Robert Kirkwood

Killed in Action on the 15/09/1916 at Martinpuich on the opening day of the Battle of Flers-Courcelette (part of the Battles of the Somme 1916)

The 12th (Service) Battalion arrived at Boulogne on the 10/07/1915 and were part of the 46th Brigade, 15th (Scottish) Division when Robert fell. He arrived at Boulogne on the 12/05/1915 (this was the date the 10th and 11th (Service) Battalions arrived). Robert was reported missing on the 15/09/1916 and presumed killed on that date. This was the day on which the British first made experimental use of Tanks. His death was not confirmed until the 11/08/1917. Robert was Killed in Action at the Battle of Flers-Courcelette, 15th - 22nd September 1916 : This was a large-scale general renewal of the offensive after the weeks of attritional fighting for the third German system at Pozieres, High Wood, Delville Wood, Guillemont and Ginchy. It is historically noteworthy for being the first time that tanks were used in Battle. Few in number, mechanically unreliable and as yet without proven tactics for their best use, the small numbers of tanks that actually went into action had an important positive effect. High Wood and Delville Wood were finally cleared and a deep advance was made to Flers and towards Combles. The Canadian Corps entered the Somme fighting for the first time. The 15th (Scottish) Division captured Martinpuich. SEE PHOTOS x 11 FOR THE 12th BATTALION WAR DIARY SEPTEMBER 1916. This Battle was a phase of the Battles of the Somme, 1st July – 18th November 1916 : A Franco-British offensive that was undertaken after Allied strategic conferences in late 1915, but which changed its nature due to the German attack against the French in the epic Battle of Verdun, which lasted from late February to November. Huge British losses on the first day and a series of fiercely-contested steps that became attritional in nature. For all armies on the Western Front it was becoming what the Germans would call “materialschlacht”: a war not of morale, will or even manpower, but of sheer industrial material might. The 15th September 1916 saw the first-ever use of tanks in the step known as the Battle of Flers-Courcelette. The British army in France is now approaching its maximum strength in numbers but is still developing in terms of tactics, technology, command and control. The Thiepval Memorial, the Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, bears the names of more than 72,000 officers and men of the United Kingdom and South African forces who died in the Somme sector before the 20th March 1918 and have no known grave. The British army used tanks for the first time in the Battle of Flers-Courcelette. Developed in great secrecy, they came as a surprise to the Germans and British troops alike. The London press advertisement appeared on the 12th October 1916, just a few weeks later. The cartoonist, quite forgivably, has clearly never seen a tank but has done his best (see photos for advertisement). See photos for Robert's Medal Index Card, his Newspaper clippings x 2, his Army Register of Soldiers Effects, his Service Medal and Award Rolls x 2, his elder sister Christina's Marriage Certificate, his name on the Thiepval Memorial, his CWGC Grave Registration, his CWGC Memorial Certificate, Robert's Pension Records x 2, the Highland Light Infantry Cap Badge, PHOTOS x 25 FOR THE 15th (SCOTTISH) DIVISION BOOK FROM 27th JUNE - SEPTEMBER 1916, 15th (Scottish) Division Order of Battle x 13 (the Division he was with when he died ), photos x 2 of Robert's name on the Thiepval Memorial taken by myself July 2023. Finally, SEE PHOTOS x 11 FOR THE BATTALION WAR DIARY SEPTEMBER 1916 and Newspaper clippings x 5 (Coatbridge Express x 2, Coatbridge Leader x 2 and the Airdrie and Coatbridge Advertiser x 1).