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Remembered Today:

Online 1916 article re Calcutta Volunteer Battery [Artillery]-East Afr


MaureenE

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Calcutta Contingent. Splendid Services in East Africa Stirring Experiences

The Straits Times, 5 December 1916, Page 3

http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/straitstimes19161205.2.7.aspx

From Newspapers SG, free Singapore Government website.

Note: to read, you need to agree to the “Terms and Conditions of Use”

This was an Indian Army regiment known as the Calcutta Volunteer Battery, formed from Volunteer regiments based in Calcutta, the Calcutta Port Defence Volunteers and the Cossipore Artillery Volunteers

Cheers

Maureen

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Thanks for this Maureen - if it's accurate then there is some very useful information here such as the number of men who were commissioned.

There is an overall account of the battery here:

http://www.westernfrontassociation.com/the-great-war/great-war-on-land/other-war-theatres/1072-indian-volunteers-in-the-great-war-east-african-campaign.html

Harry

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I am surprised to see the history of the unit finish at the end of 1916 in India. A while ago I viewed the War Diary of 204th "Calcutta" Battery RGA, and in July 1917 it mentioned it being re-named from the Calcutta Volunteer Battery. It was by then stationed at El Arish.

post-7172-0-61105400-1426081107_thumb.jp

The War Diary from April 1917 to December 1918 comes under WO 95/4728.

http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C7360107

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Thank you both for your comments.

I think it is likely that there were two groups (or at least two groups) which made up the Calcutta Volunteer Battery. The first group went to East Africa It appears a second group went to the Middle East, date unknown but by 06/06/1916, and it was this group which subsequently became 204th "Calcutta" Battery RGA on 1 July 1917.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission website has a death for Gunner C H Thomas died 06/06/1916 who is on the Basra Memorial. His regimental details are given as Indian Defence Force Artillery, 1st (Calcutta Port Defence) Group Garrison Artillery, but I believe this is the same as the Calcutta Volunteer Battery . The War Diary reference given by David is for ‘’204 Calcutta Battery Royal Garrison Artillery’’, so it ties in.

http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1660103/THOMAS,%20C%20H

The following is speculation only but I wonder if there is a connection with the “Volunteer Artillery Battery” which was mainly a volunteer Contingent from Rangoon, Burma, who arrived in Mesopotamia in July 1915. Most/all? were taken prisoner at Kut, however there are War Diaries through to 1918, so the Battery appears to have continued in some form after the fall of Kut. There is a FIBIS Fibiwiki page Volunteer Artillery Battery which has some details

http://wiki.fibis.org/index.php/Volunteer_Artillery_Battery

Cheers

Maureen

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To add a little more mystery, there is Bdr. John S. McGrogan who died on January 7, 1917 of dysentery in Angora. His regimental details say he was in the Calcutta Volunteer Artillery Bty., Royal Field Artillery.

http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/634326/

There certainly seem to be at least 3 separate histories and locations attached to batteries under this name. East Africa, Mesopotamia and Egypt/Palestine. The War Diary I mentioned above gives the Calcutta Volunteer Battery in Cairo in May 1917.

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Actually the correct title of the unit was The Cossipore Artillery Volunteers.

The best source for basic information on Indian Volunteer units is Chris Kempton's The Regiments & Corps of the H.E.I.C. & Indian Armies Volunteer Forces (softback, The Military Press, 2012).

My understanding is that the Volunteers were enlisted for home defence (internal security) duties and were under no obligation to serve overseas,

However a minority did volunteer for overseas operational service, but according to their trade (signaller, despatch rider etc) they could be posted anywhere individually from France to Mesopotamia.

It looks as though only the East African theatre received formed units of Volunteers (artillerymen and machine gunners) with strong sub-unit establishments of men and equipment.

A very interesting field of research would be to track all the Volunteers who went overseas and to describe their employments, actions fought, casualties suffered and gallantry medals awarded.

(After the war there was a Volunteers' Dinner in Bombay, the climax of which was the sudden de-bagging of all men present who had failed to volunteer for overseas operational service.

What a night that must have been!)

Harry

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There were two other Volunteer Artillery Batteries of which I am aware, both of which served in Mesopotamia.

The first one was called the Volunteer Artillery Battery, and there is a FIBIS Fibiwiki page of that name

http://wiki.fibis.org/index.php/Volunteer_Artillery_Battery as mentioned in post 4 above. Most of the men were from Burma, and were known as the Rangoon Contingent. They were captured at the fall of Kut, and many died as prisoners of the Turks. There is a diary of the commander Major Sir Alexander James Anderson, at the Imperial War Museums

The other was called the Anglo Indian Battery, which was part of the Anglo Indian Force, which was raised from the Anglo-Indian (mixed race) community. There is a book at the British Library about this Force called The Anglo-Indian Force by C T Robbie IOR/L/MIL/17/5/4318

I have also found a brief mention the Calcutta Motor-Cycle Machine-Gun Battery, which appears to have served in Egypt, see

Cheers

Maureen

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  • 2 years later...

An oldish thread but I just thought to add that both Gunner Colvin H Thomas (Maureen's post4) and Bdr John S McGrogan (David's post5) were indeed taken prisoner at the fall of Kut on 29/4/16 as part of the Volunteer Artillery Battery.

Charlie

Edited by charlie962
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Thanks for this advice Charlie. Interesting to have my speculation confirmed.

Dick Flory in another topic advised that there were  five members from Calcutta in the Volunteer Artillery Battery

I have updated the FIBIS Fibiwiki page  Calcutta Volunteer Battery

https://wiki.fibis.org/w/Volunteer_Artillery_Battery

This was established during WW1 and was formed from various Calcutta Volunteer regiments. Bushfighter in post 7 says 

On 15/03/2015 at 05:50, bushfighter said:

Actually the correct title of the unit was The Cossipore Artillery Volunteers.

 

However, I believe this was just one of the units that men came from.

 

I must say I find it a bit confusing the way the original pre WW1 Volunteer Regiment seems to be regarded as the man's regiment in respect of  Army records generally, including  CWGC, even when he is fighting with another regiment such as the Volunteer Artillery Battery.

 

Cheers

Maureen

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Maureen, have you seen this interesting and unexpected page of the BWM/VM Roll available on Ancestry that lists a number of Calcutta Volunteers in various Theatres?I haven't looked through all the others in the fische but It might be of interest. The Cacutta Port Defence Garrison Artillery, Aux Force. If I come accross anything for Bombay, Madras or Rangoon I will let you know. I hope I am within the rules for posting extracts from Ancestry. It can only encourage people to subscribe to see what more is there!

 

 

volartybty cacutta rollbwmvmAncestry.JPG

 

 

 

Edit.. I see page 431 and 432 in the same piece have more Calcutta Artillery Volunteers for Africa.

Charlie

 

Edit again.  There is a lot of info in this Piece and I wonder how well Ancestry coped with indexing! I am browsing, with interest, given the lack of IA rolls

Edited by charlie962
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Thanks for posting Charlie. It looks very interesting, and its very helpful for you to have given the page numbers. 

I don't currently have Ancestry, but I can get  access through a library. 

 

Cheers

Maureen

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