Hi, could anyone help me find more information about James William Guest.

[Nick2017]

First Name: JAMES W
Last Name: GUEST

Year BD: March 1886
Year DD:  April 15th 1918
Soldier Number: 240936
Rank: Gunner
Unit Or Regiment Lincolnshire Regiment

He died at Ploegsteert, Ypres Salient, Ypres (Ypern, Leper), West-Vlaanderen (West Flanders), Belgium on  April 15th, 1918.

I'm just curious if anyone has any information about William, his battalion or his comrades?

Thanks.

[keithmroberts]

So what have you found so far Nick?

 

medal records and surviving service records are to be found on Ancestry - either by subscription, or free at many local libraries

You will find his battalion for example by looking him up on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website

The Lincolnshire Regiment war diaries for the Western Front are available  via Ancestry at your local library (see other posts here on finding these at Ancestry as it can be difficult ), or as a downloadfrom the National Archives for a small fee.

A history of the regiment in WW1 is available for free download on Archive.org

 

An excellent  guide to  researching a soldier is to be found here  http://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/soldiers/

 

The same website has an  excellent selection of routes to explore specific actions and units.

 

if you have tried all of these you will have discovered most (never all) of what is easily available.  Good luck with your research

 

Keith

[ss002d6252]

1 hour ago, Nick2017 said:

First Name: JAMES W
Last Name: GUEST

Year BD: March 1886
Year DD:  April 15th 1918
Soldier Number: 240936
Rank: Gunner
Unit Or Regiment Lincolnshire Regiment

He died at Ploegsteert, Ypres Salient, Ypres (Ypern, Leper), West-Vlaanderen (West Flanders), Belgium on  April 15th, 1918.

I'm just curious if anyone has any information about William, his battalion or his comrades?

Thanks.

He was a private in an infantry battalion, the 2/5th battalion of the Lincolnshire's, rather than a gunner.

The soldiers effects records show that £18 10s war gratuity was paid - this was for 39 months qualifying service at the time of his death. The monies were paid to his wife, Caroline. His record notes 'death presumed' which generally means he was last seen alive and that 15 April was a best guess.

Craig

[charlie962]

Nick,

The International Red Cross have an enquiry card from his mother. Reply of course negative but it does give her address and also his company and platoon, a level of detail one rarely finds.

                                            

Charlie

[charlie962]

If you have Ancestry then War Diary is here. It refers to an appendix for detailed report of action 15/4/18 but unfortunately I cannot see this appendix attached?   Edit It's there.  ORs Killed wounded and missing that day 352.

Edited 30 January , 2018 by charlie962

[Nick2017]

Thankyou for your help and advice. I'm interested in following his footsteps and tracing his history. It seems like there is an abundant of information about the Lincolnshire 2/5th battalion. 

I'm curious about 5th battalion D-Coy 15th platoon. Where do you think i can research more information about it? I have found some pictures of him which i will upload soon.

Edited 30 January , 2018 by Nick2017

[Nick2017]

Does anyone have any information about his comrades too?

[Nick2017]

It Seems like this could have been his final battle.

[charlie962]

On 30/01/2018 at 16:34, Nick2017 said:

Leicestershire 2/5th battalion

You mean Lincolnshire !!

 

And as I said in post5 above, see the detailed appendix for the rest of that day's action-(handwritten)- which shows you the huge casualty figure that he was a part of.

                

 

To understand what was going on in the unit, best to read the above War Diary first from the start of 1918. As you are no doubt aware, March, April and May 1918 were the series of German attacks known as the Spring Offensive using the huge amount of troops released from the Russian Front. They failed to achieve their objective. After that the Germans were pretty much on the defensive.   So you could read around this subject to understand the context (if you haven't already done so- forgive me if I'm telling you what you already know)

You could search the CWGC FindWarDead and list those of the unit who died that day. For the list of wounded, the Daily Casualty List produced around 15th May (ie 1 month later) will show them but will only give you Lincolnshires without telling you the Battalion. So if another Lincs Bn had casualties about the same time they would be included. Not easy. Maybe a Lincs Military Museum?

 

Charlie

Edited 2 February , 2018 by charlie962

[Nick2017]

Thankyou so much Charlie!

[Nick2017]

Charlie, I wasn't familiar with the Spring offensive, so i really appreciate your direction on the given topic.  Wow, it's fascinating that military diaries were kept. I had no idea. Yeah that's a great idea to read from the beginning of 1918, I will give it a go and see what i find!