6th Btn R Lanc R (Gallipoli) War Diaries

[Chad-1421]

Hi

Does anyone have access to the 6th Btn Royal Lancaster Regiment war diaries for Gallipoli in 1915?

I am interested to know if there is any reference to 12050 L/Sgt F S Yates being wounded. He is recorded in the Manchester Evening News dated the 4th October 1915 as having been wounded whilst serving in Gallipoli with the 6th Btn but no further information is given.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Ian

[Chris_Baker]

Do you subscribe to Ancestry? The war diary is available to download there.

[Guest]

The 6th Bn King's Own Royal Lancaster Regt war diary is missing - it is one of only a very few battalion diaries from Gallipoli that did not survive so you are rather unlucky. It is highly unusual for an individual soldier to be named in the war diaries of this period. The 38th Infantry Brigade war diary has survived which will be the closest account. If you know the date he was wounded - or an approximate date - I can post a transcription of the brigade diary for the relevant period. The Brigade war diary runs to 9,000 words (quite thin by the standards of the day). It has been digitised but is no longer available online via the National Archives although if you can get to the National Archives you can access it on their screens. File is WO 95/4302.

If you have an Ancestry subscription you can access the Brigade diary here: click

Separately the regimental history "The King's Own: The Story of a Royal Regiment" Vol III 1914-1950 by Julia M Cowper (published in 1956) has a a few pages on the 6th Bn at Gallipoli (pages 71-78) and again no Other Ranks are named.

One of the few regimental histories written by a lady, incidentally a Colonel in the WRAC.

Edit: You might try the Regimental Museum as the diaries were kept in duplicate and (in theory) the duplicate copy might have survived.

MG

[John_Hartley]

The Regimental Museum offers a CD for sale of the 6th's diary between 13/6/15 and 28/2/19.

The Museum is one of the most helpful I've come across and it would certainly be worth making contact to see if they have anything on your man (although they probably haven't)

[Chad-1421]

Thanks for your help and advice folks, it is appreciated. I am trying to avoid purchasing the CD of the war diary as it is outside my usual field of interest and I agree that it is highly unlikely he will be mentioned (the KORL museum site does state that the war diaries to the 6th Btn are somewhat briefer than others).

Ian