Aveluy Wood

[brianmorris547]

By chance I noticed this in the September 1915 WD of 21 Div CRA.

Courtesy TNA WO 95/2136/1 - Ancestry p 6/706.

De Ruvigny records that H G Boone fought at Loos in September 1915. 

[brianmorris547]

Major Boone was also Mentioned in Sir Douglas Haig' Despatch of 07/11/1917.

From the WD of 42 Div A&QMG. Courtesy TNA WO 95/2647/1 / Ancestry p 186/509.

Brian

[A Lancashire Fusilier by Proxy]

On 13/11/2021 at 08:38, brianmorris547 said:

Major Boone was also Mentioned in Sir Douglas Haig' Despatch of 07/11/1917.

Thank you for drawing my attention to this, Brian.

As well as Major H.G. Boone, for whom I have the greatest respect, some other names in this list feel like those of old friends from my grandfather's diary. 

My grandfather mentions Major General A. Solly Flood from time to time, of course, and, more particularly, from the 125th Brigade he mentions

• Brigadier General H. Fargus, whom he describes as "a very nice fellow, quite young - and not a bit stiff and starchy", and who asked his wife to visit my grandfather when the latter was in hospital in Bristol with a broken ankle in 1918;
• Lt Colonel P.V. Holberton, whose death on 26 March 1918 my grandfather marks with a special obituary in his diary;
• Captain William Tickler, who was OC of "C" Company of the 1/5 LF when my grandfather became second in command of that company in June 1917; Tickler won the MC and bar, so was clearly a courageous soldier, but also comes across as quite human from my grandfather's description of him after a particularly fierce bout of fighting at Bucquoy on 5th April 1918, in which Lt. Colonel P.A. Clive (who had only a few days earlier taken over command of the Brigade in place of Lt Colonel Holberton) had  been killed: "Poor old Bill he looked absolutely done to the world, his nerves evidently badly in need of a change, for his speech was distinctly weak and hesitating."
• Lieutenant H. R. Waugh, Lewis Gun Officer, whom my grandfather describes as "a great fellow - a Scotsman", and with whom he shared quite a few adventures when the pair had to go across country to rejoin the unit at Bucquoy at the time of the engagement described in the previous bullet point. 

My grandfather briefly notes the MIDs of the latter three in his diary entry for 20 January 1918.

[A Lancashire Fusilier by Proxy]

In my previous post I should also have mentioned that amongst the names I recognised as old friends was that of Lieutenant Colonel C.S. Brewis, CO of the 7th LF, who frequently relieved or were relieved by my grandfather's unit, the 1/5th LF. My grandfather mentions Lieut Col Brewis a few times in his diary, most notably at the beginning of January 1918, when everyone at 1/5th LF HQ was injured in a gas attack, just before they were due to be relieved by the 7th LF. My grandfather had just returned from leave in Britain, and had originally been instructed to remain at Gorre to wait for his battalion coming out of the line. However, on the morning of 3 January 1918 he was unexpetedly summoned to go up urgently to HQ, where he discovered the mayhem caused by the gas, and, as a mere company commander, had to assume de facto command of  the battalion for the next 24 hours or so.

Of Lieut Col Brewis my grandfather says: "The 7^th LF commanded by Lt Col Brewis relieved us. Brewis was a very fine soldier and awfully nice fellow – he realised the position I was suddenly thrown into and helped me quite a lot in taking over."