rm1664 Posted 22 November , 2020 Share Posted 22 November , 2020 Hi everyone, just making a post to try and get some help with research on private Charles George Hawkes no. 10021 who served with the 1st battalion East Lancashire regiment. From what I can gather he served from the 22/8/14 in france, I was just wondering if anyone can find any further information on this soldier e.g. if he was wounded, discharged or made a POW at any point and if he did serve the whole war with the 1st East Lancs. Any help would be appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajsmith Posted 22 November , 2020 Share Posted 22 November , 2020 His number indicates an enlistment date sometime in 1909. The battalion were based at Colchester when war broke out so they were in France very early on, hence his award of a 1914 Star. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rm1664 Posted 22 November , 2020 Author Share Posted 22 November , 2020 Do you know if he was likely to have been serving with the battalion on the 1st day of the Somme and is their any information on if he was injured at any point? Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajsmith Posted 22 November , 2020 Share Posted 22 November , 2020 Without a service record it's hard to know. There's no evidence of a serious injury (e.g. a Silver War Badge or Pension Card). Where was he from? He might get a mention in a local newspaper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sotonmate Posted 22 November , 2020 Share Posted 22 November , 2020 (edited) Welcome to the Forum ! Medal Rolls only list his service with 1st Battalion, so he seems to have gone right through the war with the one unit ! The Battalion,as part of 11 Infantry Brigade of 4 Division,fought in the Battle of Albert from 1st to 14th July 1916. You can sign in at the Kew Discovery database and download the unit War Diary free,and see what they did on the Somme and elsewhere from first landing to end: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C7352163 Edited 22 November , 2020 by sotonmate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matlock1418 Posted 22 November , 2020 Share Posted 22 November , 2020 Hi rm1664, A warm welcome to GWF. To help us can you perhaps please let us know a bit more about Charles George Hawkes - perhaps: his date of birth, place of birth, parents' names, sibling(s), place of residence, date of marriage, spouse's name, date of death - whatever you can. If you can! Although this is not a genealogy site such info can often help us find/track/confirm we have found the right man. Good luck with your quest. :-) M Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rm1664 Posted 22 November , 2020 Author Share Posted 22 November , 2020 Ok thanks for the information, I dont really know much about this soldier but plan on doing further research. I just thought that it was strange that he served the whole war in the same battalion and never got seriously injured despite the battalion tacking very heavy casualties in a number of battles, I was wondering how common this was? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sotonmate Posted 23 November , 2020 Share Posted 23 November , 2020 rm Something of a miracle when you see where the Battalion fought ! Have you seen the 4 Division "appointments diary" ? : https://longlongtrail.co.uk/army/order-of-battle-of-divisions/4th-division/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rm1664 Posted 23 November , 2020 Author Share Posted 23 November , 2020 He must have had very good look considering all the battles the 1st East Lancs were in, especially their assault on the 1st july 1916 when they suffered over 400 casualties. I'm not sure if this is correct but was it not common for soldiers that had been seriously wounded enough to be out of action for a considerable amount of time to be drafted back in other battalions/units when they returned and could this suggest that this soldier was never seriously wounded? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sotonmate Posted 23 November , 2020 Share Posted 23 November , 2020 It might explain the good fortune if he was employed as an Officer's servant (later known as a batman) so not always in the thick of fighting etc.? Not sure if the servant stayed back from the action unless his Officer bid him to be close by. Maybe others here know of the situation ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rm1664 Posted 23 November , 2020 Author Share Posted 23 November , 2020 From the research I have done the Batman seemed to have accompanied the officer into combat, there are interviews of Alfred Anderson (the last Scottish ww1 veteran) who served as a Batman with the Black watch and mentioned that "Whilst Alfred Anderson was serving as a batman, he would often go out at night with Bruce-Gardyne into No-Man’s Land to listen for enemy activity such as tunneling or troop movements. On one of these night-time watches, Anderson was wounded in the back of the neck by shrapnel from shellfire in 1915", Alfred Anderson also mentioned going over the top so from what I can gather they preformed just like any regular soldier along side acting as a servant to a commissioned officer, maybe Charles George Hawkes just had very good look! I also find it strange that despite serving the whole war he was never promoted to an NCO despite being a pre-war regular I would have thought that when casualties increased amongst the original members of the regiment those left would have been promoted to NCOs due to their experience compared to new recruits being drafted into the regiment. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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