William Alfred Raison

William Alfred Raison was born in East Chelborough Dorset, in 1890.  His parents were William, originally from Somerset and Emily, from Dorset.  William senior worked as a carter on a farm.  He had one brother and four sisters.  By 1911, William junior had left his family in Dorset, and moved to Cornwall.  Aged 20, he was working as a farm servant at ‘Trebarvah,’ Constantine, near Penryn. 

 

In the summer of 1914 he married 20 year old Emma L. Jose, who a few years before had been working as a domestic servant for a farming family headed by Thomas Jane, in St Columb Major.  Emma had been born in St Enoder in 1894.

 

When William enlisted after the outbreak of the First World War, he was placed in a Pioneer Battalion of the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry, the 10th.  Pioneer battalions were specialised battalions, raised as a response to the huge demand for labour required at the front.  They ideally recruited men with some sort of specialist skills, or who were handy with shovel and pick.  Presumably William had acquired the latter, in his previous employment as a farm servant.  They were also trained infantrymen, and required to act as such when needed.  Both infantry and pioneers were in high demand, during the Somme offensive of 1916.

 

The Somme: Delville Wood, Guillemont & Ginchy

 

Delville Wood and the villages of Guillemont and Ginchy, are all adjacent each other and lay on the Somme front line in 1916, near Albert and Bapaume. Consequently fighting for these three objectives overlapped, the seizure of one depending on the capture of another.  Both the 10th DCLI and the 8th Devons were involved in different phases of this fighting. 

 

William could not have been in France long, as the 10th DCLI had only landed at Le Havre on 20th June 1916.  They were part of the 2nd Division, and took part in the seven week struggle to capture “Devil’s Wood,” as it became known.  The fight ran roughly from 15th July until 3rd September.  The Germans made strong counter attacks, and Delville Wood changed hands several times.  It very soon became a wasteland of mud and shattered tree stumps. 

 

On 28th July the 10th DCLI were ordered to carry munitions and rations into Delville Wood.  This was one of the duties of a pioneer battalion.  They came under “extremely heavy shell fire” and were ordered to fight as infantry under the command of the O.C. the South Staffordshire Regiment. It’s not clear just when William was attached to the 8th Devons, but likely he was involved in this episode in the battle for “Devil’s Wood.”   

 

Immediately after the capture Delville Wood, a concerted assault on Guillemont began, although fighting had of course been going on in this area at the same time as that of Delville Wood.  Once Guillemont was taken, the next objective became the village of Ginchy.  Taking this would give the British a good vantage point from which to launch another general assault, which was planned for mid-September. 

 

The attack on Ginchy began on the 3rd September, but the Tommies were forced out by a German counter attack.  Trying once again on the 4th and 5th, they were again forced out by German counter attacks.  Ginchy was not taken until the 9th September.  This robbed the German artillery observers of their clear view of the Delville Wood area, which finally bought some respite to the troops there.  By 15th September, the front line had moved just beyond these hard fought for objectives.

 

The 8th Battalion of the Devonshire Regiment took part in the fighting in and around Ginchy. They were there between the 3rd and 9th of September.  William was killed in action on the 4th; therefore it seems probable that he was killed fighting with the 8th Devons.

 

The 8th Bn Devonshire Regiment and the fight for Delville Wood and Ginchy

 

The men of the battalion attended Divine Service at 11am on the 3rd September.  In the late afternoon at 5.40pm they moved to Mametz, then on to Moutanban.  They were ordered to help clear the eastern corner of Delville Wood.  The British bombardment began at noon on the 3rd and continued for 2 hours.  The infantry then advanced at 2.05pm, under a creeping barrage that advanced at 25 yards per minute. After this, it is a wonder that anything at all was left alive.  The objectives were achieved and the 8th Devons were then ordered to provide a defensive flank along a trench known as ‘Vat Alley.’ 

 

The following day, the 4th, they were ordered to support an attack made by the 22nd Bn Manchester Regiment.  The 8th were not called upon on this occasion, and at midnight moved forward to occupy front line trenches around Ginchy.  An officer records: “The night was very dark and the rain very heavy which made progress very slow through very slippery mud.” To make matters worse they were shelled while moving up between midnight and 3am.  The battalion lost 12 men at this time; William may have been one of them.  The battalion consequently failed to get into position on time, and the attack was postponed.

 

The War Diary records a number of casualties at this time, but only those that were known of.  There are a number of men from the DCLI, so quite a large contingent must have been serving with the Devonshires. 

 

The following day a number of companies from the 8th Devons were sent to support other regiments in Delville Wood. 

 

Amongst the records are a number of worn pages, forlorn despatches written by a junior officer to his commanding officer.  It is easy to imagine him, huddled in a shallow trench with a handful of men, without food, not knowing exactly where he was and not being able to move forward or backwards. They run as follows:  we are in “Diagonal Trench and part of a trench I take to be Ginchy Alley.  I am practically in touch with Duff on my left.  In touch with nobody on my right.  State of trenches extremely bad.  Lieutenant Lock has sent for one platoon.  This has gone to reinforce him.  My ration party has lost itself as there is no sign of it.  I have only 34 men left and will not be able to cover any frontage at all.  I remain in Diagonal Trench in consequence of my lack of men.” 

 

Under these sort of circumstances, Private William Raison from Probus was one of the many casualties. He is buried at the Delville Wood Cemetery, Longueval, Somme, France. His young widow Emma received his personal effects, in September 1919.