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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

5th Entrenching Battalion.


Jane Cassidy

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Hi, I’m a new member, I hope I am posting in the right place. I very recently discovered I had a great-uncle who was killed during the Great War. He served with the 9th Battalion Highland Light Infantry. However, I came across a record today that says he was attached to  the 5th Entrenching Battalion. He probably went to France in late 1915 or early 1916 and was killed on July 16, 1918. He is buried in Poperinge. Can any tell me anything about 5th Entrenching Battalion? Thanks.

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Good evening Jane, welcome to GWF.  If you would care to give some details of his name,etc, then I think you will be pleasantly surprised at what turns up from my fellow members.

   An Entrenching Battalion was basically a unit used for the construction and repair of the trenches. The popular image of the Great war as soldiers in front-line trenches and dug-outs obscures the fact that it  took a large amount of resources of manpower and materiel to keep the trench line in working order. New soldiers to the front line were often first posted to an Entrenching Battalion to learn the arts of building and maintaining trenches.  After that, with a regular infantry battalion, keeping the trenches in order was part of the everyday job of a fighting unit in the front line

    (He would appear to be F.E.Downs, the only death of the 9th HLI on 16th July 1918)

Edited by Guest
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Thank you very much GUEST and you are correct - his name was Francis Elliot Downs. My father was given the same name when he was born a few months after Frank's death, but I only learned of Frank's existence when I spotted the name on a war memorial about six weeks ago. Frank was from Johnstone in Renfrewshire, Scotland, and had the service numbers 5027, 332083. From what I can see in the regiment's war diary, he was probably killed when "a shrapnel shell burst near B Coy headquarters". This incident is mentioned because it resulted in the death of Captain James Alexander Ancrum, from his wounds some hours later, hence his date of death being listed as 17/7/1918. Ancrum is buried in the Mendinghem cemetery, my uncle in Nine Elms British Cemetery. The last location listed for the battalion prior to their deaths is "Canal sector Ypres". In the preceeding days, they had been at Brandhoek and Proven.

 

Thanks for responding.

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Hi Jane,

 

From his Soldiers Died record, it appears that Frank enlisted in Glasgow. The amount of War Gratuity shown as paid in his Soldiers' Effects record would have been based on his rank and length of service, and so it can be used to back calculate a date of joining up to circa November 1915. By that time the 1/9 Battalion HLI were already in France (- see here), so he must have arrived in theatre as a reinforcement. He has two service numbers because the Territorial Force were renumbered in 1917 ( - see here). His 332083 is consistent with the number block allocated for use for the various line units of the 9th Battalion - i.e. 1/9, 2/9. and 3/9. His medal roll record indicates that the new 6 digit service numbers were issued sequentially based on previous 4 digit numbers. There are some service papers for a 5030/332085 Wrighton which show that he attested to the 3/9 Bn HLI on 9th November 1915. A wider sampling of 'near number' men would be much better, but it seems that Frank probably joined up around the same date. 

 

As Frank doesn't have surviving service papers, the difficulty is in establishing when he was sent for overseas service. It would have been after 1915 (as he didn't qualify for a 14/15 Star medal), but probably before early 1917, as his pre 1917 number is shown on his medal roll record. It might be worth plodding through the service records from this search to see if there are any commonalities from which you might be able to make a reasonable inference. Hopefully a HLI specialist will be able to post more informed comments than me.

 

If you would like a good quality image of his grave stone, it looks like the good folk at British War Graves will be able to send you one on a free of charge basis.

 

Good luck with your research.

 

Regards

Chris

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Thank you very much, Chris, that is brilliant. I am currently reading Alec Weir's book about the battalion, entitled Come On Highlanders. It tells me numbers 4250 to 5250 enlisted in the second half of 1915.  I had though of looking at similar service numbers to Frank's so I will do that along with the other things you suggest. I managed get a pic on the Find A Grave website - how beautifully they are kept. I'm very grateful for your assistance.

 

Jane

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Jane

A good tip is to read the War Diaries of the Infantry Brigade and the Division HQ General Staff (and Adjutant and Quarter-Master General) for July 1918. 9 HLI were in 100 IB at this time. A good source of Operational Orders with map locations and maps. In this Case 100 Infantry Brigade (WO 95/2429/4) and 33 Div HQ General Staff (WO 95/2407/1-5). Also remember the local newspapers for where his NOK lived at the time.

Brian

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