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The 1st/4th was a battalion recruited from the hosiery factories and
working class terraced streets of Leicester. Its members all knew one another - they played in the same football teams and
they worked in the same factories. Their officers were the factory owners and their sons. The losses of 13 October 1915 would
have been distastrous to any battalion, but to one with such close bonds of kinship as the 1st/4th they were devastating.
Typical of this pattern was Lieutenant R.E.Faire (above), of Faire Brothers, who fell that day along with many of the men
who worked for his family firm.
What had gone so disastrously wrong? Insufficient artillery bombardment,
coupled with an inadequate preliminary gas attack, meant that many of the German defenders in the redoubt were still able
to man their machine guns as the Leicesters climbed out of their trenches. Pte Charles Mortimer was among them, and later
remembered the difficulty in running with full kit and gas hood on. He dropped into an abandoned trench to catch his breath,
only to discover that it was already full of Tigers who were dead or dieing.
Left: The butt plate of a Lee Enfield rifle, found recently
on the site of the redoubt. It has been clearly stamped '4 LEIC' indicating that it was issued to one who fell on 13 October
1915. No soldier would abandon his rifle unless killed or seriously wounded
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Above: Captain Leslie Corah, a member of the well-known Leicester
knitwear family. Killed in action on 13 October 1915
Left: Wounded men stream back from the attack on the redoubt,
past reinforcements moving forward. Some men still wear PH gas hoods rolled up on their heads
Above: Pte J.H.Halford of Leicester. He received a gunshot
wound to the back in the attack on the Hohenzollern Redoubt
Below: Pte Charles Mortimer, also of Leicester. Mortimer had
joined the Leicestershire Regiment at the Magazine in 1912. He wears the 'Imperial Service' badge on his breast, indicating
that he had volunteered for overseas service. He too was hit by a German bullet in the hohenzollern Redoubt battle
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