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Remembered Today:

L/Sgt John Walker 7th A&SH 276085 1915-1917


johnwalker

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My Grandfather John Walker was wounded by artillery fire at Arras on or around 24th April 1917. He was subsequenty evacuated to St Andrew's Military Hospital at Dollis Hill and then back to Falkirk, from where he was referred to Erskine for boots to compensate for his leg wound.

Am I correct in thinking that he would most likely have been wounded in or around Rouex?

 

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John

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Embroideredc Argylls badge made by my Grandfather while in St Andrew's hospital, as therapy for his wounded left hand. A piece of shrapnel penetrated the palm and went right through, restricting his use of his hand fromt then on.

The embroidery is about 2 feet square.

 

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J

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War diary says they had withdrawn from front line. But subject to intermittent shelling. 2 men killed, 50 wounded on 24th. Sunken Road area.

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Thank you for your reply. 

My Grandpa's recollection was of being hit by shrapnel from an exploding artillery shell and either falling or being blown into a shell crater where he managed to get a field dressing on his thigh wound. He stopped the worst of the bleeding, which was fortunate as it took the bearers some time to find him and get him out. 

He could well have been one of the 50 mentioned. 

J

 

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I've now downloaded the 7th's War Diary from the National Archive site. I hadn't realised it was available digitally until Mark1959's comment promoted me to go back to the site and check, so thanks for that.

My impression was always that my Grandpa was wounded while attacking, rather than being the victim of intermittent shelling behind the line. This was in part because it took bearers some time to find him and recover him from the shell crater he had fallen in to.

On reading the Diary, I'm moving to the opinion that he would have been one of the 220 "others" noted as wounded following action on April 23rd. I'm fairly comfortable that this correlates with events as described in the Diary and my Grandpa's recollections.

Another piece of the jigsaw falls into place.

 

John

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On 22/01/2020 at 22:19, johnwalker said:

 

 

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J

Hi John,

 The embroidery is a lovely thing and a great item to remember him by.

your post caught my eye as I was just researching Pte. David McFarlane (B.1893)  from Avonbridge, Falkirk.  No. 4719 - 276685, he served with A Coy. No.3 Platoon, 7th  A&SH.  and was wounded on 9/4/17.

 I've attached the photograph of McFarlane (2nd from left) and pals, taken at Ripon in early 1916.  I hope it is of interest.

Guy,

 another of the Clan Walker.

 

Named Jocks. (4).jpg

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Th Casualty List 30/5/17 reported by the Scotsman has him noted as wounded (276035 in error)

That suggests a wounding very end of April.

 

You know he left France 28/4/17 so I suspect your date of 23/4 is perhaps the earliest and almost the latest, what with time taken to get down the evacuation chain.

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Thank you for your insights. 

 

Guy, that is an evocative photo. A bunch of wee tough guys, likely coal or fire clay miners if they're from the Avonbridge area. 

I had a look on Scotland's People but I couldn't find a birth record for David. Likely he moved to the area after his birth. 

 

Charlie, thank you for the Scotsman reference. I assumed that casualty clearing was a fairly streamlined process by this point in the War, and as it would have been under constant pressure the timeframe of being wounded on 23rd or 24th to being repatriated on the 28th didn't seem unreasonable. I don't know though. 

 

John 

Edited by johnwalker
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9 hours ago, johnwalker said:

Thank you for your insights. 

 

Guy, that is an evocative photo. A bunch of wee tough guys, likely coal or fire clay miners if they're from the Avonbridge area. 

I had a look on Scotland's People but I couldn't find a birth record for David. Likely he moved to the area after his birth. 

 

Charlie, thank you for the Scotsman reference. I assumed that casualty clearing was a fairly streamlined process by this point in the War, and as it would have been under constant pressure the timeframe of being wounded on 23rd or 24th to being repatriated on the 28th didn't seem unreasonable. I don't know though. 

 

John 

 

Time can certainly vary - at Ypres in 1915 I've known men with minor wounds be back in England within a day or two whereas more serious wounds typically took longer to stabilise and move. 4 days wouldn't be out of the question for something like a thigh wound.

What might be worth doing, is having a look at other men in the same casualty list and see if they have surviving records - it should allow you to track the repatriation times and give an idea.

Craig

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After his convalescence Grandpa went back to his pre-War job in Falkirk's light casting industry. This is him in the Summer of 1918 in one of the moulding shops in Castlelaurie Foundry in Falkirk, ironically manufacturing artillery shells:

 

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His wounded left hand is behind his back. He was never that keen to have it photographed but it seemed to bother him less as he got older. You can also see the built-up sole of his right boot, which was needed to compensate for the inch or so of his right thigh bone that was removed by the shrapnel and subsequent surgery. His hand wound meant that he couldn't mould so he did quality control. He was 22 when this photo was taken and officially 80% disabled, although he clearly had other ideas about that.

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16 minutes ago, charlie962 said:

great photo to have. thanks for posting

charlie

Thanks.

 

I've got a lot more, if you haven't seen this post:

 

J

 

 

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Following this thread with interest. Looking at the Kilsyth Chronicle archives there is a definite upsurge in notice of A&SH casualties in early May - stemming from late April. Can see at least three noted as being killed by shellfire on 23rd April. In another snippet it's mentioned they were in the process of being relieved by another battalion.

Private James Clark 276060  and Cpl. Alexander  Miller MM 275184 both 1/7th for sure and on Kilsyth War Memorial. In addition casualty lists from around the district show up quite a few 276### range service numbers

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Sgt Andrew Laing, of Stenhousemuir, was wounded in the attack on 23rd April and appears in the same edition of the Scotsman. His brother James was killed the same day.

 

Not definitive but probably as close as we're going to get.

 

Another thing came to mind today. Grandpa said that, while he was in his shell hole waiting to be rescued, he watched a tank pass by. Accounts of the action that day suggest it was supported by one tank. Again, not definitive but another piece of evidence.

 

John

Edited by johnwalker
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2 hours ago, johnwalker said:

Sgt Andrew Laing, of Stenhousemuir, was wounded in the attack on 23rd April and appears in the same edition of the Scotsman. His brother James was killed the same day.

 

Not definitive but probably as close as we're going to get.

 

Another thing came to mind today. Grandpa said that, while he was in his shell hole waiting to be rescued, he watched a tank pass by. Accounts of the action that day suggest it was supported by one tank. Again, not definitive but another piece of evidence.

 

John

From the Landships site on the 23rd April 1917 at Arras, 9th Company of C Battalion (MGC Heavy Branch) had 5 tanks in action and 10th company of D Battalion had 8 tanks in action. These  were operating either alone or in pairs in support roles and their movements are documented. If we can find a map location for 1/7th on that day - could probably identify which one!

Edited by david murdoch
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D Coy 1/7th originals.  This chap Thomas Hastings died of wounds on 9th April. His service number caught my attention. He does not appear in the casualty lists until 16th May.

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Having a look at the war diary for 23rd April it's a big write up obviously written up and with a lot of detail of places, landmarks and map references. For sure I see reference to "The tank" (singular) which was being used as infantry support followed them 1/7th into Roeux Village and was used to suppress snipers and machine guns in the buildings. 

From the Landships site this was Tank 716  of 7 Coy C Battalion as it's movements match the war diary mention. A Mk.1 Male tank with 6 pounder guns. Originally C13 it was redesignated on this outing and crewed by C7 crew  and commanded by Lt Victor Smith who was awarded the MC. Ended up bogged down in marshy ground later on. There were some other tanks a bit to the north but this is likely the tank your grandfather saw.

716 was held up at the railway arch as it was full of wounded and blocked by a sandbag barricade. The Tank eventually caught up with the infantry 1/7 A&SH at the southern end of Mount Pleasant Wood where they were held up by MG fire from the northern end. The Tank engaged the enemy in the northern part of the wood and cleared it.

The tank proceeded to Roeux  with the 1/7 A&SH and entered the village, eliminating a number of MGs that were stopping the infantry advance and clearing buildings with 6 Pdr fire. The 1/7 A&SH occupied the village. The tank retired towards Roeux Wood but was redirected towards Mount Pleasant Wood to deal with a sniper.

Finally the tank bellied in the Marshy ground near the railway arch whilst attempting to advance to deal with an enemy MG in the railway embankment that was holding up the infantry. 4 OR were wounded by AP bullets which penetrated the tank on several occasions.

 

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46 minutes ago, johnwalker said:

Exceptional information,

Isn't it just.

 

fascinatiing photos. The tree survived the change of nationality of spectators.

Edited by charlie962
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5 hours ago, charlie962 said:

Isn't it just.

 

fascinatiing photos. The tree survived the change of nationality of spectators.

Obviously that area changed hand in the wrong direction sometime after the 23rd April. I'll enquire of my tank researching contacts what became of it  - if it was destroyed or later recovered. It was already an older model and a veteran of the battle at Flers in September 1916. In the pic with the Germans I suspect is probably not long after with the tank bogged in "soft ground" and the British one sometime later. That area prone to flooding close to the river (Scarpe) - now per Google Earth there are a series of ponds in that area where it ditched. Also this photo gives a scale showing what a relatively small area all this action took place in what is now short walking distance. The map from the war diary showing the battalion operating area narrows this down even further and landmarks can still be seen comparing the two. This link gives a bit more information regarding the wider phase of the battle but 7th A&SH and the tank are also mentioned. http://www.scotlandswar.co.uk/pdf_Arras_the_Battle's_Later_Phases_(2).pdf

In regards to John being wounded, going by the war diary the Battalion suffered around 40%+ casualties that day. It notes all company officers were wounded. Amongst those listed is Lt Conn in the photo of D Coy who died of wounds 1/5/1917. Captain James Fullerton Caldwell Conn  Aged 25 Only son of the Rev. Joseph Conn, B.D., and Christina Conn, of The Manse, Tillicoultry, Clackmannanshire. From the 22nd entry he's noted as Lt Conn and looks like he was probably CO of B Coy on 23rd. He's buried at Wimereux Communal Cemetery back on the coast indicating he had gone back through casualty clearing to the base hospital there but did not make it back to UK. Local newspaper report from 8th May notes he died from wounds received on 23rd April and that his parents were with him when he died, so likely he must have been severely wounded and maybe too badly injured to move back to UK.

I would say John saw it close to Mt Pleasant wood or on the edge of the village and wounded somewhere in this area.

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Edited by david murdoch
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On 30/01/2020 at 16:18, johnwalker said:

That's a quite remarkable piece of research. Thank you for your efforts.

 

John

Most welcome. I've got an interest in 1/7th A&SH due to the Kilsyth contingent and also interest in the early tanks. From one of my contacts they believe that particular tank stayed stuck there until the end of the war and then scrapped during battlefield clearance. 

Last I was back in Scotland I photographed the Falkirk war memorial which now has all the names of the locals who fell. One whole plaque for just A&SH. I imagine quite a few of your Grandfather's mates are listed there.

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