WW1 Victory Medal to 43405 PTE.M.MARTIN.DURH.L.I., killed in action 31 July 1917, the Battle of Pilckem Ridge, Third Battle of Ypres
Matthew Martin was born in Kyo, County Durham circa 1892. By 1911 he was living with his grandmother, uncle and younger sister at 12 Towneley Street, Stanley and was employed as a bottler in a mineral water factory. Matthew attested his willingness to serve at Stanley, County Durham on 9 December 1915. He was aged 24 at the time and was resident at 1 Towneley Street, Stanley where he worked as a coal miner (screener) for the South Derwent Coal Company, one of around 60 above-ground staff. His next of kin was officially given as his grandmother, Ann Robson (same address), later changed to his sister, Madeline Robson Martin. He was posted to the Army Reserve the following day (10 December) and spent approximately six months on the Reserve before being called up and appointed to the Durham Light Infantry by the recruiting officer of the 68th Recruiting District on 26/27 June 1916.
Pte Martin was posted first to the 3/9th DLI in June and then on 1 September 1916, following the absorption of the 3/9th and the three other third line battalions of the DLI into a new 5th (Reserve) Battalion, transferred to the new battalion, where he trained with 'A' Company. It was at this period that he presumably discarded his former regimental number 4689[?] and received the new number 8319. At some point he made an allotment out of his pay to his grandmother of three shillings and sixpence, to a total, including Separation Allowance, of thirteen shillings weekly.
Pte Martin was sent overseas on 25 October 1916 via Folkestone, disembarking at Boulogne the following day. After a fortnight at No.35 Infantry Base Depot, he was posted to the 13th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry (68th Brigade , 23rd Division) on 10 November 1916, joining them in the field on the 13th, most probably as part of a draft of 70 men recorded in the battalion history. This is presumably when he received his new regimental number in the Regular sequence, 43405. At the time the 68th Brigade was out of the line, the 13th DLI being in Winnipeg camp, south west of Vlamertinghe. After participating on classes of instruction and enjoying some time off for inter-compant football matches, Pte Martin's first experience in the line probably followed three days later, from 16 to 20 November 1916. He then wintered with the battalion in the Ypres Salient, undergoing the usual pattern of working parties in and out of the line and patrols, wiring and improvements whilst in it, broken by the usual Christmas festivities. By mid-February of 1917, when the brigade was again in rest, he had developed a skin infection to the shoulder and right leg that caused him to pass via 69th Field Ambulance and 23rd Divisional Rest Station to 13th General Hospital, Boulogne and thence by ship to England. He returned home on 28 February 1917, diagnosed with an inflammation of the connective tissue (skin infection) which took him to 4th Northern General Hospital at Lincoln for 50 days' treatment for ulcers on the right leg. After a period on the strength of the DLI depot at Fenham Barracks, he was posted to the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion on 1 May and went overseas again on 11 June 1917.
Upon arrival again at 35th Infantry Base Depot he was posted to the 20th Battalion (Wearside), Durham Light Infantry, although he did not join them in the field until early the following month, 2 July. He served in the 10th platoon of C Company, under Captain Moreton Hand. At this time the battalion was out of the lines at Mont des Cats, having recently taken part in the Battle of Messines. The battalion history comments that of his draft, 234 Other Ranks, nearly all had been out with the BEF before. The battalion spent the next several weeks in intensive training and practice attacks for the forthcoming offensive, interspersed with inspections, sports and other competitions and parades, including an inspection of the new men by Brigadier-General CWE Gordon, GOC 123rd Brigade, in which Pte Martin would have taken part.
At this time, preparations for a further major attack at Ypres, designed to take the pressure off the French after the failed Nivelle Offensive and wear down and cut the supply lines of the German 4th Army opposite, were coming to a conclusion. In the assault, General Gough's British Fifth Army was tasked with securing Pilckem Ridge, the only high ground to the north east of Ypres, supported by the French First Army on the left and on the right by the British Second Army. In the attack the 41st Division, X Corps would advance either side of the Ypres-Comines Canal, with the 123rd Infantry Brigade on the north bank, 20th Durham Light Infantry on the left of the brigade attack.
The Brigade started moving up for the attack on 25 July and Pte Martin would have gone with 'C' Company into a line of advanced posts later that day, the companies rotating through the various posts whilst they waited for the postponed attack to take place. On the 29th the attack was back on for 3.50am on the 31st and the white tapes at which the battalion would assemble for the assault were laid. Here the rum ration went around - "three or four times if you wanted it", Pte George Thompson, another soldier of 'C' Company recalled - and the battalion prepared itself to go over the top.
Attacking south of Klein Zillebeke, on the extreme left flank of Second Army's attack, towards the German-held line (the 'Red line') at Imperfect Trench, the battalion's objective was reached and passed, the battalion digging-in on the Blue Line and holding on to it in the face of counter-attacks until relieved after nightfall on 1 August. However, machine gun fire from concealed concrete pill boxes with interlocking arcs of fire, together with shell fire brought down by the enemy's S.O.S. rockets, caused the battalion over 430 casualties, Pte Martin amongst them. The battalion history reports that a group of C Company men under the Company Commander, Captain Hand, pushed on but was cut off and never seen again and it is possible that Pte Martin, if he did not fall in the initial assault, was one of this group.
In total, the attack, although taking the Pilckem Ridge, Bellewaarde Ridge and German observation posts on Gheluveld Plateau together with 5,000 prisoners, cost circa 32,000 casualties in the course of three days, in the face of unseasonal heavy rain, mud, a robust German defence and persistent counter-attacks.
Reported missing in the War Office daily casualty list No. 5365 of 15 September 1917, Pte Martin's death was presumed on or since 31 July 1917. His sister Madeline of Towneley Steet, Stanley, County Durham caused enquiries to be put in hand with the International Committee of the Red Cross, enquiries which finally received a negative reply on 15 June 1918. There was also an exchange with the War Office during the period. His financial effects of £1 7 4 and War Gratuity of £4 were released to Madeline in August 1918 and November 1919 respectively, whilst his grandmother Ann was granted a pension of 5/- a week from 26 March 1918.
For his service he was entitled to the British War Medal and Victory Medal, memorial plaque and scroll.
Pte Martin, his body never having been identified, is commemorated at Bay 36H of the Menin Gate Memorial:
"Here are recorded names of officers and men who fell in the Ypres Salient but to whom the fortune of war denied the known and honoured burial given to their comrades in death".
