Sapper from the Yeomanry

In April 1915 an Australian officer, serving with the Westmorland and Cumberland Yeomanry, was supervising the digging of a tunnel under German trenches in Flanders. Lieutenant Lacy had been seconded to 170th Tunnelling Company the Royal Engineers, because he was a mining engineer, who had been working in Mexico.

Francis Lacy had been born at St. Helens, Queensland, Australia in 1887. Though by 1914 his parents were living in Tasmania. He went to Brisbane Grammar School and then sat the London University Matriculation. He passed and went to the Royal School of Mines, South Kensington.

When the War broke out, Lacy left his job in Mexico and came to Britain. Presumably to, or near, Justicetown near Carlisle, where his sister, Marjorie was married to Major Thomas Irwin, formerly Imperial Yeomanry and the 3rd Battalion the Border Regiment. Irwin was now serving in the Royal Dragoons. ‘Presumably’, because Lacy joined the Westmorland and Cumberland Yeomanry.

The ‘London Gazette’ records him joining the Yeomanry on the 28th October 1914 and in January 1915 the ‘Cumberland and Westmorland Herald’, records Lacy as a being in ‘B’ Squadron, Westmorland & Cumberland Yeomanry, which was then at Cambridge prior to going overseas.

Tunnelling Companies

Tunnelling Companies within the Royal Engineers were being established at great speed. They followed the realisation in December 1914 that the Western Front had become siege warfare and that placing explosives in tunnels under German lines offered a way to break the deadlock. General Henry Rawlinson IV Corps Commander called for the creation of mining units at the same time as Major Norton Griffiths MP pushed for the creation of specialist units able to dig in the Flanders clays. Griffith used a technique – ’Clay kicking’ – that meant the digging was very quiet. This was essential when both sides were listening for each other’s tunnellers.

Major Griffiths, one of whose nicknames was ‘Empire Jack’, had spent time in South Africa and had been arrested following the infamous Jameson Raid.

He had formed his own contracting company in 1909 and won several contracts including those for Weston-Super-Mare pier, Southsea promenade, parts of the London Underground and work in Canada and Azerbaijan. More significantly the company had constructing the Battersea to Deptford drainage system and in 1913 was contracted to build a sewage system in Manchester. It was this pool of workers with a knowledge of tunnelling that allowed him to form tunnelling units so quickly.

Officers and men for the Tunnelling Companies were drawn from those with mining experience. The history of the 170th Tunnelling Company explains:

“Junior officers were chosen from mining engineers holding temporary commissions in the Royal engineers or other units. In the latter case such officers were seconded for work with the REs.”

Now an Engineer

Lacy was seconded to the tunnellers of the Royal Engineers on 19 February 1915. Although his appointment as a 2nd Lieutenant with Tunnelling Companies was only formally announced on 18 June 1915.

Clay kickers

The technique used by 170th Company whenever possible was clay kicking. Men sat facing the tunnel face and pushed their spades into the face with their feet. The spoil was bagged and placed on trolleys for taking to the surface where it was disposed in a variety ways so as not to disclose tunnelling was taking place.

When in late December the Germans exploded their first mines under British lines the need for British tunnellers became self-evident and Griffiths request to form tunnelling units was agreed by the War Office. The first tunnelling units, formed 16 February 1915 operated as sections attached to Royal Engineer Field Companies.

Offensive and defensive tunnels were dug. It was possible by careful listening to detect German tunnelling, tunnels could be dug that allowed charges to be blown close to enemy’s work before it could reach our trenches or tunnels.

170th Tunnelling Company

170th Tunnelling Company was formed around a nucleus of men from the Manchester contract, together with miners withdrawn from the REs and a number of infantry battalions - South Wales Borderers, Welch Regiment and South Staffords. On the 17th February the Manchester men were working in Manchester but by the 21st they were underground at Givenchy and in the Army.

Initially new officers in theTunnelling Companies were given about a week’s instruction at the REs depot at Chatham. There was talk of new miners having their rifles taken from them as being more dangerous to themselves than the enemy.

The units was organised as sections attached to the Field Companies of the Royal Engineers attached to the First and Second Divisions.

170th in the Line

170th were posted to in the industrial part of the Pays de Calais – east of Bethune and south of Armentieres. At the time the 170th were active around Cambrin itself, Cuinchy, Givenchy and Rue de Bois.

At the first three sites there was 10–30 feet of clay at the surface that was ideal for tunnelling . The Rue du Bois site, though, had sand and work was abandoned by the end of April. And in due course parts of the other sites were found to have areas of sand. This made clay kicking not always possible and the Company reverted to more traditional picks and shovels in these areas,

Battle of Givenchy 1914

Givenchy was fought over at the end of 1914 as the British and French consolidated their positions after the Battle of the Marne and the front line extended towards the Sea. The Germans were trying to push the French out of Arras, a little to the south, and to prevent the Germans reinforcing their attacks the British attacked to the north at Givenchy. The 3rd (Lahore) Division of the Indian Army took the town on 14 December 1914, but German counter attacks led to stalemate and by the end of the month, despite the commitment of men from the British First Army the front lines were close to where they had been at the beginning of the battle.

Tunnels and Trenches

The 170th’s first tunnel was a defensive one in front of the British trenches. It was intended to allow listeners to detect German tunnels coming from the direction of the brick stacks opposite Cuinchy. But soon two offensive tunnels were begun; both aimed at the stacks . These stacks provided observation and sniping positions into the British trenches. Lacy led the construction of number 3 shaft aimed at the junction of several German communication trenches just south of the brick stacks. It was successfully blown on 3 April using 650 lbs gunpowder and demolished around 30’ of German trench.On 5 April 1915 the Tunnelling Companies were reorganised as full Companies in their own right. 170th Company was commanded by Captain, later Major Preedy, with is headquarters at Cambrin. The Company’s establishment strength was 14 officers and 307 other ranks.

Military Cross

Around this time Lacy won the Military Cross. The announcement in the ‘London Gazette’ is dated 22 June 1915. Unfortunately it has not been possible to discover what he was awarded the medal for. One possibility is he rescued men from a collapsed tunnel caused by a German counter-mine, another would have been the patrols to check if the Germans were occupying the craters of British mines. For example on 24th April Lieutenants Lacy and Martin with men from the Irish Guards went forward to see if a new crater had been occupied by the Germans. It hadn’t.

Lacy was one of five officers from the Company awarded the Military Cross between its establishment in February and late October 1915.

Tunnel collapse

Lacy’s promotion to temporary Captain followed on 1 June. It was was announced in the ‘London Gazette ‘of 10 August. Sadly he was killed three days later, on the 13th, when the Germans exploded a charge close to a British tunnel that he, with six men were inspecting, following an earlier explosion.

Lacy is buried at Cambrin Commonwealth War Cemetery. His gravestone has this inscription:

What I do thou knowest not now but thou shalt know here after, John Ch.13 Verse 7

Loos Offensive

170th Company continued almost constant counter mining and blowing defensive charges. The Company’s war history states that by October the underground war in this region had reached deadlock, with a comprehensive pattern of defensive tunnels and experienced listeners on both sides.

In June 170th Coy moved a little to the south and mined one corner of the Hohenzollern Redoubt as part of the Loos Offensive in the autumn.

Peter Green