19th Royal Welsh Fusiliers

[Wxmnorm]

My Great Grandad 28320 William Jones Royal Welsh Fusiliers. Anyone else Trying to source where about’s of the actions of the RWF 19th service battalion during ww1, to find out exactly where they where in action and where my great grandad could of been posted. If anyone could help with this I’d be very grateful. 

[ajsmith]

Welcome to the forum. 

You can download the war diary from here https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C7354283 if you register an account they are free at the moment whilst the NA is closed.

Edited 17 May , 2020 by ajsmith

[kenf48]

Welcome to the forum

 

I suggest you look at the Long Long Trail website link top right for information on researching a soldier.

 

The 19th RWF were in 40th Division.  Originally a ‘Bantam’ Division it was delayed in being deployed to France due to the lack of fitness ofthe recruits. It embarked for France in June 1916, and was broken up after the losses in the Spring of 1918

http://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/army/order-of-battle-of-divisions/40th-division/

 

Your g-grandfather went to France with the main body of the Division.  He has some surviving records which show he died of wounds on the 26 September 1916. The Divisional history notes they were in the Lens area, and the first six months of their time in France were typified by raids, rain and shelling.  He was probably wounded in one of these events on the 10 September 1916 when he received a GSW to his arm and foot (GSW was used to describe any penetrating wound). Although transferred to hospital he succumbed a few days later.  The war diary shows some shelling of the Battalion on the 10th September.

 

 

Ken

 

[Wxmnorm]

Thank you both for the above information. 🙂 

[clive_hughes]

Wxmnorm,

I checked his summary record in the official casualty list Soldiers Died In The Great War and was a bit surprised to see he was shown as born "Loch Wynnoch, Ayrshire".  There is a Lochwinnoch village in Renfrewshire, just west of Glasgow, and the Ayrshire boundary is quite close.  It may well be true; but please bear in mind that when the clerks compiled the record material (even at the time of enlistment, never mind later on) they sometimes slipped up with Welsh place-names and I've seen a number of odd errors as a result.

 

This source says he enlisted in Trefynant, and his next of kin was resident not far away in Ruabon.  There is a Lance-Corporal W.Jones RWF on the Ruabon war memorial, but not sure if he's the same man.  If you can read Welsh there's an account of the formation of this unit and its 1916 service in France by one of their officers, E.Beynon Davies, Ar Orwel Pell (Gwasg Gomer, Llandysul, 1965).  Probably available via your local library/county reference library.  

 

Clive 

[kenf48]

His record shows he was 'a Bantam' in that he was 5ft 1 and a half inches tall.  A coal miner, he enlisted in Trefynant as above on the 15th February 1915, joining the Battalion the following day at Llandudno.

 

Although his time in France was all too brief, his recruitment and service up to his death is interesting.  The Battalion was part of Lloyd George's erstwhile 'Welsh Army', and the Bantams were held in high esteem in the popular press and imagination.   His record is also interesting as his widow and five children were given a pension, though one unanswered question over one child.

 

As Clive notes he was born in Scotland, no doubt as with so many Welsh miners and their families he had an itinerant life. Given the surname I suspect his father worked in the Ayrshire coalfields and he returned and settled in South Wales, either with his family or alone.  My grandfather did not go back down the mines after the war but followed work in the steel towns of Wales and England.

 

There is no indication on his record that he was appointed Lance Corporal but that is not unusual.  The record shows his widow was living near Ruabon in 1919, presumably when the memorial was proposed and dedicated.

 

Ken

[Wxmnorm]

More fantastic information, thank you gentlemen. Yes my mum was aware he was born in Scotland, his father moved up there and married a Campbell we believe. William had 5 children one of which was a step son. (He was a hewer in the mines). In reference to the lance corporal we had heard talk of this passed through time and there is a feeling with local people he appears on 2 war memorials very close to each other 1 in cefn mawr, and the other at ruabon, although I’ve nothing to prove this is correct or not. After contacting the royal welsh fusiliers museum in Caernarfon it doesn’t appear there is any photos of the battalion, which they told me trained at Aldershot.  

(Mark)