June and July 1918 the 59th was trained to enable it to hold a sector of front line again. It took over a sector on 25 July 1918 under the command of Third Army, its battalions having dropped their "Garrison Guard" titles on or around 16 July. The 13th Battalion entered the trenches for the first time on 13/14 August, relieving the 36th Northumberland Fusiliers, and then the 1st Grenadier Guards at Blaireville on 21 August. From 21 August, during the latter (Battle of Albert) phases of the Second Battle of the Somme the division was used to follow up attacking units, including under fire, to consolidate positions held, and provide working parties for tasks such as road repair. The battalion was active in the areas Flingue and Bout de Ville through the month of September, suffering casualties to shelling, machine gun fire and sickness, B Company being regularly in the front line.
By early October the division had transferred to XI Corps, Fifth Army, and was operating in the River Lys area, advancing the line through to Flers before relief by the 36th Northumberland Fusiliers on the 18th. The 13th came out of the line towards the end of October for a mixture of training and road repair and clearing. Men of the battalion had won at least 13 Military Medals and a Military Cross over the period. The division was advancing towards Lille as part of the general final advance in Artois and Flanders (2 October – 11 November 1918), with the battalion back in the line and pushing towards Bruyere when the Armistice was signed.
In December the battalion moved to Mardyck demobilisation Camp, Dunkirk and there was engaged in hut construction. Some excitement took place on 1 and 2 January 1919 when the battalion was turned out under arms in the face of disorder amongst the Maori contingent of the New Zealand Rifles. Construction being finished, the battalion began working the demobilisation camp from 23 January.
By January 1919, and his rerun to the UK, Private Adshead was recorded as being with 178 Labour Company (originally formed as 1st Hampshire Regiment Infantry Labour Company), attached to the 13th West Ridings. His medical category at the time was B1. On 25 January 1919 he was granted 28 days furlough and then demobilised to the Army Z Reserve on 22 February 1919 at York, his home address at the time being 3 Newton Court, Ashton-under-Lyme.
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