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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

Kings Shropshire Light Infantry


Annette Burgoyne

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Hi Andrea

I did not see this post until now, I have just posted in your other thread on the Payne family, I mentioned the two George Morgans in that but you do not think it is the one from Lydbury North but the other one may have come from Shrewsbury or Oswestry areas ? but I do not know that for sure, I am only going of other men near his number (15726).

Annette

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I am new to this site, so apologies if I am posting to the wrong place. My grandfather (28250) was with the KSLI and was gassed and wounded on 6th September 1918. I am trying to find more details and have recently been told by the Shrewsbury Museum that he was with the 6th battalion and at some stage was with the 60th Trench Mortar Battery. I would be so grateful if you had some information on him as I plan on visiting the locations in France that he would have fought. Many thanks. Chris.

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Sorry, regarding the previous post, my Grandfather was Harold Bent. He was with the 6th Cheshire's before the KSLI. Thanks. Chris.

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Hi Chris

I have left a post in the other thread you posted in.

Annette

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Hello Annette,

My Great Uncle was in the KSLI, Private, later Acting Corporal Dennis Walsh no. 16315. The only information I have been able to find online is his medal card. (date of entry to France 28/9/15) I have his medals 'Pip, Squeak and Wilfred' also his cap badge. He was a resident of Leigh in Lancashire upon signing up and died in the fifties when I was around ten years old, saying little about his wartime experiences. Are you able to provide anything further?

Many thanks,

Mike. (first time poster)

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Hi Mike

Welcome to the forum.

I do not have a lot on him, he enlisted about the 14th December 1914 possibly at Blackburn.

Like you already mention he landed in France on the 28-09-15 with the 7th Battalion. He was wounded in about August 1916 but I have not done enough work on the casualty list in my local paper that he appears in to be sure (if I can find the time I will go through that list to see if I can narrow down the date).

He joined the 1st Battalion and I can only guess this was sometime on recovering from his wounds. He was again wounded in 1918 about June ?, again I will have a look at that list to see if I can narrow down a date, it could be a while, things seem to be getting busy on the Great War.

He was discharged to Class Z Reserve on 20th April 1919.

Annette

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Hello Annette,

Very many thanks for your prompt response, most impressive. I am only sorry that I did not have more time to talk to him about his service life, we do not even have any surviving photos. Like most of his generation I am sure that he just wanted to get on with his life and possibly was only able to talk about it openly to others who had shared the same horrific experiences.

Then, like most of my generation I was a war mad kid stoked up by weekly comics that usually majored upon the Second Wold War. I had my own little private 'museum' of sundry military bits and bobs, now sadly all long gone, but the medals the cap badge and the memories remain.

Regards,

Mike.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hi Mtayorboo

Claude was a brave man.

He joined the 1/4th K.S.L.I. on the 21st April 1918 along with about a hundred or so others from the Hampshire Regiment. I think he won his D.C.M. between 30th May- 6th June 1918 possibly at Montagne de Bligny, I have not done enough research into the 1/4th K.S.L.I. to know for sure, maybe you can provide more information.

I have his citation if you do not already have it.

Annette

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Hi Annette,

I'd PM'd this question to you a while back, but I suspect you're bombarded with PMs!

Would you happen to have anything on the following chap:
Frederick S Jones - 203890 King's Shropshire Light Infantry, 160170 Royal Warwickshire Regiment
I'm looking at my great uncle, but all I have is his name Frederick Samuel Jones, born in Herefordshire, so I'd like to find out if it's the same guy, thus tying him down to a regiment.
Cheers,
Jon

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Sorry Jon I have been working over time on Great War stuff -starting not to know what day it is.

I do not have anything on him. Most of the men near his K.S.L.I. number that I know about come from the Cheshire and mobilised late March or early April 1917.

His Warwickshire number is 260170. I do not have anything to say when the 100 or so men from the K.S.L.I. transferred to the 2/6th Warwicks but the first death among them was early September 1917.

Annette

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Thanks Annette (and no apologies necessary!)

I wonder if this is my great uncle or not... He was born in 1899, so maybe a bit too young?

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Hi Annette

Wonder if you can add anything to what i already have discovered about my Great Grandad, James Ernest Johnson.

According to his index card he was in the The Kings Shropshire Light Infantry Labour Corps, reg no 15631,660912.

Either the 2nd or 8Th Battalion

It appears that his first theatre of war was 2A, on 6th Oct 1915.

He received the 1915 star, BWM and Victory medals.

I would like to know why he appears to have two reg numbers? and what if any battles he may have been involved in. He survived the war and lived a long and healthy life.

many thanks in anticipation

Charlene

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He was transferred to the Labour Corps at some point (this usually happened after a man was medically downgraded due to a wound or illness, and was no longer regarded as sufficiently fit for frontline service).

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May I join this thread and share a problem?

I have a soldier who died on 28 Oct 1918, exactly 2 weeks before the Armistice, and who was buried at the Terlincthun British Cemetery, Wimille. He did not die of wounds and was not killed in action. According to his entry in CWGC database he was, at the time of his death, private No.21689 in the 10th Battalion King's Shropshire Light Infantry and he had lived in Teignmouth, Devon. The 'Soldiers Died' database confirms his number and 10th KSLI but gives the added information that he was formerly No. M/285165 in the Army Service Corps, Motor Transport Section and that he enlisted at Newton Abbot in Devon. His ASC number suggests that he was mobilised from the Training Reserve during January 1917. My problem is that his MIC makes no mention of his service in the ASC and gives no date of entry into a theatre of war - it simply states that he qualified for the British War Medal and the British Victory Medal. Is there any way of determining from his KSLI number when he enlisted and can I assume that the location of his enlistment given in Soldiers Died refers to his joining this regiment and not the ASC? My guess is that he would have joined the KSLI in France after they arrived there from Palestine in May 1918 but I would like to confirm this.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Penzance Bill

PS

Perhaps I should have named the soldier?! He was Pt. Edward Llewellyn PENGELLY, born 1895, Madron near Penzance, Cornwall.

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Thank you David

Is there any way i can narrow down what he actually did? Would he have been at Salonika? And i apologise for my ignorance, but why would he have joined the KSLI? He lived on the Herefordshire/Worcestershire border.

Regards

Charlene

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Charlene

Herefordshire only had a Territorial Force regiment with no regular county regiment of its own, so KSLI covered the county to some extent as well as the equivalent for regulars. Someone may be able to give an approximate date for the transfer based on his Labour Corps service number. Unless his service record survives it's difficult to be certain what happened to him, unless somethign was reported in a local paper.

Bill

Since his MIC does not mention ASC it is likely he did not serve with them in a theatre of war (mistakes are made, so it may simply have been omitted accidentally). The enlistment location would be from his service record, and would refer to where he originally joined, so in his case that would be where he was when he was called up ot the Training Reserve. Given the date of death, it would be quite likely that he was a Spanish Flu victim.

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Hi Charlene

I have nothing on him at all other then the info you have already supplied, do you mind giving me his birth place or residence place so I can add that to my database.

I can tell you from his number that he enlisted about mid November 1914.

I am a little puzzled by the first theatre of war being 2A, all the K.S.L.I. Battalions were still in France on the 6th October 1915, the 2nd Batt. left on the 16th Oct and the 8th Battalion on the 28th Oct. ? but the medal rolls are full of mistakes.

While I do not know much about Labour Corps numbers I would say going by other K.S.L.I. men with the L.C. numbers 6626** who transferred in October 1918.

Annette

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Hi Bill

As David says it is likely he did not serve with them in a theatre of war-from the papers of the chap next to his K.S.L.I. number-21690 Pte. McMeekan, Archibold formerly R.A.M.C. + A.S.C. + 66th T.R. Batt., who was transferred to the 3rd K.S.L.I. in the UK on 9th July 1917, landed in Alexandra on 16th Oct 1917 and Joined the 10th K.S.L.I. on the 25th October 1917. I am guessing Pte. Edward Llewellyn Pengelly was the same ?

I have him down has died of as disease but nothing on what that disease ? the Battalion have several men who are recorded has died in October and November, I know several men were suffering from gas poisoning and I think most of these men died from gas poisoning but they are buried near the front line, so can not say that Pte. Pengelly was suffering from the effects of gas for sure.

Annette

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Many thanks David & Annette - it all makes sense (I think)!

Annette - how fortunate that the service record of the soldier with the next KSLI service number to my man has survived. May I ask how you knew this?

I had wondered if my man was a victim of the 1918-19 flu pandemic but wasn't sure when that started.

Thanks again.

Bill

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Hi Bill

I have down loaded over 6,000 K.S.L.I. men's service/pension papers, 21690 Pte. McMeekan being one of them, the chances are high that Pte. Pengelly also went to the 10th Batt. with the same draft has McMeekan but like I said above this is a guess (based on other men's details) so you do have to take this into account.

Pte. Pengelly could well have die of Flu, I only mentioned the gassing because the 10th K.S.L.I. had several men recorded died around October and November, and I have a few records of men who were gassed in October. I do have him down has died of disease but not sure where that info. came from (I started my database a long time ago and in the early days did not note full notes of where the info. came from because back then I was only doing it for my own interest).

Annette

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Hi Annette

Thank you for the information. My G Grandad is very much my hero. James Ernest (Born Ernest) Johnson was born 6/2/1885 in Linton Workhouse (which is just outside Bromyard, Herefordshire), to an unmarried Mother Hannah Johnson. He married Sarah Draper 1/6/1910, they lived at Stanford Bishop, Herefordshire. They had 6 children. He was a farm labourer but after the war he went on to become a tenant farmer with a Herefordshire Beef herd. He died in 1958, in Bromyard, Herefordshire (just a few doors away from where i live now).

regards

Charlene

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Hi Annette

What an amazing resource you've built up - a God send to anyone researching ancestors who served with the KSLI.

Pte. Pengelly was not an ancestor, he was a former pupil at the old grammar school where I was a teacher for many years. He was one of 19 "Old Penwithians" who died during the 1st World War and who I am researching. Nevertheless, I am very grateful to you for the information you have provided.

Regards

Bill

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Bill only too happy to help keep their memory alive.

Thanks Charlene I will add your Great Grandfathers details to my database.

Annette

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