BORN EVERTON, NEAR BAWTRY, NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 1896. ELDEST CHILD OF JOHN AND SARAH ANN MALLENDER, OF BAWTRY, YORKS. SON OF A FARM LABOURER. ONE OF FIVE CHILDREN. HIS MOTHER WAS 10 YEARS OLDER THAN HIS FATHER. HE WORKED AS A FARM ASSISTANT. HE ENLISTED IN THE HULL PALS, AT HULL, ON 21/08/1914, AGED 19. DESCRIBED AS 5 FOOT 1 INCHES TALL, 119 LBS AND 34 INCH CHEST, CHURCH OF ENGLAND RELIGION. SERVED IN EGYPT AND POSTED TO FRANCE ON 08/03/1916. KILLED AT OPPY WOOD ON 03/05/1917, AGED 21. HIS BODY WAS NOT FOUND AND HE IS REMEMBERED ON THE ARRAS MEMORIAL TO THE MISSING.
HIS ARMY EFFECTS WERE LEFT TO HIS FATHER, JOHN MALLENDER. HIS BROTHER JAMES MALLENDER, ENLISTED AT MANSFIELD IN 1915, AND SERVED A DRIVER IN THE ROYAL ARMY SERVICE CORPS. HE WAS WOUNDED IN SALONIKA AND DISCHARGED FROM THE ARMY. (NO PENSION LEDGER ADDRESS).
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.
