2nd/4th East Kent, Gallipoli actions, July-Sep 1915

[Stephen Nulty]

I am looking into the story of a man who landed at Gallipoli on 30th July 1915 and was back in the UK wounded by early October.

Does anybody have access to the diaries for this period and could the actions be easily summaried?

Cheers

[Guest]

The 2/4th Buffs (East Kent) were in 160th Inf Bde which was cobbled together to make up the numbers when the Monmouthshire Brigade was taken away from the 53rd Welsh Div (TF). It was unusual in that it was really only one company of the 2/4th Buffs , with one Company of 2/5th Buffs, and one Company each from the 4th and 5th Battalions Royal West Kent Regt. These four units formed A, B, C and D Coys respectively. The unit was therefore known as the 2/4th Royal West Kent. It kept a War Diary which is held at Kew. The diaries have not been digitised, so a trip to Kew is necessary.

The Ref for the Diary is WO 95/4323. I am not sure if there are plans to digitise this diary. The digitised diaries of units that fought in Gallipoli were not completed (only two Brigades of the three Brigades of the 13th Div were digitised for example) and the 42nd Div and 53rd Div unit diaries were not digitised for some reason - or certainly were not some years back. Given the digitised ones are out of circulation, it may be some time until they are re-released.

There is less than a page on the 2/4th Buffs (East Kent) in Gallipoli. landed at Suvla bay on 9th Aug [actually 3:00 am on 10th] . Employed 'mainly in making trenches and on fatigue works' according to the Buff's history. It was mainly confined to the Beaches at Suvla bay. The 53rd Div was only partially trained and used in a very poor way at Gallipoli. It came in for a lot of criticism. the History of the 53rd Div provides some more detail but it seems clear that the 53rd Div had a rather limited role at Suvla and within the Div, 160th Inf Bde was split up with the 2/4th being used as labour. The 160th Inf Bde did spend some time in the trenches but after 21st Aug the lines barely moved. It is unclear if 2/4th rejoined the other battalions in 160th in the trenches.

They key point is that at Suvla Bay almost every square yard of ground could be shelled, so regardless of whether a man was in the front line or back at the beaches doing fatigues he could be just as easily killed or wounded by the Turkish artillery that dominated the surrounding chain of hills. The tale of these units was not particularly noteworthy during this period. If the other TF unit diaries that served at Gallipoli are anything to go by I would not raise any expectations for the 53rd Div units.

The West Kent's history might have more material. The men of the 2/4th East Kents were ultimately absorbed by the Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regt

MG

[Stephen Nulty]

Thanks Martin, that's very useful and informative. Just what I needed, really

[Jonathan Saunders]

It was unusual in that it was really only one company of the 2/4th Buffs , with one Company of 2/5th Buffs, and one Company each from the 4th and 5th Battalions Royal West Kent Regt. These four units formed A, B, C and D Coys respectively. The unit was therefore known as the 2/4th Royal West Kent. It kept a War Diary which is held at Kew. The diaries have not been digitised, so a trip to Kew is necessary.

The Buffs formed A and B Coys. Presumably A Coy being the 2/4th Buffs.

As stated, this unit (being designated 2/4th Queen's Own R.W.Kent Regt.) landed at Gallipoli on 10th August, not 30th July.

They saw very little active action and my understanding is most casualties to the unit were through sickness.

Regards,

Jonathan S

[Stephen Nulty]

Thanks Jonathan

[Guest]

The Buffs formed A and B Coys. Presumably A Coy being the 2/4th Buffs.

They saw very little active action and my understanding is most casualties to the unit were through sickness.

Initially the battalion was known as the Kent Battalion. The 2/4th Queen's Own Royal West Kent formed the Bn HQ which is why the title was eventually West Kents rather than East Kent. There was some debate whether to try and form a Kent regiment - separate from the East and West but it was decided that Kent's population could not sustain another regiment. The battalion was officially assigned the name 2/4th The Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment (TF) on 14th June 1915. The remainder of the original 2/4th Bn was renumbered 3/4th Bn and the fourth company was rebuilt.

According to the Buff's history A and B Coys weredrawn from the 2/4th and 2/5th Buffs(East Kent) respectively. Both halves of the battalion had independent admin, numbers, etc.

Key dates:

25th Apr 1915 - Kent Battalion joins 53rd Welsh Div

14th Jun 1915 - re-named 2/4th The Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment (TF)

18th Jul 1915 - departs from Bedford

20th Jul 1915 - Sails from Devonport on SS Northland

31st Jul 1915 - Arrives at Alexandria,

8th Aug 1915 - arrives at Mudros

10th Aug 1915 - lands at Suvla Bay

13th Aug 1915 - reaches firing line in the evening.

23rd Aug 1915 - first reinforcements arrive. In fact this was simply the 25% of each company that had been left behind at Alexandria

1st Sep 1915 - relieved in the trenches. Returned to West Beach

"Casualties in action were few, but the battalion dwindled rapidly from sickness till, when it embarked for Mudros on December 13th it was down to a dozen officers and a little over 200 other ranks....the casualties in action among the rank and fil were under a hundred"

Sources:

1. Historical records of the Buffs (East Kent regiment) 1914-1919 by R S H Moody

2. The Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment 1914-1919 by C T Atkinson

relevant pages from the RWK history follows:

[Stephen Nulty]

Once again, thanks for the additional information which is really useful

[westkent78]

As information.

2/4th Diary for Gallipoli was digitized. Downloaded it quite a few years ago when the war diaries originally were offered for download. It can basically be summed up by "All ranks in the trenches, fatigue parties for the R.E." or variations there-of with a few comings and goings of Officers. Don't know when we might get it back, shame really that the NA decided to pull all the Gallipoli diaries from their online offerings- perhaps a compatibility issue with the new style war diaries?

Matthew