Isaac Atkinson RHODES

62866, Lance Corporal. b. 1899, Keighley d. Sun. 23rd March 1919 (aged 20).

Isaac was born in Keighley to parents Susannah and Samuel at 12 Hainsworth. Aged 12 Isaac was at school part-time and working as a Doffer in a worsted spinning mill. In 1919 Isaac is listed on the electoral register as living at 6 Vignola Terrace, Clayton.

Isaac enlisted in Bradford into 7th Battalion Territorial Training Regiment and given number 27605.

It is not known of Isaacs involvement in the war during the Western Front campaign which ended on 11th November 1918 as Isaacs story starts after this date when he was sent to Russia with the 6th Battalion, Yorkshire Hussars (Alexandra, Princess of Wales’ Own). The Green Howards.

The 6th Battalion was part of the force to be sent to North Russia, ostensibly to protect the huge quantity of munitions given to the Russians to help with their efforts on the Eastern front, which were intended to reduce the pressure on the Western front in France and Belgium.  Various reasons for the campaign have been suggested, but either by default or intention the multi-national force in the north and other parts of Russia began to support the White Russians against the Bolsheviks.

The White Movement was ultimately defeated, while the Allied forces withdrew from Northern Russia after fighting a number of defensive actions against the Bolsheviks, such as the Battle of Bolshie Ozerki.

The campaign lasted from March 1918, during the final months of World War I, to October 1919.

By the time of his death the Allied troops, nearly 20,000 of them, were being prepared for an early evacuation from the Russian Front.

Fighting around village of Bolshie Ozerki on 23rd March 1919

A short report of the battle of Bolshie Ozerki that Isaac was involved in and where he is buried is found in the ‘Leavenworth Papers, Three Case Studies of Fighting the Russians in Winter‘, which throws some light on Isaac’s death and the conditions he was fighting in:

‘On 23rd March (1919) about 320 men of the 6th Yorkshire Regiment and 70 Americans from Company H, 339th Infantry Regiment, launched coordinated attacks an Bolshie Ozurki from positions west of the village. They soon became exhausted however, from wading through waist deep snow, which also ruled out a charge. Under heavy machine gun fire they had to abandon the attack.’

A second simultaneous attack from the north also failed that day resulting in a total of 70 casualties. The village was subsequently taken on 25th March after a change of command and artillery bombardment.

12 men serving in the Yorkshire Regt. (two officers and ten ordinary ranks) died during this campaign, interestingly more as a result of the bitterly cold temperatures which sometimes dropped down to below -40ºC.

Isaac is remembered on the Archangel Memorial to the fallen but is actually buried in Bolshie Ozerki Cemetery near to the city of Onega in north-west Russia along with 3 others from the same unit.

About Archangel

During both world wars, Archangel was one of the ports through which the Allies assisted Russia with supplies and munitions.

The Archangel cemetery was begun immediately after the occupation of the town in August 1918 by the Allied force sent to support the Soviet Russian Government against potential threat from German occupied Finland and other local sources. It was used by No.85 General Hospital, No.53 Stationary Hospital, No.82 Casualty Clearing Station, HM Hospital Ship ‘Kalyan’ and other Allied hospitals.

ARCHANGEL ALLIED CEMETERY contains 224 burials and commemorations of the First World War, including special memorials to 140 officers and men with known burials in cemeteries elsewhere in northern Russia. Two of the burials are unidentified.

The ARCHANGEL MEMORIAL, which consists of panels fixed into the east wall of the cemetery, commemorates 219 British officers and men who died during the north Russian campaign and whose graves are not known or for those whose graves are no longer possible to maintain.

Murder in Murmansk

This article whilst not pertaining to Isaac Rhodes tells of the murder of Lt. Robert Plumpton of 6th Battalion Yorkshire Regiment on Christmas Day 1918. It gives the background of the journey Isaac took that winter and the horrendous conditions experienced. The article is from the Green Howards Museum.