Memorial for David Atkins in High Wycombe Cemetery
David Atkins 1896 - 1916
I was born in 1896 to Henry and Ellen Atkins. My father was a general labourer, working in the building trade. I grew up at 1 Ship St, High Wycombe, near to what is now the High Wycombe Hospital where my memorial is located. I lived there with my older brother Frank, a chair polisher, my older sister Kate, and my younger sister Florence. After a spell working as a factory hand, polishing chairs, I enlisted in the army in Aylesbury as a private in the 1/1st Bucks Battalion.
The first year was rather uneventful; we spent much of our time training and getting ready for war. However, on the 30th March 1915 we were mobilised and landed at Boulogne, France. This was largely nerve-wrecking as no-one knew what to expect – especially as the war had already gone on longer than we had anticipated! In May our formation turned into the 145th Brigade of the 48th Division where we engaged in multiple actions on the Western Front.
1916 was the busiest year and, unfortunately, my last. We were in action for two periods during the Battle of the Somme, each lasting about three weeks. Whilst we did not take part in the opening day on 1st July 1916, we did see its effects. We were held in reserve at Hebeuterne, and in the week before the battle there was an artillery barrage the likes of which had never been seen before. Later that month I took part in an assault near Albert, crawling out into no man’s land not long after midnight to get close to the German lines. Their machine guns opened up, killing a great number of us.
On the night of 22nd/23rd July we all prepared to engage again, this time in The Battle of Pozières Ridge. We started off in reserve, but were soon called to fight. The aim of this battle was to reclaim the village of Pozières from the Germans, a goal achieved by the Australians. Our mates in the Oxfords and Berks were cut off from the Australians by a large stretch of trench stubbornly held by the Germans, and we were sent in to sort things out. After some brutal bombing and hand-to-hand fighting we managed to capture the trench. Having survived this onslaught, on 24th July I was badly wounded during a retaliatory artillery barrage by the enemy. As I was being passed down the chain of evacuation I died of these wounds at the mere age of 20. At noon that day, my battalion handed over our defensive position, acquired that midnight with a heavy barrage, to the 5th Gloucesters and returned to bivouacs near Albert.
I now lie in the Warloy-Baillon Communal Cemetery Extension in the Somme, along with hundreds of others who never made it home.
Researched by Neill George, Gill Evans, and the girls of Wycombe Abbey School
