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Remembered Today:

Officer's Field Kit - Lt Col J G Fairlie, 6th LNL


AlanCurragh

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James

I think they must have been left out of this particular action as they are not mentioned. They were part of the 38th Brigade as they are mentioned 8 pages earlier :

Page 171 - 9 March 1917, River Diyala, Mesopotamia

"The first serious resistance was met where the River Diyala flowed into the Tigris, fourteen miles south of Baghdad, when Brigadier General J W O'Dowd's 38th Brigade reached the river on 9 March. He tried to cross in moonlight that night, but the 6th King's Own lost fifty men in an unsuccessful attempt."

I have a digital copy of the 6th King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment's war diaries (courtesy of their excellent museum in Lancaster) so if you want any details, let me know.

As for the 6th LNL's - there are 2 regimental books - "The Loyal North Lancashire Regiment (Archive Photographs: Images of England)" by Stephen Bull & "Loyal North Lancashire Regiment 1914-1919" by Colonel H. C. Wylly on Amazon but they are £26 & £21 respectively - I can't see anything obvious specifically on the 6th.

Where would "their" museum be? That might be the best place to contact. I would be interested if you get anywhere.

Regards

Brian

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Their museum is in Preston, Fulwood Barracks (a long way from Philadelphia). Along with the Loyals another old 38th brigade battalion's War Diaries are kept there - East Lancs.

I'll post any great discoveries I find. Thanks for the information.

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  • 2 years later...

In early March 1916, whilst sailing from Alexandria to Basrah, J G Fairlie had a brief stopover in Kuwait, and while he was there, he posted a letter to his wife.

Pals may be interested to know that about 10 days ago, the cover of that letter, shown below, was auctioned for a price of approximately £18,000. For a short while, this was a world record price for postal items from Kuwait, where the Post Office only opened in 1915.

Alan - I have directed the new owner of this cover to your website as he was keen to get in touch with you.

(Image posted with owner's permission)

post-1356-0-92907000-1317893988.jpg

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Thanks Stephen - I've emailed him back.

Alan

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I've recently acquired a rather splendid field kit, with several of the items engraved with the name of initials of Capt (later Lt Col) James Gordon Fairlie of the 6th Battalion, Loyal North Lancs Regiment. He served in Gallipoli as a captain, later being promoted to Lt Col of the regiment, and was killed in action in Mesoptamia on 22nd April 1916

I'll post some photos of the contents later on, but in the meantime, there are four sheets of paper enclosed. One is a page of military field regulations, another appears to be arithmetic involving sums of money, but I'm uncertain about the other two. I'm going to post images of them, in the hope pals may have thoughts on what they are.

Here is the first, a table, has the numbers 1a, 1b, 2a, 3b...up to 10a, 10b, 10c, 11 and 12 along the top, and down the side, the numbers 25, 26...up to 39, 41 and 44a. Some cells in the table have numbers, from 1 to 8, and there is a grand total on the right. My guess would be some sort of casualty table, but the numbering of each axis doesn't make much sense (to me at least)

Any thoughts as to what this is?

Many thanks

Alan

I think this probably relates to a list of stores from a stock check, which was (and still is) an obligation of the Orderly Officer of the Day, in accordance with regimental (or sometimes battalion) "Standing (not "Standard" as is sometimes erroneously quoted) Orders". The check could relate to the number of items held on each shelf (as numbered or lettered) in a store with the other number relating to the ledger code to indicate 'item'. Totals are traditionally shown in the right hand column. The duty "Field Officer of the Week" (or sometimes day) also had regulated checks to make, but these tended to be of a more important and less tedious nature.

Such a scenario would fit with the ammunition "tally" (i.e. matching physical numbers with ledger quotes) on the reverse side, which relates to ammunition boxed and still in cartons or "ready" (cotton, pocketed) bandoliers (by calibre) and ammunition "loose" without carton or bandolier. This type of routine stock take is common British Army practice that has changed little until the advent of computerised stores inventories and I have carried out such checks more times than I care to recall (they were necessary but exceedingly tedious and you ideally had a good NCO to assist). Usually the Orderly Officer of a particular day (e.g. every Wednesday) would carry out the check, or another method was to carry out a check on a different item each day. Depending on the number of items in each category the check could either be 100% or 10% as common measures.

Other occasions for stock checks would be to ascertain "Trench Stores" when taking over a portion of the line from another regiment (an outgoing unit could not depart until everything had been checked and "signed for" by the incoming unit) and I believe that is what the pages from the notebook relate to.

Junior staff officers were also required to carry out various checks when "Duty Officer" at formation level.

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  • 3 years later...

Hello,

I am very proud of my family the Critchley-Salmonson''s , many of whom are military. I recently discovered that I have a relative who is Doris Critchley-Salmonson who was a nurse in France in 1917. Her sister was married to James Gordon Fairlie, so I will now be adding your comments to my family tree. I would very much welcome any additional information you have. I would also appreciate details of the person who purchased the letter as I would love to know the contents.

I can be reached through our company Spirit of Remembrance

Many thanks,

Nikki

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The field kit contents

Hi Alan.

Oddly enough I saw this kit in our local museum today, having seen the picture on Wednesday here... Thought it looked familiar and then recognised the name of the officer.

Tim B

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Hi Alan.

Oddly enough I saw this kit in our local museum today, having seen the picture on Wednesday here... Thought it looked familiar and then recognised the name of the officer.

Tim B

Hi Tim - yes, the kit is in Wells Museum (also our local). My wife Sue had a major part in setting up the exhibits and I was happy to lend the kit

Alan

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Hi Tim - yes, the kit is in Wells Museum (also our local). My wife Sue had a major part in setting up the exhibits and I was happy to lend the kit

Alan

Ahhh.. it all becomes clear now. I believe I have been in touch with Se before. If you ever need any help with the museum display I'm now a friend of the museum and happy to help. My interest is the North Somerset Yeomanry especially 'C' Squadron based in Shepton Mallet

I often drop in and see Jeff Allen too... Seeing him tomorrow if he's in the shop.

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  • 2 years later...

Hello,

Thank you all for sharing the amazing photographs and information about my great uncle Lt. Col James G. FAIRLIE who was married to my great aunt Margaret Constance Critchley-Salmonson, (yes another of the same family - they were all military or married to military - various services including VAD).

I have not really research him but was very interested to see that he was in Gallipoli as my grandfather Arthur Critchley-Salmonson won his DSO with the Canterbury Regiment in Gallipoli.  Interesting how all the dots are joining up.  Grandfather went to the Nuba Hills after Gallipoli while Fairlie went to Mesopotamia.

I would be most appreciative for any information about Fairlie so I can add him to our family community on the IWM Lives of the First World War and indeed to my own family tree on Ancestry.

Thank you.

Best wishes,

Nikki (also of SPirit of Remembrance)

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