The last man to walk out of Delville Wood was a Dundee man

Research by Pat Rundgen and Kevin Burge
Article by Pam McFadden

Before the end of the “Great War” of 1914-1918, Dundee High School had lost twenty of its old scholars and three of its staff members. One scholar, Garnet George Green, born in Dundee in 1889, was the nephew of Henry Pybus Handley, founder of the local outfitting firm Handley and Sons and later the Umvoti Trading Company.

After school he joined the Natal Carbineers as a trooper. He saw action during the Bambatha Rebellion of 1906, in German South West Africa in 1914 – 1915 and from January to March 1916 he served with the 2nd South African Regiment against the Senussi in Egypt.

As 2nd Lieutenant, “C” Company, 3rd SAI  he was wounded in, but survived the epic battle of Delville Wood, near the village of Longueval. The South African Brigade was given the order to hold the wood at all costs. They entered it on 15 July 1916. By the time they were relieved on 20 July only 18 officers and 702 other ranks were left of the 3 155 men who had gone into the wood five days earlier.

On 17 July it was estimated that some 400 enemy shells per minute fell on the wood, only a few acres in extent. According to a German account, “the wood was a wasteland of shattered trees, charred and burning stumps, craters thick with mud and blood and corpses everywhere. In places they were piled 4 deep. Worst of all was the moaning of the wounded”.

On 20 July he was “the last [man] to leave the trench when relief arrived”.

Brigadier-General Tanner recommended Lt. Green for the DSO (Distinguished Service Order), but instead he was awarded a was awarded the Military Cross for having, “held the whole wood [Delville Wood] with 118 men (of his B Company of the Second Regiment), the whole day against three German Divisions.”

He was awarded bar to M.C. for services at Arras, 12 April 1917, for voluntarily reconnoitring ground under heavy machine gun fire.

In January 1918 he was promoted to the rank of Captain.  He was killed in action commanding “B” Company at Gauche Wood 22 March 1918 while holding up a German advance with the remnants of his Company in front of Heudicourt Quarry. He was said to have been “universally popular – all he did was unobtrusive and unpretentious. There was no chance of withdrawing and he was killed, fighting to the last”.

The Prime Minister of South Africa, General Louis Botha, praised him in the South African parliament. He has no known grave but his name is recorded on the wall of the Pozières Memorial and, on the Cenotaph in his hometown, Dundee.