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Remembered Today:

Unknown Officer KOYLI: Passchendaele New British Cemetery


laughton

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In amongst my lost Canadian's is another UNKNOWN BRITISH OFFICER identified as a member of the K.O.Y.L.I., which I take to be the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, but as I have said, I am no aficionado of the British Regiments.

If this is true, there is only one officer missing and on the Tyne Cot Memorial when they were in the sector north of Goudberg in the period of late October to mid November 1917. To be sure, I expanded the search from October 15th to November 15th and still only the one missing 2nd Lieutenant:

2nd Lieutenant John Grenside Glover

He was KIA November 8, 1917 at the same time and same location where I am hunting for my missing Canadian Captain, who has been quite elusive. The Canadians and British were quite intermingled in this area in the first week of November. This is the trench map where my Captain is missing at 20.V.29.a.1.9 where I keep finding the British.

Your Officer would have been around Teal Cottage.

GRRF: 1824899

COG-BR: 2365839

As always, I leave it to your expertise in the UK to see if this case has any merit.

Richard

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  • 1 year later...

Now that I have access to the UK war diaries on Ance$try I can check to see if the 4th Battalion King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry was in that area on 8 November 1917. As there is no "4th Battalion" then it has to be the "1/4th" or the "2/4th" but the CWGC site does not say which one. Again the issue of being a Canadian. maybe the GWG Pals know which one it is already?

 

If I have this correct:

 

1/4th - 148th Brigade, 49th (West Riding) Division

2/4th - 187th Brigade in 62nd (2nd West Riding) Division

 

That means none of the DIRECT links on Ancestry work as for the K.O.Y.L.I. they have only the 14th (6th), 21st (9th, 10th), 28th (1st 1914-1915), 40th (15th) and 50th (1st 1918-1919) Divisions (Bns). Slowly I am working my way (stumbling) through this process!

 

So they must be in here:

 

148th Brigade (1917 Oct - 1919 May)

 

187th Brigade (1917 Oct - 1919 Mar)

 

For the 148th and the 1/4th K.O.Y.L.I. are back in Steenvoorde (27.K.31.d.5.0) on 8 November 1917 (page 76 of 843), having moved there on 27 October 1917 (page 7 of 843). Just to check, he is not on the list of 1/4th casualties for October 1917 (page 72 of 843). The 148th was relieved in the line by the 10th Canadian Infantry Brigade on the night of 22/23rd October 1917 (page 62 of 843). The maps show the 1/4th had been in the vicinity of Fleet Cottage, southwest of Passchendaele (28.D.10 sector). 2nd Lt. Glover is not on the list of casualties for November 1917 (page 92 of 843), although the CWGC lists his death and two (2) others, one in the 1/4th and one in the 1/5th (CWGC link).

 

For the 187th and the 2/4th K.O.Y.L.I. we have the 2/4th K.O.Y.L.I moving to Simencourt (France), a good distance away from the remains at 51c.Q.10.b.7.2 (page 8 of 601). On 7 November 1917 they move to the area of Barly (France) at 51c.P.15, so they are not getting closer to where the remains were found (page 69 of 601). Later in the month they would move to be part of the operations against the Hindenburg Line, so most certainly never in Belgium.

 

That means we have a Second Lieutenant of the "4th" killed in action but there are no records of his death in the war diary. Was he attached to another unit?

 

I did not notice earlier, there is a 3/4th Battalion K.O.Y.L.I. as well - my mistake! It appears from the LLT that it was a "Reserve Battalion", so perhaps that was the unit of 2nd Lt. Glover and now I need to find where he went. The only reference on the index to his Officer's Service Record is the K.O.Y.L.I., to which I have no further access. The Roll of Honour only indicates he was with a Territorial Battalion. Although memorialized in the Wakefield Grammar School Magazine, there are no details of his death. The Wakefield Roll of Honour lists him as "Missing in France", not killed in Belgium.

 

The "Record of service of solicitors and articled clerks with His Majesty's forces, 1914-1919" shows only that he articled to T. E. Catterall, of Wakefield. Joined the Yorkshire Yeomanry as a Trooper, and subsequently gazetted 2nd Lieut. King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. Killed in action.

 

No sign of him here or that battalion in the area under review:

So do I have a case where looking for an UNKNOWN 2nd Lieutenant has taken me off on a tangent looking for a non-existent Officer? 

 

Does anyone have information as to what unit was in that area at any time?

 

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Of interest is the Moorehouse father and son in October 1917. I thought it might lead me to more information about the 4th Battalion K.O.Y.L.I. but not yet. The Lieutenant Colonel is only a Major when reported KIA in the war diary (link above).

Something wrong with the birth dates if they are father and son.

Somewhere there is a history of the K.O.Y.L.I. that will tell me what they were doing north of Passchendaele, and when.

 

The questions are:

  1. In which K.O.Y.L.I. unit did 2nd Lt. Glover serve?
  2. Which K.O.Y.L.I. unit was north of Passchendaele, and when?
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