In Becourt Military Cemetery, Becordel-Becourt, France is the Commonwealth War Grave of 102439 Sapper Peter Lane serving with the 185th Tunnelling Company Royal Engineers who died 04/02/1916.
My grandfather Peter Lane was born in 1873 at Bowden Close, a mining village just east of Crook; the son of coal miner William Lane, and his wife Mary Ann. Peter was also a coal miner; in the 1891 census he is recorded as age 17, coalminer living with his parents in Bowden Terrace, Bowden Close. In 1895 he married Mary Langley at the Register Office, Bishop Auckland. At the time war broke out in 1914 Mary and Peter had five children: Mary Ann, born 1898; William, 1901; Sarah, 1903; Robert, 1908; and Richard, 1911.
Judging by his regimental number it would appear that Peter volunteered for service in 1915; so aged 41 or 42. He became 102439 Sapper Peter Lane of the 185th Tunnelling Company, Royal Engineers. The Royal Engineers recruited many Durham coalminers to work in the Tunnelling Companies, and several are remembered on memorials in the Crook area.
At the time Peter volunteered, his wife was pregnant, and gave birth to Lily Louvain in 1915.
Peter Lane died of wounds at La Boisselle on 4th February 1916. It is not so common for the circumstances in which Other Ranks died to be documented, but Peter died in an incident which claimed the lives of two officers including Captain T.C. Richardson, the Officer in Command of 185 Coy and sixteen Other Ranks. This incident warranted a report, so we are fortunate in being able to trace the events of that day. Details of the report, and extracts from the private diary of 2nd Lt. Lyall, who survived the incident, are given below.
He is buried alongside the other fifteen Other Ranks who died on that day in the Military Cemetery at Becourt, east of Albert.
In the summer of 1916, some months after Peter’s death, Lily died, and Mary gave birth to Irene Verdun on 30th August 1916.
Like many war widows, Mary remarried. On 12th July 1919 she married Jack Brady.
Peter Lane is remembered at Helmington Row on H138.01 and H138.02 (Darlington D40.039)
