Rifleman Longmore 4th Bn Prince's Own

[phoggy]

I have come across a photograph with the following information written on the back:

Rifleman Frederick C Longmore

4th RB

died July 9 1915 from wounds secured at Hill 60 May 11 1915

He's not a relative but, with him being one of six sons, there's a good chance that there are some descendants out there who might not have seen it. He had an older brother Reginald in the 9th Battalion who survived the War.

Some of my research - a lot gleaned from your good selves here - finds that he was a Birmingham boy who died aged just 19 in Woolwich - presumably at one of the hospitals there.

I have two versions of the photo - one with the inscription and showing the mark of a studio in Birmingham and the other which is stamped J Griffiths, Sheerness on Sea, a well known photographer down here in Kent at the time.

Why should the photographer have done that? There were a couple of military hospitals here. Does anyone know if casualties were brought back through Sheerness Dockyard? Did Rifleman Longmore spend any time in Sheerness I wonder?

Humbling to think about what that young lad went through.

[stiletto_33853]

Frederick was a Z Prefix Special Reservist hence he would have gone to the 5th or 6th Reserve battalions of the Regiment before being shipped overseas, probably the 6th as this battalion was in Queenborough/Sheerness with the 5th at Minster and Eastchurch, so yes quite likely that the photograph is correct.

Unlikely to have been Hill 60 but Bellewaarde if the date of wounding is correct, the 4th RB did not arrive in France until late December 1914 there first real action being at St. Eloi.

This should probably be placed in the soldiers section.

Andy

[AlanCurragh]

Moved to Soldiers

[stiletto_33853]

Thanks Alan,

The 4th Rifle Brigade war diary records 3 men wounded on this day.

Andy

[phoggy]

Thanks for that information and sorry for posting incorrectly - I'm new around here!