BORN WHITFIELD, LANCASHIRE, 1893. SON OF ROBERT GILL (1855-1936) & ELIZABETH NEWLAND (BUNTING), OF 3 SOUTH PLACE, STEPNEY LANE, HULL, 2 HILDA GROVE, SCULCOATES LANE, HULL,AND 7, MARY ANN’S TERRACE. SCULCOATES LANE, HULL (WAR PENSION ADDRESS). A FORMER ERRAND BOY. HE ENLISTED AT HULL. SERVED WITH THE 4TH EAST YORKSHIRE TERRITORIALS. KILLED IN ACTION ON 27/04/1917, AT ARRAS, AGED 27. HE WAS UNMARRIED AND HIS ARMY EFFECTS WERE RETURNED TO HIS MOTHER.
Arras
At the end of March 1917 50th (N) Division left the Somme and moved north to the Arras sector, where a new offensive was being planned. Part of the division was engaged in the First Battle of the Scarpe, but 1/4th East Yorkshires did not go into the line until 15 April, when they moved up from Arras in support. The battalion led the division’s attack at the Second Battle of the Scarpe, which began on 23 April. The 1/4th East Yorkshires and 1/4th Green Howards went forward at Zero hour (04.45) with ‘great dash’, supported by tanks of A Section, 10 Company, D Battalion, Tank Corps. The infantry got too close to their own barrage, which was creeping forward too slowly. Despite serious casualties, especially among officers, they captured the first objective (the Blue Line) on time, apart from the centre, where a party of the enemy held out in a copse on the Chérisy–Guémappe road. However, A Company took the copse by 08.00 with the help of tank D3, and dug in on its eastern side. A mixed party of D, A and B companies captured a battery of German 7.7 cm field guns near the copse. By now the battalion only had three officers and 200 men in the line, with their flanks ‘in the air’, and were almost surrounded when the German counter-attacks began. The battalion was forced back to its starting line, the captured guns lost, though they had already sent back some hundreds of German prisoners. The second tank (D4, ‘Diana’) covered the retirement with its 6-pdr guns until repeatedly hit by anti-tank rifles and set on fire. The objectives were retaken by a follow-up attack by 50th (N) Division later in the day. The battalion’s losses in this action were 17 officers and 352 other ranks. The remnants marched back to Arras and reorganised as two companies.
