ST MARY ABBOTS
ST MARY ABBOTS
BATTLEFIELD CROSS “it marked the site of those who gave their lives serving in the (Kensington) battalion of the Royal Fusiliers during the battle of Oppy Wood”
Oppy Wood, 1917. Evening by John Nash
David Wilson asks us to take a closer look at a WW1 relic that hangs in the Resurrection Chapel
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for some land near Horsham where he billeted his men in the homes of local families while he built a hutted camp which served until they were drafted to France. For this reason the Battalion didn’t
SurVIVInG relic from ww1 hangs near to the roof of the resurrection Chapel in the south west corner, probably overlooked by those who worship there each week and certainly by those who pass through the chapel on Sundays on their return from the High
and the old Comrades Association held it’s reunions at Horsham.
recovered from oppy wood where it marked the site of those who gave their lives serving in the 22nd (Kensington) battalion of the royal Fusiliers during the Battle of oppy wood.
1916 and were reasonably successful in the battles leading up to 1917, but then came the very costly battles of 1917. They suffered nearly 300 casualties at the drawn out battle
The Battalion was partially raised in 1914
low in numbers when committed to take oppy wood in April where they were decimated to only 40 men. The reduced Battalion was then attached to the 23rd Battalion, but the
(wm davison) who had already been instrumental in successfully raising and kitting 28
out two battalions of the Kensington Territorials. Sadly he only succeeded in recruiting men to form a half battalion, but there was also a half battalion of Colonials in Kensington and the two were amalgamated to form the 22nd. Training was originally carried out in white City where the men were grossly overcrowded,
november 1915 as part of the 99th Brigade, later to become part of the 2nd division. They
two were still below strength and thankfully avoided Passchendaele and they completed their service at the Battle of Cambrai at the end of the year.
and oppy wood the Battalion’s pioneers erected a big wooden cross at each site to commemorate the men who had fallen. In 1929 the old Comrades Association became aware that the Cross from oppy wood had become redundant when the war Graves Commission replaced the wooden grave markers with its familiar headstones in rolincourt military cemetery. The oppy cross then began a tortured course via Horsham Parish Church and several other churches over the years the Cross has darkened and the inscriptions are virtually unreadable; as you can see from the photograph on the 1977 and then disbanded. Credit must be given to the late robert Cook who worked with me toward publishing this archivist of the 22nd who kindly placed his researches at our disposal.
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