Herbert William Henry Tyler
Leslie Case’s Father
My father joined 7th Battalion The Leicestershire Regiment at the beginning of the war in September 1914, when he was 22 years old. He never spoke about the First World War to me or my brother and sisters and it was only after he died in 1970, when we found the letters he had written to his parents during the war, that we began to piece together his army career.
Father was promoted to Lieutenant in 1915 and embarked for France in July of that year. He was employed as the bombing Officer of the Battalion which by then was part of the 110th Brigade. Father was awarded the Military Cross for his bravery on 3rd July 1917 and was twice Mentioned in Despatches. Unfortunately I have not been able to find the citations that accompanied these awards so I do not know what he did in battle to get them.
In late September 1916 he commanded D & C Coys 7th Battalion in an attack on Gird Trench near Gueudecourt, which succeeded with only 5 casualties, in taking 371 German prisoners. Father was promoted to the rank of Major on 7th June 1917 and later to Acting Colonel, becoming the youngest person to hold this rank at that time.
Father saw a lot of action in 1918; he was involved in the retreat at Ypres in March, in action on the Marne in May, in August he commanded the 7th Battalion in the initial offensive at Thiepval Ridge and saw continuous fighting during the German retreat in September. 
Later that month father took command of 9th Battalion The Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry for two months, during which time that Battalion successfully attacked the Beaurevoir Line.
When the Territorial force was reconstructed into the Territorial Army in 1920 he was persuaded to join 4th Leicesters (TA) as company commander, a post he held from 1922 until 1930. During the Second World War father commanded the City of Leicester Bttn. Home Guard.
Newspaper letter
I have recently discovered that the letter father wrote on 16th July 1916 was printed in several newspapers around the country including publications as far away as The Dundee Evening Telegraph and The Western Daily Press. How this came about I do not know.
| The original exhibition display: Herbert Tyler |
