BORN HULL 1886. SON OF ROBERT AND ELIZABETH RUTLEDGE, OF 7 BARMSTON STREET AND 12 CENTRAL AVENUE, CENTRAL STREET, HULL. ENLISTED IN THE HULL PALS. SERVED WITH THE 11TH EAST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT. KILLED IN ACTION, ON 27/03/1918, AGED 31. HIS BROTHER, PRIVATE, ALFRED RUTLEDGE, 13TH EYR, WAS KILLED AT THE SOMME, ON 13/11/1916, AGED 27. HE LEFT A WIDOWED MOTHER, BROTHERS, WALTER, AND SAMUEL WADDINGHAM, SISTERS, ALICE SCARGILL, MARY AND ELIZABETH WADDINGHAM.
Hull Pals Memorial Post. PRIVATE ROBERT RUTLEDGE 11/87. Born in July 1887, Robert was the second of four children and eldest son of William and Elizabeth Rutledge of 12 Arthur Avenue, Central Street, Hull. William Rutledge died when the children were very young and they were raised by their mother. An Oil Miller’s Labourer by trade he enlisted at Hull City Hall on Monday 7th September 1914 joining the 11th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, ‘The Tradesmen’, 2nd Hull Pals. His rap sheet suggests a man ill-suited to military discipline. He was charged with being late or overstaying passes on a great many occasions during training, and over the course of 1915 worked the pen pushers very hard indeed. A veteran of Egypt, the Somme and Oppy Wood Robert’s lack of discipline got the better of him one last time. On 1st January 1918 he was found Not Guilty of theft but Guilty of handling stolen property and was sentenced to six months imprisonment and ordered to reimburse the cost of the theft. Ironically, had the army not overturned his sentence he would have survived. Instead they freed him and packed him off into the maelstrom of the German Spring Offensive. He never returned. Listed as missing on 27th March 1918 his body was never recovered and his name is commemorated on the Arras Memorial; he was 38 years old. On 27th July 1919, his mother wrote to the Army:
Dear Sir,
Please can you give me any information about my son Pte Robert Rutledge No.87 11th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment. He was reported missing on the 27th March 1918 and I have not heard anything about him since. Hoping you will try and let me know something soon as I have had one son killed on 13th November 1916 and I am nervously waiting hoping you will oblige me. Alfred Rutledge, Robert’s younger brother, was a Lance Corporal in the 13th Battalion and was killed in action on the Somme.
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.
