Will O'Brien Posted 18 September , 2004 Share Posted 18 September , 2004 As per CWGC Name: RANYARD, HERBERT Initials: H Nationality: United Kingdom Rank: Private Regiment: Lincolnshire Regiment Unit Text: 4th Bn. Age: 33 Date of Death: 18/09/1915 Service No: 2939 Additional information: Son of William and Mary Jane Ranyard, of Fulletby, Horncastle, Lincs. Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead Grave/Memorial Reference: Panel 21 Cemetery: YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will O'Brien Posted 18 September , 2004 Author Share Posted 18 September , 2004 & the memorial info Cemetery: YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL Country: Belgium Locality: Ieper, West-Vlaanderen Location Information: Ypres (now Ieper) is a town in the Province of West Flanders. The Memorial is situated at the eastern side of the town on the road to Menin (Menen) and Courtrai (Kortrijk). Each night at 8 pm the traffic is stopped at the Menin Gate while members of the local Fire Brigade sound the Last Post in the roadway under the Memorial's arches. Historical Information: The Menin Gate is one of four memorials to the missing in Belgian Flanders which cover the area known as the Ypres Salient. Broadly speaking, the Salient stretched from Langemarck in the north to the northern edge in Ploegsteert Wood in the south, but it varied in area and shape throughout the war. The Salient was formed during the First Battle of Ypres in October and November 1914, when a small British Expeditionary Force succeeded in securing the town before the onset of winter, pushing the German forces back to the Passchendaele Ridge. The Second Battle of Ypres began in April 1915 when the Germans released poison gas into the Allied lines north of Ypres. This was the first time gas had been used by either side and the violence of the attack forced an Allied withdrawal and a shortening of the line of defence. There was little more significant activity on this front until 1917, when in the Third Battle of Ypres an offensive was mounted by Commonwealth forces to divert German attention from a weakened French front further south. The initial attempt in June to dislodge the Germans from the Messines Ridge was a complete success, but the main assault north-eastward, which began at the end of July, quickly became a dogged struggle against determined opposition and the rapidly deteriorating weather. The campaign finally came to a close in November with the capture of Passchendaele. The German offensive of March 1918 met with some initial success, but was eventually checked and repulsed in a combined effort by the Allies in September. The battles of the Ypres Salient claimed many lives on both sides and it quickly became clear that the commemoration of members of the Commonwealth forces with no known grave would have to be divided between several different sites. The site of the Menin Gate was chosen because of the hundreds of thousands of men who passed through it on their way to the battlefields. It commemorates those of all Commonwealth nations (except New Zealand) who died in the Salient, in the case of United Kingdom casualties before 16 August 1917. Those United Kingdom and New Zealand servicemen who died after that date are named on the memorial at Tyne Cot, a site which marks the furthest point reached by Commonwealth forces in Belgium until nearly the end of the war. Other New Zealand casualties are commemorated on memorials at Buttes New British Cemetery and Messines Ridge British Cemetery. The YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL now bears the names of more than 54,000 officers and men whose graves are not known. The memorial, designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield with sculpture by Sir William Reid-Dick, was unveiled by Lord Plumer in July 1927. No. of Identified Casualties: 54332 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jim_davies Posted 18 September , 2004 Share Posted 18 September , 2004 RANYARD, HERBERT Initials: H Nationality: United Kingdom Rank: Private Regiment: Lincolnshire Regiment Unit Text: 4th Bn. Age: 33 Date of Death: 18/09/1915 Service No: 2939 Additional information: Son of William and Mary Jane Ranyard, of Fulletby, Horncastle, Lincs. Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead Grave/Memorial Reference: Panel 21 Cemetery: YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL Soldiers Died- Born Fulletby, Lincs Enlisted-Lincoln Residing-Fulletby, Lincs KIA Herbert would have enlisted sometime in mid October 1914. Not sure when he went to France, but don't think he'd would have gone out with the original battalion, more likely he was early draft (JULY 1915?). On the time of his death the 4th Lincs were holding trenches in the Ypres Salient in the Armagh Wood sector. Most if not all of the battalion's casualities in September were the result of German artillery or mortar fire. Martin Middlebrook in his book "Captain Staniland's Journey" relates that the Linc-Leics and Sherwood Forester brigades of the 46th (North Midland) Division used up to five small cemeteries directly behind their lines during their time in the Salient. Unfortuantely, during subsequent fighting (June 1916) these unnamed cemeteries were largely destroyed, with the result that most of the graves being lost and men being commemorated on the Menin Gate. After the war some graves/remains were located and concentrated at Sanctuary Wood Cemetery, but apparently not Herbert's. Jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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