2nd LIEUTENANT ARTHUR DOUGLAS WOODCOCK 2nd BATTALION WEST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT.


2nd LIEUTENANT ARTHUR DOUGLAS WOODCOCK 2nd BATTALION WEST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT. KILLED IN ACTION 16th AUGUST 1917 AGED 34


The 2nd Battalion West Yorkshire regiment had been involved on the first day of the Battle of Passchendaele when it had suffered heavy casualties in the attempt to take the Westhoek Ridge which overlooked the British positions at Ypres. Now just over two weeks later it was again asked to try and secure the Westhoek and drive the German Infantry away from this commanding position.


The battalion was in a poor state as heavy fighting had reduced its strength to barely 400 men and 10 officers, which amounted to less than half its usual compliment. Nevertheless, early on the morning of the 16th August it moved into the assembly areas in preparation for the attack. This was never going to be an easy assault, for not only where the enemy well entrenched and protected by concrete pillboxes but a combination of heavy rain and British shelling had produced a landscape which was essentially a quagmire.

Just after dawn the West Yorkshire battalion left the relative safety of their trenches and went over the top and out into 'no mans land'. The German response was as predictable as it was devastating. The West Yorkshires battled through intense machine gun fire as well as enemy shelling. What objectives were achieved where soon counter-attacked by the enemy and by the mid afternoon the battalion had lost 264 men and 8 of its officers. One of those officers was 34 year old Douglas Woodcock who was reported as missing.

Arthur Douglas Woodcock was born in Bradford in 1883 the son of Charles and Kate Woodcock. His father was an accountant who worked from an office on Market Street in Bradford. Leaving Bradford they moved first to Hipperholme near Halifax and then to West Point, Menston. Douglas's mother died in 1901 and he was educated at Bradford Grammar School which was then located off Manor Row in the city centre. Before the war Charles Woodcock moved to a a house called Rhyddings Lodge on Backstone Lane in Ilkley.

Douglas was commissioned into the Leeds Pals Battalion in April 1915 which may indicate that he had some pre-war military experience. However, it seems that his initial service in France was with the 10th Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment and it was whilst serving with them that he was wounded on 23rd April 1917. Brought back to Britain he was a patient at a military hospital in Manchester before returning to the front on 10th July just a few weeks before his death.

After the battle at Westhoek Ridge the Lieutenant ,Colonel of the 2nd West Yorkshires wrote to Charles Woodcock telling him that his son was missing in action and that there was every hope that he had been taken prisoner and was in German hands. It is not known why this claim was made, but it is known that another officer Lieutenant John Exley, who was with Douglas during the attack, had in fact been captured and taken to a POW camp.

Clearly concerned and wishing to find out what had happened to his only son, Charles began contacting local newspapers asking for information about the fate which had befallen Douglas. Without news and becoming increasingly frustrated his father made contact with the International Red Cross and asked that they make enquiries with the German authorities to see if Douglas had been taken prisoner. By early November the Red Cross replied that sadly there was no record of Douglas and that he should presume that his son was dead.

2nd Lieutenant Arthur Douglas Woodcock is commemorated on the Tyne Cot memorial to the missing and remembered on a plaque in St John's Church, Ben Rhydding (see photo below) as well as our war memorial in Ilkley



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