This article is extracted from a study I made for a private client some time ago, looking into the life and military service of Stanley Arthur Cubitt.
Stanley’s background
Stanley was born on 22 June 1893, the son of William and Charlotte Cubitt. The census of 31 March 1901 shows the family living at 104 Northgate Street in Great Yarmouth. William had the occupation of fish curer. Stanley was the youngest of six siblings present. The house was near the corner with Nursery Terrace, facing the large site of the Union Workhouse and not far from the town’s New Cemetery.
On 2 April 1900, having begun his education at Northgate Infants School, Stanley was admitted to the senior Northgate Boys School. He remained there until 26 July 1901.
The census of 2 April 1911 shows Stanley still at home and at the same address. He had followed his father and some elder brothers into the fish curing business.
Stanley married Martha Caroline Harman Futter at the parish church in Great Yarmouth on 6 February 1915. She was slightly older than Stanley and a spinster.
Martha remarried in the first quarter of 1922, her second husband being Joseph R. Boulton.
Enlistment and training
Details of Stanley Arthur Cubitt’s enlistment are not certain, but he was at a later date (below) transferred to the Gloucestershire Regiment, and I found that men numbered around him had been serving with the 2/6th (Cyclist) Battalion of the Norfolk Regiment. Sadly, without knowing the number he was issued by that unit, it is not possible to determine exactly when he had originally enlisted. There is a clue in that the war gratuity that was pad after his death in 1916 calculates back to mobiisation in August 1914.
The 2/6th (Cyclist) Battalion was a unit of the Territorial Force and was established in September 1914 at the 6th (Cyclist) Battalion’s normal stations: one of them was “B” Company’s hall at Great Yarmouth. This is likely to be where Stanley joined the army. The battalion very soon moved to form at Bridlington in Yorkshire, where it remained as a training and coastal defence unit until 1917.
On 18 May 1916 a large number of men who had been with the 2/6th (Cyclist) Battalion of the Norfolks were transferred to the Gloucestershire Regiment; posted to join its 2/6th Battalion; and renumbered. At this point, Stanley became Private 5977.
The 2/6th Gloucester Regiment was in training at Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire at the time of the transfer, but had just received a warning ordered to move to France. The transfer was to bring it up to full fighting strength.
Service in France
On 24 May 1916 Stanley’s new battalion landed at Le Havre in France, having sailed from Southampton on the transport ship “St. Pancras” the previous evening.
Stanley died of wounds on 22 July 1916, having been evacuated from the battlefield to Number 13 Stationary Hospital at Boulogne. In the absence of any documentary record it is difficult to know exactly what happened him. The battalion had sustained a small number of casualties in June but I believe it is almost certain that he was one of the many casualties incurred during the failed attack towards Fromelles on 19 July 1916.
Stanley is buried in grave 140, row A, plot VIII at the Boulogne Eastern Cemetery. The location and dates of the graves around him suggest that he was buried in this grave soon after his death.
The 2/6th Gloucesters before and during the Fromelles attack
The battalion was under command of the 183rd (Gloucester & Worcester) Infantry Brigade of the 61st (2nd South Midland) Division.
27 May 1916: after moving by train from Le Havre, the battalion marched out to billets at Busnes.
29 May: the units of the division were inspected at Saint-Venant.
31 May: the battalion marched to La Croix Marmuse. This brought it near to the front line of the Laventie sector, south of Armentières and in the very flat valley of the River Lys. The front line in this area had seen much fighting early in the war but had since been relatively quiet; so much so that it was considered safe enough for an inexperienced unit to be sent into the trenches for its first introduction to the realities of front line service. For several days, the battalion was held in the division’s reserve. It was called upon to provide men for working parties and sent a number of officers and men onto short specialised courses of instruction.
8 June 1916: the battalion marched to Richebourg St. Vaast, a village quite close to the front line. Detachments began to go into the trenches for instruction under the care of more experienced units.
10 June: marched to Pont du Hem where orders were received for the battalion to take over a length of front line from another unit. This would be the “Moated Grange” (Ferme Vanbesien) sector, just north of Neuve Chapelle and famous from fighting of 1914 and the first half of 1915. The battalion relieved the 13th Royal Welsh Fusiliers in these trenches next day. The situation proved to be very quiet.
13 June: the battalion’s first casualties of one man killed and one wounded by enemy shellfire. The battalion began to send out patrols into no man’s land and its snipers engaged the enemy.
21 June: the battalion was relieved and moved rearward to La Gorgue for rest. There was an opportunity for training, baths, church parades and court-martial of men who had been placed on charges.
3 July 1916: the battalion marched to Laventie. Over the next few days it provided working parties.
9 July 1916: moved into the front line, this time of the Fauquissart sector, a little to the north of the previous position. Order had been received to support a gas attack and trench raid, but when this was due to take place on 14 July the wind was unfavourable and the operation cancelled.
15 July: the battalion was relieved and moved to Laventie
16 July: the 61st (2nd South Midland) Division had received orders to take part in an attack, alongside the newly arrived 5th Australian Division. It was in effect a diversionary action, for the Franco-British offensive on the Somme was underway and the high command wished to pin down German forces and render it difficult for them to send reinforcements towards the Somme. The battalion moved into a front line position ready for this operation. There was delay, change of orders and a degree of confusion.
19 July: the attack finally took place, commencing with an artillery bombardment which began at 11am. German artillery respended, causing some 50 casualties to the battalion while it waiting in its trenches. The advance finally began at 5.40pm, but immediately met with heavy German machine gun fire and artillery firing shrapnel. The attack of the first waves of men was, according to the war diary, “practically blown back”. Wisely, division took rapid steps to stop the attack and avoid further losses. Those men still out in front were withdrawn by 7pm. It would appear to be on this day that Stanley Arthur Cubitt sustained his fatal wounds, but it is difficult to know exactly when. The 5th Australian Division continued with its attack, sustaining such terrible losses that it became and remained Australian’s worst single day loss of the Great War.
Links
61st (2nd South Midland) Division
Fromelles article: Was the Australian Official History more truthful than the British?
With thanks to Great War Digital for the Linesman system with which I produced the maps above.