Gabriel Wicks

By Ken Greenman

Regiment: King’s (Shropshire Light Infantry) - KSLI
Battalion: 6th Battalion
Number: 27311
Rank: Private
Surname: Wicks
Forenames: Gabriel
Born: Sherston, Wilts
Enlisted: Chippenham, Wilts
Residence:
Died Date: Sunday 31/03/1918
Died How: Killed in action
Theatre of War: France and Flanders
Age: 19
Biographical: Son of James and Annie Elizabeth Wicks, Newtown, Hullavington, Chippeham, Wilts
Commemorated; Pozieres Memorial – Panel 60

Notes: Formerly 7/7302 Training Reserve Battalion

Gabriel Wicks was killed within the first ten days of the opening of the German Spring offensive in 1918. The German advance was very rapid in the opening days as they pushed towards the city of Amiens. The 6th KSLI formed one of the three battalions of 60th Brigade, 20th Light Division. Their history (1) provides some details of what happened to the 6th KSLI on 31/3/1918:

‘The line held on the morning of the 31st was substantially the same as that taken up on the night of the 29th/30th. Demuin, however, was in the hands of the enemy and the 61st Brigade was just west of the town, with a bridge-head established between Demuin and Hangard. On the right the 60th Brigade was in touch with the 8th Division. French troops were in Moreuil.

All was quiet until midday, when the enemy advanced against the French at Moreuil and the 8th Division in Cavalry Wood. A heavy barrage fell on the Line of the 20th Division, and the attack gradually spread northwards along the whole Divisional Front. The 8th Division was driven back, leaving the right flank of the 60th Brigade in the air. The 12th Kings Royal Rifle Corps. (KRRC) and the 12th Rifle Brigade (RB) were attacked from the right and rear, ‘D’ company of the 12th KRRC being almost annihilated. The 6th KSLI were ordered up from a position south-east of Domart to protect the right flank, and succeeded in stopping the enemy’s advance for a time and in causing him severe loss.

The flank was again turned, however, and the 59th and 60th Brigades were forced to swing round to a line south of the Roye-Amiens road, facing south. Here they held on until 4pm, when the enemy had again worked round to their right. The Division then fell back – for the last time – to a line just south of the river Luce.

Brig-General Duncan then asked the cavalry for assistance. Realising that the real danger lay on his right flank, as soon as he saw the cavalry advancing from the directions of Domart, he ordered what was left of the 6th KSLI (about 120 men) and the remnants of the 11th Durham Light Infantry (DLI) to support the attack. Details of various units were collected and placed south-east of Domart. The action of the cavalry succeeded in securing the right flank, and at 8pm Brig-General Duncan offered the 6th KSLI and the 11th DLI to the cavalry commander, Brig-General Bell-Smythe, under whose orders these two battalions served until the Division was relieved.’

The fighting in the area continued for many days, there was little chance of recovering the bodies of the dead. As a consequence, many bodies found during the subsequent British offensive in the autumn could not be identified. The Pozieres Memorial stands in the centre of the 1916 Somme battlefield although the 14,000 names of the missing inscribed upon it all date to the 1918 battles conducted over a much wider area.

(1) Capt. V.E. Inglefield, (1921) ‘The History of the Twentieth (Light) Division’. Nisbet and Son, London.