Military History

Lieutentant Bucknill was listed as missing in action on 21 Jan 1916 and on 12 Apr 1916 it was officially announced that he had been Killed in Action on the 21 Jan 1916 after his body was found during another attack on the trenches at El Hanna.

In the absence of a war diary the following edited description of the events of 21 Jan 1916 is taken from Royal Hampshire Regiment 1914-1918 by C.T. Atkinson published by Naval and Military Press.

"The 9th Brigade moved up towards the El Hanna trenches on January 19th.  ‘Zero’ on January 21st was fixed for 6.30 a.m., but a mirage prevented the gunners from seeing their targets, so the attack had to be postponed till 7.45 a.m. by which time the Turks had fully realized what was coming. However, the 19th (right) and 35th (left) Brigades pushed gallantly forward, and ten minutes after the 35th Brigade had advanced, the 9th Brigade followed in its steps, with the 4th Hampshire on its left next the river: the Hampshire had been under fairly heavy long-range rifle fire even before ‘Zero’ and had had a few men hit. The 9th Brigade pressed ahead resolutely but directly the advance had begun rifles, machine-guns and field-guns had opened a heavy fire, and with the ground flat and affording no cover casualties quickly mounted up, the supports also soon being caught by the shells and suffering almost as severely from the fire as the leading brigades.

Nevertheless on the 35th Brigade’s left a fair number of the Black Watch effected a lodgement and besides them some Dogras also got in. Of the brigade’s second and third lines some Jats entered the Turkish line and joined the Black Watch, but only a few, and those who had got in were soon hard pressed to maintain their hold. Meanwhile the Hampshire were coming up, B Company, C following and D in support. The fire was heavy, and the battalion had a long stretch to cover even to gain our old front trench. Before reaching it Colonel Bowker, following with the third line, had been hit, but pushed on nevertheless, to be hit again and killed. With no support coming up and casualties heavy, the advance was held up short of the Turkish line.

On the extreme left next the river, however, some men under Lts. Stilwell and Palmer managed to join the Black Watch in the Turkish trenches and lend a hand in the gallant struggle which they maintained for over an hour against heavy odds, though no more support reached them. Eventually, with their left attacked down a communication trench and their right from the uncaptured line beyond their lodgement, they were overwhelmed, only a few survivors regaining our lines. Meanwhile the rest of the battalion could merely hang on behind such cover as they could scrape together with their entrenching tools and wait till darkness allowed them to move and to try to assist the many wounded. Lts. Andrews, E. A. Burrell, and Jensen and 2/Lts. Pirie and Wyles and 124 men were wounded.

No better success had attended the 19th Brigade on the 35th’s right and, despite a renewed bombardment, a belated advance by the 28th Brigade made no headway. Losses had been terribly heavy, and we had not even the modified success of the Sheik Saad and Wadi attacks to set against them. This time our defeat was unequivocal. Well over half the attacking infantry were casualties, even the 4th Hampshire in losing 13 officers and 230 men out of 16 and 339 in action were not actually the hardest hit battalion. Lt. Colonel Bowker, Captains North and Brandon, Lts. Needham, Bucknill, Stilwell1 and Palmer and 106 men were killed or missing, Captain Page-Roberts."