Allan Jack Mitchell

A Private with the 7th Battalion, Allan died on 28th of April 1917 at the age of 22. 

Allan was born at Kessingland in 1895, a son of Arthur and Ellen Mitchell. In 1901 his family lived at The Beach, Kessingland. In 1911 their home was at Sunnyside, Church Road, Kessingland, and Allan was a junior clerk working for a coal merchant. Later his parents lived at Orient Lodge, Hall Road, Oulton Broad.

Allan volunteered and enlisted in the Army at Lowestoft. He joined the Suffolk Regiment and was posted to the 6th (Cyclist) Battalion, service number 1874. Later he was posted to the 7th Battalion, in France, with service number 43264, and by April 1917 he was serving with D Company.

Colonel Murphy's 'The History of the Suffolk Regiment 1914-1927' has the following account of the 7th Battalion's part in the attack on the front between the Scarpe and Monchy (near Arras), known as the Battle of Arleux, on 28 April 1917, pages 233-4:

The battalion, going over the top at 4.35 a.m. to attack the new Blue Line, passed through the 5th Royal Berkshire Regiment, who had captured Bayonet trench and also some 150 yards of Rifle trench. They immediately came under a most devastating machine-gun fire from Rouex, which the troops operating on the north side of the river had not yet taken, and suffered very heavy losses. Portions of the various companies managed to reach the first objective but were unable to gain further ground. All the officers except the colonel and the adjutant have been killed or wounded, these small parties returned to the Black Line as soon as it grew dark and at 1 a.m. the battalion, now reduced to 190 effective men, withdrew to the support line. 

The battalion’s casualties were:
Officers three killed, one died of wounds, four wounded
Other ranks: 89 killed and an unknown number wounded or missing

Allan was reported wounded missing on 28 April and later it was presumed that he had been killed in action that day. His body was found at Monchy-le-Preux, map reference H.30.D.5.2 and in 1919 he was reburied at Feuchy Chapel.