Lance Corporal R L W Bartlett served with A Company, 22 Battalion in the Somme sector of the Western Front. The battalion was raised in September 1914 and posted to France in November 1915, where it served on the Somme from July 1916 to March 1917.

In A Company, Lance Corporal Bartlett served alongside the author H H Munro, who wrote under the name of Saki. On 17 February 1917, the battalion formed part of a major British assault in the Miraumont area of the River Ancre. Lance Corporal Bartlett's company was to advance over frozen ground to attack the East Miraumont Road at the foot of Hill 130.

However a thaw turned the ground into an icy morass, negating the effectiveness of the moving artillery barrage which was supposed to provide cover for the advancing troops. In the ensuing fighting, A Company came under heavy German machine-gun fire and became disorientated.

As the men sought to recover their position, they became surrounded and were killed or captured in the South Miraumont Trench area. Lance Corporal Bartlett was reported missing, aged 37, during this action on 17 February 1917. He is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial.

Faces of the First World War

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