pte Thomas Charles Austin, 13th Cheshire

[unclesearch]

I wonder if anyone can help me trace the journey of my great uncle Tom (pte Thomas Charles Austin)? This is what I know so far:

He served in the Cheshire regiment, 13th Battalion, 25th division, 74th Brigade, and was killed in action near Thiepval on 21st October 1916, to be later buried at stump Road Cemetery.

He had joined the regiment from the Shropshire Yeomanry, having been brought up in Westbury, near Shrewsbury.

I also gather that his battalion saw action near Ypres before being moved to the Somme.

I would be most grateful for help with the following:

1. any photographs of him and his battalion
2. any further detail of the action seen by the battalion
3. any clues as to when, where or why he would have joined the Cheshire regiment

Many thanks

[Adam Llewellyn]

Name: Thomas Charles Austin

Residence: Rose Office, Westbury Salop

Regiment Name: The Cheshire Regiment

Regiment Number: 2727

Document Year: 1915

Number of Images: 18

Unclesearch,

Welcome to the forum.

I've found his records on Ancestry. If you want me to send them by e mail, you will have to send me a pm with your address.

Regards. Llew.

[John_Hartley]

Details of the action on my website.

Clickety click

His Cheshire service number suggests a transfer to them around late spring/early summer 1916

John

Edited 16 February , 2008 by John Hartley

[ian turner]

In case you did not have the info from Soldiers Died, and it does not add much more to what you know:

Enlisted Shrewsbury, and his Shropshires no. was 2727

Ian

[unclesearch]

Thanks, guys. Fantastic info. It's all beginning to fall into place. I'm going to be taking my parents and sister to the grave just after easter, so this will really help us to visualise things when we are over there.

Llew, thanks once again. Your email hasn't landed yet for some reason, but I'll keep an eager eye out for it.

Unclesearch

[unclesearch]

Llew, in your post you mention 18 images. Do you mean 18 images on this forum? If so, how do I access them.

Thanks,

Unclesearch

[Adam Llewellyn]

Let me know if you don't get it. I'll can always re-send it.

Llew.

[Adam Llewellyn]

There are 18 images for Thomas's records. 18 individual sheets of paper. I have actually e mailed 21 images, but you will find that 3 are duplicated.

Regards. Llew.

[Adam Llewellyn]

Unclesearch,

Sorry to be a pain, but I've got download the files again. Please bear with me.

Llew.

[unclesearch]

Following on from the information you chaps have supplied me, I have two further questions....

1. Is there a difference between the British War Medal and the Victory Medal, or were all soldiers awarded these automatically?
2. The following approximate wording appears on my uncle's service record. Can anyone offer an insight as to what this means/implies? n.b. my wording could be quite inaccurate as the handwriting is very difficult to read:

"transferred to 4 ? T.J. Cheshire Reg. South(?) ? 0-204 of 1916 + to maintain ofeo (yeo?) rates of pay" (may not be 'rates of pay')

can you help?

thanks

unclesearch

[unclesearch]

...also... any further ideas as to where I might access any photos of Cheshire 13th Battalion, especially those taken in August, September or October of 1916?

[John_Hartley]

Can't help with the photos - and you're unlikely to come across much as they will have been on active service then.

The extract from his record might be saying that his transfer from the Yeomanry was to the 4th TF (not TJ - i.e. Territorial Force ) Battalion, Cheshire on 02/04/16 and that he's retaining a presumably higher yeomanry rate of pay. Would presumably indicate an almost nominal attachment to the 4th Bn before his final transfer to the 13th?

J

[unclesearch]

Thanks again, John. That would make sense.

Unclesearch

[unclesearch]

Looking in detail at Pte. Austin's papers on ancestry.com (I've only just realised this is the "ancestry" to which Llew referred), I notice that some documents which I had presumed to be duplicated are not literally duplicates. Instead, they are a different version of the same document, with exactly the same detail but sometimes written in another hand and occasionally on a different date. For example, army form E501 is filled out by the magistrate, Richard Hallows, both on the 30th and the 31st October 1915, and in completely different handwriting! I could understand how this could happen once maybe, if, at the time, a document was thought to have been misplaced, but to have happened several times with different documents, at different times, and in different places, seems strange.

I'm sure there must be a straightforward explanation. Can anyone supply?