335151 Sapper Reginald John Beard Number 1 Special Mortar Coy

[beardo88]

Hi,

My grandfather Reginald John Beard joined the RE in early 1918. he was a Trainee Steel Chemical Analyust for Brown Bailey Steel works in Sheffield.

He was put in Number 1 Special Mortar Coy, 4 1/2 inch Stokes Trench mortars. He survived the way and very late on in life told me a number of stories about the latter parts of WW1, using phosgene, chlorine, mustard gas and smoke shells. I am curoius to know more about these 'special mortar' companies and where it is likely he was between May AND nOV 1918. His WW1 service records were sadly destroyed in WW2 bombings. I tried to attach two photo's, one of him when joining at Pontypool and one in France with the other members of his Mortar 'team' but the files are too big to upload- any suggestions as to how I can get them uploaded to the site?

Any information anyone can provide would be very gratefully received.

Cheers

Tony

[deano]

Hi Tony, I have a Reginald Beard who 'served', his name appears on the Newton Chambers, Iron Works, Roll of Honour here in Sheffield. Would this be him ?

Dean.

[SFayers]

Hi Tony,

Terry Reeves has a long-standing thread here regarding the RE Special Brigade, which may be useful.

I have part of the 1st Special Company war diary for 1918 at home (from April to July if I recall correctly), I'll have a look for you re. locations. (Sadly other ranks are not mentioned by name in the diary.)

All the best

Steve

[SFayers]

From the start of May 1918 the company was at Le Cornet Bourdois near Lillers attached to XI Corps, First Army (following on from it's involvement during the Battles of The Lys in April). On 14th June A, B and C Sections moved south to Rainneville and came under orders of III Corps and ANZAC Corps, Fourth Army. D Section at this time remained with XI Corps, supporting 5th Division during the action of La Becque on the 28th June; it re-joined the rest of the company on 30th June. Under the Fourth Army, during June and July A Section for the most part was attached to III Corps; B, C and later D Sections were attached to ANZAC Corps.

I don't have the diary for August or thereafter, but assuming 1st Special Company remained attached to Corps of Fourth Army it would have been involved with the subsequent Battle of Amiens.

All the best

Steve

[beardo88]

Gents, thanks so much for this, as with many (I suspect) I failed to ask all the questions I should have when my grandfather was alive- oh how I regret it now! Dean- not sure about Newton Chambers- what is this? He worked at Brown Baileys and for a time worked for Harry Brearley-t the inventor of stainless steel- my grandfather was a steel analytical chemist. Ironically he joined the RE as in a recruiting drive they sold themselves as being an extension of my grandfathers existing career!

Incidentally when he joined up his best pal did as well (worked together) he was Harry Johnson - later Capt Sheffield Utd and played extensively for England- later managed Mansfield Town - Harrys service number was one more than my grandfathers!

Dean, I would love some more info on the Newton Chambers Iron Works.....Thx Steve I will have a look at the linkl you sent- much appreciated....just wish I could upload the photo's but keeps being bounced as file too big...

Cheers

Tony

[SFayers]

Not a problem Tony,

For uploading the photos you'll need to reduce the file size. One way of doing this is to open the image file in Paint (if you have it on your PC) and use the Resize tool (highlighted red in the screencapture below); reduce the horizontal and vertical aspects (highlighted in green) from 100% to, say, 50% (may be lower or higher depending on the size of the original image - but make sure you keep both aspects the same) and then save it, ideally as a new file rather than overiting the original. You may need to play about with the aspects until the file is the right size for uploading.

Hope this helps

Steve

[deano]

Tony, have a Google for Newton Chambers, loads and loads of stuff out there. They did make shells during the war so maybe a connection there ?

Sent you a PM.

Dean.

[beardo88]

Thanks am trying the resize idea....hopefully will work...thanks for all the thoughts/ideas/info- very much appreciated...Tony

[beardo88]

the images are in the galler under 335151 Spr Reginald John Beard RE

[SFayers]

Superb picture of the 4" Stokes mortar Tony - thanks for posting.

All the best

Steve

[centurion]

The 4 inch stokes was selected for use with gas and smoke as to build and maintain a sufficiently concentrated gas cloud required a sufficiently large round delivered at a rapid rate. Experiments determined that the Stokes 3 inch had the fire rate but not the weight of projectile necessary and the Newton 6 inch could deliver a sufficiently large projectile but at too slow a rate to overcome natural dispersion. The Stokes 4 inch was effectively the Goldilocks weapon. The older 2 inch 'toffee apple' could be used to deliver gas and smoke and there is indeed at least one account of the Special Companies using it for this purpose but its range was a limiting factor nevertheless OOBs for some Australian units show it being retained by them, after it was supposed to have been replaced with the Newton, so as to give then a smoke delivery capability

[beardo88]

Thanks guysall interesting stuff.. I remember by grandfather telling me in the latter stages of the war they would go out into no mans land under cover of darkness to lay down gas or smoke screens early morning for when the infantry wnet over the top. By all accounts the mortar and associated bombs were heavy to carry in pitch darkness and over shell pocked ground. My grandfather spoke about his deep concerns with dropping gas shells on the germans and said when he saw the results it upset him terribly.

On a lighter note he told me of a joke he heard in the trenches, 'what is the difference between an Italian sniper and a constipated owl?'... One shoots and cant hit, the other hoots but can't s**t'