SERGEANT WILFRED BLACKBURN. 10TH BATTALION WEST RIDING REGIMENT.


SERGEANT WILFRED BLACKBURN. 10TH BATTALION WEST RIDING REGIMENT. KILLED IN ACTION 29TH JULY 1916 AGED 23



In the early hours of 29th July 1916 the 10th Duke of Wellingtons Regiment made a daring night attack against the German lines near to the village of Fricourt, on the Somme. Under the cover of darkness the Dukes got within a few yards of the enemy trenches before being forced to retire as dawn arrived. The battalion lost many men including Acting Sergeant Wilfred Blackburn. Wilfred was not a Yorkshireman by birth, but had been born in Nelson, Lancashire in 1893. By the time he was 11 years old both his parents where dead and the orphaned Wilfred was sent to live with his elderly uncle at West Hall Farm in Nessfield. Wilfred enlisted at the beginning of the war and was posted to France with his battalion in 1915. By the time of his death he had seen much fighting, and his letters home show a young man who was not indifferent to the suffering of both soldiers and civilians. A comrade wrote of him " I am sorry to say that poor Wilfred Blackburn has got knocked out. I saw him lying dead quite close to where we halted after an advance. I could not help but think about him. He was a good sergeant". Wilfred Blackburn has no known grave and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing. He is also remembered on Addingham War memorial and in All Saints Parish Church, Ilkley
Craven Herald 2nd June 1916. To Mr Flint, "Thanks for parcel. Besides being beneficial to us in a practical sense, one feels we are remembered sometimes that the giving of ourselves is not forgotten. Lately, death has been exceedingly close, far too close to feel indifferent. Yesterday, and for many days previously, bombardments have been little short of terrifying. Houses go up like feathers, and soldiers and civilians are dug constantly from the debris. I don't know what to think of an advance for my eye, of course, is very limited in its sight and the object in hand so vast a poor soldier cannot see much of things in general. Today we leave for the trenches, having been out for five days." From CPGW


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