Jack Skinner

A Private with the 2nd Battalion, Jack died on 21st of March 1918 at the age of 21. 

Jack was born at Lowestoft in 1897, a son of John and Alice Skinner. He was baptised at Saint Margaret’s Church on 13 March 1898 and his family lived at Arnold Street. In 1901 his family lived at Brier House, Police Station Road. By 1911 Jack’s father had died and he lived with his mother, and siblings, at 41 Seago Street. In 1911 his mother married Harry Houghton and later the family lived at 13 Milton Road. 

Jack enlisted in the Army at Lowestoft. He joined the Cambridgeshire Regiment, service number 7875 and was posted to the 1/1st Battalion in France. At some point he was transferred to the Lincolnshire Regiment, service number 235214. He was posted to the 8th Battalion, then the 1/4th Battalion, and, by March 1918, was serving with the 2nd Battalion. Jack was wounded in 1917 and his name appears in the official casualty list, the War Office Daily List, of 29 August 1917. 

On 19 March 1918 the 2nd Battalion were at Heudicourt. On 21 March the battalion received orders to man battle positions. C Company was attached to the 1st Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment, and A, B, and D Companies moved to the ‘Yellow Line’, but the move was hampered by heavy enemy gas shelling and a thick fog. They held their positions throughout the day and repelled repeated enemy attacks. Around 12 noon a party of Germans managed to get around the battalion’s left flank and were engaged by the men of battalion headquarters and men of the Brigade Machine Gun Battalion. About 50 Germans were taken prisoner.   

Jack was reported missing on 21 March 1918 and later presumed to have been killed in action on that date. 

The battalion’s casualties from 21 March to 2 April 1918 were:
Officers: one died of wounds; three missing; one wounded and missing; eleven wounded
Other ranks: 31 killed; 238 missing; 9 wounded and missing; 95 wounded