LIEUTENANT ERIC MALLINSON, 9TH BATTALION WEST RIDING REGIMENT.


LIEUTENANT ERIC MALLINSON, 9TH BATTALION WEST RIDING REGIMENT. KILLED IN ACTION 7TH JULY 1916.



Eric Mallinson was the second son of a well to do woolen merchant and was born in Roundhay, Leeds in 1884. His father died whilst Eric was still a pupil at Sedbergh School. At about this time, the family moved to Ilkley and lived in a house called Ashburn on Parish Ghyll Road. At the age of 20 Eric left Britain and sailed for New Zealand, where he bought a sheep farm in the Canterbury District on the South Island. Once there he married a Scottish woman called Helen Rennet and together they had two children. For reasons that are unknown Eric sold the farm in 1912 and decided to head for Canada, crossing from the USA into Quebec in December of that year. His wife and children meanwhile returned to Britain, where they took up residence at 11, Albany Mansions in Battersea, London. Whilst in Canada Eric appears to have undergone some military service in the militia in Vancouver. At the outbreak of war in 1914 Eric returned to Britain and obtained a commission in the Duke of Wellingtons Regiment. At first he was attached to a reserve battalion, but in 1915 he was posted to the 9th Battalion in France and promoted to Lieutenant. On 7th July 1916, the 9th Dukes were in the front line near to the village of Contalmaison. The village had been an objective on the first day of the Battle of the Somme but still remained in German hands. A large scale attack was planned for the 7th July involving several battalions including the 9th Dukes. The attack commenced at 2am in the morning and lasted until the evening. The Dukes failed to reach their objective and and lost 265 men, mostly, it is reported on the German barbed wire. The village of Contalmaison would be attacked again and again and was eventually captured 10 days later. Eric was one of those men who failed to return on the 7th July and was buried near to where he fell. After the war his grave was exhumed and his body reburied in British Military Cemetery at Gordon Dump. He is also remembered on Ilkley War Memorial


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