Combles Communal Cemetery Extension: Case #1 - Lieutenant Rifle Brigade

[laughton]

This topic is a child topic off the main cemetery topic here:

 

https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/267473-combles-communal-cemetery-extension/

 

@thetrenchrat22 has suggested:

Quote

Evans in 1.C.39 of the 9th Rifle Brigade was found at 57c T.2.b.35.25 

Coster in 1.C.19 of the 9th Rifle Brigade was found at 57c T.2.b.25.35 

unknown Lt Rifle Brigade was found at 57c T.2.b.3.3 

it could bt Lt Bartholomew Patrick Lynch 9th Rifle Brigade 

all 3 died on the 15th September 1916.  

Lt Lynch has his name on the Kilkenny War Memorial in Ireland, which is not far from Dublin.  When looking at Google Earth

57 Lieutenant’s from the Rifle Brigade died in France and 23 of them appear on memorials to the missing 

 

These are the six (6) on the Thiepval Memorial for September 1916:

 

surname	forename	death	Rifle Brigade
COMBE	GEORGE HENRY RICHARD	15-09-16	7th Bn.
HATCH	REGINALD WILLIAM	03-09-16	17th Bn. attd. 10th Bn.
LYNCH	BARTHOLOMEW PATRICK	15-09-16	attd. 9th Bn.
ORD	ORD RALPH	18-09-16	10th Bn.
RONALDSON	CHARLES RASHLEIGH	03-09-16	16th Bn.
SCOTT	JAMES YUILL	03-09-16	10th Bn.

 

In the end, all 23  24 wil need to be checked for the CWGC. There was a "glitch" in the CWGC system as it did not show Patrick as being on the Vis-en-Artois Memorial. Many of those can be "bulk eliminated" using the "memorial exclusion process" (i.e. the CWGC definition for that memorial relative to location).

 

surname	initials	death	secondary_regiment	Rifle Brigade	memorial
BAGNALL	G B	23-04-17		6th Bn. attd. 13th Bn.	ARRAS MEMORIAL
PLATER	R H	03-05-17		9th Bn.	ARRAS MEMORIAL
STRATFORD	L	28-03-18		15th Bn. attd. 1st Bn.	ARRAS MEMORIAL
BRADLEY	G M	22-12-14	Welsh Regiment	6th Bn.	LE TOURET MEMORIAL
DURHAM	E	26-11-14		2nd Bn.	LE TOURET MEMORIAL
WOODROFFE	K H C	09-05-15	Welsh Regiment	6th Bn.	LE TOURET MEMORIAL
FENTON	G F R	04-07-16		16th Bn.	LOOS MEMORIAL
WHATELY	R H	25-08-16		5th Bn. attd. 2nd Bn.	LOOS MEMORIAL
CHAPMAN	D M	25-03-18		3rd Bn.	POZIERES MEMORIAL
EYTON	R W	22-03-18		7th Bn.	POZIERES MEMORIAL
GRADWELL	C E	21-03-18	Machine Gun Corps (Infantry)		POZIERES MEMORIAL
HALL	J S	21-03-18		7th Bn.	POZIERES MEMORIAL
KINGSWELL	F A	22-03-18		8th Bn.	POZIERES MEMORIAL
BLACKIE	J S	18-10-16		5th Bn. attd. 1st Bn.	THIEPVAL MEMORIAL
COMBE	G H R	15-09-16		7th Bn.	THIEPVAL MEMORIAL
GREENFIELD	R W	23-10-16		1st Bn.	THIEPVAL MEMORIAL
HATCH	R W	03-09-16		17th Bn. attd. 10th Bn.	THIEPVAL MEMORIAL
LYNCH	B P	15-09-16		attd. 9th Bn.	THIEPVAL MEMORIAL
ORD	O R	18-09-16		10th Bn.	THIEPVAL MEMORIAL
POLLAK	H L	23-10-16		17th Bn. attd. 2nd Bn.	THIEPVAL MEMORIAL
RONALDSON	C R	03-09-16		16th Bn.	THIEPVAL MEMORIAL
SCOTT	J Y	03-09-16		10th Bn.	THIEPVAL MEMORIAL
WHITE	M G	01-07-16		6th Bn. attd. 1st Bn.	THIEPVAL MEMORIAL
PICKERING	C A	30-08-18		1st Bn.	VIS-EN-ARTOIS MEMORIAL

[laughton]

I did check the CWGC system to see if there was a way to make the Vis-en-Artois Memorial show on the list. Even if you expand the page so show 100 names (i.e. more space for cemetery and memorial names on the left) it still does not appear. I have sent a note to the CWGC. For now that means it is mandatory to download the list, as the next time it could be another memorial or a cemetery that is missing.

 

Switching to another browser (i.e Explorer) did not solve the problem.

[laughton]

Quote

COG-BR 1984819 - unknown Rifle Brigade Lieutenant who has a SPEC-EXH so see note below that the ones I saw may be necessary to now recover

• his was on the next page SPEC-EXH 1984820 - 2 stars so a full Lieutenant of the Rifle Brigade at  57c.T.2.b.3.3, piece of braces with Dublin address
• L/Cpl Coster follows on next page from 9th Bn Rifle Brigade in the same location

 

The 42nd Infantry Brigade (14th Division) places them in the general area (war diary page 376 of 657), north of Montauban 57c.S.27 at Trones Wood (57c.S.23/24/29/30 and Crucifix Alley (57c.S.23). By 7:20 am they were at their first objective at 57c.T.2.d.2.5, so they moved directly into the area where the remains were recovered. The war diary is quite detailed, plus a good appendix (war diary page 427 of 657).

 

[laughton]

There are a number of other men, from different battalions, of the Rifle Brigade in the Combles CCE (CWGC Link). The nine (9) men cover seven (7) different battalions. For example, Carter (COG-BR 1984773) of the 11th Battalion was in the same 57c.T.2 location in January 1917 - so are there any Lieutenants missing at that time? The 10th was also close by in January 1917. Cubberly (COG-BR 1984863) of the 2nd was also at 57c.T.2 in November 1916.

 

Initially it looks like there are no Lieutenants of those units missing at those times .... looking good Alan!

Edited 25 November , 2018 by laughton
added COG-BR references and links

[laughton]

I checked all the Lieutenants on the Pozieres Memorial for March 1918 and they were well out of the area, as they were in 66d and 66e. I actually had all the details inserted when they just disappeared? I obviously did something strange as usually the text stays in the editor.