Private John Murgatroyd aged 29

John Murgatroyd was a Private in the Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding) Regiment and had enlisted in November 1914, being sent to France in January 1917. Like many of those who fought in the Battle of Arras (April to June 1917) he has no known grave. He is commemorated on the Arras Memorial in France. He’s also commemorated on the window inside St Mary’s Church. John started his life with his parents John William (a bootmaker) and Sarah in Providence Place, but by 1901 his mother had died and he was with his father, aunt Betty Townsend and older brother Arnold at Bethel Terrace. By 1911 they were at 57 High Street Fold and he was also working as a boot repairer. From the War Diaries of the 4th Battalion, we know that on the 2nd of May the Battalion moved into line north of Ecoust ready for the second Battle of Bullecourt. At 3.45 on the 3rd , they attacked the Hindenberg Line, but were forced back with “very heavy casualties – 7 killed, 154 wounded and 72 missing”. John was one of the missing. David Millichope in his book Halifax in the Great War notes that “On the 3rd May they were ordered to attack a second time. This time the Battalion was involved more directly in the assault, but “was hung up by the thick wire entanglements which were insufficiently cut”. The results were depressingly predictable. On 26th May the Courier published the highest number of casualties of the war yet seen in a single week”.

John is one of five men commemorated on our memorial who died in the space of a few weeks in April and early May 1917, all in the same attacks and all commemorated on the Arras Memorial.