WALLACE Geoffery Robert

Awarded Military Cross and Bar, Mentioned in Despatches.

In the cold and darkness of the early hours of December 4th 1916, a small raiding party left the trenches beneath the Butte de Warlencourt on the Somme battlefield. At 4 a.m. after a sudden fierce bombardment by the British artillery, the raiders attacked, Lieutenant G.R. Wallace leading his party through a gap in the wire into the enemy’s trench. A sharp fight up and down the trench ensued for several minutes until the raiders had exhausted their bombs. Then Lieutenant Wallace gave the order to retire and under heavy fire the party regained their trenches with no greater loss than 5 men wounded. Lieutenant Wallace received the M.C. for this action. In April 1917 as Captain Wallace, he was awarded a bar to his M.C. for leading forward a small party and capturing Malassise Farm at Epehy.

In August 1917, heavy rain turned the ground into a quagmire. Knee deep, and sometimes waist deep, in the mud, the soldiers attempted to advance through the shell holes whilst enemy snipers and machine gunners opened fire from every side. Captain Wallace led ‘A’ Company forward most gallantly, having passed Vancouver Farm and nearing a concrete fort beyond it when two German snipers rose from a shell hole nearby. They shot Captain Wallace and he died within 2 hours. He was mentioned in despatches in the Gazette on 18th December 1917.

Source for additional information: The Worcestershire Regiment in the Great War by Captain H. FitzM. Stacke of the Regiment, 1928.

The following report appears in the Bromsgrove Weekly Messenger, 3rd February 1917:
2nd Lieut (Temp Lieut) G.R. Wallace, Worcestershire Regiment. Awarded MC. “Commanded fighting patrol which successful raided an enemy trench. Which killed several of the enemy.”

The inscription on the memorial reads:
IN PROUD AND LOVING MEMORY OF
GEOFFERY ROBERT WALLACE, M.C.
CAPTAIN 1/7TH WORCESTERSHIRE REGT
SECOND SON OF LEWIS ALEXANDER WALLACE
AND GRANDSON OF THE LATE GEORGE WALLACE OF EARDISTON,
WHO WAS KILLED LEADING HIS COMPANY
NEAR ST JULIEN, BELGIUM, ON AUG 27TH 1917, AGED 21.
THREE TIMES MENTIONED IN DESPATCHES.

Geoffrey Wallace has no known grave, the photograph available shows his name on Tyne Cot Memorial.