In which battle was my grandfather injured?

[Artful Owl]

Hello,

My grandfather served in the Duke of Wellington's West Riding Regiment 10th Battalion. He entered France on the 26th August 1915 and was listed as wounded in the casualty list on 20th December 1915. Is it possible to find out where he spent those few months in France, where he was fighting and where he was wounded please? He survived and was returned to England to a hospital in Stoke on Trent.

Thank you
Ruth

[crisane]

The War Diaries on the National Archives site may be of help
https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/british-army-operations-first-world-war/

You won't find your bloke mentioned personally unless he was an officer but you may be able to find where his unit was at any given time.

[stevej60]

Hi Ruth,the 10th DOW battallion landed at Le Havre in August 1915 it was raised in Halifax September 1914
as part of the large expansion called for by Lord Kitchener you will know the famous poster "your Country Needs You!As far as I can see it was not engaged in a particular battle at the time but was in the vicinity of
Armentieres from November 1915 to new year 1916.If you don't mind giving his name more may be found.
regards Steve.

[Andy J2022]

You can find the relevant war diaries for the 10th Bn here: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C7353259 You just need to register with TNA and you can download them for free. The part you need is in the first of the 3 pdfs.

On the 20th December 1915 no attacks were reported and the Diary says they had a relatively quiet day. In fact, in the evening of the 20th they were withdrawn from the trenches and were in billets back behind the front line. The only incident I can see around that time was a report of one man in A Company who was slightly injured on the morning of the 18 December when the Germans fired 6 shells towards the Battalion's trenches.

[stevej60]

Hi Ruth bit more info,on 20th December the battalion were in reserve billets behind the lines but supplied working parties to the front line at a place called Bois Grenier repairing trenches more than likely, their
billets were at La Rolanderie Farm.These working parties for obvious reasons were usually at night and often
were shelled by the enemy which may be the cause of his wounding.

[Artful Owl]

Hi,
Thank you for your replies, will this help further?....my grandfather's name was James Mason and his army number was 13623. He also had a Labour Corp number 167308. He was badly injured in his hip and always walked with a stick in later life. The wound report date was the 20th Dec, would that be the date he was actually wounded or would it have been earlier?

Thanks
Ruth

 

[Artful Owl]

Thank you so much stevej60, I've just seen your reply after posting mine. That could certainly explain his injury. He told my mother that he was at  Ypres, so Bois Grenier is near enough to fit into the family story.

[Andy J2022]

....my grandfather's name was James Mason and his army number was 13623. He also had a Labour Corp number 167308. He was badly injured in his hip and always walked with a stick in later life. The wound report date was the 20th Dec, would that be the date he was actually wounded or would it have been earlier?

The Casualty Report was compiled by the War Office based on returns sent back to them by the General Hospitals based in France and Flanders, so there was inevitably some delay. I think it is possible that your grandfather could have been wounded up to 6 days or more before the report which issued on 20th December, since the returns sent by the hospitals were compiled on a weekly basis. A close reading of the war diaries will probably give you a better idea of when he was wounded.
His transfer to the Labour Corps came later on as it was not formed until 1917. However it may be that he was transferred because he was no longer considered fit enough for Infantry duties after his recovery. While the Labour Corps was no cushy number, they were often deployed slightly further back from the main fighting. More about the Labour Corps here: The Long, Long Trail

[AllanUK]

Good morning Ruth -- you have given your grandfather's service number for the Labour Corps as 167308, this number was in the first block of numbers (up to 170140) which were issued in April and May 1917. (source of information - 'No Labour, No Battle' by John Starling and Ivor Lee)