39410 Pte Enoch Ditchfield, 5th Bn, DLI

Close to 1800 British Army officers and men died on the 11th April 1918. Soldiers Died in The Great War gives the total casualties as 1,795, and 39410 Pte Enoch Ditchfield was one of those men. He was killed in action whilst serving with the 5th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry.

Enoch was born in Sunderland and attested there in May 1916. He was eighteen years old and working as a men's mercer. Other papers note that he was an apprentice mercer working for H Burns and Sons Ltd. He gave his address as 61 Hylton Road, Sunderland. This was later altered to 70 Eversley Road. At the time of attestation he indicated that his preferred arm of service was the Royal Horse and Field Artillery. However, he was called up in November 1916 and posted to the Durham Light Infantry.

On 15th June 1917, Enoch sailed for France. He was wounded exactly two weeks later on the 29th June by a gunshot wound to his left buttock, and returned to England, spending over three months in Queen Mary's Military Hospital in Whalley, Lancashire. He was discharged, his papers noting that he had a "penetrating wound... with no point of exit" but then re-admitted shortly afterwards when a "large foreign body" (presumably the bullet, or piece of shrapnel) worked its way through into his left thigh. This was removed under local anaesthetic but nevertheless caused Enoch to spent a further two months in hospital at Ripon.

Enoch sailed for France for a second time on the 2nd January 1918. He was posted first to the 19th DLI (3rd January) and then to the 10th DLI (7th January) and then finally to the 5th Battalion on the 3rd February. He spent four days at a Field Ambulance with scabies but rejoined his battalion on the 3rd March. On the 11th April 1918, ninety-two years ago today, Enoch was reported wounded and missing. One year later, his death was officially "presumed" by the War Office to have occurred on or after the 11th April 1918.

Enoch Ditchfield has no known grave and he is commemorated by name on the Ploegsteert Memorial in Belgium.

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.

Sources:

Ancestry (MIC, WO 363)
Soldiers Died in The Great War
Army Service Numbers
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission