Z/2796 James E Grogan MM 13th Rifle Brigade

[taylov]

I have a Rifle Brigade MM group which had been awarded for action at the “Battle of the Ancre”, the final phase of the First Battle of the Somme in November 1916.

Z/2796 L/Cpl. James E Grogan was serving with 13^th Bn. Rifle Brigade in France. He had left the UK with the Battalion on 29 July 1915 from Southampton on the “SS Queen”, arriving in Havre the next day. His name appears in the Battalion War Diary in a list of those presented with their ribbons on 8.1.1917 for gallantry in connection with operations on the Somme and the Ancre. Close examination of the War Diary reveals that these were for action on 14^th and 15^th November 1916. His MM was Gazetted on 19.2.17.

I know little more about James E Grogan. There are no other records (Service or Pension) on Ancestry. His medal index card confirms he survived the war as he applied for a correction to his name on his British War Medal in 1921. His survival is also confirmed by his absence from the CWGC lists. Although there are a multitude of possible James Grogans on the 1901 and 1911 census, there are only a few with his middle initial and one in particular caught my eye - born in 1896 in North London and living in Dalston in 1911.

Can any Rifle Brigade experts extract any useful information from his service number?

Tony