Enlisted in October 1914; Served with “B” Company and later with the Trench Mortar Battery. An enquiry was later sent to the Red Cross regarding his capture.
The different spellings of his name make him a difficult man to track down.
Walter won a Military Medal during a raid on the German trenches – see here
Served with the 1st, 7th KORL and 17th Battalions and the Labour Corps and was wounded four times
John attested in August 1914 and was posted to the 1st Battalion. He suffered a GSW in the thigh in May 1915 during the attack on ‘Rouges Bancs’ (2nd Ypres). During this attack, which was a prelude to the Battle of Richebourg-Festubert, the 1st Battalion suffered 3 Officers and 52 OR killed; 12 Officers and 245 NCOs and men wounded; 46 OR missing – a total of 359 casualties.
He was transferred to England for treatment.
He returned to France with the 1st Battalion in May 1916 and was attached to the 7th Kings Own Royal Lancashire Regiment. John was wounded a second time on 20th July 1916 (with shell shock) at Bazentin-le-Petit and returned to England on HS Lanfranc.
HS Lanfranc
Following convalescence John returned to France in January 1917 and was posted to the 17th Battalion. He suffered a GSW to the forehead in August 1917 and was transferred to the Labour Corps. He was gassed in September 1917 and returned to England in October 1917. John was eventually discharged in May 1919.
Warrant Officers and NCOs of the 1/6th Battalion taken in Marseilles in January 1916
Yes, they are all indifferent frames, but hey ho. This is the 6th Battalion corner!
Officers and WO/NCOs from 1916
“A” Company NCOs from Scarborough 1911
Officers from Scarborough 1909
Served from September 1914 until February 1919 with the 1/7th and 1/6th Battalions
Herbert was born in East Markham in Nottinghamshire in 1883 and the 1911 census records him as an ironworks fitter.
He enlisted into the 7th Battalion on 6th September 1914 and arrived in France to join the 1/7th Battalion with the 1st Reserve Reinforcement in June 1915. Herbert was still serving with the 1/7th Battalion at the time of the Territorial Force renumbering in the Spring of 1917. He was later transferred to the 1/6th Battalion – possibly at the time the 1/7th Battalion was disbanded in January 1918. At some point Herbert suffered gun shot wound in the side.
Herbert was discharged in February 1919 and was awarded the 1914-15 Trio and Silver War Badge. He was also granted a pension.
…….not cheap either
So when I saw this post card for sale on a well known internet auction sight I saw the Grimsby photographer and immediately thought that this was the 8th (Nottinghamshire) Battalion in camp at Hunmanby in August 1914.
But then I got thinking a bit more…..interestingly, of the 100s of Notts & Derby postcards that I have from 1905-1915…..I don’t have anything from a Grimsby-based photographer.
During 1908-1914 most of the camps were photographed by local photographers or those from the Notts & Derby area.
So….could this have been from a Scarborough Camp (1909 or 1911) ? but it doesn’t look right – not a racecourse setting?
So….how about Hunmanby?…….possible….but they weren’t there that long and photographs of the camp are very rare…..I have only ever seen half a dozen…..
Also the lack of Imperial Service Badges had me scratching my head……
Then I got thinking…..where is Grimsby near to?
“An advance party under Major WR Rock proceeded to South Somercotes, a small village about 1 1/2 miles from Saltfleet [and just South of Grimsby], and few days later the Battalion with others of the North Midland Group moved there and went under canvas”
[“The Robins Hoods”: 1/7th, 2/7th, 3/7th Battns. Sherwood Foresters]
So…..I’m calling this the 3/8th Battalion ‘under canvas’ at Somercotes in the summer of 1916…..
A scarce original and complete pair
Enlisted in October 1914; Arrived in France with the II Reinforcement in June 1915; Disembodied in February 1919; Died in 1985 aged 88.
Albert is one of those men that served through most of the War, but there is very little information about him – so this post will give him a digital remembrance.
Served in France with the 1/7th and 1/6th Battalions……a most interesting item of ephemera….
“Good-By; Good Luck and all success to you in Civil life, from your old Commander”
[GF Boyd Major General Commanding 46th North Midland Division]
Albert Henry Crofts (Crafts) was born in 1881 and was a picture frame maker from Long Eaton. He enlisted into the 7th Battalion (Robin Hood Rifles) in February 1912 and arrived in France in June 1915 with the 1st reinforcement.
Alfred was still serving with the 1/7th Battalion in February 1917, but later transferred to the 1/6th Battalion. He was eventually disembodied in February 1919.
Interestingly Alfred has two Medal Index Cards recoding different surnames
It would appear that Alfred was serving with the 8th Battalion, Sherwood Foresters at the outbreak of the Second World War and deployed with them to Norway where they suffered heavy casualties during the German invasion in April 1940.
See here
At the Hindlow Summer Camp of 1910
I’m calling these as ‘Rifle Corps’ black cap badges and 3-tier (T-7-Notts&Derby) shoulder badges.
A mill hand from Cressbrook, who served with 5th Platoon “B” (Chapel & Whaley Bridge) Company and was killed during the attack on Hohenzollern Redoubt.
Many thanks to Marion Anderson for sending these pictures of her relative
Benjamin in his dress uniform. The backdrop indicates that this was taken at the 1911 summer camp held at Scarborough where he signed the Imperial Service Agreement – see here for details of the camp.
Benjamin enlisted into the 6th (Derbyshire) Battalion, the Sherwood Foresters (Notts & Derby) Regiment on 18th March 1911 aged 18 years. In the 1911 Census he is recored as a mill hand at Cressbrook Mill.
The first page of Benjamin’s army service record, which recorded him as just over 5′ 3″ tall and with good physical development. Benjamin attested and was medically examined at Tideswall, which suggests that he may have initially served with “D” Company that comprised men from Bakewell, Tideswall and Stoney Middleton.
Benjamin attended the summer camps of 1911, 1912 and 1913; interestingly, there is no record of him being at the Hunmanby camp of 1914 when war was declared.
Benjamin was mobilised with the other men of the 6th Battalion on the 4th August 1914 and would have arrived in Chesterfield the following day. See here for details of the mobilisation.
This picture possibly shows Benjamin’s section with the family that they billeted with in Harpenden. Benjamin is lying on the corner of the flag. Clearly visible are Imperial Service Badges above the men’s right tunic pocket. The men also have 5-tier Territorial shoulder badges and are equipped with ‘Long’ Lee Enfield rifles.
The 46th North Midland Division arrived in France in February 1915 and soon found themselves in front line trenches. The North Midland Division had trench duties at Ploegsteert Wood (March), Neuf Berquin (March), Kemmel (April to June) and Ypres (June to September) before taking part in the Battle of Loos and the attack on Hohenzollern Redoubt.
During a period of rest at Ypres the Battalion were able to organise an inter Company cricket match between platoons of “B” Company and involving many local sportsman from the Chapel and Whaley Bridge areas. Of the 22 men who played in the cricket game on that warm July afternoon, ten were to lose their lives before the end of the War, three of these before the end of 1915; one of those would be Benjamin.
During the fighting for Hohenzollern Redoubt the 46th Division suffered 180 Officers and 3583 men killed, wounded or missing. The 1/6th Sherwood Foresters had 13 men killed, one man missing believed killed and 2/Lts Percival and Gardiner and 48 men wounded. The bodies of all of the men who were killed were not recovered or their graves identified after the War and they are commemorated on the Loos Memorial. The fact that so many bodies were not recovered is a testimony to the severity of the fighting and only Bernard White from Grassmoor, who died in a casualty clearing station in the Chateau at Vermelles, has a known grave.
‘Casualty Form – Active Service’ recording that Benjamin had earlier suffered from acute urticaria (a chronic rash), most likely contracted from trench duty, and received treatment at the 1st North Midland Field Ambulance and then the 46th Divisional Clearing Station. The form also records Benjamin’s death ‘in the field’ on the 14th October 1915; he was only 22 years old.
Personal effects sent to Benjamin’s parent and subsequent correspondence from them enquiring about some missing items including a watch and leather wallet. It was likely that he had those items on his person and they were not recovered along with his body.
Benjamins’s family was presented with a ‘Next of Kin’ Memorial Scroll, Plaque and King’s Message. These were posted out separately, typically in 1919 and 1920, and a ‘King’s message’ was enclosed with both, containing a facsimile signature of the King.
Benjamin’s name is recored on the Cressbrook Village Memorial. The image on the left is the original wood Cenotaph that was erected before the permanent stone memorial (right). Amongst the other men listed is 19-year old Fred Ponsonby, who also served with the 1/6th Battalion, and was shot by a sniper on the 21st May 1915.
Benjamin’s father and mother, Thomas Hamilton Savage and Diana Richard-Savage who are standing on the doorstep of their home at Whitefield Road in Stockton Heath. Benjamin’s sister Isabel Savage-Charlesworth (right). Her husband Thomas was a Gunner in the Royal Field Artillery and died of his injuries exactly two years after Benjamin died, and just a few months after their son – Benjamin’s nephew (Marion’s grandfather) – was born.
Derbyshire Territorials in the Great War 