10th Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment at Cheltenham, 2nd March 1915, but where exactly?

[high wood]

This photograph is clearly dated 2nd March 1915 and shows men of the 10th battalion Gloucestershire Regiment resting after a route march or field exercise.

Brigadier James states that the battalion was at Cheltenham  from November 1914 until April 1915 when it moved to Salisbury Plain.

I am not familiar with the Cheltenham area and I wonder if anyone can recognise the location, which is clearly a steep hill.

[Kath]

The 9th. Glosters had a route march on the 3rd.

Thanks to MindMyPast.

Gloucestershire Echo 02 March 1915:

[Michelle Young]

Could be Cleeve Hill, or Crickley Hill. 

[FROGSMILE]

Super photo High Wood, thank you for posting.  The fellows with removable white cap bands usually denote the “opposing force” during field manoeuvres, so that’s more likely than a route march in this case.  It’s interesting to see the cloth arm badges (discrete unit titles) too. @poona guardmight find it useful to see.  It’s very telling that virtually all the men are still equipped with obsolescent Slade-Wallace pattern waist belts and ammunition pouches and long Lee Enfield rifles.  Notice the standing veteran colour sergeant with blanket en banderole who has a row of medal ribbons above his chest pocket.  Most of the men have a leather haversack slung diagonally across their chest.  These were usually to carry a lunch ration. 

Edited 16 August , 2021 by FROGSMILE

[high wood]

44 minutes ago, Kath said:

The 9th. Glosters had a route march on the 3rd.

Thanks to MindMyPast.

Gloucestershire Echo 02 March 1915:

Thank you for that. Both the 9th and 10th battalions were in the Cheltenham area at the same time and were both in the 26th Division. Strangely they went their separate ways when they went overseas. 

As Frogsmile has pointed out, the men in my photograph are wearing white hat bands as one half of opposing forces and I wonder if the 9th battalion were actually on an exercise rather than a route march.

[high wood]

38 minutes ago, FROGSMILE said:

Super photo High Wood, thank you for posting.  The fellows with removable white cap bands usually denote the “opposing force” during field manoeuvres, so that’s more likely than a route march in this case.  It’s interesting to see the cloth arm badges (discrete unit titles) too. @poona guardmight find it useful to see.  It’s very telling that virtually all the men are still equipped with obsolescent Slade-Wallace pattern waist belts and ammunition pouches and long Lee Enfield rifles.  Notice the standing veteran colour sergeant with blanket en banderole who has a row of medal ribbons above his chest pocket.

I wonder if this photograph is of the start or finish of the exercise and if the 10th battalion played both roles in the exercise as not everyone is wearing a cap band.

[dink999]

I would say definitely Cleeve Hill as it is in the same area as Whittington.

The 9th were out again on the 8th March but in a different area, then they were out with the 10th on the 17th on Cleeve Hill. Picture no. 4 of the montage shows the terrain not unlike that in the photo.

Dave

 

[FROGSMILE]

1 hour ago, high wood said:

I wonder if this photograph is of the start or finish of the exercise and if the 10th battalion played both roles in the exercise as not everyone is wearing a cap band.

It looks to me like it is probably the midday halt when the men are fallen out to rest their feet and perhaps after the photo consume their lunch ration.  Things like water carts, if they’d been taken, would be out of sight (canteens don’t seem apparent).  If it’s just a battalion scheme as the photo’s caption seems to imply then probably one company has been told off to act as enemy, with other companies manoeuvring against them.  That was fairly common.

NB.  Cross posted with dink.  Notice the youthfulness of the “college cadets” (junior division OTC then, CCF now).

Edited 16 August , 2021 by FROGSMILE

[Michelle Young]

I recognise Sgt Dick Betteridge  in photo 9, and I think Sgt Artus in photo 3 in your second photo group.

[high wood]

36 minutes ago, dink999 said:

I would say definitely Cleeve Hill as it is in the same area as Whittington.

The 9th were out again on the 8th March but in a different area, then they were out with the 10th on the 17th on Cleeve Hill. Picture no. 4 of the montage shows the terrain not unlike that in the photo.

Dave

 

Dink,

superb stuff, thank you for posting.

Simon.

 

[Lynne Colston 3]

Could be Troopers Hill  (clouds hill) as known to locals. Just on the boundary of Bristol/Glos at place called TWO MILE HILL 

 

[Michelle Young]

I lived close to Two Mile Hill for some years, and I don’t think it’s here. More likely to be in the Cheltenham area. 

[Lynne Colston 3]

Hiya you may well be correct, but it looks very much like the Two Mile Hill that I only visited as a child. Living just in off the Kingsway at Two Mile Hill. It looked so similar to the photo