Year of birth: 1889

Place of birth: Hull, Kingston upon Hull, England, United Kingdom

Profession: Cotton Gin Press Operator

Country: England, United Kingdom

Force: British Expeditionary Force

Rank: Lance Corporal

Service number: 64221

Enlistment date: 10/12/1915

Enlistment place: Hull, Kingston upon Hull, England, United Kingdom

Units:  —  Machine Gun Corps, 214th Coy.  (Last known unit)

Date of death: 30/10/1917

Place of death: Helles House, Poelkapelle, Belgium

Cause of death: Killed in action (K.I.A.)

Age: 28

British War Medal Medal

Victory Medal Medal

Lance Corporal Joseph Samuel Longworth served in the Machine Gun Corps 214th Company, part of the 173rd (3/1st London) Brigade, of the 58th (2/1st London) Division. The Division participated in the Third Battle of Ypres and attacked on the 30th of October 1917. It advanced with the 174th Brigade on Noble’s Farm and a line of pillboxes Southeast of it. Noble’s Farm was a German strongpoint just Northeast of the village of Poelkapelle. The attack was supported by the 198th Machine Gun Company, the Machine Gun Company of the 173rd Brigade and a Battery of eight guns of the 214th Machine Gun Company.
At zero hour 5.50 a.m. the troops moved forward behind a barrage. The going was tough, as the constant shelling had turned the terrain in a bog. The bad state of the ground combined with heavy German machine gun fire, made the situation dire. Most troops consequently failed to reach their objectives except for the 2/6th London Battalion. They took Noble’s Farm, which had been utterly destroyed by the artillery barrage and also captured the pillboxes Southeast of the German strongpoint. Two machine guns at Helles House were knocked out by German shell fire the during this operation.
The 198th Machine Gun Company suffered a total of six casualties (killed, wounded or missing). The Company was relieved on the following day. The 214th Machine Gun Company also suffered casualties while supporting the attack. Three men of the Company were killed in action and five men were wounded. It’s highly likely that the men of the 214th Machine Gun Company became casualties, due to German shell fire on their gun positions (20.V.15.b.30.25 and 20.V.15.d.50.90) at Helles House.
Lance Corporal Joseph Samuel Longworth’s remains were never recovered. And he’s remembered on the Tyne Cot Memorial.

Henry Alfred Longworth  Brother

"The Third Ypres Passchendaele. The Day-by-Day Account", McCarthy C., London, Arms & Armour Press, 1995, pg. 133. Sources used

Ancestry http://home.ancestry.co.uk/ Further reference

CWGC http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/833152/LONGWORTH,%20JOSEPH%20S Sources used

The Long, Long Trail http://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/army/ Sources used

War Diary 198th Machine Gun Company http://www.nmarchive.com/ Further reference

War Diary 214th Machine Gun Company http://www.nmarchive.com/ Further reference