Skipman Posted 2 May , 2009 Share Posted 2 May , 2009 Wonder if can have a thread devoted to obscure, or one off questions that can be answered by anyone who knows. For example; 1. Where do SDGW get the Place of enlistment information? Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geraint Posted 2 May , 2009 Share Posted 2 May , 2009 Good question Mike. I'd add - How much private possessions was a soldier allowed to carry with him when overseas? Who kept check? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bruce Posted 2 May , 2009 Share Posted 2 May , 2009 A clue, Geraint, can be found in the records of Australian soldiers killed in France. If you look at their records (and there are often pages and pages) then you can often find a list of the personal belongings returned to their next of kin. I am not saying that this is all that they had when abroad, just what was left to send back (wallet, watch, pipe, pouch, etc.) I suspect that other stuff would have been shared out amongst his surviving mates, just as cakes were shared. Bruce Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted 2 May , 2009 Share Posted 2 May , 2009 My wife's great uncle's record survives. this is what he carried on him the day he died. Not sure if this is typical. Cheers Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
centurion Posted 2 May , 2009 Share Posted 2 May , 2009 Good question Mike. I'd add - How much private possessions was a soldier allowed to carry with him when overseas? Who kept check? You could further divide this into how much could he carry when up the front and how much was stashed behind the lines (and how and with whom etc)? I suspect the answer might vary with his arm of service etc. thus an artillery man with plenty of transport might get away with more than the PBI! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
centurion Posted 2 May , 2009 Share Posted 2 May , 2009 Another obscure question - were there any facilities for answering a call of nature on an HP o/400? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David B Posted 2 May , 2009 Share Posted 2 May , 2009 Yeah, and where did they stash it when in the line. My uncle recalled one of his guys has souvenered (sp) a German helmet, complete with bullet hole, that went missing while he was in the line. No doubt rich pickings for some. Also a rel who was KIA at Messines, was an officer took about 3 years for his personal trunk with possessions to arrive back in Oz after much stirring by his father. Wasnt much left in that either David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Broomfield Posted 3 May , 2009 Share Posted 3 May , 2009 Another obscure question - were there any facilities for answering a call of nature on an HP o/400? Yeah, and where did they stash it when in the line. This thread has the opportunity to be utterly bizarre! Incidentally, when answering the question about what was returned to relatives, were not the RAMC nicknamed Rob All My Comrades? "Shared out" might be a euphemism. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted 3 May , 2009 Share Posted 3 May , 2009 Going back to original question. Where do the SDGW get the Enlistment location? In a couple of cases am researching,it is so far , the only link to Aberfeldy. Does anyone know where they got info from? Is there more info available? The service record of these men doesn't survive. The medall rolls don't have that information do they? Cheers Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Reed Posted 3 May , 2009 Share Posted 3 May , 2009 The enlistment (and born/living) details in 'Soldiers Died' were taken from the Attestation Papers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted 3 May , 2009 Share Posted 3 May , 2009 Thanks Paul. Excuse my not knowing but I take it SDGW was written up before September 1940 then. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris_Baker Posted 3 May , 2009 Share Posted 3 May , 2009 It was published by HMSO in 1921. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted 3 May , 2009 Share Posted 3 May , 2009 Thanks Chris. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted 4 May , 2009 Share Posted 4 May , 2009 Another question that I should perhaps know the answer to, but don't. In some of the CWGC entries it states which Company in a Bn, a particular soldier belonged to ( also in SDGW ) Where doed this information come from? Were there any records kept at that level. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geraint Posted 4 May , 2009 Share Posted 4 May , 2009 Can't answer you Mike; but, lateral thinking; how many subalterns were killed by their own men? There's a lot of legend talk about this, but did it really happen? I have a young, local officer, a Jones-Bateman, who died during the last few days of war, and local legend has it that he was deliberately shot by local men of the battalion for a manslaughter charge against him in 1912, in which he was aquitted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Connolly Posted 4 May , 2009 Share Posted 4 May , 2009 1) What is a "James bomb"? Someone asked this in another thread and I don't think it got answered. 2) Why were British small arms of .303 calibre? Why such an odd choice? (".300 calibre? That'll never do! .303, on the other hand, is just what we want!") Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geraint Posted 4 May , 2009 Share Posted 4 May , 2009 Why the putees? All that palaver. Why not do as the Germans did and issue knee high boots as issued in the Napoleonic Wars? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdajd Posted 4 May , 2009 Share Posted 4 May , 2009 How were fires fought? I would expect this would be a pretty common occurence given the amount of flammable items flying about, but I have never seen a reference to it in any books. Was it by bucket brigade, sand, indian pumps or did they just basically let the fire burn itself out? Jon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
truthergw Posted 4 May , 2009 Share Posted 4 May , 2009 Can't answer you Mike; but, lateral thinking; how many subalterns were killed by their own men? There's a lot of legend talk about this, but did it really happen? I have a young, local officer, a Jones-Bateman, who died during the last few days of war, and local legend has it that he was deliberately shot by local men of the battalion for a manslaughter charge against him in 1912, in which he was aquitted. There were several charges of murder brought during the war and men were shot for it after being found guilty. In a serious charge like murder, I always feel that it is best to demand a fairly high level of evidence. You say local legend. Are there any names mentioned? Is there any mention of how the local men went about it? Did they surround him and shoot simultaneously or sneak up one by one and shoot him in turn? Were any charges brought? Six years including 4 years of war, is a long time to bear such an enormous grudge. What are the facts of the manslaughter case? Did the victim have relatives serving beside the officer when he was murdered? What is the official version of his death? It will be in the diary, normally, him being an officer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Broomfield Posted 4 May , 2009 Share Posted 4 May , 2009 Why the putees? All that palaver. Why not do as the Germans did and issue knee high boots as issued in the Napoleonic Wars? For a start, puttees were cheaper - the Huns were using them by the end of the war. Secondly, they would have other uses (tying things up, if required, I guess). I believe also that puttees in some way gave better support to the legs/ankles: in the 70's and 80's, in my TA days, we were using 'short puttees' to connect the boot to the leg, if you see what I mean, having replaced gaiters. I much preferred them to ankle boots. On the negative side, my old dad, who started his army days wearing them, commented that they caused varicose veins. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geraint Posted 4 May , 2009 Share Posted 4 May , 2009 Tom The case itself was fairley self evident. The young Jones Bateman (19), shot a 62 year old vagrant who had escaped from the local prison here at Ruthin. The vagrant - John Jones was a local character, and well liked in the area. Having escaped from the gaol, and living rough in late October 1912, he had no clothes, and was shot by Jones Bateman at 5 yards distance on JB's land, dressed in a stolen sack, reeking of meths and eating two tallow candles. The shotgun wound caused Jones to bleed to death from a shoulder/upper cavity wound within the hour. JB faced manslaughter charges at Chester CC in 1913 but the case was dismissed, though the Judge gave him a thorough boll*ck**g. Jones Bateman, and his brother were commissioned into RWF, and their uncle, Col Heaton, from Heaton Hall, Trefnant financially supported them. Neither the Heatons nor the Jones Batemans were liked locally. Both families were regarded as heavy handed bullies with their tenants and workers. Those are facts. Where legend kicks in is that both Jones-Batemans died in the war. The one who shot Jones being acknowledged as being 'murdered' by his own (local)men. Hence my question! No names mentioned; just the wise nod and wink! "You know," (wink wink). "He was got at by his own men". (Nod nod)! Edit Ta for that Steve. It makes sense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bruce Posted 4 May , 2009 Share Posted 4 May , 2009 The word puttee is obviously not of British origin. I suspect it comes from India. This would tie in with something in the back of the memory that they could have been worn to stop rats running up the trouser leg. They also stopped the ends of trousers fraying, and, important in the Great War in Europe, stopped the ends of the trousers picking up pounds of mud. Mind you.....that could all be just rubbish! Bruce Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
truthergw Posted 4 May , 2009 Share Posted 4 May , 2009 Hi Geraint. A sadly common tale of the death of a tramp and dubious justice. Of course, it is a long way from there to retribution on the battlefield. The obvious question is why wait so long? There was a similar story about Harry Lauder's son, whose death inspired " There's a long, long road awinding". According to a thread here on the forum, he was reputed to have been unpopular and shot by his own men. There will never be a final refutation of those stories but they are also impossible to prove. Otherwise there would have been a court martial. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Broomfield Posted 4 May , 2009 Share Posted 4 May , 2009 The word puttee is obviously not of British origin. I suspect it comes from India. Hobson Jobson gives it as Hindustani: A piece of strip or cloth, bandage; especially used in the sense of a ligature round the lower part of the leg used in lieu of a gaiter, originally introduced from the Himalaya, and now commonly used by sportsmen and soldiers As an aside, in the North West Province it was also used to refer to a portion of an estate, and in Southern India, in earlier use, it referred to a soldier's pay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stripeyman Posted 4 May , 2009 Share Posted 4 May , 2009 Steven Short puttees..............and did you use an elastic band in the trouser leg and over the puttees to make the whole thing smarter ? Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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