2nd Lieutenant Lawrence Cave Blencowe. 1/10th Battalion Kings Liverpool Regiment (Liverpool Scottish) Killed in Action 29th June 1917 aged 30

2^nd LIEUTENANT ROBERT (BOB) LONGBOTTOM, 7^th BATTALION KINGS ROYAL RIFLE CORPS. KILLED IN ACTION 30^th JULY 1915.

In a letter to his parents in August 1915, Philip Holmes, a corporal in the 7^th Battalion Kings Royal Rifle Corps, wrote that during a tour in the front line near to Hooge he had witnessed a most distressing incident involving the body of a young British officer. In his own words he wrote, “...the Germans got his body stuck it on a bayonet and held it over the parapet with the label ‘One of Kitcheners bastards’. These are the sort of devils we are fighting and even if I don’t see you all for years I hope that we stay and wipe them out”. Holmes went on to name the dead officer but the entry was removed by a censor with the comment “I have scratched out the name of the officer on page 3 as his family must on no account hear of it.”

 

There is no other verification of this story but examples of German atrocities were common currency and often centred upon the use of bayonets. Holmes clearly believed what he reported as did the censoring officer who was at pains to insist that the officer’s family should not hear about what had happened. The idea that a dead combatant should be subject to mutilation was anathema to most soldiers and Holmes obviously considered it the worst form of barbarism. The letter has been the subject of considerable analysis by the military historian Mark Hone who concludes that the officer was in fact 19 year old Robert Longbottom.

 

Robert was one of three sons born in 1896 to wealthy wool merchant William Henry Longbottom and his wife Ethel. The Longbottoms originated in Bradford but had moved to Ilkley at the end of the 19^th Century and lived at Myddleton Lodge a large house which overlooks the town. Robert was sent as a boarder to Wellington College along with his older brother Henry who was head boy. A natural athlete he excelled at cricket and rugby and was friendly with the famous novelist Rudyard Kiplings son Jack. The start of the war coincided with Roberts last term at the school and instead of making the natural progression to Oxford University he chose to enlist into the army. Gazetted as a 2^nd Lieutenant in the 7^th Battalion Kings Royal Rifle Corps he went to France in the spring of 1915.

 

On the 30^th July 1915 Robert and his battalion were in the front line near to Hooge to the south of Ypres. At about 3am on the morning they were subject to a violent German attack using flame throwers which caused considerable consternation amongst the defending British troops. Many men were understandably reluctant to face this hideous new weapon and attempted to flee. It is reported that Robert had to threaten men with being shot if they continued to retreat and personally led a counter attack which pushed back the German attackers. Yet the cost was great and included Robert who was seen to fall.

 

If Philip Holmes is correct then Robert Longbottom’s body was in the hands of the Germans but it was never recovered and if he ever had a grave it was subsequently lost. Back home in Britain, his parents would grieve for their son without hopefully even known his subsequent fate, their sorrow made worse by the news that Henry the eldest son was also killed in action just 10 days later. Robert’s death shocked the Kipling family who knew him well but, sadly, it was a precursor for the death of Jack their only son a few months later.

 

2^nd Lieutenant Robet Longbottom has no known grave and is remembered on the Menin Gate memorial to the missing in Ypres. Oddly, unlike his brother Henry, he is not remembered on Ilkley War Memorial