3/21 County of London Regiment

[GBH]

I have recently found a paragraph on the National Roll of The Great War, about my grandfather, Archibald William HULL. His attestation dated 31 May 1916 has him joining the 3/21 County of London Regiment, No. 5478.

The paragraph in the National Roll states that he was with the 21st London Regiment (1st Surrey Rifles), which I assume is probably due to the adjustments in regiments during the Great War.

I am interested in finding out a bit more about the action he was involved in in Ypres in July 1917, where it is stated in the National Roll, 'he was blown up, and invalided home suffering from shell-shock'.

Does anyone know if a War Diary exists for these/this regiment which may describe/record this incident?

Many thanks

Gary

[nealw66]

Hi Gary,

War Diary is available through Documents OnLine - http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documen...p;resultcount=1

The following extract from a history of the division:

"On July 25th, after just four weeks of holding the line, the

Division received orders for relief by the 41st Division, and so

ended a tour of duty chiefly memorable for its night patrol work,

several small but very successful raids, and heavy gas-shelling

of both trench and back areas by the enemy"

All the best, Neal

[tony paley]

Gary,

Most of the Surrey Regiments diaries are available free on the Queens Royal Surrey Regt. site. I am not sure if the 3/21st is there but there diaries for the 21st London(Surrey Rifles)

Tony P

[westkent78]

Gary,

Glad I looked in on this thread. I'm compiling a database of all 23rd London men.

Luckily Archibald's papers have survived and are available in the "Service Records" on Ancestry, although some of them have suffered water damage.

Archibald Hull did join the 3/21st London, but he actually served overseas with 1/23rd London, going to France on 29th September 1916. His numbers in 1/23rd were 7018 & 703262. I think that he was invalided back to UK after serving with them until April 1917 and once recovered it appears he remained with 3/21st in England until 24 April 1918 when he transferred to the RAMC as 143823. This time he remained on home service and was posted to 54th Training Bn a month later. It appears he was suffering from trench foot and another ailment (it's quite hard to read but looks like "DAH" but might be an acronym for "shellshock" and was given a pension for these. He was discharged from the RAMC 1 October 1919.

The 1/23rd London war diary can be found here. I'd suggest he may have been 'blown up' in one of the tours in the trenches around Hill 60 in February or March, rather than in a specific action and was back at a base depot while it was determined if he could recover. Certainly in April the battalion was in training for the period that he was still in France.

As you mention having his attestation form do you happen to have any photos or cards relating to his war service which you could share?

Best regards,

Matthew

[GBH]

Thanks everyone for all the info. It has been most useful.

Matthew, many thanks for the history. I must admit I sat down last night to try to make some sense of the scribbles on his army service records, but found it difficult to put things together.

I do have some photographs of Archibald in his uniform, if that is what you would like. I have them in electronic form, so could e-mail them to you.

Please let me know if that is what you want?

Archibald was born on the 25 June 1886 and died on the 13 January 1932. His wife, Lucy, my grandmother, pre-deceased him on the 2nd July 1927.

Gary

[KAC]

Ref: Your research on The Queen's Own (Royal West Kent Regiment)

Hi!

I have a working document related to my Units history that covers the 'The Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment'. can send if this is of any interest.

Regards

[per ardua per mare per terram]

The following site may help sorting out the various battalions of the London Regiment:

http://www.1914-1918.net/london.htm

3/21st (County of London) Battalion (First Surrey Rifles)

1/23rd (County of London) Battalion

Neither would appear to be the Queen's.