21st (Service) Battalion, Middlesex Regiment (Islington)

The 21st (Service) Battalion, Middlesex Regiment (Islington) (21st Middlesex) was an infantry unit recruited as part of 'Kitchener's Army' in World War I. It was raised in the spring of 1915 by the Mayor and Borough of Islington in North London. Serving on the Western Front from June 1916 it saw action against the Hindenburg Line and at Bourlon Wood. It then fought through the German spring offensive and the Battle of the Lys. Reduced to a training cadre following heavy casualties, the battalion was sent back to England, where it was disbanded at the end of the war.

Recruitment and training

On 6 August 1914, less than 48 hours after Britain's declaration of war, Parliament sanctioned an increase of 500,000 men for the Regular British Army. The newly appointed Secretary of State for War, Earl Kitchener of Khartoum, issued his famous call to arms: 'Your King and Country Need You', urging the first 100,000 volunteers to come forward. Men flooded into the recruiting offices and the 'first hundred thousand' were enlisted within days. This group of six divisions with supporting arms became known as Kitchener's First New Army, or 'K1'.War Office Instructions No 32 (6 August) and No 37 (7 August).Becke, Pt 3a, pp. 2 & 8. The K2, K3 and K4 battalions, brigades and divisions followed soon afterwards. But the flood of volunteers overwhelmed the ability of the Army to absorb them, and the K5 units were largely raised by local initiative rather than at regimental depots, often from men from particular localities or backgrounds who wished to serve together: these were known as 'Pals battalions'. The 'Pals' phenomenon quickly spread across the country, as local recruiting committees offered complete units to the War Office (WO). Encouraged by this response, in February 1915 Kitchener approached the 28 Metropolitan Borough Councils in the County of London, and the 'Great Metropolitan Recruiting Campaign' went ahead in April, with each mayor asked to raise a unit of local men.McCue, pp. 10–1.

One such unit was raised on 18 May 1915 by the Mayor and Borough of Islington as the 21st (Service) Battalion, Middlesex Regiment (Islington).Frederick, p. 216.James, p. 94.Middlesex Regiment at Long, Long Trail.War Office Instruction No 56 of September 1915, Appendix IX. Lieutenant-Colonel Edward St Aubyn Wake, retired from the Indian Army, was appointed as the commanding officer (CO) on 2 June.London Gazette, 29 June 1915.

The battalion was assigned to 118th Brigade of 39th Division. 118th Brigade began to form in London in July. Initially it comprised two service battalions of the Middlesex Regiment (the 20th (Shoreditch) and 21st (Islington)) and two of the Queen's Own (Royal West Kent Regiment) (the 10th (Kent County) and 11th (Lewisham)). 39th Division began to assemble early in August 1915, but it was not until the end of September that 118th Bde joined it at Aldershot. However, on arrival 118th Bde was reorganised, the Royal West Kent battalions moving to 41st Division and being replaced by 13th East Surrey Regiment (Wandsworth) from 41st Division and 14th Battalion, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. In November the division moved to Witley Camp in Surrey, where it continued its training, returning to Aldershot from 2 to 12 February for musketry training with rifles that had only been issued a few days before.Becke, Pt 3b, pp. 91–100.39th Division at Long, Long Trail.

Mobilisation orders had been received during February and advance parties of the division had already left for the Western Front. But the Pals battalions of 118th Bde had not completed their training, so it was decided to leave them behind to join 40th Division when the rest of 39th Division left for France. 40th Division had originally been a 'Bantam' formation, composed of men below the normal regulation height for the British Army. However, the supply of strong, fit men of this description had dried up, so some of the battalions were amalgamated., the gaps being filled by the normal height battalions of 118th Bde. 20th and 21st Middlesex were transferred to 121st Bde to serve alongside the Bantams of 12th Suffolk Regiment (East Anglian) (which had just absorbed the 22nd Middlesex) and the 13th Green Howards.Becke, Pt 3b, pp. 101–8.40th Division at Long, Long Trail.Whitton, pp. 9–10.Wyrall, p. 19. Lieutenant-Col Wilfrid Samuel took over command of 21st Middlesex on 1 March.

These reorganisations had held up the training process, but once they were completed 40th Division intensified the training, specialists such as snipers and 'bombers' were selected and trained, and all the necessary arms and equipment were issued. In mid-May the division was warned to prepare for service with the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) on the Western Front. 21st Middlesex mobilised at Woking on 27 May and on 5 June entrained for Southampton Docks with a strength of 33 officers and 990 other ranks (ORs). They embarked that evening, the transport and part of the battalion aboard the transport Rossetti, and the main body on the Caesarea. They landed next day at Le Havre.21st Middlesex War Diary May1916–September 1918 (March–June 1918 missing), The National Archives (TNA), Kew, file WO 95/2615/5.

28th (Reserve) Battalion The depot companies of the 21st (Islington) Battalion amalgamated with those of the 20th Middlesex at Shoreditch to form the 28th (Reserve) Battalion, Middlesex Regiment. Its role was to train reinforcement drafts for the two parent service battalions. By December 1915 it was at Northampton in 23rd Reserve Brigade, alongside the 24th and 27th (Reserve) Battalions of the Middlesex Regiment. In May 1916 the brigade moved to Aldershot.

On 1 September 1916 the Training Reserve was established following the introduction of conscription, and 28th (R) Bn Middlesex became 102nd Training Reserve Battalion, though the training staff retained their Middlesex badges. On 27 October 1917 the battalion reverted to the Middlesex Regiment as 53rd (Young Soldier) Battalion, carrying out initial training of conscripts. After the Armistice with Germany it was converted into a service battalion on 8 February 1919 and was then sent to join the British Army of the Rhine, where it was absorbed into 23rd Bn, Middlesex Regiment (2nd Football) on 10 March.Training Reserve at Long, Long Trail.

Service By 9 June 1916 40th Division had concentrated at Lillers, near Béthune. 21st Middlesex spent its first weeks in France on further training. In late June 40th Division moved to the Calonne sector behind 1st Division, where from 27 June 21st Middlesex was billeted in Maroc. Next day A and B Companies of were attached to 1st Northamptonshire Regiment and C and D Companies to 1st Loyal North Lancashire Regiment for instruction in Trench warfare. Although Calonne was a quiet sector the attached companies suffered several casualties. C and D Companies were in reserve for an attack by 1st Division on 'The Triangle' on 30 June. 40th Division then took over the front from 1st Division on 3 July, with 21st Middlesex in brigade support at North Maroc. It supplied large working parties to improve the support trenches, then on 5 July it relieved 12th Suffolks in the front line, including the famous Double Crassier spoil-heap facing Loos, where both sides were mining and snipers were active. Holding and repairing the trenches and barbed wire cost the battalion a steady trickle of casualties. At the end of this spell, the battalion went into billets in Petits Sains. Over the following weeks the battalion alternated spells of trench duty with the other battalions of 121st Bde at Maroc and later at Loos. Both armies were concentrating on the Somme Offensive further south, but units in the Loos sector still saw casualties mount up during the summer from occasional shelling, snipers, and trench mortars, or during patrols and raids (A Company carried out one raid on 2 October and B Company another on 18 October). No man's land was narrow enough for both sides to use rifle grenades. When out of the line the battalions supplied working parties and continued training.Murphy, pp. 199–200.Taylor, pp. 78–93.Whitton, pp. 26–30, 35–9.

40th Division was relieved at the end of October and moved south to join Fourth Army in the Somme sector. Three weeks' training was first carried out around Abbeville, with 21st Middlesex initially billeted at Candas. The division then went into the line at the end of December, with 121st Bde initially in reserve, 21st Middlesex in 'Camp 12' near Sailly-Laurette. On 31 December 21st Middlesex went into brigade support at 'Asquith Flats' near Maurepas, then in the new year began tours of trench duty at Rancourt. Here there was complete destruction left by that summer's fighting. The front line troops spent the winter among a maze of smashed and flooded trenches, under occasional bombardments. Living in these conditions the cases of sickness and Trench foot rose sharply.Crozier, pp. 132–7.Taylor, pp. 132–4.Whitton, pp. 40–8.

Hindenburg Line Training for the battalions was stepped up during the winter, with emphasis on Lewis guns and the new 'fighting platoon' tactics.Griffith, pp. 77–9.Taylor, pp. 142–3. Trench-raiding by both sides resumed when the weather improved. On the night of 3/4 March 21 Middlesex fired red and green signal rockets (used by the Germans as 'SOS' signals to call down defensive artillery fire) to divert attention away from a major raid by the neighbouring 8th Division.

On the night of 15/16 March the battalion took over the front line at Cléry-sur-Somme. There were rumours of a German retreat and 40th Division was ordered to penetrate into the German lines at least once a week. 21st Middlesex's nightly patrols reported the German line still strongly held, but on the afternoon of 17 March 13th Green Howards found it deserted. The Germans had begun withdrawing from in front of 40th Division as part of a large-scale retreat to the prepared positions of the Hindenburg Line (Operation Alberich). B Company of 21st Middlesex immediately probed forward and established strongpoints in the German front line trench, reconnoitred the empty support and reserve trenches, and blocked the communication trenches, while other companies cut gaps through the wire. The only opposition was some erratic shrapnel fire by German artillery. By 19.30 the whole German defence system was in British hands and fires could be seen burning in Péronne beyond. Next day 40th Division began cautiously following up, with patrols out in front in contact with German rearguards. 121st Brigade moved into deserted Péronne, with 21st Middlesex occupying the height of Mont St Quentin. On 20 March 121st Bde was leapfrogged by another division taking the lead. 40th Division was then set to repairing the roads and railways that had been destroyed by the retreating enemy. Once communications had been restored, XV Corps, to which 40th Division belonged, closed up to the Hindenburg Line. On 6 April 21 Middlesex moved into Gouzeaucourt Wood. German resistance stiffened among the fortified villages they held as outworks to the Hindenburg main line. The battalion's trenches were heavily shelled on 8 April, and next day it undertook a minor operation with two platoons advancing behind a barrage to take two crossroads in front. The first was easily reached, but afterwards they ran into machine gun fire and could not hold the second, suffering numerous casualties. The battalion then had to hold off enemy counter-attacks. The battalion's losses that day were 26 killed, 38 wounded and 1 missing.Crozier, pp. 140–2.Falls, 1917, Vol I, pp. 123, 134–5.Murphy, pp. 255–9.Taylor, p. 143–4.Whitton, pp. 48–74.