9th-12th-Lancers - Year 2003 - Page 0077
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| Regiment | 9th/12th Lancers |
|---|---|
| Year | 2003 |
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REGIMENTAL JOURNAL OF THE 9TH/12TH ROYAL LANCERS (PRINCE OF WALES’S) 75 Regiment, which had been in grave danger of being encircled, successfully held its ground until it was relieved on March 26. The Regimental historian Sheppard wrote: ‘The British line was never broken and the Ninth Lancers had played their part in this hard contested and continuous series offights. They had not once failed and more than once saved a situation that seemed irretrievably lost. The price had been high...159 casu- alties, more than 33% of the Regiment’s strength’. On March 25th a well sited German machine gun claimed many victims, wounding both Christopher Peto, who was gallantly rescued that night by a Corporal of the Bays, and Martin, who was shot in the shoulder and the back, a bullet lodging in his spine. Hy wrote: ‘he was carried unconscious out of the firing line by Privates Cook and Burrows, who showed great courage and devotion...they had a long journey about 6 miles. He begged them to leave him as he knew Cook was getting done, he had been hit earlier in the day. When they got him to the dressing station he... said ‘You are a brick, Cook’ Martin was eventually moved to the Anglo-American Hospital at WimereuX near Boulogne. As his condition worsened James and Jessie came to the hospital and were with him when he died on April llth during an operation to remove the bullet. His sis- ter Hy believed that had Martin survived he would have been a total cripple, a terrible fate for such an active man. He was buried in the British cemetery there on the following day. His brother officers paid him moving tributes, several of them men- tioning his indomitable spirit: ‘His loss to the Regiment is a ter- rible one...At fighting he shone and his keenness and courage were an example to all: the worse the conditions, the more cheerful he was always was’. Private Cook, who had bought him wounded out of the inferno of battle, wrote: ‘Mr. Hunter was splendid, we drove Fritz off and he wanted to go after them. He was too brave...he was as cool as could be. His troop miss him awful. We shall never get another like him and... they would have gone anywhere with him....’ Jessie Hunter had Rupert Brooke’s words inscribed on his head- stone, which faces north across the narrow seas which separate England and France: NOTHING TO SHAKE THE LAUGH- ING HEART’S LONG PEACE. DFR December 2003 Regimental Gazette Regimental Headquarters Lt Col RA Charrington Commanding Officer Maj GV Woyka Second In Command Capt EHS Inglefield Adjutant Capt JDIM Matheson Operations Officer Capt D Rhodes Career Management Officer WOl L Barnett Regimental Sergeant Major Sgt P Worden Staff Support Assistant Cpl AP Oakes G3 Clerk Pte DS Gibson Command Clerk Cpl JM Tylney Post NCO Capt JS Garrett AGC Regimental Admin Officer Capt Se Thomassen-Kinsey AGC Detachment Commander WOZ DJ Turner AGC Regimental Admin Office Warrant Officer SSgt SJ Taylor AGC Service Funds Accountant Sgt SA Mayne AGC Regimental Accountant RAO Team Sgt M Arch AGC Doc Supvr chl D] Coleman AGC Sgt DR McGuinness AGC Sys Co-ord pte DL Foster AGC Cpl M Stiles AGC LCpl DB Mills AGC LCpl AS Bertham AGC pte DJ Coleman AGC LCpl N Tegerdine AGC pte JB Turner LCD1 WR Grundy AGC Mrs E Paul Movements Clerk A Squadron Maj TP Robinson Officer Commanding Capt MD Everett Second In Command Capt AGC Roberts(lWFR) Squadron Operations Officer Capt MG Eyre-Brook lst Troop Leader Capt JE Jacobs 2nd Troop Leader Lt MHJ Woodward 3rd Troop Leader SSgt JA Rathbone Support Troop Leader Capt MJH Milne-Home GW Troop Leader WOZ D Keeney Squadron Sergeant Major SSgt B Pegg Squadron Quartermaster Sgt SSgt R Cowan Squadron Artificer 2Lt WJR Richmond |
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