The 1901 census on Ancestry.co.uk tells us that the Spicer family were living at 4 Mill Street, St Asaph. The household consisted of Head, Frank Spicer 42 (born in Wolverhampton) who was a Coachman. His wife Sarah Ann 30 (born in Staffordshire). Robert Aston 7), Alice May 5, John 3 and Frederick William 3 months old, all born in St Asaph in Flintshire.
The England & Wales Death Index 1837-1915 tells us that Frank Spicer died in 1909 at 50 years of age.
Ten years on, the 1911 census finds the family at Bryn Celyn Lodge, St Asaph. The Head of the household was then widow Sarah Ann Spicer who was 40 years of age. She was a Launderess by trade. The children were John, 13, William F,10 and Margaret Naomie, 6 were all at school. Robert Aston was unlisted and I have been unsuccessful in tracing him on the 1911 Welsh or U.K. census.
We next find that Robert Aston had enlisted into The Royal Welsh Fusiliers. His Flintshire Roll of Honour card in the Archives Office in Hawarden, states that he served for 1 year 2 months. Next of kin was listed at Bryn Celyn Lodge, Glascoed, St. Asaph.
On www.ancestry.co.uk under the heading, Soldiers who Died in the Great War 1914-1919 we learn that Robert Aston enlisted in Rhyl. He was “Killed in Action” in France. He had served in France/Flanders and was 22 years of age when he died.
Robert Astons’s W.W.1 Medal Card states that he was awarded, The Victory Medal, The British War Medal and The 1914 Star Medal. It also gives the entry date to the first Theatre of War as the 2nd November 1914. Fact sheet The Royal Welch Fusiliers in the Great War (1914-18) informs us that the 1st Bn., fought in the 1st Battle at Ypres (19 Oct-22 Nov 1914) and during that time Robert contracted Pleurisy and was admitted to hospital. He rejoined his Bn. on the 18th February 1915.
The 1st Battalion of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers fought in The Battle of Festubert 15th to 25th May 1915. It was during this battle that Robert was killed in action aged 22 years.
The Royal Welsh Fusiliers War Diaries for 1st Battalion show that on the morning of 16th May 1915 the strength of the Battallion in trenches was 25 Officers including M.O. Other ranks 806.
In the evening of 16th May the diaries show Officers killed -6 Died of wounds-2 Wounded -9 Wounded or missing-2 Casualties other ranks – killed -118 wounded-271 missing-164 wounded or missing- Total 559.
Robert Spicer is also commemorated on the Saint Asaph War Memorial.
Robert and his brother John were members of All Saint’s Church, Sinan, in the Parish of Cefn. (All Saint’s Church, Sinan was opened in 1873 and was built for an original cost of £215).
John Spicer was also killed in the war and has his own page on this website
Robert Aston Spicer is commemorated on Panel 13 and 14 of The Le Touret Cemetery. He has no known grave.
Commonwealth War Grave Commission.
The Le Touret Memorial commemorates over 13,400 British soldiers who were killed in this sector of the Western Front from the beginning of October 1914 to the eve of the Battle of Loos in late September 1915 and who have no known grave. The Memorial takes the form of a loggia surrounding an open rectangular court. The names of those commemorated are listed on panels set into the walls of the court and the gallery, arranged by regiment, rank and alphabetically by surname within the rank. The memorial was designed by John Reginald Truelove, who had served as an officer with the London Regiment during the war, and unveiled by the British ambassador to France, Lord Tyrrell, on 22 March 1930.
Almost all of the men commemorated on the Memorial served with regular or territorial regiments from across the United Kingdom and were killed in actions that took place along a section of the front line that stretched from Estaires in the north to Grenay in the south. This part of the Western Front was the scene of some of the heaviest fighting of the first year of the war, including the battles of La Bassée (10 October – 2 November 1914), Neuve Chapelle (10 – 12 March 1915), Aubers Ridge (9 – 10 May 1915), and Festubert (15 – 25 May 1915). Soldiers serving with Indian and Canadian units who were killed in this sector in 1914 and ’15 whose remains were never identified are commemorated on the Neuve Chapelle and Vimy memorials, while those who fell during the northern pincer attack at the Battle of Aubers Ridge are commemorated on the Ploegsteert Memorial.
The British Expeditionary Force in French Flanders, 1914 – 1915
In October 1914, II Corps of the British Expeditionary Force moved north from Picardy and took up positions in French Flanders where they were immediately engaged in the series of attacks and counter attacks that would become known as the ‘race to the sea’. Over the course of the next year most of the British activity in this sector focused on attempting to dislodge the German forces from their advantageous position on the Aubers Ridge and capture the city of Lille, a major industrial and transport centre which the Germans had occupied early in the war. The ridge is a slight incline in an otherwise extremely flat landscape from which the Germans were able to observe and bombard the British lines. Following the British capture of the village of Neuve Chapelle in March 1915, the Germans greatly strengthened their defences along the ridge, reinforcing their positions with thick barbed wire entanglements, concrete blockhouses and machine gun emplacements. These extra defences frustrated British attempts to break through enemy lines and led to very heavy casualties at the battles of Aubers Ridge and Festubert in May 1915.
