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 Lance Corporal Henry Brough Till
1891 - 1917
1st Battalion, South Staffordshire Regiment
Regimental Number 20527

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Researched and written in 2014 by his great nephew David Sylvester

Known as Brough Till, Henry Brough Till was born in Gentleshaw in 1891 and was baptised at Gentleshaw Christ Church on 25 December 1891. The son of Thomas and Caroline Jane Till, Brough was killed in action during the attack on Geluveld (Gheluvelt)in Belgium on 26 October 1917.

Thomas Till had married his wife Caroline Jane Cooper at Gentleshaw Christ Church on 19 April 1875. Thomas was then 23, the son of William Till, a labourer, and Caroline was 21, the daughter of Nathaniel Cooper, a bricklayer. Over the years that followed, the couple had 9 children, and they were all baptised at Gentleshaw Christ Church:

• Nathaniel Thomas Till, born in Gentleshaw in 1876, baptised 16 April 1876;

• Rose Ann Till, born in Gentleshaw in 1878, baptised 27 April 1879;

• Susannah Till, born in Gentleshaw in 1879, baptised 31 August 1879

• Olive Jane Till, born 7 March 1882 in Morley, Yorkshire, baptised 30 July 1882;

• Twins John William Till and Ethel Emma Till born 12 November 1886 in Morley, Yorkshire, baptised 25 December 1887;

• Ada Till born 22 December 1889 in Gentleshaw, baptised the same day as Brough Till, 25 December 1891;

• Henry Brough Till, born 1891 in Gentleshaw, baptised 25 December 1891;

• Arthur James Till born 10 April 1893 in Gentleshaw, baptised 7 May 1893.

1. Introduction

1.1 The detail presented in this document is largely based on official civil and army records. Sadly the opportunity to record personal information has been lost, with the exception of a small number of photographs.

1.2 The main period covered is from the beginning of October 1917 up to Henry Brough Till’s death on the morning of 26th October 1917. Brough was rank and file, achieving promotion to Lance Corporal. Consequently it is impossible to identify Brough’s exact role in the South Staffordshire’s war efforts.

1.3 The NNWFHS “Discovering Your Roots in and around North Warwickshire” talks about “Immigrants to Warwickshire”, specifically “you may find your ancestors hopped over the county border from neighbouring . . . . . . . Staffordshire”. It is therefore hoped that this narrative will enable descendants of men who served in the WWI conflict to better understand and take pride in the contribution made by their relatives.

1.4 Special thanks are extended to the Museum of the South Staffordshire Regiment, Lichfield, and the Memorial Museum Passchendaele 1917, Zonnebeke, Belgium for providing invaluable research documents, not least of which being the War diaries of the 1st Battalion, South Staffordshire Regiment and extracts from the book “The Seventh Division 1914 - 1918” by C. T. Atkinson.

1.5 Researching and producing this document has taken place over a number of years. The end product has helped the author to achieve a degree of recognition of the sacrifice, pain and suffering endured by Brough and his family. May this document help others.

2. Early Life

2.1 Henry Brough Till was the eighth child of nine born to Thomas and Caroline Till. Throughout his life he lived in coal mining areas; first of all in Gentleshaw, a small community near Lichfield, Staffordshire and then in Bedworth, Warwickshire. One assumes the family moved to seek better employment and improved quality of life.

2.2 The 1901 Census shows the family living at Malt House Row, Gentleshaw. Brough was a Scholar and 9 years old. His father was a coal miner. By the time of the 1911 Census the family had moved to 5 Newtown Road, Bedworth. At this time, Brough was 19 years of age and employed as a Blacksmith’s Striker in a local colliery. He must have been very fit. His father, Thomas, had found employment as a coal miner, hewer, cutting coal on the face.

2.3 At the time of Brough’s death, his parents were living at 54 Leicester Road, Bedworth.

2.4 Brough did not marry and does not have any direct descendants. As for his siblings and this research:

• There has been no contact with Nathaniel Thomas Till's descendants;

• Most of the descendants of Rose Annie Till are aware of this research;

• Susanna Till does have descendants, but nothing is known of them;

• Olive Jane Till does have descendants, but nothing is known of them;

• Ethel Emma Till did not marry and had no children;

• John William Till did marry and emigrated to the USA. Attempts to contact his family have been unsuccessful;

• Sadly Ada Till's daughter has recently died and did not marry;

• Nothing is known of Arthur J Till.

It is hoped that some of these relatives will find the publication of this biography on the Burntwood Family History Group website, will make contact as a result, and will provide additional information about Brough and his family.

The family is depicted in the photograph in Appendix A. Brough died at a relatively early age given that his parents and all of his siblings lived to advanced years.

3. Army Service

3.1 The curator of the South Staffordshire Regiment Museum has suggested that Brough's service number indicates that he joined as a volunteer. It is interesting to note that Brough was born in Staffordshire but had moved to Warwickshire, with his parents and siblings, before WWI. The assumption is he still had an affinity with his County of Birth as he chose to signup, in Nuneaton, for the South Staffordshire Regiment, ultimately serving in the 1st Battalion. When he went to the recruiting office, did he go along with friends? Were they jovial? Were they looking to fight for a good cause? Maybe this document will lead to people coming forward and identifying the group of chums.

3.2 Brough’s older brother, John William, on the other hand, was conscripted a little later and joined a Warwickshire regiment.

3.3 Appendix C, “South Staffs 1st Battalion Summary”, gives a précis of the Battalion’s service record. It is not known at what point Brough joined the Regiment, but given the date of his death, it must be fair to assume that he was killed during “the unsuccessful assault south of the Menin Road on 26th October 1917”. This involved an attack by the Seventh Division’s 91st Brigade, of which the 1st Battalion South Staffordshire Regiment was a part.

3.4 At the beginning of October 1917 the 1st Battalion South Staffordshire Regiment took part in a major offensive to secure the main line of the ridge east of Zonnebeke. The Seventh Division’s objective was to establish itself just east of Broodseinde - Becelaere road. The outcome was successful but the South Staffs’ casualties were 30 men killed, 33 missing and 291 wounded. Following this the battalion was given 10 days out of the line to recuperate and incorporate replacement troops.

3.5 The following table has been extracted from the War Diaries of the 1st Battalion South Staffs, and gives a brief account of the days between that earlier attack and the offensive on 26th October 1917. There are entries mentioning Training, Parade and Routine that typified army life. Would it have been unsettling thinking about the conflict that had just happened, the gradual movement towards the battle front, the sound and site of guns firing, injured men coming the other way, carnage on the road side? How did they accept their possible fate?

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3.6 Words of advice taken from the South Staffs War Diaries, they are from a senior officer prior to going into battle and are designed to encourage the troops, to both motivate and warn them.

3.7 As part of the eighth phase of the Third Battle of Ypres, the Seventh Division received explicit orders to attack on the morning of 26 October 1917, and were expected to achieve another success, even though the conditions, as a result of rain and mud, were worse. The prospect of another attack in the mud and the fact that the drafts did not make good recent losses, did not encourage the men. Nor was it easy for the officers and troops to understand the logic of continuing the offensive in the face of conditions so absolutely fatal to rapid progress.

3.8 The primary objective for the Division that morning, was to capture Geluveld, or rather the knoll on which Geluveld had once stood, and to secure the Tower Hamlets ridge east of the Basseville Brook. Success would greatly improve the situation of the British right and act as an effective diversionary tactic. The main Allied attack was being delivered away to the left in a more northerly direction - Passchendaele. By keeping the Germans occupied at Geluveld, this would prevent them from moving reserves to meet the main attack. The term “Forlorn Hope”, as used by Christopher Thomas Atkinson, author of “The Seventh Division 1914 - 1918”, most sums up the plight of the Seventh Division. By appreciating this planned major contribution by the Seventh Division, the Divisional Commander refrained from protesting to the higher authorities that under the conditions that existed success would be impossible.

{Forlorn Hope - a band of soldiers or other combatants chosen to take the leading part in a military operation, such as an assault on a defended position, where the risk of casualties is high.}

3.9 The attack started at the first sign of dawn. The German’s responded immediately by putting down a barrage. Fortunately it fell behind the attacking battalions. On the 91st Brigade’s right, the South Staffs at first fared quite well against most of the machine guns, being shielded by higher ground. The right company, B Company, reached its objective - a strongly held mound S.W. of Hamp Farm. A savage conflict followed; the company’s two officers were killed and all the senior NCOs, but the men fought on. In the end the survivors, commanded by a corporal, found themselves in possession of the mound. They had captured a machine gun and had caused heavy casualties on the Germans, but they were rather isolated. D Company, in the centre, which was attacking Hamp Farm, had been mown down wholesale by a crossfire of machine guns, while the left company, C Company, when within 50 yards of its objective, Berry Cotts, had caught the stream of machine gun bullets from the flank and its few survivors sheltered in shell-holes and waited for a chance to get back.

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3.10 When all the surviving units had indicated that they were back on their original line, the Allied artillery was ordered to put down a protective barrage, to discourage the Germans from counter-attacking. But the Germans would not have faired well because of the mud and rain.

3.11 The mud enabled the Germans to hold Geluveld. The Seventh Division had every right to claim that it was the elements and the conditions that defeated them and not the enemy.

3.12 The surviving troops could take great pride from the tribute General Thomas Herbert Shoubridge made about their “splendid behaviour”:

“They went forward under the worst conditions of mud and fire and would not give up until they died or stuck in the mud - no soldier can do more.”

3.13 The Seventh Division’s men had gone into the attack knowing that the chances were all against success: they had attacked as if they had believed the battle would go their way. Geluveld stands out in the Division’s story, not as a day of loss and disaster but of honourable defeat. It was to be the Division's last fight in Belgium.

4. On Reflection

4.1 We cannot be sure of the circumstances surrounding Lance Corporal Till’s death; his body has not been found. His memory, gallantry and death are commemorated at Tyne Cot Memorial, Zonnebeke, Belgium (see Appendix D). On 26th October 1917, he was one of the South Staff’s fallen men; 38 killed, 140 wounded and 92 missing.

4.2 In addition to the Tyne Cot Memorial, Brough’s death has been further remembered on the WWI and WWII War Memorial in Coventry Road Cemetery, Bedworth, Warwickshire (see Appendix H).

4.3 We should not forget Brough’s mother and father. Losing one of their sons must have been a devastating experience (see Appendix E - Commemorative Scroll). But they also had news about another of their sons, John William Till, being injured on more than one occasion during WWI. It must have been a further upset when John William Till decided to emigrated to the USA during the 1920s. John and his parents probably only communicated via letter from that point onwards.

4.4 The author visited the scene of the battle in 2013. Appendix F - Geluveld Reclaimed - presents a picture to show how the battle field would have looked, having been torn apart by bombs and drowned by rain. The South Staffs War Diary talks about mud that made the rifles and machine guns inoperable. It is now an idyllic scene with meadows sloping down to the stream in the valley bottom. Those same slopes exposed the Allied forces to withering machine gun fire from the vicinity of Lewis House and Berry Cottages.

Appendix A - The Till Family

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APPENDIX B - Medal Index Card and other military records for Henry Brough Till

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Pictures 12A, 12B, 12C and 12D
Records for Henry Brough Till from the UK, World War I Pension Ledgers and Index Cards, 1914-1923

APPENDIX C - Unit History: 1st Battalion South Staffordshire Regiment

Extracts from the Forces War Records website and The Long, Long Trail website:
4 August 1914: Stationed at Pietermaritzburg, South Africa at the outbreak of war.

27 August 1914: Embarked for England from Capetown landing at Southampton 19 September 1914 and joining the 22nd Brigade of the 7th Infantry Division and moved to Lyndhurst in Hampshire.

7 October 1914: Mobilised for war and landed at Zeebrugge and engaged in various actions on the Western Front including:

During 1914
The First Battle of Ypres

During 1915
The Battle of Neuve Chapelle, The Battle of Aubers, The Battle of Festubert, The Second Action of Givenchy, The Battle of Loos.

20 December 1915: Transferred to the 91st Brigade of the 7th Infantry Division.

During 1916
The Battle of Albert, The Battle of Bazentin and The Attacks on High Wood, The Battle of Delville Wood, The Battle of Guillemont, Operations on the Ancre.

During 1917
The German retreat to the Hindenburg Line, The Arras offensive, The Second Attack on Bullecourt. The 7th Infantry Division were moved into a scene of incredible ferocity at Bullecourt, a strongly fortified village on the Hindenburg Line, after and alongside the Australians. The Division played a major role in penetrating the village defences.

Further action during 1917
The Battle of Polygon Wood, The Battle of Broodseinde, The Battle of Poelcapelle, The Second Battle of Passchendaele (including the Attack on Geluveld). The 7th Infantry Division suffered significant losses during Third Ypres, in the fighting for Polygon Wood, the successful advance on 4th October east of the wood, and in the unsuccessful assault south of the Menin Road on 26th October. Immediately on their relief, the Division was moved to Italy, being one of the British Divisions selected to come to the support of the Italian army. The 7th remained in Italy until the Armistice, playing a particularly important role in the assault to cross the Piave River.

18 November 1917: Moved to Italy to strengthen the Italian resistance against the Austria-Hungary forces and engaged in various actions including The crossing the Piave River and the Battle of Vittoria Veneto.

14 November 1918: Ended the war in Italy, west of Udine.

APPENDIX D - Memorial Record for Henry Brough Till

LANCE CORPORAL HENRY BROUGH TILL
Service Number: 20527
1st Battalion South Staffordshire Regiment
Died 26 October 1917, aged 26 years old
Commemorated on Panel 90 to 92 of the Tyne Cot Memorial, Zonnebeke, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium
Son of Thomas and Caroline Jane Till, of 54, Leicester Rd., Bedworth, Nuneaton

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APPENDIX E - Commemorative Scroll

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APPENDIX F - Geluveld Reclaimed

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APPENDIX G - Bedworth War Memorial

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APPENDIX H - Brough’s brother, John William Till

Brough’s elder brother, John William Till was born in 1886 and by the time of the 1901 census, at the age of 14, he was working as a waggoner’s boy on a farm. Their father, Thomas Till, was a miner and, ten years later, the 1911 census shows John also working as a coal miner (as a filler). He was 24 and still single.

Two years later, in the fourth quarter of 1913, he married Elsie Maud Partridge at Foleshill in Warwickshire. Around this time John got a job as an artificial silk spinner with Courtaulds Ltd. in Foleshill. Coventry was known then for its textiles industry, particularly the weaving of silk ribbons, and Courtaulds had opened the silk works in Foleshill in 1904.

John enlisted with the army on 9 December 1915 and joined first the 4th and then the 11th Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment. On 5 December 1916 he was posted to the 10th Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment. The 10th Battalion had been formed in Warwick in August 1914, one of the units in Kitchener’s new army, and in March 1915 it had become part of the 57th Brigade of the 19th Infantry Division. The 10th Battalion landed in France in July 1915 and by December 1916 had taken part in the Battle of Albert, the attacks on High Wood, the Battle of Pozieres Ridge, the Battle of the Ancre Heights and - in November 1916 - the Battle of the Ancre, the last of the big British attacks in the Battle of the Somme. With regimental number 19414, Private John William Till was amongst the draft of 177 reinforcements who joined the 10th Battalion on 17 December 1916.

John’s war did not go well. On 18 February 1917 he was admitted to 5 Casualty Receiving Station suffering from influenza. On 1 March 1917 he was admitted to 18 General Hospital suffering from myalgia (muscle pain) which prevented him rejoining his battalion until 15 April. After a period of rotation between the trenches and behind the lines, the 10th Battalion’s next major action was the attack on Oostaverne in the Battle of Messines (7-14 June 1917). On 4 July, John was taken to hospital once more but returned to his unit again on 9 July. The Battalion remained in the Messines area until they moved in preparation for the Third Battle of Ypres where the 10th Battalion was primarily in the support trenches, providing working parties to bring up supplies and dig new trenches. On 27 October, John’s working party came under shell fire and John was badly gassed. The effects were so severe that he was sent back to England on 1 November 1917. John was taken to Stourbridge for hospital treatment. He never returned to the 10th Battalion but War Office Daily List No. 5435 on 6 December 1917 reported that he was now entitled to wear a "Wound Stripe".

When he was sufficiently recovered, a series of postings took him to a variety of home units, including the 1/6th (Cyclist) Battalion Royal Sussex Regiment (with new regimental number G/34830), where he remained until he was transferred to the Army Reserve on 17 February 1919.

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Following his discharge, John returned to his wife Elsie in Warwickshire. In 1920, they decided to emigrate to the United states and New York Passenger lists show the couple sailing from Liverpool on 27 March aboard S. S. Carmania and arriving on Ellis Island in New York on 7 April 1920.

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John and Elsie made their home in the town of Akron in Summit County, Ohio, and in 1926, after 6 years of residence, became naturalised Americans. A year later, their son Jack arrived.

John William Till died aged 77 on 5 March 1964 and was buried at East Akron Cemetery, his wife Elsie having died 8 years earlier.

Reference, Item and Source

1. South Staffordshire Regiment Badge © National Army Museum website https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/south-staffordshire-regiment

2. Photograph of Henry Brough Till © David Sylvester

3. Modern map showing the approximate route covered by the 1st Battalion South Staffordshire Regiment prior to the attack on 26 October 1917 © David Sylvester

4. British infantry awaiting commands © Collier's Photographic History of the European War (New York, 1916) and Pinterest website https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/314900198915591784/

5. Advice provided to troops by Lieutenant-Colonel Archibald Bentley Beauman, 1st Battalion South Staffordshire Regiment © 1st Battalion South Staffordshire Regiment War Diary (Staffordshire Regiment Museum, Whittington Barracks, Lichfield, WS14 9PY)

6. Photograph of Lieutenant-Colonel Archibald Bentley Beauman, 1st Battalion South Staffordshire Regiment © Imperial War Museum

7. Map showing the attack on Geluveld, 26 October 1917 © The Seventh Division 1914 - 1918 by Christopher Thomas Atkinson

8. Photograph of the Till family, taken at 194 Heath Road, Bedworth, on the occasion of the the 30th Wedding Anniversary in 1905 of Thomas & Caroline Till © David Sylvester

9. Medal index card for Henry Brough Till © The National Archives and Ancestry

10A and 10B. British War Medal (left) and Victory Medal (right) © British Badges and Medals (North East Medals) https://www.badgesandmedals.co.uk/

11. Record in the UK, Army Registers of Soldiers' Effects, 1901-1929, for Henry Brough Till © Ancestry

12A, 12B, 12C and 12D Records for Henry Brough Till from the UK, World War I Pension Ledgers and Index Cards, 1914-1923 © Ancestry and Fold3

13A, 13B, 13C Photographs of the Tyne Cot Memorial © Commonwealth War Graves Commission

13D. Photographs of the Tyne Cot Memorial © Geerhard Joos and the Remembering the Fallen website https://www.ww1cemeteries.com/tyne-cot-memorial.html

14A. Close-up of the Tyne Cot Memorial Panel recording the name of Lance Corporal Henry Brough Till © Margaret Stead

14B. Close-up of the Tyne Cot Memorial Panel recording the name of Lance Corporal Henry Brough Till © Margaret Stead

15. Commonwealth War Graves Commission commemoration certificate in memory of Lance Corporal Henry Brough Till © Commonwealth War Graves Commission

16. Commemorative Scroll for Lance Corporal Henry Brough Till © David Sylvester

17. Canadian soldier standing in the mud of the battlefield of Passchendaele © William Rider-Rider /Canada Department of National Defence/Library and Archives Canada/PA-002165, Veteran Affairs Canada website https://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/history/first-world-war/passchendaele/gallery

18. Geluveld - looking towards Lewis House and Berry Cotts, where the German machine guns were located © David Sylvester

19. Bedworth War Memorial in Coventry Road Cemetery, Bedworth © David Sylvester

20. Record in the medal index roll for John William Till © Ancestry

21. Medal index card for John William Till © Ancestry

22. Extract from the list of British passengers who left Liverpool aboard the S. S. Carmania on 27 March 1920 bound for New York © Ancestry

23A. Passenger list arrivals in New York, 1920 © Family Search website

23B. Entries for John William Till and his wife Elsie Maud Till in the passenger list arrivals in New York, 1920 © Family Search website

24. Cunard liner S. S. Carmania © Great Ships website https://greatships.net/carmania