Privates Skeet, Norfolks, Mesopotamia 1916

[charlie962]

Privates SKEET, Norfolks died in Mespot 1916

 

There are two men called Pte Skeet of the 2nd Norfolks , who both died in June  May 1916 in Hospital at Amara in Mespot. They were brothers, Frederick and Albert Edward.

 

2BGH War Diary tells me:
11/5/16  8096 LCpl Skeet 2nd Norfolks died 11.55am Paratyphoid
20/5/16 17195 Pte Skeet F 2nd Norfolks died 1.10am Enteric Group

 

17195 has a Service Record that tells me he first landed Basra 7/1/16 so he was clearly not one of the 2nd Norfolks locked up in Kut during the Siege. But I must mention him to avoid confusion.

 

What about 8096 ?  The point being that the first exchange of prisoners with the Turkish was taking place at this time and some were disembarked at Amara hospitals around this date. (note I have an old thread on the subject of Exchanges in Mespot which I am in the middle of updating). But the Norfolks, like the Dorsets, continued to receive reinforcements as well as recovered sick and formed a Composite 'Norsets' Bn that was part of the Relief Force. Thus the unit title doesn't help deciding inside or outside Kut. (remember Kut siege was early Dec 1915 to end April 1916 when garrison surrendered.)

 

Could 8096 have been with the Norfolks inside Kut and then been part of that first exchange? Or was he , like his namesake, part of the Relief Force ?

He has a 14/5 Star with entry date 5A, 15/11/14
I cannot see him on any informative Casualty Lists- can you ?
I cannot see a surviving service record- can you ?  must be blind- have just found one and will read through it !
I have not found any illuminating newspaper reports- can you ?

 

All help gratefully received please.
Charlie

Edited 22 September , 2020 by charlie962

[charlie962]

Having just found his service record I find nothing to help me but ironic that he died of paratyphoid 1916 when his file has this: (courtesy findmypast)

 

I understand that the paratyphoid cannot be vaccinated against.

 

There is also a letter in the service file suggesting he was wounded 22th Nov 1915. This would have been at Ctesiphon. So he might have been sent to hospital at Kut and thus subsequently under siege or he might have been one of those on boats that got further. I am thinking the former is a strong possibility.

 

Charlie

 

Edit- I see Genealogist have two 1915 Persian Gulf Wounded records for A E Skeet

 

 

Peter @PRC this is your patch ?

Edited 22 September , 2020 by charlie962

[PRC]

Hi Charlie @charlie962,

 

I saw your original post yesterday and spent a happy \ unhappy hour looking for something that might help but ended up with a load of negatives.

 

I first became aware of the two men back in 2009 when I researched the names on the Castle Acre War Memorial - one of the first I ever tried to do and I cringe when I look at what I wrote.

 

 

I checked through the local newspaper articles I've transcribed and found no mention of "Skeet".

 

I then tried searching articles waiting to be transcribed where I've noted they refer to Castle Acre \ Castleacre. Still no "Skeet". The nearest reference came in a speech reported in the edition of the Norfolk Chronicle dated Friday, December 8 1916. Reporting on the villages contribution to the war effort, it was noted "Of the number (177), of whom seven are sailors, 18 have been killed in action, two have died of illness, one has been drowned, four are missing, two are prisoners, two have been mentioned in despatches, 21 have been wounded and nine have been discharged."

 

Checking through the names on the memorial, I think the two who had died of illness by this stage of the war will be the Skeets. Assuming the two who were prisoners survived would make it a needle in a haystack to find them, and of course there is no gurantee that the same individual doesn't appear multiple times in those tallies.

 

I then tried looking through the newspaper reports I'm aware of on the prisoners taken at Kut.

 

The Eastern Evening News of the 22nd June 1916 includes a confirmed list of 226 Prisoners from the Norfolk Regiment captured at Kut. Again no Skeet. I've just done a rough and ready reconciliation of earlier reports of individuals 'believed' to be prisoner of war following the fall of Kut and I think they are all on that official list. However that is a bigger piece of work that's on the "to do" list.

 

I then tried searching The Times to see if I could find Albert in the casualty lists in connection with the woundings listed on The Genealogist. Again drew a blank.

 

So now I'm having a think :-)

 

Peter

Edited 22 September , 2020 by PRC
Photo link not working and typos

[charlie962]

18 hours ago, PRC said:

So now I'm having a think

Peter, thank you very much for the great effort. I had seen some write-ups for CastleAcre memorials but nothing that helped me.

 

There is a good list of brothers and sisters in in one of the service files (they -AE and F- both have surviving files). I don't know whether that would help at all ? I cannot think why.

Courtesy FindmyPast from Frederick's Service Record:

 

I also checked Ancestry trees but when I saw a photo of a post-war gunner attached to Albert Edward's record I did not bother to look further !

 

Note that Albert Edward first enlisted in 5th Norfolks as 'Edward' and I believe preferred to use that forename.

 

Frederick definitely not a prisoner as arrived in Mespot after the siege of Kut had started  so it must have been an extraordinary coincidence that both brothers were sick in the same Amara Hospital at the same time. Timing very close because the  AE could have stopped at Falayiah 6th or 7th May if he had come from Kut and F was reported dangerously ill at Falayiah on 12th May***. I do wonder if they were aware ? Neither will have had a choice about being sent to Amara and only 3 or 4 exKut men were left at Amara as the rest were taken down to Basra then Bombay.

 

Charlie

 

PS    I am not sure how the family will have reacted when they received Frederick's effects. The only thing sent seems to be his upper and lower dentures !

 

***edit- actually Frederick fell ill on the day Albert Edward (could have) landed at Falayiah. Too much of a coincidence ?

This per FindmyPast again:

2 BGH D  was at Amara and its their diary that has both deaths.

Edited 23 September , 2020 by charlie962

[charlie962]

The Norsets (Composite Bn of Norfolks and Dorsets reinforcements not locked up in Kut) were at Masons Mounds, a couple of miles up from Falayiah. War Diary of Composite Bn adds nothing.

[PRC]

18 minutes ago, charlie962 said:

There is a good list of brothers and sisters in in one of the service files (they -AE and F- both have surviving files). I don't know whether that would help at all ? I cannot think why

 

Always helps to check out the other family members - any relative could place something in a local papers, plus if the deceased soldier(s) lived with them rather than the parents, or were a frequent visitor, they might have been well enough known in the locality to feature in the local news.

 

Problem for me as with Castle Acre and the other Norfolk places listed is those locations mainly fall in the North West corner of the County. Through the local studies section at the main library in Norwich I have access to the Norwich printed titles, which provide a fascinating insight into their catchment area if you do any kind of analysis of the local articles and BMD announcements. Thus Great Yarmouth, (at least two dailies), barely gets a mention, while Lowestoft, (through common ownership of a local title) is really well covered. I'm also as likely to get news about Brandon, (in Suffolk) as it's near neighbour Thetford. Diss meanwhile gets scant coverage, (own local title), while Eye, a couple of miles further south on the other side of the Norfolk\Suffolk border but on a different railway company line to that at Diss and which connected to Norwich is also decently covered.

 

Turning to Castle Acre, laying as it does to the west of Dereham & Fakenham, (one weekly shared newspaper) and the east of King's Lynn, (one daily, one weekly), and north of Swaffham (not sure), there is some coverage in the Norwich newspapers but not as much as it's size would suggest. You don't have to go too far west from Castle Acre before you start to get into overlap with Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire newspapers, while south-west takes you towards Suffolk. So on one hand spolit for choice but on the other a lot of potential places to look with no guarantee there is something to find. The local to Norfolk titles may well be held at the County Archive but that's not the easiest of places for me to get to at the best of times and it's a non-starter at the moment.

 

Cheers,

Peter

[charlie962]

13 minutes ago, PRC said:

it's a non-starter at the moment.

 

Thanks anyway

 

Charlie