William Frederick Larter

A Private with the 1/4th Battalion, William died on 23rd of April 1917 at the age of 20. 

William was born at Blundeston on 2 July 1897, a son of Walter and Mary Larter. In 1901 his family lived at 93 Seago Street, and in 1911 at 6 Oulton Street, Lowestoft. Later his parents lived at 62 Stanford Street. William attended Roman Hill School and, from 6 March 1905, was a pupil at Saint Margaret's School. 

William enlisted in the Army at Ipswich. He joined the Suffolk Regiment, service number 2454, and was posted to the 2/4th Battalion. Although William volunteered and enlisted in late 1914, he did not serve overseas before 1916. At some point he was posted to the 1/4th Battalion on France and in early 1917 he was renumbered 200626.

On 23 April 1917 the 1/4th Battalion took part in the assault on the German front and support trenches of the Hindenburg Line near the River Sensee. After an artillery barrage the battalion’s advance began at 4.45 a.m. They faced considerable opposition. By 6.30 a.m. B Company were within 200 yards of their objective, but were held up by granatenwerfer (grenade launcher), rifle and machine-gun fire. They held on until 9.30 a.m. when a German counter-attack forced them to withdraw. C and D Companies, with the support of one tank, were able to reach a sunken road by about 9.30 a.m. They also faced considerable opposition and, from 2 p.m. they were forced back by counter-attacks. The battalion was relived during the night. In the assault they had captured about 650 unwounded prisoners, five machine guns and a trench mortar. 

The battalion’s casualties were:
Officers: one killed, eight wounded
Other ranks: 41 killed, 160 wounded, 104 missing   

William was killed in action on 23 April.