Private Robert Keith

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Private Robert Keith

1st Battalion Irish Guards
Service No: 5393

1194

1

4

0

100

Click here for a frameable A4 print

Personal details

Family Information

Son of Martha Keith (McCallion) of Castlerock, Co. Londonderry. From the 1901 Census - Address - 27 Miller St, Coatbridge - Martha Keith (McCallion) aged 44, Robert Keith aged 24, Martha Keith aged 14, Hugh Keith aged 10, Elizabeth Keith aged 17, John Keith aged 4, Robert's grandmother Mary McCallion aged 70, boarders Clark McIntyre aged 23, James Canning aged 20, Frank Munro aged 35. Robert's Pension was awarded to his mother Martha of Castlerock, Co. Londonderry and his sister Leah Hall of 62 North Park St, Queen's Cross, Glasgow.

Born / Resided

Coleraine, Co. Londonderry / 40 Muiryhall St, Coatbridge

Died

Killed in Action on the 10/10/1917 between Broembeek and Houthoulst Forest at the Battle of Poelcapelle (phase of the 3rd Battle of Ypres / Passchendaele)

Enlisted

Glasgow 1914

Employed

Iron Worker.

Age

40 Buried / Remembered

Tyne Cot Memorial (Panel 10 to 11), West-Vlaanderen, Belgium.

Cemetery / Memorial Information

The battles of the Ypres Salient claimed many lives on both sides and it quickly became clear that the commemoration of members of the Commonwealth forces with no known grave would have to be divided between several different sites. The site of the Menin Gate was chosen because of the hundreds of thousands of men who passed through it on their way to the battlefields. It commemorates those of all Commonwealth nations, except New Zealand, who died in the Salient, in the case of United Kingdom casualties before 16 August 1917 (with some exceptions). Those United Kingdom and New Zealand servicemen who died after that date are named on the memorial at Tyne Cot, a site which marks the furthest point reached by Commonwealth forces in Belgium until nearly the end of the war. Other New Zealand casualties are commemorated on memorials at Buttes New British Cemetery and Messines Ridge British Cemetery. The Tyne Cot Memorial now bears the names of almost 35,000 officers and men whose graves are not known.

Additional Information

The Battalion arrived at Le Havre on the 13/08/1914 and were part of the 1st Guards Brigade, Guards Division. Robert arrived in France on the 06/03/1915. From the 1st Battalion Irish Guards book : "At 9.30 on the night of the 8th, in heavy rain, the Battalion marched from Abingley Camp to their assembly lines (these all duly marked by tapes and white signboards, which, to the imaginative, suggest graveyards) from Elverdinghe to Boesinghe road, up “Clarges Street” to Abri Wood, and then to Cannes farm till they met the guides for their assembly areas at Ruisseau farm. From here began the interminable duck-boards that halt and congest the slow-moving line; and it was not till four in the morning that the Battalion was formed up and moved off. The rain had stopped a little before midnight and a late moon came to their help. The Companies were commanded as follows: No. 1, Captain the Hon. P. J. Ogilvy; No. 2, Lieutenant D. S. Browne; No. 3, Captain R. B. S. Reford; No. 4, Lieutenant N. B. Bagenal. There was some shelling as they got into their assembly positions at 5.20 A.M., but casualties were few. The 2nd Grenadiers and 2nd Coldstream led off under a few minutes’ blast of intense fire from field-guns and Stokes mortars, crossed the Broembeek and were away. At 6.20 the 1st Irish Guards and 3rd Coldstream followed them. The Battalion’s crossing-place at the river, which, after all, proved not so unmanageable as the patrols reported, had no bridges, but there was wire enough, on the banks to have made trouble had the enemy chosen that time and place to shell. They went over in three-foot water with mud at the bottom; reformed, ‘wet and filthy, and followed the 2nd Grenadiers who had captured the first and second objectives, moved through them at 8.20 and formed up on the right of the 3rd Coldstream under the barrage of our guns for their own advance on the final objective—the edge of the forest. So far, barring a tendency to bear towards the right or railway side, direction had been well kept and their losses were not heavy. The companies deployed for attack on the new lines necessitated by the altered German system of defence—mopping-up sections in rear of the leading companies, with Lewis-gun sections, and a mopping-up platoon busy behind all. here was not much shelling through the day. They waited, were sniped, and expected a counter-attack which did not come off, though in the evening the enemy was seen to be advancing and the troops on the Battalion’s right fell back for a while, leaving their flank once more exposed. Their position at the time was in a somewhat awkward salient, and they readjusted themselves—always under sniping-fire—dug in again as much as wet ground allowed, and managed in the dark to establish connection with a Battalion of Hampshires that had come up on their right. They spent the night of the 9th October where they lay, in the front line, while the enemy sniped them, shelled their supports, or put down sudden wandering barrages from front to back. Every Company Commander had been Killed or Wounded during the day; their Medical Officer (Captain P. R. Woodhouse, M.C.) was wounded at duty on the 10th, the men were caked with mud and ooze, worn to their last nerves and badly in need of food and hot drinks. There was no infantry action on their front, however, throughout the 10th, and in the evening they were relieved by two companies of the 1st Grenadiers; the other two companies of that Battalion relieving the 2nd Grenadiers in the support-line. The battle, which counted as “a successful minor operation” in the great schemes of the Third Battle of Ypres, had cost them 4 Officers Killed in Action on the 9th, one Died of Wounds on the 11th, 7 Officers and their doctor wounded in the two days; 47 Other Ranks Killed; 158 Wounded, and 10 Missing among the horrors of the swampy pitted ground". This was part of the Battles of Ypres, 1917 (Third Ypres), 31st July - 10th November 1917 : The British finally got what they had wanted since 1914: the opportunity to attack at Ypres and breakout of the confines of the salient of trenches around it. Often known as the Third Battle of Ypres or Passchendaele, the offensive began with encouraging gains but terrible summer weather soon bogged it down. By August the offensive was clearly failing in its objectives and had descended into attritional fighting. New techniques by both sides led to agonisingly slow forward movement for the British, at enormous cost in casualties to both sides. Bad weather in October led to the battlefield becoming an impossible quagmire. Robert is also remembered on the St. John's Church Roll of Honour (see photos). See photos for Robert's Medal Index Card, an aerial view of Tyne Cot Cemetery and Memorial, his Army Register of Soldiers Effects, his Service Medal and Award Rolls, his listing on the Ireland Casualties WW1, his name on the Tyne Cot Memorial, his CWGC Grave Registration, his name on the Tyne Cot Memorial Panel List, the Irish Guards Cap Badge and Robert's Pension Records x 4. Finally, SEE PHOTOS x 11 FOR THE 1st BATTALION IRISH GUARDS WAR DIARY 1st - 13th OCTOBER 1917, PHOTOS x 15 FOR THE 1st BATTALION IRISH GUARDS BOOK 1st AUGUST - 12th OCTOBER 1917, PHOTOS x 27 FOR THE GUARDS DIVISION BOOK OCTOBER 1917, PHOTOS x 12 FOR THE GUARDS DIVISION ORDER OF BATTLE (the Division Robert was with when he fell) and PHOTOS x 27 FOR A LIST OF 1st BATTALION IRISH GUARDS CASUALTIES 1914 - 1918 (Officers not included).

Photos

War Diaries

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

Creative Commons License

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