Sam Websdale

A Private with the 7th Battalion, Sam died on 28th of April 1917 at the age of 36. 

Sam was born at Oulton on 14 July 1880, a son of Henry and Hannah Websdale. He was baptised at Saint Michael’s Church, Oulton, on 31 May 1885, and his family lived at Oulton. In 1891 his family lived at Church Road, Oulton, and by 1901 at 1 Margarets Cottages, Moyes Road, Oulton, and Sam worked as a bricklayer’s labourer. This was still the family home in 1911 when Sam was still a bricklayer’s labourer. 

Sam volunteered and enlisted in the Army at Lowestoft. He joined the Suffolk Regiment, service number 15859, and was posted to the 9th Battalion, arriving in France, with the battalion, on 31 August 1915. Samuel was wounded and his name appears in the War Office Daily List of 11 October 1916. Subsequently he was posted to the 7th Battalion and by April 1917 was a member of D Company.

Colonel Murphy’s ‘The History of the Suffolk Regiment 1914-1927’ has the following account of the 7th Battalion’s part in the attack on the front between the Scarpe and Monchy (near Arras), known as the Battle of Arleux, on 28 April 1917, pages 233-4:

The battalion, going over the top at 4.35 a.m. to attack the new Blue Line, passed through the 5th Royal Berkshire Regiment, who had captured Bayonet trench and also some 150 yards of Rifle trench. They immediately came under a most devastating machine-gun fire from Rouex, which the troops operating on the north side of the river had not yet taken, and suffered very heavy losses. Portions of the various companies managed to reach the first objective but were unable to gain further ground. All the officers except the colonel and the adjutant have been killed or wounded, these small parties returned to the Black Line as soon as it grew dark and at 1 a.m. the battalion, now reduced to 190 effective men, withdrew to the support line. 

The battalion’s casualties were:
Officers three killed, one died of wounds, four wounded
Other ranks: 89 killed and an unknown number wounded or missing

Sam was reported missing on 28 April and later it was presumed that he had been killed in action that day. 

Note: his first name was Sam, not Samuel, as shown in some records.