Any photos from ww1 and soldiers from 81st garrison artillery that may have survived the London 1940 blitz

[Michelle barton]

Any photos of soldiers from the 81st garrison artillery ww1 if possible that may have survived 1940 blitz would be wonderful to see thankyou 

[jay dubaya]

Sadly I believe photographs of the 81st Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery are as rare as hen's teeth. I suspect you're more specifically looking for an image of your relative Bombardier John Diprose?

If no known photographs of John exist within your family I would suggest looking at local newspapers of the time, we know where John was born and lived during this period, his death may have been recorded with an image. Whist this offers no image of John the following document (Surrey Recruitment Register) does give a description of him on the day he was recruited into the RGA during 1912.

I wish you the best of luck in finding an image of you relative and indeed the 81st SB, in that absence the following images may give you some idea of the gun that he worked. Known as a BL (breech loading) 6 inch - 26 cwt Howitzer and with a weight of over 3.5 ton, man also took the burden of the draught horses at times.

The following link shows a remarkable piece of original footage recently colourised of this gun in action https://64.media.tumblr.com/4169cd72534c76395ef4ba9e62d05989/tumblr_pi2zsfMTPk1sxouzno1_400.gifv

(image source - LAC and wikipedia)

Edited 30 May , 2022 by jay dubaya

[Michelle barton]

Oh thankyou so very much if I ever get chance to receive any photos of John diprose I’d most certainly share them thankyou for all your help to and best of luck to you to mrs m barton