The 6th Battalion commanded by Major (Temporary Lieut.-Colonel) F.E. Ashton, part of the 32nd Brigade commanded by Brigadier-General H. Haggard was then in the 11th Division commanded by Major-General F. Hammersley, C.B. The whole being part of the 1st New Army under the command of General Sir A. Hunter, G.C.B., G.C.V.O., D.S.O.

There is one VC in the battalion from WW1.

From the time that the battalion was raised, in August 1914, they were in a training camp near Grantham, then moving to Witley near Godalming where the Division was inspected on the 1st May by the King and Lord Kitchener. In June the battalion was ordered to proceed overseas to “an unknown destination”.  On the 1st July the battalion was marched in two parties to the Milford Railway Station and entrained for Liverpool, where they arrived early the following morning and embarked on the Aquitania, the largest ship then afloat. The Aquitania sailed at 1:45 pm on the 3rd July with six battalions of troops on board.  The ship became a target for a German submarine off Cape Ushant early in the morning on the 4th July shortly after the two escorting destroyers had left. As one man wrote home “ten minutes after their departure a German submarine fired a torpedo at us, she missed us by a few feet astern - the torpedo being diverted by our immense wash.”  Early on the 10th July the ship reached the island of Lemnos, and the troops disembarked and landed in Mudros Bay.

The battalion was to be part of a new Gallipoli operation planned by the General in command in the Dardanelles, Sir Ian Hamilton.  This new operation would commence on the 6th August.  Accordingly the battalion sailed from Lemnos in the SS Uganda, arriving at Imbros on the 23rd July.  Joined by others of the battalion from Lemnos, their strength was now recorded as 29 officers and 928 non-commissioned officers and men.

At this time my grandfather had not joined the battalion.  I believe from his medal records that he joined the war theatre on the 5th September, 1915, the day before his son, my father, was born.

After Gallipoli the battalion moved to Egypt until early July, 1916 when they sailed for France.  I believe that my grandfather may have left the 6th for the 2nd Battalion around Oct/Nov 1916.

I have been contacted by Maurice Webb whose great-grandfather was also in the 6th Battalion; “My Gt.Grandfather was also in the 6th bat.York & Lancs (10964), but I can find no info about him. I never knew him. He lived in Wombwell, Nr.Barnsley in 1908, when he may have enrolled. In 1914 he was Lance corporal Tom Webb. He survived the war and was Sergeant Tom Webb.”  Sgt. Tom Webb is on the left in the photo below.

There was one Victoria Cross awarded to a member of the 6th Battalion during WW1.  This was to Sergeant Frederick Charles Riggs.  Riggs joined the 15th Hussars in September 1914 and was promoted in France in 1915 to Sergeant in the 6th York & Lancs where he was posted to Gallipoli and then to Egypt before returning to France. [As my grandfather was also in the battalion in Gallipoli and Egypt at that time it is quite possible they knew each other.] Sergeant Riggs was badly wounded on the Somme, and was awarded the Military Medal while he was there. As a result of his wound he was sent back to England but later returned again to France.

At Epinoy on the 1st October 1918 he was leading his men after the death of his platoon officer. He took them through uncut barbed wire while under heavy fire and, despite losing many of his men, continued his advance. He captured a machine gun post and using two captured machine guns caused the surrender of fifty enemy soldiers.  Later, with the enemy attacking in force, he was shot and killed. He was 30 years old and was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross and is commemorated on the Vis-en-Artois Memorial.