Hargicourt

[Guest]

My great uncle was killed on 26 August 1917. He was in the 16 battalion Royal Scots. I believe he was killed at Hargicourt. He is remembered at the Thiepval memorial. I am trying to find some information about the battle.

 

[John_Hartley]

Welcome to the forum.

 

Each unit kept a war diary - updated each day. These are now available if you have access to Ancestry or, alternatively, from the National Archives website. It will have the best information available as to what 16/Royal Scots was doing that day.

[clk]

Hi shimwell,

 

Do you know for sure that your great uncle (presumably Edwin Shimwell) was serving with the 16th Battalion when he died? The reason I ask is that he doesn't appear to have a surviving service record, and there is conflicting info in other records. His CWGC record and Soldiers Died record do have him as 16th Battalion (the latter indicating that he had also been a York & Lancs, East Yorks, and Highland Light Infantry man). However, his medal roll record indicates overseas service with 15/Royal Scots, and that is the same unit recorded in his Soldiers Effects record. He doesn't appear to have a Will that may have clarified.

 

In terms of the number of deaths on 26th August 1917 you can extract data from the CWGC website that shows both battalions had similar losses at plus 35. When you said...

 

5 hours ago, shimwell said:

I am trying to find some information about the battle

 

in addition to the Battalion war diary, I'd also look at the Infantry Brigade HQ and Division HQ (General Staff) diaries as they often contain things such as orders, reports on operations, and maps, and give you a better overview of events. Both the 15th and 16th Royal Scots seem to have been part of 101 Brigade, 34 Division at the time. The search page for diaries at the National Archives is here, and on Ancestry here.

 

Good luck with your research.

 

Chris

[Guest]

Many thanks gentlemen. We were intrigued as to why he joined the 16 battalion Royal Scots as he lived in Sheffield and as far as we know was not a great football supporter.

[tullybrone]

13 hours ago, shimwell said:

Many thanks gentlemen. We were intrigued as to why he joined the 16 battalion Royal Scots as he lived in Sheffield and as far as we know was not a great football supporter.

 

Hi,

 

You can can see from clk post above that he had served in several other regiments before his transfer/posting to Royal Scots.

 

I doubt he had chosen to serve with Royal Scots as - in simple terms - after conscription was introduced soldiers were sent where they were needed - in contrast to earlier volunteers who for the most part could choose a regiment at enlistment.

 

Steve Y

[Amor]

Hi,

 

I have the below 9-page account of the battle. If you can PM with your email address I can share.

 

Rgds,

Alex