Swine WW1 Roll of Honour St Marys the Virgin Church, Main Street, Swine
Hull Pals Memorial Post. PRIVATE GEORGE CECIL KIRBY 11/517. Born in April 1896 in Coniston, Skirlaugh, East Yorkshire. George was one of 12 children to George (1865-1945) and Mary Isabell Kirby, of Coniston, Hull. A Domestic servant on Holderness Road, Hull (1911 Census) and a Labourer before the war. He enlisted at Hull City Hall on 8th September 1914 joining the 11th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, ‘The Tradesmen’, 2nd Hull Pals. George was a veteran of Egypt and the Somme, and had just survived that fateful day in front of Oppy Wood when he was killed in action on 16th May 1917. His records list him as having been part of a trench mortar battery, and Arthur Ernest Elston (Day 780) was listed as a ‘Bomber’, both men died on the same day and both bodies were never recovered. I can’t prove it, but I feel pretty certain that George and Arthur died together as part of the same mortar crew. George, like his comrade, is commemorated on the Arras Memorial; he was 21 years old. he is also recorded on the Swine Church, Roll of Honour.
The attack on Oppy Wood, part of the Battle of Arras, was a significant battle for the East Yorkshire Regiment and particularly for the city of Hull. All four Hull Pals battalions were involved on 3 May and all suffered heavy casualties, with 40% of those present killed or injured. 2nd Lieutenant Jack Harrison, a local teacher and rugby player with Hull FC, won a posthumous Victoria Cross for his bravery in rushing a machine gun position to protect his platoon. His body was never found.The village of Oppy in France had been in German hands since October 1914 and was part of a formidable defensive system including trenches, dug-outs and thick barbed wire defences. During the Battle of Arras, which began in April 1917, the British tried to take Oppy. The first attack was a failure. A second attack was partially successful. The third attack on 3 May, known officially as the Third Battle of the Scarpe, was again unsuccessful with significant loss of life. The troops were ordered to attack at 3.45am, rather than at dawn, and the defending Germans could easily see the line of British soldiers clearly lit by the full moon. The British continued to attack Oppy and were finally successful the following year. The City of Hull Memorial at Oppy was unveiled in 1927 and commemorates the men of the Hull Pals who were killed on 3 and 4 May 1917.
