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Lovell Everson |
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No / Rank: 213 Private
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The record contains no personal information. Guardsman Everson has no known grave and is commemorated on the Arras Memorial to the Missing. The memorial records ‘35,942 missing’ in the battles of Vimy Ridge, Arras, the Scarpe, Bullecourt and Hill 70. At Fampoux, near Arras on the days leading up to the 10th March 1918 men of the Prince of Wales Company 1st Battalion the Welsh Guards were preparing to carry out a trench raid. In this period, just before the German Spring Offensive of 1918, raids were carried out to capture prisoners for interrogation. The aim was to ascertain the enemy’s strength and advanced warning of any imminent attack. The raid had been planned and rehearsed away from the front line. The raiding party, over 30 strong, was to attack a point on the German lines where the front line and communication trenches met. (shown on the British map as Corn and Crust trenches-see map)
At approximately 5 a.m. on March 10th 1918, following a brief artillery barrage the raiding party slipped into No Man’s Land and dashed towards the German trenches. They quickly captured a single prisoner and began to make their way back to the British lines. At this point they were attacked by German troops who had been hiding in a shell hole near their own trenches. The attack was beaten off, but a number of Guardsmen were wounded and their return had been slowed. An artillery barrage came from the German positions and a shell hit the German prisoner and the two Guardsmen bringing him in. Lovell Everson was certainly killed during this raid and it is likely that he was one of the two Guardsmen who were bringing in the prisoner. An entry in the Weekly Argus of 4th May 1918 reported that there was considerable anxiety over the safety of Private Everson as no news of him had been received at home for over two months. He was reported as having been on active (August 1915) service for about two years and as being “very popular in the district”. Lovell Everson is
commemorated at the Arras memorial.
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