Stalbridge Remembers
WILLIAM WILES
Private 1013
1/lst Dorset Yeomanry (Queen’s Own)
Killed in action Saturday 26th February 1916
Aged 20
His grave is No. G. 43 in
ALEXANDRIA (CHATBY) MILITARY AND WAR CEMETERY,
EGYPT.
Son of Daniel and Annie Wiles of Gold Street, Stalbridge
Personal details:
Born in 1895, William James Wiles attended Stalbridge School, did well at RI, and left in September 1909 when he was 14 to become a stable lad on a farm. The family moved from Fifehead Magdalen sometime between 1901 and 1911. He had three younger sisters, May, Dorothy and Lillian. He enlisted in the Dorset Yeomanry at Sherborne, probably on the same day as Claud Davidge.
Born in 1895, William James Wiles attended Stalbridge School, did well at RI, and left in September 1909 when he was 14 to become a stable lad on a farm. The family moved from Fifehead Magdalen sometime between 1901 and 1911. He had three younger sisters, May, Dorothy and Lillian. He enlisted in the Dorset Yeomanry at Sherborne, probably on the same day as Claud Davidge.
Military details:
The 1/1st formed in Sherborne in August 1914 as part of 1 South Western Mounted Brigade and transferred to 2 Midland Mounted Brigade. The Brigade landed at Gallipoli in August 1915 and then withdrew back to Egypt in January 1916 to join the Western Front Force stationed there to protect the Suez Canal from the threat posed by a large Ottoman force.
In February 1916 a large force of Senussi tribesmen, backed by Turkish and German Officers and with machine gun and artillery support, was located at Agagia near Sidi el Barani, about 45 miles east of the Egyptian/Libyan border. The Western Front Force staged an attack, and during this battle the retreating Senussi were charged by the Dorset Yeomanry with drawn swords across open ground. Despite enemy machine gun and rifle fire the 196 Dorset Yeomen drove the Senussi into headlong flight.
It was later reported that “this achievement, one of the very few successful cavalry charges during the First World War, is all the more remarkable for having been carried out by a territorial unit of part-time soldiers from the towns and villages of Dorset”. It took a heavy toll and 32 men died, with 26 wounded, and 85 of the horses killed or wounded.
William Wiles was killed in the charge with two other Stalbridge men, Sergeant Howard Brown and Private Claud Davidge.
The 1/1st formed in Sherborne in August 1914 as part of 1 South Western Mounted Brigade and transferred to 2 Midland Mounted Brigade. The Brigade landed at Gallipoli in August 1915 and then withdrew back to Egypt in January 1916 to join the Western Front Force stationed there to protect the Suez Canal from the threat posed by a large Ottoman force.
In February 1916 a large force of Senussi tribesmen, backed by Turkish and German Officers and with machine gun and artillery support, was located at Agagia near Sidi el Barani, about 45 miles east of the Egyptian/Libyan border. The Western Front Force staged an attack, and during this battle the retreating Senussi were charged by the Dorset Yeomanry with drawn swords across open ground. Despite enemy machine gun and rifle fire the 196 Dorset Yeomen drove the Senussi into headlong flight.
It was later reported that “this achievement, one of the very few successful cavalry charges during the First World War, is all the more remarkable for having been carried out by a territorial unit of part-time soldiers from the towns and villages of Dorset”. It took a heavy toll and 32 men died, with 26 wounded, and 85 of the horses killed or wounded.
William Wiles was killed in the charge with two other Stalbridge men, Sergeant Howard Brown and Private Claud Davidge.
Alexandria War Memorial Cemetery and William Wiles' grave
The Charge at Agagia
(Reproduction of an oil painting by Lady Butler owned by Dorset County Council)
