293 Brigade

[Old Bid]

Hi, I am researching a chap that served with 293 brigade. I have an ancestry account but am finding it hard to find war diary for this unit I get 4000 odd results and dont have time to check them all. Any tips on how to get better results refining search does not seem to work. Also this chap was a territorial with sussex under RFA how do I find when he would have been attached to 293 brigade? He was killed in Langearke nov 1917. The purpose of this is try to find out if pillbox still exists that he was killed outside whilst hanging a rug at entrance. 

[David Porter]

You will not find the War Diary for 293rd Brigade RFA on Ancestry. For the period you are interested in it was an Army Brigade and came under Army Troops. These diaries were digitized after the main set was released on Ancestry. You can only get them from the National Archives - free in person or a £3.50 download from here - https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/20b5508dc9d14730bcead77dc637aa34

 

The 2/2nd Sussex Battery (from Brighton) became B/335 in May 1916 then C/293 on August 21, 1916. C/293 was broken up to A/293 and B/293 on October 27, 1916.

The brigade disembarked at Havre on January 22, 1917. I assume the man you are interested in is Hubert Mallett Caddy?
 

[Old Bid]

Thank you for that and yes spot on with person. In your opinion am I wasting my time trying to find pillbox? I will download that later and have a look. Interesting his date of death on Cwgc is 16 Nov. Soldiers died, soldiers effects and pension ledger all state 18. On grave report says 17th but then came across a letter written by his Major to his wife saying he was killed 16. Why would all others be wrong, just misreading?

[ss002d6252]

32 minutes ago, Old Bid said:

Thank you for that and yes spot on with person. In your opinion am I wasting my time trying to find pillbox? I will download that later and have a look. Interesting his date of death on Cwgc is 16 Nov. Soldiers died, soldiers effects and pension ledger all state 18. On grave report says 17th but then came across a letter written by his Major to his wife saying he was killed 16. Why would all others be wrong, just misreading?

I have seen this time and time again.

 

Some of the issues came in because there was a cut off on any particular day for reporting purposes- deaths after that were reported on the next days report and so were often recorded as having occurred on that date rather than the actual date.

 

There's also the case that when the report hit the AG branch at the base they sent off various reports - it is at this point where things seem to diverge most. The records that eventually came from one of these reports formed some data sets and another set of records would be derived from another report - anything that varied in these reports or afterwards would cause the dates to diverge.

 

Craig

[Old Bid]

War diary says on 14 Nov transferred from 5th army to 2nd army. Does that mean they moved location or just come under new command?

[jay dubaya]

Without the rest of the context I would read that as coming under a new command and not moving location

 

J

[Old Bid]

Thanks, yes that's what it looks like. Interesting David Porter in above post mentions C/293 broken up to A/293 and B/293. But A,B,C and D/293 are all mentioned in Nov as being in Belgium.

Or did you mean C/293 was a large unit and broken down to smaller units?

[David Porter]

15 minutes ago, Old Bid said:

Interesting David Porter in above post mentions C/293 broken up to A/293 and B/293. But A,B,C and D/293 are all mentioned in Nov as being in Belgium.

 

This is due to C/293 being replaced with 6 guns from 57th Division on March 8, 1917.

 

8 hours ago, Old Bid said:

In your opinion am I wasting my time trying to find pillbox?

 

Who knows? If you can locate the battery positions, remnants of the pillbox might still be around there somewhere.

[Old Bid]

Where do Shropshire Horse Artillery fit in as I see they were merged into 293 Brigade and the letter to this chaps wife is from Major Leake Shropshire RHA.

I note from war diary that he took command on 10 Nov 1917 at rank of Captain when current Major DOW.

[David Porter]

56 minutes ago, Old Bid said:

Where do Shropshire Horse Artillery fit in as I see they were merged into 293 Brigade

 

The 4 guns of 1/1st Shropshire RHA (13 pdr then 18 pdr) plus 2 guns of 2/2nd Sussex Battery as B/335 then C/293 (15 pdr then 18 pdr) became A/293 in October 1916.

[Old Bid]

Thanks, also a reference that looks like H 2trs keeps being mentioned in diary, any idea what it means? Guessing abbreviation for a type of gun.

[jay dubaya]

Headquarters?