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SKELTON - IN - CLEVELAND
IN HISTORY
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"WE WILL REMEMBER THEM"
3183 Private HENRY PAUL LAING-TAYLOR
1/4th Battalion, The Yorkshire Regiment.
who died of wounds, age 21, on the 31st October 1916.
Born in Skelton in Cleveland and enlisted at Boosbeck, N Yorks.
Son Mary and the late George Laing-Taylor of 62 Harker St, Skelton-in-Cleveland, N Yorks.
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Dernancourt Communal Cemetery Extension. Near Albert,
Somme.
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FAMILY:-
1911. Henry is living at 62 Harker St and working in the Ironstone Mines below ground as a Rope lad. [In some mines tubs of iron ore were hauled from the face to the pit bottom by cable.] He had been born in Skelton.
Henry's mother Mary, age 50, is a widow and had been born in Guisborough, N Yorks.
He has an older brother George, age 23, who also works in the Mines at the Face below ground. He had been born in Guisborough.
And a sister, Mable, aged 9.
WAR SITUATION:-
Henry's Medal Card shows that he was an early Volunteer for service in the War. He first joined the 4th Yorks on the 9th October 1915 and must have fought with them at Ypres through the Winter of 1915/16 and then at Kemmel before they were ordered South to join in the struggle on the Somme
At the time of Henry's death the 4th Yorks Battalion had fought in the British offensive, the Battle of Flers Courcelettes, which was a continuing stage in the Battle of the Somme.
By October they were defending trenches that they had recently captured to the North East of Martinpuich.
The War Diary for the 27th October says that there was considerable shelling on this day and 5 other ranks were wounded.
Henry presumably was taken back to Dernancourt, near Albert, to a Casualty Station where he died on the 31st.
Full details based on the Battalion War Diary can be read here.
MEMORIAL:-
Dernancourt is a village about 3 kilometres South of the town of Albert. The Communal Cemetery extension contains 2,162 burials from the First War.
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