Loyal North Lancashires in East Africa

[SteveE]

Soffers

Firstly, the Medal Index Cards for Vincent and William only show overseas service with the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment and have no 'Star' entitlement nor date of entry into theatre which is indicative of overseas service sometime from 1916 onwards. It's therefore highly likely that your two men were UK based until 1916 at least.

When service records etc. don't survive for the specific man/men in question, records for those with similar numbers that do survive can often be used to give some idea as to likely scenarios.

In this instance records survive on Ancestry for three men with Loyal North Lancashire Regiment numbers (#26216, #26222 & #26250) in the same range as Vincent (#26236) and William (#26220) which suggests that they were part of a sizeable draft from the 3rd Bn. Gloucestershire Regiment to the 3rd Bn. Loyal North Lancashire Regiment, a depot/training unit, at Felixstowe on 8th July 1916. Authority for this transfer was given as W.O. Telegram No.1877 AG2a dated 5th July 1916.

They were Posted to the 2nd Bn. Loyal North Lancashire Regt. on 19th August 1916 which was also the day they embarked at Devonport bound for East Africa, they disembarked at Kilwa G.E.A. on 29th September 1916. The arrival of a sizeable draft of men may have been noted in the 2nd Battalion's War Diary which Harry may have a copy of.

Hope this helps.

Steve

[Silly Old Fart]

Thanks to you both, fills yet another gap in my knowledge as well as in the family history, the old man as with most PBI's who saw action never spoke of it

Soffers

[SteveE]

Soffers

Just a little extra info, the draft sailed for East Africa on the 19th August 1916 aboard the 'Beltana'.

Not sure why the embarkation return shows the detail in the way it does but there were two drafts bound for the 2nd Loyal North Lancashire Regt. aboard the 'Beltana'. The first (and largest) consisted of three officers (Second Lieutenants E. Fellowes, N. McDonald & N. Baldwin) and two hundred and eighty one men, the second consisted of one officer (Second Lieutenant J. R. Godfrey) and twenty men.

Regards

Steve

[bushfighter]

Reference the 2LNL War Diary for this period.

The CO (who kept it) and almost everyone else in the battalion was going down with malaria in the Kilwa area and the diary just becomes a list of the numbers reporting sick on eash day.

Thanks for the shipping information Steve.

Harry

[Grandrew2]

Hello I hope i have found a new LNL man for your list. I bought a Silver war Badge B334110 which was awarded to John Kenna in the Labour Corp. i was intrigued by his enlistment in 1908 which indicated earlier service. His MIC confirmed my suspicion and he was intially in the LNLR as Private 9424 and this shows he first landed in East Africa on 16 Oct 1914 (date he left India I believe.). Sadly I have not been able to find his service papers but I have found him in the 1911 Census in India with the 2nd LNLR. He was born in Liverpool in C1889.

If you can add anything more on him in particular I would be pleased to hear.

It was whilst I was researching the 2nd LNLR in East Africa that I came across your 40 pages on the East Africa Campaign. What an amazing link I am in awe and very grateful to you for making it so widely available

Best wishes

Andrew

[bushfighter]

Thanks Andrew. I guess that I used the best years of my retirement to go and find those East African campaign sites - I'm over 70 now and have to be more careful. I have nothing special on John Kenna but he must have landed at Tanga. Then I guess that later he was medicalled out of the infantry because of tropical illness and he was posted to the Labour Corps. Harry

[ShirlD]

I have no information to add, just another thank you to Harry for taking us to distant locations most of us can only dream of visiting, and always ready to help us with research.

Cheers

Shirley

[bushfighter]

Interested Members can see a short history of 2LNL in East Africa here:

http://www.lancashireinfantrymuseum.org.uk/2nd-loyals-in-east-africa-1914-17/

Harry

[medals2]

Harry,

Interesting write-up as usual.

Jean-Paul

[kallag]

Fantastic piece of work Harry.....thank you for that.

I found the piece on the visit of the 2nd Loyals to Simonstown particularly interesting.

Nevertheless Colonel Jourdain, whilst resting his troops, also trained them and on 31st May he held an officers training exercise in the hills overlooking the barracks. Unfortunately that evening Major H.A. Robinson, the Senior Major, suddenly died from a heart attack; he was buried the next day at Simonstown.

I'm not surprised that Major Robinson suffered a heart attack. Those hills above Simonstown are mantled by a thick deposit of boulder-gravel hillwash which is notoriously slippery under foot and difficult to hike on.

Keep up the good work.

Kallag

Hills above Simonstown

[KONDOA]

Just bumping this as it may have been lost

Roop

[Guest RichardJohnWattsPotter]

Hello everybody.

Claude Rex Cleaver (post #893 and following) was my great great uncle.

[mrfrank]

Hope you don't mind me posting this on this thread, but I'm sure some of these individuals will have seen service during the East African campaign. It's an image of the 2nd Loyal North Lancs Regimental Police taken at Poona in 1913. Unfortunately un-named.

[bushfighter]

Thanks Mike. It's a good find.

I wonder if any of those lads were buried in Africa or off-shore at sea.

Harry

[Guest Mouldilocks]

I've only skimmed through thus far, I'll be returning to read in  vast detail! If anyone can help me, I think it may be the wonderful contributors here. I have my g grandfather, James Bantry Beavers as private 355824 3rd Bn Loyal N Lancs. I know he was born in Kamptee and lived and died in felixstowe. I wonder if anyone could offer any pointers in locating his father who on my G grandfathers marriage certificate is listed as George Paris  Beavers, a government prosecutor. I'm faity new to all forms of genealogy and military research so really anything anyone can offer would be lovely. My thanks in advance, Mouldi

[threeleaves]

Very long - and interesting - thread (that has gone way beyond the North Lancs!) and I'm going back to a post long ago. Battle of Longido (aka Battle of Kilimanjaro) on 3 November 1914. The EAMR suffered 10 fatal casualties on the day. They are named in C.J.Wilson book and include;

- Trooper F.G. Drummond - however he is not one of those recognised as having been buried in the Longido cemetery by the CWGC nor later when they were re-interred in the Dar-es-Salaam cemetery. The other 9 all tie up and are in collective grave 8 (and interestingly 77 German soldiers are also buried in the cemetery). 

- Trooper G. Tarlton - the CWGC records the words "Killed trying to rescue Harold Drake". Trooper Drake was also killed on 3 November - he and Tarlton had enlisted on the same day: 8 August 1914. This incident is not mentioned in Wilsons book - two DCM's were awarded to Heaton and Le Blanc for carrying wounded comrades.

 

[graeme]

so glad i found this thread. So far i have read the first 12 pages in one go. Now im jumping to the end and hopefully supplying a name. My grand father  George McCaig 10357 1st Batt Inniskillen Fusiliers . Signed up Belfast 19/08/1912 for 7 years and 5 in the reserve. Particular of service, Home for 1 year 47 days. Then India. When the Batt was returning to England his MIC stated In theatre 3/11/1914. His trade was Nursing Orderly. He has  been awarded Mention In Dispatch Gazetted 7/03/1918. And also MSM Gazetted 13/03/1918

I believe he is the only Inniskillen Fus (Skin) to be part of Force B. Hope this is helpful

Well done for this great article and photos

[John S]

Looking for any information on Bandsman John Ridgeway (or Ridgway) 9732 who was wounded at Tanga and awarded the DCM as a result of his actions. Any information would be appreciated.

Thanks in anticipation.

John

[Guest]

My Great grandfather Private Henry Hulott 9760 served with the 2nd Battalion in East Africa.  We found a newspaper snippet online with a phone of him but no clue what uniform he is in, or any info on what he did.

 

Going to read this thread as it looks massively detailed...   if anyone can short circuit any useful information that would be fantastic.

 

Thank you

 

Jason

[MaureenE]

GWF member Bushfighter, Harry Fecitt, who commenced this topic,  has written the following article in two parts

 

Loyal North Lancashire Machine Gun  Company

Part 1 : Formation and Operations in British East Africa October 1915 to April 1916

http://www.kaiserscross.com/188001/410022.html

Part 2: Operations in German East Africa May to December 1916 

http://www.kaiserscross.com/188001/442901.html

 

From Harry's Africa

http://www.kaiserscross.com/188001/home.html

 

One of the sources used  for the previously mentioned article is The Loyal North Lancashire Regiment 1914-1919 by Colonel H.C. Wylly CB.

This is available in a reprint edition, which at the time of writing  is part of the winter sale, so is currently reduced in price.

https://www.naval-military-press.com/product/loyal-north-lancashire-regiment-1914-1919/

 

For the war generally in East Africa see the FIBIS Fibiwiki page East Africa (First World War)

https://wiki.fibis.org/w/East_Africa_(First_World_War)

 

Cheers

Maureen

[John S]

Thanks for your help, very much appreciated particularly at this 'Festive' time of year.
John

[SteveE]

On 02/01/2021 at 14:41, JasonHulott said:

My Great grandfather Private Henry Hulott 9760 served with the 2nd Battalion in East Africa.  We found a newspaper snippet online with a phone of him but no clue what uniform he is in, or any info on what he did.

Jason

 

Your GGFather Henry Hulott was a pre-war regular serving in the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment and it is their uniform that he is wearing in the photo.  It appears that his service record isn't available online but based on some surviving records around his 9760 number it looks like he enlisted in June 1909.

 

His Medal Roll entries show that he had subsequent service with the Machine Gun Corps and Army Service Corps and a bit more detail can be obtained from them.  His British War & Victory Medal Roll entry (NA ref. WO 329/2018) shows that they were issued off the Royal Army Service Corps roll where he was a Driver with service number T/41896 but that his overseas "theatre of war" service had been with the 2nd Loyal North Lancashire Regiment (#9760) and the Machine Gun Corps (#93855) as a Private.  It shows he was transferred to the Army Service Corps on 02/10/1918.

 

His 1914/1915 Star Roll entry (NA ref. WO 329/2904) shows that he entered theatre of war (4a) East Africa with the 2nd Loyal North Lancashire Regiment on 09/12/1914, this would have been as part of a reinforcement draft and not with the original battalion strength.  The roll also shows he was transferred to the Machine Gun Corps on 15/02/1917*, to the Army Service Corps (T/41896) on 02/10/1918 and to Army Reserve Section B (#T/5505) on 30/08/1919#.

 

* His Machine Gun Corps service number #93855 means that his transfer to that particular Corps was to the 259th Machine Gun Company which was formed in East Africa on 15/02/1917 from men of the 2nd Loyal North Lancashire Regiment.

# The transfer to the Army Reserve Section B on 30/08/1919 is under a second Army Service Corps service number but this time it is an Army Number T/5505 which indicates he had some post-war service and, having checked the files (Attachment 4 in particular) available here... (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/foi-responses-released-by-mod-week-commencing-1-december-2014), they show that the MOD still hold something of his service record so it may well be worth your while contacting them.

 

Hope this helps as something of a short circuit for you.

 

Steve

 

[Guest]

Thanks Maureen that’s really interesting reading.

 

Steve, blooming heck.... that’s epic, thank you.  I wondered if he stayed in EA during the whole conflict...

[bushfighter]

On 13/12/2020 at 18:59, John S said:

Looking for any information on Bandsman John Ridgeway (or Ridgway) 9732 who was wounded at Tanga and awarded the DCM as a result of his actions. Any information would be appreciated.

Thanks in anticipation.

John

John

Greetings

Here is the citation for his Distinguished Conduct Medal:

For gallant conduct on 04 Nov 1914 during the attack at Tanga (East Africa) & for general good work performed under heavy fire.

Eight other men received identical citations for the DCM.

Generally these men took over machine guns abandoned by other units or rallied groups of demoralised soldiers from broken units.

Are you following the Loyal Regiment (North Lancashire)  Facebook page on  https://www.facebook.com/groups/njw2457  

as I am posting short pieces about the 2nd Battalion in East Africa in World War 1.

Stay Safe    Harry

 

[Phil Halton]

 Here is a photograph of my grandfather's, William Halton, wedding. It was taken in India prior to the first World War. I believe that the majority of the men on it went to Tanga, the youngest being my great uncle George Starling who was killed at Tanga. I do not know the identity of the others, apart from my relations. I was wondering if anyone could put any names to faces.

Cheers Phil