Information about Lance Corporal Cecil Edward Sargeant died 29th April

[Guest rhinocharge1]

My great uncle Cecil Edward Sargeant was a Lance Corporal who died on April 29^th 1917. I believe his body was not found, but he is named on the memorial at Arras. He was a member of the 7^th Battalion of the King's Royal Rifle Corps, 41^st Brigade, 14^th Light Division and his service number was R/16627. I believe that he was killed in action during the 2nd battle of Arras. I am very honoured to be his great nephew, and would be very grateful if you help me find any more information about him. Perhaps where his regiment were posted during the war, and any key places to visit where he would have been. I would also really like to know where he fought during his final days, and where he was at the time of his death, to arrange to visit and honour his memory.

Your help would be very welcome. Thanks in anticipation

[grantowi]

Welcome to the forum,

I assume you have his CWGC entry :

Name: SARGEANT, CECIL EDWARD

Initials: C E

Nationality: United Kingdom

Rank: Lance Corporal

Regiment/Service: King's Royal Rifle Corps

Unit Text: 7th Bn.

Age: 22

Date of Death: 29/04/1917

Service No: R/16627

Additional information: Son of Thomas Albert and Jane Emily Sargeant, of Ashburton Cottages, Wokingham Rd., Bracknell, Berks.

Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead

Grave/Memorial Reference: Bay 7.

Memorial: ARRAS MEMORIAL

and his entry in SDGW:

Regiment, Corps etc.: King's Royal Rifle Corps

Battalion etc.: 7th Battalion.

Formed at Winchester 19.8.14-K1-to Marlborough Lines, Aldershot in 41st Bde. 14th Div. Nov. 1914 to Grayshott, near Hindhead in billets. Feb. 1915 Bordon. Mar. 1915 Aldershot. 19.5.15 landed at Boulogne. 2.2.18 to 43rd Bde. 14th Div. 25.4.18 reduced to cadre. 16.6.18 to 16th Div. at Boulogne and returned to England. Cadre absorbed by 34th Bn. London Regt. at Clacton.

Last name: Sargent

First name(s): Cecil Edward

Initials: C E

Birthplace:

Enlisted: Ascot

Residence: Bracknell, Berks

Rank: RIFLEMAN

Number: R/16627

Date died: 29 April 1917

How died: Killed in action

Theatre of war: France & Flanders

His MIC can be downloaded here for £2 - http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documen...p;resultcount=2 - unless SKS finds it on ancestry for you

Medal card of Sargeant, Cecil E

Corps Regiment No Rank

King's Royal Rifle Corps R/16627 Private

Grant

[stiletto_33853]

Welcome to the forum,

The 7th KRRC moved up to the front line on the 28th April and relieved the 9th Rifle Brigade. The disposition of the Battalion was as follows:-

2 Coys in Heron Trench

1 Coy in Gannet Trench

1 Coy and Battalion HQ in Duck Trench.

The Battalion remained in the line until the night of the 1st/2nd May and were occupied in improving the trenches, providing covering parties and digging assembly trenches. There was much shelling during this period. The War Diary states that casualties were light.

On the night of the 1st/2nd May they were relieved by the 8th Rifle Brigade and 8th K.R.R.C. moving to Nepal Trench where they remained until the night of 3rd May.

Andy

[Guest rhinocharge1]

I have been given a 1916 copy of The Happy Warrior that was my Great Uncle Cecil's. This was written by the Hon Mrs Gell and given to Uncle Cecil by VF Arkwright in Dec 1915. This is written in the front. Please could someone tell me about these books. Thanks.

[MBrockway]

I have been given a 1916 copy of The Happy Warrior that was my Great Uncle Cecil's. This was written by the Hon Mrs Gell and given to Uncle Cecil by VF Arkwright in Dec 1915. This is written in the front. Please could someone tell me about these books. Thanks.

Ten minutes searching on the web turned up this ...

From Derbyshire County Archives ...

Edith Lyttelton Gell (b 1860, m1889, d1944)

In 1889 Philip Lyttelton Gell married the Hon. Edith Brodrick, daughter of the 8th Viscount Midleton of Peper Harow, Surrey, and sister of William St John Fremantle Brodrick, 1st Earl Midleton (1856-1942), a distinguished politician who was Secretary of State for War from 1900-1903 and Secretary of State for India from 1903-1905.

Edith shared her husband's interests and took an active role in political and Church of England fundraising and charitable activities, nationally as well as locally.

An indefatigable writer of devotional poems, hymns, and moralistic pageants and tracts, Edith Lyttelton Gell strongly supported traditional family values. She was prominent in organisations such as the Mothers' Union, the Central Church Union and the Union of Women Workers. Derbyshire church matters were another interest and she involved herself in both Carsington and Wirksworth parishes. Deeply conventional in outlook, Edith Lyttelton Gell for many years published or circulated her writings amongst her extended family and social circle. She reached a wider readership with her memoirs 'Under Three Reigns'.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of her papers relates to the work Edith Lyttelton Gell undertook to complement her spouse's involvement in Rhodesia. Females were thought to outnumber males in the population of Britain and, to address this 'surplus', emigration was widely promoted as a remedy not only for the scarcity of well paid employment for women but also for the shortage of potential husbands. Edith was a member of the British Women's Emigration Society and in 1901 became Chair of the South African Emigration Expansion Committee. She played a key role both in encouraging women to settle in the new country of Rhodesia and in vetting their suitability. She provided practical advice to intending female emigrants and her correspondence in the opening years of the 20th century includes much on the management and staffing of the Salisbury Hostel in Bulawayo, a facility for new women arrivals.

All Edith Lyttelton Gell's papers in Derbyshire Record Office are in the collection referenced D3287, except for a travel journal with the reference D3311/125.

The same source also contains info on her husband.

Gell family papers catalogue entry at National Archives (see biog info near bottom):

Gell papers at NA

Gell home in Oxford:

Langley Lodge, Headington

And here's info on the author from Who Was Who:

GELL, Hon. Mrs Edith Mary Lyttelton

Born 1860; daughter of William, 8th Viscount Midleton, and Augusta, d of 1st Baron Cottesloe; m 1889, Philip Lyttelton Gell (d 1926); died 17 April 1944

Career

Lady of the Manors of Hopton-Carsington and Middleton

Publications

The Cloud of Witness, 1891; Squandered Girlhood, 1892; The More Excellent Way, 1898; The Vision of Righteousness, 1899; The Forces of the Spirit, 1908; The Menace of Secularism, 1912; The Happy Warrior, 1914; Problems for Speakers, 1915; The Empire's Honour; Influence of Women of the Early Church in Britain; Conquering and to Conquer; The Blessèd Company, 1916; Wedded Life, 1917; The Church-woman's Vote, 1917; The Empire's Destiny, 1918; The New Girl, 1919; Womanhood and Fellowship, 1919; The Resurrection of a Nation, 1919; The Liberation of Spiritual Force, 1919; Womanhood at the Crossroads, 1919; The New Crusaders, 1920; Our Mother Earth, 1921; The Spirit of the Home, 1922; Look Before You Leap, 1924; Under Three Reigns, 1927; Heaven in Daily Life, 1929; John Franklin's Bride, 1930; Ways and Signposts, 1930; The Ideal of Stillness, 1931; Live Gloriously, 1932; Build, 1933; Hopton Hymns, 1934; Jubilee Musical Masque, 1935

Address

Hopton Hall, Wirksworth

Hope you find this useful and do let us know if the information provided by the Pals above in response to your earlier request was interesting and valuable to you - it helps with the motivation

Cheers,

Mark

[aradgick]

VF Arkwright is Violet Frances Arkwright, a 44 year old spinster of private means, living in Bracknell (at Firlands, Bagshot Road) in the 1911 census.

There is a Service record for Cecil (it can be downloaded on ancestry for a fee), and he is working as a footman at the time he attested. His home address is about two miles from Firlands - it is possible he worked for her, or she knew of him as both would have attended the same church.

Andrewr