Hope this helps
https://rafa.org.uk/blog/2021/05/28/your-raf-family-history/#:~:text=Ev….

Unfortunately service records for WWII are not all publicly available and it would seem that you will need to apply to the MOD for his records, there may be a charge for these.

I've enlarged the breast badge the best I can and it looks like,

Air Gunner Trade Badge

RAF Eagle cloth shoulder badge?

Similar to image

.

I agree with Bertie, he was an Air Gunner. It's a shame we can't see his sleeves. The LAC badge was a propeller blade. An LAC was roughly equivalent to a senior Private in the Army or an able seaman in the Royal Navy. The term 'aircraftsman' was replaced by 'aviator' in 2021 to reflect the increasing number of women in the RAF

Hi John,

The fact that he had two regimental numbers might indicate that he was transferred between the two regiments. Both were heavy light* cavalry units and so the riding/fighting skills would have been transferable, although there was no formal affiliation between the two regiments, as far as I am aware.  Later, in 1922 when it became necessary to reduce the size of the cavalry, the 7th Dragoons merged with the 4th Royal Irish Dragoon Guards,  and 20th Hussars merged with the 14th Hussars.

Over the period 1884 to 1895 the 20th Hussars were based in England with troop sized detachments being sent to serve in Sudan and Egypt, meaning that  individual troopers will have moved back and forth to England for various reasons during that time. In 1895 the whole regiment moved to India and remained there until it was deployed to South Africa in 1901 to fight in the Boer War. The 7th Dragoons also served in Egypt in the later part of the nineteenth century but over the period we are talking about, they were on garrison duties in either England or India, before deploying to South Africe in 1899. On the basis of the dates when he was in the UK (particularly when he married), being attached to the 7th Dragoons makes more sense.

Unfortunately I have no information about who was occupying the St James Barracks in 1892.  There are some records for the 7th Dragoons in the York Army Museum, but as far as I know the former museum of the 14/20 Hussars has now closed and I have no idea where their holdings went.

* text corrected 2 April 2022. At that time (1890s) only the Life Guards, the Royal Horse Guards, the Royal Dragoons and the Scots Greys were referred to as 'heavy' cavalry. In part this referred to the amount of armour worn by the mounted troopers, but more importantly it referred to the size of the horses and the men in each type of regiment. Tactically, heavy cavalry would normally charge straight at the enemy, whereas light cavalry would more usually be used to reconnoitre and skirmish, especially on the enemy's flanks. The latter's horses tended to be lighter and faster and consequently their riders tended to be lighter. For instance see The Charge of the Light Brigade in the Crimean War 40 years before.

John,

Just to add to my last posting, in March 1898 the deployment list [pdf] of the British Army shows the following: 7th Dragoon Guards stationed in Norwich and 20th Hussars stationed at Mhow in Madhya Pradesh, India.  The depot for those cavalry regiments stationed overseas was in Canterbury, so that tends to suggest that your man was not part of the 20th Hussars rear party in the UK if he was getting married in Norwich.

A couple of photographs of the old cavalry barracks, Norwich, if you haven't seen them before:

Stable block

General view

Hello John,

Can I suggest that you send an email to

assistant@horsepowermuseum.co.uk

or give them a call on

​01962 828541

Their website can be found at

https://www.winchestersmilitaryquarter.org/horsepower.html

If they cannot help they should be in a position to advise who can.

Hi John,

I'm not sure I can add much more to what you already know. I assume the attestation form you mention is the Form 265 (should be on the top right of the image).  Regular service was normally for a total of 12 years, although the split between full time (ie active service) and reserve did change at different times. So I would assume that he was on the active service part of his engagement when he married in 1898 and then would have started his reserve service when he would have returned home with his wife, before being called back to the colours for service in South Africa. As you can see from his overall service dates he did serve for exactly 12 years, which should mean he got his pension.  I take it you haven't found any pension records for him.

I really can't say why there is no mention of him serving with 7th Dragoon Guards on his record. I think it is fairly clear that he was in Norwich at the same time that the Dragoon Guards were stationed there so he probably wasn't making it up for the marriage register. Also the 20th Hussars didn't deploy to South Africa until 1901, whereas he was there from 1900 which tends to suggest he was recalled to serve with the Dragoon Guards who went out in 1899.

Going back to the regimental number issue you mentioned in your opening posting, number 3230 was issued in the 20th Hussars sometime before March 1891 - so that fits with his actual enlistment in the previous Autumn. The second number, 3932, was issued in the 7th Dragoon Guards sometime before April 1892 and so if this was his new number when he transferred, this gives you a rough date for when this occurred. Much more information on regimental numbers on this excellent site, and on army forms on its sister site here.

I thought I would just do a quick check for him on FMP. If you look closely at the image of his form 265 it says 7 DG underneath where his original regimental number is shown and above the new number, 3923.  I think this confirms that he did transfer.

However more intriguingly, looking on TNA  there is also a record  in WO100/299  which shows that a Pte G Cliff service number 3923 7 DG served with the staff in South Africa 1900-1902. From the entry it looks like he may have been batman to a Colonel Haig. WO100/299 lists the returns for those who were to be awarded the South Africa Medal. You can either download a pdf copy from TNA or I can email it to you. The FMP transcription says he was serving with the Staffordshire Regiment but this is clearly wrong when looking at the actual document below which comes from TNA.

John,

I was doing some Ancestry work in my local library this morning so I thought I'd do a quick search for Gervase. Have you seen a Birmingham rate book entry for April 1906 for a Gervase Cliff living at No 1 Court 6, 49 William Street? It shows he was due to pay a rate of £1 5s 6d although this hadn't been paid at the time the entry was made. Could this have been your man before he changed his name?

Andy

Hi John,

The date of Gervase's marriage in 1898 may have a significance which is not immediately obvious. Soldiers of all ranks who wanted to marry were required to get the permission of their commanding officer. It was possible to get married without permission but the existence of the wife and any children would not be acknowledged by the Army. So for instance the soldier who "married without leave" still had to live in the barracks and had to return to the barracks each night by 11pm. Conversely where permissions to marry was granted, an allowance was paid to subsidise the family's accommodation and in most overseas garrisons families were actually quartered within the barracks, as well as being provided with free transportation to and from the overseas station. In addition there was an enhanced ration allowance for married soldiers. Only 3-4% the soldiers below the rank of sergeant were allowed permission to marry - that equates to between 18 and 24 corporals/privates in a cavalry regiment. They had to meet certain criteria: "The commanding officer may not give leave to a corporal or a private to marry unless he has £5 in the savings bank, two good conduct badges, and seven years' service". For this reason, many had to delay getting married until they started the reserve portion of their service.

So either Gervase had to wait until he had completed 7 years service before he could get permission, or alternatively he waited until he was about to begin his reserve commitment, when permission would not have been required.

All single soldiers were required to live in the barracks. I'm not sure how rigidly this was enforced. Soldiers were allowed out in the evenings after their daily routine had ended with a dismissal parade. He would certainly have been in trouble if he was late on parade the following morning after staying out all night. It's not entirely clear from his records when he transferred to the reserve. As he was on an engagement of 7 years regular service and 5 years on the reserve, I would have expected him to have started his reserve service around the end of September 1897 given his date of enlistment. However if his marriage register entry shows his address as the cavalry barracks, that suggests he was not in the reserve at that point. I assume that he was called back from the reserve in 1900 to go out to South Africa.

I would expect something like that to be recorded on the last page of his Form B 265, under item 15 "Character on being discharged". The fact that it isn't, and the next heading "Place of Discharge" has been filled in suggests that the dishonourable discharge story may well not be true. I think it's likely that he would have been discharged almost immediately once he returned from the Boer War as he had completed his service, and since he wouldn't have had much opportunity to beat his wife in the mean time, I would have thought it unlikely the Army would have cared much about anything which might have occurred while he was not embodied in the regular army.

And to answer your last question, there might have been a record of any court martial (note spelling) had one taken place, but it would depend on what level of CM it was as to where the record might be held. There were 3 levels of court martial: regimental ie conducted by his commanding officer. I don't think any records from a regimental court martial will have survived. They were very routine, low level affairs and I suspect the only record of the fact that they occurred would be in the records of the soldier concerned (see below). The next level is the District Court Martial (DCM) convened by the General Officer commanding his district (in this case the North East District). Records for DCMs are likely to be found in the National Archives in series WO 86. The highest level is the General Court Martial (or its special case 'brother' the Field General Court Martial - only used in wartime). A GCM would only have been convened for the most serious types of offence committed by soldiers,  or offences involving offiicers, so I think we can discount the GCM.  Each soldier had 2 types of conduct sheet: the Army Form 120 his Regimental conduct sheet (example here) and his Army Form B 121 the Company/Squadron conduct sheet (example here). As their names suggest they are used for recording disciplinary action by the soldier's Commanding Officer and his squadron commander. The latter only has fairly limited punishment powers. The 121's didn't leave the soldier's unit and were routinely destroyed after a period of time, so few of them have survived. The 120 was copied to the depot of the regiment but again only a small percentage of pre-WW1 records survive. The best place to look for them is the Royal Hospital Chelsea records, but as I think all of those records which survive have already been digitised, I doubt if you will find anything for Gervase if it's not on Ancestry or FMP.

Joe has replied direct by email.

Hello Rachel,

I have completed my research on Pte Seymour which contains a number of images (unfortunately no photo of him) and thus not suitable for a reply on the forum. If you email me at membership@lswlfhs.org.uk giving me your email I will forward my findings to you.

Just to let you know that Joe has indeed compiled a reply for you, but because it would be difficult to post all the images he has collected, onto the forum, he is sending you an email direct.  Hope this is ok.

I have a unsourced note in my records that Peter Rice was born on 2/3/98 in Bootle and died 24/6/26 of peritonitis in North Sydney, Australia.

His number suggests an enlistment date of 24/8/14 - he crossed to France 20/12/15 as part of a reinforcement draft for 13 Kings. At some point either through falling ill or being wounded he left the 13th Kings and was subsequently transferred to the 1st Kings.

You will see in the attached cutting from the Bootle Roll of Honour (p65) that there is further information available. Unfortunately I do not have this information and it will mean that you will have to look at the Bootle Time in Bootle Library.

Although it is not possible (at least based on the information I have - it is relatively rare to get an MM citation) to determine the deed for which he was awarded the MM (and for which at one time there was a citation) much work has recently been done on Schedule numbers which will help isolate an action for which an award was made. I would surmise that the promulgation of awards with all that was going on at the end of the war was probably not a priority hence the Feb 1919 Gazette date - during the war it took about 3 months on average for an award to appear in the Gazette.

This is his MM card

The 1^st King’s were not in action during the Battle of Amiens (8/8/18) but were active during the Battles of Albert (21-23/8/18) and Drocourt-Queant Line (2-4/9/18). It looks as if he was awarded the Military Medal for his actions during one (or both) of these Battles.

You will be able to download a copy of the complete original war diary of 1 Kings from the National Archives using the URL below.

https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C7351983

The following is an extract from the Regimental History of the Kings in the Great War by Wyrall and decribes the battles.

THE BATTLE OF ALBERT, 1918: 21ST‑23RD AUGUST

King's men were engaged in this battle, i.e., the 1st Battalion of the 2^nd Division, the 13th of the 3rd Division and the 25th Battalion of the 59th Division ‑ all of the VI Corps, Third Army, but the last‑named division was in corps reserve during the early stages of the operations.

In the operations designed to prepare the way for the principal attack on August 23rd, the opening move was made by the 2nd Division, who attacked at 4.45 a.m. on the 21st, with the 37th Division on their right, and the Guards Division on their left Their objective was the Ablainzeville ‑ Moyenville ridge (blue line), which was successfully captured The 1st King's of the 6th Brigade were not called upon to take part in this operation.

The 3rd Division then passed through, with their objective the Achiet‑le-Grand - Arras Railway. The 13th King's, of the 9th Brigade, played a leading part in this attack, in which the enemy put up a very strong resistance.

The Battalion moved up from Hannescamps on the night of the 20th, and formed up in the moonlight on a 600‑yard frontage.

As soon as the attack of the 2nd Division started, the 13th King's followed. in artillery formation. There was a thick mist, which was aggravated by the smoke screen put out to cover the tanks, and the advance had to be made on a compass bearing. The leading companies came under machine‑gun fire before reaching the Blue Line, and on some parts of the front the tanks did not arrive. "D" Company on the left, aided by one tank, skirted the south side of Courcellesle‑Compte, and established themselves on the railway line after taking many prisoners. "C" Company on the right, with no assistance from the tanks, gallantly rushed the Boche machine‑guns, and also reached the railway line. By this time the support companies had closed up, and casualties were very heavy from machine‑gun fire, three company commanders being already out of action. Many casualties were due to the fact that the troops on the right had not actually reached the railway line, and this flank was much exposed. Heavy barrages and spasmodic fighting marked the next day, but the line held. At 4 a.m. on the 23rd, the 76th Brigade passed through to attack Gomiecourt. As this attack was being made, "C" Company tackled a machine‑gun nest further down the railway line, and captured 150 prisoners, and many machine‑guns. On the 24th the battalion moved back to bivouac at Ayette. The casualties had been heavy; four officers were killed ‑ Capt. R. J. Barrett, M.C., Capt. N. A. R. Van Gruisen (died of wounds), Second‑Lieut. J. B. Friend and Second‑Lieut. H. Washbrook - seven officers were wounded and there were 263 O.R. casualties.

On August 31st the 13th King's were in action again, when they took part in the attack on Ecoust. This was successfully accomplished, but not without further heavy casualties, estimated at nine officers and 200 O.R.

After the capture of Gomiecourt by the 3rd Division, the 2nd Division had received orders to attack Ervillers, Behagnies and Sapignies, in conjunction with an attack by the VI Corps on Achiet‑le‑Grand and Bihucourt. Light tanks were to support the division. The capture of Ervillers fell to the lot of the 6th Brigade, which was on the left flank, with the Guards Division on its left.

The attack was launched at 11 a.m. on August 23rd, and the 1st King's led the advance on the left of the brigade. Behind a tremendous barrage the battalion moved forward on a 600‑yard frontage ‑ "A," "B" and "D" Companies in front, with "C" Company in reserve. The whippet tanks were behind, ready to come up when required. About mid‑day saw Ervillers in the hands of the King's and South Staffords, who proceeded to consolidate the village. It was not, however, all plain sailing, and, owing to the very severe enemy machine‑gun fire from Mory Copse ‑ Hally Copse ridge, it was found impossible to establish posts clear of the eastern edge of the village, as had been ordered. Heavy shelling was experienced from p.m. until dark, and during the night determined attempts were made to capture Mory Copse and village, but without result. At 4.30 a.m. on the 24th, fourteen small patrols of King's men - six to eight men strong - were sent out towards the ridge, but the only result of these moves was further casualties, particularly amongst officers. At about 9 a.m. "C" Company, on the left, saw the Guards Division advancing unopposed, and went forward with the idea of prolonging their right flank. This attack was, however, soon severely checked by machine‑gun fire, and at about 11.30 a.m. "C" Company was withdrawn. "B" and "D" Companies now set out on a renewed effort to capture Mory Copse, when at about 2.30 p.m. news reached Lieut.‑Colonel D. M. King that the 99th Brigade was going to launch an attack at 3.30 p.m. On receipt of this information Colonel King checked the advance of these two companies, but did not withdraw them, partly to prevent the Boche coming any closer, and partly because there was no time in which to re‑organise these exhausted King's men, who had been fighting and patrolling continuously for twenty‑eight hours. When the 99th Brigade was seen sweeping forward, the two companies of the King's, now reduced to two officers and 140 other ranks, raced forward in a south‑easterly direction.

Mory Copse, however, was still uncaptured, and so the King's ‑ in the words of the Commanding Officer ‑ "seeing that the attack obviously required an impulse, chanced a flank move," Wheeling left, they swept up the hill side, and with cheers of "King's," the men, though obviously worn out, tore across the railway line and, aided by the 1st R. Berkshires, carried Mory Copse. On the night of August 24th/25th the King's were withdrawn, four officers and 257 men coming out unwounded. Two officers, Lieuts. W. J. A. Pratt and R. T. Reese were killed, fourteen officers wounded, and there were 270 other rank casualties. It is interesting to note that the Commanding Officer attributed the success of this attack in great part to the keen platoon spirit, which had been fostered by every means for several months. No officer, N.C.O. or man was ever transferred, however hard pressed the battalion might be.

On the 26th August the 2nd Division went back into VI Corps support.

THE BATTLE OF THE DROCOURT─QUEANT LINE (2^nd – 4^th SEPTEMBER)

The result of the battle of the Scarpe was to bring the British troops within assaulting distance of the Drocourt - Queant line. The general assault on this position was launched on September 2nd and resulted in an immediate break in the enemy's line, and a headlong retreat on the whole front and south of it.

Several battalions of the King's took part in these operations. The 13th King's in the 3rd Division had, it will be remembered, made a successful but costly attack on Ecoust on August 31st. They held this position until, on September 2nd, the 8th Brigade passed through them as part of the general attack of the 3rd Division on Lagnicourt. The battalion then withdrew to Ervillers and remained in brigade reserve until September 19th. The 2nd Division were in VI Corps reserve, but took over the line at 5.20 a.m. on September 3rd. During the attack on September 3rd the 1st King's were in Brigade Reserve, but on the 4th September, they were ordered to clear the ground west of the Canal du Nord, and push forward patrols to the east of the canal to locate the enemy's main line.

At 5.20 a.m. two companies of the 1st King's set out towards the canal, about 1,000 yards in front, with orders to secure crossings and send out patrols on the other side. Having advanced about half way, however, they came up against heavy machine‑gun and artillery‑fire, and were held up. The battalion clung on in spite of strong bombing counter‑attacks by the Boche. At about 4 p.m. a message was sent back from the O.C. 1st King's that "the enemy is on this side of the canal in force; enemy machine‑gun and rifle‑fire comes from all round, and both sides of the canal." A further attempt to advance was made at 10 p.m., but failed, and on the evening of the 5th the 6th Brigade was relieved by the 99th Brigade. The Battalion Diary merely refers to this advance as: "In action near Canal du Nord. Second‑Lieut. Alty and four men missing, seven other ranks killed and seventeen wounded." On September 6th the battalion suffered a severe loss when Major H. J. Duff, D.S.O., M.C., the Second in Command, and Lieut. E. A. Wilson, the Acting Adjutant, were killed by a high‑velocity shell bursting in the hut in which they were sleeping.

I have an unsourced note in my records that Peter Rice was born on 2/3/98 in Bootle and died 24/6/26 of peritonitis in North Sydney, Australia.

His number suggests an enlistment date of 24/8/14 - he crossed to France 20/12/15 as part of a reinforcement draft for 13 Kings. At some point either through falling ill or being wounded he left the 13th Kings and was subsequently transferred to the 1st Kings.

You will see in the attached cutting from the Bootle Roll of Honour (p65) (following post) that there is further information available. Unfortunately, I do not have this information and it will mean that you will have to look at the Bootle Time in Bootle Library.

Although it is not possible (at least based on the information I have - it is relatively rare to get an MM citation) to determine the deed for which he was awarded the MM (and for which at one time there was a citation) much work has recently been done on Schedule numbers which will help isolate an action for which an award was made. I would surmise that the promulgation of awards with all that was going on at the end of the war was probably not a priority hence the Feb 1919 Gazette date - during the war it took about 3 months on average for an award to appear in the Gazette.

This is his MM card (see below)

The 1^st King’s were not in action during the Battle of Amiens (8/8/18) but were active during the Battles of Albert (21-23/8/18) and Drocourt-Queant Line (2-4/9/18). It looks as if he was awarded the Military Medal for his actions during one (or both) of these Battles.

You will be able to download a copy of the complete original war diary of 1 Kings from the National Archives using the URL below.

https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C7351983

The following is an extract from the Regimental History of the Kings in the Great War by Wyrall and decribes the battles.

THE BATTLE OF ALBERT, 1918: 21ST‑23RD AUGUST

King's men were engaged in this battle, i.e., the 1st Battalion of the 2^nd Division, the 13th of the 3rd Division and the 25th Battalion of the 59th Division ‑ all of the VI Corps, Third Army, but the last‑named division was in corps reserve during the early stages of the operations.

In the operations designed to prepare the way for the principal attack on August 23rd, the opening move was made by the 2nd Division, who attacked at 4.45 a.m. on the 21st, with the 37th Division on their right, and the Guards Division on their left Their objective was the Ablainzeville ‑ Moyenville ridge (blue line), which was successfully captured The 1st King's of the 6th Brigade were not called upon to take part in this operation.

The 3rd Division then passed through, with their objective the Achiet‑le-Grand - Arras Railway. The 13th King's, of the 9th Brigade, played a leading part in this attack, in which the enemy put up a very strong resistance.

The Battalion moved up from Hannescamps on the night of the 20th, and formed up in the moonlight on a 600‑yard frontage.

As soon as the attack of the 2nd Division started, the 13th King's followed. in artillery formation. There was a thick mist, which was aggravated by the smoke screen put out to cover the tanks, and the advance had to be made on a compass bearing. The leading companies came under machine‑gun fire before reaching the Blue Line, and on some parts of the front the tanks did not arrive. "D" Company on the left, aided by one tank, skirted the south side of Courcellesle‑Compte, and established themselves on the railway line after taking many prisoners. "C" Company on the right, with no assistance from the tanks, gallantly rushed the Boche machine‑guns, and also reached the railway line. By this time the support companies had closed up, and casualties were very heavy from machine‑gun fire, three company commanders being already out of action. Many casualties were due to the fact that the troops on the right had not actually reached the railway line, and this flank was much exposed. Heavy barrages and spasmodic fighting marked the next day, but the line held. At 4 a.m. on the 23rd, the 76th Brigade passed through to attack Gomiecourt. As this attack was being made, "C" Company tackled a machine‑gun nest further down the railway line, and captured 150 prisoners, and many machine‑guns. On the 24th the battalion moved back to bivouac at Ayette. The casualties had been heavy; four officers were killed ‑ Capt. R. J. Barrett, M.C., Capt. N. A. R. Van Gruisen (died of wounds), Second‑Lieut. J. B. Friend and Second‑Lieut. H. Washbrook - seven officers were wounded and there were 263 O.R. casualties.

On August 31st the 13th King's were in action again, when they took part in the attack on Ecoust. This was successfully accomplished, but not without further heavy casualties, estimated at nine officers and 200 O.R.

After the capture of Gomiecourt by the 3rd Division, the 2nd Division had received orders to attack Ervillers, Behagnies and Sapignies, in conjunction with an attack by the VI Corps on Achiet‑le‑Grand and Bihucourt. Light tanks were to support the division. The capture of Ervillers fell to the lot of the 6th Brigade, which was on the left flank, with the Guards Division on its left.

The attack was launched at 11 a.m. on August 23rd, and the 1st King's led the advance on the left of the brigade. Behind a tremendous barrage the battalion moved forward on a 600‑yard frontage ‑ "A," "B" and "D" Companies in front, with "C" Company in reserve. The whippet tanks were behind, ready to come up when required. About mid‑day saw Ervillers in the hands of the King's and South Staffords, who proceeded to consolidate the village. It was not, however, all plain sailing, and, owing to the very severe enemy machine‑gun fire from Mory Copse ‑ Hally Copse ridge, it was found impossible to establish posts clear of the eastern edge of the village, as had been ordered. Heavy shelling was experienced from p.m. until dark, and during the night determined attempts were made to capture Mory Copse and village, but without result. At 4.30 a.m. on the 24th, fourteen small patrols of King's men - six to eight men strong - were sent out towards the ridge, but the only result of these moves was further casualties, particularly amongst officers. At about 9 a.m. "C" Company, on the left, saw the Guards Division advancing unopposed, and went forward with the idea of prolonging their right flank. This attack was, however, soon severely checked by machine‑gun fire, and at about 11.30 a.m. "C" Company was withdrawn. "B" and "D" Companies now set out on a renewed effort to capture Mory Copse, when at about 2.30 p.m. news reached Lieut.‑Colonel D. M. King that the 99th Brigade was going to launch an attack at 3.30 p.m. On receipt of this information Colonel King checked the advance of these two companies, but did not withdraw them, partly to prevent the Boche coming any closer, and partly because there was no time in which to re‑organise these exhausted King's men, who had been fighting and patrolling continuously for twenty‑eight hours. When the 99th Brigade was seen sweeping forward, the two companies of the King's, now reduced to two officers and 140 other ranks, raced forward in a south‑easterly direction.

Mory Copse, however, was still uncaptured, and so the King's ‑ in the words of the Commanding Officer ‑ "seeing that the attack obviously required an impulse, chanced a flank move," Wheeling left, they swept up the hill side, and with cheers of "King's," the men, though obviously worn out, tore across the railway line and, aided by the 1st R. Berkshires, carried Mory Copse. On the night of August 24th/25th the King's were withdrawn, four officers and 257 men coming out unwounded. Two officers, Lieuts. W. J. A. Pratt and R. T. Reese were killed, fourteen officers wounded, and there were 270 other rank casualties. It is interesting to note that the Commanding Officer attributed the success of this attack in great part to the keen platoon spirit, which had been fostered by every means for several months. No officer, N.C.O. or man was ever transferred, however hard pressed the battalion might be.

On the 26th August the 2nd Division went back into VI Corps support.

THE BATTLE OF THE DROCOURT─QUEANT LINE (2^nd – 4^th SEPTEMBER)

The result of the battle of the Scarpe was to bring the British troops within assaulting distance of the Drocourt - Queant line. The general assault on this position was launched on September 2nd and resulted in an immediate break in the enemy's line, and a headlong retreat on the whole front and south of it.

Several battalions of the King's took part in these operations. The 13th King's in the 3rd Division had, it will be remembered, made a successful but costly attack on Ecoust on August 31st. They held this position until, on September 2nd, the 8th Brigade passed through them as part of the general attack of the 3rd Division on Lagnicourt. The battalion then withdrew to Ervillers and remained in brigade reserve until September 19th. The 2nd Division were in VI Corps reserve, but took over the line at 5.20 a.m. on September 3rd. During the attack on September 3rd the 1st King's were in Brigade Reserve, but on the 4th September, they were ordered to clear the ground west of the Canal du Nord, and push forward patrols to the east of the canal to locate the enemy's main line.

At 5.20 a.m. two companies of the 1st King's set out towards the canal, about 1,000 yards in front, with orders to secure crossings and send out patrols on the other side. Having advanced about half way, however, they came up against heavy machine‑gun and artillery‑fire, and were held up. The battalion clung on in spite of strong bombing counter‑attacks by the Boche. At about 4 p.m. a message was sent back from the O.C. 1st King's that "the enemy is on this side of the canal in force; enemy machine‑gun and rifle‑fire comes from all round, and both sides of the canal." A further attempt to advance was made at 10 p.m., but failed, and on the evening of the 5th the 6th Brigade was relieved by the 99th Brigade. The Battalion Diary merely refers to this advance as: "In action near Canal du Nord. Second‑Lieut. Alty and four men missing, seven other ranks killed and seventeen wounded." On September 6th the battalion suffered a severe loss when Major H. J. Duff, D.S.O., M.C., the Second in Command, and Lieut. E. A. Wilson, the Acting Adjutant, were killed by a high‑velocity shell bursting in the hut in which they were sleeping.

His photo from Bootle Times

Wonderful Joe and I particularly love that you found photographs, so rare.