3/4th (W.Lancs)

[Frajohn]

Hi

I have been asked by a neighbour if I could 'discover' some information about her Grandfather. Her Mother has the medals (a trio and DCM) who says her Father would never talk about his service or how he won his DCM.

I have the obtained MICs and DCM citation for Corporal W McEvoy. His corps is given as;

3/4th (W.Lancs) HOW BDE RFA., T.F., attd. No.5 M.M BY

The DCM was awarded for an action on 29th May 1918, I believe in Egypt.

The theatre of war 1st served in is given as France 30/9/15. On his MIC he has three regimental numbers. they are; 296 - 297722 - 690342

He survived the war.

I have tried to find reference to the 3/4th W. Lancs, without success. If anyone is able to add any further information it would be most appreciated.

Kind regards

John

[Hoplophile]

Could it be that the soldier in question served with the 8th Lancashire Battery of the 4th West Lancashire Howitzer Brigade, RFA (TF)? This might well have been abbreviated as 8/4th (W. Lancs) ...

The West Lancashire Division of the Territorial Force began the war with two howitzer batteries - the 7th Lancashire and the 8th Lancashire. These batteries formed the 4th West Lancashire Brigade (Howitzer), RFA.

In May of 1916, the 4th West Lancashire Brigade (Howitzer) was renamed, becoming the CCLXXVIII (278th) Brigade, RFA. Two weeks later, the brigades of the West Lancashire Division were reorganised to create mixed brigades. This left the brigade headquarters intact, but resulted in a completely new set of batteries serving with it.

The 55th (West Lancashire Division) spent most of 1916 and all of the rest of the war in France.