A STOCKBRIDGE tobacconist was amongst the heavy casualties during a devastating attack on German trenches one rainy day in 1916.

David William Laycock died just three months after arriving in France during the frenzied fighting of July 7 at Ovillers.

He was with the 9th Battalion Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment) when it was ordered to take the enemy trenches following a bombardment intended to soften up the Germans.

The Germans retaliated immediately, heavily shelling the British trenches and decimating the attacking soldiers with machine gun fire.

After several platoons were wiped out the frontal assault was abandoned, but soldiers on the left flank managed to reach the German trenches, wipe out the machine guns and take 50 prisoners.

Born in 1887 in Keighley, David grew up in Highfield and joined his father John in the tobacconist’s trade.

He enlisted as a volunteer in the West Riding Regiment in 1905, then the Territorials in 1908, and finally enlisted in the regular army in 1911.

Along the way he married tailoress Ellen Pearce and had two daughters, Ethelwynne and Joyce.