Army tunnelling Company

[toofatfortakeoff]

My Great Granddad was in an ATC Nuneaton Fortress Conpany, Sapper William Benson I cant recall if this is number 216 Coy or it could be totally different number. There may have been a Captain Scott a scotsman who Granddad was batman to they corresponded annually til they died Any info will be gratefully received as usual Ta Seanio

[Stebie9173]

"ATC" is not usually the abbreviation for a Tunnelling Company. It's an Army Troops Company which is like a Field Company which were attached to Divisions/Brigades but attached at Army level. They generally carried out behind the lines work in the same way that a Field Company would.

216 Company was also not a Tunnelling Company.

Do you have a number for your G-GF?

Steve.

[toofatfortakeoff]

will get it when i get back from Flanders cheers Sean

[Terry_Reeves]

216 Army Troops Coy RE was one of a number of sapper units formed in the spring of 1915 at the request of the War Office. They were intially named Fortress Coys and renamed in the autumn of the same year. Each unit was about 100 strong and made up, principally of skilled tradesmen. They were engaged in a myriad of activities, including well boring, water supply, building hutted camps, laying narrow guage railway lines, and bridging.

As it happens there is a unit history:

With the Rank and Pay of a Sapper - A history of the Nuneaton 216 (Army Troops ) Company RE. - James Sambrook, Paddy Griffiths and Associates 1998. Professor Sambrook's father served in the unit. I have a copy somewhere . I'll see if William Benson is mentioned.

Terry Reeves

[toofatfortakeoff]

Brilliqant Terry what a result awaiting further news Cheers Seanio

[Stebie9173]

Short personal diary I just stumbled across on 216 Nuneaton Fortress Coy:

http://www.ypressalient.co.uk/War%20Diarie...aulman%20wd.htm

These will be the men named (or implied) in the Diary:

91700 216 ATC Pnr (Stanley) Ward, Casualty

91806 216 ATC Sidney Henry West (Not in Diary, but MM in LG 13-3-1919)

91813 216 ATC Pnr (James) Kerwood, Casualty

91818 216 ATC Pnr (Horace) Barrier, Casualty

91819 216 ATC Pnr (Raymond) Jacobs, Casualty

92680 216 ATC William H Orrill

92681 216 ATC Leonard Marriott (not named in WD)

92682 216 ATC Joseph Moreton (not named in WD)

92683 216 ATC Sgt Albert J Taylor (not named in WD)

92684 216 ATC Joseph Webster

92685 216 ATC Enlisted 16-3-1915, Arthur Daulman (William per MIC)

92686 216 ATC Ernest A Addison

92687 216 ATC Wilfred J Cox

92715 216 ATC Spr (George) Copson, Casualty

92716 216 ATC William J Keen

92726 216 ATC Spr (George H L) Harvey, Casualty

92730 216 ATC Frederick Follett

92731 216 ATC George Baxter

92735 216 ATC Spr (George H) Marston, Casualty

92756 216 ATC George O(liver) Lago

92760 216 ATC Roland (Roly) Shepherd

92770 216 ATC John M (Jack) Hunt

92771 216 ATC Edgar J Dunton

92772 216 ATC Alfred Brackley

92775 216 ATC Wilfred J (Bill) Draper

92777 216 ATC Percy J Keen

92782 216 ATC Albert J Money

92784 216 ATC Joseph W Harris

92785 216 ATC William E H Gibbard

(Collating these for my number/unit database)

I assume that "your" William Benson is therefore number 92722.

Steve.

Edited 11 September , 2005 by Stebie9173

[toofatfortakeoff]

will check for you tonight mate

Sean

[toofatfortakeoff]

A long time coming but Lt Knox was a landowner in Scotland and My great grandfather William Benson was his Batman. Invited my grandad to come and look after his lands post war but my great grandma wouldn’t have it and she was a bit of a red, suffragette, and she’d come from wealth and rejected it. To run her nose in it all her kids married well and built business which is what she had come from.  She wouldn’t let GG Bill talk about the war. He took one in the leg in April 18 during the German push. Captain Knox sent him £1 They wrote to each othe Rn annually the oils love to know if  any letters survive on his side Great Granny would have burned the lot