Name
Alfred Edward Lines
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
09/04/1917
21
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Lance Corporal
25459
Wiltshire Regiment
2nd Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
NEUVILLE-VITASSE ROAD CEMETERY
C. 17.
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
St Saviour's Church War Memorial, Radcliffe Rd., Hitchin, St Mary's Church Roll of Honour (Book), Hitchin
Pre War
His wife was Mrs H. Lines of Highbury Road, Hitchin who was the daughter of Mr Ralph Watson of Hitchin Hill and they had married just after Christmas 1916. His father was Mr G. Lines of the George Inn, Bucklersbury, Hitchin. He had a brother Joseph who served in the Royal Engineers.
Before joining the army he served an apprenticeship with Mr Ernest Leete the outfitter of Bucklersbury in Hitchin, but left Hitchin in 1915 to work in London. He had been born in Hitchin but enlisted in Aldershot,
Wartime Service
Alfred was given the Regimental Number 22745 in the Somerset Light Infantry. Later he was transferred to the 2nd Battalion of the Wiltshire Regiment and was given Regimental Number 25459. This Battalion was part of the 21st Brigade in the 30th Division of VII Corps in the 3rd Army. He had only been in France two months when he died. It is not known whether his death was from action, accident or from illness but the probability is that he died of wounds.
The date of his death coincides with the opening day (Easter Monday) of the First Battle of the Scarpe when, in the afternoon, the 2nd Wiltshires joined in an attack on the Hindenburg Line two miles south of Neuville Vitasse about three miles south west of Arras. According to the Battalion War Diary, it is most probable that he was killed either at 1.30 am when a party of 100 Other Ranks attacked the mill near the Henin-Neuville Vitasse Road in which one third became casualties and they were driven off, or during the 5.30 am attack by the rest of the Battalion on the Hindenburg Line between Neuville Vitasse and St. Martin sur Cojeul. The objective was to cross two sunken roads and to capture about 2,000 yards. The area was heavily defended and they were driven back. The casualties numbered 14 Officers and 328 Other Ranks which meant that nearly half the Battalion became casualties in one day.
Acknowledgments
David C Baines, Jonty Wild
