THIS has been Remembrance week and although 100 years ago the Battle of Passchendaele was over, raiding parties continued to harass the German lines along the Western Front.
Two men killed on such a mission was Redditch resident Richard Percival Scott and Victor Frederick Clarke of Studley.
Born in 1893, Richard was one of John and Sarah Matilda Scott’s eight children.
The family lived at 10 Market Place and his parents ran their own tailoring and draper’s business.
Richard was apprenticed to carry on the family trade – until war intervened and he was called up into the 2/8th Worcestershires which in November 1917 was in the frontline west of Arras.
In the same unit was Sergeant Victor Clarke. He’d been born in Redditch in 1896, one of Albert and Lucy Clarke’s six children who survived infancy.
The family had lived in Summer Street in Smallwood but following Albert’s death they moved to Littlewood Green in Studley where Victor started working as a fishing reel maker.
Both Victor and Richard took part in a raiding party on November 15, 1917.
At 7.20pm the British artillery opened up to clear a path for the squad, which was divided into three.
It’s likely that Richard was part of the left hand party which ran into fierce hand to hand fighting and which only ceased when the German officer in charge was bayoneted.
Victor, aged just 22, led the right hand raiding party, arriving to find the enemy’s trenches all but obliterated by artillery fire.
They quickly dealt with the few soldiers who remained. Another group of Germans had taken refuge in a dugout, but when they ignored a summons to come out and surrender a large bomb was thrown in, collapsing the hole and burying them.
On the order to withdraw it was found that four of the Worcs, including Richard, had been killed, and a further 12 wounded.
Among those was Victor who died three days later on November 18. Before he passed away he was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal, the second highest award for gallantry after the Victoria Cross.
Richard is remembered today on the St Stephen’s War Memorial and Victor on the Studley War Memorial.
With thanks to Remembering Redditch’s Fallen Heroes, the Diaries of the Worcestershire Regiment, and www.rememberthefallen.co.uk
