John Benjamin Lamboll 1894-1918
Albert George Merritt
1898-1918
Thomas Richard Pullen
1895-1918
John
Lamboll, Albert Merritt and Thomas Pullen all died in the same battle
on 28th March 1918. All were related to me, though not to
each other and all came from Surrey but the stories of how they came
to be killed on the same day is very different
What
was later to be known as the Spring Offensive was launched by the
Germans on March 21st 1918. Over the previous few months,
the war on the ground had slowed down; the Eastern front in Russia
and neighbouring countries had been closed and the German troops
brought back to Europe. Much of the damage over the previous few
weeks had been from the air with planes being developed and improved
all the time and air raids over the battlefields on both sides.
Contemporary
reports describe aircraft flying low over the trenches and attacking
troops on the ground. London and the south of England had been bombed
with many casualties. The Americans were due to join the allied
forces which would strengthen them considerably but in the meantime
the Western front was at stalemate. The allied leaders knew that a
large attack was imminent as their spy planes has reported large
numbers of German forces gathering and on the allied side, work to
dig new fortifications along a forty plus mile front line was speeded
up and as many troops as possible brought in.
The
Germans attacked early in the morning of the 21st using
crack troops to quickly overpower and infiltrate the allied lines.
These troops were lightly equipped so that they could move fast but
had weapons such as flame throwers to cause swift damage. They
succeeded in forcing hand to hand fighting as they entered allied
trenches and it was estimated that over a million shells were
launched from the enemy lines in the first five hours. The Fifth Army
commanded by Gough were ordered to withdraw and those who were left
did so as best they could but the lines were fragmented and small
groups of men left without command. Despite great bravery by allied
soldiers, many were killed or taken prisoner.
The
fighting contented for days and was still raging on the 28th
when out three men lost their lives.
Thomas
Richard Pullen was the eldest of the three, born in Croydon in the
spring of 1895, the second child of eight born to Thomas Pullen and
Liza Coombes. Thomas and Liza were married in the spring of 1882 in
Lurgashall, a small village near Midhurst in Sussex, where Thomas was
working as a farm labourer and where they both grew up. Their first
child, Charles Henry was a few weeks later. By the spring of 1885 the
family had moved to Uckfield in Surrey, where second child Thomas
Richard was born. By the time the third son William John arrived two
and a half years later, they were back in Sussex at Lodsworth,
another small village near Midhurst and were still there two years
after that for the birth of their first daughter Winifred Agnes. By
the time the 1891 census was taken they had returned to the family
roots in Lurgashall.
Sometime
in the next four years, Thomas and Liza embarked on a bigger move
into the suburbs of London where Ernest George arrived at the end of
1895. The family was rounded off by Edith in 1898, Victor in 1899 and
Stanley in 1903. All three give their birthplace as South Norwood,
and in 1901, the family were all living in Elmers Road in Croydon.
Thomas senior was working as a wood broker’s carman, presumably
driving a cart delivering wood.
When
he left school, Thomas found employment as a general labourer and in
the summer of 1905 he married Florence Kate Hallett. They already had
a son, Albert, born earlier in the year and the following summer,
Florence was born. They were joined in 1909 by Thomas, then Leonard
in 1912 and Dorothy in 1915.
I
can find no details of Thomas’s war service, only that when he was
killed he was serving with 204th Field ‘Cambridge’
Company which was part of 35th Division and thus the Fifth
Army. Field companies provided technical support within a division.
They were the engineers of the army. I have no record of how Thomas
Pullen was killed but his body was recovered and he is buried in a
cemetery on the Somme where he fell.
Back
home his wife Florence was left with four children to bring up. Their
son Thomas had died in 1915 at the aged of six and his brother
Leonard in 1927 at the age of fourteen. Daughter Florence also died
young and unmarried in 1930. Her mother married again in 1930 and
died in Croydon in 1956. The remaining two children, Albert and
Dorothy, married in Croydon and had eight children between them all
in Croydon.
The
next member of the family to be killed on March 28th 1918
was Albert George Merritt. He was born in April 1894 in Winchester,
the eldest son of a serving soldier, George Merritt and Alice Penton
who were married in Winchester in the summer of 1893. Five more
children followed in Winchester, Alice in 1896, Kate in 1898,
Elizabeth in 1900 Alfred in 1901 and Edith in 1904. The family then
moved to Alton where Leonard was born in 1908. When George senior
left the army the family moved to Peper Harow near Godalming where he
became a shepherd and when he left school Albert joined his father on
the farm.
When
Albert was killed on March 28th 1918, he was a private in
the 1st battalion Hampshire Regiment. At the beginning of
the war, the 1st battalion was made up of regular
soldiers, but by 1918 so many had been lost that it numbered
volunteers and conscripts in its ranks too. Albert joined the
regiment on Dec 18 1915 and served on the Western Front throughout.
By the middle of March the 1st Hampshires were part of the
11th Brigade In advance of the German attack on March
21st, the 1st Battalion were in the second
support line and, as with all the other allied troops, were somewhat
taken by surprise by the ferocity and tactics of the German attack.
Hand to hand fighting took place over the next few days and on the
25th the regiment moved to the front line. In the early
hours of the morning on the 28th a huge bombardment took
place, followed by wave after wave of attack. The Hampshire’s
defended valiantly but were eventually forced to withdraw. At the end
of the day, the losses added up to considerable numbers with many men
killed wounded or lost. Among those never found was Albert Merritt.
He
was awarded the Victory medal and the 1914-15 star and is remembered
on the War Memorial at Chiddingfold Church
John
Benjamin Lamboll was the youngest of the cousins killed on March 28th 1918.
He was born in July 1898 in Haslemere, the only child of Frederick
Lamboll and Emma Le Grey who had married the previous summer. John’s
childhood was a country one, with his father working as a coachman
then later a gardener.
His
records are sparse but he was possibly a territorial as he was in the
Yeomanry Cycle Regiment and later the 2/7th Battalion
Lancashire Fusiliers which was a territorial regiment. The 2/7th
were based in Britain on home duties until the end of February 1917
when they went to France. They were on the front line of the morning
of the 21st March in a quarry and the German attack took
them by surprise and surrounded them. They took up positions in the
quarry tunnels but the German guns were too powerful and the
battalion was forced to surrender. Many were killed or died in the
next few days, so many that the remaining members of the battalion
were utilised as instructors for the American troops arriving at the
battlefield. Sadly John Lamboll as not among them as his death was
recorded on March 28th. He has no grave but is remembered
on the Pozieres memorial
In
Memory of
Lance
Corporal T R PULLEN
87212,
204th Field Coy., Royal Engineers
who
died
on
28 March 1918
Remembered
with honour
RIBEMONT
COMMUNAL CEMETERY EXTENSION, Somme
In
Memory of
MERRITT,
ALBERT GEORGE
Rank
Private
Service
No:11270
Date
of Death:28/03/1918
Regiment/Service:Hampshire
Regiment 1st Bn.
Panel
Reference Bay 6.
Memorial
ARRAS MEMORIAL
In
Memory of
Private
JOHN BENJAMIN LAMBOLL
52598,
2nd/7th Bn., Lancashire Fusiliers
who
died age 19
on
28 March 1918
Son
of Fredrick and Emma Florence Lamboll, of Holly Lodge, Weydown Rd.,
Haslemere, Surrey.
Remembered
with honour
POZIERES
MEMORIAL
