Sleeping companions: 18382 Pte M J Cawley, MGC & 18144 Pte W Briggs, MGC

Michael Joseph Cawley and William Briggs, both of A Company, 38th Machine Gun Corps, lie next to each other in The Guards Cemetery at Lesboeufs. Both were killed in action on the same day - 2nd September 1918 - and both were exhumed from the same spot on the battlefield and re-buried here in September 1919. The unknown soldier on the left was also brought in from the battlefield, but from a different location.

Note that Michael's name has been rendered incorrectly in the dedication supplied by his widow. The CWGC headstone records his name as MICHEAL although it is impossible to say whether this was an error introduced by the CWGC or by his widow. One would presume it was the former.

Michael was the son of Michael and Mary Cawley (nee Coleman) and the husband of Mrs. E. McCauley (formerly Cawley), of 101, Canton St., Providence, Rhode Island, USA. He was 23 years old when he was killed. 

Less is known of William Briggs. He was born in Radclffe, Lancashire and enlisted at Bolton in February 1916. His and Michael's regimental numbers are close enough together for them to have enlisted, if not on the same day, then certainly within a few days of each other. They have lain together in a foreign field for nearly 98 years. RIP.

32825 Pte Owen Needham, 6th Leicestershire Regiment

32825 Pte Owen Needham of the 6th Leicestershire Regiment died of wounds on the 28th or 29th April 1917. He was 19 years old.

The 1911 census shows Owen as a 13-year-old living at Charnwood Road, Shepshed with his parents and seven siblings. No service record survives for him but his regimental number dates to late October 1916. He was probably conscripted as an eighteen-year-old, arriving in France in 1917.

Soldiers Died in the Great War notes that he enlisted at Leicester and died of wounds on the 29th April, whilst the Commonwealth War Graves Commission gives his date of death as the 28th April. After the war, his parents paid for an inscription to be added to his headstone in Bucquoy Road Cemetery, Ficheux: ETERNAL REST / GIVE UNTO HIM O LORD.  They also paid for the same inscription to be added to his brother Frank's headstone. Frank Needham was killed in action serving with the Machine Gun Corps on the 5th October 1918.

I met Owen and Frank's brother Ernest Needham whilst I was a student at Loughborough University in the 1980s and have published a brief profile of him on my World War 1 Veterans' blog.

Owen and Frank Needham are both remembered on the at memorial at Shepshed.

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


Shepshed war memorial image courtesy Leicestershire County Council.

97495 Pte Walter Brawn, 164th MGC

97495 Private Walter Brawn of the 164th Company, Machine Gun Corps died of wounds on the 18th November 1917. He had previously served with the Cambridgeshire Regiment (number 331092). He is buried in Tincourt New British Cemetery.

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

58884 Pte Alexander Rough, MGC

58884 Private Alexander Rough of the 178th Company, Machine Gun Corps (and formerly 32762 Northumberland Fusiliers) was killed in action on the 15th August 1917. He was born in Smeafield, Northumberalnd, and enlisted at Newcastle-on-Tyne. He was 23 years old, the son of John Robert and Emma Rough, of Scots Gap, Boulmer, Lesbury, Northumberland. He is buried in Philosophe British Cemetery, Mazingarbe.

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

Lt Philip G McMaster, 18th Bn, MGC

Lieutenant Philip George McMaster of the 18th Battalion, Machine Gun Corps, was killed in action on the 20th June 1918. He was the son of John and Margaret McMaster, of Tullyard House, Lisburn, County Down and had previously served with the Royal Irish Rifles, arriving in France with the regiment on the 22nd July 1916. He later transferred to the Machine Gun Corps and is buried in Ribemont Communal Cemetery Extension on the Somme.

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

130598 Pte Robert Vyell, MGC

130598 Private Robert Vyell of the 50th Battalion, Machine Gun Corps (formerly 654303 East Surrey Regiment), was killed in action on the 6th June 1918. Robert was a Londoner; a young soldier born in Hackney in late 1898 or early 1899 who enlisted (or was conscripted) at Tottenham. He appears on the 1901 census as a two year-old living at 22 Middleton Road, Hackney with his sisters Catherine G Vyell (aged eight) and Liliam M Vyell (aged three months). His parents are recorded as Annie G[race] Vyell (nee Brady, aged 30) and Robert Vyell, a 32 year-old Tottenham-born plasterer. Annie Vyell was born at Clerkenwell and all the children in Hackney.

Robert Vyell has no known grave and is one of nearly 4000 men commemorated on the Soissons Memorial in France.

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

Sources:

Ancestry (MIC, 1901 census, BMD registers)
Soldiers Died in The Great War
Army Service Numbers
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission

53200 Pte Henry James Coppen, MGC

The 21st March 1918, a day heralded by a misty morning along the Western Front, marked the opening day of the Kaiser's Battle. On this day, nearly eight thousand British Army officers and men would die, and half this number would fall the following day.

Last Tuesday, in Afghanistan, Lance-Corporal Scott Hardy of the Royal Anglian Regiment, was killed by an explosion in Helmand Province. Another soldier died with him. Scott Hardy came from my home town of Chelmsford in Essex, and so too did Henry James Coppen of 54 South Primrose Hill. He was killed in action on the 21st March 1918, 92 years ago today. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) records him as 53200 Private Henry James Coppen of the 25th Company, Machine Gun Corps and notes that he was the son of Ernest Albert and Emma Coppen. Scott Hardy was 26, Henry Coppen, 24.

CWGC notes that Henry was killed on the 21st March 1919 but this is incorrect. Soldiers Died in the Great War gives his correct date of death and adds the additional information that he had previously served with the Essex Regiment (it would now be the Royal Anglian Regiment) and had the number 28585.

Henry Coppen 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

32897 Pte Cyril Crees, MGC

32897 Private Cyril Gordon Crees of the 67th Company, Machine Gun Corps, died of wounds on the 18th March 1917. He was 20 years old, the son of Richard Peplow and Janet Crees of Colchester, Essex. Cyril was born in Tiptree and enlisted at Colchester. Soldiers Died in The Great War notes that he had previously served with the Essex Regiment and had the number 1113.

Cyril's service record survives in WO 363 and so from this we can see that he joined the 8th (Cyclist) Battalion as a 17-year-old on the 5th August 1914. He gave his trade as "builder" (in the employ of Mr Crees - presumably his father) and his address as Berechurch Lodge. Cyril's papers indicate that he was 17 years and 11 months old, five feet ten inches tall and of "fair" development.

Cyril was transferred to the Machine Gun Corps on the 27th Aporil 1916 and sailed for Salonica on the 5th July that year. He was wounded in action on the 17th March 1917 and died at the 28th Casualty Clearing Station the following day. He is buried in Karasouli Military Cemetery in Greece.

A return completed by his father in March 1920 indicates that by then, the family was living at 26 Mile End (presumably Mile End Road), and that Cyril had three brothers (one of these serving with the RAF on HMS Furious, and one at the 5th Indian General Hospital in Cairo), and two sisters both living at home with their parents and the only other brother still in the UK.

Crees Earthmoving Contractors is an established Essex business in White Colne today and it seems plausible, given the uncommon surname, that this is a descendant of Richard Peplow Crees's business.

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

206167 Pte Edgar Robert Barnsby, Heavy Section Machine Gun Corps

A staggering, 4,971 British soldiers died on this day - 15th September - in 1916. That's the equivalent of nearly five British infantry battalions destroyed in one day. Looking at it another way, it would take me over thirteen and a half years to commemorate - on a daily basis - the British war dead of 15th September 1916.

15th September 1916 marks, of course, the third phase of the Battle of the Somme; the Battle of Flers-Courcelette. This battle lasted until 22nd September 1916 and was the first time that tanks were used in battle. Today then, also marks the 93rd anniversary of the first tank battle and I have chosen to commemorate here today, a soldier who died whilst serving with the Heavy Section Machine Gun Corps; later to be re-designated Heavy Branch (November 1916) and later still, The Tank Corps (29th July 1917).

206167 Pte Edgar Robert Barnsby had previously served with the Machine Gun Corps (army number 32489) before transferring to the Heavy Section MGC. This transfer took place in England. His original MGC number indicates that he joined the corps between the 12th and the 26th of April 1916.

Like Rifleman Alfred Charles Wilkins whom I commemorated two days ago, Edgar Barnsby was also a native of Chelmsford in Essex but enlisted (and was presumably living) in Birmingham. He was killed in action.

Edgar appears on the 1901 census living with his parents and siblings at No. 7 Lockshill Terrace, Rochford Road in Old Moulsham, Chelmsford. The household comprised William James Barnsby (head, aged 39; a Brighton-born electrical instrument maker), his wife Emma Elizabeth Barnsby (aged 37, born in Cherlmsford), and their children. In age order they are: William John Barnsby (aged 16, also an electrical worker), Kate Elizabeth Barnsby (aged 13 but working as a draper's assistant), Laura Theresa Barnsby (aged 12), Edgar (aged 10), Alice Dorothy Barnsby (aged five) and Florence Emily Barnsby (aged one).

Edgar does not appear on the 1891 census but there is another child noted - James A Barnsby - aged less than one month. When this census was taken, the family was living at No 2. Rainsford Terrace, Primrose Hill, Chelmsford which, purely coincidentally, is located around fifty yards from the site of my first house in the town. In 1891 William Barnsby was working as a watch maker and jeweller.

Interestingly, William John Barnsby was born in Birmingham and so there is a family connection with the city, although I have not explored that further. Presumably though, the family was living there in 1884, settling in Chelmsford later on.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission notes that Edgar was serving with D Company in the Machine Gun Corps (Heavy Branch) although technically this is incorrect because, as mentioned above, the Heavy Branch would not come into being until November 1916. It seems likely that Edgar was posted as missing in action on 15th September. Soldiers Died in The Great War gives his regiment (incorrectly again) as Tank Corps and he has no known grave but is commemorated on the memorial at Thiepval.

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

Sources:

Ancestry.co.uk (MIC, 1891 and 1901 census returns)
Army Ancestry
Army Service Numbers 1881-1918
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
The Long, Long Trail for information relating to the Tank Corps

133926 Pte Edgar George Udy, Machine Gun Corps

133926 Pte Edgar George Udy of the 61st Battalion, Machine Gun Corps, died of wounds on this day, 16th August, 1918. Edgar was 19 years old, the son of Elizabeth Udy of Old Ford, East London. Soldiers Died in The Great War records that he was born in Hackney and enlisted at Bethnal Green.

He appears on the 1901 census as a two year old living at Percy Road Hackney. Also living in the household were his siblings Josiah Udy (aged nine), Arthur Udy (aged four) and the boys' infant sister, Eva Udy (aged three months). The children's parents are recorded as Arthur Udy (aged 34, a shoe cutter) and his wife Elizabeth Udy (aged 28, also working in the boot and shoe trade).

Edgar is buried at Longuenesse (St Omer) Souvenir Cemetery in France; a huge cemetery which seems to have been largely populated by men dying of wounds in various hospitals in the St Omer region.

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

Sources:

Ancestry.co.uk (MIC)
Army Service Numbers 1881-1918
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Soldiers Died in the Great War
The photo on this post shows French graves at Longuenesse and comes from the Our Lady of Reconciliation War Memorial site.