John Hollas Mathews
At this point, I will mention that John's wife Annie would lose not only her husband in 1918. but also two of her brothers, and her brother-in-law in the First World War. Walter Poole on the 14th November 16, and James Poole on the 29th October 1917, and her husband's brother Stanley Mathews on the 2nd December 1917.
Unfortunately, John Hollas Mathews enlistment records are missing despite an exhaustive search, presumed destroyed during the 1940 London blitz. He also appears to have served with The Cheshire Regiment before the First World War. A record was found of an entry with the correct name and address. He may well have been a member of the 1909 Territorial Army which was set up following a possible invasion threat. Until full records can be located, I have to presume that's what his role was.
It first landed at Boulogne on 7 November 1915.
On the 14 May 1918, it reduced to cadre strength.
It's would between November 1915 and May 1918 that John Hollas Mathew would have joined this battalion.
The 17th Battalion took part in the Battle of Cambrai in November 1917 and in March 1918 to defend the German advance towards Northern France titled Operation Michael.
This battle was intense. Operation Michael was a major German military offensive during the First World War that began the Spring Offensive on 21 March 1918. It was launched from the Hindenburg Line, in the vicinity of Saint-Quentin, France. Its goal was to break through the Allied (Entente) lines and advance in a north-westerly direction to seize the Channel Ports, which supplied the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and to drive the BEF into the sea. Two days later General Erich Ludendorff, the chief of the German General Staff, adjusted his plan and pushed for an offensive due west, along the whole of the British front north of the River Somme. This was designed to first separate the French and British Armies before continuing with the original concept of pushing the BEF into the sea.
The offensive ended at Villers-Bretonneux, to the east of the Allied communications centre at Amiens, where the Allies managed to halt the German advance; the German Army had suffered many casualties and was unable to maintain supplies to the advancing troops.
