Gnr. John Hepple MM (1918) - 44 Siege Battery RGA 376115

[Ivor Anderson]

Gnr. John Hepple, 44 Siege Battery RGA, 376115 (MM 1918)

I’m trying to trace the personal history of this gunner who served with the 44 Siege Battery RGA during WW1.

44 Siege Battery was equipped with two rail-mounted 12-inch howitzers. War Diary ends February 1918. MM probably for April 1918.

There were a lot of John Hepples from the Newcastle area back then! He has no service record that I can find?

 

Award of Military Medal listed in LG 30897 of 13th September 1918 (p.10766). Newcastle stated as place of origin in the gazette.

Award listed on Tuesday 17-09-1918 in the Newcastle Journal, Newcastle Daily Chronicle, and the Yorkshire Post & Leeds Intelligencer.

 

Medal Index Card gives name as John Hepple - nos. 376115 & 489 - awarded BWM & VM and T. Eff. medal in 1924

Address on back of medal index card was: 4 Office Row, Burradon Colliery, Northumberland, so he may have worked in mining.

 

War Diary 44 Siege Battery RGA (stops end of Feb. 1918):

25 Jan. 1916 - battery disembarked from SS Archangel at Havre

June 1916 at Dug outs near Meaulte

14 July 1916 Guns firing on Martinouich and Bazentin-le-Petit

15-30 July 1916 firing on Martinpuich, High Wood, Deville Wood, Longeeval and Switch Trench.

7-16 August 1916 firing on Guillemont

24-29 August 1916 fired c.200 rounds into Ginchy

12 Sept. 1916 in position at Maricourt - firing on Flers & Guedecourt

During April 1917 firing on Givenchy, Vimy, Arras

16 May 1917 Gunner Flett KIA and Gunner Shannon (later DOW) due to enemy shelling.

44th Siege Battery remained with Third Army during the winter of 1917–18, under 87th HAG from 15 December to 26 February 1918.

Nov. & Dec. 1917 13th Nov, arrived in Velu Wood firing on Havrincourt, Flesquieres, Graincourt, Inchy & Mouvres

Jan. & Feb. 1918 in Velu Wood (war diary ends) - 

After February Brigade Ammunition Companies moved to two locations - 1st & 2nd Armies to Calais & 3rd & 4th Armies to Abbeville. 44th SB's railway howitzers remained under the direct command of Army HQs. The battery operated under Third, First, Fifth and Fourth Armies during the German Spring Offensive and Allied Hundred Days Offensive of 1918. When hostilities ended in November, 44th SB was operating under Fifth Army.

 

Possible candidates (given his MIC address at Burradon Colliery):

1901 Census -

John Hepple, aged 15, at 51 Low Mickley Square, with parents Henry (39) and Mary (37), born Prudhoe. Father a coal miner. (96 Cross Row, Mickley Sq., in 1891).

John Hepple, aged 12, with parents Robert & Elizabeth, 105 Seymour St., North Shields. Born North Shields. (Joined Tynemouth RGA - no.355, in 1909 aged 20).

John Hepple, aged 6, 21 Harper Street, Waterloo, Blyth with parents Cuthbert Hepple (44) widower & Coal miner/hewer, & siblings William (9) & Annie (8). 

1911 Census -

John Hepple, Coal Miner, shifter, aged 22 (b.1888/9), single, boarding. Farlam House, Tyne View, Haltwhistle. With Widowed father William (68) & brother's family.

John Hepple, Rivetter, aged 22 (b.1888/9), single, 57 Seymour St., N. Shields, with parents Robert Walter (47) & Eliz Hepple. Born N. Shields, Tynemouth, Q1 1889.

John Hepple, ‘coal miner, hewer’, aged 25,  single, boarding at 3 Lime St., Shrockley, Newburn - born Shrockley.

John Hepple, 'coal miner, hewer, aged 29, born Wingate, Durham, married 6 years to Mary Julia Hepple. 1 Taylor Street, Iuebec? 2 children: Thomas William, (5), John, (1).

John Hepple, ‘coal miner hewer’, aged 25, living at 111 High Row, South Mickley Square, Stocksfield. Born Prudhoe, Northumberland. Wife Mary aged 22, m. 4 years.

1939 Census -

John Hepple, ‘colliery stoneman’, at ‘High Close a Burn Farm’, Haltwhistle, b. 31st Jan. 1886, with wife Mary J. Hepple, b. 3rd March 1894. (m. 1919 Mary J. Revely?)

John Hepple, ‘colliery hewer’ at 19 Union Street, Newburn, b. 16th October 1886, Spouse Henrietta Hepple b. 5th August 1889

John Hepple, 'coal stage heavy worker', b. 30th December 1894, 28 Rowley Street, Blyth, wife Agnes E. Hepple, b. 31st January 1898

John Hepple, 'colliery onsetter', New Hightown, Haltwhistle Road, b. 27th November 1887, wife May Hepple 20th May 1889.

 

Edited 11 June , 2020 by Ivor Anderson
Additional information

[Coldstreamer]

If you mean ww2 then the mod have his papers still 

[Ivor Anderson]

Good spot - thanks! Corrected - took me a while to catch on!

Definitely WW1:

 

Edited 15 May , 2020 by Ivor Anderson

[Ivor Anderson]

John Hepple's Military Medal and MM Card via the National Archives:

 

Edited 15 May , 2020 by Ivor Anderson

[Ivor Anderson]

I notice that (according to his MIC card on Ancestry) this gunner was awarded a Territorial Efficiency Medal in 1924.

The TEF medal cards are apparently available on 'The Genealogist'. In the absence of a service record, is the TEF medal card/record likely to give his DOB to help identify him pre and post WW1? Also, is the second service no. (489) able to provide an additional lead in any way?

 

Edited 8 June , 2020 by Ivor Anderson

[Ivor Anderson]

On Reflection:

There is only one surviving service record for a John Hepple connected to the Tynemouth RGA (TF). It was for a 4 year pre WW1 UK term of service 23/4/1909-22/4/1913 under no. 355. This John Hepple was born Q1 1889 (10b 198) in North Shields and was 20 years 2 months old in April 1909.

He was a rivetter in the Swan Hunter yard in 1911 and lived at 105 Seymour Street, Tynemouth, with parents Robert Walter & Elizabeth Hepple. He lived at the same address with his parents and an older brother Robert in 1901 aged 12. On the 1911 census he was living at 57 Seymour Street with his parents Robert Walter (47) and mother Eliza (46) and 5 younger siblings. He was a rivetter. He may have been the John Hepple who served as 376115 with the 44th Siege Battery during WW1 earning the MM and as 489 post WW1, gaining the Territorial Efficiency medal in 1924. However the occupation & month of birth varies from:

A John Hepple married a Mary J Revely in Tynemouth in Q4 1919 (10b 443).

A Mary Jane Revely (25) was living with her 2 coal mining brothers, Samuel Thomas (31) and William (28), at Office Row, Burradon on the 1911 census!

This is the address on the back of the MIC in 1924, and is where John's wife Mary Jane was living with her family in 1891, 1901 and 1911.

The above people appear in the 1939 Census for Longbenton, Northumberland (between Burradon and Newcastle):

 

Edited 11 June , 2020 by Ivor Anderson