BORN HULL 1896. SON OF MATHEW EMMERSON (1861-1922) & ELLEN EMMERSON (1863-1943), OF 35 SWANN STREET, HULL (1911 CENSUS) AND 8, BARMSTON STREET, HULL (WAR PENSION ADDRESS). HE HAD A BROTHER, JOHN AND SISTER MARGARET. A BUTCHER’S ASSISTANT. HE ENLISTED IN THE HULL PALS. HE SERVED WITH THE 11TH EAST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT, IN EGYPT AND FRANCE. SURVIVED THE BATTLES OF THESOMME AND OPPY WOOD. KILLED IN ACTION, ON 28/03/1918, AGED 21. UNMARRIED. HIS ARMY EFFECTS WERE LEFT TO HIS MOTHER, ELLEN.
Hull Pals Memorial Post. PRIVATE MATTHEW EMMERSON 11/659. Born in July 1896, Matthew was the youngest of three children to Matthew and Ellen Emmerson of 35 Swann Street, Hull. Only eighteen when he enlisted at Hull City Hall in the second week of September 1914, just three short years before he had been earning his keep working as a Butcher’s Errand Boy and yet there he was a soldier, ready to fight for King and Country, a proud member of the brand new 11th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, ‘The Tradesmen’, 2nd Hull Pals. What he would see and endure over the next two-and-a-half years we can only imagine, and most of us would probably rather not. He spent several seasick weeks aboard ship bound for Alexandria, Egypt; he suffered the baking heat of desert days, and the plunging bone-chilling cold of desert nights; he shipped for Marseilles in March 1916 and then north to the trenches where he survived bloodbaths on the Somme and at Oppy Wood; all of which would have altered him completely, no more the Butcher’s Errand Boy, now a haunted young man, old beyond his years. Matthew Emmerson was killed in action on 28th March 1918 during the German Spring Offensive and his body was never recovered; his name is commemorated on the Arras Memorial; he was 21 years old.
Background. When the German spring offensive opened on 21 March 1918, 31st Division was in reserve, with 10th and 11th EYR Battalions digging trenches in the ‘Army Line’ behind the front. On 23 March the division was sent up to hold off the German attack at St Léger, but 92 Bde remained in reserve at Ervillers, improvising the defences. Ervillers was attacked on the evening of 24 March, the defence being confused by British troops retreating from the forward defences. Two companies of 10th Bn were pushed up to reinforce 11th Bn fighting in the village streets. About midnight a German patrol got into the village, but was captured by 11th Bn’s HQ staff. The following day the 11th Bn was reinforced by 10th Bn Manchester Regiment of 42nd (East Lancashire) Division and their combined fire stopped the German advance. However, events elsewhere meant that the 31st and 42nd Divisions were ordered on the morning of 27 March to retire through Courcelles-le-Comte.
On 27th March 1917, the brigade defended Ayette aerodrome against repeated attacks from 11.20am to 16.30pm, when with both flanks ‘in the air’, the brigade pulled back to the partly-dug ‘Purple Line’ in front of Ayette village. Between 24 and 27 March, 10th EYR Bn had lost 211 officers and men, and was praised “for its exceptional gallantry on March 27” by the Commander in Chief of the BEF, Sir Douglas Haig. During the night, Lt-Col Headlam of 10th Bn led up a composite battalion of troops from the quartermasters’ details of all three battalions to take over part of the Purple Line, and they helped to recover some 18-pounder ammunition from behind enemy lines, which was fired the following day. Although fighting continued elsewhere along the line, 28 March was a quieter day for 92 Bde, and 11th Bn took over some trenches started by 210th Field Company, Royal Engineers, which they continued to dig. The brigade was relieved on 31 March and marched back to billets near Pommier.
