In Memory of Robert Thrale
Robert Thrale. Click on image to enlarge.
Corporal 2025 1st/7th Bn., Sherwood Foresters (Notts and Derby Regt.) who died on Saturday 1st July 1916. Age 20.
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Citation: |
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Additional Information: |
Son of Robert and Elizabeth Thrale, of 13, Harley St., Lenton, Nottingham. |
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Commemorative Information. |
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Cemetery: |
THIEPVAL MEMORIAL, Somme, France. |
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Grave Reference/Panel Number: |
Pier and Face 10 C 10 D and 11 A. |
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Location: |
The Thiepval Memorial will be found on the D73, off the main Bapaume to Albert road (D929). Each year a major ceremony is held at the memorial on 1 July. |
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Historical Information: |
On 1 July 1916, supported by a French attack to the south, thirteen divisions of Commonwealth forces launched an offensive on a line from north of Gommecourt to Maricourt. Despite a preliminary bombardment lasting seven days, the German defences were barely touched and the attack met unexpectedly fierce resistance. Losses were catastrophic and with only minimal advances on the southern flank, the initial attack was a failure. In the following weeks, huge resources of manpower and equipment were deployed in an attempt to exploit the modest successes of the first day. However, the German Army resisted tenaciously and repeated attacks and counter attacks meant a major battle for every village, copse and farmhouse gained. At the end of September, Thiepval was finally captured. The village had been an original objective of 1 July. Attacks north and east continued throughout October and into November in increasingly difficult weather conditions. The Battle of the Somme finally ended on 18 November with the onset of winter. In the spring of 1917, the German forces fell back to their newly prepared defences, the Hindenburg Line, and there were no further significant engagements in the Somme sector until the Germans mounted their major offensive in March 1918. 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 20 March 1918 and have no known grave. Over 90% of those commemorated died between July and November 1916. The memorial also serves as an Anglo-French Battle Memorial in recognition of the joint nature of the 1916 offensive and a small cemetery containing equal numbers of Commonwealth and French graves lies at the foot of the memorial. The memorial, designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, was built between 1928 and 1932 and unveiled by the Prince of Wales, in the presence of the President of France, on 31 July 1932. The dead of other Commonwealth countries who died on the Somme and have no known graves are commemorated on national memorials elsewhere. |
Thanks to Simon Williams and Peter Dowsett for the following information …
Corporal Robert Thrale was born on 23rd June 1896. He was an old boy of Nottingham High School, Arboretum Street, Nottingham. He joined the school on 1st June 1907 aged eleven and left in July 1910. At the time of his joining the school his family are recorded as living at 2 Petersham Street, New Lenton, Nottingham and his father, also called Robert Thrale, is recorded as being a stone mason by trade. By 1916, however, they seem to have moved to 13, Harley Street , Lenton, Nottingham.
Robert Thrale was a a bright boy and was awarded the Dame Agnes Mellers' scholarship. His scholarship was one of ten Agnes' Mellers' scholarships given in any one year and was worth five pounds per annum, full tuition fees, though the family had to pay one pound twelve shillings per annum for books. Basically, his school fees were paid for three years.
The first mention of his name comes in the records of the School Prefects. These young men were pupils of the school aged either seventeen or eighteen, and were used to help enforce discipline in the school. On May 12th 1908 , there was a meeting of the prefects where …
" Thrale IIB was convicted of scribbling his name in a certain office outside the school. He was reprimanded with a caution not to repeat the offence, and told to inform others that further scribbling would be visited with severe punishment. Further it was recommended that a notice be put up in the said office to the effect that punishment would be inflicted for any infringement of this rule.
A.W.D.Preston"
It is difficult to be completely certain nowadays, but Thrale may well have been scribbling graffiti on the walls of the boys' toilets. In such a sensitive era as Edwardian England, nobody in a school ever used the word "toilet". Instead, we know from elsewhere that they were always referred to as the "offices".
By September 1908, Thrale was in secondform A with Mr.W.T.Ryles as his form master. He came 17th out of 28 boys in the class, and for mathematics, was 10th in Set IIa.
By September 1909 he was in third form A with Mr.W.E.Ryles as his form master. This Mr.Ryles was the brother of his form master from the previous year. Robert came 16th out of 19 boys in his class, and for Mathematics, was now 21st in Set 3a. In Science, he was 22nd in his class. During the course of this year, he was awarded a Bowman-Hart prize for his singing.
The following year, he was in classical fourth form A, with Mr.Lloyd Morgan as his form master. He came 26th out of 29 boys in this class, and for mathematics, was now 22nd in Set IVa. In chemistry, he was 25th in his class, and in physics, he was 22nd.
He left the High School in July 1910, which may have been a financial decision, at it is known that his scholarship lasted only for three years, and by this date, those three years were up.
Robert Thrale's name is commemorated on the school war memorial which stands facing Arboretum Street in Nottingham , just within the school grounds, and he is also commemorated on the Roll of Honour that is hung in the foyer of the school. A photo given to the school of Robert Thrale is kept in the school archives.
I am , slowly, researching information about old boys of Nottingham High School killed in the Great War. Roughly they number around 200. That number includes 2 holders of the Victoria Cross and many contemporaries of Robert Thrale.
Robert Thrale identified by James Banks 2004. Click on image to enlarge.
Also thanks to Peter Dowsett Head of History at Nottingham High School for Boys for this information in 2004 …
We have just returned from Western Front Battlefields visit taking 41 students and 5 staff. We marked the commemorative engraving of Robert Trale on the Thipeval Memorial with a small poppy cross. One student was given the task of searching for his name and leaving the cross as a mark of respect. There are 17 Old Boys of Nottingham High School commemorated at Thiepval. The school lost 204 old boys in the Great War.
