WW1 Beds Regiment man died Ceylon

[Hookleg]

Name Richard Mingay. Rank :Private, Service No:24863. Date of Death:30/06/1917.

Regiment/Service:Bedfordshire Regiment 1st Bn.

Grave Reference:IX. I. 9. Cemetery: Kanatte, Colombo.

He would have been about 38 years old as far as I can find out. I believe he came from Suffolk

Can anyone give any info as to why he would have died in Sri Lanka. Was he in transit, and if so,  where to and from?

CWGC says "The Military Hospital at Colombo received cases of sickness from the troops on the land, or from passing transports.
The island, though visited for a short time by the 1st/4th King's Shropshire Light Inf., was garrisoned by the local defence units.

[wandererpaul]

http://bedfordregiment.org.uk/otherbn/garrisonbattalions.html

 

He was in the 1st Garrison Battalion stationed in India.

 

1st Garrison Battalion

Formed in Bedford in December 1915. Moved to India in February 1916.Came under command of the Dehra Dun Brigade in the 7th (Meerut) Divisional Area. Moved in March 1918 to the Delhi Brigade in the same area.

Edited 23 November , 2016 by wandererpaul

[sotonmate]

SDGW also gives him previously served with Suffolk Regt, presumably at Home as this does not appear on the MIC or BWM Medal Roll,service number 21449.

Likely that he was landed sick from the troopship en route to India. Feasible, if necessary, to find troopship papers in WO25 at Kew, though it doesn't ordinarily list names of ORs it might name him as landed in this circumstance. There may be more than one troopship for India in Feb 1916, and he might have travelled on a later one.

Two files: WO25/3544. At Home for Abroad Jan to Mar 1916. WO25/3545 Apr to Jun 1916.

Edited 23 November , 2016 by sotonmate
more info

[Hookleg]

Thanks so much to wandererpaul and sotonmate for that very useful information. Regards, Hookleg.

[sotonmate]

Hookleg

 

Looked in two files yesterday, dealing with shipping carrying troops to foreign parts for the first 6 months of 1916:

WO25/3544 (Jan to Mar). 1 Garrison Battalion sailed from Devonport on 26 Feb 1916 on HMT BELTANA. 26 Officers and 972 Other Ranks.

This month,by the way, seems to have been popular for shipping Garrison Battalions to India. There are no footnotes concerning landing troops in Ceylon. It is likely that if that happened it would be recorded elsewhere at the receiving end of the process, as the papers I saw are merely the outward clearance details of the voyage.

WO25/3545 (Apr to Jun). No references to additional troops from this unit being shipped out to India.

Edit later: Just so that you know, these files are fat ledgers crammed with the separate papers for each ship and voyage, sequenced by date but not by port of departure,showing the manifest of Officers (named), units,the number of ORs per unit,and the military cargo carried.

Edited 30 November , 2016 by sotonmate
More explanation of the files