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N
Telegraphist London Z/6563
Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve
Died 13-November-1918 aged 19
Son of George and Letitia Nash, of Witley, Surrey.
Grave Reference: E. 37. 17.
HASLAR ROYAL NAVAL CEMETERY Hampshire, England.
Source : Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
All Saints Church Memorial, Banstead, Surrey.
IDENTIFICATION ISSUES - Link to Banstead area not yet established.
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All Saints Church
Banstead
Private 200869
East Surrey Regiment 1st Bn.
Died 13-April-1917 aged 35
Memorial Reference: Bay 6.
ARRAS MEMORIAL
Source : Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
All Saints Church Memorial Banstead, Surrey.
IDENTIFICATION ISSUES - Link to Banstead area not yet established.
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All Saints Church
Banstead
Private 31863
Northumberland Fusiliers 12/13th Bn.
Died 27-May-1918 aged 21 in Aisne, France.
Previously worked as a grocer's assistant at Geoff Pushman's shop in Banstead.
Willie is remembered in a book called Geoff's Banstead.
We had a young man working for us in the shop called Willie Nash. I took to him at once, and he was very fond of me. Most fellows of his age wouldn't have wanted to be seen with a child, but he often wheeled me up the road in my pushchair.
Willie used to sing the songs of the day while weighing up sugar, and taught me all the words. "Weigh up the yellow crystals this afternoon, Willie," I'd say,"and we'll sing."
One day Willie came to work very excited. He'd bought a gramophone and asked if I'd come round to his house and see it. How thrilled we both were.
Willie was my first friend and partner in singing comic songs. Two of our speciality numbers were 'Hold your hand out, naughty boy' and 'Hello hello who's your lady friend?'
When the war broke out in 1914, Willie was one of the first to volunteer.(Being only seventeen, he put his age on by twelve months). On leave he stood against the door as we scratched his height on it - so we could check whether he'd grown next time we saw him. He never came back."
On the 27 May 1918, Private 61863 William John Nash would have been under the command of the Major-General D G M Campbell 21st Division, Brigadier-General G H Gater of the 62nd Brigade, whilst serving with the 12/13th Northumberland Fusiliers. That day was the first day of the Third Battle of the Aisne (river)which was a German offensive during World War I that focused on capturing the Chemin des Dames Ridge before the American Expeditionary Force could arrive in France.
On the morning of 27 May 1918, the Germans began a bombardment of the Allied front lines with over 4,000 artillery pieces. The British suffered heavy losses, as they had been ordered to mass together in the front trenches which made the easy artillery targets. There was worse to come as the bombardment was followed by a poison gas drop. A short edited extract from 8th Division 1914 - 1918, by Lt.-Colonel J.H. Boraston & Bax graphically describes the events of the day that Private W Nash was killed.
It was one o'clock in the morning of the 27th May, punctual to the predicted time, that the German bombardment was loosed. The whole of IX Corps front and many back areas - railheads, ammunition dumps and the like - were drenched with gas shell. Outpost lines were assailed in addition by trench mortars of every calibre, and the Battle Zone received the terrible bombardment from artillery of all natures.
Our artillery positions were also violently attacked with gas shell and H.E. and had area shoots carried out upon them, with the result that by 6am most of our guns North of the river were out of action. A mist which rose into being with the opening of the bombardment, as though evoked at the will of the German Higher Command and in fact accentuated by the enemy's gas and smoke shells, grew steadily thicker as the night proceeded and made the task of defence additionally difficult. It was indeed, almost uncanny how in this spring of 1918 the luck of the weather favoured the Germans in attack. On each preceding night spent on the new front the weather had been clear and when, for the third time, the troops of the division found their defence hampered by a dense blanket of fog, men and officers began firmly to believe that the enemy had discovered means to put down a mist whenever it was wanted.
Once the gas had lifted the main infantry assault by 17 German Sturmtruppen divisions commenced, led by Crown Prince Wilhelm, the eldest son of Kaiser Wilhelm II.
Taken completely by surprise and with their defences spread thin, the Allies were unable to stop the attack and the German army advanced through a 40 km gap in the Allied lines. Reaching the Aisne in under six hours, the Germans smashed through eight Allied divisions on a line between Reims and Soissons, pushing the Allies back to the river Vesle and gaining an extra 15 km of territory by nightfall.
Willie Nash is remembered on the Soissons Memorial, along with almost 4000 officers and men who died during the battles of the Aisne and the Marne.
Memorial Reference: Names are listed on the memorial by Regiments in order of precedence, under the title of each Regiment by rank, and under each rank alphabetically.
SOISSONS MEMORIAL, Aisne, France.
Source : Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
All Saints Church Memorial, Banstead, Surrey.
A book of poems by Cherrie Almond called "With Best Wishes".
Records of the battle from Invisionzone.com
The third battle of the Aisne from Wikipedia .................................................................................................................................................................................................. back Top Panel 7
Last update 18 March 2007 (Geoff Pushman's story and battle details)
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All Saints Church
Banstead
Picture of the Soissons Memorial to follow.