Blagg, Arthur

BORN HESSLE 1895. GRANDSON OF GEORGE & ANNE BLAGG & ELDEST SON OF ELIZABETH BLAGG (1874-1948), OF 6 ITLINGS LANE, HESSLE, HULL (1911 CENSUS ADDRESS). HE HAD BROTHERS , STANLEY, FRANK AND FRED AND SISTERS, CLARICE, EVERLINE AND MIRRIAM. HE LIVED IN HULL. ENLISTED IN THE HULL PALS. SERVED WITH THE 12TH EAST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT (HULL SPORTSMAN BATTALION). KILLED AT OPPY WOOD, ON 03/05/1917, AGED 21. HIS NAME IS RECORDED ON THE HESSLE ROLL OF HONOUR, ALL SAINTS PARISH CHURCH. HIS BROTHER, STANLEY BLAGG, WAS ANOTHER HULL PAL KILLED ON 29/09/1918, AGED 19.

Hull Pals Memorial Post. PRIVATE ARTHUR BLAGG 12/1470. Born in July 1895, Arthur was the eldest of three sons to Elizabeth Blagg. They lived with Arthur’s Grandad at Elma House, 6 Itlings Lane, Hessle and there is no record of his father. The 1911 Census finds him working for a mineral water manufacturer. When war came he queued outside City Hall joining the 12th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, 3rd Hull Pals. No war record exists sadly, though this is not unusual as the building housing them was damaged during The Blitz and what weren’t destroyed by fire are very often water damaged from the efforts to save them; but his war must have followed the same path as all the Originals, training until December 1915 when they left Devonport for Port Said, Egypt then serving there until February 29th 1916 when they left Alexandria on a troop ship bound for Marseilles, docking there on March 8th and taking the train north to Armentieres and the trenches of the Western Front. He will have fought at Serre,  on the Somme that November and made it through that hell of mud and blood only to fall at the next hurdle, the mass of tree stumps, barbed wire and machine gun positions defending the German lines at Oppy Wood. Arthur Blagg was killed in action on 3rd May 1917 and his body was never recovered. He is commemorated on the Arras Memorial to those who lost their lives in that sector who have no known grave. He was 21 years old.

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.
The Arras Memorial, France remembers 34, 806 WW1 Casualties

First name:
ARTHUR
Military Number:
12/1470
Rank:
Private
Date Died
03/05/1917
Place died:
Arras Memorial, Pas de Calais, France
Age:
21
6 ITlINGS LANE, HESSLE, HULL, EAST YORKSHIRE, UK