Name
Archibald Wallace Godfrey
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
10/08/1917
34
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
31341
Bedfordshire Regiment
7th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Not Yet Researched
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL
Panel 31 and 33.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
All Saints Church Roll of Honour, Sandon
Pre War
Son of Frederick and Martha Godfrey of Sayfieid Cottages, Sandon.
Wartime Service
From "Passchendaele -Day by day" by Chris McCarthy and the Regimental History.
Friday 10th. August 1917..Temperature 69'F. Rainfall 1.5mm.
Capture of Westhoek.
Fifth Army. 11 Corps. 18th.Div. 55th Brigade.
The 7th. Queen's of 55 Brigade suffered considerable losses as they formed up to the south of Inverness Copse and had to fall back.
The 54th.attacked at 4.35 a.m. with 2 battalions, the 11th. Royal Fusiliers and the 7th Bedfords on a frontage of 750 yards and with a 46 minute barrage.
The Fusiliers reached their objective, the Black Line, but a gap of 300 yards separated them from the Bedfords. The attack reached the German second line on either side of Fitzclarence Farm and along the sunken track at the eastern side of Glencourse Wood, but could not get in touch with 55th. Brigade. At 5 a.m. the Germans started to mass for a counter- attack in Polygon and Nonne Bosschen Woods. They sent a party of bombers down Jargon Trench and an assault from Inverness Copse under cover of a smokescreen forced the Fusiliers back to 200 yards east of Clapham Junction and the line was reinforced with all available men from HQ. This mixed unit successfully forced off two counter-attacks.
The 7th Bedfords caught the Germans unawares and stormed into Glencourse Wood, sending back a message to H.Q. at 5.13am. that the wood had been taken. They tried to consolidate but due to marshy ground and the mud, only isolated posts were established. At 9.17am. a message was sent to the effect that they still held the final objective but that the companies on the right were badly bent back. This was due to the gap between the Bedfords and the Fusiliers. Counter-attacks from Nonne Bosschen Wood were beaten off by artillery.The Germans however were able to push through the wood on the right, forcing back the Bedfords to Jargon Trench. 53rd. Brigade relieved the 2 assaulting brigades at 11.55pm. taking on the Divisional front.
Archibald would have been killed in this action and because his body was never found, he is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial in Ypres, Belgium, (panels 31,33).
Acknowledgments
Jonty Wild, Jean Handley
