Stanley Street

Stanley was the eldest son of Thomas and Hannah Street, and was born in 1891 in Straw Street, Arlesey. His father was a railway porter. Stanley had six younger brothers: Herbert, Thomas, John, Albert, George and Ralph, and one younger sister, Emily. The family lived in Straw Street Arlesey. Thomas Snr was a Railway shunter and his sons were Farm labourers.

Stanley enlisted for the Army in Bedford after attending an open-air meeting at the Arlesey Village Pump in September 1914, and was in the 2/1st Battalion of the Oxfords and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry. The Battalion was formed at Aylesbury as a second line unit in September 1914. They were attached to the 184th Brigade in 61st Division and arrived in France in May 1916. Although the 184th Infantry Brigade took no part in the actual Battle of the Somme, its task of making demonstrations to assist the Somme operations was arduous and resulted in heavy casualties. The Brigade War diaries from the month of February 1917 tell us they were in the left sub-section of the Ablaincourt sector – most of the trenches were deep in mud or water and the soldiers were busy night and day trying to clear up. On Feb 26th they shelled the enemy line, but there was no retaliation. On Feb 27th the enemy bombarded their trenches for 4 hours – Lt AC Fry was mortally wounded and died the next day and 2 other men were wounded. On Feb 28th the enemy bombardment of their trenches was very severe for 3.5 hours and at 6.15pm the Germans raided the British trenches. A counter attack was organised and the Germans driven out, but not before inflicting heavy casulaties:2nd Lt Constable was wounded, 2nd Lt Guildford and 2nd Lt Hunt were both missing; 6 men were killed, 18 wounded and another 19 were declared missing. The missing men were captured in a dug-out in a front-line trench 100 yards from the enemy lines.

One of the men killed during this attack was Stanley – he is remembered with honour at the Thiepval Memorial

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