The 13th (Service) Battalion, East Surrey Regiment (Wandsworth) (13th East Surreys or 13th ESR) was an infantry unit recruited as part of 'Kitchener's Army' in World War I. It was raised in the summer of 1915 by the Mayor and Borough of Wandsworth in the suburbs of South London. It served on the Western Front from June 1916, and distinguished itself at the capture of Villers-Plouich and at Bourlon Wood. It then fought through the German spring offensive and the Battle of the Lys, when most of the battalion was surrounded and captured. Reduced to a training cadre the battalion was sent back to England to be reconstituted, but was eventually disbanded just before the end of the war
Recruitment
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 boroughs of 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.
Alderman Archibald Dawnay, Mayor of Wandsworth, and his council offered to raise a complete infantry battalion of 1350 officers and men. The council established a battalion orderly room in the Town Hall. The borough recruiting officer aimed for 200 volunteers from each of Wandsworth's five parishes, and had the use of the East Surrey Regiment's recruiting offices of 31st Regimental District. The recruiting office in Streatham High Road enlisted the first volunteer (a Council employee) for the Wandsworth Battalion (or 'Wandsworth Regulars') on 3 June, long before the battalion was formally authorised by the WO on 16 June as the 13th (Service) Battalion, East Surrey Regiment (Wandsworth). (The East Surrey Regiment was the Regular Army regiment covering South-West London, the pre-war London Regiment consisting entirely of part-time soldiers of the Territorial Force.) As commanding officer (CO), Dawnay obtained Captain Alfred Burton, a former Regular and Territorial Force officer who had rejoined as a paymaster at the outbreak of war. Burton had recently been appointed second-in-command of the 12th (Bermondsey) Bn, East Surreys with the rank of Temporary Major; now he was promoted to Temporary Lieutenant-Colonel and became CO of the Wandsworth Battalion.Frederick, p. 203.James, p. 75.McCue, pp. 22–7.Pearse & Sloman, Vol II, pp. 28–9.East Surreys at Long, Long Trail.War Office Instruction No 56 of September 1915, Appendix IX. Dawnay proposed to Kitchener that the battalion should have its own version of the East Surreys' cap badge, and somewhat unexpectedly this was authorised by the Army Council. The escutcheon and motto ('We Serve') from the coat of arms of Wandsworth were displayed at the centre of the badge, instead of the arms of Guildford, worn more generally by the East Surrey Regiment. The badge was designed by T.C. Willett, the mayor's secretary, and was manufactured by a local firm in Putney.Bilton, pp. 186–91.McCue, pp. 28–9.Pearse & Sloman, Vol III, pp. 160–2.King's Colours at Queen's Royal Surreys.
Recruitment was slow at first, only 55 men having enlisted by the end of June, but then picked up, partly because of the fame of 19-year-old Lance-Corporal Edward Dwyer of 1st Bn East Surreys, who had just been invested at Buckingham Palace with the Victoria Cross (VC) he won at Hill 60 at Ypres. Dwyer gave speeches and joined recruiting marches across the borough. He was accompanied by Colour-Sergeant James Smith, who had won the VC on the North-West Frontier in 1897 and was now running the Wandsworth Battalion's recruiting offices. The Mayoress, Mrs Dawnay, and the wife of Alderman Melhuish set up a Women's Recruiting Committee in the borough to raise money and encourage men to enlist, but they voted not to hand out white feathers to men who were not in uniform. By the end of July nearly 900 recruits had been enlisted. The battalion was easily able to fill its depot company in addition to the four rifle companies, and eventually the borough supplied the great majority of 14th (Reserve) Battalion (see below). Early drills were carried out in the yard at Young's Ram Brewery in Wandsworth, some companies then used Wandsworth Common, later training was at a field off Buckhold Road, loaned by Mr A. Rawlings.McCue, pp. 29–36.Dwyer VC at Queen's Royal Surreys.
Training The battalion was officially taken over by the WO on 28 August and in early September it went by train from Barnes Station to Milford Station in Surrey, and then marched into Witley Camp to join 41st Division.McCue, pp. 36–43. In October 41st Division exchanged some units with 39th Division, and 13th East Surreys moved to Barrosa Barracks, Aldershot, to join 118th Brigade in 39th Division, where it was brigaded with the 20th (Shoreditch) and 21st (Islington) Battalions, Middlesex Regiment, and 14th Battalion, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (A&SH).Becke, Pt 3b, pp. 91–100.McCue, pp. 43–4.
In November 39th Division moved to Witley, where it continued its training around the Devil's Punch Bowl. Route marches were carried out with full kit, the pouches filled with iron weights (known as 'Kitchener's chocolate') to simulate the weight of ammunition. The men of 13th Royal Surreys were among those guilty of discarding these weights in roadside ditches. Unfit men were 'weeded out' and exchanged for others from 14th (R) Bn. On 15 December Lt-Col Burton left to take command of 14th (R) Bn and was replaced by a younger man, Major W.C. Newton, a Regular officer of the Middlesex Regiment with recent active service, who was promoted to take command. In January 1916 13th East Surreys underwent their musketry course on the rifle ranges at Ash with their newly issued rifle.Becke, Pt 3b, p. 113.McCue, pp. 44–9.
39th Division received its mobilisation orders during February 1916 and advance parties left for France. However, the Pals battalions of 118th Bde had not completed their training, so it was decided to replace them with more advanced units and leave them behind to join 40th Division at Blackdown Camp. 40th Division had originally been composed of 'bantams' – fit volunteers who did not meet the normal minimum height requirement for the infantry. But the supply of suitable recruits had dwindled, and it had been necessary to amalgamate several of its battalions to produce enough fit men. On 23 February 1916 the four pals battalions of 118th Bde replaced the disbanded bantam units, and 13th East Surrey and 14th A&SH joined 120th Bde, where they served alongside the reorganised bantams of the 11th (S) Bn, King's Own (Royal Lancaster Regiment) (11th KORL) and 14th (S) Bn, Highland Light Infantry (14th HLI).Becke, Pt 3b, pp. 101–7.40th Division at Long, Long Trail.McCue, pp. 49–50.Whitton, pp. 8-10, 21.
40th Division continued with its training, and in May was warned to prepare to move to the Western Front and join the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). It completed its mobilisation on 31 May and entrainment to the embarkation ports began. 13th East Surreys, with a strength of 34 officers and 970 other ranks (ORs), marched to Frimley station on 3 June and boarded two trains for Southampton Docks. The two half battalions the boarded the troopships Queen Alexandra and Hunscraft and disembarked at Le Havre next day.McCue, pp. 50–9.Pearse & Sloman, Vol II, pp. 259–62.13th East Surreys War Diary, June 1916–July 1918 at Queen's Royal Surreys.Whitton, pp. 23–4.
14th (Reserve) Battalion The 14th (Reserve) Battalion, East Surrey Regiment, was formed in Wandsworth in the summer of 1915 from the depot companies of 12th (Bermondsey) and 13th (Wandsworth) Bns as a Local Reserve battalion to supply reinforcement drafts to the two service battalions. In practice the majority of the men came from the surplus recruits to the Wandsworth Bn, and Lt-Col Burton transferred to command it. On 1 November, when it had reached a strength of between 500 and 600 it went to Gravesend, where it joined 26th Reserve Brigade. However, on 26 June 1916 it was absorbed into the other battalions of 26th Reserve Bde. Thereafter the duty of finding drafts for 13th East Surreys was taken over by 5th (Reserve) Battalion, East Surreys, formed from the 3rd Line of the 5th and 6th (Territorial Force) battalions in the Home Counties Reserve Brigade.McCue, pp. 35, 47, Appendix I.
Western Front On 9 June 40th Division completed its concentration around Lillers near Béthune in First Army's area. Here it resumed training, as well as supplying working parties. On 16 June it moved closer to the front so that units could be sent up the line for attachment to 15th (Scottish) Division in the Lens sector for their introduction to trench warfare. 13th East Surreys were attached to 44th Bde, and each company was attached to a different battalion in the front line for four days:McCue, pp. 59–64.Whitton, pp. 26–7. A Company to 8th Seaforth Highlanders B Company to 8th/10th Gordon Highlanders C Company to 7th Cameron Highlanders D Company to 9th Black Watch
During these attachments the battalion suffered its first few casualties. On 11 July 13th ESR took over its own section of the front for the first time, facing the Hohenzollern Redoubt. B Company amused themselves by going out at night and placing notice bards in the enemy wire giving news of Allied successes. The battalion also carried out its first trench raid. Enemy shellfire and snipers accounted for a steady trickle of casualties. On 8 August the British carried out a bombardment with rifle grenades and trench mortars to test the enemy response, and 13th ESR lost 5 men killed and 10 wounded from the Germans' retaliatory bombardment. For the rest of the summer the battalion alternated between trench duty and billets in Loos. 40th Division was taken out of the line and rested in September, but returned to the Loos sector later in the month.McCue, pp. 65–75.Whitton, pp. 27–40.
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