![]() At this time Roberts was acting lieutenant colonel, one of the youngest men to hold such a rank. In March 1918, when the German army was making its last offensive, his battalion was at Pargny, just west of the Somme. He won the DSO in 1915 and the Military Cross in 1917 and was promoted throughout these years. With the outbreak of war in 1914 he served on the Western Front, being involved in the battles of Neuve Chapelle in 1915 and Paschendale in 1917. Unlike McReady-Diarmid he was a professional soldier in the 1st battalion of the Worcestershire Regiment who had been commissioned in 1911. Roberts, born in 1891, was a son of the Rev. It was said ‘His heroism is the talk of the Brigade’. However, in doing so he was killed by a German grenade. He threw grenades towards the Germans so that his men could advance with less risk and they recovered the grounds that the German advance had taken. The lieutenant called for volunteers and charged at the head of his men. On the next day there was another German attack. On 30 November 1917 at Moeuvres, France, as acting captain, he led his company through a barrage of enemy fire and this drove back the Germans. He enlisted into the 17th battalion of the Middlesex Regiment in 1915. ![]() McReady-Diarmid (born in London in 1888) was later in Acton, living in a house in Goldsmith’s Avenue. The first two were Lieutenant Allastair McReady-Diarmid and Captain Frank Roberts. Tens of thousands of local men served in the armed forces in the First World War. At least three of them were decorated for extreme valour in face of the enemy and were awarded the Victoria Cross, writes Dr Jonathan Oates. ![]()
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