Labour corps

[dawnyowl]

Yes   alexander is my gt uncle. Brother of my grandad.

I got side tracked and started researching his wife,s first husband. I noticed he wasn't on any debt of honour.  

 

[FROGSMILE]

5 hours ago, dawnyowl said:

I don't either ***

How long before he was called up and left for France would he have had some training. In general

I have answered your questions (on the previous page) now that they have been reworded, and posted some illustrations too, as they often paint a thousand words. 

Edited 21 May , 2023 by FROGSMILE

[dawnyowl]

Thank you everyone for your help, learnt a lot. I will see if he died from his wounds and post on the lfcp to see what they think. 

[dawnyowl]

Help

This post was passed on to someone from the tipton memorial site. He replied to me on here but I cant find it.

Any help how I search through posts

[MaureenE]

@dawnyowl

On 09/11/2023 at 22:39, dawnyowl said:

Help

This post was passed on to someone from the tipton memorial site. He replied to me on here but I cant find it.

Perhaps the person sent you a Personal Message. Make sure you are signed in to the Forum, then go to the envelope icon at the top right hand corner of the webpage and click on it. You will then be able to look inside to see if you were sent a message.

Maureen

[HUBAUX]

Hi,

I am a new member, this is my first post. I hope I do things correctly.

I am doing some family research. I come from the North of France.

I would like to know where in France the following British soldier was posted in September 1919.

Charles Thomas Berridge, born April 21st 1899 in London. British Army 50755 East Surrey Regiment. 161541 Private Labour Corps, 399 HS Employment compagny.

I checked The Long Long Trail website but couldn't figure out where he was.

Thanks very much in advance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Gardenerbill]

Hi Hubeaux and welcome to the forum. 

According to 'No Labour, No Battle - Military Labour During the First World War' John Starling and Ivor Lee, 399th were an Employment Company based in the UK at Uckfield in East Sussex. 612th were also an employment company based Shoreham in West Sussex.  

Edited 14 February by Gardenerbill

[FROGSMILE]

According to the sequence of the Labour Corps serial number 161541 that he was allotted, his initial date for joining the Labour Corps was April / May 1917, which matches with his attestation document.

The 5th Labour Battalion, Labour Corps, was formed at home in Britain from the pre-existing 29th (Labour) Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment, which would have contained men of lower medical grading.  This also matches his attestation document where he has a C II grading.**

He was subsequently posted to 399 Home Service (HS) Employment Company at Uckfield in Sussex.  See the extract below for details of typical employment.  As Gardenerbill said above he subsequently went to carry out similar duties with 612 HS (Emp) Company at Shoreham in the same county.

If he was posted to France in 1919, then there were two specific tasks that men were sent out over that period to do (usually as volunteers).  One was the disposal, or repatriation of stores, various stocks of supplies, and battlefield detritus.  The other was the exhumation of human remains and their centralisation in larger cemeteries.  There was extra pay for this latter, unpleasant job.

I don’t know what his connection might have been with the East Surrey Regiment, but I see from the fragment of his record that he was compulsorily “transferred” on 8th November 1919 and posted to a regimental depot, which might have been to that regiment.  I think it will really need the expertise of forum experts like @RussT and / or @kenf48 to tease out his likely movements.

**C = Free from serious organic diseases, able to stand service in garrisons at home. Subcategory 2: Able to walk 5 miles, see and hear sufficiently for ordinary purposes.

Edited 14 February by FROGSMILE

[Chris_Baker]

His posting on 25 July 1919 is likely to have been to Eastern Command Labour Centre at Park Royal in London (although you can only see the final "C" in his record.)

On 8 November 1919 he was transferred to the East Surrey Regimental Depot at Kingston-on-Thames. But it is fairly clear from other pages in his record that he was actually employed at the Dispersal Unit at Crystal Palace and is unlikely to have physically gone to that depot. He was himself demobilised at Crystal Palace on 22 December 1919 and sent home on his demob leave before being transferred to Z Reserve.

Edited 14 February by Chris_Baker

[FROGSMILE]

18 minutes ago, Chris_Baker said:

His posting on 25 July 1919 is likely to have been to Eastern Command Labour Centre at Park Royal in London (although you can only see the final "C" in his record.)

On 8 November 1919 he was transferred to the East Surrey Regimental Depot at Kingston-on-Thames. But it is fairly clear from other pages in his record that he was actually employed at the Dispersal Unit at Crystal Palace and is unlikely to have physically gone to that depot. He was himself demobilised at Crystal Palace on 22 December 1919 and sent home on his demob leave before being transferred to Z Reserve.

Thanks Chris, that’s really shone some light on things.  Did you spot any posting to France, as per the OP’s opening inquiry?

Edited 14 February by FROGSMILE

[Chris_Baker]

I only looked at events from July 1919 onwards.

[AndyJohnson]

Hi

Regarding the Original Post relating to Arthur Cox, 48th Coy, Labour Corps (ex 9th Infantry Labour Company, Lincolnshire Regt). It seems that he was wounded in a German aeroplane dropping bombs on around 18 Aug 1917 on their camp. Almost all of the war dead of 48/LC are from around that date and buried in a single row in Outtersteene CWGC cemetery. 

Arthur now has his own page on Tipton Remembers at:  https://www.tiptonremembers.net/index.php/cox-arthur  A case is being out forward for commemoration by the CWGC. To me this seems straight forward as his Death Certificate says:

   

It will take time, but as we also know precisely his plot number in Tipton Cemetery (currently unmarked), then in time he will hopefully have the CWGC headstone he is entitled to, and deserves.

This is all because of DawnyOwl's query about her relative, and the power of the Great War Forum.

Andy

 

PS Frogsmile's post of 22 May 2023 is the clearest explanation I have ever seen of the genesis of the Labour Corps. Thank you Frogsmile.

Edited 11 April by AndyJohnson
Extra

[FROGSMILE]

16 minutes ago, AndyJohnson said:

Hi

Regarding the Original Post relating to Arthur Cox, 48th Coy, Labour Corps (ex 9th Infantry Labour Company, Lincolnshire Regt). It seems that he was wounded in a German aeroplane dropping bombs on around 18 Aug 1917 on their camp. Almost all of the war dead of 48/LC are from around that date and buried in a single row in Outtersteene CWGC cemetery. 

Arthur now has his own page on Tipton Remembers at:  https://www.tiptonremembers.net/index.php/cox-arthur  A case is being out forward for commemoration by the CWGC. To me this seems straight forward as his Death Certificate says:

   

It will take time, but as we also know precisely his plot number in Tipton Cemetery (currently unmarked), then in time he will hopefully have the CWGC headstone he is entitled to, and deserves.

This is all because of DawnyOwl's query about her relative, and the power of the Great War Forum.

Andy

 

PS Frogsmile's post of 22 May 2023 is the clearest explanation I have ever seen of the genesis of the Labour Corps. Thank you Frogsmile.

It’s cheering to know that his resting place will now be marked Andy.  Many thanks to you and your colleagues for such sterling and meaningful efforts.