Last casualty of WW1 ?

[George Macartney]

1 hour ago, KernelPanic said:

If you haven't seen it yet, this article on the Long Long Trail might be helpful at deciding between these various sites.

I was just saying it seems military records are getting as bad as football TV subscriptions, seems no one site has it all. 

[KernelPanic]

Very true!

4 minutes ago, George Macartney said:

I was just saying it seems military records are getting as bad as football TV subscriptions, seems no one site has it all. 

 

[George Macartney]

On 15/07/2021 at 06:59, phil andrade said:

George,

 

Welcome to GWF !

That press article refers to “ the First World War “ as its closing words. 

 

To my mind , this suggests that it was written after the Second World War, rather than in 1934.  I cannot be sure about this, but people normally referred to the “World War “ , or the “ Great War”, until the aftermath of the Second World War.

The other thing that I want to mention is the depiction of the Western Front still being entrenched and static when the Armistice was signed .  The British army was moving forward at that time and  things were far more fluid .

 

Please don’t think I’m raining on your parade : it’s a great story, and a very interesting one.

 

It also reveals the true nature of the cost of that  - and other - wars.

 

How many lives were shortened by the trauma of 1914-18, even though the warriors were still alive in the post war decades ?

 

The selfless qualities of people such as your great grandfather makes this damage all the more poignant to countenance.

 

Phil

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for your input Phil and well spotted

[George Macartney]

14 hours ago, George Rayner said:

Battalion: 11th (Service) Battalion (Why is this important?)

I want to know as much information as possible where, and where he was.

Massive thank you for those articles George, the one we have is gold dust within the family, I cannot thank you enough. Nice name by the way. 

[kenf48]

I don't like to pour cold water on a family story but we have established he served in the 11th, 2nd and 14th Battalion of the RWF, both the 2nd and 4th Battalions were out of the line on the 11th November 1918 and in billets 'cleaning up'.  The 11th was not on the Western Front.

Both battalions in F & F were in action earlier in the month, the 2nd reporting 65 wounded in an attack on the 4th, their last attack before coming out of the line until the Armistice.

The 14th were in action until the 8th November.

He therefore could not have gone out to rescue a wounded man on the 11th November if serving with either of those battalions, they were simply not in action on the 11th but in billets. 

Perhaps that was the date NOK were informed he was wounded and the story grew from there?  We are after all cautioned not to believe all we read in the newspapers and there is no attribution to the story.

[Hywyn]

He is on the RWF War Office Casualty List, Daily List dated 27th November 1918 (below).

General consensus is that there is 4 to 6 weeks between event and publication which puts the wound date in October. (I'm happy to be corrected if this general consensus has changed)

A laborious way of trying to pinpoint his date (and confirm the consensus) would be to research the whole list i.e ascertain their battalions (as it might be a mixed list) from the medal rolls and then see if any personal records exist for 14th Bn ones.

 

[kenf48]

4 hours ago, Hywyn said:

General consensus is that there is 4 to 6 weeks between event and publication which puts the wound date in October. (I'm happy to be corrected if this general consensus has changed)

A laborious way of trying to pinpoint his date (and confirm the consensus) would be to research the whole list i.e ascertain their battalions (as it might be a mixed list) from the medal rolls and then see if any personal records exist for 14th Bn ones.

Slightly less laborious is to look at the dead in the same list, there are just two and they confirm the 'consensus' timing - i.e. 4 to 6 weeks

89172 James 23 October

https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/336224/W JAMES/

and 14462 Williams 21 October

https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/529063/R WILLIAMS/

both 2nd Battalion.

The wounded list at first glance appears to include both the 2nd and 14th (amongst others)