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General => Armed Forces => World War One => Topic started by: MAL11 on Tuesday 06 February 24 15:11 GMT (UK)
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I'm looking for a 1st WW soldier by the name of
ROBERT WILLIAM BELL
ROYAL SCOTS
Who fell in Action in France
9th November 1917
He was Mallsgate Roweltown Cumberland
Any help would be appreciated.
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https://cumbria.gov.uk/elibrary/Content/Internet/542/795/6637/41929152940.PDF
https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/army/regiments-and-corps/the-british-yeomanry-regiments-of-1914-1918/lothians-and-border-horse-yeomanry/
Hes on here -looks like he could have been absorbed into 17th batt Royal Scots
1762 Yeomanry Number and 270764 his RS 17th Battalion number - went overseas post 1915 as no Star awarded
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This could be him with extended family in 1911
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X7K1-QD3
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You are one of the lucky ones as his service record survived the bombing/fire/water in WW11 ancestry has his records.
It lists his brothers and sisters and there are letters from the MoD regarding his belongings. I didn't look further than that.
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Looking at his service record, we find the following:
14/10/1914 -- Enlisted into the Lothian and Border Horse (a Yeomanry Regiment) and given the service number 1762
14/10/1914 to 27/03/1916 -- UK based
28/03/1916 -- Embarked at Southampton
30/03/1916 -- Disembarked at Rouen
22/05/1916 -- Joined 'B' Squadron of the LBH in the field (i.e. active service)
01/10/1917 -- Compulsory transferred to the 17th Battalion, Royal Scots Battalion and given the service number 270764
03/10/1917 -- Joined the 17th Battalion in the field
18/11/1917 -- Wounded in action
19/11/1917 -- Died of his wounds at number 4 Casualty Clearing Station which was based at Dozinghem, Belgium
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His date of death indicates this was at the end of the 3rd. Battle of Ypres
commonly called Passchendaele.
On the 16th. Nov. his Btn. went into the trenches at Hothulst forest just
a few miles North of Passchendaele.
Although his CO doesn't mention shelling they would have been subjected
to it by the Germans.
He was 1 of 14 men wounded on the 18th.
Map Dec. 1917:
https://maps.nls.uk/view/101464870
The forest was over on the left in P 31.
In red are the trenches previously occupied by the Germans & now being used
by the British.
He would have been here.
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Thank you all so much this has filled in a sad bit of my family history.