Henry Charles WHISTON L/Cpl Royal West Kent Reg.

[Alan Graham]

Henry Charles WHISTON, L/Cpl 1414 Royal West Kent Reg was the youngest of three brothers who went to war. Details I have to date are:

Enlisted: 3/9/1914

Moved about with the 3rd; 6th; 7th & 9th battalions.

He is shown as wounded on 9/4/1918 (gas) ref: C1554/10/5/1918 and again on 24/9/1918 ref; 4a29469

Mentioned in Dispatches to Haig on 8/11/18 (London Gazette Sup. 31085 on 28/12/1918)

Demob: 12/3/1919 suffering Myalgia and Mustard Gas less than 20%.

The only blemish i can see on his record is an overstay of leave by 1 hour on 20/11/1915...

I hope to look up the 37th Brigade war diary (WO95/1861) at some stage.

Help and advice with the following would be useful:

The ref. No. to each wound, would there be a record somewhere, or is that like finding hen's teeth?

The dispacthes to Haig, was it just another list or did the name have an action next to it? Are these dispatches available to see?

Many thanks for any help you can offer.

[Alan Graham]

A repeated request for help and advice with the following:

The ref. No. to each wound; what are they and would there be a record somewhere?

The dispacthes to Haig, was it just another list or did the name have an action next to it?

Are these dispatches available to see?

Thanks.

[David_Underdown]

The Despatches were published in the London Gazette but are usually quite a high level review of what had happened. The Mentions usually took the form of separately published lists, the recommendation having been passed up to GHQ by lower level commanders

[Alan Graham]

Hi David, do I take it then there is unlikely to be a record of what the 'mention' is all about or are these 'separately published lists' available to view? It seems pot luck if a war diary or later publication has any detail for this kind of event.

I have seen that the 1st and 8th Bn RWK have a detailed account of who did what etc. He is listed in the index/appendix of the 'Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment, 1914-1919' but I haven't been able to access the bulk of the book yet. Alan

[David_Underdown]

The lists of mentions were also gazetted, and are online. Sometimes you can tell which despatch a list relates to (as the period covered will be given at the start of the list), but the connection becomes more tenuous during the course of the war. The content of the war diary was down to individual adjutants so the level of detail does vary considerably (we should of course remember the conditions they were operating under)

[Alan Graham]

Can anyone confirm the following details?

The London Gasette listing for his MID shows the following:

Whiston, 1414 Pte (A./L./C.) H. C., 6th Bn., attd. 37th L.T.M. By.

Could the '37th L.T.M. By.' be the 37th Trench Mortar Battery by any chance? Both the 6th Bn RWK Reg. and 37th TM By. were part of the 37th Brigade. Would the 'L' be for 'light', something dropped from it's title?

If not what would LTM refer to, I can't find any reference for this on the LLT or web.

Many thanks, Alan

[Verrico2009]

Looks like a reasonable deduction to me, Alan - from LLT: "By the time of the Battle of Loos in September 1915, the mortars had been arranged into 61 four-gun batteries. GHQ proposed to provide each Division with 6 light batteries, 2 medium and 1 heavy; but this had not been achieved even by the opening of the Battle of the Somme in July 1916...."

[Alan Graham]

Verrico2009: Thanks, it does make sense. The LLT doesn't have L.T.M. as one of its abbreviations maybe it should be added as it's used by the London Gasette.

Scanning my new copy of 'Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment, 1914-1919' the mortar batteries get very little mention. Looks like I've more War Diaries to seek out for my next visit to Kew...

[KevinBattle]

The page on the Long Long Trail you were directed to HAS sufficient clarification:-

Trench mortar units

By March 1916, most Divisions had three Medium Batteries, designated X, Y and Z. For example, in the 24th Division they would be X.24,Y.24 and Z.24. There was also the Heavy Battery, designated V, such as V.24. The light Stokes batteries under each Brigade took their number from the Brigade, so for example 123rd Brigade in the 41st Division included 123rd TM Battery from June 1916. Z Battery was in most cases broken up in February 1918, with personnel redeployed to the other batteries.

(My bold and underlining)

[Alan Graham]

KevinBattle: Your post puzzles me.

My original question about the abbreviated term 'LTM' was about its meaning as used by the London Gazette. At that time I was only guessing the link with the Trench Mortar By. The link to the LLT given by Verrico2009 confirmed what I read during my reseach, for which I was grateful.

Using the forum to seek advice is what the forum is about. I seached as much as I could on the forum and LLT before posting but when the letters LTM did not produce results I was left with two options, going with a guess or posting a request for help. An educated guess is still a guess and I wanted to confirm I hadn't missed any other possiblity.

My suggestion to add the abbreviation to the LLT list was not aimed as a criticism but as a help to others who, like myself, are seeking to learn what you no doubt already know.