Family :

Education & Career :

Hele’s School.

Service Life:

Campaigns:

• The First World War 1914-1918, World-wide.

7 June - 11 July 1917. The plan at Messines was to blow up 19 mines in what was the largest man made explosion before Hiroshima, and utterly destroy the German front line along the Messines Ridge. The effect was to "liquify" the ground and create a mini earthquake, which coupled with the largest artillery preparation thus far of over 3 million shells would stun the defenders into submission. The plan largely worked and was initially very successful although the Germans did re-group and opportunities to develop the attack were lost. Casualties in this victory were 25,000.

Detail :

Lieutenant Martin Hubert Shorto, Royal Engineers, was was killed in 1917 in France, having survived being gassed twice, and only five months after he first arrived at the Front.

His death is reported in several publications including the Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, 30th July, 1917 and the Western Times, 3rd August, 1917, but the lengthiest article appears in an earlier edition of the Western Times on 31st July, 1917: "Lieut. M.H.Shorto, Exeter, Killed Miss Amy Shorto, of Hill's Court School, Pennsylvania, received information on Sunday that her brother, Lieut. Martin H. Shorto of the West Lancashire R.E., was killed in action in France July 27. Lieut Short, who was an old Hele's Boy, was articlesd to Mr. T.S. Moulding, the City Surveyor and afterwards received an appointment in the Surveyor's department at Bolton, Lancashire, and later on secured after competitive examination a post in the Public Works Department at Shanghai. This position he relinquished at the outbreak of war, and at once returned to England, joining the Inns of Court O.T.C. He was given a commission in the South Lancashire Regiment (Prince of Wales' Volunteers), and afterwards was transferred to the West Lancashire Royal Engineers. He was twice gassed while on service. Lieut. Shorto, who was 26 yers of age, was the second son of the late Major Shorto, Town Clerk of Exeter, who saw service in the Crimea, and afterwards one of the popular members of the 1st R.V., both as an N.C.O., and then as officer commanding B Company. His son was also in the 1st R.V., joining A Company, and continued under the Territorial system, in the 4th Devons doing good work as an N.C.O.. He was held in much esteem by his comrades, and his death will be mourned not only by his brother and five sisters, but by a wide circle of friends."

In 1914 he was 25. Following his return to Britain he was commissioned in February 1915 into an infantry regiment. However as an engineer he also transferred to the Royal Engineers, the 3rd West Lancashire Field Company, in which he remained until his death. He was killed on 27 July 1917 aged 28. There are no details of his death, his unit was based near Ypres but he is buried at Coxyde near the Belgian coast. The 1/3 West Lancashire Field Company was a territorial unit that was in 1917 renumbered the 421st Field Company within the 57th (2nd West Lancashire) Division. He is buried in Coxyde Military Cemetery (now spelt Koksijde) which was in the sector stretching to the Channel that the British took over from the French in June 1917 as part of the preparations for 3rd Ypres. His Division was part of XIX Corps which was in theatre in July 1917. His short five line will of December 1914, possibly made when he enlisted, left everything to his sister. His estate amounted to £367.

He was buried in the Coxyde Military Cemetery at Koksijde in Belgium. He was one of 75 pupils of Hele’s School who were killed in the conflict and His medals and memorial plaque were mounted in a frame and kept at Hele’s School until the school’s closure in the 1980s. He was further remembered on the School War Memorial. He is listed on the Sussex People - Masonic Roll of Honour along with two other members of Royal Sussex Lodge, Hong Kong who fell.

Masonic :

Listed as a Civil Engineer in Shanghai when initiated into the Royal Sussex Lodge. He was 24 years of age. He was initiated in December 1913, passed on the 28 March 1914, and raised the following month. No explicit war service is noted, the final note stating "Died Aug 1917."

Source :

The project globally acknowledges the following as sources of information for research across the whole database:

• The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• The (UK) National Archives
• Ancestry.co.uk - Genealogy, Family Trees & Family History online
• ugle.org.uk - The records of the United Grand Lodge of England including the Library and Museum of Freemasonry

Additional Source:

• Founder Researchers : Paul Masters & Mike McCarthy
• Researcher : Bruce Littley