Pte10332 George (Edward) Craddock

[steve fuller]

Hey Pals

I recently met the lovely son of the above & have been hunting down any info available on him. Have come up with very little so far & wondered if any of the northants boys & gals may be able to help please?

Im told he was from Northampton & he def' survived the war. His MIC doesnt state which Btn he served with, but the Rolls for his VM & BWM are K/1/101/B10. ANy ideas from the rols or his service number at all?

Apparently he was wounded & missing for 3 months but would be interesting to find out about that / if its accurate. 3 months seems a long time to be missing; anyone come across that before?

Cheers everyone, hope someone can help out!

Steve

[Stebie9173]

Steve,

I don't have him on any of my lists of Northants men.

His number is a pretty early one with a fair few around there being allocated to the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion, though most of those were prefixed with "3/".

On the May 1915 Peterborough Roll of Honour for the 5th Battalion there is a 10359 (the cut-off is around 16000, if you want to gauge the date of enlistment - probably August 1914), but I haven't really found any evidence that the early war Northants numbers were batch allocated.

A lot of the 5th were from Northampton, rather than Peterborough/Eastern Northamptonshire/London as were many of the 7th & 6th, but that means next to nothing in this case. It looks like he joined up around 1914 but for whatever reason was not posted until later probably in a replacement draft.

The 5th went to France in June 1915 as Pioneers to 12th Division, the 6th in July 1915 in 18th Division and the 7th in August 1915 in the ill-fated 24th Division to go into battle at Loos. The 1st & 2nd made it there for 1914 and the 1/4th were in Gallipoli, Egypt and Palestine in the same Division as the 1/5th Bedfordshires.

Looks like Medal Rolls, Steve.

Sorry I couldn't help more,

Steve.

(I think I shall have to have a week off work to visit the Northampton newspaper archives!)

[steve fuller]

Steve

Thanks again matey, youve been really helpful in spending the time looking for me.

Another strange thing he said was that his dad was in Ireland before being posted abroad. Long shot but were any of the Btns trained there per chance? cant imagine what this refers to but thought you may have a clue?

Later mate

Steve

[Stebie9173]

Steve,

Been compiling some Northamptons casualty lists from the Times. One or two names rang some bells.

I have found a 10332 Pte. G. Craddock listed as wounded in the Times of 21-7-1916.

No indication of battalion but the time of wounding would likely be in the region of very late June/early-July 1916.

Others on the same page:

Pte F Adkins 20191

Pte J Boddington 22597

Pte A Ellson 20213

Pte W G Finch 14443

Pte T Green 14440

CSM W Gutteridge 8704 (Originally 1st Btn. - Wounded Jan 1916 with 7th Btn. also wounded March 1916 possibly twice! and then June/July 1916)

Pte E H Hawkins 20653

L/Sgt J R Morris 14598

Pte A W Roberts 12785

Pte C Spring 18487

At the moment, based on numbers in the list, I could only hazard a GUESS at 1st Battalion and later 7th.

Have you checked on him on one of your NA visits?

Could this wounding be his "disappearance", I wonder?

Anyway, certainly seems to be him.

Steve.

[steve fuller]

Blinding stuff Steveo

No record survives, so i thought the trail had gone completely cold - this is really useful!

Off to sunny (foggy & wet) France now, so will check him out when I get back Pal - thanks