Private Edward Dakin 1914-18

[Bev Haworth]

This is my Great Uncle Edward (Teddy) Dakin with his family and my Grandad as a little

boy. We were trying to identify his regiment from the uniform and think it’s The Lancashire Fusiliers as he is from Heywood in Lancashire!

He was born in 1898, so would have been 16 at the outbreak of the war. I know he was gassed and wounded a few times and ended up with lots of medals .. but sadly when he passed away I don’t know what happened to them.

I used to talk to him a lot about his war memories when he was still alive, but sadly was still quite young when he passed, so missed the details that I would like to have known as a ‘grown up’. I wondered if anyone could identify some information from what can be seen of his uniform here or if anyone can offer advice on finding more about his war and records! 
THANK YOU .. BEVX

 

[FROGSMILE]

Hello Bev, welcome to the forum.  He’s not Lancashire Fusiliers, as he has a curved shoulder title, whereas the LF was straight with just 2-letters and a small grenade above.  He’s a trained Lewis gunner (a type of light (man portable) machine gun with drum magazine on top).  He also has two vertical wound stripes (one for each occasion wounded) and a good conduct badge (inverted cuff stripe) for 2-years service without blemish.  His regiment is probably one of the other Lancashire regiments (East, South, North). My learned colleague @PRC might be able to trace some of his service details, although the majority of army service files were destroyed by bombing in the 2nd world war.

[Michelle Young]

There’s a few medal index cards  named to Edward Dakin with Leicestershire, Cheshire and London Regiments. None for any Lancashire regiments that I can see. 

[FROGSMILE]

28 minutes ago, Michelle Young said:

There’s a few medal index cards  named to Edward Dakin with Leicestershire, Cheshire and London Regiments. None for any Lancashire regiments that I can see. 

Leicestershire and Cheshire would fit the apparent curved shape Michelle.

 

For Bev:  soldiers often served in regiments with no connection to their home town during the war, as they were increasingly sent wherever the army needed reinforcements, which varied constantly.

 

 

Edited 16 May , 2021 by FROGSMILE

[Michelle Young]

@Bev Haworth when you say lots of medals, do you know what ones? Do you mean the standard trio? ( there’s is a post about medals on the Long Long Trail website) 

[Bev Haworth]

Wow 🤩 thank you’d much..  that is so informative and so quickly .. Thank you @FROGSMILE and @Michelle Youngfor that info .. I will add it to his profile on the family tree and share with family members. I really have no idea about his medals .. all

I know is that he was proud of his medals and despite the gassing and wounds he seemingly survived emotionally intact .. he could talk about it when I know a lot couldn’t! I first heard the expression ‘Owd Sweats’ when Uncle

was telling a war tale about being in the trenches! He also told me the one about never taking the 3rd light of a cigarette  or a sniper could find you in the dark! Bless him he was a lovely man of simple pleasures! 

[Michelle Young]

Do you know if he was discharged due to his wounds Bev? 

[Michelle Young]

There’s an Edward Frederick Dakin Leicestershire Regiment with a silver war badge discharged Feb 1919. Did he have a middle name? 

[Bev Haworth]

@Michelle Young

Im not sure about that .. though we seem to think he lasted for the duration! There’s no one left to ask except my mum and she doesn’t recall details about his war! XXX

[Michelle Young]

What about a middle name? 

[Allan1892]

He was born on the 21 September 1898 (1939 register), parents Oswald and Mary Jane. His birth was registered in the civil registration as EDWARD DAKIN, no middle name.

[PRC]

Hi  @Bev Haworth and welcome to the forum.

 

Heywood fell within the Bury Civil Registration District, so the birth is almost certainly that of a Edward Dakin, mothers’ maiden name Bamford, which was registered in the Bury District in Q4 1898 – i.e. no other forenames.

 

Like the vast majority of other ranks records, it looks like his went up in flames during the blitz.

 

Assuming he served in a Theatre of War with the British Army, then by eliminating those with middle names there is a fairly small pool of candidates with Medal Index Cards to investigate.

 

60546 Cheshire Regiment – Victory Medal and British War Medal only, (VM & BWM), so didn’t land in a Theatre of War until on or after the 1st January 1916. No surviving service records.

 

761890 28th Battalion London Regiment – no overseas medals, discharged 25th July 1917. Received Silver War Badge. Surviving Discharge Papers shows he was then aged 33 years and 4 months and his intended place of residence was Greenfields, Holywell, North Wales.

When he signed up under the Derby Scheme on the 7th December 1915 at West Bridgeford he was an unmarried 31 year old Schoolmaster. I think this one can be ruled out.

 

268220 Royal Engineers - VM & BWM only. No surviving service records.

 

7504 Leicestershire Regiment later 202892 same Regiment - VM & BWM only. FindMyPast has a Medical Admissions records for him to 18 General Hospital in France on the 28th June 1917. Serving with the 6th Battalion he is stated to be 22 years old, had been in the Army for 2 years and overseas 11 months. No surviving service records.

 

2173 Leicestershire Regiment later 240426 same Regiment. First landed in France 28/02/1915 so received 1915 Star as well as VM & BWM. Discharged 06/02/1919. Received the Silver War Badge as a result of wounds. He was then aged 22. No surviving service records.

There are likely to be surviving Ministry of Pensions Cards for him – can someone with access to Ancestry \ Fold3 please check.

 

Now to look for MiC’s for “E. Dakin”

 

Wish me luck

Peter

 

 

Edited 16 May , 2021 by PRC
Typo

[Allan1892]

1 minute ago, PRC said:

 

 

268220 Royal Engineers - VM & BWM only. No surviving service records.

Now to look for MiC’s for “E. Dakin”

 

Wish me luck

Peter

Edward Dakin in the Royal Engineers can be ruled out.  Fleetwood Chronicle 15 May 1917 shows that he had a brother, William, in the Army Pay Corps and an elder brother, John, who was KIA in Salonika on 28 April 1917. The Edward Dakin that Bev is looking at was one of two children to Oswald and Mary Jane -- 1911 Census shows married 13 years, 2 children, both living. The other child was 4 years old Oswald.

[Bev Haworth]

@PRC and @Allan1892.. Yes that’s him .. born Feb 1898 Bury .. his Mother was Mary Jane Bamford .. I gave up looking for him a while ago as I didn’t realise he would have enlisted in a regiment outside of Lancashire .. pretty certain he must have enlisted in about 1916 as he would have been 18 by then!! Very excited about what you have discovered!! THANK YOU XXX

 

[PRC]

5 minutes ago, Allan1892 said:

The other child was 4 years old Oswald.

 

Probably the child standing in the picture, possibly aged somewhere between 8 & 11 at a guess, (so picture circa 1915 -1918)

 

Cheers,

Peter

[Bev Haworth]

1 minute ago, Bev Haworth said:

@PRC and @Allan1892.. Yes that’s him .. born Feb 1898 Bury .. his Mother was Mary Jane Bamford .. I gave up looking for him a while ago as I didn’t realise he would have enlisted in a regiment outside of Lancashire .. pretty certain he must have enlisted in about 1916 as he would have been 18 by then!! Very excited about what you have discovered!! THANK YOU XXX

 

PS I also tried to look for a pension record which would perhaps have listed his mother or his wife perhaps later  .. Hilda Dakin .. I’m new to this!! 😜

 

[FROGSMILE]

13 minutes ago, Bev Haworth said:

@PRC and @Allan1892.. Yes that’s him .. born Feb 1898 Bury .. his Mother was Mary Jane Bamford .. I gave up looking for him a while ago as I didn’t realise he would have enlisted in a regiment outside of Lancashire .. pretty certain he must have enlisted in about 1916 as he would have been 18 by then!! Very excited about what you have discovered!! THANK YOU XXX

 

Bev, in 1916 many men did start in a ‘Reserve’ battalion of their local regiment, but the individual regiments weren’t able to cope with the scale of influx using just regimental resources, so the Army reorganised the system and created one large reserve organisation from all those battalion’s and called it the Training Reserve (TR), with the men wearing a simple button in their caps instead of a badge.  

From the TR they were then sent to whichever regiment and battalion most needed men at the time the trainees came of age (officially 19), and had completed all phases of their training.  

The final stage was done via a kind of way-station called an Infantry Base Depot (IBD) the majority of which (there were many, each numbered, and servicing different regiments) were at Etaples, a very large army administrative centre on sand dunes near the French coast and the cross channel shipping used to embark troops to and fro.  This is how a man from Lancashire could end up in a unit associated with Leicestershire.

Edited 16 May , 2021 by FROGSMILE

[Allan1892]

20 minutes ago, PRC said:

 

2173 Leicestershire Regiment later 240426 same Regiment. First landed in France 28/02/1915 so received 1915 Star as well as VM & BWM. Discharged 06/02/1919. Received the Silver War Badge as a result of wounds. He was then aged 22. No surviving service records.

There are likely to be surviving Ministry of Pensions Cards for him – can someone with access to Ancestry \ Fold3 please check.

 

Now to look for MiC’s for “E. Dakin”

 

Wish me luck

Peter

 

 

Edward Dakin, 240426 -- pension card records his DOB as 1895, residence 15 Union Street, Loughboro, Leicester

[PRC]

44 minutes ago, PRC said:

7504 Leicestershire Regiment later 202892 same Regiment - VM & BWM only. FindMyPast has a Medical Admissions records for him to 18 General Hospital in France on the 28th June 1917. Serving with the 6th Battalion he is stated to be 22 years old, had been in the Army for 2 years and overseas 11 months. No surviving service records.

 

He appears in a Casualty List in the Nottingham Evening Post dated 28th July 1917 as one of the Leicestershire Regiment wounded. Address for next of kin is Leicester. Unless his parents had relocated, or he was giving someone else as his next of kin, it seems likely this is not the Heywood born man.

 

Cheers,

Peter

 

 

[PRC]

54 minutes ago, Allan1892 said:

Edward Dakin, 240426 -- pension card records his DOB as 1895, residence 15 Union Street, Loughboro, Leicester

 

Thanks for checking.

 

Medal Index Cards for E. Dakin, (no other initials) that are showing up in the National Archive catalogue add another two to the pool.

 

38605 Machine Gun Corps. No overseas medals. Discharged 19th December 1916 due to sickness. Received the Silver War Badge. Surviving service records shows he was an Ernest and was born Derbyshire.

This one can be ruled out.

 

19799 South Wales Borderers. Landed Gallipoli 19th July 1915 so also received the 1914/15 Star as well as the VM and BWM. Discharged 11th October 1916. Received the Silver War Badge. Silver War Badge Roll shows him as Eustice.

He can also be ruled out.

 

So at the moment that would seem to narrow it down to the Cheshire Regiment man, that is assuming the Heywood born Edward:-

-        served overseas

-        didn’t serve under an assumed name

-        I didn’t miss anyone in my run through the MiCs

-        wasn’t one of the missing MiC’s in the National Archive collection

 

Still some work to do to firm up the Cheshire Regiment man, but for now we seem to have either completely eliminated or at least put on the backburner all the other potential candidates.

 

Cheers,

Peter

[PRC]

38 minutes ago, PRC said:

Unless his parents had relocated, or he was giving someone else as his next of kin,

 

The 1921 Electoral Register shows an Oswald, Mary Jane and Edward Dakin living at 6 Barnfield Street, Heywood, and entitled to vote.

So unless the relocation was war-time only, (the 1911 Census of England & Wales has the 42 year old Oswald recorded as a Railway Porter), seems like the family were anchored in Heywood.

 

Cheers,

Peter

[FROGSMILE]

The Cheshire Regiment man would fit with someone of 16 in 1914 as mentioned by Bev in her opening post.  He could potentially have reached 19 in 1916 and entered theatre later in that year.  It would suggest wounding perhaps very quickly in late 1916 followed again in 1917, or perhaps both in the latter year.  I suspect our only remaining resort is a combination of a pension record and newspaper archives.  Given what appears to be a close and proud family I’d be surprised if his wounding is not mentioned in the local press.

 

 

[Bev Haworth]

@PRC.. Sorry went offline for a while! The family never relocated to Leicestershire during wartime ... they were in Heywood all their lives and Edward would have married from 6 Barnfield Street as did my Grandad. Amazed at what you have discovered in such a short space of time .. I got so frustrated with it I gave up a few months ago! I’ve resurrected the search because I have found a distant cousin whose Grandfather and brother .. both Dakins .. had been in WW1 and she asked me about Teddy.. I now have something to add to the Heywood Dakins in WW1 ... XXXX

[Bev Haworth]

@FROGSMILE .. I’ve just noticed the wonderful pictures showing what he would have looked like with that enormous gun ..,Thank You so much for that .., BEVX

[Allan1892]

21 minutes ago, FROGSMILE said:

Given what appears to be a close and proud family I’d be surprised if his wounding is not mentioned in the local press.

 

 

I have searched the newspapers available online and apart from the Edward Dakin that joined the Royal Engineers, the only other one that I found with a military connection was a 2nd Lieutenant Edward Dakin from Matlock, Derbyshire.