Rifleman John Milburn 21st Battalion K.R.R.C..

[terry Milburn]

Hi All. Please bear with me on this as it the first time i have contributed on here. I am looking for any information as to where the 21st Batt were fighting on 20th July 1916, as this was the day John was killed. He is buried in Berks Cemetery Extension Grave Ref 1. F 4 .  His service number c/13022. I have been told that this area was part of the Somme offensive but i am not sure. John was born in Guisborough North Yorkshire 10/12/1894,and enlisted 14/1/1916. He was my Great Uncle. I know all the above is true as we visited his grave last October.  Any help would be appreciated.

 

Many Thanks Terry Milburn.

[liliasodell]

Hello. If there are no specific websites dedicated to the King's Royal Rifle Corps which contain the info you're after, the National Archives now has all war diaries for the Western Front units available to download. Website address is - nationalarchives.gov.uk

Good luck!

Eljo

[Liz in Eastbourne]

Hello Terry

There is a very long thread about the 21st Battalion KRRC here, which I started in 2010 and which also contains links to earlier threads.  I have researched many of the men but not as it happens your great-uncle, as far as I can see, though i am stymied by the current difficulty in searching the forum which does not appear to allow searching within a thread at all.This used to be a very useful feature.  In addition, my own files are mainly hard copies and as I've been working on other things for a couple of years, it's not at the forefront of my mind. 

 

However, I can say off the top of my head that he was not killed on the Somme or in any major offensive.  The Yeoman Rifles  first went into action on 15 September 1916 at Flers. They were in the Ploegsteert Wood sector from 31 May until 17 August, alternating with the other three battalions of the brigade in periods of five days in the line, five in support, five in the line and five in reserve or resting.  Although Gerald Dennis, in his account A Kitchener Man's Bit, called this 'the Plugstreet picnic', the battalion sustained a number of casualties during this time, through shelling or sniper fire or during a trench raid.  I'll see if I can find out what happened to your great-uncle. Did you find his record?

 

The war diaries of 21/KRRC aren't great but would certainly be worth looking at.  I only have the ones from September, unfortunately.

 

Liz

Edited 7 July , 2016 by Liz in Eastbourne

[Liz in Eastbourne]

Terry

I've just discovered I did find a little out about your great-uncle from his record, though probably no more than you have already.  SDGW says 'killed in action' so I would still guess a shell or sniper fire.  He was in C Company, where Anthony Eden was a young officer. I see his trade was 'weighing coal' and he came from a family of ten.

 

Liz

[Liz in Eastbourne]

Terry

The next man on my file, Frederick Milner. C/12724 from North Grimston, near Malton, was also in C Company and died of wounds the day before your great-uncle was killed.  I have noted that a family letter says he was hit by a stray shell.

He is in the Bailleul Communal Cemetery Extension (Nord).

 

Liz

[Liz in Eastbourne]

Terry 

I should have said before that the parent site,Chris Baker's The Long, Long Trail (accessed via the button at the top left of the page), gives a lot of information, though not detailed enough for your immediate purposes.  You'd need to go from the information below, copied straight from the site, to the info on divisions and orders of battle.

Liz

 

21st (Service) Battalion (Yeoman Rifles)
Formed in September 1915 from volunteers from the farming communities of Yorkshire, Northumberland and Durham by the Northern Command. Moved to Duncombe Park at Helmsley.
January 1916 : moved to Aldershot and came under orders of 124th Brigade in 41st Division.
4 May 1916 : landed in France.
November 1917 : moved with the Division to Italy but returned to France in early March 1918.
16 March 1918: battalion disbanded.

[stiletto_33853]

Hope you do not mind me butting in here. The battalion diary entry for 20th July just says:-

 

Morning period a repetition of previous morning

A surprise gas attack with smoke discharge had been arranged to take place between midnight and 3am (20/21st) but was cancelled.

 

The morning period of the day before was wire cutting by our artillery Gap F & I.113

 

This was in Ploegsteert Wood.

 

Andy

[KevinBattle]

Another butting in to Liz's specialty....

This man had a close Service Number who died a couple of days later and is also near John in Berks Cemetery

NIXON, WILFRED. Rank: Rifleman. Service No: C/13026. Date of Death: 22/07/1916. Age: 19.
Regiment/Service: King's Royal Rifle Corps 21st Bn. 
Grave Reference: I. G. 19. Cemetery: BERKS CEMETERY EXTENSION.
Additional Information: Son of Mary Nixon, of Poona Villa, Coatham, Yorks, and the late John Nixon.

 

HEARSUM, HARRY. Rank: Rifleman. Service No: C/13027. Date of Death: 16/09/1916. Age: 25.
Regiment/Service: King's Royal Rifle Corps 21st Bn. 
Grave Reference: IV. D. 12. Cemetery: HEILLY STATION CEMETERY, MERICOURT-L'ABBE.
Additional Information: Son of Hannah Hearsum, of Park Head, Cumberworth, Huddersfield, and the late David Hearsum. Native of Hayfield, Derbyshire.

 

With similar numbers they were probably Pals and well known to each other.

[Liz in Eastbourne]

I for one am delighted, Andy!  I've been plugging away at this on my own, in between going out and doing other things.  As I said, the war diary isn't great and it has missed out an incident here. I have put on to the main 21/KRRC thread a list of men killed before Flers, which reveals that two other men were killed on the same day - and that's enabled me to locate the incident.  I'll be back shortly.

EDIT There were also three the day before, including Milner, mentioned above.

Liz

[Liz in Eastbourne]

Thanks, Kevin, you posted as I was writing.  

You'll see Nixon in the list at the end of the other thread. Hearsum died of wounds after Flers.

Adjoining numbers are sometimes indicative of friendship or at least knowing each other, but often not. The key thing as to whether they knew each other tends to be their place of origin and/or enlistment, as the four companies were filled on that basis - though Milburn, being a late recruit, was put into C Company instead of A Company, where there was a concentration of North Yorkshire men but which had filled up early.

 

Nixon was also a late recruit and was put into D Company.  Hearsum was also in D Company, which was where men from Derbyshire, Lincolnshire and other places that weren't Yorkshire, Durham or Northumberland were generally put, so he was in the right place for his origin! Those two therefore were together, but not with Milburn.

EDIT Just in case anyone reading this is interested in him, I mention Hearsum along with the other Yeoman Riflemen whose graves I visited at Heilly Station Cemetery in post 294 of the other thread.

 

Of course some roles cut across Companies so I shouldn't be too hard and fast about it.

 

Liz

Edited 8 July , 2016 by Liz in Eastbourne

[Liz in Eastbourne]

After seeing that Sgt  John Reginald Park was killed on the same day as John Milburn I  was able to find this passage in Dennis' A Kitchener Man's Bit,  pp 63-4:

'Not far behind the Front Line was a Support Line held by a Company and also used by the Front Line Company cooks.  A little distance further behind was the Reserve line.  The latter was known as Hunter’s Avenue and it was not too far from Rifle House. It was probably an old ‘ride’, the trees were not so dense, a duckboard track was laid along it and a series of ‘forts’ constructed.  Such dugouts were built up high of sand-bags and given names such as Rose Villa and Eel Pie Fort. My own ‘C’ Company was occupying this line and life was very carefree.  One glorious day Jerry decided to give them a few shells.  One shell made a direct hit on a fort which was being used as a storehouse.  Unfortunately Sergeant ‘Jock’ Parkes (sic) had gone to obtain something and he was killed.  He was a very popular NCO and another shadow of gloom fell on the Company…That Reserve Line hardly ever got shelled and we in the Front Line were amazed when we heard of the tragedy there.’

The Sergeant was John Reginald Park.

Eden also mentions Park’s death, saying he went to set a rat trap in a disused fort. 

Neither mentions the rifleman in C Company also killed that day, John Milburn, but they were writing long after events, and I assume the sergeant’s death stood out more in their minds.  Another man killed that day was Henry James Rockell, a Scotsman in D Company who had recently joined the battalion in the field.  They are buried in adjoining graves in Berks Cemetery Extension. (Of course, the grave registration document under their entries on CWGC shows the same thing, the three 21/KRRC men in adjoining graves.)

 

So we have a fairly clear picture of how John Milburn was killed. Life was all right, but every now and then someone got killed by a shell, and that day it was him and two others.  At least he was spared the Somme.

 

Liz
 

[terry Milburn]

Hi  Many thanks for all the contributions on here re John, I have found out quite a bit more in the last few days than  since first finding out about John. Sorry i cant contribute anything more about John all i know is written in my first posting.

 

Cheers Terry

[RaySearching]

North Eastern Daily Gazette

4th August 1916 

 

atred

 

Also commemorated on Guisborough war memorial

 

Regards Ray

[terry Milburn]

Cheers Ray  i have never seen that although i have seen the commemoration on Guisborough war Memorial.

 

Regards Terry

[Liz in Eastbourne]

12 hours ago, terry Milburn said:

Hi  Many thanks for all the contributions on here re John, I have found out quite a bit more in the last few days than  since first finding out about John. Sorry i cant contribute anything more about John all i know is written in my first posting.

 

Cheers Terry

 

Glad you appreciated the work that went into giving you information, Terry.  If you ever find a photo of your great-uncle in uniform, especially in a group, it would be very good to see it. 

 

Liz

 

[RaySearching]

20 hours ago, Liz in Eastbourne said:

 

Glad you appreciated the work that went into giving you information, Terry.  If you ever find a photo of your great-uncle in uniform, especially in a group, it would be very good to see it. 

 

Liz

 

 

Here you go

 

 

regards Ray

[Liz in Eastbourne]

Thank you very much, Ray!  The original grave, too.

We've tried on the main 21/KRRC thread to include photos of as many of the men as possible and it's good to have this one, which is linked to it now.  Perhaps Terry hadn't seen these either?

 

Liz

[terry Milburn]

Hi Again Ray, Many thanks for the photo's re John . I do have the original grave photo but this is the first photo i have ever seen of John. Do you mind me asking where you got them from, you are not related are you ?

 

Regards Terry

 

 

[RaySearching]

Hi Terry

I am not a family member

I have a friend called Google

 

Will PM you

[terry Milburn]

Hi Ray  Cheers anyway.

 

 Regards Terry

[terry Milburn]

Hi Its been well over 12 months since my last visit to this Forum.  I am still researching my great uncle Rifleman Private Joun Milburn K.R.R.C. 21st Batt, Service Number c/13022 died 20/7/16, Buried Berks Cemetery Extension Grave Ref  1.F. 4 . Just wondering if any more info has come to light since my last visit.  Regards Terry  Milburn.

[Liz in Eastbourne]

Hi Terry 

What have you found out yourself, and what are you expecting others to have found out for you in the past 12 months?

You could try looking on the main thread, linked to above and  here.  I see that at the time of your query I was struggling with searches within the topic but there's no problem at all now. Post #512 which I made at that time  lists the men who died  before the Somme in date order of their deaths so that you can look at the others,  and see the pattern (mostly  the result of shelling). And did you find the two books I suggested, Eden and Dennis? 

  

 

Liz