William Henry Speake, 1/5th South Lancashire Regiment

[DianeMain]

Hello all,

 

I am new to this site, and I want to see if anyone can help me in tracing the steps of my Granddad, William Henry Speake, who was in the regiment shown above.  I have attached his service record.  Thankfully, he survived the war, including a gun shot wound to his back, a shrapnel injury to his neck, and scabies.  I know what a few of the abbreviations in the record mean, such as "8 G H" meaning No. 8 General Hospital, which was just north of Rouen.  But much of the rest is still foreign to me.

 

He was my paternal grandfather, and I do know that he was wounded on 8th May 1915 at Shell Trap Farm, later renamed Mouse Trap Farm, and he was a Private in the 5th South Lancashire Regiment.  I can see that he rejoined his battalion on 6th June of 1915.  On 21st August of the same year, he suffered a shrapnel wound to the neck and was treated in the field. I would like to better understand where and how this would have happened.

 

He returned home after the war, married my grandmother, and had four children (the youngest being my father). He eventually moved to America, and he lived to the age of 85.

 

Thank you!

Diane

[Ian Riley]

These are some very rough notes that are made for the pupose of analysing training rather than operations. The actual war diary is likely to be fuller in detail and some members have a full version readily to hand

 

VLAMERTINGHE

·          1 May 1915 WD 1/5 SLR Huts H.9.b [Map reference - behind the lines]

·          2 May 1915 WD 1/5 SLR Moved forward to support [trenches]

TRENCHES LA BRIQUE

·          3 May 1915 WD 1/5 SLR Mov to GHQ line Wieltje

 

GHQ Line Fwd WIELTJE

·          4 May 1915 WD 1/5 SLR Front line trenches in good order, support line very poor 

·          5 May 1915 WD 1/5 SLR En movement seen and attack expected and Canadian artilleryy gave valuable support AND front line heavily reinforced.

·          6 May 1915 WD 1/5 SLR Bn moved back to LA BRIQUE

LA BRIQUE

·          7 May 1915 WD 1/5 SLR

·          8 May 1915 WD 1/5 SLR Most of Bn moves to rear of WIELTJE [ie out of front line]

·          9 May 1915 WD 1/5 SLR Casualties  Offrs 1 DoW 2 Wounded AND  ORs 8 K 13 W

Edited 21 January , 2018 by Ian Riley

[Ian Riley]

I am afraid I don't have any notes for August 1915 and would not be able to access the diary until the beginning of February

[clk]

Hi Diane,

 

1 hour ago, DianeMain said:

I know what a few of the abbreviations in the record mean, such as "8 G H" meaning No. 8 General Hospital, which was just north of Rouen.  But much of the rest is still foreign to me.

 

Emb = Embodied/joined

FA = Field Ambulance

CCS = Casualty Clearing Station

AT = Ambulance Train

GH = General Hospital

Con Camp = Convalescence Camp

Terr Base Dep = Territorial Base Depot

2/1 WLFA = 2nd (line), 1st West Lancashire Field Ambulance  - probably!

Sty H = Stationary Hospital

 

The Long. Long Trail here may be of help.

 

Regards

Chris

 

EDIT:

 

ACI 2414/16 = Army Council Instruction 2414 of 1916 - presumably an 'authority' to do something, but I haven't got a clue of what it actually said though. It might relate to pay entitlement - Cl II and CL I "Proy Pay" is probably Class 2/1 Proficiency Pay. As I understand it, effectively an enhancement to the basic daily pay rate due to qualifications - there is some info on the LLT here albeit based on the situation in 1914

Edited 22 January , 2018 by clk

[DianeMain]

Thank you both, Ian and clk!

 

Every little bit is helpful as I teach myself as much as I can about this time and place and the people affected.

[charlie962]

Tracking the war diaries is complicated due to several changes of division.  LongLong Trail gives this guide

                 

 

 

Ancestry have most of them available online but I couldn't instantly spot that of the Battalion for 8th May 1915 (edit-  found it here) ? However there is the 12th Brigade War Diary here and I extract a note about the fighting on 8th May:

                    

                                     

 

                                

 

Charlie

Edited 22 January , 2018 by charlie962

[charlie962]

For the period around 21/8/15 both the Brigade and Battalion war diaries say it was very quiet. 5th South Lancs were in the line. The Battalion War Diary does say this:

                       

                  

 

As you can see , 3 men slightly wounded in that period. Your GF was wounded 21/8 but back on duty 24/8 so presumably one of these ?

 

Charlie

 

just to transcribe in case terminology confuses..

              During this double tour, a little shelling by field guns and occasional sniping took place. The enemy worked by night on their trenches and an occasional patrol was seen. Otherwise it was a very quiet period- very few Germans were ever seen though 2 or 3 were shot. Our casualties amounted to 3 men slightly wounded.

Edited 22 January , 2018 by charlie962

[steandpaula]

Hi Diane, I assume you have seen the Prescot Roll of Honour    http://www.prescot-rollofhonour.info/home    that has William listed in the also served section, along with his brothers ?

Regards,

Ste M