PRIVATE
2647 GILBERT FORSTER HADDOCK, 1/7th BATTALION DURHAM LIGHT INFANTRY.
KILLED IN ACTION 24th APRIL 1915, AGED 26.
Born in the village of Ingleton, Yorkshire, in 1888,
Gilbert was the only son of William and Emily Haddock. William was a mining
engineer originally from County Durham who at the time of Gilberts birth
appears to have been working in the small coalfield which centred on the
village of Ingleton. By 1891 the family had returned to the North East and
lived in the village of Ryhope near Sunderland.
Gilbert was sent as a boarder at Ilkley Grammar
School and appears to have remained there until he was 18 years old. His
headmaster, Mr Swan, described him as “.....a quiet gentle studious boy,
absolutely trustworthy and conscientious in his work, and though but slight in
frame did his best in games.” In 1906 he gained a position with the North Eastern
Engineering Company in Sunderland and attended the towns Technical College to
study engineering. Clearly talented Gilbert was awarded a prestigious Whitworth
Exhibition and using this was able to complete an external degree in
engineering from London University and was awarded a B.Sc with honours in 1910.
It seems that Gilbert’s mother died about this time and as his father had taken
a mining job in South Africa so he lived with an aunt, Elizabeth Haddock, a
private school principal, at 16 Azalea Street South in Sunderland.
Early in the war Gilbert enlisted into the 1/7th
Battalion, Durham Light Infantry, a territorial unit based in Sunderland, who
as part of the 50th (Northumbrian) Division arrived in France on the 19th April 1915. With the 2nd
Battle of Ypres at its height and German attacks threatening that important
city, the Division was moved into Belgium and despite being barely trained and
with no experience of trench warfare the 1/7th arrived in the Ypres Salient.
To acclimatise to life in the trenches the battalion
was split between two experienced regular Battalions and thus A and B
Companies, which included Gilbert, were attached to the 3rd Royal
Fusiliers. On the 24th May 1915 the Gilbert was with his company in
the front line trenches on the Bellewaarde Ridge north of the village of Hooge.
At 2.30am the Germans launched a gas attack on the British positions using
chlorine gas. British respirators were rudimentary and soon men where
succumbing to the effects of the gas. A heavy enemy artillery bombardment
followed and a subsequent infantry attack pushed the British defenders out of
the positions. Casualties amongst the British battalions were heavy and many
hundreds of men were killed including Gilbert.
Private
Gilbert Forster Haddock has no known grave and is commemorated on the British
Memorial at the Menin Gate and remembered with pride on the Sunderland Roll of
Honour and the war memorial at Ilkley Grammar School
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