Spr. D. Davies 328846 Royal Engineers

[Richard M]

Hello Terry,

My father recently died, aged 89, and when sorting through his papers I discovered a letter written by his maternal grand father, David Llewellyn Davies, that indicates he served in the Royal Engineers Special Brigade. The letter was not dated, but was certainly written in October or November 1918 just before the war ended, and was sent from a military camp in Poole, Dorset, to his wife back home in Newport, Monmouthshire. In his address he writes: Sapper D. Davies 328846, E. Company R.E. 

Over the last several years I have done quite a lot of research into my family history, as has one of my cousins, but we never knew that David Davies (known as "Pa" to the family) served in the First World War - ancestry.co.uk did not give any military hints (David Davies is a very common name!) and it seems he never talked about it during his lifetime (he died, aged 79 years, in 1958). At the outbreak of the war, he was 36 years old and already a father of seven (including my grandmother), but I know that from May 1916 conscription was introduced for married me up to the age of 41 years so perhaps he was drafted after that?

I never met David, who was a brick layer and builder by trade, but my father was very close to him (he was brought up in his house in Newport) and talked of him as a strong, humble and sociable man, with little formal education (he left school at 14) but who, in his old age, would sit for hours reading book after book that he purchased second hand from a local store. 

I would love to find out more about his service in the Royal Engineers, and any advice you can give me would be greatly appreciated!

Best Regards,

Richard M.

[Terry_Reeves]

Richard, thanks for your post. I am afraid he did not serve in the Special Brigade, nor did he serve overseas. His name does nt appear in the medal rolls. Special Brigade units were disbanded in France and Belgium at wars end with men being sent to dispersal  units in the UK for demobilisation. His army number is a very late one for the Royal Engineers and was probably issued in the first half 1919. Conscription had been extended at the end of the war because of unrest in other parts of the world. For instance, 328888 was allotted  to a man joining June 1919. Men with similar , but lower numbers were being issued with  number such as 328086 (July 1918) .  

I think there might be some milage if we can see more clearly the name of the camp  he was at when he wrote his letter.

TR

 

 

 

 

Edited 9 May , 2024 by Terry_Reeves

[Richard M]

Hello Terry,

Many thanks for getting back to me so quickly - much appreciated!

Unfortunately the name of the camp is about the only part of the letter that I'm not really able to decipher - something like "Stentis House Camp" (?), but I've not been able to find any possible matches yet. I attach a higher definition picture.

 

The rest of the letter is quite easy to read (transcript below), and seems to me to suggest it was written at the end of October or early November 1918. He refers to his oldest son "Cliff" who appears to have just started his military career ("He will find it bad enough for the first couple of months") - and we know that Cliff joined the Air Corps on 8th October 1918, the day before his 18th birthday (Clifford Vernon Davies, service number 184157). The letter implies that David has been serving longer than his son - at least for a couple of months - and the last lines suggest that he is waiting for news of when he will be discharged. Meanwhile, the family at home in Newport, and also Cliff, all seem to be suffering from the "Spanish Flu" (perhaps the September through November 1918 second wave).

Thanks again for you advice - I will keep digging!

Best Regards,

Richard M.

Sapper D. Davies 328846

E. Company R.E.

Stentis(?) House Camp

Poole, Dorset

My Darling Wife,

Your letter in hand. I am sorry to hear Cliff is down with the flu. I hope he will soon get well again. By his letter he doesn’t seem to care much about army life. He will find it bad enough for the first couple of months. He is lucky to be in a hut they are far before tent like we have to sleep in. I shall be glad when we have some to go in.

I am very sorry to hear you and children are not well. I hope & trust you will soon get well again, this influenza seems a regular plague. Every town seems to have its full share of victims it seems very prevalent at this place above all but I am glad to say there are not many of our fellows afflicted as yet for all the hospitals are full of victims. I intend writing to Cliff today. I see he is making you an allotment of 3/6 per week they will not keep it off his pay as the government pays all that now. There have been a glut of sprats at Poole this week – never saw so many in my life. Seven or eight boatloads one day and about twelve the next. One buyer offered 1/1 per bushel for them. They tell me all the markets are glutted with fish. Are there plenty at Newport? We had one good feed on Friday. We got some of the people here to cook us some – about six of them between four of us and bought one loaf of bread so you can guess we had a royal feed. If any come in this week I will send you about 28Ib to Newport Station by passenger train and will drop a postcard the day they are sent  so you can send Ivor to station to get them. I will get mackeral & flat fish & sprats mixed. Well dear I have not much news to tell you this time hoping you & children are better. I am feeling splendid. Have not heard from King yet I expect it is a washout. Hope to be home on leave soon. I don’t suppose we will get discharged in a great hurry. Fond love to all.

Your loving, faithful Husband,

Dave

[kenf48]

The Inland Waterways and Docks RE had a presence at Poole

@Terry_Reeves  I wonder if there is a WR prefix missing from the number?

Given the topic of the letter it seems he had a fairly close affinity with fish being landed.

You have previously posted the date the prefix WR was used and renumbered I can't recall at the moment

WR/328842 Ferns was another bricklayer, he enlisted 6.11.1916 in the Army Service Corps. He transferred to RE original number 295306 20.8.1917 and IW&D 21.8.1917. He was medical grade B2 on demobilisation.

Do you know if renumbering to IWDC involved service or trade, or both?

[Terry_Reeves]

6 minutes ago, kenf48 said:

The Inland Waterways and Docks RE had a presence at Poole

@Terry_Reeves  I wonder if there is a WR prefix missing from the number?

Given the topic of the letter it seems he had a fairly close affinity with fish being landed.

You have previously posted the date the prefix WR was used and renumbered I can't recall at the moment

WR/328842 Ferns was another bricklayer, he enlisted 6.11.1916 in the Army Service Corps. He transferred to RE original number 295306 20.8.1917 and IW&D 21.8.1917. He was medical grade B2 on demobilisation.

Do you know if renumbering to IWDC involved service or trade, or both?

It is possible  Ken, WR prefixes were introduced in March 1918 or later. I think the answer may lie in identifying the camp.

TR

[AndrewSid]

A look on the NLS Geo Maps from 1893 brings up STERTE house as the likely candidate.

https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=14.7&lat=50.72219&lon=-1.99474&layers=1&b=1&o=100

 

[Dai Bach y Sowldiwr]

Indeed. Sterte House, Poole.
Here on an 1888-1915 OS map:

[kenf48]

Corroboration of the above 

The Western Gazette November 29 1918  reported that the Poole Board of Guardians had received a letter and cheque for £10 from Captain H Pugh Sterte Camp regarding soldiers using the baths at the house.  The details need not concern us beyond the fact the majority of the soldiers were bathing elsewhere and therefore he was seeking a reduction.

 

The Bournemouth Guardian February 22 1919 reported that the R.E. Inland Waterways and Docks and the ASC held their Farewell Concert,  again the details are irrelevant apart from the fact that Captain Pugh took the chair.  
There was a presentation during which Captain Pugh spoke of the early days at the camp and when the rains fell and the flood came some “brainy individual invented the telegraphic address for the REs Poole “Inwater”. “

Captain Pugh also mentioned as a witness in a criminal court case where cheques were allegedly forged in his name by an ‘ex’ RE soldier on trial.

it does therefore appear that Sapper  Davies omitted the ‘WR’ prefix on his letter.

[MerchantOldSalt]

Richard M,

Having in the past searched through very many service records with WR numbers I found that the majority of those beginning with 328, and many more as well, were allotted to men in the IW&D Construction Companies comprising all the trades you would expect to find in the building industry. As David Davies was a bricklayer this will come as no surprise.

There were several thousand men in the Construction Companies, 4000 at times, initially enlisted to construct the Military Port and Transportation Depot at Richborough near Sandwich in Kent.  Once the majority of this work had been completed in early 1918 it released large numbers of skilled tradesmen and other Departments of the War Office availed themselves of this source of supply to assist them in carrying out undertakings foreign to the IW&D. The Construction Companies were detached to various places to build Aerodromes for the RAF, improve port facilities and many other works in Littlehampton, Southampton, Farlington, Hawkinge, Emsworth,  Lulworth, Manston, Amesbury, Grain Island and, finally, Poole.

When the loss of the channel ports at Calais and Dunkirk, served from Richborough, looked possible due German advances, another transportation depot was hurriedly commenced at Poole to give another port in the UK, closer than Richborough, to what would become the nearest usable French ports of Dieppe and Havre.

 “A considerable number of men, (1305 according to a Summary of Detachments,) and materials were sent to Poole and work rushed on as fast as possible, until it became evident that it would not be required. Early in October 1918 the men were suddenly ordered to proceed to Slough to help erect an Army Service Corps Depot there.”   From a report on Richborough

The Camp in the grounds of Sterte House near Poole was set up to accommodate the 1305 men sent to build the depot at Poole.  Sterte House, attached picture courtesy of Poole History on line, no longer exists and its grounds are now taken up by housing and industrial estates.

It looks like this is what David Davies would have been doing during his service with the IW&D Royal Engineers

Poole was also used for other purposes by the IW&D but that didn't concern the Construction Companies so I'll leave it out of this.

Tony

Edited 10 May , 2024 by MerchantOldSalt

[Richard M]

Terry, Tony, Ken, Andrew & Dai Bach,

Thank-you so much - it all makes sense and I really appreciate your time and effort in sharing this information!

It seems to be clear that my Great Grandfather David Davies actual service number was WR/328846, that he was in a R.E. Inland Waterways and Docks Construction Company, that he was indeed camped at Serte House when he wrote the letter home, and it seems likely from Ken's earlier message that he had probably enlisted in about November 1916.

I will update the family histories accordingly, and keep digging for more information.

Thank-you all again!

Richard M.