Bertie Howroyd was killed in action on this day in 1917
Bertie was born on 31 March 1898 in Ravensthorpe, Yorkshire. His parents were Ephraim Bates Howroyd, a piano maker, and his wife, Ellen née Parkin. In 1901, they lived in Lee Street, South View Terrace in Ravensthorpe.
Ephraim and Ellen had two more boys, Harry and Willie, in 1903 and 1906, but both died within their first year.
In 1911, the family was living at 1, Garden Terrace in Ravensthorpe. Bertie, now aged 13, was a grocer's shop assistant.
He attended the Wesleyan Church and Sunday School and, later, worked as a percher for Pickering Greaves and Co (a perch is a frame on which cloth is placed for inspection; a percher is the person who inspects the cloth).
Bertie was called up in April or May 1917 and, after just three months training (part of which he spent in hospital), he was sent to France, joining the 10th (Service) Battalion, West Yorkshire Regiment (17th (Northern) Division), who were positioned north of Roeux, near Arras.
The Battalion's War Diary reads:
5 September: Battalion proceeded to relieve the 6th Dorsets in front line. Relief complete about 12 midnight.
6 September: Quiet day with very little shelling. Some slight enemy trench mortar activity in the vicinity of COAL NORTH. Every available man employed in improving the trenches. Active patrolling carried out at night.
Although no mention is made of any casualties, Soldiers Died in the Great War indicates that three men from the battalion were killed at this time, two on 6 September and one on 7 September. Bertie was one of those killed on 6 September; he was just 19 years old.
The news of his death came to his parents via Bertie's aunt: Bertie had on him at the time of his death a letter from her, and it was therefore to that relative that Colour Sergeant Major W Joyce wrote to say that Bertie had died. He said that he had been killed "... straight out and did not suffer one minute".
Bertie is buried alongside his two comrades from the 10th West Yorkshires in Brown's Copse Cemetery at Roeux.
42274 Private Bertie Howroyd, 10th (Service) Battalion, West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince Of Wales's Own)