Vincent and Whigham, 1st East Lancashire Regt

[bmac]

Shots in the dark these....

Wonder if anyone can positively identify a 2nd Lt Vincent who was an officer of the 1st East Lancashires (this comes from their war diary) who was arrested and court-martialled in Paris in June/July 1916 for being absent without leave in April 1916 amongst a variety of other charges. A 2nd Lt H(arold) G(erald) Vincent is mentioned as being the new Scout Officer on 14th April. I can then find no further mention until 7th June when a 2nd Lt Vincent (no initials) was escorted to Paris by two officers of the battalion (2nd Lts Scott and Reynolds) and again on 24th June when two officers, Capt H T MacMullen and Lt Scott, are called away to give evidence in Paris, returning on 9th July. The findings of the court martial were promulgated by the CO of the East Lancs on 21st July and Vincent was escorted to the 'base' by 2nd Lts Barr and Mitchell. That's it.

Wonder if anyone can confirm the identity, knows the nature of the charges and the penalty imposed?

Second man is Capt John Richard Menzies Whigham, RAMC, MO of the 1st East Lancashires at this time. He was wounded on 1st July 1916 and, at some point, was awarded the MC. I am b*ggered if I can find this in the LG. If anyone has better luck I'd be delighted to know the edition of the LG and the details of the citation.

All help very gratefully received.

[CROONAERT]

2/Lt. Harold Vincent (an ex-ranker of nearly 8 years service prior to the war and nearly a year on reserve before being remobilised... commissioned into the ELR in (going off memory!) June 1915) first appears to be in trouble in December 1915 when he was tried at Acheux for 'absence and wrongfully wearing medals'. This case was dismissed. Unfortunately, I have nothing about his later misdemenour, but is it slightly odd that, though he appears in the index of the 2nd and 3rd quarter of 1916 Army Lists, he doesn't actually appear the pages being indexed?

Whigham... no idea, but he recieved a MiD in January 1916 (apparantly indexed on page 66 of the LG 1/1/16)

Dave

[ralphjd]

He has a very comprehensive MIC noted MC, but like you can I find why he was awarded it on the LG can I eckaslike

[bmac]

Dave,

Thanks for that. Will continue to search for more details.

Cheers

Bill

[ralphjd]

Address for his medals applied for 20-4-1921 260a Gloucester Terrace Hyde Park W2

[bmac]

And Whigham also apparently wrote the ever popular 'An introduction to First Aid', in 1942, unavailable practically everywhere.

Born 1891, died 1964. If anyone has Volume 4 of 'Lives of the Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons of England' and looks at page 437 they might find some further details. Come of, you know you have all nine volums stashed away somewhere! He was also a regular contributor to such journals as the British Journal of Surgery and The Lancet through the 30s, 40s and 50s and there are dozens of his articles on line. But find his MC citation. Absolutely not.

And, blow me down, if the Lives of the Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons of England isn't available on line..... with the exception of one man. Grrrrr.

[bmac]

Whigham's MC - New Years Honours List LG, 11th January 1916, page 581.

[ralphjd]

Glad you found it, I thought it may have been a birthday honours award, but why when you enter Whigham in the search box does it not show up that particular date, don't understand the LG.

[bmac]

I found it via a Google search in the LG not via an LG search. LG indexing is obviously very flaky. So it goes.

[ralphjd]

I must remember that Bill, thanks for the information. Cheers. Ralph.