On the 8th December 1914 the Mayor of Leeds raised a Bantam Battalion (17th West Yorkshgire) - soldiers who were under 5'3" tall and Francis McManus was one of the first to join as his number was 105.  He spent all of 1915 training and then in February 1916 found himself in France/Flanders.  On 27 March 1916 the battalion went into the line in the Petillon sector.  The Battalion’s War Diary for 29th March 1916 records:

 “4 Lewis guns forward in battle emplacements, 2 used as moveable guns.  Some interchange of rifle grenades.  Unfortunate accident with rifle grenade by which 1 man killed and 2 wounded.  Some shelling by enemy of CELLAR FARM and DEE POST.  Patrol went out from left Coy (Z Coy).  Water too deep to allow of useful information to be gained.  Snipers very active all along the front.  They have a loophole in nearly every bay and move position when firing and thus difficult to locate.  Night passed quietly.  Much work done.” 

 According to the Regimental History Francis McManus is the only recorded death that day so must have been the man killed by the ‘unfortunate accident’ with the rifle grenade; clearly they were not all duds.  He was probably dead before 9.00 am.  Corporal Sheard, the Medical Orderly, records in his journal that the casualties that day had been caused by, ‘…one of our rifle grenades bursting.’ (It is interesting that there is no mention of how Francis died in the Regimental History’s Casualty Lists.)  He is recorded as ‘Killed in Action’ on his Medal Record Card, in Leeds in The Great War and on the Medal Roll, but other documents, (his overseas Death Certificate, Effects Record and The Leeds Roll of Honour), speak of his ‘accidental death’. 

In The Times Newspaper’s ‘Roll of Honour’ of the 18th April 1916 Francis is listed under ‘Accidentally Killed’. He was 19 years and 4 months old. We will be visiting his grave on the 100th anniversary of his death.  I know I will see him one day.

 

Andrew Greenwood