Identification from postmark

[Chris_Baker]

Hello everyone

I'm hoping someone out there is an expert on British Army postmarks, as shown on this postcard below.

Edward Banham, the sender of the card, was taken prisoner of war some time in 1918 and I am trying to identify when it was, and also the date on which he was posted to his battalion, the 2nd Royal Berks.

The medal rolls have not been too helpful, although we have his numbers.

So question is, what does the postmark say about when the card was posted, and does it tell me anything else?

[AOK4]

Hello Chris,

The card was posted on 9 August 1922 in Albert (Somme). It is a normal civilian used postmark like any other post office in France had at that time.

Jan

[Chris_Baker]

So I wasn't as dumb as I thought! Thanks Jan.

[Guest Pete Wood]

Jan, is the number 45 a district....?

The reason I ask is that I have a few letters and cards where the ink on the postmark is badly smudged. Can I confirm the town where it was posted by this number 45 instead....?

[AOK4]

Hello,

.45 is the second part of the time (the minutes). There should be an indication of the hour before that but that wasn't set or the stamp was used too much perhaps...

Jan

[Chris]

Chris.

Out of curiosity, do you know what Edward was doing back on the Somme in 1922. From the wording of the text to his mother on the left, it seems he was in France for a while, rather than on a battlefield visit. Was he working in the region in 1922 for a post war organisation?

Chris

[Chris_Baker]

I'm still working on that. He is becoming even more difficult to work out and this postcard is most perplexing. All ideas gratefully received.

The Medal Index Card confirms that Edward was originally Private 39957 with the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, and later became Private 50548 with the Royal Berkshire Regiment. His service entitled him to the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.

The roll of the British War Medal and Victory Medal adds the important information that Edward had been with the 15th Battalion of the Warwicks, and the 2nd Battalion of the Berkshires. It gives no dates or any other details.

I consulted Terry Carter, the author of the excellent history of the Birmingham City Battalions (the 15th being the 2nd City battalion), with a view to gaining any insight from Edward’s regimental number. He believed that it might have been a transfer in from another unit.

The Warwicks and Berkshires volumes of “Soldiers Died in the Great War” were consulted, to find out what happened to soldiers of those regiment who had numbers near to Edward’s.

The Warwickshire Regiment volume began to suggest that Edward had been recruited into the Regiment quite late in the war, and had possibly not stayed too long before being transferred to the Berkshires. Only fifteen men of the Warwicks with numbers in the series 39000-39999 died in the war, and the earliest to do so succumbed on 19 April 1918. There is no strong pattern to the battalions to which these men had been posted, although about half were serving with the 10th Battalion when they died. This relatively low casualty rate and dates in the late months of the war continues into the 40000-49999 series too. The man with the nearest number to Edward’s original 39957 was Private 39967 Ernest Brooks, a 19 year old Bristolian who died while serving with 2/6th Battalion. Tragically he died on 11 November 1918, the day of the Armistice on the Western Front. Bu there was little to go on here, in terms of understanding Edward’s career.

However, the Berkshire volume gave a much better picture. 20 men with numbers between 50500 and 50699 died in 1918, all while serving with 2nd Battalion – and most of them had formerly been with the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. On further examination, it was discovered that no fewer than 6 of these men had been numbered very close to Edward with their former unit. 19 year old Harold Joseph Birbeck from Worcester died of wounds, in hospital at Boulogne on Sunday 9 June 1918. He had been standing next in line to Edward when Warwicks numbers were given out: he was 39958, but died as 50540 with the Berkshires. The earliest date on which any of these men died is 20 April 1918. There are some important common features: Every one of them was only 18 or 19 years of age; Their surnames all began with the initials B, C or D. These men would have been known to Edward, who, we can presume, was conscripted for service and sent to France at the same time as they were.

This it seems that a group of men, selected by surname and including Edward Benham, were transferred from the Warwicks to the 2nd Berkshires, arriving no later than 20 April 1918. It would appear that they had not been with their former unit for more than a few days or a few weeks at most. An extension of the Military Service Act of 1916, which had introduced compulsory service, was made in the House of Commons on 10 April 1918 at the peak of a manpower crisis in the British Army. Lads who under the previous version of the act had been called up for training at the age of 18 but could not be sent to France until they were aged 19, were now released – and as we can see from the above, some of them met their deaths within a matter of days. It would seem reasonable that they had been with the Warwickshires only for training in England, and posted to the Berkshires in France.

There is no record on the medal entitlement documents of when Edward might have been taken prisoner of war.

I consulted the war diary of the 2nd Berkshires and found that there were several occasions from April 1918 onwards when men were reported missing.

But I now plan to go back to see what happened to the 2nd Berks after the Armistice. Could Edward have been posted to them after his release? Could I be wrong in believing he had been with them when captured and that he was in fact with the Warwicks at that time? Or did he go out to France again with a different mob? What conditions of service would have kept him in the army until August 1922?

[Chris]

You have me intrigued now as to what happened to Edward. Just a thought regarding being in France in 1922: whilst he may still have been in the army and could have transferred from the Berkshires. If he was out of the army and working near Albert, surely one of the biggest projects must have been the building by the CWGC of memorials and cemeteries. I realise it is a long shot, but if he was working for the CWGC, do they have employment lists, or a list of contractors. A long shot, but you did say ALL ideas welcome.

Chris

[Chris_Baker]

Nice. I guess it is possible he was engaged by the War Graves Commission. I'll see if I can found out. Thanks.