John Rimmer World War 1 Hero

Last year Michael Parker learnt from his wife’s family that a relative of theirs had been killed in The Great War; however, apart from his name, John Rimmer, and the year he had been killed, 1917, the family could remember nothing. Michael was saddened by this and was determined to find out as much as he could about John and how he had died. What he unearthed was both fascinating and poignant.
Michael’s first step was to search through the Blackburn Times for 1917 in the in the hope that the family had placed an obituary after John’s death. After a long search Michael struck lucky; John Rimmer’s obituary appeared in the newspaper on 22nd December 1917.

Wanting to know more Michael went to Blackburn Museum to ask for advice. There he spoke to Stephen Irwin, the Education Officer, who was able to help him find out more information. Whilst Stephen made enquiries at the Tank Museum   Michael went back to the library and looked through the newspaper cuttings for WWI servicemen held in the local studies archive. Michael found a cutting from 1916 referring to John being presented with one of his medals and Stephen received a mass of material from the library at the Tank Museum.

The date of John’s death and the newspaper obituary had already told Michael and Stephen that John had been killed on the third day of the Battle of Cambrai. The most comprehensive book on the battle is the work of two Frenchmen – J. L. Gibot and P. Gorczynski. Their book detailed the fighting in which John had been killed and allowed Michael and Stephen to narrow down the identity of the tank in which he had met his death to one of three, C47 ‘Conquerer II’, C48 Caesar’ or a Wireless tank. Stephen wrote to Mr. Gorczynski asking for his help and when he received a response was astonished by the information it contained.

When Michael obtained a copy of the Tank Corps ‘Roll of Honour’, which gives details of all the actions for which medals were awarded in WWI, Stephen and he were at last able to identify the tank in which he went into action. This, together with the information from the obituary and, remarkably, a German account of the action from Mr. Gorczynski meant that at last Michael and Stephen were able to understand the circumstances of John’s death.

The only difficulty Michael and Stephen encountered was in tracing John Rimmer’s earlier wartime service because the records held regimental museum in Berwick-upon-Tweed are incomplete. However, they were able to download his medal index card from the National Archives web site but, sadly, a search through the ‘burnt records’ at the same place failed to find John’s service records.
Putting it all together they can now piece together some of the details of John’s short life and the circumstances of his death.

The Medal Index Card gave the date when John was awarded the ‘1915 Star’, 10th July 1915, this was the day he arrived in France. Checking in the regimental history told Stephen that this was the day the 7th Battalion, KOSB arrived in France; therefore, this was John’s unit.
After joining his battalion in Berwick-upon-Tweed, John travelled with his unit to Bordon Camp, in Hampshire, to begin training.  In February 1915 the men moved to Winchester and shortly afterwards to Salisbury Plain. After completing their training the men sailed for France, arriving at Boulogne in 10th July 1915.

John fought at the Battle of Loos in September 1915 where his unit, badly affected by British poison gas and hard hit by German machine-guns, captured the village of Loos. This is probably where he won his Military Medal (MM) for bravery on the battlefield or, as the newspaper put it, ‘a plucky act’ and he was presented with his medal by a General on 12th July 1916.
The newspaper obituary states that he was also awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM). This medal is effectively ‘one down’ from the Victoria Cross and would only be awarded for an act of considerable heroism but frustratingly Michael has not been able to track down the citation which would tell him what that deed was.

At some point in 1916 John transferred to the newly formed Tank Corps along with some of his comrades. His new service number was 76645 and he was promoted to Lance-corporal.
As the Tank Corps expanded he found himself in C Battalion, training on the newly introduced Mark IV tanks. As might be expected, all of the tanks in this battalion had names beginning with the letter C. Currently, Michael and Stephen don’t know anything about John’s activities with the Battalion activities prior to the Battle of Cambrai as it is impossible to find out exactly when he transferred to the Tank Corps.

However, they do know that in July 1917 John came home on leave and visited his old school. The Headmaster, Mr Kenyon, made the occasion one of great rejoicing; the newspaper noted that “His modesty was the admiration of all”.
After returning to France John’s unit would have continued training as the British Army prepared itself for its big offensive of 1917, the Battle of Passchendaele.
During that offensive, C Battalion was involved in the Battle for Pilkem Ridge and in the fighting around Fortuin in August. Later on they were again supporting British troops, this time on the Menin Road.

There were some limited successes but the battlefield was reduced to a swamp by heavy rain and was no place to try and use tanks that weighed 28 tons.
Instead the tanks were moved south to a new battleground around the town of Cambrai. 
Ninety years ago saw the opening of The Battle of Cambrai which began on the 20th November 1917. The battle was unique for two reasons; it saw the first use of a predicted artillery barrage and it was the first mass attack made by tanks.
It is likely that John saw action on the opening day of the battle when his unit, C Battalion, supported British troops attacking Lateaux Wood.

The first day of the battle was a huge success, as the British troops broke into the supposedly impregnable Hindenburg Line. However, there had been some setbacks and the town of Cambrai remained in German hands. In particular the British had failed to capture Bourlon Wood and on the 22nd November the Germans were able to counter-attack out of Bourlon Wood and re-capture the key village of Fontaine-Notre-Dame.
On the 23rd November the British renewed their attack. Some ninety tanks were involved in attacking Bourlon Wood and the village of Fontaine-Notre-Dame.
A composite battalion created from what was left of B, C and H Battalions attacked the village. John Rimmer went into action in C47 (named ‘Conqueror II’), a female tank (armed with machine guns only).  

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