Education & Career :

See also: West Deeping Remembers.

"2nd Lieut. Joseph Anstee was the younger son of William Anstee, the miller at West Deeping Mill, just next to the church. He had grown up in the village and judging by frequent mentions in the local newspapers seems to have been talented as a singer and pianist. He was often complimented for his flower decorations in the church and was involved with activities at the village Reading Room. He was in his early 20s when he signed up for a short military training with the Inns of Court Officer Training Corps in Berkhamsted and in October 1915 he was commissioned to the 2nd Lincolnshire Regiment. It is possible he went to France soon afterwards as the Army had an urgent need for troops after their losses at the Battle of Loos."

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 :

Sources: 2/Lincolnshire Regiment War Diary WO 95/1730 & Official History Military Operations France & Belgium 1916 Vol I

ANSTEE, Joseph, 2/Lieutenant, 2/Lincolnshire Regiment Joseph Anstee was one of 39 freemasons killed on the 1st July on the Somme. He was killed in action on July 1st 1916, the 'First day on the Somme' when the British Army sustained nearly 20,000 casualties on that one day. What is less well appreciated is that the vast majority of those casualties were incurred in the first hour, perhaps 2 hours, as the momentum of the advance stalled and came to a halt. The story of the 2/Lincolns, a regular battalion in the 8th Division, offers an insight into how abruptly the attack ended and the terrible consequences in terms of the casualty list. The 2/Lincolns were part of the 8th Division attack on the Ollivers Spur, a formidable German defensive position north of the Albert to Bapaume road and concentrated around the village of Ollivers which had been turned into a fortress of barbed wire and interlocking machine guns. The village stood atop a low ridge and the 2/Lincolns had to move in the open towards the German trenches. The War Diary tells the story of the day: "Battalion in position about 2.30 a.m. July 1st Everybody was in their position by 3.30 a.m. and the wire along the whole of our front reported cut by 2.30 a.m. 2nd Lt Eld and a few men got wounded doing this and Lt Ross's party had trouble owing to continual hostile machine gun fire. Brigade line was checked at 5.30 a.m. 6.25 a.m. The intensive bombardment commenced to which the enemy retaliated on our front line and assembly trenches with high explosive shrapnel. 7.25 a.m. Companies started to move forward from their assembly positions preparatory to the assault. The three assaulting companies getting their first two waves out into No Man's Land and their 3rd and 4th waves out at Zero hour.

These arrangements were carried out most excellently, no hitch occurring but casualties were fairly heavy from machine gun fire. The support company got into our front line trench but suffered a lot of casualties from shell fire. 7.30 a.m. As soon as the barrage lifted the whole assaulted. They were met with very severe rifle fire and in most cases had to advance in rushes and return the fire. This fire seemed to come from the German second line, and the machine gun fire from our left. On reaching the German front line they found it strongly held and were met with showers of bombs but, after a very hard fight about 200 yards of German line were taken about 7.50 a.m. the extreme right failing to get in and also the extreme left where there appeared to be a gap of about 70 yards although bits of platoons of the 70th Brigade joined them. Our support company by this time joined in. The few officers which (sic) were left gallantly led their men over the German trench to attack the second line but owing to the rifle and machine gun fire could not push on. Attempts were made to consolidate and make blocks but the trench was so badly knocked about that very little cover was obtainable from the enfilade machine gun fire and continual bombing attacks which were being made by the enemy (on) the whole line and one frontal attack from their second line which we repulsed. 9 a.m. This isolated position became untenable, no supports being able to reach us owing to the intense rifle and machine gun fire. Our left being driven back the remainder which by now only held about 100 yards had to withdraw. On reaching our own line all the men that could be collected were formed up and tried to push on again but the heavy machine gun and rifle fire made the ground quite impassable. 1 p.m. Orders were received from the Brigade to withdraw to Ribble and Melling Street and occupy the assembly dug outs there which was done. 12 midnight We were relieved by the 6th West Kents and proceeded to Long Valley. At 9 p.m. on the night of June 30th-July 1st the 2/Lincolns numbered 22 officers and 650 other ranks. Their attack on Ollivers cost 20 officers and 434 other ranks. This was later uplifted in the Official History to 21 officers and 450 other ranks as the more of the missing were confirmed dead.

The War Diary lists the officers who were killed wounded and missing. 2/Lieutenant Joseph Anstee was reported killed in action but the pathos of the full list as recorded in the War Diary is worth publication: Capt W F G Wiseman, wounded and missing Capt S H Jeudwine, missing Capt B L Needham, killed Lt B G Woodcock, wounded Lt D S Ross, missing Lt H E Sowerby, wounded Lt H H Shearman, died of wounds, 5th July 1916 Lt J H Toolis, wounded and missing Lt C G Shaw, missing Lt H G Clifford, wounded and missing Lt J Shelley, wounded 2nd Lt G W H Applin, killed 2nd Lt A W Eld, wounded 2nd Lt S H Carter, wounded 2nd Lt J Anstee, killed 2nd Lt P H Gates, wounded 2nd Lt E G Jemmett, wounded 2nd Lt S T Stevens, wounded 2nd Lt C C W Meyer, died of wounds, 3rd July 1916 2nd Lt L O Sharp, killed att. 25th Trench Mortar Battery Joseph Anstee was probably killed in the opening hour of the battle. His job as a 2/Lieutenant would have been to get his men out of the trench and have them form up before setting off to the German trenches. This battalion did not conform to the traditionally accepted vision of soldiers walking in lines and becoming easy victims of German artillery and small arms fire. The account tells us that the German fire was so heavy that they were forced to adopt 'fire and move' tactics, moving from cover to get into the German trenches. It has been a common fallacy that the absence of fire and move tactics on the 1st July (and later) was due to the soldiers being barely trained and incapable of adopting such tactics. Whilst undoubtedly some battalions had newly arrived men with little training or experience that alone was not why so many walked in line abreast, about 4 paces apart. It was simply because in some cases No Man's Land was almost 1km wide and the expenditure of effort in running that distance fully equipped would have rendered them ineffective from exhaustion once in the German trenches. Where the distances were much shorter (as at Ollivers) and where circumstances permitted, fire and move tactics were used. It has also been suggested that the training given to the Service (Kitchener) and the Territorial battalions did not fit them for fire and move tactics. That may be true in part but the men of the 2/Lincolns, whilst being in a Regular battalion were in no way regular soldiers. The original 1914 battalion had long since been destroyed at Neuve Chapelle and the replacements were little different from their chums in the Service and Territorial battalions. The story of the 2/Lincolns (and other battalions) beggars the idea that the tactics on July 1st were always unthinking and deficient. The excellence of the German military engineers and soldiers was the main cause of the casualty lists of July 1st.

Masonic :

he was recorded as a Miller (1914) in his pre-war days at the time of his initiation in 1914, just months before the war commenced.

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