Lives of the First World War

23rd September 1899 - 5th November 1916

John Gray married Mary Milburn at Holy Trinity Church, Gateshead, two months before his 20th birthday on 23 September 1899. They were my Great Grandparents. They went on to have five children: Mary, born 1900; Margaret Ellen, my Grandmother, b 1909; Florence, b 1911, John, b 1913 and James, the youngest, b in 1915, the year before his father was killed in France. I never knew anything about my Great Grandfather, other than he was in the Durham Light Infantry and he died in France in WW1. From my own research and visits to the DLI Museum I discovered that he was Private 4793, in the 1/9th Battalion of the DLI and was killed at the Butte de Warlencourt on 5 November 1916. The Butte de Warlencourt is an ancient burial mound alongside the Albert-Bapaume road, North East of the village of Le Sars in northern France. The DLI was the regiment closely associated with the Butte. In November 1916 the Butte was attacked by the 1/9th Durham Light Infantry, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Roland Boys Bradford, who had just won the Victoria Cross at Eaucourt L'Abbaye. Initially, the attack was successful with a foothold being gained in the German trenches. However, strong counter-attacks drove the Durhams out. The attack was a failure. Over 130 Durham men had been killed, with 400 wounded and 300 missing - most of whom had been lost in the mud. Some men, struggling under the weight of their weapons and equipment could not even climb out of their own front line trenches. Once out in no-man's-land, any soldier who was wounded and fell was drowned in the sea of mud-filled shell holes. I believe my Great Grandfather, John Gray, was one of these men, as his body was never found; he has no known grave. His name is recorded on the Thiepval Monument in France, and also in the Roll of Honour, originally kept in a metal compartment at the base of the Gateshead War Memorial on Prince Consort Road, Gateshead, but now held in the Gateshead Library for safe-keeping. John Gray left a widow and five young children.

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