Durkin, Robert James

Thanks to Peter Bonner, WW1 Lives Project, Beverley, No: 540, for the following:
Sergeant Robert Durkin, aged 37, was killed in action on April 27th 1918, towards the end of the Battle of the Lys. His body was never recovered and he is remembered on the Tyne Cot Memorial at Zonnebecke in Belgium. The German attack on allied positions in the vicinity of Ypres in Belgium had been entitled Operation Georgette and had the intention of smashing through forward lines and then making for the Channel ports of northern France. Substantial gains of territory were made but the British and French forces were eventually able to stem the tide. Robert died two days before the end of the battle when a shell exploded very close to him and he was killed instantly. The Beverley Guardian of May 18th 1918 contained his Company Officer’s letter to his wife which noted that, “your husband had not been with us very long, but his services were very valuable, and we have lost a fine soldier.” He was awarded the War and Victory Medals. Robert had just before his death switched from the 1st/5th Battalion of the Duke of Wellington’s (West Yorkshire) Regiment to the 1st/6th, part of 146th Infantry brigade and the 49th West Riding Division. As his army records are missing it is impossible to track much of his military career but it does seem that he would have enlisted in 1915-16. He had earlier been in the Territorial Army, in the 5th Battalion, Yorkshire Regiment. In 1900 and 1902 he had also had two spells in the militia in the 3rd East Yorkshire Regiment. Robert was born in October 1881 in Pocklington. His father John Durkin (1857-1926) came from County Mayo in Ireland and had married Ellen Shillingfleet Harman (1859-1895) of Elloughton in 1880. He remarried in 1895 and later lived at Potter Hill on Beckside. Robert was the eldest of four children. His father was a farm labourer and the family later lived at Barmby Moor near Pocklington. Robert also became a farm worker: in 1901 recorded at Hind Head, Leven and in 1905 at Pockthorpe near Nafferton. It was in that year at Kilham Parish Church that he married Elizabeth Duke (b1882) whose father, Thomas, was a local blacksmith. They later lived at 12 St Andrew St and then at 1 Minstermoorgate in Beverley. Before joining the army Robert had worked for Mr Foster of Trinity Lane, probably as a coal carter. They did not have any children. Robert is remembered on the Hengate War Memorial and on the East Riding Memorial in the Minster. His younger brother, William (b1890), served in the 6th East Yorkshires in the war and was killed in action at the Dardenelles on August 22nd 1915. (He is WW1 Lives No: 034).