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Remembered Today:

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About this blog

Royal Artillery topics

Information and topics relating to the Gunners of the Royal Horse Artillery, Royal Field Artillery, and the Royal Garrison Artillery during the First World War. 

As I meander through research, battlefield tours and contributions to the GWF Forum, certain topics arise an interest which I record here. 

 

Entries in this blog

Lt Colonel Edward Henry Eley CMG CBE DSO TD ADC

A post on Lt Colonel Edward Henry Eley CMG CBE DSO TD ADC piqued my interest. Some research on his service during World War One.  ---------------------------------------------------- Edward Henry Eley was born in 1874, the son of Henry Eley of Colnbrook, Buckinghamshire. He married Beatrice Eleanor, youngest daughter of Colonel  W. Narborough of Woolwich. They would have one son and one daughter. [1] By profession he was a chartered architect and surveyor. [2] Edward Hen

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Shanghai Contingent Gunners

Whilst reading Betrayed Ally - China in the Great War [Pen & Sword - Frances Wood / Christopher Alexander] there was a reference to 110 men working in China at the beginning of the Great War volunteering to join the British Army.  Did any of these men end up as Gunners? ----------------------------------------------------------- China at the beginning of the Great War China was a republic, though European Powers and Japan had spheres of influence in the country. In those areas

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Arras Faubourg Cemetery - 40 Brigade RFA Officers

Whilst wandering around the Arras Faubourg Cemetery, I observed Gunner graves where all had been killed on the same date buried together. Often the sign of a gun detachment who lost their lives because of a single incident. In Plot V Row F, there were four Gunner graves together. A closer examination revealed it was four Gunner Officers, all killed on the 19th May 1917. Who were these Officers? What had happened on 19th May 1917 ? The CWGC records revealed the Offer

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Gunners of the Great War

From the long running thread Postcards, extracts of pictures of  the men who served as Gunners during the Great War. https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/153347-postcards/ Many thanks to all who have posted on the thread. Updates: Image 1 to 329 29-Aug-2022 | Image 330 to 340 31-Dec-2022 | Image 341 to 343 14-Jan-2023 | 344 to 345 27-Jan-2023 | ========================== 1 https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/153347-postcards/?do=findComment&comment=1478721

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Remembered Today: Captain GN WALFORD VC RFA died 26/04/1915 V Beach Cemetery Gallipoli

Remembered Today: Captain Garth Neville WALFORD Victoria Cross Royal Field Artillery who died 26/04/1915 V BEACH CEMETERY Turkey (including Gallipoli) Captain Garth Neville Walford was the only Gunner to be awarded the Victoria Cross during the Gallipoli Campaign, his actions being part of a double award along with Lieutenant-Colonel Doughty-Wylie.  [1] Captain Garth Walford VC Garth Neville Walford was born on the 27th of May 1882 at Camberley, Surrey, in a house within the

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Remembered Today: 2.Lieut Herbert LUMB RFA who died 08/10/1915 commemorated HELLES MEMORIAL Turkey

Remembered Today: Second Lieutenant Herbert LUMB A Bty. 66th Bde. Royal Field Artillery who died 08/10/1915 HELLES MEMORIAL Turkey (including Gallipoli) Many thanks to @corisande @David Porter @David26 for their assistance to bring together the information about Herbert Lumb. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2nd Lieut. Herbert Lumb RFA  

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Remembered Today: Major Arthur Raymond Boscawen SAVAGE RFA who died 18/05/1921 GRANGEGORMAN

Remembered Today: Major Arthur Raymond Boscawen SAVAGE {Intelligence Officer, Dublin District). Royal Field Artillery who died 18/05/1921 GRANGEGORMAN MILITARY CEMETERY Ireland, Republic of   Major Arthur Raymond Boscawen Savage Royal Field Artillery  is a reminder that some who served would have an ignominious career and death.    Arthur Savage commissioned into the Royal Field Artillery 23rd July 1887 from the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich.    Savage came from

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Gunners - Shot at Dawn

During World War One committing serious civil and military offences could result in the death penalty and the means of execution was the firing squad. A sentence that was traditionally carried out at dawn. Shot At Dawn   The Long Long Trail details that "3,080 men (1.1% of those convicted) were sentenced to death. Of these, 89% were reprieved and the sentence converted to a different one. 346 men were executed. Their crimes included desertion – 266; murder – 37; cowardice in

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King George V - Colonel in Chief Royal Artillery

A post from Andrew Upton on King George V having a MIC https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/55721-lieutenant-colonel-the-prince-de-mahé/?do=findComment&comment=2981042  led me to wonder what his appointments were in the Royal Artillery. Did he have two appointments as Captain General; Royal Horse & Field Artillery and Royal Garrisons Artillery ? First learning point - the appointment of Captain General was not instituted till 1951 by King George VI. [1]   The Army List for 1914

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Prince de Mahé aka Charles Digby Williams

An entry in the London Gazette of 9th August 1914 records the metamorphosis of a Captain Charles Digby Williams of the Royal Artillery Special Reserve from Glamorgan, Wales, into a French aristocratic Prince; The name of Captain and Honorary Major H. H. Charles Mahe de Chenal de la Bourdonnais, Prince de Mahe, is as now stated, and not Charles Digby Williams, as published in the Gazette of 4th September, 1914.   Intrigued as to who were the Mahe de Chenal de la Bourdonnais, [A] wh

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Gunner AF Bennett killed in Bombardment of Scarborough

Having visited the Heugh Battery in Hartlepool a number of times I was well aware of the circumstances of the Bombardment on December 1914, as well as shelling along the East Coast at Scarborough and Whitby. A tablet near the Heugh Battery records the death of the first soldier killed on British soil, Private Theopolis Jones of the 18th Battalion DLI.  Amongst the 8 servicemen killed were Gunners Houston and Spence of the Durham Royal Garrison Artillery. I visited the graves of Houston and Spenc

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WW1 Paintings of Wyndham Lewis

One of the Notable Persons who served as a Gunner in WW1 was artist Wyndam Lewis.   In 1914, Lewis formed the Vorticism movement, a modernist art style inspired by cubism with bold lines and harsh colours.   LEWIS WYNDHAM - SELF PORTRAIT     Wyndham was also a writer and the ideas of Vorticism as rebel artists challenging the norm were published in BLAST, the first issue BLAST: The Review of the Great English Vortex, was published in July 1914, just before

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2nd Lieut. Eustace Carlton Berry attd RFC

Visiting Newcastle Jesmond Saint Andrew's Cemetery CWGC plot I came across a striking memorial of a Royal Flying Corps officer - 2nd Lieutenant Eustace Carlton Berry. The inscription on  his memorial detailed he was a Gunner officer attached to the RFC.     Eustace Carlton Berry was born 21st December 1898 and attended Bedford Grammar School. He commissioned into the Royal Field Artillery 26th May 1916 (Royal Artillery 200th Anniversary), aged 17 years 5 months.  Berry transf

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Royal Artillery Baghdad North Gate Cemetery

Many thanks for a  post from Ahmed1984 Baghdad North Gate Cemetery, Iraq - Cemeteries and memorials - Great War Forum.  The legacy of WW1 with the defining Iraq's  borders resonates to this day with recent conflicts making Baghdad a relatively inaccessible for most people.      A reminder that many lost their lives serving in the Middle East during WW1 and after. A download of casualties commemorated in Iraq from CWGC records 51,113 casualties from the First World War. The h

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Lt Col Edward Parker England DCM

I have just come across a post from Dick Flory who wrote an article for the Journal of the Royal Artillery ("An Officer who made good") [1] about the the amazing war service of Edward Parker England DCM. [2] Source: Find My Past courtesy of Swinesheadvillage   Edward Parker started the war in 1914 as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Royal Field Artillery, ended the  war in 1918 as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Royal Field Artillery, and in the intervening period won the Distinguishe

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