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Remembered Today:

war diary 4th Bn royal Fusiliers 1914-1918


andrew pugh

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War Diary reads......

25th Ordered out about 12 noon to retake trenches evacuated by a regiment of the 7th Brigade. Did so but with several casualties 3 Officers 2 killed. Remained in captured  trenches night 25/26th. very wet

26th. 2 coys returned to billets at dawn 26th. 2coys in billets 2 coys in firing line with 7th Brigade. Ordered out with 2 coys about 2pm to support coys in the firing line west of NEUVE CHAPELLE found them heavily engaged  the enemy having occupied some of our trenches. Made a night attack to try and recapture them but failed & had very heavy casualties including  8 officers.

On the 28th the diary states that......only about 8 officers and 350 other ranks left now.

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  • 3 months later...

I wonder could you please tell me where they were when my great grandfather was killed 

 

Joseph Alfred Wiltshire 

Killled in france 26 oct 1914

L/12820  "C" Coy 4th Bn Royal Fusiliers

 

on the La Touret memorial so I am guessing  La Bassée but it would be nice to know for sure 

Also could you have any clue about these soldiers burial would it be france or brought back to UK 

originally from London he was stationed in Dublin and married in Kingstown ( Dun Laoghaire ) 

 

Many thanks in advance for any help

 

Edited by JD2018
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As you say commemorated on the La Touret memorial therefore either body never recovered, or buried and grave subsequently destroyed in further actions.

The war diary for 26/10/14 is quoted in the post above yours.

Eddie

Edited by EDWARD1
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Thank you ever so much for your reply 

Very kind of you to look it up for me and confirm 

i can now update this part of my family tree

Cheers

John 

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  • 4 months later...

Dear Andy,

I’m a little late to the party here in 2018 but very interested in the war diary of the 4th Bn Royal Fusiliers specifically on or about the  21st February, 1915.  My great great uncle was killed his name was L/Cpl Herbert FROST    Service number L/11169.    I know very little about him other than where he is buried through the CWGC.   My other 2 great uncles, his brothers were also killed at different times regiments and battles. Right now I am researching Herbert.  If there is any assistance you can provide it would be greatly appreciated.   Thank you 

James 

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Hi

 

Welcome to the Forum,

 

I have this from the WD

 

18th Feb

In same position. All quiet.  Relieved in evening by 5th Fusiliers. (marched) to billets (in cavalry barracks) YPRES

19th Feb

In cavalry barracks YPRES.

20th Feb

In cavalry barracks YPRES. 9th Brigade transferred to 28th Div to replace 85th Brigade transferred to 3rd Div. This Brigade has only been in the firing line about 10 days but most of the men seem to have gone sick and the rest demoralized.

21st Feb

Marched to new line of trenches south of YPRES and took over from Suffolks.  Bad wet trenches & quite neglected.  Our own dead lying about all over the place. We have buried dozens of them.  A lot of German fire in this section, we had several casualties night of 21st & 22nd.

22nd Feb

Foggy day.  Not much shelling.  Several casualties from rifle fire.

 

Hope this helps,

 

Regards,

 

Graeme

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hi All

I am sorry to say that I no longer have the war diary for the 4th Battalion Royal Fusiliers City of London Regiment.It seems to have gone awol when we moved. 

Happy New Year to you all

Regards

Andy

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  • 2 years later...
On 04/11/2006 at 21:50, andrew pugh said:

Hi All

I have a copy of the war diary for the Royal Fusiliers 4th Bn.If anyone needs any information on them.

Regards

Andy

Hi Andy

 

I'm new to this forum and am looking for information regarding the movements of the 4th Battalion.  Is there a version of the diary available for browsing or would you mind my bothering you with requests for help?

 

Regards

Howard

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1 hour ago, ToonOfLancing said:

Hi Andy

 

I'm new to this forum and am looking for information regarding the movements of the 4th Battalion.  Is there a version of the diary available for browsing or would you mind my bothering you with requests for help?

 

Regards

Howard

 

You can select the war diary for the date(s) you want from this page on the National Archive website and you can then download the diary for free if you register with them (no charge):

 

https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/results/r?_q=4+royal+fusiliers&discoveryCustomSearch=true&_cr1=WO+95&_col=200&_hb=tna

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1 hour ago, ToonOfLancing said:

Hi Andy

 

I'm new to this forum and am looking for information regarding the movements of the 4th Battalion.  Is there a version of the diary available for browsing or would you mind my bothering you with requests for help?

 

Regards

Howard

 

   Good afternoon Howard-Welcome to Great War Forum

 

     The movements of 4RF can be located using the war diary of the battalion.  A standard war diary page has a column on the left for "Place".  Usually French or Belgian for them- sometimes obscured as a map reference.   The war diaries for 4 RF have been digitised by The National Archives and as a generous concession during The Lurgi they can be downloaded for FREE  (REPETITION: FREE)  by going on to "Discovery", TNA's search engine and following instructions.  There are 2 separate series of war diaries for 4RF for the war years:

 

image.png.96d445b3c5a0d97a230272e0303105eb.png

 

Here, for example, is the left side of the war diary page for January 1917:

 

image.png.07d4df39cbb8e62ec19e33fe82377c91.png

 

Don't worry-  the digitised version allows magnification!!

 

In addition, the main war history for The Royal Fusiliers has been digitised and can be downloaded for nowt from www.archive.org. 

 

image.png.659ff0e6beaa3f77da97e7c7394efaaf.png

 

      The O'Neill book is the only record for many of the RF battalions of the Great War but it is quite a helpful book in giving an overall picture of what each battalion was doing and is clearly based on the battalion war diaries.  It has a slightly peculiar index that uses the spelt version of numbers so "fifth" comes before "fourth"

 

Hope that helps

Pip,pip

 

image.png

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Hi Howard

I'm sorry to say I no longer have the war diary for the 4th Battalion Royal Fusiliers City of London Regiment. Try Ancestry they have most of the war diaries. Keep safe mate. 

Regards

Andy

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  • 7 months later...

I have an ancestor who died in action on 25 January 1915 at Lindenhoek, West Flanders. He was Private 6974 Albert George Priestley of C Company, 4th Btn Royal Fusiliers. Is anyone able to tell me about what the Company/Battalion was doing that day and how he got killed please? I noticed Andy Pugh said, some time back, that he has the war diaries. Thank you.

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Hi LKD,

If you register (no cost) with the National Archives (link), the Battalion, Brigade and Division diaries can be downloaded free of charge - see herehere, and here. They are very unlikely to mention Albert by name, but hopefully will give you an idea of the circumstances surrounding his death. If you come across any map references, this may help - link.

Regards
Chris

 

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Thank you clk. I've just downloaded the diary. Unfortunately, no mention of any casualties let alone poor old Albert EXCEPT that for the day after the date given for his death. The diary says "26 Jan - Foggy day. Several casualties from snipers". Other than that, including on the 25th, that part of the diary seems to be a list of dates with "in trenches"  and "in billets" repeated each day and the occasional ref to weather being snowy or wet. These must have been pretty terrible conditions for them and so monotonous in many ways. Whilst the report of deaths is the day after, I must assume these casualties included Albert. Either the recorded date is incorrect or when they wrote the note they had received a report of deaths a day earlier. 

Edited by LKD
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