6th Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment, Thiepval 26-30 September 1916

[JRG]

I am working on a project to identify the CWCG graves of Soldiers of the 6th Battalion of the Northamptonshire Regiment, who fought at Thiepval on 26-30 September 1916.  I am particularly interested in names that are listed as missing/no known grave and commemorated on the Memorial at Thiepval. 

 

I am seeking to establish a list of the companies, with names of officers and NCO's at that time if possible. Any further rinformation regarding the movements or final dispositions of the companies and casualty numbers would be gratefully appreciated.

 

Thank you

[sotonmate]

The War Diary of the 6th Battalion is available to download on the National Archives Discovery database (£3.50) and has some detail on the planning and outcomes of the period you quote:

http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C7352999

or you can access it on Ancestry UK, if you are a subscriber, in the War Diaires section and quoting 2044/2 in the keyword box.

From page of the 25th September 1916 it goes into much detail on deployments for the action. It doesn't show any info on Company rosters though.

There are members here with a knowledge of the Northamptonshire Regiment who may be able to help you with info on rosters.

Soldiers Died in the Great War, also on Ancestry UK, has over 50 casualties for the period, and I note that the War Diary mentions a large number of troops classified as Missing, so there might be POW records which can help find if some had died in captivity.

Edited 22 January , 2018 by sotonmate

[JRG]

Sotonmate,

 

thank you for the pointers.

 

 

[Stebie9173]

Unfortunately, the Northamptonshire Regiment were either not the best record keepers or were very good at getting rid of "unneeded" paperwork - some of which no doubt went to the administration of the upper command levels anyway. There is a list of Company Commanders on the eve of the 1st July 1916, but even tracing the movements of company commanders is difficult. I think the narrative pages in the war diary for the Thiepval attack do allow you to allocate wounded or killed officers to companies, but I would probably only be able to allocate half-a-dozen NCOs to companies.

 

 

Steve.

 

Edited 22 January , 2018 by Stebie9173

[Loader]

I may have the wrong unit but I seem to recall there was a small booklet published some yrs ago on the history of the 6/Northamptons & has lot of names in it. Hopefully someone can correct me or confirm this.

[Stebie9173]

It was probably 4 VCs in Forty Months by Peter Jackson. It had names (and post-war addresses) of both the casualties and survivors in the battalion, though it doesn't show companies.

 

 

Steve.

[sotonmate]

4 hours ago, sotonmate said:

The War Diary of the 6th Battalion is available to download on the National Archives Discovery database (£3.50) and has some detail on the planning and outcomes of the period you quote:

http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C7352999

or you can access it on Ancestry UK, if you are a subscriber, in the War Diaires section and quoting 2044/2 in the keyword box.

 

A warning here with regard to the Ancestry UK listing. I have noticed that some of the 6 Northants date links and those of the Middlesex regt of the same Diary ref (same Brigade) are transposed, so maybe there is a worth in taking a closer look !