1st Battalion Middlesex Regiment

The Middlesex Regiment, "The Duke of Cambridge's Own", was an infantry regiment. It served with distinction in the Great War, sending 46 regular and territorial battalions to various fronts. This page is concerned with the 1st Battalion.

Click here for descriptions of the actions of the 1st Battalion, The Middesex Regiment in the Great War and the associated maps.

Most of the pages on this site are taken directly from the Regimental History of the Middlesex Regiment with only very minor changes (all marked in red). No date is given in either volume but the Foreword was written in 1926, at least 7 years after the armistice. The language used, the attitudes to officers and "other ranks" etc. all belong to a bygone era, but in the narrative, between descriptions of routine life in and out of the trenches, are some chilling passages. The intention all along has been to extract from the Regimental History, all that concerns the 1st Battalion. Although other equally interesting Battlions are mentioned, my wish is to provide a picture at battalion level of what happened to one set of soldiers in the Great War.

Like so many people with an interest in the Great War in general, I had relatives who served. My Grandfather was lucky to survive, being amongst the first troops to land at Le Havre on 11 August 1914 with the 1st Middlesex and surviving in the army until 1920, dying fairly peacefully in 1961. So many received one of these letters, but luckily he was only captured when with the 2nd Middlesex on the Aisne, 1918. One of the "Old Contemptibles", L10103 Corporal Albinus (Albert) Edward Allen was Mentioned in Despatches three times. He fought at Loos, the Somme and Passendale, names now part of a deep collective memory. This web page is intended to help keep that memory alive.

Also in memory of Arthur Worby, "Queens", Royal West Surrey Regiment, Albert's brother-in-law who died on 16 Nov 1918 of the Spanish 'flu days after the Armistice and his brother-in-law, Thomas Woodley, 1/4th Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry, who died 15 Jun 1918 during the Battle of Asiago. Both rememberd on the Stockwell War Memorial.

Howard Anderson. December 1999-2010

Technical details on the preparation of this site