Imperial War Museum Publication?

[Tony Lund]

I am trying to find a little information on a Private from Lancaster whose surname is believed to contain the word “Gold”, and who wrote a personal (unpublished) account of his time in the 1st 5th Battalion, Duke of Wellington’s West Riding Regiment, the battalion that was originally comprised largely of Huddersfield’s pre-war territorials. This is held at the Imperial War Museum, and was mentioned in one of the books published by, or in association with the Museum. I have no idea of the title. It may possibly be mentioned in the same volume that contains a reference to another memoir called “With the Dukes in Flanders.”

Ideally I would like to try and get hold of a copy of this memoir and I have a feeling that I will stand a much better chance of success if I knew what I was talking about.

So, does anyone remember reading a book that quotes a private from Lancaster with gold in his surname? If I can find that book I can find the reference to the author and title of the memoir.

Thank you,

Tony.

[Greenwoodman]

Contact the IWM Documents Dept and ask them what they have relating to 1/5 DoW. They are pretty helpful.

[Simon Jones]

Tony

Is this it?

Goldthorpe, F L P113

Ts account (33pp), written ca 1934, of his experiences during the First World War, describing his enlistment with an unidentified battalion of The Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding Regiment) in November 1914 with whom he embarked in April 1915 for active service on the Western Front, was almost immediately wounded, and then evacuated back to the United Kingdom; after convalescence he resumed duties with the 3/5th (Pioneer) Battalion The Duke of Wellington’s at Clipstone in Yorkshire before being transferred in spring 1916 to the 185th Company Machine Gun Corps, from late summer of that year embarking for active service in Mesopotamia where he describes the many profiteering activities that occurred on the voyage to Basra, the exhaustion suffered by the soldiers involved in the Allied advance from Kut to Baghdad, the execution of a number of men for falling asleep on guard duty, the threats posed by the intense heat, insects and marauding Arabs, his evacuation to Bhopal, India, to convalesce from sandfly fever, and then his employment in India on garrison duty at the MGC Headquarters at Mhow for the remainder of the war.

Try the online catalogue, this is the link to the actual record and this is the link for the front door.

Regards

Simon

[Tony Lund]

I think that will be the one, the date for arrival in France in 1915 is right for the 49th West Riding Division, and the Machine Gun Company is 62nd West Riding Division, still at home in 1916.

That is a really interesting link which I shall explore. Thanks.

Tony.