S/766 Pte Joseph Titterton, 6th Bn, The Buffs

S/766 Private Joseph Titterton of the 6th Battalion, The Buffs (East Kent Regiment), was killed in action on the 6th March 1916.

Joseph was a Londoner who was born in Southwark, was living in Bermondsey, and enlisted at Finsbury [Park], Middlesex. Pages from his service record survive at the National Archives, and the following information is taken from these.

When he joined The Buffs Special Reserve at Finsbury Barracks on the 15th October 1914, Joseph Titterton was 40 years old and working as a labourer. He was five feet, five and a half inches tall and was also an old soldier, having served six years with the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry and been discharged in 1899. The number scrawled on the front of his attestation paper is SR/EK/GS/766: Special Reserve / East Kent / General Service; the number falls into a special series for men who joined the Special Reserve during war-time.

Joseph was a married man with children. He had married Rose (or Rosina) Smith at St Mary Magdelene Church, Bermondsey, on the 15th October 1899, and the couple had three children: Joseph George Titterton (born in August 1900), Albert Edward Titterton (born in May 1902) and Hilda Elizabeth Titterton (born in July 1904). All three children were born in Bermondsey.

Joseph was posted to the 3rd Battalion on the 1st November 1914, then to the 2nd Battalion on the 14th April 1915. He sailed for France the same day but had not been there long before he was wounded. He returned to England and, posted back to the East Kent Regimental Depot (1st May 1915). He was again posted to the 3rd Battalion on the 15th June 1915 and then finally, spent six days in the Southern General Hospital with a slight gunshot wound to his left shoulder. Having recovered, he was posted to the 6th (Service) Battalion on the 30th June that year and it was whilst serving with this battalion that he was killed.

Joseph Titterton has no known grave and is commemorated on the Loos Memorial. His number is variously recorded as G/766 and S/766 but I give the version that appears on Soldiers Died in The Great War and The Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

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

Sources:

Ancestry (MIC)
Soldiers Died in The Great War
Army Service Numbers
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission