George Weighill Farndale

1886 to 3 May 1917

The Bishop Wilton Line

Battle of Arras 1917 

FAR00617

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A warehouseman and then an infantryman in the first world war who was killed in action at Arras during the Third Battle of the Scarpe

Dates are in red.

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Headlines of Jim’s life are in brown.

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Context and local history are in purple.

Geographical context is in green.

Leeds

1886

George Weighill Farndale, son of Thomas and Mary Hannah (nee Weighill) Farndale (FAR00394), was born in Tadcaster District in 1886. His military record shows he was born at Whitkirk, Leeds. George Weighill Farndale’s birth was registered in Tadcaster District in the fourth quarter of 1886 (GRO Vol 9c page 786).

1891

Census 1891 – Colton, Templenewsam, Hunslet

Thomas Farndale, 38, a cattle feeder

Mary ‘A’ Farndale, 44

Ethel Farndale, 7, daughter, born Manston 1884

George W Farndale, 4, born Manston 1887

1901

Census 1901 – Colton New Row, Colton, Templenewsam, Hunslet

Thomas Farndale, 48, cattleman on farm

Mary Hannah Farndale, 54

Ethel Farndale, 17, dressmaker’s apprentice, born Barwick 1884

George Weighill Farndale, 14, born Barwick 1887

1911

Census 1911 – New Row, Meyenil Road, Colton, Templenewsam, Hunslet (now Leeds)

Thomas Farndale, 58 , farm labourer, born Bishop Wilton 1853

Mary Hannah Farndale, 64

Ethel Farndale, 27, dressmaker

George Weighill Farndale, 24, warehouseman

Egypt

1915

Military Service: 15/319 L/Cpl George Farndale, The West Yorkshire Regiment, Awarded British War medal, the Victory Medal and the 1914 - 15 Star. Served in Egypt in Dec 1915. (Medal Roll).

France, Western Front

1916

George was a member of the Colton Institute, which is a cricket club in Leeds. https://coltoninstitute.play-cricket.com/home. https://colton-institute.business.site/

Skyrack Courier, 14 January 1916: COLTON INSTITUTE – ROLL OF HONOUR. A Roll of Honour has been compiled for Colton and District Institute, and the following names appear on it: G Farndale...

He was wounded in 1916 after the first attack at the Battle of the Somme.

Chester Chronicle, 8 July 1916: TARPORLEY. WOUNDED SOLDIERS FROM THE BATTLE FRONT. On Tuesday ten more wounded soldiers arrived at Portal:... Private G Farndale, 15th West Yorks... The … men's wounds are not of a serious nature. They are all most cheerful. They were conveyed from Chester Station by motor cars, kindly lent by the Honourable Mrs Marshall Brooks, Mrs Gordon Houghton, Mr Broughton, Mr G Bebington. Sister Searl met them at the station.

The Yorkshire Evening Post, Tuesday 11 July 1916. THE DEBIT SIDE OF THE BRITISH OFFENMSIVE. LEEDS TROOPS WHO KNEW HOW TO DIE. … A LONG LIST OF WOUNDED. Non commissioned officers and privates of the Battalion who were reported wounded include: … the two brothers of Mr F W Jones, of 17, Seaforth Grove, Harehills, are injured. Private H R Jones is wound in the left arm, and is in hospital at Sittingbourne, Kent. Private P M Jones, who was buried in a frontline trench and was injured in the back, is in a French convalescent camp. The latter, prior to enlistment, was employed by Messrs Ashworth, Brown, and company. Another employee of the same firm wounded is Private G W Farndale, whose home is at Colton. His wound is in the shoulder. He is in hospital at Tarporley, Cheshire.

So we worked with Messrs Ashworth, Brown and Company before the War.

He was taken to the hospital at Tarporley in Cheshire.

The cottage hospital later founded in 1919, had its roots in a Red Cross Hospital in the area which had cared for injured soldiers since October 1914 with local stalwarts the Honourable and Mrs Marshall Brooks determined the village should have its own hospital.

He was on the list of wounded under the “Roll of Honour” in the Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 3 August 1916: W Yorks … Farndale (319), G …

1917

George W Farndale was Killed in Action, aged 30, in France on 3 May 1917. He was on the casualty list on 3 May 1917.

15/319 Lance Corporal George Farndale, died on 3 May 1917, serving with the 15^th Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales Own) and is commemorated at Bay 4, the Arras Memorial, France.

Yorkshire Post, 14 May 1917: LEEDS MEN WHO HAVE FALLEN. Among the Leeds men who had fallen in action are the following:... Lance Corporal G W Farndale, the only son of Mr Thomas Farndale, of Colton...

Leeds Mercury, 14 May 1917: THE TOLL OF WAR IN YORKSHIRE. BRAVE ONES WHO HAVE FALLEN IN THE FIGHT. The following casualties were also reported to Leeds men:... Lance Corporal G Weighill Farndale, killed, of Colton...

Skyrack Courier, 18 May 1917: Lance Corporal George W Farndale, only son of Mr and Mrs Farndale, of Colton, died whilst on active service on April 30th. The deceased, who was in the West Yorkshire Regiment, was well known in the district.

Another George Farndale (FAR00646), the Highland Light Infantry, was also killed at the Battle of Arras on 27 May 1917.

15^th Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales Own) were known as the Leeds Pals.

15th (Service) Battalion (1st Leeds) - Formed in Leeds in September 1914 by the Lord Mayor and City. June 1915 : came under orders of 93rd Brigade, 31st Division. December 1915 : moved to Egypt. Went on to France in March 1916. 7 December 1917 : amalgamated with 17th Bn to form 15th/17th Bn.

The Battle of Arras (also known as the Second Battle of Arras) was a British offensive on the Western Front during World War I. From 9 April to 16 May 1917, British troops attacked German defences near the French city of Arras on the Western Front. The British achieved the longest advance since trench warfare had begun, surpassing the record set by the French Sixth Army on 1 July 1916. The British advance slowed in the next few days and the German defence recovered. The battle became a costly stalemate for both sides and by the end of the battle, the British Third and First Army had suffered about 160,000 and the German6th Army about 125,000 casualties.

For much of the war, the opposing armies on the Western Front were at stalemate, with a continuous line of trenches from the Belgian coast to the Swiss border. The Allied objective from early 1915 was to break through the German defences into the open ground beyond and engage the numerically inferior German Army (Westheer) in a war of movement. The British attack at Arras was part of the French Nivelle Offensive, the main part of which was the Second Battle of the Aisne 50 miles (80 km) to the south. The aim of the French offensive was to break through the German defences in forty-eight hours.[3] At Arras the Canadians were to re-capture Vimy Ridge, dominating the Douai Plain to the east, advance towards Cambrai and divert German reserves from the French front.

The British effort was an assault on a relatively broad front between Vimy in the north-west and Bullecourt to the south-east. After a long preparatory bombardment, the Canadian Corps of the First Army in the north fought the Battle of Vimy Ridge and took the ridge. The Third Army in the centre advanced astride the Scarpe River and in the south, the British Fifth Army attacked the Hindenburg Line (Siegfriedstellung) but made few gains. The British armies then engaged in a series of small operations to consolidate the new positions. Although these battles were generally successful in achieving limited aims, they came at considerable cost.

When the battle officially ended on 16 May, the British had made significant advances but had been unable to achieve a breakthrough. New tactics and the equipment to exploit them had been used, showing that the British had absorbed the lessons of the Battle of the Somme and could mount set-piece attacks against fortified field defences. After the Second Battle of Bullecourt (3–17 May), the Arras sector became a quiet front, that typified most of the war in the west, except for attacks on the Hindenburg Line and around Lens, culminating in the Canadian Battle of Hill 70 (15–25 August).

Third Battle of the Scarpe (3–4 May 1917)

After securing the area around Arleux at the end of April, the British determined to launch another attack east from Monchy to try to break through the Boiry Riegel and reach the Wotanstellung, a major German defensive fortification. This was scheduled to coincide with the Australian attack at Bullecourt to present the Germans with a two–pronged assault. British commanders hoped that success in this venture would force the Germans to retreat further to the east. With this objective in mind, the British launched another attack near the Scarpe on 3 May. However, neither prong was able to make any significant advances and the attack was called off the following day after incurring heavy casualties. Although this battle was a failure, the British learned important lessons about the need for close liaison between tanks, infantry and artillery, which they would use in the Battle of Cambrai, 1917.

Front lines at Arras prior to the attack

The Third Battle of the Scarpe, as the fighting over 3/4 May was named, was an unmitigated disaster for the British Army which suffered nearly 6,000 men killed for little material gain.

First Battle of Scarpe The Arras Offensive

George Farndale is buried and commemorated at the Arras Memorial, Pas de Calais, France.

(Just for the avoidance of doubt, the George W Farndale who died aged 62 at Leeds in the fourth quarter of 1948 is FAR00614).

Arras Memorial

The Arras Memorial is in the Faubourg-d'Amiens Cemetery, which is in the Boulevard du General de Gaulle in the western part of the town of Arras. The cemetery is near the Citadel, approximately 2 kilometres due west of the railway station.

The French handed over Arras to Commonwealth forces in the spring of 1916 and the system of tunnels upon which the town is built were used and developed in preparation for the major offensive planned for April 1917. The Commonwealth section of the FAUBOURG D'AMIENS CEMETERY was begun in March 1916, behind the French military cemetery established earlier. It continued to be used by field ambulances and fighting units until November 1918. The cemetery was enlarged after the Armistice when graves were brought in from the battlefields and from two smaller cemeteries in the vicinity. The cemetery contains 2,651 Commonwealth burials of the First World War. In addition, there are 30 war graves of other nationalities, most of them German. During the Second World War, Arras was occupied by United Kingdom forces headquarters until the town was evacuated on 23 May 1940. Arras then remained in German hands until retaken by Commonwealth and Free French forces on 1 September 1944. The cemetery contains seven Commonwealth burials of the Second World War. The graves in the French military cemetery were removed after the First World War to other burial grounds and the land they had occupied was used for the construction of the Arras Memorial and Arras Flying Services Memorial. The ARRAS MEMORIAL commemorates almost 35,000 servicemen from the United Kingdom, South Africa and New Zealand who died in the Arras sector between the spring of 1916 and 7 August 1918, the eve of the Advance to Victory, and have no known grave. The most conspicuous events of this period were the Arras offensive of April-May 1917, and the German attack in the spring of 1918. Canadian and Australian servicemen killed in these operations are commemorated by memorials at Vimy and Villers-Bretonneux. A separate memorial remembers those killed in the Battle of Cambrai in 1917. The ARRAS FLYING SERVICES MEMORIAL commemorates nearly 1,000 airmen of the Royal Naval Air Service, the Royal Flying Corps, and the Royal Air Force, either by attachment from other arms of the forces of the Commonwealth or by original enlistment, who were killed on the whole Western Front and who have no known grave. Both cemetery and memorial were designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, with sculpture by Sir William Reid Dick.

No. of Identified Casualties: 34738

George W Farndale, is also remembered on the Memorial, St Mary the Virgin Church, Whitkirk, West Yorkshire (now SE Leeds). Also a memorial at Temple Newsam, West Yorkshire.