Private Stanley Makins

Private Stanley Makins, 1st/7th ( Territorial ) Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers. He died in France on 20th September 1917, aged 27, during the course of the Battle of Third Ypres. He was the son of Mrs Catherine Makins of 67 Blakewell Road, Tweedmouth and is commemorated on the Arras Memorial, Arras, France. On that date the Battalion the Battalion were in support trenches and the Battalion War Diary shows during that period  there was only one slightly wounded casualty. The photographs show the atrocious nature of the battlefield where the incessant shelling had destroyed the Flanders drainage systems and turned the ground into a quagmire. The colour photo shows the impressive Memorial raised to the 50th ( Northumbrian ) Division of which the Battalion was part until February 1918 when it was transferred to the 42nd ( East Lancashire ) Division as the Pioneer Battalion. It was erected near the village of Weiltje where nearby on 26th April 1915 the Division had fought its first action of the War only days after landing on the Continent.