The 2/4th Battalion Oxford and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry had moved up from reserve camp at Ypres on the 7th September 1917 and reached the frontline at St. Julien on the 9th. On the 10th they assembled at dawn in shell holes about 400 yards forward of the front line and remained there until zero hour – 4 p.m. Advancing under artillery barrage, they were within 30 yards of their objective (Hill 35) when held up by machine gun fire from both sides. Despite reinforcements there was no chance of further advance and the survivors remained in position until it was possible to withdraw under cover of darkness. Nineteen men were killed or died as a result of that action, one of whom was George Mullins. Unfortunately George’s body was never recovered but his name is engraved on the Tyne Cot Memorial which stands amongst the greatest number of graves in any Commonwealth War Cemetery. At the end of the War, 11,500 dead were brought to Tyne Cot from the surrounding battlefield. Many of the 34,888 missing listed on the memorial panels will be amongst them, their remains like George’s, unidentified.

Clive Mullins