18th btn Royal Fusiliers

[RammyLad1]

Hi

Please,could someone tell me where the 18th btn Royal Fusiliers were in january 1916,in particular the 16th,as one of the chaps I'm researching was K I A on that day.I have checked out the long long trail etc but seem to going round in circles!!!

Cheers Duncan.

[Steven Broomfield]

Not too sure, but the 18th RF (1st Public Schools) went to France in Nov '15 as part of the 98th brigade of the 33rd Divison. However, that division was swiftly reorganised, and the 18th RF went to the 19th brogade 9which had come from the 2nd Division) for a few weeks, before, in February, going to GHQ Troops and being disbanded in April.

According to the divisional history of the 33rd Division, the period around New Year, 1916, was spent in the brickstacks at Cuinchy. If you read Graves' Goodbye to all that, those brickstacks feature prominenetly, as his battalion of the RWF was in the 33rd Division at that time (IIRC). Not a nice place at all.

No major set-piece battles: just holding the line and, for a new division in the theatre, shaking down.

Basically, the Public Schools battalions were a bit pointless: most of the men should have been 9and ultimately became) officers. A great waste of potential leaders.

I don't have a copy of O'Neill's history of the RF. Someone somewhere will have - that might give a bit more.

[RammyLad1]

Thanks Steve,

I will check out the brickstacks reference.It seems that the more I learn it becomes apparent that there is no nice place to be at that godawful period.There by the grace of God.

Duncan