2nd LIEUTENANT STANLEY NEWSON WITTING, 2nd BATTALION ROYAL MARINE LIGHT INFANTRY. KILLED IN ACTION 22nd MARCH 1918 AGED 21 YEARS.




2nd LIEUTENANT STANLEY NEWSON WITTING, 2nd BATTALION ROYAL MARINE LIGHT INFANTRY. KILLED IN ACTION 22nd MARCH 1918 AGED 21 YEARS.


Stanley Witting was born on 29th August 1897 in the Potternewton area of Leeds, the youngest of two sons born to cloth merchant Charles Witting and his wife Emily. The family moved to Scarborough where Stanley was educated at the local Grammar School before coming to Ilkley just before the First World War where they lived in a house called Shenley on Westville Road.


In December 1913 at the age 16 Stanley joined the National and Provincial Bank and was sent to the York Branch as an apprentice. It was whilst working at the Branch that his manager described him as 'a very sharp and intelligent boy who was picking up his duties very quickly'.


It was whilst living in York that Stanley volunteered for the army on 20th December 1915. It was another nine months before he arrived in France in September 1916 when he was attached to an entrenching battalion working behind the front line. However, on 10th November 1916 he joined the 1st Royal Marine Light Infantry Battalion, a Royal Navy unit part of the 63rd Naval Division who fought as infantry. soon promoted to corporal he was chosen for officer training and gazetted as 2nd Lieutenant (Temp.) on 30th May 1917. Sent back to Britain for officer training he returned to France on 10th February 1918 just a few weeks before the German Spring Offensive and was posted to the 2nd Royal Marine Light Infantry.


The 2nd Royal marines had been in the front line near Fesquires at the onset of the German attack and had been heavily shelled and subject to frequent gas attacks. By evening German Stormtroopers has infiltrated their position and the battalion was forced to withdraw. The following morning at about 7pm German artillery began to shell the marines and it soon became apparent that they would have to withdraw. The battalion doctor reported that the commanding officer had lost his nerve and effectively took over the battalion. It was as the battalion moved back the doctor came across the remains of Stanley who had been killed during the enemy barrage.


the body of 2nd Lieutenant Stanley Witting was never identified and he is remembered on the Memorial to the missing at Arras and remembered with pride on our war memorial here in Ilkley.
Seven months later his older brother Thomas would also be killed in action
Photo courtesy James Cooper and is taken from the Roll of Honour at Christchurch.



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