However he was recalled from retirement to serve in World War I in 1914 and held command on the Western Front, taking part in the Battle of Loos in 1915, the capture of Gommecourt on the first day of the Battle of the Somme in 1916, and was Commander R.E. of the 46th Division when it broke the Hindenburg Line in 1918.
Following the outbreak of World War I, Wilcock rejoined his original military unit, the Royal Field Artillery and was seriously injured at the Battle of Loos in September 1915.
The memorial is lit with a large flame at its top on a number of significant days, viz: 25 September (in memory of the Battle of Loos - in which many members of the local Black Watch regiment lost their lives), 24 October (United Nations Day), 11 November (Armistice Day) and Remembrance Sunday
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In the September 1915 Battle of Loos, generals George Thesiger and Thompson Capper were killed, and less than a week later, on 2 October 1915, a shell exploded in the road outside the 12th Division's forward report centre at Mazingarbe and killed Wing and his aide-de-camp Lieutenant Tower outright at 3:45pm.
:* Festubert 1915, Loos, Somme 1916 '18, Flers-Courcelette, Le Transloy, Messines 1917, Ypres 1917, Cambrai 1917, St. Quentin, Ancre 1918, Albert 1918, Bapaume 1918, Pursuit to Mons, France and Flanders 1915-18, Doiran 1917, Macedonia 1916-17, Gaza, Nebi Samwil, Jerusalem, Palestine 1917-18
In late September 1915, the division was assigned to participate in the Battle of Loos against fortified German positions at Loos-en-Gohelle and Hulluch.
Having returned to England after the Battle of Loos, he was positioned with his Battalion in the front line trenches at Fricourt in February 1916, before moving a kilometre or so to the trenches opposite the town of Mametz in April.