ROYAL WARWICKSHIRE REGIMENT died 23 October 1918
Sydney Gray, born in All Saints, Birmingham circa 1892, was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Frederick George Gray, of 312, Park Rd., Hockley, Birmingham. As of 1911 the family consisting of Frederick, a tortoiseshell worker, Mary Ann and four children, Elsie, Nellie, Lizzie and Sydney, then aged 18 and employed as a turner.
Pte Gray served with the 10th, 16th, 1/6th, 11th and 1st Battalions, Royal Warwickshire Regiment. At the time of his death he was serving again with the 10th battalion.
The 10th battalion was formed in Warwick as part of Kitchener's Second New Army (also known as 'K2') and moved to Salisbury Plain where it joined the 57th Brigade of the 19th (Western) Division. In March 1915 the battalion moved to Tidworth and on 17 July 1915 it mobilised for war and landed in France, Pte Gray (as witnessed by his 1914-15 Star medal roll entry) embarking with it.
Depending upon the timing of his posting from the 10th to the 16th battalion, this would have put him in line to take part in actions including:
During 1915
The Action of Pietre.
During 1916
The Battle of Albert, The attacks on High Wood, The Battle of Pozieres Ridge, The Battle of the Ancre Heights, The Battle of the Ancre.
A medical record dating from early March 1918 says that as of that date Pte Gray (by then serving with the 1st Battalion) had served one year and six months with the field force. Assuming this is not an error, this would suggest that after a break in service he returned to the France and Flanders theatre circa September 1916 and may give a clue as to when one of his inter-battalion transfers (possibly 10th to 16th or 16th to 1/6th) took place.
If with the 1/6th, this may have put him in line to take part in the following actions:
The Battle of the Ancre Heights, The Battle of the Ancre. (both parts of the Battle of the Somme 1916) and, during 1917, the German Retreat to the Hindenburg Line, and the Battles of Langemarck, Polygon Wood, Broodseinde, and Poelcapelle, all phases of the Third Battle of Ypres.
Certainly Pte Gray was wounded circa early October 1917, possibly in the course of the above Battle of Poelcapelle, as he was accordingly listed as wounded on War Office Daily List No. 5412, Report Date 9 November 1917 (there was typically a gap of one month between a man becoming a casualty and his name appearing on a list - this allowed time to notify the family, etc). He may have been with the 1/6th battalion at the time, transferring after recovery to the 11th battalion. This was probably the 'old wound - slight' for which he was hospitalised in March 1918. For his wounding he was entitled to wear a "Wound Stripe" as authorised under Army Order 204 of 6 July 1916, the terms of this award being met by being named in this list.
The 11th Royal Warwickshire was disbanded in France on 7 February 1918 at Wardrecques, as part of a wider manpower-driven reorganisation of the British Army on the Western Front which took place at around this time. In the absence of better information, it is a reasonable inference that Pte Gray's transfer to the 1st battalion took place at this point. Certainly, by March 1918 he was serving with 'C' Company of the 1st battalion. On 9 March 1918 he was hospitalised as witnessed by an entry in the admission and discharge register for 18th General Hospital; he was admitted from no 8 Casualty Clearing Station to which he had been admitted the previous day with 'Old wound, right buttock, slight'. Pte Gray, by the aged 25, appears to have been subsequently evacuated from 18th GH by ambulance train and it may have been after this point that he was posted back to his old battalion.
Meanwhile, the 10th battalion during 1918 took part in the following actions:
The Battle of St Quentin, The Battle of Bapaume, The Battle of Messines, The Battle of Bailleul, The First Battle of Kemmel Ridge, The Battle of the Aisne, The Battle of the Selle, The Battle of the Sambre and the passage of the Grand Honelle. On 11 November 1918 it ended the war in France, west of Bavai.
Returning to the 10th battalion at some point after this flaring-up of his old wound, Pte Gray was killed in action, aged 26, with the 10th battalion on 23 October 1918. The Battle of the Selle (17 - 26 October 1918) took place as the Allies continued the advance after the Second Battle of Cambrai, recapturing French villages one by one as the German forces retreated to the north-east. The battalion took part in operations on the 20th, crossing the River Selle in the early hours and successfully taking the high ground to the east, thereafter remaining in the front line and consolidating. On 23 October two companies of the battalion were ordered to secure positions on the Les Fourrieres-Vendegies-St Martin Road. Both operations were hastily organised to take advantage of local successes and whilst the first went in with limited artillery support, the second went in with no support at all. Nevertheless both were successful (the first attack also taking 56 prisoners) and the 10th Royal Warwicks were relieved from their new positions by the 11th Suffolks on the night of 23 October. It is likely that Pte Grey was killed in one of these operations, one of 137 men of the battalion who became casualties (19 killed) in operations between 18 and 23 October 1918. Having no known grave, he is commemorated on the Vis-en-Artois Memorial. This memorial bears the names of over 9,000 men from the forces of Great Britain and Ireland and South Africa who fell in the period from 8 August 1918 to the date of the Armistice in the Advance to Victory in Picardy and Artois, between the Somme and Loos, and who have no known grave. His financial effects and War Gratuity went to his father Frederick. His next of kin/dependant for pension purposes was his mother Mrs Mary Ann Gray, 312 Park Road, Hockley, who was pensioned for 6/- weekly from 27 May 1919. His full entitlement is the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal, which his next of kin would probably have received between October-November 1919 and October-November 1920, respectively.
