Monday 27 October 2014

10110 L/Cpl William Charles Axon,1st Royal Scots Fusiliers


Remembering today, 10110 L/Cpl William Charles Axon of the 1st Royal Scots Fusiliers who was killed in action 100 years ago on the 27th October 1914.

William Axon was born at Umballa, India on the 6th April 1889 and baptised in Dagshai on the 5th May that year. His father, John Samuel Axon, was a colour sergeant with the 21st Regiment of Foot (later Royal Scots Fusiliers) and was stationed in India at the time of his son's birth.

William's regimental number dates to around the 5th October 1909 (when he would have been twenty years old), and his medal index card indicates that he arrived overseas on the 14th August 1914. A brief entry in De Ruvigny's Roll of Honour notes that he was killed in action "near Ypres" whilst the war diary notes that between the 27th and 31st October, three men were killed and four wounded, "chiefly from snipers". The Commonwealth War Graves Commission website notes that William was serving with B Company and that he was the son of John and Eliza Axon of 74 Slateford Road, Edinburgh. He is buried in the Royal Irish Rifles Graveyard at Laventie, his body having been re-buried there after it was removed from another location: map reference 36 - M23 - D3.3. His parents paid for the inscription, THY WILL BE DONE to be added to his headstone.

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.
 
I've borrowed the image on this post from the Panoramio website. The photo was taken by Werner Van Caneghem.



Saturday 25 October 2014

Captain John Henry Strode Batten, 1st King's (Liverpool Regiment)


Captain John Henry Stride Batten of the 1st King's (Liverpool Regiment) was killed in action 100 years ago today. He was a married man aged 38 and had previously seen action during the Boer War. A detailed biography appears in De Ruvigny's Roll of Honour (below).

 
Captain Batten has no known grave and is commemorated on the Menin Gate memorial at Ypres.
 
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.
 
Portrait photograph courtesy of Footsteps 1914-1918. De Ruivigny's extract from Ancestry.


Monday 20 October 2014

7533 Henry Crundwell, 2nd South Lancashire Regiment, and L/9340 Pte Herbert Crundwell, Queen's


According to Soldiers Died in The Great War, 712 officers and men serving with the British Army died on 20th October 1914, one hundred years ago today.

L/9340 Private Herbert Edward Crundwell of the 2nd Battalion, Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regiment) is noted as one of these casualties but in fact he actually died of wounds (a gunshot wound to his right eye) at the Dreadnought Hospital, Greenwich on the 20th November 1914.

Surviving papers in WO 363 reveal that Herbert was 18 years and eight months old and working as a labourer when he attested with the Queen's on 11th May 1908. He was five feet, four inches tall with a fresh complexion, hazel eyes and red hair. He joined the regiment at Chatham and after four months' basic training at the Depot, was posted to the 2nd Battalion. He subsequently saw service in Gibraltar, Bermuda and South Africa. He arrived in France on the 14th October 1914.


Another man named Crundwell did die four days later on the 24th October 1914 and he was 7533 Corporal Henry Crundwell of the 2nd South Lancashire Regiment. Service papers do not survive for this man but his regimental number indicates that he joined the regiment in November or December 1904 and therefore was probably on the Army Reserve when Britain went to war with Germany in August 1914. His medal index card indicates that he arrived overseas on the 8th September 1914, nearly a month after the battalion had arrived as a complete unit at Le Havre on 14th August. The annotation on his card, "P D" means "Presumed Dead" and as befits this status, Henry has no known grave and is commemorated on panel 23 of the Le Touret Memorial.
 
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.

Medal index cards courtesy Ancestry.



Tuesday 14 October 2014

L/14059 L/Cpl Charles F H Brown, 4th Middx


L/140459 Lance-Corporal Charles Frederick Henry Brown of the 4th Battalion, Middlesex Regiment was killed in action 100 years ago today on the 14th October 1914. He was born in Clapton Park and enlisted at Enfield on the 17th April 1912. He was 18 years and 5 months old at the time of his enlistment and gave his occupation as "Casual Labourer".

After nearly five months' training, Charles was posted to the 4th Battalion. He was appointed unpaid lance-corporal in July 1913 and paid lance-corporal on the 9th February 1914. His surviving service record notes that he was posted missing between the 12th and 14th October 1914 but both the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and Soldiers Died in the Great War confirm his date of death as the 14th.

Charles had arrived in France with his battalion on the 13th August 1914 and to a young soldier with no overseas' service, it must have seemed like quite an adventure. Unfortunately for Charles and many others, that adventure was to be short-lived. He was overseas for just 63 days before he was killed.

On 11th November 1919, five years after his death, the record office at Hanwell sent some photos and letters to Charles's father, Mr C Brown, at 13 Cornwallis Grove, Lower Edmonton. A few months earlier, his father had completed Army Form W.5080 which listed Charles's surviving family members: no fewer than four half-brothers and eight half-sisters ranging in age from 19 to seven months.

Charles Brown has no known grave and is commemorated on the Le Touret Memorial (pictured above, courtesy of the North Irish Horse website).

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.



Saturday 11 October 2014

5664 Rfm Frank Hatton, 2nd King's Royal Rifle Corps

 
5664 Rifleman Frank Hatton of the 2nd Battalion, King's Royal Rifle Corps died 100 years ago today, on the 11th October 1914.
 
Surviving papers in WO 363 show that he was a regular soldier who attested at Burnley on the 8th December 1903 when he was 23 years old and working as a groom. He was born in Blackburn and was living in Blackburn at the time of his enlistment. He was recalled from the Army Reserve when Britain went to war in August 1914.
 
Frank arrived in France on the 28th August 1914 and was reported missing on 11th October 1914. Soldiers Died in The Great War notes that he died of wounds but there is no evidence of this from surviving papers and indeed, doubt as to actually when he died. He was officially recorded as having died on or since the 11th October 1914 and there are a number of letters backwards and forwards to his wife concerning this.
 
On 29th November 1916, the officer in charge of records at the Rifles Records at Winchester sent HRH Princess Mary's gift tin to Frank's widow, Teresa Hatton, who was then living at 5 Ashton Street, Blackburn. She replied a little later saying, "I shall always keep it in memory of my husband. I only wish that he was here to receive it himself."
 
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.
 
 


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