In Memory of WILFRED ROGERS Guardsman 20678 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards Who died on Monday, 11th October 1915 Aged 21 Section IX, Row D, Grave 2 St. Mary's A.D.S. Cemetery, Haisnes, Pas de Calais, France Commemorated in Perpetuity by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission & Remembered with Honour

St Mary's ADS Cemetery, Haisnes, France1

Wilfred Rogers, was born in Bramcote, Notts in 1894², the third son of William & Eliza Ann (née Pendleton) Rogers. His father had been born in Wollaton, Notts and worked in the local coal mines. By 1901, he had moved to Beeston with his family, living on Chapel Street and working as a grocer³. By 1911 however, the family had moved to 26 Denison Street, Beeston with William again working in a coal mine as a hewer. By this time, there were six children still at home, all but the youngest working. Ernest (b. c1891), the second son, and Wilfred were working at one of the local nursery gardens, two of their sisters, Maude Matilda (b. 1888) and Cicily Ann (b. 1892), were working at the local telephone works (Ericssons) and the youngest sister, Julia Mary (b. 1895), was working as a winder in the lace trade. Their youngest brother, William Frederick (b.1900) was still at school. Their eldest brother, Harold (b. 1886) had married in 1908 and was also working as a coal miner and living nearby on Denison Street⁴.

Wilfred appears to have enlisted with 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards early in the war - by which time the family appear to have moved to 32 Montague Street, Beeston. This battalion was stationed at Chelsea Barracks at the outbreak of war, was sent to France later in August 1914, took part in the Battle of Mons and fought heroically in the 1st Battle of Ypres but with heavy casualties. During these early months of the war, Wilfred would have been undertaking basic training. He was to leave for France and joined his battalion in Flanders on 18 July 1915.⁵.

In August 1915, the various Guards Battalions, now depleted by battle casualties, were formed into the Guards Division. 2nd Battalion became part of its 1st Brigade (one of four, each with four battalions). As such, it took part in the ill-fated Battle of Loos which was to see huge British casualties. Guardsman⁶ Rogers was amongst those who were killed in action on 11 October 1915. It is likely that he would have been buried in the battlefield but is now amongst those whose burials that were moved to St. Mary's A.D.S. Cemetery, Haisnes in the Pas de Calais, France, after the war.

St. Mary's Advanced Dressing Station was established, during the Battle of Loos, and the cemetery named from it is at the same place. The cemetery was made after the Armistice, by the concentration of graves from the battlefield of Loos; the great majority of the graves are those of men who fell in September and October 1915. The cemetery is located in the vicinity of Haisnes, which lies between the towns of Lens and La Bassee in the Pas-de-Calais. Although the Cemetery lies in open farmland, there are neighbouring towns of Vermelles, Loos-en-Gohelle and Hulluch. There are now nearly 2,000, 1914-18 war casualties commemorated in the cemetery. Of these, over two-thirds are unidentified and Special Memorials are erected to 23 soldiers from the United Kingdom, known or believed to be buried among them⁷.

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Footnotes
¹The photograph of St Marys ADS Cemetery is from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website. (http://www.cwgc.org)
²His birth was registered in Shardlow Registration District (of which Bramcote was then part) in Q1/1894 - Ref 7a 494. Several unsourced on-line trees suggest that his birth was on 10 February 1894.
³1901 Census - Piece 3208 Folio 38
⁴1911 Census - Piece 20427 RD 429 SD 3 ED 2 Schedule 68
⁵The Army Service Record for Wilfred Rogers does not appear to have survived, however, his Medal Card does record the date that he was posted to France as 28th July 1915.
⁷Although the rank of Guardsman, instead of Private, was not adopted in the Guards Regiments until 1920, we have used it here, even though Wilfred Rogers would have held the rank of Private during his service. His memorial stone and entry in 'Soldiers Died in the Great War' also use the rank of Guardsman.
⁷This description of St Marys ADS Cemetery is based on that on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website. (http://www.cwgc.org)

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