Interesting question for you

[temptage]

Does anybody know the number of serving soldiers who survived the whole war unscathed i.e. those who were sent over at the beginning of the war, and who were still actively fighting until the end of hostilities. Surely the law of averages would mean there wouldnt be a great number who managed the feat.

[bill24chev]

I believe the "old Contemptible's" had their own association.

The initial membership of that would probably give a rough idea.

Don't forget there was a fair number of regulars who were not actually "in it" at the beginning these formed 27, 28 & 29 divisions and arrived in France later in 1914 or in the case of the 29th saw there first action in April 1915 at Galipolli, also a number of Regular battalions remained in India

[Steven Broomfield]

I believe the "old Contemptible's" had their own association.

The initial membership of that would probably give a rough idea.

Not necessarily: the question was how many survived unscathed - many of them may have been "scathed" several times!

[temptage]

I have been in touch with the 'Old Comtempibles' website and have received this answer from Pete Knight.

"A total of 8,689,467 served at some point during the Great War. This includes all services . Of this number 956,703 lost their lives either killed or died of wounds or illness. A further 2,272,998 were wounded. Of those wounded 64% were returned to duty. So although this is not the answer to your question 5,459,766 served during the war and returned home unscathed. It would be a difficult task to try and break down how many men served from 14 through to 18 unscathed but many did. You were far more likely to survive the First World War than get killed in it. There are a lot of myths and mistruths that have built up in the years after the Great War. The survival rate is one of those myths that has been perpetuated but the facts speak for themselves as you can see by the figures above."

I know it still doesnt exactly answer the original question, but it gives a figure from which a rough figure may be worked out.

[hazelclark]

As Stephen has pointed out many were "scathed" but rejoined after recovery. My grandfather was one of the "old contemptibles" who was wounded early on but returned to the fray only to lose his arm at 3rd Ypres in 1917. i doubt there were very many who were not wounded at least. 1914 and 1915 knocked out a huge number of the professional soldiers.

Hazel

[MarkTurner]

One of my great grandfathers (Aldridge in my signature below) was a sjt with the 2nd Bedfords in 1914, landing with the battalion Oct 1914 in Belgium after they had returned from South Africa. In Nov 1918 he was still serving with the battalion as a officer albeit having been wounded at least twice and spending time with the 3rd battalion in England.

[Charpoi Warrior]

This has been discussed before but I can't find where. Someone, Grumpy I think, had fairly robust views and figures to back them up.

[kenf48]

i.e. those who were sent over at the beginning of the war, and who were still actively fighting until the end of hostilities.

Assuming 'sent over' means the Western Front (in which case the global figure is not especially helpful as there were many exceptions, a few noted in post 2) when writing 'The Kaisers's Battle', in 1975, Martin Middlebrook sent a questionnaire to those veterans who had replied to his appeal for their experience of March 21 1918. Among the questions he asked was "When had you arrived on the Western Front?"[sic].

The first hundred responses revealed - 'sent over' in 1914 two; 1915 nineteen; 1916 twenty-four; 1917, fifty; 1918, five. Middlebrook is the first to acknowledge this is by no means a scientific analysis which, as your post above notes would be 'a difficult task to break down'.

However, later in the chapter Middlebrook notes the experience of two battalions, the first the 1/7th Sherwood Foresters (TF) had just 11 men of the 1000 who landed in January 1915 while the 18th Manchesters (New Army) had only six in the rifle companies with a few more in transport, stores etc. Apart from anecdotal evidence the only way to get anywhere would probably be a battalion by battalion analysis.

By 1918 the number of 'Old Contemptibles', or pre-war regulars would seem a very small proportion of those serving in the front line, many veterans had been withdrawn, for example to training roles, or their general health had broken down due to the rigours of trench warfare resulting in a change in their medical category.

Ken

[temptage]

Thanks Ken, a very clear and understandable answer. I knew it wouldnt just be a straight forward answer from the off, but every little helps as Tesco say!