Winchester and the “forgotten” battles of 1917

Everyone with a passing knowledge of the First World War knows of the battle of Paschendaele in 1917. Rather less well-known are two other battles that took place in the same year: the Battle of Arras in the spring, and the battle of Cambrai in the late autumn. Both should, of course, be better remembered. On the morning of the opening day of the Arras battle, Canadian troops swept over shell-torn ground in a howling blizzard to drive the German army from the heights of Vimy Ridge, something that numerous French attacks in previous years had singularly failed to do. At Cambrai, later in the year, over 470 tanks were deployed to great success against the formidable defences of the Hindenburg Line.

Both battles had their share of Wykehamist dead. Two whose stories stand out were 2nd Lieutenant OB Wordsworth and Rev the Honourable MB Peel. The latter, a direct descendant of the great Victorian Prime Minister, was one of only three of the thirty-one Wykehamists who served as Chaplains to be killed—and the only one to be killed in action. At the time of his death, he had already been awarded the Military Cross and bar (meaning a second award of the MC). He clearly took his duty of care to his men very seriously and accompanied them wherever they went: in the attack on Festubert in spring 1915, he personally led one of his battalions into action, carrying nothing but a walking stick. Severely wounded in that battle and needing a year to recover, he nonetheless returned to his old battalion and was soon awarded a bar to the MC he had won at Festubert. In May 1917, Peel was again in the thick of things at Bullecourt, in the later stages of the Arras battle. Venturing out of his trench to visit a wounded man, he was hit in the chest by a sniper and died very shortly afterwards.

The story of Osmund Bartle Wordsworth, also a relative of a great nineteenth-century figure, is perhaps more interesting for its aftermath in this century than at the time of his death. Killed just before the onset of the Arras battle, Wordsworth’s burial was unmarked. After the war, he was commemorated among the others who had no known grave, on the Arras Memorial to the Missing. In 2013, the body of a British army officer was found in a garden in the village of Henin-sur-Cojeul. The buttons found with the body identified him as having served in the Ox and Bucks Light Infantry, which was mysterious, since the Ox and Bucks had not served in that particular area of the front. Later research showed that one officer in the regiment had transferred to the Machine Gun Corps in 1916, but had been killed in early April at Henin-sur-Cojeul. Could it be the case that this officer, not having changed his regimental buttons, could be the unidentified body? DNA testing confirmed that the suggestion was correct and 2nd Lieutenant Wordsworth’s body and final resting place were identified. His headstone, now bearing his name and regiment, was re-dedicated in a ceremony in June 2021.

The battlefields of both Arras and Cambrai are haunting places still. Largely unspoilt by later urban development, they still give the visitor a real opportunity to see the lie of the land and walk the ground where these events took place. And the immaculately-maintained CWGC cemeteries are a perpetual reminder of the sacrifices made. There are many more personal and wider stories to be told: the storming of Vimy Ridge by the Canadian Corps, the charge of the Lancers at Monchy-le-Preux, the pulling out of the Cambrai mud of one of the tanks that led the attack in November 1917.

Michael Wallis (Co Ro, 1988-2000) and James Webster (Co Ro) are planning to lead a tour of these areas from 19-22 October 2027. All expressions of interest to and enquiries to [email protected]. Please note that these are revised dates from those previously advertised.