Private Daniel Docherty

Private Daniel Docherty

9th (Service) Battalion King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry
Service No: 17787

534

1

4

2

73

Click here for a frameable A4 print

Personal details

Family Information

Son of Lewis and Ellen Docherty. Husband of Annie Docherty born 13/12/1877. Father of Annie born 16/07/1901, Helen born 13/01/1903, Lewis born 31/07/1904, Madge born 19/08/1906, Alice born 10/06/1909, James born 14/08/1911 and Daniel born 17/05/1915. From the 1891 Census - Address - 4 Longmuir Square, Coatbridge - Lewis Docherty aged 45, Ellen Docherty aged 50, James Docherty aged 17, Ellen Docherty aged 15, Daniel Docherty aged 14, Lewis' stepson Adam Ward aged 19, boarders Peter Shepherd aged 30, David Burns aged 15. From the 1911 England Census - Address - 47 King St, South Emsall, Yorkshire-West Riding - Daniel Docherty aged 33, Annie Docherty aged 30, sister Agnes Malone aged 21, Annie Docherty aged 10, Nellie Docherty aged 8, Lewis Docherty aged 6, Margarete Docherty aged 5, Alice Docherty aged 2, boarders William Gifford aged 21, Richard Gifford aged 37. Daniel's Pension was awarded to his wife Annie of 17 Gills Yard, Wakefield, Yorkshire on the 09/02/1917. Their 6 children are also listed.

Born / Resided

Shotts / 327 Main St, Coatbridge before moving to Wakefield.

Died

Killed in Action on the 01/07/1916 North of Fricourt at the Battle of Albert (opening phase of the Battles of the Somme)

Enlisted

Wakefield, Yorkshire

Employed

Coal Miner aged 14.

Age

39 Buried / Remembered

Gordon Dump Cemetery (X. E. 4), Ovillers-la-Boisselle, Somme, France.

Cemetery / Memorial Information

On 1 July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme, the 8th Division attacked Ovillers and the 34th Division La Boisselle. The villages were not captured, but ground was won between them and to the south of La Boisselle. On 4 July, the 19th (Western) Division cleared La Boisselle and on 7 July the 12th (Eastern) and 25th Divisions gained part of Ovillers, the village being cleared by the 48th (South Midland) Division on 17 July. The two villages were lost during the German advance in March 1918, but they were retaken on the following 24 August by the 38th (Welsh) Division. After the Armistice when graves were brought in from the 1916 battlefields immediately surrounding the cemetery. There are 1,676 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in this cemetery. 1,053 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to 34 casualties known or believed to be buried among them.

Additional Information

Daniel and the Battalion arrived in France on the 11/09/1915 and were part of the 64th Brigade, 21st Division. Daniel was Killed in Action during the attack on Ovillers, North of Fricourt (part of the Battle of Albert and opening phase of the Battles of the Somme), 1st - 13th July 1916 : In this opening phase, the French and British assault broke into and gradually moved beyond the first of the German defensive systems. For the British, the attack on the 1st of July proved to be the worst day in the nation's military history in terms of casualties sustained. It is the aspect of the battle that is most remembered and most written about, and for good reason, but to concentrate on the failures is to entirely miss the point of the Somme and why the battle developed into an epic period of the Great War. On the first day, British forces at the southern end of the British line made an impressive advance alongside the French Sixth Army, capturing the villages of Montauban and Mametz and breaking through the enemy's defensive system. North of Mametz the attack was an almost unmitigated failure. The situation led to a redirection of effort, with the offensive north of the River Ancre effectively being closed down and all future focus being on the line south of Thiepval. 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. SEE PHOTOS x 52 FOR THE BATTALION WAR DIARY FROM 1st JUNE - 1st JULY 1916. The Battalion War Diary states casualties on the 01/07/1916 were - 13 Officers Killed, 9 Wounded (2 subsequently Died of Wounds), about 415 Other Ranks Killed, 60 Wounded. Daniel was 1 of 15 men from the Coatbridge Memorial to fall on this day. Daniel is listed as DOCHARTY on his Headstone and on Reburial form. I personally laid a Poppy at Daniel's grave in 2010 (see main grave photo). Daniel was reburied in Gordon Dump Cemetery (see photos). See photos for Daniel's Medal Index Card, his Army Register of Soldiers Effects, his Service Medal and Award Rolls, his CWGC Grave Registration x 2, his Headstone Report, another photo of Poppy placed by myself at Daniel's grave, Gordon Dump Cemetery, Daniel's Pension Records x 2, the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry Cap Badge, Officers of the 9th Battalion King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, La Neuville, Corbie, April 1916, a map showing the Battalion near Fricourt on the 01/07/1916 and the 21st Division Order of Battle x 12 (the Division Daniel was with when he died).

Photos

War Diaries

The battalion War Diary is available on the National Archives website.

Creative Commons License

We have made this information and the images available under a Creative Commons BY-NC license. This means you may reuse it for non-commercial purposes only and must attribute it to us using the following statement: © coatbridgeandthegreatwar.com

Comments

What an unbelievable achievement to have gathered so much information on this brave man. I am taking a particular interest as my grandmother's middle name was Docherty and we could not trace if from anywhere until an old aunt told me that it she was called after her mothers good friend who lived next door to them and her name was Annie Docherty. I will check my records and see if the dates and address tie in. Well done John.
anne richardson, Coatbridge, 05/04/2023 11:19PM

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