MAJOR STATHAM BROADBENT MAUFE, 11TH BATTALION WEST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT.


MAJOR STATHAM BROADBENT MAUFE, 11TH BATTALION WEST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT. KILLED IN ACTION 4TH JULY 1916.


Major Statham Broadbent Maufe and his battalion 11th West Yorkshire Regiment had not taken part in the fighting on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. However, on the 4th July they went into the front line near to the village of Contalmaison. The battalion was involved in attacks against the German trenches during which they suffered heavy casualties including Statham Maufe who was badly wounded. Evacuated to the Casualty Clearing Station at Heilly, he succumbed to his wounds on the 5th July. Statham was the son of Frederick Broadbent Maufe who lived at Warlbeck on Kings Road. The family owned the famous Bradford department store Brown,Muff. The family surname had originally been Muff but was changed to Maufe in 1909. Statham was educated at a small prep school in Southbourne, Hampshire and then Uppingham School in Rutland. He attended Clare College, Cambridge University before obtaining a commission in the West Yorkshire Regiment in September 1909. In October 1914 he was gazetted as Captain in the newly formed 11th Battalion and was mentioned in dispatches in June 1916. Statham was 29 years old when he was killed, having attained the rank of temporary Major. Today he lies in the British Military Cemetery at Heilly Station and is remembered on Ilkley War Memorial. His younger brother 2nd Lieutenant Thomas Harold Broadbent would win the Victoria Cross in June 1917



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