OLIVER
HELLIER
Private – Devonshire Regiment
Killed
in action
1st
May 1915
Oliver
John Hellier was born in Totnes, Devon on 12th January 1895, the son
of Henry and Rosa Hellier. From Totnes the family moved to the Heavitree area of
Exeter and by 1901 they had moved again, this time to Cullompton where young
Oliver attended what is now St Andrews Primary School.
At
the outbreak of war in August 1914 the 1st Battalion of the
Devonshire Regiment was stationed in Jersey. Those in the battalion who were
eligible for overseas service (Jersey being classed as home service) were sent
to France, arriving on 21st August 1914. Hellier joined the battalion
on or around 3rd December 1914 by which time battle honours had been
won at the Aisne , La Bassee and Armentieres and the battalion was in need of
men. It is likely that Hellier volunteered for service at the outbreak of war.
The Regimental History of the Devonshire Regiment records that before the end of
1914 such men were being sent to the front.
The
winter of 1914 brought many hardships for the soldiers in the trenches on the
Western Front. Continuous rain caused the trench walls to collapse and there was
insufficient timber to shore them up. The British occupied lower ground than the
enemy and maintaining a drainage system was all but impossible as the pumps
could not cope with the liquid mud. Men had to spend many hours knee or waist
deep in mud and, when relieved, would have to wade their way back to billets
through water filled shell holes. Ammunition was in very short supply. This was
a winter of survival rather than battle.
In
early April 1915 the 1st Battalion moved to the Ypres Salient and was
involved in heavy fighting. To the south east of Ypres (now Ieper) is the town
of Zillebeke to which the battalion moved on 20th April. Fierce
fighting was taking place around a mound known as Hill 60, a valuable vantage
point in the flat landscape of Flanders. The mound was created by the excavation
of material in the construction of the adjacent railway line. By the time that
the Devons arrived on the 21st April, the position had been heavily
mined by the British, severely damaging German defences. Bombardment and counter
bombardment had made conditions appalling. After working through the night to
rebuild as much of their line as possible the Devons held the position
throughout the following day.
On
23rd April the battalion was relieved by the 2nd Battalion
of the Cameron Highlanders, and withdrew for two days rest. They had sustained
120 casualties during this spell in the trenches. They returned to Hill 60 on
the 25th by which time the area was quieter. When relieved again by
the Camerons on the 27th the Devons moved to the support trenches. On
the 28th they were once again in the front line, and remained there
until relieved by the 1st Battalion of the Dorsetshire Regiment on 1st
May 1915.
On
being relieved, the battalion moved to shelters a short distance away in Larch
Wood. They were here when at about 7pm when a tremendous bombardment started and
word was received that the Dorsets were being gassed. The Devons were hurried
back into the front line, parts of which were virtually undefended as the
Dorsets choked on the thick volumes of white and yellow gas which had been
unleashed on them without warning. They had not had time to use their recently
issued mouth protector pads and men were foaming at the mouth and gasping for
breath in agony. The gas settled at the bottom of the trenches and the Devons
manned the parapet and used the machine guns of the Dorsets to repel the enemy.
They were successful and the battalion held the position until 4th
May when they were again relieved. Hill 60 was not to remain in British hands
for long. On 5th May 1915 the Germans again used gas, this time with
more success. The hill was captured.
The
battalion war diary for the 1st May 1915 shows that 7 other ranks
were killed in action, 31 other ranks were wounded and 2 other ranks were
hospitalised. It does not provide the names of these soldiers but one of the
dead was Private Oliver John Hellier, 3/6474 1st Battalion Devonshire
Regiment. Given the intensity of the fighting it would be impossible to say
exactly how he may have died but his body was never identified. He is therefore
commemorated on the Menin Gate memorial to the missing in Ypres. He was 20 years
old.