1st batt Herefordshire reg - shot in the dark

[Guest]

35 minutes ago, Bean tool said:

Typically the 'absent voters list' for Hereford is apparently missing. 

 

I'm leaning towards William being attached to another unit. Every chap in the picture was wearing uniform. There were no orderleys, nurses or doctors that I remember. Just a huge group of battered blokes. I need to get hold of the war diary for whoever he was fighting with to see when their last action was. Maybe that would shed some clues.

 

       This may not be so.  Stuff on Tinternet-FMP- is based on British Library holdings. Have you tried the relevant local studies library or county records?  In addition, if you get really stuck, then a call to the local council's electoral registration team may-sometimes-be rewarding. They often have runs of older registers.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Gunner Hall said:

Pte A C Gibbons of the 6th Herefordshire Regiment is commemorated at the Cologne Southern Cemetery He died 26/8/1918.  There is another Hereford,  Lt Reginald Howell, (1/3rd  Bn) buried at Kassel Died May 1918. So likely both POW.  Could the photo be of the inmates of a prison camp? 

 

    Cologne was a concentration cemetery -Those buried there came from all over the place and were concentrated there between the wars. The CWGC records for this-and place of original burial seem to have been destroyed by RAF action in WW2  However, -There is good news and bad news re. Gibbons which may help a little-particularly with regard to what Chris Baker says.

Bad News-  Gibbons was originally buried elswhere, so the Cologne connection is not really there.

 

Good news-  The GRU sheets for Gibbons  on the CWGC site show this:

 

 

   If Gibbons was a late prisoner, then it may give some mileage to start looking at where units of the KSLI were in early 1919. There were-obviously-men badged as Hereford serving with KSLI

[FROGSMILE]

2 hours ago, PRC said:

 

I've come across released Prisoners of War being treated in Germany and France well into January and even early February 1919. Some even died there, but I've never found one with surviving service records or newspaper reports to establish whether they were too poorly to travel, or had subsequently rejoined their unit for the occupation. I suspect some of them might have become fluent in German during captivity so a useful asset. The further into 1919 you go, the greater the likelihood that the hospital would hold men whose hospitalisation reflected current service rather than past deprivations as a prisoner.

 

Does make you wonder about the purpose of the picture through - why photograph such a mix if it just reflected the current inmates. Given the transient nature of such an establishment, unless they were the last or first patients in the institution it seems an odd choice of subject. Particularly when it meant getting a whole load of patients out of bed, potentially risking their recovery.

 

Nothing obvious on the International Committee of the Red Cross for this William Hull - however he could have been captured in the last three months of the year, by which stage the notification system on the German side seems to have rapidly deterioated. Have the casualty lists been checked? I assume there are no pension ledger cards showing up on Ancestry or Fold3?

 

Cheers,

Peter

Yes, Peter, you mirror my thoughts at the time when POWs were first mentioned, and I do realise that some were still in treatment well after the war, it was just the description of the large group that made me think it less likely.

Edited 4 December , 2020 by FROGSMILE

[FROGSMILE]

2 hours ago, Bean tool said:

Typically the 'absent voters list' for Hereford is apparently missing. 

 

I'm leaning towards William being attached to another unit. Every chap in the picture was wearing uniform. There were no orderleys, nurses or doctors that I remember. Just a huge group of battered blokes. I need to get hold of the war diary for whoever he was fighting with to see when their last action was. Maybe that would shed some clues.

It would be unusual for such a huge group as that you’ve described outside a hospital in Cologne. If they were in battered service dress rather than hospital blue they might just have been part of a KSLI battalion soon after arrival in the occupation sector? 

[HarryBrook]

The Herefordshire Electoral Rolls are available on findmypast. There are listings for a William Hull in How Caple in 1919 and 1920 but they are just under the category to vote as NM (Naval and Military) with 'a' next to his name (absent voter): no other useful service details. Also in the 1920 list he is listed with James and Agnes Hull - his parents? 

[Bean tool]

Frogsmile - typically how big was a battalion? Here's the link to document I found (page 24) - https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://herefordshirelightinfantrymuseum.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/1919.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwiFpMODorTtAhVLUMAKHbWQD2UQFjAAegQIBBAC&usg=AOvVaw084dyNUbCukoqxTb1HVIG2

 

That's the one Harry. Thank you for finding it. I found a thread on this site naming the places with missing voters lists, Hereford was on it. Obviously they were mistaken. 

[Alethea]

I've only just seen this thread (not having been on the forum for a while, and now looking for anything about the Herefordshire Regiment).

I wonder if you have seen the 1st/1st Herefordshire battalion war diaries, quoted at https://herefordshirelightinfantrymuseum.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/1919.pdf?
It includes the following entries:
23 Jan Battalion moved by train to Beuel, Germany.
24 Jan Battalion relieved by Canadians and took over duties.
25 Jan Interior economy; cleaning of billets and equipment.
26 Jan Church Parade in bombed church. Officers recce brigade outpost line.
27 – 29 Jan Company training – education.
30 Jan Battalion moved to Siegburg, billeted in prison, Officers recced left forward.
31 Jan Battalion moved to Seelseaid by motor lorries and took over left sub sector of Cologne bridgehead. Lt Col Evans MC returned from leave and resumed command of Battalion.

Does that help with your photo?