WW1 Memorial Plaque named WILFRED HENRY YOUNG.
Wilfred Henry Young born in St Pauls, Bristol on 18th July 1889 and was a 25 year old factory manager who lived at 2 Eastfield Road, Cotham, Bristol when he enlisted into the 6th Gloucestershire Regiment numbered 2843 on 1st Sep 1914 as a Private. He was educated at Merchant Ventures College, Bristol University. He gained a commission on 2nd Feb 1915 with the 6th Gloucestershire Regt and was sent to France on 31st Mar 1915.
On the 27th. May 1915 at 9.50 pm the Battalion took over the trenches from the 1st/4th.Glosters at Le Gheer, Belgium about 5 miles due south of Ypres. On their first night in the trenches they were greeted with an indescribable odour. When the dawn broke, they found that this was due to heaps of dead Germans lying just in front of our parapet and also a field of decaying corpses behind our trenches. The Germans generally didn't do much shelling of the front lines, tending regularly to send a few shells into Ploegsteert Wood and the rear. However, there was plenty of rifle fire. The German mine was actually blown on the 29th May at 8.15 pm in front of the 1/6th Battalion’s front line leaving a crater from the edge of the trench’s barbed wire into No Man’s Land and followed this up by an artillery bombardment. A number of parties, each under a subaltern, were ordered to seize and consolidate the crater. Simultaneously the Germans set out to occupy their side of the crater with a skirmish ensuing but were driven back by the Battalion’s consolidating parties who then carried out their work successfully. 2nd Lt Wilfred Young was the commanding officer of B Co and provided with Mills Bombs which had just been received for the first time. It was during this skirmish that 2nd Lt Young aged 26 was seriously wounded and died the next day (30th. May 1915). He was the first officer of the Battalion to die in the war and his death was reported in The Times published on 7th June 1915. Son of Anthony and Sarah, of 2 Eastfield Road, Cotham, Bristol he had been assistant-manager, British American Tobacco Company, Liverpool. He was a member of Bristol Lacrosse Club and 2 Tennis Clubs. He is buried in Lancashire Cottage Cemetery, Belgium.
