301st at Salonika (or not)

[Sean Thornton]

I'm trying to trace my uncle Frederick Arthur Tottem (970563 RFA).

On Frederick's Statement of Services it states "transferred 0th Lon DAC" on 22/7/16. The part before the zero is torn/not shown. But given his revised regimental number , this seems to confirm him in 60th DAC.

The 60th DAC were re-organised into 301st Brigade in November 1916

So far so good. I've been through the relevant war diaries (WO 95/3027 & WO 95/4927) at the National Archives and between 22nd & 26th November 1916 they set sail from Marseilles arriving at Salonika between 3rd & 13th December.

One can extrapolate a shortest transit time of 7 days (26th - 3rd) or longest of 21 days (22nd - 13th); an average transit time of (say) about 14 days.

Now, his Statement of Services also records that he was wounded on 7th July 1917 and 'Home' (which I take to mean UK) on 11th July. Allowing some time for attention in the field and then getting back 'home', he must have been pretty near UK at the time.

Or in other words he wasn't wounded in the Salonika campaign(?)

There's nowt in the war diaries to indicate people were sent home - or conversely that some people never went - indeed they rather confirm that 301st were in action over Frederick's date of being wounded.

So where was he ?

Any ideas please whether I'm reading all this correctly and where I can delve next ?

Best Regards

Sean

[River97]

Sean,

From what I have ascertained through research into this division is that, yes the entire division had been in Salonika. The thing is that the dates you mention for Frederick being wounded the division was no longer in Salonika.

They had been transferred to Egypt over the previous month. Frederick may have been wounded, or injured, or suffered an illness, and admitted to one of the general hospitals in Alexandria. From there 'home' may be the date he sailed from Alexandria, and not the day he arrived home.

If you have a look at my signature you will see that my Great Grand Pa served in the 303rd. At the beginning of July 1917 they were making their way along the Suez Canal to Kantara.

There may well have been a bout of illness as I have a couple of gunners from the 301st who died over that time. BQMS Charles Hesseldon died on July 13 and the following day Gunner Leonard Jacks passed away.

Cheers Andy.