George Arthur Lumby (An Infantry Battalion)

I have already told you all that I know about my Great Uncle, George Arthur Lumby and soon I will tell you the story of how he died during the Battle of the Somme. But before I do so I feel that I should tell you a little bit about the Army and it's organisation to give you some idea of how I was able to glean the information from Battalion and Brigade War Diaries in order to tell his story.

George was posted to the 12th (S) Battalion of the West Yorkshire Regiment. A Battalion was (and still is) the standard fighting formation of the British Infantry. During World War 1 a British Infantry Battalion contained approximately 1,000 men, on paper (In reality with losses this number was usually less) split into four Companies of about 220 soldiers, each commanded by a Major and designated as A to D, these were sub divided into platoons and then sections.

The Battalion was commanded by a Lieutenant-Colonel supported by the Battalion Headquarters staff and also contained ancillary troops such as a Medical Officer and stretcher bearers, Communication staff including runners (the most dangerous job in the Battalion), Trench Mortar section, Machine gun section, Cooks, Quartermaster and Transport sections.

Several Battalions served together in Brigades which consisted of approximately 5,000 men and above them several Brigades were formed into a Division which consisted of about 20,000 soldiers. The 12th West Yorks were brigaded together with the following units to form 9th Brigade which was part of 3rd Division consisting of both Regular and New Army Battalions:-

12th (S) Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment
1st Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers
13th Battalion Kings Liverpool Regiment
4th Battalion the Royal Fusiliers
9th Brigade Machine Gun Company
9th Trench Mortar battery

The army runs on paper work even during war time, this is very useful for anybody researching military or family history. During active service every unit of Battalion size and above was required to fill in a War Diary or Intelligence Summary each day to record what the unit was doing at a particular time. There are also typed plans of attack, maps, Divisional, Brigade and Battalion Orders and countless other army forms from which information can be obtained.

War Diaries were recorded on an official Army form, however when a unit was in protracted fighting sometimes they could not get the forms so the days events would be written on any available paper. The most moving example of this that I have discovered was when I was researching the death of my wife's Great Uncle George Read of 1st Royal West Kents.

In April 1915 the Battalion was constantly engaged in bitter and bloody fighting at Hill 60 in the Ypres Salient. The war diaries for this period were written on pages from an old exercise book (Held in the National Archive at Kew) by a Sub-lieutenant in front line trenches during a break in the attacks. When I viewed these entries several years ago, I may have been the first person to hold them for over eighty years and it was difficult not to feel a pang of sadness as the pages were smeared in mud and blood. It was a fine example of living history.