Pte James Thomson 5665 Liverpool Scottish (Kings)

[tomon]

Sorry this is a repeat post- I've changed the title

Hello,

I am trying to find some information about my Great Grandfather who died in WW1

If anybody could possibly help me find out any info I would be really greatfull

His name and all the details I have are below:

Private James Thomson

5665

Liverpool Scottish Regiment (Kings Regiment)

Enlisted 1915 and died 1916 in Germany

In my previous post someone kindly found out were he is buried- Thiepval Memorial

and I was also posted the medal card- but it had very little info on it

I think he was attached to 12th Reinforcements

I also beleive he died from shrapnel wounds in the black forrest Germany

Thank you for any help

Neil Thomson

[Blueblood]

Neil,

Have you contacted the Liverpool Scottish Regimental Museum?

www.liverpoolscottish.org.uk

If you haven't I will add you to the list of enquiries and will get back to you.

Blueblood (Phil)

[bruce]

THE expert on the Kings is a Pal...Promenade. Try messaging him.

Since your gf is on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing, he must have died on the Somme, not anywhere near the Black Forest, and his name is engraved there.....not a headstone.

Hope this helps

Bruce

[Ian Riley]

Bruce,

Edit (17:25) In fairness I think you were posting at exactly the same time as Blueblood and we were out of sight and out of mind! Do you want me to delete this post?

Ian

THE expert on the Kings is a Pal...Promenade. Try messaging him.

I agree that Promenade is probably the expert on the global entirety of soldier's records for the King's Liverpool Regiment in the Great War. With the greatest respect to my good friend Promenade, I might suggest that the expert on the entirety of Liverpool Scottish is the Liverpool Scottish Museum Trust www.liverpoolscottish.org.uk (in my humble opinion). We owe a great deal to Promenade, especially in terms of access to National Archive material in recent years, but we have our own database that takes in our own substantial archive of material as well as a great deal of local research by our curator and others. We have access to considerable chunks of divisional HQ diaries (thanks in part to Promenade and Promenade the Younger and, in part, to personal investment) and the relevant brigade diaries post January 1916 (coverage which continues to increase). We owe a great deal to Promenade's magisterial work but a great deal of it is our own.

We have processed 350 Liverpool Scottish queries in just over two years (mainly Great War) with a small team of volunteers, using sometimes material provided by Promenade and often our own. I have walked every major battlefield of the Liverpool Scottish in the last 10 years (with the exception of the final advance) at risk of lfe and limb negotiating man-eating hounds to get to the bottom of Pigeon Quarry (near Pigeon Ravine, Epèhy, Cambrai) eleven days ago. I have walked a host of minor battlefields (OK so I use loads of petrol to get to them; I would not want anybody to think I have got too energetic). We provide pictures of these places to our correspondents.

As I speak, Blueblood is concentrating on the latest batch of 20 queries that came from last month little suspecting that he is about to recieve a tidal wave of twenty queries from the 90th Anniversary week. I think we provide a pretty good service, unfunded and all-volunteer, relying on voluntary donations to meet our overheads. We have maintained this service with only a six week interruption whilst in the seven month process of packing our museum for storage and moving the archive. Come and visit us! I'll PM the address as the website is not yet amended.

Meanwhile, back to Mr Thomson's query and I may be a bit embarrassed if we are responsible for the wire-crossing therein! Still, even in the best regulated households ...

Read on below ...

Ian

Edited 18 November , 2008 by Ian Riley

[tomon]

Thanks very much for your replies.

I have tried to send Promenade a message but his inbox is full.

And I will certainly listen to the advice of Blueblood and see if the museum has any info.

Thanks again

Neil

[Ian Riley]

Sorry this is a repeat post- I've changed the title

Private James Thomson

5665

Liverpool Scottish Regiment (Kings Regiment)

Enlisted 1915 and died 1916 in Germany

In my previous post someone kindly found out were he is buried- Thiepval Memorial

and I was also posted the medal card- but it had very little info on it

I think he was attached to 12th Reinforcements

I also beleive he died from shrapnel wounds in the black forrest Germany

Thank you for any help

Neil Thomson

Neil,

Welcome to the Forum.

As Blueblood mentioned, the Liverpool Scottish Museum would be pleased to help you as far as we can. We do have a James Thomson who matches the number that you give (an four figure number that would belong to a Territorial). If you are mentioning '12th Reinforcements' this makes me think that you (or somebody in the family) have enquired with us before as this sounds like information that has come from the battalion's draft book (the list of men being sent overseas in groups called 'drafts'). This James Thomsom is certainly commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial as one of the missing of the Somme Campaign. There is no evidence in our database that suggests he was a prisoner of war in the Black Forest (in fact definitely to the contrary).

It is possible, if you have previously asked the Liverpool Scottish Museum, that you have been offered details of another James Thomson in addition and for whom that 'Black Forest' information was appropriate and the two sets of information have been confused. This is only a suggestion, I don't have the curator's database here to look and see if we have a second James Thomson on the books.

What is important to know is if the number, 5665, and the information that he was in the Liverpool Scottish, is reliable in the first place. Did the number and the battalion name come from family sources (a letter or from the edge of a medal) or has it been deduced as a likely number by putting the name James Thomson into a database such as the Commonwealth War Graves Commission site. It is very easy then for these things to take on a momentum of their own as established fact.

The area in which James Thomson 5665 was killed is likely to be at the eastern end of the Somme battlefield, north of Trones Wood near Guillemont and Ginchy. The Museum has access to the war diary, two regimental histories (including a reference to this particular James Thomson I think), the divisional history and the brigade and divisional war diary as well as other documentary sources and a knowledge of when the 12th Reinforcement Draft went across, what its previous history was and what happened to it when it got to France and Flanders. However, I will need to process this through our curator, Dennis Reeves. The 12th Draft referred to would be the 12th group of Liverpool Scottish soldiers sent abroad by the training battalion of the Liverpool Scottish to reinforce its battalions overseas. These men did not always reach the Liverpool Scottish in France and Belgium but might be diverted to another battalion.

Please follow the link provided by Blueblood if you wish and contact us.

Ian