As part of the 46th North Midland Division assault on the Hindenburg Line at Bellenglise.
The 6th Battalion attacked PONTRUET and FORCANS Trenches and pushed on to the outlying ruins of St Helene.
“On the morning of Sept. 24th Lt. Jepson came to us lads and told us that we were to go over the top with the Leicesters, zero was at 5 O’clock, this was 2 O’clock and about 3 O’clock he brought us an issue of rum just to liven us up a bit. Half an hour after we had orders to roll up our great coats in bundles and dump them on the dump. About quarter past four Mr Jepson led the Platoon along the sunken road up to the ridge and lined us up in Artillery Formation.”
[5540/202274 L/Sergt Frank Mayne of Left C Company]
Lieutenant A Jepson was commissioned 2/Lt on 17.12.17 and transferred from the 1/Notts & Derby on 5.9.18 but returned to England wounded on 5.10.18.
The Battalion suffered 7 men killed and many more wounded. The men are now buried in Roisel Communal Cemetery, but it is likely that they were reburied after the War after originally being interned in Bernes Churchyard.
The men killed were:-
93870 L/Cpl Charles Henry Hirst from Sheffield.
203054 Pte Walter Bennet aged 38 from Mansfield.
306528 L/Cpl James Flint from Wirksworth.
266988 Pte Reginald Martin aged 23 and from Ripley.
98198 Pte William Riley aged 19 and from Halifax.
268007 Pte Walter Walker (SDGW does not record his death).
98023 Pte Choyce Chapman Wheatley aged 19 and from Sutton Cheney.
There are several interesting notes about the men that were killed:-
1. None of these men originally enlisted into the 6th Battalion Notts and Derby and received the relevant 4- and/or 6-digit numbers, although Bennett, Flint, Martin and Walker do have 1917 Notts & Derby 6-digit Territorial Force numbers and may well have enlisted and/or served with the other 2/ or 3/ TF Battalions of the Notts & Derby Regiment.
2. Hirst, Riley and Wheatley are all ‘conscripted’ soldiers. William Riley and Choyce Wheatley were both “called up for service” in June 1917 and posted to the 14th Training Reserve before being transferred to the 3rd Sherwood Foresters on 1st December 1917. Both men joined the 1/6th Battalion in the field on 16th February 1918 after landing in France on 20th January with the 43rd Reinforcement.
3. None-the-less all these men were ‘North Midlanders’.
Derbyshire Territorials in the Great War 
Hi,
The first casualty of the 7 killed was Charles Henry Hirst ‘of Sheffield’ Those two words allowed me to identify him and relate him to his brother Louis WIlliam who survived. So thank you for this snippet
I’d like to know how you know that he was of Sheffield.
I haven’t found any service record for either brother.
A sketch biography of the brothers is here:
Best wishes
Keith
Hello Keith – many thanks for the extra info – very interesting – I’ll double check, but I suspect from SDGW or CWGC, cheers Mike