Discovering the stories behind personal memorials to those who served in war by those who knew them best
Wars Last Goodbyes
Individual Record
Inscription
And of their eldest son
Robert Went Stanton
Killed in action on the Somme
July 1st 1916 Aged 23
Place of Inscription
Evesham Cemetery
Worcestershire
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Robert Went
Stanton
1892
Evesham, Worcestershire
1st July 1916
Killed in action on the first day of the Battle of the Somme - the 1st/8th Royal Warwicks were sent over in the first wave at 7:30am in 100 yard groups into an area near Serre, on the edge of the terrifying Quadrilateral, where they took the first four German lines before arriving in the fourth with only one officer remaining and about 20 men - the other six hundred men were wounded, missing or killed in the heavy machine gunfire and artillery fire, the following battalions that were supposed to then advance further onto the fifth and sixth German lines merely consolidated with the 1st/8th having also suffered horrific casualty figures (1st/6th Royal Warwickshires also suffered nearly 600 casualties by the times they caught up to the 1st/8th). Robert was lost somewhere here. Most British casualties were left behind in the German counter offensive as the British line lost men, ran out of bombs and faced a force they could never fight.
23
Thiepval Memorial to the Missing, Somme, France
First World War
Private
1st/8th Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment
Attended Saltley Teacher Training College in Birmingham and afterwards became a teacher at the local council school in Evesham. He enlisted in August 1914 with his old territorial regiment. His parents received news from the front two weeks after his death saying that their son was missing feared killed, but were hoping for better news. None came. The eldest one of five brothers, four of whom served but he was the only one to not return.
Other Records from the same place:
First World War
James Kay
Horsfield
1st Battalion Canterbury Regiment New Zealand Expeditionary Force
