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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

Postcards


trenchtrotter

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5 hours ago, Muerrisch said:

 

 

 

     BLAXLEY SL

 

       Birth Cert 01 06 85 Northampton father shoe manufacturer.

       Inns of Court OTC as Pte 7647, 3 Coy

      Oct /Nov 1915 5ft 3ins, 30 years 5 months, chest 34 ins, compact build

       was a Solicitor

       Home 22 11 15 to 22 11 16

       reported 2nd RWF 22 01 1917

.      OC 2nd RWF reports Blaxley kia 23 04 17 in 2nd RWF War Diary etc.

I'll take that as a yes!

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There remains a timing problem: what was he doing for the two months unaccounted for, and how did he come to be in a hospital in France before joining 2nd battalion [2nd were meticulous in recording officer out/in when sick etc ..... not 100% but as good as you would expect a regular battalion to be].

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Thank you. A typical little mess of documentation ...... people had better things to do than worry about amateur historians joining the dots. I am pretty sure that I missed nothing of significance when reading his NA file so between commissioning and joining 2nd RWF he managed to get injured and mended with a unit or units unknown.

He even endures the fate of being not mentioned on the RWF list of dead in their history.

Some good has come of the thread:I now have several photographs of him to add to the 2nd RWF archive.

RIP 2 Lt Blaxley.

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Dear Mueerrisch,

Indeed: photographs are usually the last thing one finds during such searches...

Kindest regards,

Kim.

 

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22 hours ago, Muerrisch said:

Some good has come of the thread:I now have several photographs of him to add to the 2nd RWF archive.

RIP 2 Lt Blaxley.

:poppy:.

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Here is another card from the collection of 2Lt. Stewart Lenton Blaxley.  

 Taken at No.2 Stationary Hospital in early 1917. Three officers are named. 

1. Major Cuffe.

2. Capt. Noble.

3. Capt. Baty.

 

1. Major James Aloysius Francis Cuffe. D.S.O. M.I.D. - Royal Munster Fusiliers / G.S.O.2

2. Capt. Thomas Paterson Noble. (Capt. Mar.1916). - Surgical Specialist, No.2 Stationary Hospital. France. (Iodine stained fingers)

Any suggestions for Capt. Baty welcomed.

 

 

Scan_20181101 (2).jpg

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On 4 August 2018 at 21:46, GWF1967 said:

Pte. 2275. Frank David Hawkes. R.A.M.C.

 B.1892. Braintree, Essex.

Scan_20180728.jpg

Returned to his family. 

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1 hour ago, GWF1967 said:

Here is another card from the collection of 2Lt. Stewart Lenton Blaxley.  

 Taken at No.2 Stationary Hospital in early 1917. Three officers are named. 

1. Major Cuffe.

2. Capt. Noble.

3. Capt. Baty.

 

1. Major James Aloysius Francis Cuffe. D.S.O. M.I.D. - Royal Munster Fusiliers / G.S.O.2

2. Capt. Thomas Paterson Noble. (Capt. Mar.1916). - Surgical Specialist, No.2 Stationary Hospital. France. (Iodine stained fingers)

Any suggestions for Capt. Baty welcomed.

 

 

Scan_20181101 (2).jpg

Thank you. I cannot get my head round Blaxley's time line ..... hospital for broken jaw and mended fit for duty all within a few days of landing in France 10 Jan so that he can join 2nd RWF   22 Jan.

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2 hours ago, GWF1967 said:

Here is another card from the collection of 2Lt. Stewart Lenton Blaxley.  

 Taken at No.2 Stationary Hospital in early 1917. Three officers are named. 

1. Major Cuffe.

2. Capt. Noble.

3. Capt. Baty.

 

1. Major James Aloysius Francis Cuffe. D.S.O. M.I.D. - Royal Munster Fusiliers / G.S.O.2

2. Capt. Thomas Paterson Noble. (Capt. Mar.1916). - Surgical Specialist, No.2 Stationary Hospital. France. (Iodine stained fingers)

Any suggestions for Capt. Baty welcomed.

 

 

Scan_20181101 (2).jpg

 

Captain Baty appears to be Manchester Regiment going by his collar badges.

 

Interestingly the officer stood in the centre of the rear row is a Chaplain 4th Class.

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19 hours ago, FROGSMILE said:

 

Captain Baty appears to be Manchester Regiment going by his collar badges.

 

Interestingly the officer stood in the centre of the rear row is a Chaplain 4th Class.

Thanks for supplying a grade for the Chaplain.

 I think my Capt. No.3 is wearing General Service collar badges rather than Manchester. (Lion to the Left!)

  

Scan_20181101 (8).jpg

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Yes I did wonder about the possibility of GS collar badges, but a relatively limited range of Officers wore them.  Perhaps intelligence branch on the staff, or Labour Corps, but he seems very young for the latter.

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The reverse reads.. 

 

"Yorks and Lancs"

"us at Wareham Camp" 

"Dorset, September 1914". 

 

Reservists or TF called up hence the lack of cap badges and shoulder titles? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Y&L Wareham 1914.jpg

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Yes I think you’ve hit the nail on the head Toby.

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The frocks are 7 button Home Service BUT two appear to have a missing button.

Is this in fact an early sighting of mourning buttons? By September the army had suffered substantial losses.

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10 hours ago, Muerrisch said:

The frocks are 7 button Home Service BUT two appear to have a missing button.

Is this in fact an early sighting of mourning buttons? By September the army had suffered substantial losses.

 

I think that is a good spot.  It was invariably the second button down that was covered in black gauze/cloth to represent mourning and that certainly seems to be the case here.

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On magnification, the Lance Corporal is just missing his button, the second man I can't quite make it out.

Y&L Wareham 1914 2.jpg

Y&L Wareham 1914 1.jpg

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"Staff Serjeant Riley in France 1918"

very unusual to find pictures of the Military Provost Staff Corps, especially abroad and armed. He is still wearing the Edward VII cypher MPSC cap badge.

MPSC Staff Sjt.jpg

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38 minutes ago, Toby Brayley said:

On magnification, the Lance Corporal is just missing his button, the second man I can't quite make it out.

 

 

 

It seems like just a coincidence that it’s the same button then.

Edited by FROGSMILE
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17 minutes ago, Toby Brayley said:

"Staff Serjeant Riley in France 1918"

very unusual to find pictures of the Military Provost Staff Corps, especially abroad and armed. He is still wearing the Edward VII cypher MPSC cap badge.

 

 

That raises an interesting point Toby.  I know that there were detention centres in F&F, but I’m unclear how many. My guess is that there was one for each Corps, but that’s pure conjecture.  As well as men under punishment I imagine that some were used for holding condemned men before execution.  We don’t often think of such macabre things in this forum.

Edited by FROGSMILE
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19 minutes ago, FROGSMILE said:

 

That raises an interesting point Toby.  I know that there were detention centres in F&F, but I’m unclear how many. My guess is that there was one for each Corps, but that’s pure conjecture.  As well as men under punishment I imagine that some were used for holding condemned men before execution.  We don’t often think of such macabre things in this forum.

 

As you can imagine this subject is of particular interest to me, there is next to nothing on Military Prisons during the Great War. Often there is confusion between the many Field Punishment Centres and actual prisons/detention barracks.  The first two prisons were on old ships, at Harve and Rouen, both were full (about 1200 SUS ) by January 1915! At wars end there were apparently 5 Prisons in the rear areas often located at key supply junctions, rail heads, dumps etc so the prisoners could be made full use of.

 

It is interesting to see how the punishments and the consequences become much  "lighter" as the war progresses, but anyway I digress perhaps a new topic in the Forum is needed. 

 

 

Edited by Toby Brayley
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On 06/11/2018 at 11:41, Toby Brayley said:

 

As you can imagine this subject is of particular interest to me, there is next to nothing on Military Prisons during the Great War. Often there is confusion between the many Field Punishment Centres and actual prisons/detention barracks.  The first two prisons were on old ships, at Harve and Rouen, both were full (about 1200 SUS ) by January 1915! At wars end there were apparently 5 Prisons in the rear areas often located at key supply junctions, rail heads, dumps etc so the prisoners could be made full use of.

 

It is interesting to see how the punishments and the consequences become much  "lighter" as the war progresses, but anyway I digress perhaps a new topic in the Forum is needed. 

 

 

 

That’s very interesting Toby, I had never heard of the prison ships, which are such a frequent resort of Britain's governments since time immemorial.  Five prisons by the Wars end makes sense and fits with my initial but undeclared thought that there might have been one Military Detention Barracks/Camp (prison) for each Army in the field, but on reflection I had thought that wouldn’t have been enough, and so switched my focus to Corps.  However, I had completely forgotten the field punishment camps (FPC), and so thinking it through again in light of what you’ve said, it makes much more sense for each Army to have a network of FPCs forward, and one prison per Army in the rear area, each under the overall control of a Provost Marshal responsible to the GOC.

 

Footnote:  One of the places mentioned in disciplinary accounts is"Cinder City Camp", which was located near Le Havre, and there was a FPC at Boulogne, but I don't know anything more about it.

 

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Edited by FROGSMILE
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" "The Last Volley" Funeral of Sec. Lieut. Stainbank ".

 

 2Lt. William Dering Stainbank. R.F.A.  D. 7/04/1916.  Pneumonia.

  (Formerly Pte. 181. Natal Mtd. Rifles)

 

Buried. St. John Baptist Churchyard. Broughton-in-Amounderness. Preston. Lancs.  

 

His brother Arthur Reeve Stainbank 113 Bde R.F.A. was K.i.A. on 20/07/1917 and is commemorated on the Menin Gate.

 

Both had seen service in German West Africa and were commissioned on the same day - 6/01/1916. 

 

Scan_20181026 (2).jpg

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Darowen School (Montgomeryshire) 1916.

 A sombre looking group, with fathers and brothers away fighting, and falling.

 

L/Cpl 705 Robert Davies 1/7th R.W.F. -  B. Darowen -  D.o.W.  20/12/1915.  Malta. :poppy:

Scan_20181105 (2).jpg

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