Tag Archives: Ploegsteert Wood

On this day 8th March 1915

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8.3.15 (Ploegsteert): L/Cpl Redfern ‘C’ Company killed on 8th with working party.

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8th March 1915. Reveille 5-30 a.m. Went to wash up in a ditch nearby. The water was frozen over. We had to break the ice before we could wash (rather parky). We fell in at 7-30 a.m. to go as a fatigue party for the Engineers at Ploegsteert Wood. We were working just behind the firing line making corduroy paths.

Courdroy pathCorduroy path through Ploegsteert Wood. Imperial War Museum © IWM (Q 11744).

These paths have all sorts of names ‘Bunhill Row’ etc. Plans are drawn of these paths just as though it was a town. All the time we were working there, stray bullets would come and shells would go whistling through the trees. C Company were doing their turn in the trenches that day. In the middle of the morning we got the news that Lc Corporal Redfern had been shot through the heart by a sniper. They buried him half an hour later in the cemetery in the wood.

Ploegsteert graveCemetery in Plugstreet Wood, May 1915. A view of several graves marked with wooden crosses and plaques in Ploegsteert Wood. Imperial War Museum © IWM (Art.IWM ART 4786).

We went for a walk in the morning in the wood, we saw something in a ditch. We touched it with a stick and there it was a dead German. We left at 1 o’clock for our billet. In Ploegsteert Wood the Somerset Light Infantry and Rifle Brigade were stationed. When we arrived back to our barn we had orders to pack up so as to be off next morning. We received our first mail in France here.

[2381 Pte. George Potter Bagshaw]

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RedfernL/Cpl 1470 Allen Redfern of Buxton who was the first man to be killed on active service. He is now buried in the original Plot I of Ploegsteert Wood Military Cemetery in Belgium.

Redfern 21470 L/Cpl Allen Redfern a printer from Buxton, who was serving with “C” Company, was shot through the heart whilst on duty with a working party behind the lines; he was only 20 years of age. Allen was buried in Somerset Light Infantry Ground in Ploegsteert Wood and was the only 6th Battalion man to be buried in that cemetery.

On this day 6th March 1915

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MARCH 6th. We went for the first time up to the trenches, these are only 150 yards from the enemies trenches and we were under shell fire, we went on fatigue with the Royal Engineers repairing the firing trenches.

[1415 L/Cpl. Alfred Afford; D Company]

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6th March 1915. Knocking about all day until 4 o’clock when we went into the trenches at Ploegsteert Wood. This is in Belgium. It was about three miles from where we were billeted. The wood is a wonderful place, all pathways made through by the Engineers, just like a town. In the trenches, which are made of sand bags there are dug outs which the men have their meals in and sleep in. Each dug out has a seperate name such as ‘Hotel de Rochart’, ‘Castle Dase’ etc.

Company MessCompany Mess in Ploegsteert Wood. a view of a dug-out constructed from earth, wood, sandbags and corrugated iron. Courtesy of the Imperial War Museum © IWM [Art.IWM ART 4815].

I was put in charge of a trench where there were about seven regulars and five terriers. I felt rather nervous, but that soon went off. During the night I went with the Sergeant to the listening patrol which is about 60 yards from the German trenches. We could see the Germans working on their wire entanglements. The Germans kept sending up rockets lighting everything up everywhere, making us keep our heads down because of the snipers who are always on the lookout. As you go between the trenches you come across dead Germans, both having laid there for a week or two.

[2381 Pte. George Potter Bagshaw]