Laird of Camster Posted 8 January , 2019 Share Posted 8 January , 2019 Ladies/Gents, Can anyone tell me whereabouts on Gallipoli the 1st battalion of the Maltese Labour Corps were deployed? I believe they served for three months between September & December. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
horatio2 Posted 8 January , 2019 Share Posted 8 January , 2019 The Official History (p.395 Note 1) places the Maltese Labour Corps working "At the Anzac beaches ... in the autumn." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michaeldr Posted 8 January , 2019 Share Posted 8 January , 2019 'No Labour, No Battle' by Starling & Lee has some further few details 864 men left Malta under Major J V Aspinall & Lieut. J L Muscat On arrival at Mudros (island of Lemnos) 234 of the men volunteered to serve on the battlefield itself (on the Gallipoli peninsula) and sailed from Mudros under Capt. Stivala on 27th September, landing at Anzac. When the evacuation of the peninsula was decided upon, the MLC were withdrawn from the battlefield (together with the Egyptian Labour Corps) to Lemnos on 11th December 1915 The men served as stevedores and signed on for three months, many of them re-enlisting for further three month periods of service; the majority of the original contingent served in this theatre from 1st September 1915 until 17th February 1916 The medal roll (Bronze War Medal) indicates that a total of 1,088 men served with the Maltese Labour Corps at Gallipoli Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laird of Camster Posted 8 January , 2019 Author Share Posted 8 January , 2019 (edited) Thanks chaps, that's of great help and interest. Have either of you got any idea what this document is? Edited 8 January , 2019 by Laird of Camster Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michaeldr Posted 8 January , 2019 Share Posted 8 January , 2019 (edited) Sorry, but really no idea A guess would be that it's connected with the Bronze BWM since it appears to list, next to the names, the service dates (from 01/09/1915 to [the latest date] 17/02/1916) and the theatre (Gallipoli) But, this is only a guess Edited 8 January , 2019 by michaeldr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaxD Posted 8 January , 2019 Share Posted 8 January , 2019 It is the third page from the Maltese Labour Corps medal roll in WO 329/2359 which starts with Native Interpreters and Machine gun porters which is what Ancestry has it catalogued under. Max Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laird of Camster Posted 9 January , 2019 Author Share Posted 9 January , 2019 (edited) 21 hours ago, MaxD said: It is the third page from the Maltese Labour Corps medal roll in WO 329/2359 which starts with Native Interpreters and Machine gun porters which is what Ancestry has it catalogued under. Max Thanks Max. Any idea how many names appear on each page? Given the low numbers of these chaps am I right in thinking that they'd be interpreters and or machine gun porters? What exactly did a machine gun porter do? Edited 9 January , 2019 by Laird of Camster Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaxD Posted 9 January , 2019 Share Posted 9 January , 2019 (edited) As you probably know, a "standard" medal roll contained the listing of men all awarded one or other of the campaign medals of the Great War while serving with a particular regiment. There is a small number of other rolls for what might be called the odds and sods. The one here (WO 329/2359) is the roll of awards of the British War Medal (Bronze)**, for "Foreign Native Troops" and includes a number of different units, among them the Maltese Labour Corps.. Attached is the contents page and how many on each page depends on what unit it was, the figures are the page numbers the unit is on but the number on each page varies. The interpreters and machine gun porters are among the group serving with the N Rhodesian Forces doing exactly what their job titles say - remember this was a different era and "natives" were treated in ways perhaps unacceptable today. WO 329/2371 which has the Maltese Labour Corps. the Maltese Employment Coy, Maltese Mining Coy and the Sierra Leone Carrier Corps appears, as far as the Maltese Labour Corps is concerned, a duplicate list. As there are over 1000 of the MLC I haven't checked one list against the other fully. You can download both rolls from the National Archives for £3.50 each (they are both on Ancestry). Max ** The "natives" got a different coloured medal, exactly the same criteria! attachment follows Edited 9 January , 2019 by MaxD typo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaxD Posted 9 January , 2019 Share Posted 9 January , 2019 Attachment Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michaeldr Posted 9 January , 2019 Share Posted 9 January , 2019 The Theatre of War given at the head of the page shown in post No.4 indicates "Gallipoli" I have not seen any evidence for members of the Maltese Labour Corps being employed in that theatre as either interpreters or machine gun porters. The book by Starling & Lee 'No Labour, No Battle' uses some quotes from "Emmanuel Attard - from Gozo (Malta) to Gallipoli and Australia" by Barry York and Mark Caruana and it may well be that this is the man shown in the above post as 'No.47 - Attard E.' Regarding the numbers of the MLC; Starling & Lee have "According to one source over 7,000 (of them) served in the Maltese Labour Corps although the Medal Rolls show the smaller figure of 5,621." Their notes seem to suggest that the larger figure came from Sir Charles Lucas' book 'The Empire at War' vol.I, p.11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaxD Posted 9 January , 2019 Share Posted 9 January , 2019 (edited) The Native Interpreters, Machine Gun Porters, Scouts and Stretcher Bearers are in the N Rhodesian Forces - please look at the contents page above. How many awards went to the Maltese Labour Corps and how many of them went to Gallipoli I shall leave to others to find out from the two rolls. My input was to answer the question posed in post #4 above. Max Edited 9 January , 2019 by MaxD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michaeldr Posted 10 January , 2019 Share Posted 10 January , 2019 13 hours ago, MaxD said: The Native Interpreters, Machine Gun Porters, Scouts and Stretcher Bearers are in the N Rhodesian Forces - please look at the contents page above. ... ... ... My input was to answer the question posed in post #4 above. 14 hours ago, michaeldr said: The Theatre of War given at the head of the page shown in post No.4 indicates "Gallipoli" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaxD Posted 10 January , 2019 Share Posted 10 January , 2019 25 minutes ago, michaeldr said: The Theatre of War given at the head of the page shown in post No.4 indicates "Gallipoli" Yes it does but that is one of the pages devoted to the Maltese Labour Corps and obviously does not apply to the remainder of the units which are included in the same volume. Max Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michaeldr Posted 10 January , 2019 Share Posted 10 January , 2019 (edited) Max I'm sure that the Northern Rhodesian info which you provided was well meant and with the very best of intentions However, LoC seemed to have picked up the wrong end of the stick - see his 19 hours ago, Laird of Camster said: Given the low numbers of these chaps am I right in thinking that they'd be interpreters and or machine gun porters? What exactly did a machine gun porter do? My post No.10 was aimed to try and clarify the position for him regarding Gallipoli, which is after all the theatre which we are supposed to be talking about here Less is more may be the lesson here regards Michael Edited 10 January , 2019 by michaeldr spelling Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaxD Posted 10 January , 2019 Share Posted 10 January , 2019 I see where you are coming from now but thought I had answered L of C's point in my post #8. 16 hours ago, MaxD said: The interpreters and machine gun porters are among the group serving with the N Rhodesian Forces doing exactly what their job titles say so I mis-interpreted your input as also attributing the interpreters etc to the MLC. Time to exit stage left pursued by porters, bearers, carriers and mule drivers Rgds Max Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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