Wounded in Action

[MDPMicahDominicParsons]

Hello everyone,

I have spent my time researching men who were killed in action in February and March 1917 whilst serving with The 1/6th Battalion, The Royal Warwickshire Regiment and I have totally missed the fact that many men were wounded and I was wondering how I could go about researching and trying to find those men who were wounded. For example I am looking for a soldier who was wounded on Sunday 11th March 1917 and I was hoping that someone could direct me in the right direction in locating this information.

 

Many Thanks,

Micah Dominic Parsons

[TEW]

Do you have the relevant war diary? Free at present from TNA.

 

It may just give daily totals for KIA, wounded, missing etc. Sometimes there are detailed lists.

 

Then you need access to the Official War Office Casualty Lists. These are with Findmypast, Thegenealogist and NLS. These should have lists by Regiment which have a delay of about 3-4 weeks after the injury.

 

Note, these will only gives lists for Royal Warwicks not 1/6 RW. The issue then is to try to extract the 1/6 men.

TEW

[charlie962]

Does the War Diary for 1/6th give clues as to the date ranges where casualties were probably incurred? Perhaps limiting to these periods (with a 4 week delay for reporting as highlighted by TEW) might give a little more focus ?

 

 

 

Another idea is to look at FindmyPast Military Records, limiting to "First World War Soldiers' Medical Records" Then search for keywords 6th Warwickshire **

This brought up 97 hits. These will only be a small sample since most medical records were destroyed. They and will include sickness as well as wounds.

 

Again it is a start ?

 

Charlie

 

** note that FMP keyword wont accept a  / , so you cannot put 1/6th but it is not neccesary anyway.

Edited 30 May , 2020 by charlie962

[MDPMicahDominicParsons]

Hello,

 

Thank you so much for your help. I have all the war diaries and have all relevent casualty figures (when you look at The 143rd Infantry Brigade for the month of February all wounded and killed are incurred by The 1/6th Battalion, The Royal Warwickshire Regiment). Thank you for this information. I will have a look at FindMyPast and add a four week reporting delay (the months of March and April 1917) and hopefully start to bring up more information. Thank you so much for this information. I really appreciate this!

[charlie962]

I overllooked your concentration on those 2 specific months. The FMP hits that I noted above were mostly 1918, some 1916 and very few 1917 !

[TEW]

I just tried getting a RW casualty list from TheGenealogist and they only have transcriptions for March/April 17. I thought what was needed was a copy of an original weekly list for tge weejs required but now I'm not sure there will be any.

 

Not used the FMP or NLS versions so don't really want to advise on their coverage or access.

 

Another issue I can see here is the territorial renumbering that took place around this time. Both 6th Btns. RW re-numbered to the range 240001-265000 from their 4 digit numbers.

 

I can only find one man;

241221 Smith. Casualty List 2/4/17. MIC has same number only. But possibly those in March may be listed under earlier number? NB can't say from above if Smith was 1/6 or 2/6 RW.

 

Could you put up a couple of names & numbers to see how things could pan out?

TEW

[charlie962]

 

 

Charlie

24 minutes ago, TEW said:

Another issue I can see here is the territorial renumbering that took place around this time. Both 6th Btns. RW re-numbered to the range 240001-265000 from their 4 digit numbers.

 

very good point.

Edited 31 May , 2020 by charlie962

[MDPMicahDominicParsons]

Hello,

 

Yes Territorial renumbering took placed with the men getting their numbers around February 1917 before this period most men had a five figure number in the 20*** range for The 1/6th Battalion, The Royal Warwickshire Regiment.

 

It would be interesting to look at this man's record. I have to admit that it is all part of a larger project and I seem to be missing this aspect of the battalions time around Biaches.

Many Thanks,

Micah Dominic Parsons

[charlie962]

I ran the FMP Medical Records for 1917 Feb, Mar, Apr for 6th Warwicks. No hits for you unfortunately

 

Tew's find of smith 241221 leads to one of those odd bits of paper from someone's service file cleverly indexed by FMP. It is a List of nearly fifty 1/6th Warwickshire men for demob Jan 1919  I E F; might be of use ?

 

Here, courtesy FindmyPast:

 

 

Edited 31 May , 2020 by charlie962

[MDPMicahDominicParsons]

Wow, thank you so much.

 

In all my time looking through all these documents I have never come across a record of demob like this. I would be interesting to see the record of this soldier. I have to admit that I currently have a list of soldiers who were killed on Sunday 4th February 1917 and have either been buried as unknown or still have yet to be found. I have plotted most of the burials in this area and can hazard a guess to where the rest are. Three men were located in this area in 2008, and I think I may have a potential identity for them but obviously it is getting as much evidence as I can.

 

This record is amazing!

 

Many Thanks,

 

Micah

[TEW]

Below is an example of the list found on The Genealogist and The Times newspaper, this one is dated 31/3/1917.

 

 

Long long trail renumbering shows; 240001-265000.  6, Royal Warwickshire Regt.

 

So, for example, Gardner 241704 was probably wounded early March. But -- was he 1/6th or 2/6th?
 

Looking at his medal roll it shows 1/5th!!!!

 

TEW

[charlie962]

25 minutes ago, TEW said:

Looking at his medal roll it shows 1/5th!!!!

ha ha ! *** frustrating

[TEW]

yes, scuppered the plan!. Did find 240645 Windmill 1/6th on a 1/5/17 list though.

 

 

[MDPMicahDominicParsons]

It is such an interesting topic. I have to admit that a lot of men who went to The 1/6th Battalion, The Royal Warwickshire Regiment from around July / August 1916 were actually transfered from other Battalions, I guess due to the losses sustained on 1st July 1916. My Great Grandfather was actually transfered from The 1/7th Battalion, The Royal Warwickshire Regiment and one of the officers, a 2nd Lt Belcher (who was 17) was actually transferred from a London Battalion.

 

Looking at the diaries and comparing it to the newpaper clipping, I think most of those men were from The 1/6th Battalion, The Royal Warwickshire Regiment. Eighty five men from The 1/6th Battalion, The Royal Warwickshire Regiment were wounded in February 1917 alone which added to the fourty two men killed in action and forteen missing in action quite a significant sum especially considering that the three other battalions and machine gun company had a combined loss of nineteen killed in action and forty three men wounded in action for February 1917.

I did plot all the burials for that time period for February and March 1917 and it was interesting to see a cut off period for when men were buried in a place call Kiboko Wood which was behind the lines and then those buried in the front line and that pretty much started after Sunday 4th February 1917. I wrote everything up in a document but I have to admit that I am no academic more a voice of the men who were there.

 

Thank you so much for your help. I really appreciate these clippings, when I get some time I must sign up for some extra accounts aside my ancestory account to discover more.

 

Many Thanks,

 

Micah Dominic Parsons