William Joseph MARTIN, SAPPER 50181
* Born: 1894 at Newcastle
* Son of: James and Sarah Martin
* Local Address: Myrtle Grove, Harrowgate Hill
* Father's Occupation: Bricklayer
* Siblings: Three brothers, three sisters, position in family 6
* Pre-War Occupation: Apprentice Fitter, loco works, Robert Stephenson and Company
* Enlisted: Darlington
* Regiment: 91st Field Company, Royal Engineers (RE)
* Died: Saturday 25 September 1915
* Age: 21
* Commemorated: Loos Memorial, France
William Joseph Martin was born in 1894 in Newcastle upon Tyne, the son of James Martin, a bricklayer, and his wife Sarah. Both James and Sarah were from Newcastle, and in 1901 lived at 172 Kendal Street, Byker with their seven children. In 1909 Sarah Martin died aged 53, the death being registered at Darlington. At the time of the 1911 census James Martin, widower, 56, lived at 12 Myrtle Grove, Harrowgate Hill with the four youngest children aged between 13 and 22. William Martin, 17, was employed as an apprentice (engineer) fitter at the locomotive works of Robert Stephenson and Company at Springfield, Darlington.
William Martin’s service record does not exist so we do not much about him, but we do know that he enlisted at Darlington with the 91st Field Company, Royal Engineers and given the regimental number 50181. 91/RE, initially part of 24th Division, joined 15th (Scottish) Division in January 1915. 15th (Scottish) Division had been formed in September 1914 as part of Kitchener's Second New Army. The division proceeded to France in the second week of July 1915.
The first entry in 91/RE’s Battalion War Diary is for 10 July 1915 and records that the company left Salisbury at 06:10 and proceeded to Southampton Docks via Tidworth station, arriving late morning. The men sailed from Southampton to Le Havre. By 18 July the company was at Noeux-les-Mines, a few km to the north-west of Loos where it remained for the rest of the month, constructing trenches in the area. Throughout August the Battalion War Diary records the work on trenches and dug-outs in Les Brebis, which was a small hamlet south of Mazingarbe near Loos. One piece of relief from this back-breaking work for 25 of the company; was preparing and fusing 6,700 bombs in five days. The 25 men went on to prepare ‘Ball’ hand grenades with “Brock” and “Nobel” lighters, and the Battalion War Diary describes in considerable detail how this was done. Apart from this diversion for a few of the men, work for 91/RE continued apace on the trench network. The British Army was getting ready for the offensive known as the Battle of Loos which started on 25 September 1915.
The Battalion War Diary records that on 24 September the sappers of 91/RE were in the field between Mazingarbe and Cite St Auguste. The first attack of the Battle of Loos started early in the morning of Saturday 25 September.
The Battle of Loos was the first time the Allies used poison gas, after the Germans employed gas to terrible effect at Ypres in April earlier in the year. Working parties at this time were being considerably harassed by snipers and later by shrapnel. 91/RE suffered 54 casualties of all ranks in the first two days of the battle, of which 11 were known to have been killed. These 11 included 50181 Sapper William J Martin. OR casualties were – unusually - named in this Battalion War Diary and William Martin is one of only two of our 32 men from Haughton-le-Skerne whose death was recorded by name in a Battalion War Diary.
William Joseph Martin has no known grave and is commemorated on the Loos Memorial.
After the war William Joseph Martin was commemorated on the Brass Memorial Plaque in St Andrew’s Church, Haughton-le-Skerne and on the Brass Memorial Plaque erected in the entrance hall at Robert Stephenson’s Works, Springfield (now in the Head of Steam Railway Museum). There is also a William Martin named on the marble plaques in the War Memorial Hospital, who may be this William Martin.
William Martin’s Medal Index Card shows that he was awarded the 1915 Star, the Victory Medal and the British War Medal.