Served with the 20th (Labour) Battalion, Sherwood Foresters and later with the 166th Labour Company

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Charles was born on 20th October 1890 in Glanford Brigg, Lincolnshire, the son of George and Kate Lamming. In the 1911 census he was married to Martha with one son James and was a farm labourer. Charles and Martha lived in Binbrook, which is a village and civil parish in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire.

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Service with the 20th (Labour) Battalion, Sherwood Foresters

Charles was posted to the 20th Battalion in April 1916 and given the regimental number 43939. He was one of many men from the Lincolnshire Regiment that were transferred between April and May 1916.

Unfortunately, there is very little information available about the 20th Battalion, but they formed in Derby in May 1916 and landed in France in June 1916 joining the 5th Army. They entrained at Bailleul for Acheux on the 4th August and worked in the Albert, Contay, Senlis areas.

Between 1st July 1916 and 11th March 1917 they suffered 11 men kill or died of wounds, many of whom were from Lincolnshire.

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Service with the Labour Corps

In April 1917 the 20th Battalion were transferred to the Labour Corps as the 28th and 29th Labour Companies, which were original companies formed under Army Council Instruction 611 of 1917.

[Info from Soldiers Died in the Great War and The Long, Long Trail and also here]

Charle’s new regimental number of 17055 indicates that he first served with the 29th Labour Company.

At some point Charles was transferred to the 166th Coy Labour Corps and was wounded on 28th September 1918 (cont. knee R).

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Post war

In the 1921 Census Charles is living with Martha in Binbrook with their 9 year old son George Walter.

Charles died in Louth in the spring of 1970.

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Final thoughts

Without a trip to the National Archives in t’smoke I’ve found very little about the 20th (Labour) Battalion. For example, what Brigade and Division were they attached to and if a War Diary Exists. The Labour Corps Companies were not required to keep a War Diary so that information is missing and the Medal Rolls do not recored the specific Battalion that the men were transfered from. Therefore, there are few records of men that served with the 20th Battalion, those that exist are records of men that died while serving with the 20th Battalion or were awarded a Silver War Badge.

When Charles was wounded/injured in 1918 for some obscure reason it was recorded that he had served with the 20/N&D – I therefore think that this makes this BWM/VM Pair quite an interesting and perhaps rare collectable.

I was going to sell them on, but not anymore.