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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

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Paul Treclyn

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As a first posting on this forum, I want to say what a great thing it is.

I have a large collection of letters and photos written by Pte Ben Noot of the RAMC (see avatar) from late 1914 until his death in Palestine (from malaria) on October 22nd, 1918. Ben's letters cover his training period in southern England, Gallipoli, a military hospital in Malta, Salonika (with a Dental Unit), Egypt and, finally, his requested transfer to the Wiltshire Regiment in the summer of 1918. He was bored in the Dental Unit and didn't want the war to end without seeing some front line action! A posting to Palestine gave him a chance to experience battle, but he succumbed to malaria whilst guarding Turkish prisoners and is buried at Ramleh War Cemetery.

I inherited his letters (over 1000) upon the death of his sister about 15 years ago. There are no known living relatives, so his life story is known only to me I guess. I know that other photo albums were in the collection but got sold off separately at that time. I also guessed that his medals and death medallion must exist somewhere. For many years I have periodically trawled around ebay and google looking for any items associated with Ben Noot.

Last weekend I got the shock of my life when a google search linked me to an old posting by Cymro on this forum, where he refers to the fact that he has, in his medal collection, the trio of Private BJ Noot! Thanks to the Great War Forum, Cymro and I have been able to exchange information about Ben.

I hope to keep in touch with things in here and make occasional postings relating to some of the interesting material in Ben's papers.

If it's of interest to anyone, Ben was in the 39th Field Ambulance from early 1915 onwards. After a period in hospital in Malta, he was drafted into the 27th Casualty Clearing Station and sent to Lahana, Salonika in March 1916, sailing on the "Ionian". In the summer of 1918 he transferred to the 1/4 Wiltshires in Palestine. The papers have some info on all the units he served in.

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Congratulations on making such great headway in your research.

Welcome to the Forum, and as I am one of the Salonika Campaign Society members of the Forum, may I recommend checking out their website.

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