| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
Joseph William Finch was born at Thirkleby near Thirsk in 1893. His father, Arthur Finch was from North Dalton he married Eliza Ashton from Long Riston in Skirlaugh in 1892. Joseph was the eldest of nine children, two of whom died in infancy. In 1911 he was boarding with a Mr and Mrs Haith in Withernwick in the East Riding and was employed as a grocer's assistant. He was unmarried.
Details and dates of Joseph's enlistment and army career are scanty but of note are his rapid promotions to the rank of Sergeant in the 1st/4th Battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment. The Battalion served on the Western Front in 1915 and 1916, taking part in some of the later actions in the Battle of the Somme. He was mortally wounded in the Battle of Arras in Apr 1917, specifically the Battle of the Scarpe, 23-25 Apr 1917, an area of heavily defended German-held higher ground to the east of the town. Joseph's Battalion was involved in fighting between Wancourt and Cherisy with few territorial gains but large numbers of casualties. The War Diary notes a total of 17 officers and 352 other ranks killed or missing.
Joseph is buried at Warlincourt Halte British Cemetery, Saulty, Pas du Calais, away from the battlefield suggesting that he had been evacuated from the battlefield area before dying of his wounds. He is remembered on the East Riding Memorial in Beverley Minster
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |