BORN GOOLE 1882. SON OF RICHARD WILKINSON AND CHARLOTTE ELIZABETH PEASE (1858-1909), OF 4 ALBERT STREET, GOOLE. HE HAD ONE BROTHER, AND FOUR SISTERS. A HULL DOCKER. AND WAREHOUSE FOREMAN OF MESSRS, AIRE & CALDER, DRYPOOL
HE MARRIED SARAH ELLEN O’BRIEN, AT GOOLE, ON 05/12/1903, AGED 21. SARAH ELLEN (AKA NELLIE SMITH) WILKINSON, LIVED AT 6 MARY ANN’S PLACE, ADELAIDE STREET, 1 HODGE STREET, DRYPOOL, AND 19 CHESTNUT AVENUE, BUCKINGHAM STREET, HOLDERNESS ROAD, HULL (CWGC ADDRESS). .
HE ENLISTED IN THE HULL PALS. SERVED WITH THE 12TH EAST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT, IN EGYPT AND FRANCE. WOUNDED AT OPPY WOOD, ON 03/05/1917. DIED OF WOUNDS, ON 23/05/1917, AGED 35.
HE LEFT A WIDOW, SARAH ELLEN AND DAUGHTER, NELLIE MARIA WILKINSON, TO MOURN HIS LOSS. HIS WIDOW REMARRIED AND BECAME MRS SMITH.
HIS DEATH WAS REPORTED IN THE HULL DAILY MAIL, ON 14/06/1917. *
HE IS BURIED AT DUISANS BRITISH CEMETERY, ETRUN, PAS DE CALAIS, FRANCE. HIS GRAVE INSCRIPTION, READS, “REMEMBERED BY LOVING WIFE, CHILD, SISTERS & BROTHER, HULL & GOOLE”
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.
