Inland Water Transport - Royal Engineers

[Claire Fraser]

Thanks - I'll have to try and find out when he was demobbed.

[Claire Fraser]

Since posting before I've discovered by my grandfather was awarded his medal on 29.12.1918.  I note from the book "Inland Water Transport in Mesopotamia" that 12 other people were awarded the medal on the same day.  Unfortunately that is the only mention in the book of my grandfather and also it does not mention any action on that date.  I wonder if anyone knows what happened.

[Martin Briscoe]

I am interested in the RE Inland Water Transport section after noticing that there is a Sapper from the IWT buried in a local churchyard.

I presume he was working on the Caledonian Canal which is nearby but wondering whether they were involved in transport of general supplies and munitions through the canal or whether they were supporting the US Navy detachment there.  Also interested after contacted by someone researching their father who was in the Army Service Corps here but we don't know where they were.

I notice that the Royal Engineers Association have a DVD with the history of the RE on it (text, not a video).  I have EMailed them about how to get a copy but not had a reply yet.

MB

[spof]

I am interested in the RE Inland Water Transport section after noticing that there is a Sapper from the IWT buried in a local churchyard.

Hi Martin

Can you post his name and other info? We may be able to fill in some details.

Glen

[Martin Briscoe]

Name: GAFFNEY
Initials: J
Nationality: United Kingdom
Rank: Sapper
Regiment/Service: Royal Engineers
Unit Text: Inland Waterways and Docks
Date of Death: 09/10/1918
Service No: WR/319432
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference: Extn. B. 77.
Cemetery: KILMALLIE OLD CHURCHYARD

[spof]

John Gaffney was born in Manchester, enlisted in Dublin while residing in Rathmines, Co Dublin.

Will look for a medal card etc.

[spof]

Hi Martin

I found a medal card but is blank meaning he was awarded no medals at all so never went overseas. Looks like your theory is correct about working on the Canal etc.

Glen

[Orielbenfro]

From my collection of 2,500 photo's and research into family military memorials in Pembrokeshire 1722 to 2004, I am interested to learn more of the service record of a gentleman who is commemorated in the county, one Captain Arthur Lloyd Grote died 09th July 1918 in Iraq and buried at Basra Cemetery I.L. 17 Inland Waterways Transport.
He was the son of George Whitcombe Grote M.D. born in Canada and his wife Mary born in West Bromwich.
Arthur in his early life lived at Brunswick Street Newcastle Under Lyme with the family. Arthur mrd Nina Patricia Rossiter in 1902 in the Pembroke Reg District.
Whilst I have found Nina as Kina Rossiter in 1891 I have not yet discovered her in earlier census.
Tks in advance
Rgds
Orielbenfro
ORIEL a welsh window on a surname

[Martin Briscoe]

There is a book that might give you some background information.

INLAND WATER TRANSPORT IN MESOPOTAMIA

An apparently obscure sidebar to the Great War that has suddenly acquired topical resonance is the struggle against the Turkish Ottoman forces in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq). Then, even more than today, control of the country depended on keeping the twin great rivers of the Tigris and Euphrates open. This book narrates the work undertaken by the officers and men of the Inland Water Transport (IWT) assigned to deliver supplies to the large British army in Mesopotamia by water. So successful were they that, by the end of the war, the river system, backed up by railways, was taking nearly 3,000 tons a day in a fleet of 2,000 craft up to 500 miles upriver from the port of Basra - then as now the main British base in the region. As a result of this miracle of organisation, the enemy was driven from Kut to Baghdad to Mosul. If only it was like that today! Illustrated with maps, sketches and photos and seven appendices on the IWT's work.

MB