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Remembered Today:

Seeking information on Home Office WWI Memorial Names


RCB

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As part of the Home Office's contribution to the government's commemoration of the outbreak of the First World War, we are researching the men named on the Home Office WWI memorial. The memorial is in our Marsham Street headquarters in London.

We have a little biographical detail on the men, but would be very interested to know more.

The list of names is below.

Thank you

Baker John Bartrup Harwood 2/Lieut

Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment)

Bonell, Herbert Sergeant Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment) Buchanan, David Private 20th Bn (Public Schools And Universities) Royal Fusiliers Calder, Gilbert James Private 28th Bn London Regiment (Artists Rifles) Charlton, John Lawther 2/Lieut 18th Bn MGC Clark-Gordon-Field, Albert Middlesex Regt / Royal Irish Rifles. Clark-Kennedy Alexander Kenelm Capt King's Own Scottish Borderers Cross, William Albert Sergeant Duke of Cambridge's Own (Middlesex Regiment) Ellis Arnold Private Middlesex Regiment Evans Lawrence, Picton Lieut Royal Fusiliers Ficken George, James Rifleman Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort's Own) Finlay Edward Norman Alison 2/Lieut 16th Bn., Rifle Brigade Foot James Stanley Capt 1st Bn The Welsh Regiment Goodhind Jeffrey Rifleman London Regiment (Queen Victoria's Rifles) Hagger Francis William Rifleman London Regiment (Queen's Westminster Rifles) Harris Albert Sergeant Sherwood Foresters Hawes Frederick Laurence Sergeant London Regiment Rangers Hawke, Albert Edward Mountain Aysh 2/Lieut King's Royal Rifle Corps Johnson Bernard Arthur Private London Regiment William John Law Lt Col 1/7th Lancs Fusiliers Lomas Samuel Henry CSM Sherwood Foresters Loveday Charles Norton 2/Lieut 21st Royal Fusiliers MGC Lutener George Arthur 2/Lieut 15th Field Coy., Royal Engineers McRitchie Christopher Wright Rifleman 2nd Bn., Rifle Brigade Meade Evelyn Kew Captain RASC Miller Reuben Matthew Percy Rifleman 16th Bn., Rifle Brigade Milward Stanley Reginald 2/Lieut 35th Bn., Machine Gun Corps Moore Denis Garrett Lance Corporal 20th Bn., The King's (Liverpool Regiment) Murray William Hutchison Sapper R.M. Div. Engineers, R.N. Div., Royal Marines Peggie Alexander Private 3rd County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters) Prichard Richard Gerald Mauncell Major Glamorgan Yeomanry attd. 38th King George's Own Central India Horse Pringle Charles Eric 2/Lieut 11th Bn. attd. 8th Bn., The Loyal North Lancashire Regiment Reeves John Howard Rifleman 16th Bn., King's Royal Rifle Corps Robinson Charles Lawson Lt Col 1st Bn., Monmouthshire Regiment Scrivener Arthur William Private 2nd/5th Bn., Gloucestershire Regiment Sergeant Harry Venner Sergeant D Coy. 1st/15th Bn., London Regiment (Prince of Wales' Own Civil Service Rifles) Sheepshanks William 2/Lieut 6th Bn. attd. 2nd Bn., King's Royal Rifle Corps Smith George King's Own Scottish Borderers Thorp Frederick Horace Lieut Royal Flying Corps Upham Aubrey Lance Corporal 11th Bn, Border Regiment Wyles Arthur George Edy Rifleman 15th Bn., Royal Irish Rifles
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Thank you. Yes, we have census, CWG, and other details for most of the 41 names, but by posting on this forum we are casting our net a little wider.

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Maybe 41 names is a bit too wide.

I don't feel inclined to take time looking for 41 to be told 'we already know that'.

Specific questions about a man may be a better way of going about it.

Good luck.

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Thanks- posting them individually sounds a good idea. There is a Home Office file from the time the memorial was put up that has some biographical details, but what we were really hoping for was to make contact with a living relative also looking for these men.

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Alexander Kenelm Clark Kennedy – age 33 – Captain: 1/5th Battalion (Dumfries and Galloway), King's Own Scottish Borderers.

Alexander was educated at Westminster School and at Trinity College, Cambridge. He was working for the Factories Inspectorate of the Home Office when he joined the Galloway Rifle Volunteers, later the 1/5th KOSB, in October 1906 as a Second Lieutenant. He went, as a Lt., with his battalion to Gallipoli where, in July 1915, he was promoted to Captain and was wounded. He returned home in October before rejoining the battalion in Egypt in 1916. He then served at Romani and Gaza. (Source:SRoH, De Ruvigny's Roll of Honour and London Gazette 24/3/1916 p.3190)

Born 1884 at Henbury, Wimborne, Dorset. (GRO – Birth Index)

Son of the late Captain Alexander William Maxwell Clark Kennedy and of The Honourable Lettice Lucy (Hewitt) Clark Kennedy of Knockgray, Carsphairn, Kirkcudbrigtshire.

(Source:De Ruvigny's Roll of Honour)

Killed in Action - 19 April 1917.

Commonwealth War Grave – Gaza War Cemetery, Palestine.

Listed on the Carsphairn Parish War Memorial and on the Dalbeattie War Memorial.

His brother Archibald Douglas Hewitt Clark Kennedy – age 30 – Captain: 1/5th Battalion, Royal Scots Fusiliers was killed in action on 18 September 1918.
A third brother William Hew Clark Kennedy was awarded the Victoria Cross while serving with the Canadian Infantry and unveiled the Carsphairn War Memorial near the family home in Kirkcudbrightshire.

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Ancestry may help in finding others looking.

I would suggest a New Post using the mans name and number and regiment as a heading. Give the info that you have and what you would like to know.

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Johnboy, more good advice. Thank you. I'll try posting some of the more elusive ones and being more specific. My two Lt Colonels (one a factory inspector and one a mines inspector in the pre-war Home Office) are easy to research, but some of the others are much proving harder.

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Well, I'll try with one

Pritchard joined the CIH in the summer of 1915, by mid-1916 he was commanding C Squadron. The regimental history describes his death:

Major Prichard, who had been appointed Regimental Intelligence Officer, rode out on the morning of 7th June, accompanied only by hos orderly and a horse-holder, to reconnoitre the ground in front of the outpost line. Always gallant to the point of indiscretion, he rode farther than prudence dictated, and suddenly found himself face to face with a strong Turkish patrol. All three men were instantly shot down. The sound of the firing was heard by Rissaldar Mir Zaman Khan, who was out with a patrol of "C" Squadron. Galloping to some high ground he could just see three men unhorsed, with the enemy closing round them. He called up his patrol and charged,and the Turks fled back to their refuge in the hills, They rallied, however, and opened a heavy fire on Mir Zaman and his men, who suffered further casualties, including the loss of several good horses before they could bring their wounded comrades to a place of safety. Both Prichard and his orderly died that night.

This was in 1918 and this was in the area of the Ghoraniye bridgejead across the Jordan, a little north west of Jericho. The history is "King George's Own Central India Horse, The Story of a Local Corps" by Major General W A Watson.

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I presume you are already aware of the Board of Trade War Memorial Project undertaken within the then-DTI more than a decade ago .... http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http://www.berr.gov.uk/aboutus/corporate/history/warmemorial/ww1/page29355.html

That project started one step backwards from where the Home Office project is now beginning, as the BoT Memorial itself had been lost, apparently in the chaos of several hurried moves during WW2. The project, headed by the inspirational Jill Knight (author of 'The Civil Service Rifles in the Great War ... All Bloody Gentlemen', who sadly died in 2005), therefore had the dual aims of researching the men commemorated on the missing Memorial and persuading the Department to commission a replacement Memorial and install it in the foyer of its HQ in Victoria Street. The new Memorial was dedicated in November 2002 and the 'Virtual Memorial' website went online soon afterwards. I left the Department (now BIS) some years ago, but I believe the Project continues to this day, maintaining the 'Virtual Memorial' and making additions when new information comes to light. The Webmaster is a member of this forum (alanh).

I am surprised, incidentally, to see that only one of the men on your memorial served in the Civil Service Rifles, and I wonder if that is because many of them were already reservists/Territorials (especially outside London) and were released by the Home Office sooner than other departments began releasing men to enlist who had no existing military affiliations.

Mick

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Not necessarily so surprising, possibly. According to the History of the Regiment, written in 1921, under the old 8-company system in force up to the declaration of the war, the companies were listed as recruiting as follows:

A: Bank of England, Metropolitan Water Board, Inland Revenue

B: Post Office Savings Bank

C: GPO

D: Inland Revenue

E: Customs, Inland Revenue

F: LCC, Insurance Offices

G: Whitehall

H: Admiralty

In 1914 G Company had 104 men.

I suspect your thoughts about other affiliations might be right: there are several other London TF units mentioned (and the more select ones - QVR, Westminsters, Rangers). I'm surprised there are no London Jocks.

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3451/241062 CSM Samuel Henry Lomas served with the 2/6th Battalion Sherwood Foresters

Was from Tideswall and was a HM Inspector of Quarries - I think this is your man ???

Wounded and missing on 27th April 1917

Assumed dead on 6th July 1917

Served in South Africa with 2nd Battalion Derbyshire Volunteer (1900)

Awarded Distinguished Conduct Medal in 1917

Lots more info that I can send to you by e-mail

post-4619-0-64886500-1397985604_thumb.jp

cheers

Mike

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Dear Steven and Siege Gunner

From the men I have been able to find on the 1911 census I know that at least a dozen were based outside London as mines or factory inspectors. I was surprised to find that so many of them were not in Whitehall.

Charles Robinson was certainly a territorial as he had a Territorial Decoration (at least I think that's what TD means!). He had fought in the Boer War.

The Home Office memorial has come with us from building to building and is currently in Marsham Street.

Rachel

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Rachel

Have you seen the HO file covering the memorial at the National Archives (Ref HO 45/11995)? Along with several photographs, there is brief bios of the men and a history of the planning and creation of it.

Glen

post-32914-0-74522300-1398023016_thumb.j

post-32914-0-60116500-1398023037_thumb.j

post-32914-0-49111800-1398023053_thumb.j

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Hi Glen

Thank you.

Great photo, but it must have been taken when the memorial was put up as another name has been added since in the space below Arthur Wyles (Albert Clark-Gordon-Field).

We've just recalled the file from Kew and I've high hopes of its contents. Apparently the quote is from Pericles.

Rachel

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Mike

Yes, I'm sure that's the same Samuel Lomas, and I'd love to see anything more you have on him. One of my colleagues thinks there is a diary of his in the National Army Museum and is hoping to go and have a look at that.

I've got a another Sherwood Forester, Sgt Albert Harris, but I haven't found anything on him. Did the Sherwood Foresters mainly recruit locally? If so I'll have another look for him on the 1911 census.

Thanks

Rachel

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I presume you are already aware of the Board of Trade War Memorial Project undertaken within the then-DTI more than a decade ago .... http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http://www.berr.gov.uk/aboutus/corporate/history/warmemorial/ww1/page29355.html

That project started one step backwards from where the Home Office project is now beginning, as the BoT Memorial itself had been lost, apparently in the chaos of several hurried moves during WW2. The project, headed by the inspirational Jill Knight (author of 'The Civil Service Rifles in the Great War ... All Bloody Gentlemen', who sadly died in 2005), therefore had the dual aims of researching the men commemorated on the missing Memorial and persuading the Department to commission a replacement Memorial and install it in the foyer of its HQ in Victoria Street. The new Memorial was dedicated in November 2002 and the 'Virtual Memorial' website went online soon afterwards. I left the Department (now BIS) some years ago, but I believe the Project continues to this day, maintaining the 'Virtual Memorial' and making additions when new information comes to light. The Webmaster is a member of this forum (alanh).

I am surprised, incidentally, to see that only one of the men on your memorial served in the Civil Service Rifles, and I wonder if that is because many of them were already reservists/Territorials (especially outside London) and were released by the Home Office sooner than other departments began releasing men to enlist who had no existing military affiliations.

Mick

Mick

Afraid i am no longer webmaster as BIS dispensed with my services some time ago and the work I and others put in is now frozen on the National Archives. It seems not to include quite a lot of work that I had added before my retirement and in fact misses a lot of photos including ones that I took of the Home Office memorial, under a section I included for memorials in other Government Depts

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Thank you! This is really helpful. Major Prichard was an Inspector of Mines in the pre-war Home Office.

Rachel - As Inspector of Mines for the Scottish District, Richard G M Prichard and his wife Evelyne were resident in the Liberton District of Edinburgh on the 1911 census.

There are some biog. details here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/sherborneschoolarchives/9339757779/

Ken

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Ken Thank you very much for this. I've now found him as a boarder at Sherbourne School in the 1891 census, and you have him in in Edinburgh in 1911, but I can't find him in 1901. Away fighting the Boer War perhaps? I've also found his marriage certificate, and he was married in London but living at North Inglis Street, Dunfermline. Regards Rachel

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Mick

Afraid i am no longer webmaster as BIS dispensed with my services some time ago and the work I and others put in is now frozen on the National Archives. It seems not to include quite a lot of work that I had added before my retirement and in fact misses a lot of photos including ones that I took of the Home Office memorial, under a section I included for memorials in other Government Depts

Hi Alan. Sorry to hear that your later work was not incorporated into the 'Virtual Memorial'. Is Jeanette still 'in the driving seat'? I'm glad that all the work done a decade or so ago is safe within the National Archives, but it does not bode well for work done during the Centenary if similar projects carried out in the past are already 'fossilised'. Jill would be very disappointed.

All best wishes

Mick

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There are later versions of the archived website after the Machinery of Government change that transferred the relevant bits of BERR to BIS, the last capture of that version is from 4 December 2012 http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http://bis.gov.uk/about/who-we-are/war-memorial. That probably coincides with the BIS webpages beign transferred into the gov.uk setup - there may be a further version within that, but I ahven't searched much further

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Hi Alan. Sorry to hear that your later work was not incorporated into the 'Virtual Memorial'. Is Jeanette still 'in the driving seat'? I'm glad that all the work done a decade or so ago is safe within the National Archives, but it does not bode well for work done during the Centenary if similar projects carried out in the past are already 'fossilised'. Jill would be very disappointed.

All best wishes

Mick

Jeanette is yes, but really just for the annual service. As for the website, despite me rebuilding it from scratch twice and having promises made to me that it would continue to be available to update, this promise was not kept. Richard McDonald-Webb took over as webmaster from me but has not been given any access to update files.

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Sorry to hear that, Alan. David Underdown's post above does suggest that a later version of the Virtual Memorial site may exist, though.

Hopefully the project team at the Home Office will learn from our experience and ensure that they keep a fully-functional up-to-date copy of their website/database on an external server, so that their work will not be lost or become inaccessible or impossible to update in the future.

Mick

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