Pte 57407 Archibald Finlay

• Age: 20
• From: Glasgow
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 19th Btn
• K.I.A Monday 9th April 1917
• Commemorated at: Arras Memorial
  Panel Ref: Bay 3

Archibald Finlay was born in 1895 in Glasgow and was the son of John and Jeanie (often a diminutive of Jane) nee Wilson Finlay, of 76 Centre St, South Side, Glasgow who married in 1891 in Tradeston.

On the 1891 census his parents were living at 5 Sandyford Street, Glasgow. 

His father was 26, born in Ireland, an iron foundry shipping clerk, and his mother Jeannie was also 26, born in Campbelltown, Argyleshire. Their daughter, Jeannie Shields born 12th December 1890 was one year old.

On the 1901 census the family is listed as Findlay, and are living at 160 Cowcaddens Street, Glasgow (in central Glasgow, one mile north of the river Clyde). 

John, 36, is a coal carter born in Belfast, Jane, 37, was born in Southend, Argyleshire, south of Campbelltown. (Southend is the southernmost village of the Kintyre peninsula, not far from the Mull of Kintyre, and the closest point in Scotland to Northern Ireland. Paul McCartney's property is 5 miles north of Cambelltown.) They have five children: Jane, 11, John, 9, James, 7, Archibald, 5, and Hugh, 3,  all born in Glasgow.  Also in the household is grandfather James Wilson, 72, a former grocer born in Ayrshire, and uncle James Wilson, 35, a boilermaker born in Southend.

Unfortunately the 1911 Scotland census is only available on subscription, so further family details are not known.  At some point the family moved south of the river, and lived in Centre Street.

Archibald enlisted in Glasgow, and originally served as 1068, Lowland Divisional Cyclist Company. Based on the amount of the War Gratuity, Archibald volunteered in about August 1915.  He arrived in France some time in 1916.

Following a transfer, before he arrived in France, he was serving in the 19^th Battalion, The King’s Liverpool Regiment as Private No 57407 when he was killed in action on the 09^th April 1917, aged 20.

17^th,  19^th & 20th  Battalion at the  Battle of Arras 09^th April 1917

Everard Wyrall records the events of the day  in Volume 2 of his History of the King's Regiment (Liverpool).

The 89^th Brigade formed up for the attack with the 19^th King's on the right and the 20^th King’s on the left. The 17^th King’s supplied the “mopping up" parties and he 2nd Bedfords were in close support.

It was just after 3pm when the advance began “According to scheduled time the waves advanced in good style and with determination; everyone was cheerful and in the best of spirits”

That advance is described by others as magnificent. From the OP’s the observing officers saw a wonderful sight – long lines of men advancing steadily up a long and gradual slope towards the enemy’ front line. Then suddenly they disappeared. The observers quite pardonably, imagined that the German front line had fallen into the hands of the assaulting troops and that the latter were on the way to the enemy’s support line. Alas something very different had happened. When the advancing troops had reached the summit of the long slope up which they advanced the ground suddenly dipped before the German front line , and when the observing officers thought they  were already in the Bosche lines they had not, as a matter of fact, even reached the wire. What the observers took to be the front line was really the support line; the front line could not be seen  - it lay just behind the crest of that slight rise in the ground.

The attacking waves of the 19^th King’s got within 100 yards of the German wire but were then held up. They were faced by three belts of entanglements, practically untouched by our artillery, and nothing could be done but to dig in or else take shelter in the many shell- shell-with which “No Man’s Land" was pitted. By this time the battalion’s losses were very heavy, and when darkness fell “A" and “B" Companies (about 140 in all) lay in shell-holes, two or three hundred yards north east of St. Martin, but just south of the Cojeul River, and “C" and “D" Companies (140 all ranks) were along the river bank, but on the northern side about 150 yards north east of St. Martin.

The first waves of the 20^th King’ advanced at 3.7pm. At 4pm Lieut Beaumont, commanding “A" Company, reported that he had had some forty casualties in passing through the enemy’s barrage. The next message, timed 4.40pm, stated that the position of the battalion at that period was on a crest in front of the enemy’s wire and about 100 yards from it. On the right the 21^st Division was observed to have penetrated the enemy’s front line, but in the left the right Battalion of the 21^st Brigade (the Wilts) was on the St. Martin- Neuville Vitasse road; the left flank of the 20^th King's was, therefore, “ in the air”.

Urgent messages were sent up from Battalion Headquarters to “push on, keeping in touch with right” But little else could be accomplished until those formidable belts of wire had been cut sufficiently to allow the rapid passage of the attacking troops, headed by their bombers.

At 9:30 that night 89^th Brigade Headquarters ordered both the 19^th and 20^th Battalions to withdraw, the former to the two sunken roads running south east from St. Martin, the latter to north west of St. Martin; the guns had been ordered to cut the enemy’s wire during the night in preparation for another attack during the 10^th April.

Of the 17^th King’s  - the “moppers up" – there is little to relate. There was nothing to “mop up" so that they did not function. Yet they had shared all the perils of the advance, and when  after they had fallen back and at midnight held the following positions, “B", “C", and “D" Companies in and around the sunken road north of Boiry-Becquerelle and “A" Company in trenches west of Henin, they lost 2 officers and 16 other ranks killed, and 3 officers and 48 other ranks wounded.

His name appeared in the list of local casualties Killed in the Glasgow Daily Record on 11th May 1917.

His Army pay and a War Gratuity of £7 went to his mother Jeanie.  The pension card in her name (at the time living at 81 Centre Street), does not show the amount awarded).

Archibald's body was not recovered or was subsequently lost as he has no known grave and is commemorated on the Arras Memorial in France

The ARRAS MEMORIAL commemorates almost 35,000 servicemen from the United Kingdom, South Africa and New Zealand who died in the Arras sector between the spring of 1916 and 7 August 1918, the eve of the Advance to Victory, and have no known grave. The most conspicuous events of this period were the Arras offensive of April-May 1917, and the German attack in the spring of 1918. Canadian and Australian servicemen killed in these operations are commemorated by memorials at Vimy and Villers-Bretonneux. A separate memorial remembers those killed in the Battle of Cambrai in 1917. Both cemetery and memorial were designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, with sculpture by Sir William Reid Dick. The memorial was unveiled by Lord Trenchard, Marshal of the Royal Air Force on the 31 July 1932 (originally it had been scheduled for 15 May, but due to the sudden death of French President Doumer, as a mark of respect, the ceremony was postponed until July).

All four sons served, and three made the ultimate sacrifice.

Falkirk Herald 26th May 1917

THREE BROTHERS KILLED.

Notification has been received of two war bereavements to a Camelon family. Pte. Jas. Finlay, Royal Scots Fusiliers, has died of wounds, and in the same week his brother, Pte. Archibald Finlay, Cyclist Corps, was killed. The announcement is made more sad by the fact that older brother, John, was killed at the battle of Loos. James, who 22 years age, was wounded some time ago, but returned to France. Before enlistment at the outbreak war he was employed a gratefitter in Camelon. Archibald, who was 20 years of age, was engaged as a clothier in Glasgow. John belonged to the Royal Scots, and was 24 years of age. He enlisted with his brother James, and was previously a bookbinder in Glasgow. Another brother, Hugh, is serving with the Scottish Rifles.

Youngest brother Hugh served as Pte. 975, later 291073 Scottish Rifles. He served overseas and survived the war (his medals were erroneously issued in the name of John, and were returned for amendment).

His eldest brother John served as Lance Corporal 15218, 11th Bn. Royal Scots. He arrived in France in May 1915, and was killed in action on 27th September 1915. John is commemorated on the Loos Memorial.

James, 15256, 7th  Royal Scots Fusiliers, arrived in France in July 1915, and died of wounds (per CWGC, although his Soldiers' Effects entry states Killed in Action) at Arras two weeks after Archibald, on 24th April 1917. James now rests at Faubourg D'Amiens Cemetery, Arras IV. C. 28.

Archibald is commemorated on Scotland's National War Memorial.

He is not listed on Glasgow's Roll of Honour.

We currently have no further information on Archibald Finlay, If you have or know someone who may be able to add to the history of this soldier, please contact us.