John Skipworth joined the 2nd 4th East Yorkshire Regiment as No 4239 on 27/28th May 1915 in Hull being re-numbered 201383 in 1917.

From Wyrall EYR in the Great War:

The 2nd Battle of the Scarpe 23/24th April 1917

On the night of 21st April the 1/4th East Yorkshire's on the right and 4th Green Howard's on the left, moved up into the front line. The 50th Division at this period was holding a sector of the line west of Cherisy and east of Wancourt, with the 30th and 15th Divisions on the right and left respectively. The 150th Brigade was the assaulting Brigade of the 50th Division, the objective being the high ground north—west of Cherisy.

Zero hour was fixed at 4.45 a.m.

The jumping-off line of the I/4th East Yorkshire's was astride the Wancourt»Cherisy road, with the right Hank of the Battalion in the neighbourhood of the ruins of Wancourt Tower. There was only a single trench here in which to accommodate the first line, the second line was lying down close behind the parados.

Three Companies-" B," " A " and " D " (from right to left) - were to make the attack with " C " in support. Each attacking company had two platoons in the first line and two in the second, In this formation the Battalion was ready to advance behind the barrage which opened at 4.45 a.m. Four minutes before the attack was timed to begin a couple of tanks nosed their way to the front and moved slowly in a north-easterly direction.

At Zero there was a crash as the barrage opened from 84 18—pdrs. and 30- 4.5 howitzers. The waiting troops jumped to their feet and moved off towards the enemy’s positions. Within two minutes of the advance red stars from the enemy’s trenches began to burst in the sky over the Divisional front and soon the German guns were heavily shelling the line of advance.

A hundred yards distant from their own trenches the East Yorkshiremen ran into the British barrage, which was moving too slowly, and at once serious casualties were suffered. In the two flank Companies it was not long before every officer had been either killed or wounded, whilst many NCO's and other ranks had been hit. The enemy’s machine—gun fire also began to make itself felt. With every officer and nearly all their N.C.O. leaders gone, the flank Companies were in some confusion and there was a slight loss of direction. " A ” Company in the centre, however, pushed on unchecked and reached a point about 100 yards east of a small wood along the Guemappe-Cherisy road. This Company had lost heavily in the advance, for the wood had been held in some strength by the enemy and had to be cleared before the advance could be continued. When this was accomplished the survivors of " A " pushed on and dug in cast of the Wood. A party of “ B " reached the first objective and dug in, facing south—east towards Cherisy. Meanwhile a mixed party of men of " D," " A" and " B ” Companies had encountered a battery of 77 mm. guns, just south-west of the wood, which were promptly captured. The situation of the East Yorkshiremen was now serious. Only three officers and two hundred other ranks remained. The Battalion was out of touch with the 4th Green Howard's on the left, whilst neither the 30th Division, on the right, nor the 15th, on the left, had made progress. The I/4th and the Green Howard's were therefore " in the air " and exposed to hostile counter—attacks which would certainly be made ere long.

About 7 a.m. the enemy launched a vigorous counter-attack from the direction of Cherisy and from Vis-en-Artois, The Green Howard's, on the left of the I/4.th East Yorkshire's who had already lost heavily, were forced back by the weight of this attack, leaving the East Yorkshiremen in a desperate situation. The Diary of the I/4th states that : " The Battalion was quickly surrounded," but apparently not all the officers or men were captured, for later the Brigade reports that the 1/4th East Yorkshire's " are back in original line." Such was the situation just before noon. The guns captured from the enemy were retaken by him, but he had lost some hundreds of prisoners of whom the 1/4th took many The total casualties in killed, wounded and missing suffered by the 1/4th East Yorkshire's were I7 officers and 352 other ranks. The remnants of the Battalion on reaching their original trenches were placed under the orders of the 8th D.L,l. and remained in the front line until midnight when Brigade H.Q. ordered them back into reserve. At 9 p.m. on 24th the Battalion, or all that remained of it, marched back to Arras and billeted in the town. On the 25th the trench strength of the Battalion, including details left in Arras during the operations, was only 10 officers and 215 other ranks.

John's father was a merchant seaman George Skipworth who also died in 1916 when his ship the SS Dido sank in the North Sea after striking a mine.

David Boddy