steve140968 Posted 26 January , 2005 Share Posted 26 January , 2005 I have been looking through 'soldiers died in the great war' (Middlesex regiment). Whilst looking through the 6th battalion which i understand to have been a reserve battalion i noticed that 19 soldiers from this battalion 'died at sea' on the 30/12/1917. Does anyone please know the story behind this , thanks . Steve . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CROONAERT Posted 28 January , 2005 Share Posted 28 January , 2005 Nothing mentioned in the regimental history. Where are these men buried/commemorated? Might give some clues. Is it possible to find out the shipping losses for this day anywhere? Dave. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve140968 Posted 28 January , 2005 Author Share Posted 28 January , 2005 Dave , after doing a search on the cwgc website i found that many ( not all ) were remembered on the Chatby memorial , I have no idea where this is . Why would some of the soldiers come up in the cwgc search and others not ? Many thanks , Steve . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Nulty Posted 28 January , 2005 Share Posted 28 January , 2005 CWGC description of the Chatby memorial, which is in Egypt, includes the line:- "SS "Persia" - a defensively armed passenger vessel out of Tilbury, for Port Said, Aden and Bombay, torpedoed and sunk 30 December 1915 off Crete, with the loss of 334 lives" Could this be the incident? Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve140968 Posted 28 January , 2005 Author Share Posted 28 January , 2005 Thanks Steve , it could well be . Where would the troops have been heading for and why ??? Steve . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Nulty Posted 28 January , 2005 Share Posted 28 January , 2005 Steve An interesting one. The mother site states "5th and 6th (Reserve) Battalions August 1914 : in Mill Hill. Both remained in UK throughout the war. " But your suggestion is that these men were mainly of the 6th, so what were they doing in the Mediterranean? From a bit of googling around, I haven't been able to find an awful lot other than that the ship also carried an Indian Maharajah and a fortune in gold, and also that Lord Montagu's secretary & lover Eleanor Thornton was aboard and died. She is reputed to have been the model for Rolls-Royce's "Spirit of Ecstasy". I'm sure somebody with detailed knowledge of the Middlesex will know for sure, but it seems like they were bound for India. Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Nulty Posted 28 January , 2005 Share Posted 28 January , 2005 Sorry Steve, we're barking up the wrong tree!!! I just noticed that the data for the Persia is 30/12/1915 and yet your original query is for 30/12/1917 !!! The CWGCW note also states "HT "Aragon" - torpedoed and sunk 30 December 1917, entering the port of Alexandria, with the loss of 380 officers and men of the Commonwealth forces" Still not sure where they were going and why, but I obviously had the wrong ship! Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve140968 Posted 28 January , 2005 Author Share Posted 28 January , 2005 Thanks Steve , i myself didn't think that the 6th had gone overseas . My own grandfather was posted from the 6th to the 16th when he went overseas . Could it be that these soldiers were in the process of being posted to another battalion when the ship was sunk ? This theory then asks the question at what point do the soldiers cease to belong to the 6th and become part of another battalion ? Is it before they leave these shores or is it when they arrive at there new battalion ? If it were the latter this would explain why they are down as being part of the 6th . This just leaves the question why were they going there , over to you Steve . Steve . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Nulty Posted 31 January , 2005 Share Posted 31 January , 2005 Steve I can't answer that, I'm afraid. I looked at the first 100 casualties from the Chatby memorial and found that 47 of them are dated 30/12/1917. But they are a real cross section of regiments, so I'm not sure at all. Various "Google" searches link to individuals who died that day, but particulary interesting was a report at http://www.jrawl.co.uk/pugh.htm which includes photographs of the ship going down. Needs a Middlesex expert to tell us where they were going, though. ANyway, hope you get to the bottom of it. Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve140968 Posted 31 January , 2005 Author Share Posted 31 January , 2005 Thanks Steve , interesting story . Lets hope someone else can shed some light on these men . Steve . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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