Who amongst your researchees would you wish to meet?

[armourersergeant]

Blimey,

From the family angle it would of course be my Grandfather, who died four months after I was born.

Apart from that, a few years ago it would have been Lt-Gen. Snow or Major-Gen. Forestier-Walker and whilst they are still top most, I think on reflection it would be Cecil Godfrey Rawling, commander of 62nd brigade, 21st division who was killed on the 28th Oct 1917. Just to have a chin wag see what he was really like and let him know that the Everest summit was conquered but many years after he had mapped it and thought of doing so.

Good thread Kate

Arm

[per ardua per mare per terram]

What a great thread and it really gets me thinking.

Before I'd meet anyone who served in the trenches; I'd have to go in them myself for a spell. Without ding that I doubt if I could connect with them.

Happy New Year

[Guest]

I can throw some light on Charles Fair's wish to meet RSM Arthur Ridout and the threads about the circumstances of his death. I have a copy of a letter sent by your grandfather, also Charles Fair, to Arthur's widow, Ella, it reads:

"It is with sincere regret that I am writing to tell you of the death of your husband, Reg Sergt, Major Ridout, who was instantly killed by the explosion of a shell on September 15th. I should have written before, but the loss of our colonel has thrown a considerable amount of extra work on my shoulders. He was one of the very finest men whom I have come across out here. It was an extraordinary achievement on his part to rise from a private to the responsible position of reg, serjt major in less than two years; there can be few, if any more, remarkable cases. He was the ideal soldier, knowing by instinct when to be stern and when to be kind. He had a wonderful grasp of all the duties which his position entailed, and many a young NCO will be grateful all his life for the help and advice your husband gave him. Personally I feel that I have lost a real friend, and one of the greatest pillars of the Battalion. All through that day he calmly did his duty, it was only by a chance shell at the last. May you find comfort in a very glorious memory and the deep sympathy of every officer, NCO and man of the Battalion".

 

Charles. If you read this I have been trying to message you without success over Arthur Ridout; The system won't let me contact anyone! If you happen to have a photograph of him, possibly in a group shot, I'd be very grateful to receive a copy for inclusion in a work I have written on the men of Okeford Fitzpaine who perished in WW1.

 

OkeyKokey of (OkeFitz)

[thetrenchrat22]

Over the years, I’ve researched over hundreds of men on 5 different memorials

 

For me it would have to be.

 

Samuel Colclough

Wilfred Dowie

William Shore.  

 

Samuel is my Great Great Uncle,  William’s sister Hannah married James Colclough, Samuel’s brother and Wilfred Dowie is a cousin ( 8th South Lancs 2nd August 1917)

 

William Shore - 13th Cheshire’s 7th July 1916

 

Samuel Colclough- 1/6th Cheshire’s 26th July 1917

Edited 11 March , 2018 by thetrenchrat22
Added photos of William Shore and Samuel Colclough

[Michelle Young]

Dear OakeyKokey

now you have made two posts, you can use the messenger system.

Michelle 

[Guest]

   Of my local casualties, for Wanstead in the east of London, one man comes across the century  strongly as slightly ahead of the others- Of course, 5 minutes with any of them would be a tale to tell- perhaps, for example, Private David Rivolta, 5'3" tall and killed aged 19 on 1st July 1916 with the Hampshires..  But my man is John Calder, killed in action 1918 as a Captain in the London Rifle Brigade.  A pre-war teacher with the Leyton School Board here in East London- from a hard-working family of Scottish teachers- and committed Baptists. Worked his way up to CSM after enlistment in September 1914  to mid-1916. Then held out for a commission in his own regiment and was commissioned in his own battalion-which is unusual.  What comes across is that he was a leader of men by  their respect and his concerns for them.

     He was one of the first to spill the beans on the Christmas Truce of 1914- a letter to  home to his parents, published locally and taken up nationally in January 1915. However, the less reported part of the letter was that he had received a large plum cake in a Christmas hamper from his family- which he shared out among his men. He won the MC twice- both occasions involving retrieving all of his men during trench raids. He was noted for looking out for his former pupils in his own and other battalions as they crossed. His letter to his parents reporting the death of his brother- a Private in the London Scottish- with a strong religious tone, would bring tears to the eyes of many a strong man.  

    In 1918, his final reported actions when dying from a bullet wound to the chest was to pass his flask of coffee to a badly wounded man lying next to him in a shellhole- the story was reported locally in the early 1920s and I had thought that it was a little overdone. However, his file at Kew has the reports of others of the London Rifle Brigade captured on the day he died-his body was not recovered so they were interviewed as returning POWs. And, yes, there is the report from the other wounded man- a former pupil of Calder- giving the story first-hand.

 

 

Edited 28 February , 2018 by Guest

[Canadian J]

Three of my Great Grandfathers who were all in the infantry. My GG Everett Marshall (5th CMR) who I was told about by his son (my Grandpa) and to whom I have to thank for all the research that came after being told about him, who he was and his participation in WW1. Having researched him thoroughly, I now research his battalion. It was him and his battalion that got me hooked on WW1. I'd also like to meet my GG Frank Stowe (1/4 King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment) who served with his battalion since it first went to France (and finished without a scratch). I'd also like to meet my other GG Neil Nixon (5th Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders) who joined underage and was described by my Great Uncle as a risk taker. I'd love to sit with each of them, have a beer (or 12) and enjoy. How absolutely fantastic that would be.

 

- J

[RobynM]

L Cpl Francis Shaw 43 Bn AIF DoW 12 August 18 WIA Aug 8 1918 Amiens. Should have been a Victoria Cross winner and a legend.

[seaJane]

My grandfather, Richard William Marsh, torpedo gunner's mate HMS Agamemnon, because I never met him (died 1952) and Archie Hamilton Douglas Ord Richmond, whose 1944 portrait was on my office wall for several years and whose unexpected medal ribbons set me and several helpful others off on a long and complicated search. 

[Andy Wade]

My maternal Grandfather Charles Patrick Lancaster. He was serving with the Royal Sussex Regiment and was wounded in 1916 and served out the remainder of the war with the Labour Corps. According to my mum he had a metal plate in his head and suffered from headaches. He died from a heart attack on the operating table in 1947 and consequently my mother was orphaned at 16 as my grandmother died in 1951. There are no service records for Charles and I would love to have been able to meet him and to get details of his service.

Of the men I'm researching for our project, there are so many I'd like to meet but I guess if I had to pick just one it would be Billy Bott. Christened William Bottomley, he was known around town and in his Army service as 'Billy Bott' and his nickname is even engraved on his CWGC headstone at the bottom. He was a great local cricketer and medal winning footballer and I think he must have been quite a character and well known about town. Billy is the lad in the striped top with his arms folded and chest proudly puffed out, sitting in the centre of this group photograph of Parkwood Working Men's Club football team from the 1912-13 season.
Billy was killed in action by a shell whilst serving in trenches near the Leipzig Salient, close to Thiepval, on 17th September 1916. He was just 24 years old. He was buried in Lonsdale Cemetery 57d.X.1.a.3.2. after being moved from his battlefield burial site on May 3rd, 1919. The family inscription on his CWGC headstone says: LOVE IS ETERNAL AND LIVES FOR EVER (BILLY BOTT) He's the only man we have with his nickname on his headstone, and there's something about that which I find endearing to the lad and his memory.

Who wouldn't want to know Billy Bott?

[micks]

There are a number of men that I am researching who I would have enjoyed meeting. The first would be Lieutenant F.H.L Rushton of the 2nd Royal Irish Regiment. He was recommended for the V.C  ( received the M.C and M.I.D ) for saving the lives of his C.O and adjutant at Mons. He was eventually killed at Vailly on the 15th September 1914. Although wounded and told to leave the line by his medical officer he refused and took his platoon forward. He was one of those men who was unlikely to make old bones. He now lies as an unidentified officer of the Royal Irish Regiment in Montcornet Military Cemetery.

[Kimberley John Lindsay]

Dear All,

Quote

Without a doubt, Arthur William Fagan (1890-1977).

A man of many parts, a son of the Manse, top boy at Sandroyd, a Winchester scholar, fenced for Britain at the Stockholm Olympics, 1912, studied at New College, Oxford (BA).

Entered ICS. Great War: joined the IARO (Political Officer, Mesopotamia and Persian Gulf: Capt), then returned to ICS but resigned. Company manager in the City (Tea). Married the daughter of a public school Headmaster - unfortunately they had no children. 1940: RAFVR (I. O. Spitfire Sqn, Battle of Britain), S/Ldr. Retirement...

Kindest regards,

Kim.