Newton-le-Willows and Earlestown War Memorial

In Memory of

Private Daniel O’Donnell

12924
2nd Battalion South Lancashire Regiment
Killed in Action 29th January 1915 Age 36

Daniel was the husband of Ellen O’Donnell of 36, Athol Street, Earlestown. CWGC, who prepared their records after the war, gives her name as Ellen Halsted but of the same address. It is possible that she reverted to her maiden name, or re-married. They had four children.

A very brief obituary was published in the NEG on May 14th 1916 which gave few personal details.

Daniel is buried in Kemmel Chateau Military Cemetery, Heuvelland, which is eight kilometres south of Ieper, in Grave A 26. The cemetery was badly shelled during fighting in Spring 1918 and the old chateau was destroyed. There are now 1,135 Commonwealth burials of the First World War in the cemetery.

The Battalion Diary gives an indication of life for the 2nd Battalion on the day Daniel was killed:

“January 29th Fri. Fine. Clear and frosty. General disposition of Battalion unchanged. “A” and “C” Companies moved forward to fire trenches. “B” and “D” withdrew to supports.

“Between 2.30 and 3 pm. enemy’s aeroplane was noticed above fire trenches and support line. Shortly afterwards the village of KEMMEL was heavily shelled at the Eastern end. Eight heavy shelled (sic) pitched in vicinity of houses in which companies in support – A and C were accommodated. The Companies turned out but were caught by shells as they vacated the buildings, 4 men being killed and 18 wounded.

“During the evening “B” and “D” Companies moved forward to fire trenches in relief of “A” and “C” who withdrew to supports. The relief was rendered difficult by the bright moonlight 2 men being wounded. One man who was carrying supplies to the position “G.2” was also wounded by a sniper.

“A corner of the road between F 8 and F 7 and 500 yards West of G.1 was much marked.

“Colonel F.A.Dudgeon, Commanding 1st Battalion, arrived from being A.A.G. 3rd Echelon, G.H.Q. to take command of 2nd Battalion from Major Sweney R.Fus.”

Whalley-Kelly describes life for the Battalion during the first two months of 1915:

“In January Lieutenant-Colonel F. A. Dudgeon, lately commanding the 1st Battalion in India, relinquished a Staff appointment with the Indian Corps to take command of the 2nd Battalion, and other Regular officers such as Major H. T. Cotton, Captain W. V. Hume and Captain F. W. M. Drew rejoined from various similar appointments. When out of the line no opportunity was lost of training, close-order drill figuring largely in the programme, while strict attention was paid to personal smartness and turn-out as soon as a tour in the trenches had finished, and the clinging mud could be scraped off uniforms and equipment.

“During the first few months of 1915 the trenches occupied were situated on the lower slopes of the Messines Ridge in the neighbourhood, at different periods, of Lindenhoek, Kemmel, Spanbrockmolen, Wytschaete. and St. Eloi, names that will live for ever in the memory of those who fought for England in 1914-1918. The word "trenches" is used, but it is a misnomer, conveying quite a wrong impression of the actual facts. In the inferno of the First Ypres both sides had fought to a standstill and the British troops had "dug in" wherever they happened to be when the last embers of the battle were flickering and dying out, and this was not always the best position for a prolonged defence or sojourn, either tactically or topographically. Consequently the front line consisted mainly of disconnected lengths of muddy field works, partly trench, partly breastwork, with few traverses and little shelter from the elements or the enemy's shells. Duckboards, communication trenches, deep dug-outs and other refinements of later days were non-existent, and the exposed position of many of the localities made improvement a matter of great danger and difficulty. It was about this time that a special issue of head-ropes was made for the purpose of pulling out men who were stuck in the mud.

“At this period the normal tour for companies in the front line was twenty-four hours, during which a hot meal was a rare luxury, and there was no possibility of drying clothes, sodden with mud and water, after a journey, crouching and crawling, across the open to carry out the relief. The dead of both sides had been built into the parapets and parados, and it was no uncommon thing to find an arm or leg projecting from the revetment; while in one isolated trench, held by the 2nd Battalion at various times, it is no exaggeration that the platoon officer's command post consisted of sandbags supported by a dead Frenchman covered with a few inches of earth. With this grisly seat the occupant had to be content, and counted himself lucky to be raised above the mud, while his feet rested on something hidden in the slime-a "something" which was later discovered to be the rotting corpse of a Prussian grenadier.

“We must now pass on. Abler pens have described in vivid language the hardships endured without flinching by the British Army during that first terrible winter in France and Flanders, and space does not permit of a narrative in detail of the many vicissitudes of this period: the long night marches along the pave, and over the open water-logged fields, heavily laden, to relieve another unit in the front line; the all-too-brief periods of rest, broken by wiring and digging operations with their inevitable toll of casualties; the days and nights in muddy ditches, dignified by the name of trenches, sniped and shelled constantly by an enterprising and aggressive enemy; the humour and pathos and, above all, the stoical endurance of the regimental officer and his men who, without exception, maintained unimpaired their customary disregard of danger and privation, and their will to fight.

“No active operations were undertaken during January and February, but let it not be thought that no aggressive action was taken during tours in the trenches; sniping and patrolling were constant, and the artillery, limited as their ammunition supply was at this time, lost no opportunity of helping the infantry to harass the Boche. These tactics called forth retaliation, and few days passed without some officers and men being killed or wounded.

“In February the 4th Battalion, fresh from England, was attached to the 7th Infantry Brigade for instruction and thus was perpetuated, under the common stress of war, the close liaison between the Regular and Territorial Battalions of the Regiment that had its beginnings in South Africa fifteen years before.”