#15965 Private Francis Henry Halfacre
1ST/8TH DUKE OF WELLINGTON’S WEST RIDING REGIMENT
BEFORE THE WAR, FRANCIS HALFACRE had been a point boy for the Tramways Company. A 25-year-old North London native, he enlisted in March 1915 and served at Gallipoli, landing at Suvla Bay in August of that year. By July 1916 he was on the Western Front. Arriving on the Somme, Francis’ division came into the line on 7th September, the day that John Allison was killed on the right of Gough’s army.
Private Francis Halfacre. (Authors’ collection)
Gough had been ordered to take good care of his resources because, frankly, with the offensive due to resume in force to the south of him in twenty-four hours, there weren’t any to spare. Commanders beneath him were still orchestrating smaller assaults if there was some profit to be had but, on Gough’s remit, they were not placing any more than two battalions into any attack at once. On this premise it had been decided that Francis Halfacre’s battalion could be used in limited endeavour to make some useful progress on the higher ground to the south of Thiepval.
On 11th September he and his comrades were in huts attempting to clean themselves up and training nearby, but at 8am on the 14th the men were ordered to depart and relieve the 6th York & Lancaster Regiment in the Hindenburg Trench to the south of Thiepval. At 6:30pm they were ordered to attack the Wonder Work, a star-shaped strong point guarding the south of Thiepval that lay in front of the British lines. There were two companies, with a third in support and the last in reserve. The British artillery barrage was spot on. The West Riding battalion reached its objective, taking the German front line and 250 yards of a nearby trench alongside a battalion of the West Yorkshires, and then the Wunderwerk along with a portion of the German line as far as the Thiepval road. Their left flank was secured by more Yorkshiremen and the attacking companies immediately began digging themselves communication trenches linking their new position to existing ones immediately.
It was a short, decisive action. The two battalions involved carried their initial gains with few losses, but those engaged had then lost some 700 men in trying to dig in in their new positions, mostly at the cost of enemy shelling, which came down furiously once the Germans had lost ground. Francis Halfacre was mortally wounded by this enemy barrage and was laid to rest at Lonsdale Cemetery, plot VI.L.5.