Service Life:

Campaigns:

• The First World War 1914-1918, World-wide.

The Battle of the Somme 1st July - 18th November 1916 is inevitably characterised by the appalling casualties (60,000) on the first day, July 1st 1916. Having failed to break through the German lines in force, and also failed to maximise opportunities where success was achieved, the battle became a series of attritional assaults on well defended defence in depth. The battle continued officially until 18th November 1916 costing almost 500,000 British casualties. German casualties were about the same, and French about 200,000. The Somme could not be counted a success in terms of ground gained or the cost, but it had a strategic impact as it marked the start of the decline of the German Army. Never again would it be as effective whilst the British Army, learning from its experience eventually grew stronger to become a war winning army. The German High Command recognised that it could never again fight another Somme, a view that advanced the decision to invoke unrestricted submarine warfare in an attempt to starve Britain of food and material, and in doing so accelerated the United States declaration of war thus guaranteeing the eventual outcome. 287 Brethren were killed on the Somme in 1916.

Detail :

WHITEFOORD, Lionel Cole, Lieutenant, 1/Irish Guards Lionel Cole WHITEFOORD was born in 1876 in Wokingham, Berkshire, England. He appeared on the census in 1881 in Hammersmith, London, Middlesex, England. Describerd as the son of the Head of Household, aged 4, born in Wokingham, Berkshire, England He served in the Great War with the Irish Guards. He died on 15 Sep 1916 in France. killed in action. He was attached to the Machine Gun Corps and was the officer commanding the machine gun company attached to the 1/Irish Guards. He was educated. privately. Parents: Dr. Adam John WHITEFOORD and Ellen Mary COLE. He was married to Marjorie Agatha POSTLETHWAITE on 24 Aug 1904. They had five children: Lionel Esmond Caleb WHITEFOORD, Alan Kennedy WHITEFOORD, Nigel WHITEFOORD, Neil Stewart Patrick WHITEFOORD, Anthony WHITEFOORD . Kipling in his excellent History of the Irish Guards 1914-1918 describes the events on the Somme that were to lead to the death of this father of five: On the evening of the 14th September 1916, the 1st Brigade of Guards moved out to the shell-holes and fragments of trench that formed their assembly-positions, on a front of five hundred yards between Delville Wood and the northern flank of Ginchy. There was a limited objective, three hundred yards beyond the first, which worked in with the advance towards Flers of the divisions on the left of the Guards from Delville Wood to Martinpuich. Incidentally, it was announced that as soon as all the objectives had been seized, ?Cavalry would advance and seize the heights ahead.? (An unlikely aspiration and definitely an expression of hope over experience-editor) The Battalion formed up north-west of Ginchy in two lines, facing north-east. Nos. 3 and 4 Companies in the first line; 1 and 2 in the second on the right. Captain L. R. Hargreaves, Lieutenants the Hon. P. J. Ogilvy, and R. Rodakowski, 2nd Lieutenant T. C. Gibson, and C.S.M. Voyles and Farrell were left in reserve. Lieutenant L. C. Whitefoord and his section of the Brigade Machine-gun Company was attached to the Battalion. About an hour and a half after the advance began, what the countless machine-guns had left of the Irish found itself with three out of its four company commanders already casualties, all officers of No. 2 Company out of action, and the second in command, Major T. M. D. Bailie, killed. They were held up under heavy shelling, either in front of German wire, or, approximately, on the firstline objective?a battered German trench, which our artillery had done its best to obliterate, but fortunately had failed in parts. Outside their area, the Sixth Division?s attacks between Ginchy, Telegraph and Leuze Wood had failed, thanks to a driving fire from the Quadrilateral, the great fortified work that controlled the landscape for a mile and a half; so the right flank of the Guards Division was left in the air, the enemy zealously trying to turn it?bomb versus bayonet. Nobody knew within hundreds of yards where they were, but since it was obvious that the whole attack of the Division, pressed, after the failure of the Sixth Division, by the fire from the Quadrilateral, had sheered too far towards the left or north, as the spasmodic shelling of the congested line turned into the full roll of the German barrage. The Diary covers these experiences of the three hours between 8 A.M. and 11 A.M. with the words: ?In the meantime, despite rather heavy shelling, a certain amount of consolidation was done on the trench while the work of reorganization was continued.? About half-past eleven the Commanding Officer, the Adjutant, and 2nd Lieutenant G. V. Williams and Lieutenant L. C. Whitefoord of the 1st Guards Brigade Machine-gun Company, who represented all that was left of the officers, went forward with all that was left of the Irish Guards towards the next objective. Their road lay uphill through a field of rank, unweeded stuff, and, when they had topped a little rise, they saw what seemed, by comparison, untouched country where houses had some roofs on them and trees some branches, all laid out ahead, in the hot sunshine between Flers and Lesb?ufs. Then a German field-battery, also in the open, pulled up and methodically shelled them. At this juncture, Captain L. R. Hargreaves, left behind with the Reserve of Officers in Tr?nes Wood, was ordered up, and reached the line with nothing worse than one wound. He led out a mixed party of Coldstream and Irish to a chain of disconnected shell-holes a few hundred yards in advance of the trench. Here they suffered for the rest of the afternoon under the field-battery shelling them at less than half a mile, and the regular scything of the machine-guns from the Quadrilateral on their right. A machine-gun detachment, under Lieutenant L. C. Whitefoord, went with them. Major T. M. Bailie, Lieutenant C. R. Tisdall, Lieutenant L. C. Whitefoord, and 2nd Lieutenant N. Butler were killed. There were over 330 casualties in the other ranks Source The Irish Guards in the Great War - Kipling

Masonic :

Initiated, Passed and Raised with his brother, Caleb.

Source :

The project globally acknowledges the following as sources of information for research across the whole database:

• The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• The (UK) National Archives
• Ancestry.co.uk - Genealogy, Family Trees & Family History online
• ugle.org.uk - The records of the United Grand Lodge of England including the Library and Museum of Freemasonry

Additional Source:

• Founder Researchers : Paul Masters & Mike McCarthy
• Researcher : Bruce Littley