Robert BAMLET, PRIVATE 43155
Born: 4Q1897 at Scruton, near Bedale
Son of: Thomas and Elizabeth Bamlet
Local address: Haughton-le-Skerne
Father’s occupation: farmer (died 1911)
Siblings: Three brothers, three sisters, position in family: 5 (one sister died in infancy)
Enlisted: Stockton-on-Tees
Regiment: 1st/5th DLI, later: 2nd/DLI
Died: Killed in action Wednesday 6 March 1917
Age: 19
Buried at: Philosophe British Cemetery, Mazingarbe, France
Robert Bamlet was born in 1897 to Thomas and Elizabeth Bamlet, at Scruton near Bedale. Thomas Bamlet had married Elizabeth Hunter in Darlington in 1889. Thomas Bamlet was the son of Robert Bamlet who farmed 400 acres at Oxen-le-Fields between Darlington and Croft. Robert’s elder brother William inherited Oxen le Fields when his father died and Thomas took over the tenancy of Scruton Grange farm. By 1911 the family had moved to Haughton-le-Skerne. Robert by that time was thirteen years old but at the time of the 1911 census was a boarder at the Grammar School House in Stokesley.
Robert Bamlet is named on the Robert Stephenson and Company Memorial plaque so must have joined them after school, occupation unknown. Robert Stephenson was a locomotive building company based in Springfield in the Parish of Haughton-le-Skerne.
As with his older brother William, Robert Bamlet’s service record has been lost so we do not know when he enlisted, although we do know from Soldiers Who Died in the Great War that he enlisted at Stockton-on-Tees. William Bamlet also enlisted at Stockton-on-Tees so it may be that the two brothers enlisted together.
The minimum age to join the Army was 18, an age that Robert reached in late 1915. No service record exists for him so we do not know when he enlisted but we do know from Soldiers who Died in the Great War that he enlisted in Stockton-on-Tees. From his Medal Index Card we know that he entered France on 17 April 1915. This was the date that 5/DLI went to France so it seems highly likely that he was posted to 5/DLI. Since Robert would have had to have undergone basic training before being posted overseas, it is probable he was no more than 17 when he enlisted, and 17 when he entered France.
To complicate matters further, an article in the Evening Despatch in May 1915 says that all three Bamlet brothers - William, Robert and Tom - were together in the 5/DLI. The Medal Index card shows that Robert had two DLI Service Numbers 2578 and later 200266. To be transferred from one battalion to another was common at a time of considerable losses and the need to replace lost men. It likely that Robert joined 5/DLI and later transferred to 2/DLI, although in the absence of a service record, the date is unknown.
The article which appeared in the Evening Despatch in May 2015 was titled:
THREE DLI BROTHERS AT THE FRONT
Underneath was a picture of William, Robert and Tom Bamlet. The article reads:
Writing home to Darlington, Pte. W. Bamlett, [William Bamlet, Robert’s brother] one of three brothers all of the 5th D.L.I. states that he was under shrapnel fire for 10 days during the recent fighting and had six days in the trenches. ‘Many have fallen’ he says ‘including Allen and George Watson, also Little Mac whom you will no doubt remember. All three were killed with shrapnel”.
He proceeds to tell of a church parade in a ploughed field at which the Rev. J. A. Gordon Birch of St.Hilda’s, who has been with the battalion all the time, officiated.
Bamlett met his brothers Tom and Bob quite by chance during the action, and they are now billeted near each other.
An extract from one of Robert Bamlet’s letters to his parents also appeared in the Evening Despatch at around the same time. It was titled:
HOW SERGT G E WHITE MET HIS DEATH
News has now been received at Haughton of the manner in which Sgt G E White of the DLI, met his death.
Bob Bamlett, of Haughton-le-Skerne, who was an intimate friend of Sergt G E White, refers to him in a letter he sent home to his parents, and describes the action in which Sergt White was killed. He says:-
‘Tom and I got into the trench, and there were other two men next to us both Haughton boys, Reg. Winn and George White. There was very heavy firing going on at the time. In the trenches George was just saying he had got a letter from a friend who wished to be remembered to them, when he was ordered to do something. He never hesitated; but got straight out of the trench. Immediately, he was shot through the head, dying instantly. Another man next to him was killed also. I tell you it knocked us up properly for the rest of the day. It was very hard luck, as we were relived the same night.
George was not frightened to do his bit, no matter what it was he had to do. He would not set his men to do what he wouldn’t care to do himself, and he will be badly missed here.
These letters provide evidence that all three brothers were with 5/DLI in the early part of their service. One can also imagine the extent to which news of these deaths of close friends and fellow villagers must have worried their parents and family.
5/DLI was a territorial battalion whereas 2/DLI was battalion of the Regular Army. Although we do not know when Robert transferred to 2/DLI, the battalion suffered severe losses on the Aisne, at Armentières and in the Ypres Salient. By September 1915, there were few men still serving who had landed in France only twelve months earlier. Consequently 2/DLI would have needed a large number of replacements throughout 1915 and 1916, of which Robert Bamlet would have been one.
In May 1916 the men of 2/DLI found themselves under fire at the Yser Canal close to Ypres. That month the War Diary records that the battalion suffered 1 officer and 8 ORs killed, 1 officer and 7 ORs wounded. During the summer the battalion moved south to the Somme region where they were again in action. In September 1916, 2/DLI casualties amounted to 41 killed and 199 wounded. In mid-November 2/DLI marched to Mazingarbe between Lens and Béthune where they worked on dug-outs in trenches occupied by the 24th Division. The Battalion War Diary then reports that on 14 December, 220 OR reinforcements arrived from base, sent for further training before joining their companies. This indicates that these men were recruits newly arrived from England.
In December 1916 the men were billeted at Annequin, where on 27 December they were bombarded with gas shells - fortunately without casualties. In January 1917 the battalion spent several periods in trenches in the Cambrin sector of the front line, usually for three days at a time. Between these periods of trench duty under fire they returned to their billets at Annequin, behind the front line. January and February 1917 followed the same pattern.
On 1 March 2/DLI marched from Locon to Béthune, the following day marching further to Mazingarbe where the men went into billets and became the Divisional Reserve. The respite did not last long because the following day the battalion went back to the front line to relieve 10/York and Lancaster on the right subsector. These trenches were held for four days under repeated enemy shellfire. There is nothing in the Battalion War Diary to suggest that anything out of the ordinary took place but it was on 6 March that Robert Bamlet was killed. As there were no raiding parties or other specific action, Robert Bamlet would probably have met his end by an exploding shell or by sniper fire.
Corporal Robert Bamlet 43155 2nd Durham Light Infantry was buried in Philosophe British Cemetery, Mazingarbe. He was 19 years old.
Robert Bamlet was one of three brothers who fought in WW1. His elder brother William of 20/DLI was killed in September 1917 at Tower Hamlets Ridge during the Battle of the Menin Road. Robert’s older brother Thomas originally joined 5/DLI, but was later commissioned into the East Lancs Regiment. Tom Bamlet survived the war.
There was further tragedy in the family. William and Robert Bamlet’s elder sister Margaret had married Taylor Peirson, a railway clerk in 1913. Taylor Peirson served with the Yorkshire Regiment and died of wounds sustained in action on 10 April 1918. So in little more than a year Margaret Peirson suffered the triple tragedy of losing her husband and two of her brothers.
After the war Robert Bamlet was commemorated on the War Memorial Cross in Haughton-le-Skerne and on the Brass Memorial Plaque in the church.
Robert is also commemorated on the Robert Stephenson Memorial Plaque along with 44 other local men who were company employees. The plaque was situated in the entrance hall of Robert Stephenson’s works at Wylam Avenue, Springfield, Darlington but when the works closed in the 1980s was moved to the Railway Centre and Museum, North Road, Darlington.
Robert Bamlet is commemorated on the Bamlet family headstone in the churchyard of St Andrew’s Church, Haughton-le-Skerne which has the inscription:
IN LOVING MEMORY OF
THOMAS BAMLET
LATE OF OXEN-LE-FIELDS
WHO d. 9 DEC 1911 AGED 51 YRS.
ALSO OF ELIZABETH BAMLET WIFE OF THE ABOVE
WHO d. 11JAN 1952
ALSO 2 SONS OF THE ABOVE
KILLED IN ACTION IN FRANCE:
WILLIAM PTE 5TH DLI 21 SEP 1917 AGED 22 YRS
AND ROBERT CPL 5TH DLI 5 MAR 1917 AGED 19YRS