11th Battalion, Cheshire Regiment
Lloyd (his preferred name) Abell was born at Leckhampton on 18 November 1887. He was the son of Howard C Abell and his wife Eleanor, who died two days after his birth.
They lived at Marlborough House, Witcombe.
After being educated at Crypt Grammar School, Gloucester, Lloyd undertook a teacher training course and spent two years at schools in Bristol area. In 1909 he took up a post at Wallasey Grammar School, Cheshire, heading up one of the junior year groups.
Upon the outbreak of war Lloyd enlisted in the Cheshire Regiment and was posted to the 11th (Service) Battalion together with his colleague and friend Thomas Murray. Both were to be killed in action with the Cheshires on the same day.
Lloyd was commissioned on 24 September 1914 and was appointed Temporary Captain on 12 July 1915. The 11th Cheshires went to the Western Front on 26 September 1915 and were deployed at Ploegsteert Wood, Strazeele and the Arras sector before transferring south to the Somme at the end of June 1916.
On 24 June Lloyd was reprimanded by the GOC of 25 Division for writing ‘a letter of an insubordinate character’ to his CO: evidently connected with a transfer application.
The 1 July 1916 saw the battalion located in Martinsart Wood and on 3 July it was called into action. The location was just north of the Leipzig Salient, south of Thiepval and north east of the village of Authuille. At 6.20am the Border Regiment, to the left of the Cheshires, attacked the German positions.
This left their right flank exposed and the lead companies of the 11th Cheshires immediately advanced over No Man’s Land in what was described as perfect order.
Unfortunately, the German wire in the area was uncut and the attack was stopped about 50 yards in front of the German lines by withering machine gun fire.
The battalion CO, advancing with a reserve company, was killed and the Adjutant, now acting CO, ordered a withdrawal. Of the 20 Officers and 657 Other Ranks who had entered the trenches prior to the attack only six Officers and 350 Other Ranks came out the following day.
Every company commander had been killed and this included Captains Abell and his friend Murray. Their remains were never located and they are commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial and likewise on the Kingsway Academy (formerly Wallasey Grammar School) War Memorial. Lloyd Abell’s name also features on the Brockworth & Witcombe War Memorial.
Research by Graham Adams