Guest Posted 22 October , 2018 Share Posted 22 October , 2018 My Grandfather Robert Albert Watson DSO MC and bar MID x 3 was 14 when he joined the Army at Portsmouth in 1890's, he was posted to Burma, France,Belgium,Germany, Jamaica,Coastal Defence South West England. He died in 1944 at 54 years of age. Final Rank Lt Col, quite a history. He was a hero without any doubt, as were his father Capt RO Watson DCM and his son RSM Roy Watson. I as the grandson in the TA in Rhodesia managed 1st Lt. My grandfather was attached to 35 and 14 Heavy Batteries in WW1 when he received his bravery medals, I have his War diaries for 14 HB, BUT he was transferred to 14 (1917) after having served most of the war and gaining his 2 MC's in 35 HB from 1914-1916. He was badly wounded survived and went back within a short space of time, BUT I have no records of his time with 35HB when he got those medals and 3 MID's. I would appreciate any further information you may have regarding 35HB and any reference to his medals and wounds received. Many thanks for this very interesting and well researched forum. Michael. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted 22 October , 2018 Share Posted 22 October , 2018 I was also wondering what sort of value these medals are today for insurance purposes please. Michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
battiscombe Posted 22 October , 2018 Share Posted 22 October , 2018 There is some information available on 35th Heavy Bty - as a regular unit which went to France with 2nd Division. I am not sure when Watson joined, as not an original officer I think - they went with Maj. A.C. Wilkinson Capt. E. L. Caldecott Lt. A. L. Cruickshank Lt. G. P. Sedden Lt. H. G. Paris a WWW site devoted to Lt Paris has some info only early war with 35th before he was posted to 138th Heavy. http://hampstead-heavies.com/paris.htm and also here - with ref for its war diary https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/153420-35thheavy-battery-rga/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ororkep Posted 23 October , 2018 Share Posted 23 October , 2018 Quote:...in 35 HB from 1914 -1916 his 14 Star indicates first served in theatre of war with 113 HB as a Sgt. Rgds Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevinrowlinson Posted 23 October , 2018 Share Posted 23 October , 2018 Some of hIs original service records are on FindMyPast, and presumably Ancestry, and also a medical record when he was hospitalised in 1916. Searching the forum for all batteries may return some results. His commission, increases in ranks and medal awards should be available on the London Gazette site at https://www.thegazette.co.uk/all-notices . Kevin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulChat Posted 26 October , 2020 Share Posted 26 October , 2020 Hi, My Grandfather served in the 14th Heavy Battery RGA 1915-19, and i would be very interested in any information you may have to their movements. He died in 1935 and nothing was passed down apart from a handful of photos and his medals. Regards Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Michelle Young Posted 26 October , 2020 Admin Share Posted 26 October , 2020 Welcome to the forum. The originator of this thread is no longer a member of the forum as denoted by guest prefix. I suggest that you start a new thread with as much information as you can supply, the barest minium is his name, but date of birth, place of birth, family details etc will help greatly. Michelle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clk Posted 26 October , 2020 Share Posted 26 October , 2020 Hi Paul, 1 hour ago, PaulChat said: i would be very interested in any information you may have to their movements. After registration with the National Archives, you can download the unit war diary for the period October 1914 to September 1915 (free of charge) from here. The overall unit allocation is shown in the image below. Image sourced from the National Archives You should be able to follow the Battery movements further by looking at the respective war diaries for the HAG (Heavy Artillery Group) they were associated with. At the National Archives the search page is here. When using it drop any st's, nd's, etc from the HAG number, and replace 'HAG' by 'Brigade Royal Garrison Artillery'. So, for example "48th HAG" becomes "48 Brigade Royal Garrison Artillery", and should give you these hits - link. Regards Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulChat Posted 26 October , 2020 Share Posted 26 October , 2020 Hi Chris, thank you so much for that information and your help, I’ve just downloaded the diary and look forward to reading through it ! Hopefully more of the diaries can be found. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barkalotloudly Posted 27 October , 2020 Share Posted 27 October , 2020 The history of the 14TH is quite informative roll of honour {all ranks} etc and goes thro until Jan 1919 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulChat Posted 27 October , 2020 Share Posted 27 October , 2020 I've noticed that the diary of the 14th Heavy Battery is attached to the 92nd HAG, so am i right to assume my grandfather would have been aligned to them too until 1918/19 ? Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rflory Posted 28 October , 2020 Share Posted 28 October , 2020 PaulChat wrote: "My Grandfather served in the 14th Heavy Battery RGA 1915-19, and i would be very interested in any information you may have to their movements. He died in 1935 and nothing was passed down apart from a handful of photos and his medals." Paul: You need to find a copy of War Diary and Roll of Honour 14th Heavy Battery, RGA in France, Belgium, Germany - 1915-16-17-18-19 -. It was originally published 1919 but Naval and Military Press has reprinted it in softback form and I think that it is still available from them or you may be able to find it on eBay. The book is 108 pages, reasonably detailed with numerous illustrations including a map of the Battery's travels. If you post your grandfather's name I will see if he is mentioned. Dick Flory Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulChat Posted 28 October , 2020 Share Posted 28 October , 2020 (edited) Hi Dick, thanks for commenting. I actually have the book , which is great to have, but whilst it points out the whereabouts of the battery it doesn’t go into too much detail. My grandfather, William Joseph Chatham is in one of the photos, which I’d love to find better scans of. Sadly after the war he took his own life in 1935 after bouts of ‘delusions’ and died in a mental institution. No doubt the events he witnessed during the war would have had an impact on this (along with personal tragedies) and I’d like to know more of what he and his comrades had to deal with from 1915-19. Such was the stigma around mental illness back then that nothing was spoken of his death, it was only when earlier this year i bought a copy of his death certificate that I discovered the truth. Thanks. Edited 28 October , 2020 by PaulChat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ororkep Posted 28 October , 2020 Share Posted 28 October , 2020 (edited) Paul, I think we're covering old ground here a bit aren't we from a few years back on forum. Which image from the book do you think he is in and where standing? P P.S. Correct: 14 HB were a component battery under 92 Brigade f: HAG for 1918 Edited 28 October , 2020 by ororkep Added P.S. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulChat Posted 28 October , 2020 Share Posted 28 October , 2020 I’m covering new ground on this thread finding the diary for 14HB on the National Archives site along with the 92nd Brigades. For 85yrs the story was that my grandfather died of TB (as had his wife and youngest daughter previously), then a few months a go I discover he took his own life from a death certificate and the inquest report at Birmingham library. So this year I’ve been able to put quite a few pieces of the jigsaw together. There are quite a few more to be sorted, some may be never be found, but I won’t bore you any further ! I believe he’s in the photo opposite page 15, back row, third from right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ororkep Posted 28 October , 2020 Share Posted 28 October , 2020 Paul, present for you. Post card of image printed on p15 in the book Rgds Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulChat Posted 28 October , 2020 Share Posted 28 October , 2020 That’s excellent, thanks a lot Paul ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clk Posted 28 October , 2020 Share Posted 28 October , 2020 Hi Paul. I guess that the book would be a more flowing, and make an easier read. but if you did want to itch the scratch, it might be worth downloading this file from the National Archives. Part 2 of which gives details of some of the HAGs/Brigades that his Battery appears to have served under. For example, where the unit allocation in my previous post shows: ...it shows: Images sourced from the National Archives So if I've understood that correctly,14 Heavy Battery, served 'in action' as part of 34 HAG/Brigade under 39 Division from 11.7.1917 to 6.8.1917; then under 48 Division from 6.8.1917 to 28.8.1917, before being moved to 1 HAG/Brigade on 3.9.1917. If that's correct these 39 Division diaries (link and link), and these 48 Division diaries (link and link) may be of interest. In general terms the diaries would probably give you more context to the events that William experienced and went through. If needed there is help on reading map references here. Regards Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulChat Posted 29 October , 2020 Share Posted 29 October , 2020 Hi Chris, thanks a lot for taking the time to investigate further the movements of William’s Battery. I’ll download all the highlighted files onto my iPad which makes them quite easy to run through. I’ll take a lesson in map reading too ! Regards Paul. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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