Allan RAINE, PRIVATE 1565
* Born: May 1894 at Haughton-le-Skerne
* Son of: George and Mary Jane Raine
* Local Address: 54 The Green, Haughton-le-Skerne
* Father's Occupation: House Builder
* Siblings: Six brothers, one sister, position in family 5
* Pre-War Occupation: Clerk, North of England School Furnishing Company
* Enlisted: 30 April 1912 at Darlington
* Regiment: 1st/5th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry (DLI)
* Died: Killed in Action Monday 26 April 1915
* Age: 20
* Commemorated: Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres, Belgium
Allan Raine was born in May 1894 in Haughton-le-Skerne, the fourth son of George and Mary Jane Raine. George Raine married Mary Jane Hardy in 1886 in Darlington. George was from Neasham, near Darlington, the son of a master shoemaker and Mary Jane was born in Sadberge, although her family subsequently moved to the Whinfield area of Haughton-le-Skerne. As a young man George Raine was described as a bricklayer but by 1901 had become a builder, and in the 1911 census described himself as a housebuilder.
In 1911 Allan Raine was employed as a clerk with the North of England School Furnishing Company, known locally as the ‘School Furney’. The company had been founded by the Pease family in 1875 and had offices in the centre of Darlington. Allan had six brothers and one sister, Lavinia (1892-1979). Six of the brothers including Allan would serve in the Great War and three of them would not return. Only the youngest, Joseph Alec (1901-1975) did not serve in WW1, as he was only 17 when the war ended.
Allan Raine’s service record still exists in The National Archives. He enlisted for the Territorial Force on 30 April 1912 at Darlington. He was aged 17 years and 11 months and as was the practice at the time, enlisted initially for four years. His Medical Inspection Report shows that he was 5ft 7½in tall with a 33in chest, expandable by 2in. Allan’s eyesight was good but his physical development was described as ‘fair’. Nevertheless, the medical officer passed him fit for the Territorial Force and he was appointed to 5/DLI. The Territorial Force was the volunteer and part-time reserve component of the Army and was originally envisaged as a home defence force for service during wartime.
Each year Allan would have attended a two-week training camp, these were held at Richmond, Haltwhistle and Scarborough. His battalion was embodied - that is, called on for full time service - on 5 August 1914, the day after war was declared. He signed a document the following month agreeing to serve outside the United Kingdom. Until then, territorials had only been required to serve in the UK. The agreement to serve overseas was voluntary and he was not compelled to sign it, although he did, like many others, in the patriotic spirit of the time.
The day Allan Raine was embodied, the battalion was ordered to proceed to the Hartlepools (Hartlepool and West Hartlepool were separate then) where they were engaged in guarding the coast and making trenches. In September most of the battalion except E Company proceeded to Hummersknott Camp, Darlington as part of the intensive training programme in north-east England to prepare them for battle. Friday 16 October saw the battalion entrain at Old and New Cattle Docks, Darlington before travelling to Newcastle. The activity of the German fleet off Lowestoft in early November had caused sufficient alarm for all leave to be cancelled. The battalion trained in Northumberland throughout the winter, but were again confined to barracks in December due to enemy activity off the north-east coast. It was on Wednesday 16 December that the Hartlepools were bombarded by three warships of the German navy. One hundred and twenty-seven civilians, nine soldiers and four Royal Navy men were killed during the raid. It was 18/DLI (Durham Pals) who were on station at that time, but if the invasion had happened earlier it would have been Allan’s battalion. 5/DLI trained hard for the rest of the winter, mainly in Northumberland but they also had musketry training at Neasham. The battalion was billeted at Hurworth, Neasham and at the Ropner Convalescent Home at Dinsdale, with temporary headquarters at Hurworth Hall.
Friday 16 April 1915 saw the battalion embark for France, travelling by train from Newcastle to Folkestone, a journey which at the time took almost twelve hours. The men left Folkestone at 02:00 on 17 April on The Invicta, arriving at Boulogne shortly after dawn. A L Raimes in his history of 5/DLI wrote:
"It was a weird experience – crossing without lights and in silence, with destroyers guarding us on either side."
After a short uphill march to nearby St Martin’s Camp the men rested until the evening. They travelled by train to Cassel, and then on 18 April marched eight miles to Steenvoorde 24km west of Ypres where the battalion was billeted in various local farms. The men were close to the front line where they could hear the sound of gunfire and would shortly be in action themselves. The battalion marched to Brielen where they rested in a hutted camp.
The roads were full of transport, artillery, and troops going forward, while a constant stream of ambulances, loaded with wounded, hurried in the opposite direction…we overtook two battalions of our DLI Brigade and gave them a cheer as we passed them. (A L Raimes).
Brielen however, was already under shell fire and the men were forced to lie on open ground during a cold and wet night.
The Second Battle of Ypres started on 22 April, and encompassed four battles in the northern sector of the Ypres Salient, one of which was the Battle of St Julien where Allan was to lose his young life. The Second Battle of Ypres also witnessed the first use of poisonous gas – initially chlorine – by the German army.
On 24 April at 01.00 the battalion was assembled to move into action. The men took up positions on both banks of the Yser Canal, then moved to Potijze a few km from Ypres. They passed many gassed and wounded men and refugees on the way.
The day that Allan Raine died the battalion was in trenches at St Julien. The Battalion War Diary records:
"This day was spent in these trenches which were under heavy shell fire the whole time, the Battalion had got split up. After the attack, remnants of Companies trickled in."
5/DLI was relieved on 28 April but during the course of the action since arriving in France the battalion had lost 33 men including Allan Raine, with a further 25 missing. Ninety-three men and three officers had been wounded.
Allan Raine had been in France and Belgium for only nine days.
In a letter to Allan’s parents, his commanding officer, Captain R D Pearson wrote:
"As his company’s commander, I offer you my sincere sympathy in your great loss and let me assure you that your loss is also my own. Your son had been in my company for some time and I knew him personally. Our consolation must be that he died as a soldier should at his post. He was killed in the trenches by a shell which also killed several of his mates and they are now buried in a little garden where they fell."
Captain Pearson was himself killed on 15 May, less than three weeks after Allan Raine’s death.
If as Captain Pearson wrote, Allan Raine was buried where he fell, the grave must have been lost as there is no known grave for him. He is one of 54,896 British and Commonwealth soldiers who were killed in the Ypres Salient in WW1 and whose graves are unknown. There were 14 men of 5/DLI who died that day. They are all commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing at Ypres in Belgium.
The battalion served with distinction on the Western Front, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Gilbert Ormerod Spence DSO (1879-1925). It was Lieutenant-Colonel Spence who unveiled the War Memorial Cross in Haughton-le-Skerne on 7 October 1920. The Book of Remembrance to 5/DLI in St Thomas’s Church, Stockton-on-Tees contains 878 names including 46 officers.
Allan Raine died on 26 April 1915 a few weeks before his 21st birthday. Allan’s elder brother George Nelson Raine died at Loos on 26 September 1915 and another brother, Thomas Frederick Raine, died on 10 July 1917 at Lombartzyde in Belgium. There are no known graves for any of the three brothers. Three more of Allan’s brothers, Robert Henry, Herbert William and Arthur Edward Raine served in WW1 but those three survived the war.
In May 1919, Allan’s mother completed Army Form W5080, giving the names of the dead soldier’s close living relatives. The form was required in order to send scroll, plaque and service medals to the right person and had to be countersigned by a minister or magistrate. Allan’s was duly signed by the Reverend J C Fellowes, Rector of St Andrew’s Church, Haughton-le-Skerne. It is a poignant, sad and touching document, and Mrs Raine, having lost three of her sons would have had to make the trip to the rectory three times to ask the Reverend Fellowes for his signature. The details Mrs Raine provided show that Robert Henry, 33, who had married Margaret Jane Swan in 1909, lived in Haughton-le-Skerne with their three children; her youngest son, Joseph Alec, 18, lived at home; Herbert William, 23, and Arthur Edward, 20, were still with their battalions in France; Allen’s only sister Lavinia, 26, had married Robert Clarkson in Haughton-le-Skerne the previous year and lived in Haughton-le-Skerne. Lavinia and Robert had a son in 1923 who they named Allan.
Allan Raine left a will (undated) in which he left everything to his mother, Mary Jane Raine. Allan’s Medal Index Card shows that he was awarded the 1915 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. He is commemorated on the War Memorial Cross in Haughton-le-Skerne, on the Brass Memorial Plaque in St Andrew’s Church, Haughton-le-Skerne, on the Roll of Honour at Darlington Public Library and in the Book of Remembrance to 5/ DLI in St Thomas’s Church, Stockton-on-Tees.
Allan is also commemorated, along with his brothers on the family gravestone in the churchyard at St Andrew's Church, Haughton-le-Skerne. The inscription simply reads:
IN LOVING MEMORY OF
GEORGE.
THE BELOVED HUSBAND OF MARY JANE RAINE, BORN 10TH APRIL 1859, DIED 28TH Feb 1928.
ALSO THEIR BELOVED SONS
FRED, GEORGE and ALLAN.
LOST IN FRANCE.
IN LOVING MEMORY OF
MARY JANE.
THE BELOVED WIFE OF GEORGE RAINE,
BORN 19TH JUNE 1863. DIED 24TH MAY 1931.