11th Battn Royal Fusiliers

[WARFORUM]

Are there any Royal Fusilier experts who may know the details of a Soldier who was accidently killed whilst training?

A book, 'The 54th Infantry Brigade 1914-1918' say's, " The first casualty in the Brigade was a man in the 11th Royal Fusiliers, who was badly wounded on January 18th 1915, whilst walking over the entrenching area behind the butts of the rifle range at Donyland. A stray went over and hit him so badly that he died the following day".

Kind regards,

Graham

[sotonmate]

Graham

A soldier buried in Colchester Cemetery who died on 19 Jan 1915 was Private W G HAYDEN 7604 of the 11 Battalion Royal Fusiliers.

Donyland is nearby.

Sotonmate

[WARFORUM]

Thanks Sotonmate, much appreciated.

Hope you had a good Xmas.

Happy New Year

Graham

[Retrac]

Hi, A letter home from George Knight Young, a member of 10th R Fus dated 24th January 1915 relates: ...One day a man was shot a mile and a half away from the rifle range (Donylands) and has since died. It was his own fault for wandering in a prohibited area but of course it was rather sad." The 10th Battalion had been using the range on a daily basis since the start of January and were certainly firing during the week before the letter was written. Seems an unlucky shot at about maximum range.

David