PRIVATE 64248 BERTIE BODDY 1st BATTALION WEST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT. KILLED IN ACTION 24TH SEPTEMBER 1918, AGED 18 YEARS.


PRIVATE 64248 BERTIE BODDY 1st BATTALION WEST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT. KILLED IN ACTION 24TH SEPTEMBER 1918, AGED 18 YEARS.




Young Bertie Boddy had been on the Western Front for just16 days when he was killed in action just north of the village of Holnon near St Quintin on 24th September 1918. The 1st West Yorkshire Regiment had been in action in the area for several days and had mounted several successful attacks against the German lines. On the 17th of the month, the day that another Ilkley man, Joseph Brunskill, had been killed, Bertie had been reported missing before eventually finding his way back to the British trenches.

In the final weeks of the war fighting had become more fluid and far less reliant on complicated trench systems. The morale of the German Army was weakening and where no longer the force that they had been earlier in the war. Nevertheless, they were still dangerous and able to impose a terrible toll on the attacking allies. At 5am on the morning of the 24th September the West Yorkshires attacked towards the enemy lines, and for a time the Germans held firm but eventually were forced to yield against the persistent British attack. But for the West Yorkshire battalion the success came at a high price and over 90 men became casualties including Bertie who was killed.

Bertie Boddy was born in Ilkley in January 1900, the middle of three sons of John and Rhoda Boddy. John was a cab driver who lived with his family in a terraced house at 6 Hawksworth Street off Church Street who enlisted into the ‘Ilkley Pals Company’ in August 1914 and served with them throughout the war. After leaving school Bertie went to work as an apprentice cobbler at Henry Moisley’s boot and shoe shop on The Grove. Alan Moisley, Henry’s son had been killed in 1917 whilst serving with the Canadian Expeditionary Force.
Just a few weeks after his 18th birthday on 11th March 1918 that Bertie went to Halifax and enlisted into the West Yorkshire Regiment. The terrible British casualty rate of the Spring and Summer meant that the demand for even barely trained men and in August Bertie arrived in France after just 5 months training and on the 8th September he joined his battalion.

Today Private Bertie Boddy lies in the British Military Cemetery at Trefcon and is remembered with pride on our war memorial in Ilkley

At the time of his death Berties father, John was serving with the 9th West Riding Regiment who were less than 10 miles away near to Cambrai.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

CHAPLAIN 4TH CLASS, WILLIAM DUNCAN GEARE, ROYAL ARMY CHAPLAINS DEPARTMENT.

Image
CHAPLAIN 4TH CLASS, WILLIAM DUNCAN GEARE, ROYAL ARMY CHAPLAINS DEPARTMENT.   KILLED IN ACTION, 31st JULY 1917, AGED 26. William Geare arrived in Ilkley in early 1914 fresh from the Leeds Clergy School and recently ordained as a priest into the Church of England. Now he was to become the curate to the Parish Church of St Margaret's, on Queens Road, where he would assist the Vicar, Rev H L Glennie to minister to over 4000 parishioners. We are fortunate that many of William’s letters written to his family survive and they show an astonishing enthusiasm for his work in his new parish. Clearly, the Rev. Glennie was also impressed with his work and asked William to help with St Margaret's mission in the poor district of Little Horton In Bradford. It was the advent of war in August 1914 that seems to have convinced William that he he may have a different calling. At the beginning of 1915 he petitioned the Rev. Glennie to allow him the opportunity to serve as a...
Read more

SERGEANT THOMAS HARPER WHITAKER. 1st BATTALION NIGERIA REGIMENT, WEST AFRICAN FRONTIER FORCE. DIED 29th JANUARY 1918 AGED 37

Image
SERGEANT THOMAS HARPER WHITAKER. 1 st BATTALION NIGERIA REGIMENT, WEST AFRICAN FRONTIER FORCE. DIED 29 th JANUARY 1918 AGED 37 Harper Whitaker was born in Horsforth in 1881 the son of a stone contractor Thomas Whitaker and his wife Anne. One of twelve children he and his family lived in a large house called Summerfield, on New Road Side. A pupil at Ilkley Grammar School he went on to study civil engineering and during the early years of the 20 th Century went to work on the Lagos Railway in Nigeria. He was in the colony at the outbreak of war in 1914 and made an application to join one of the locally raised regiments who would see action in nearby German controlled Cameroon. However, because of the essential nature of his work he remained at his post with the railway company. By 1917 local West African units had been formed into the West African Frontier Force (WAFF) and sent across the continent into East Africa where they were to assist in the long running campai...
Read more