Roll of Officers, 2nd Royal Scots August 1914

[seaforth78]

While researching NORMAN RICHARD CROCKATT, I have been trying to locate a list of the officers that disembarked with the battalion in France in August 1914. I am interested to know if he was in the original complement of officers of the battalion that survived until December 1914 before being sent off on staff duties. I'll keep looking in the meantime.

Thanks in advance.

[Colin W Taylor]

seaforth78

I have had a quick scan of the war diary from August to October 1914 (all that I have in my possession) and a separate diary written up by PoW officers under Maj Tweediem (?) covering August. The latter mentions on 20th August: ' At Doulers 2Lt N Crockatt and several rank and file here received orders to join the Divisional Cyclist Company at Divisional Headquarters.'

Whilst I don't know what happened to him in the long run he was an original member of the battalion but seems to have been posted away before the battalion saw some action. However in a later casualty report on 13/10/14 he is mentioned as being wounded. Whilst I don't have the remainder of the diary I would presume that he went from here to staff duties when he recovered.

Kind regards

Colin

[Guest]

He definitely disembarked with the battalion. MIC shows 14th August 1914 with a side comment "roll shows 13th Aug 1914"

"The Royal Scots 1914-1918" by Ewing does not list the 2nd Bn Officers, although many are of course mentioned in the text. The Army List 1914 might provide a starting point if you are trying to rebuild the roll of Officers - you could simply plod through the list below with the Officers marked "2" for the 2nd Bn and check their MICs if you have access to Ancestry.....

Edit. He was wounded on 12th October according to the history. Page 64

"....Both the leading companies suffered heavily during the advance, many officers being hit; Lieut Hewitt and Lieut Kerr were killed and Captain Morrison, Lieuts Henderson, Perry, Crockatt, McBraine and Wilkinson were wounded."

...So it is certain he served from 13/14th August to this date with the Bn. There is no mention of how long he took to recover. I assume since the History specifically mentioned the wounding that it was not a light wound and he was taken off to hospital. There is a picture of the 2nd Bn Officers in the History which includes Crockatt as a 2nd Lt so it must have been taken between 17th Sep 1913 and 13th Aug 1914. I suspect it was taken immediately prior to departure. He led a guard of honour in 1921. These are the only times he is mentioned in the history.

MG

[seaforth78]

Dear Colin and Martin

I'm so glad to see that there was something on Crockatt as I thought it would be strange to post away an officer so soon on arrival in France when the battalion was thrust so quickly into the maelstrom.
One if the nicest things about living in NYC is that the NY Public Library on 5th Avenue had an active reference library which has an exhaustive collection of Regimental histories from this time and luckily I can see the book in the flesh before deciding to purchase a copy for myself. Today thanks to both of you I had a good look at the Ewing history of the Regiment and took a good snapshot by my iPhone of the photo plate of Crockatt and pg 64 which details the account reproduced above by Martin. I presume Colin that Crockatt's impeding transfer to the Divisional cyclists was cancelled. But thanks to both of you.

[Colin W Taylor]

I'd presume he was snatched back to regimental service after the battalion suffered its first casualties. The 3rd Division cyclist company war diary didn't exist properly until Jan 1916 but there are notes at the start that state it was formed in May 1914 from drafts from the rest of the division but was dispersed 4 August and returned officers and men to their units to enable those units to mobilize. It was reformed 20 August 1914 reinforced by 70 men from the division at Aulnoye. Until November it was reinforced by men detached from their battalions. - in Jan 1915 those present were transferred to the Army Cyclist Corps. No names are mentioned but it is possible that Crockatt was the pre-August representative of the battalion with this unit.

The cyclist company also claims that it fired the first shots of the war - according to the 1915 field almanac the first shots took place at 12.40pm on 23rd August 1914; according to the war diary 3rd Cyclist company exchanged shots with German Cavalry before noon on 22nd August; an Uhlan was wounded and his lance captured. I'm not sure that's true and there isn't much hope of confirming it by Crockatt may have been involved.

Regards

Colin

[seaforth78]

Many thanks for this Colin. Deeply appreciate your research into this as I would have missed it completely.

He (Crockatt) was certainly not idle during this period was he?

[seaforth78]

Colin

Would you have a copy of the 2nd RS's unit diaries for the this period please?

Thanks very much in advance!

S78