40457 Pte Henry G Wond, 10th Bn, RDF

40457 Private Henry George Wond of the 10th Battalion, Royal Dublin Fusiliers, was killed in action on the 24th May 1917. He had previously served with the King's Liverpool Regiment and had the number 11083.

Henry was born in Bermondsey, was living in Falkirk and enlisted at Warley in Essex. His service record does not survive but it is clear from his medal index card that he arrived overseas with the King's on or after the 1st January 1916. There are a couple of possibilities for his joining date. 11083 would have been issued to a regular soldier in the King's in early 1911 or to a Special Reservist (3rd Battalion) in August 1914. There was a 4th (Extra Reserve) Battalion but I have no evidence to suggest that the original numbering in this battalion reached as high as 11083. If it did, it was certainly post August 1914.

My data for the DLI is a little thin but it would appear that the transfer took place post August 1916.

Henry has no known grave and is commemorated on the Arras Memorial.


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

39410 Pte Enoch Ditchfield, 5th Bn, DLI

Close to 1800 British Army officers and men died on the 11th April 1918. Soldiers Died in The Great War gives the total casualties as 1,795, and 39410 Pte Enoch Ditchfield was one of those men. He was killed in action whilst serving with the 5th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry.

Enoch was born in Sunderland and attested there in May 1916. He was eighteen years old and working as a men's mercer. Other papers note that he was an apprentice mercer working for H Burns and Sons Ltd. He gave his address as 61 Hylton Road, Sunderland. This was later altered to 70 Eversley Road. At the time of attestation he indicated that his preferred arm of service was the Royal Horse and Field Artillery. However, he was called up in November 1916 and posted to the Durham Light Infantry.

On 15th June 1917, Enoch sailed for France. He was wounded exactly two weeks later on the 29th June by a gunshot wound to his left buttock, and returned to England, spending over three months in Queen Mary's Military Hospital in Whalley, Lancashire. He was discharged, his papers noting that he had a "penetrating wound... with no point of exit" but then re-admitted shortly afterwards when a "large foreign body" (presumably the bullet, or piece of shrapnel) worked its way through into his left thigh. This was removed under local anaesthetic but nevertheless caused Enoch to spent a further two months in hospital at Ripon.

Enoch sailed for France for a second time on the 2nd January 1918. He was posted first to the 19th DLI (3rd January) and then to the 10th DLI (7th January) and then finally to the 5th Battalion on the 3rd February. He spent four days at a Field Ambulance with scabies but rejoined his battalion on the 3rd March. On the 11th April 1918, ninety-two years ago today, Enoch was reported wounded and missing. One year later, his death was officially "presumed" by the War Office to have occurred on or after the 11th April 1918.

Enoch Ditchfield has no known grave and he is commemorated by name on the Ploegsteert Memorial in Belgium.

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

Sources:

Ancestry (MIC, WO 363)
Soldiers Died in The Great War
Army Service Numbers
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission

11947 Pte Foster Guthrie, 10th Bn, DLI

11947 Private Foster Guthrie of the 10th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry, was killed in action on the 1st February 1916. His partial service record survives as a burnt document at the National Archive, and the following information is taken from this.

He was born in the parish of St Mary's in Gateshead and at the time of his enlistment at Newcastle on the 14th August 1914, he was 26 years and two months old, five feet five and a half inches tall, and working as a moulder. He came from a large family and in 1919, according to Army Form W.5080, had his parents, one brother and five sisters still living.

Foster's death in action was confirmed by the officer commanding the 10th DLI, and he was buried at Essex Farm Cemetery by the Yser Canal, the Reverend Telford of the 4rd Light Infantry Brigade, officiating

After the war, Foster's medals, his memorial scroll and plaque, were sent to his father, Mr Walter Guthrie, at 334 Sunderland Road, Gateshead

I also remember today, my grandfather, Walter Leonard Nixon, a Great War veteran who served with the Royal Garrison Artillery between 1916 and 1918 and who was born on this day in 1893.

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

Sources:

Ancestry.co.uk (MIC, WO363)
Army Ancestry
Army Service Numbers 1881-1918
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Soldiers Died in The Great War

15227 Pte Stephen Wallace Gamblin, 2nd Bn, Leinster Regt

15227 Private Stephen Wallace Gamblin of the 2nd Battalion, Leinster Regiment, was killed in action on the 25th January 1918. He had previously served with the Durham Light Infantry (number 33602).

Stephen Gamblin was born in South Shields, County Durham and was living in the town when he enlisted. He was a married man and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission notes that he was married to M E Gamblin of 187 Victoria Road, South Shields. His entry on the Irish Casualty Roll (see above) gives no further information and his medal index card at the National Archives shows entitlement to the British War and Victory medals which in turn means that he must have arrived overseas on or after the 1st January 1916. No service record survives.

M E Gamblin is Mary Ellen Elstob whom Stephen had married in South Shields in 1906. Their marriage is recorded in the June quarter of that year. Stephen would have been about 23 years old then, his bride a similar age. He appears on the 1901 census as a 17-year-old carpenter living with his parents and older brother Owen (aged 25) in South Shields.

By the time Stephen went to war, he and his wife had at least one child - Rebecca E Gamblin was born in 1914 - and may have had other children who my basic research on this man has failed to uncover.

Stephen Gamblin is buried in Hargicourt British Cemetery in France.

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

Sources:

Ancestry.co.uk (MIC, Ireland - Casualties of World War One)
Army Ancestry
Army Service Numbers 1881-1918
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Soldiers Died in The Great War

10314 Pte Alick Frazer, 1st Bn, DLI

156 officers and men of the British Army died on this single day - 16th January - in 1918. 10314 Private Alick Frazer of the 1st Battalion, Durham Light Infantry was one of these casualties. He died - probably as a result of disease or sickness - whilst in India. His grave may well still exist in one of the many cemeteries, used by the British, that dot Pakistan but in any event he is commemorated on the Karachi 1914-1918 War Memorial.

Alick (or Aleck according to his medal index card) was born in Hebburn and was living there at the time of his enlistment. He enlisted at Jarrow in 1908 and had probably been stationed in India at some point during his military career. His MIC though, notes that he arrived overseas on the 21st August 1915.

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

Sources:

Ancestry.co.uk (MIC)
Army Ancestry
Army Service Numbers 1881-1918
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Soldiers Died in The Great War