Serjeant 942, Alfred Ernest Cleall, North Somerset Yeomanry

[nf3996]

My great-great uncle, Alfred Ernest Cleall, was Serjeant 942 in the North Somerset Yeomanry. He arrived in France in early November 1914, took part in the Antwerp operations and the First Battle of Ypres, and two weeks later he was dead. According to his medal index card he died of wounds on 17 November 1914.

A photograph of him appears in The War Illustrated, 24 July 1915 on page 543, where the text says that he was 'mentioned in despatches for "gallant and distinguished services in the field," and since missing'. I found confirmation of this mention in the Supplement to the London Gazette for 17 February 1915, p1653. I would really like to know what my great-great uncle did to be mentioned in despatches. I've looked at the despatches for that period on the Long Long Trail website, but I've found no mention of him. I'm also trying to obtain copies of the unit's war diary for that period to see if that helps. Is there anywhere else that I could try in order to learn where and how he merited mention for his 'gallant and distinguished service in the field'?

A couple of other queries arise too. Alfred Ernest Cleall is one of the 55,000 'missing' commemorated at the Menin Gate. As his date of death is known, and as he died from wounds not in the midst of fighting, I assume there was a body to be buried. Would I be right to think that he would have been hastily buried locally and then the site of his grave was either lost or destroyed in later fighting around Ypres? And again, as his date of death was known, why was The War Illustrated reporting him as 'still missing' eight months later?

His medal index card also throws up a few mysteries: (i) his date of entry into the theatre of war is given as 2/11/19 - I presume this is simply a mistake by the clerk filling in the card in 1919 and he meant 2/11/14; (ii) I can't see any 'Emb' shown on the card as evidence of his mention in despatches; and (iii) the notes on the card record that the clasp for his 1914 Star was applied for by his widow, Mrs W Cleall - Alfred never married and Mrs W Cleall was in fact his brother's wife. Are such errors on medal index cards common?

Many thanks,

Alan

[Robert Dunlop]

The NA War Diary for 1/1 North Somerset Yeomanry is WO 95/1153.

My wife's grandfather served with the NSY. Good luck with tracking further information.

Robert

[Messina1915]

Alan,

Where did you find out that the NSY were involved in the Antwerp operations?

I have a great-great-great-great-uncle who served with the NSY (see my signature) and was killed at 2nd Ypres in May 1915, but I'll admit I'd never thought about the possibility of them being involved at Antwerp.

Cheers,

Carole.

[nf3996]

Alan,

Where did you find out that the NSY were involved in the Antwerp operations?

I have a great-great-great-great-uncle who served with the NSY (see my signature) and was killed at 2nd Ypres in May 1915, but I'll admit I'd never thought about the possibility of them being involved at Antwerp.

Cheers,

Carole.

Carole,

The NSY formed part of the 3rd Cavalry Division, and some details of their operations are on the Long Long Trail website at http://www.1914-1918.net/3cavdiv.htm. Elsewhere on the LLT site you will find some despatches recording the Division's exploits in late 1914.

Alan

[nf3996]

Further to the above, it looks like I've got some of my dates in a muddle! Although the 3rd Cavalry Division arrived in Belgium in October 1914 and took part in the Antwerp operations, the NSY didn't embark until November 1914 and then moved through northern France towards Ypres. So the NSY didn't take part in the Antwerp operations after all. I hope I've got it correct now.

Alan

[Messina1915]

It's just that if you look at the NSY's page on the LLT there's no mention of Antwerp - http://www.1914-1918.net/nsomerset.htm - and Antwerp was October... I'm ready to be proved wrong, but I think the NSY were probably still in England at the time of the Antwerp operations.

Cheers,

Carole.

[Messina1915]

Looks like we posted at the same time

Don't worry about the confusion, I've got in similar muddles before now

Good luck with your research

Coincidentally, our relatives in the NSY both have the same two Christian names (in my chap's case, he's Ernest Alfred on all the civilian documents/lists, and Alfred Ernest on all the military ones - as he must have given that name, I presume he preferred to be called Alfred)

17 November 1914 seems to be one of two big dates early in the war when the NSY suffered severe casualties, the other being 13 May 1915 when my relative was amongst those killed.

Cheers,

Carole.

[nf3996]

Coincidentally, our relatives in the NSY both have the same two Christian names (in my chap's case, he's Ernest Alfred on all the civilian documents/lists, and Alfred Ernest on all the military ones - as he must have given that name, I presume he preferred to be called Alfred)

Cheers,

Carole.

And mine preferred to be called Ernest it seems. I didn't have any luck tracking him down as Ernest, but a search on the CWGC site for all Clealls turned him up, and his records on Ancestry confirmed hs first name was Alfred. (I've also since learnt that he ran the Full Moon pub in Bath for a number of years before the war, and his brother and sister-in-law ran it after he died).

I'd hoped that the War Illustrated photo would show hm in uniform, as the only photo I have of him is in 'civvies' and is very similar to the one in the War Illustrated.

Alan

[Messina1915]

At least you have a photo - one day I hope to be able to travel to Somerset and have a look through any local newspaper archives to see if I can find a photo of my Alfred Ernest, but unfortunately living in North Yorkshire it's not a trip I can make on a whim.

Funny how two men in the same unit had the same christian names and both swapped them round.

Cheers,

Carole.

[nf3996]

The NA War Diary for 1/1 North Somerset Yeomanry is WO 95/1153.

My wife's grandfather served with the NSY. Good luck with tracking further information.

Robert

I had a very productive day at TNA last Friday, looking at the war diaries for the North Somerset Yeomanry and for the 6th Cavalry Field Ambulance in November 1914. I still don't know what Alfred Ernest Cleall did to deserve his mention in despatches, but I can now plot his movements from disembarking at Le Havre to his death in the trenches at Zillebeke.

I've transcribed the relevant parts of the diaries and I'll post them here if anyone would like to see them.

Alan