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2nd Battalion, Cheshire Regiment
| Want to know more about 2nd Battalion, Cheshire Regiment? There are:5311 items tagged 2nd Battalion, Cheshire Regiment available in our Library
These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Great War.
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Those known to have served with2nd Battalion, Cheshire Regiment during the Great War 1914-1918. - Allen Frank. Pte. (d.15th Apr 1918)
- Allen Frank. Pte (d.15th April 1918)
- Allman Thomas William.
- Cole Leslie Stewart. 2nd Lt. (d.3rd Oct 1915)
- Gardiner William. Pte.
- Gateley KSG. Arthur John. Capt.
- Godrich Bert. Cpl. (d.3rd Oct 1915)
- Hoaen George.
- Hoolahan Joseph. Pte. (d.4th April 1915)
- Massey Benjamin. Sgt.
- Matley Albert. Pte. (d.3rd Oct 1915)
- McArdle Peter Paul. 2nd Lt. (d.26th April 1918)
- McCarthy Samuel. Pte.
- Pawson Walter. Pte. (d.18th Oct 1918)
- Randle Thomas. Pte. (d.3rd October 1915)
- Rushton Jack. Pte. (d.8th May 1915)
- Schofield Albert. Pte (d.10th May 1915)
- Senior George. Pte. (d.25th May 1915)
- Sines James. Pte. (d.8th May 1915)
- Sweeney Patrick. Pte.
- Toyne MM, CdeG. Ernest Shep. Cpl.
- Welsh Alfred. Cpl. (d.3rd Oct 1915)
- Wetherell John Edward. Sgt.
- White Charles Antony . Pte. (d.17th Feb 1915)
All names on this list have been submitted by relatives, friends, neighbours and others who wish to remember them, if you have any names to add or any recollections or photos of those listed,
please Add a Name to this List
Records of 2nd Battalion, Cheshire Regiment from other sources.
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Sgt. John Edward Wetherell 2nd Btn. Cheshire Regiment  L/Cpl. John Wetherell was wounded in teh 2nd Battle of Ypres and was treated in Liverpool Hospital. On 22nd April, the Germans launched the attack that would become officially known as the Second Battle of Ypres. By 8 May, the situation had become critical for the Allied armies. The Cheshires' Regimental History notes that "behind our gassed and shattered lines, had the Germans only known, lay nothing to prevent their capturing the Channel Ports."
The section of the front line to be held by the 28th Division, which included the 2nd Battalion (one of the Regiment's two Regular Army Battalions), Weis about 1.5 miles between Frezenberg and a position known as Mouse Trap Farm. This was 3 miles to the north east of Ypres. The Regimental History notes 'The line to be held was nothing more effective than narrow trenches three feet deep, hastily constructed, with little wire, no communication trenches and little or no overhead cover. It was not a line in which to meet a heavy attack, yet the Allied plan required it to be held."
Poison gas had been first used by the Germans on 22 April.They again used gas in this attack. At that time, there was no practical defence against it. All that was done was to issue each Battalion with 200 cloth bands to be worn across the mouth (it should be noted that a Battalion at full strength would exceed 800).
'The positions occupied by Battalion headquarters and No. 1 and No. 4 Companies were surrounded by the enemy and with very few exceptions the whole of the officers and other ranks were killed or taken prisoner." Only small groups managed to escape. The Diary records that, at this time, known casualties included 17 dead, 200 wounded and 190 missing. 
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Sgt. Benjamin Massey 2nd Battalion Cheshire Regiment Did not know my father, Benjamin Massey, as he died in 1950 aged sixty five,when I was only four years old. What little I know of him came from children of his first marriage. He was born in 1885 and must have joined the army around 1900, rising to sergeant in 1907 and colour sergeant in 08. He served at Fort George in Madras. In 1911 he reengaged to complete twenty one years service. After completion of service with the Cheshire Regiment he transferred to the Indian Army where he was commissioned. I know nothing of his service in WW1 but I believe that he was awarded the 1914 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal.
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Capt. Arthur John Gateley KSG. A Coy. 2nd Btn. Cheshire Regiment Arthur Gateley was my great grandfather's brother.
Captain Gateley was in command of the 1st Manx Service Company, 220 strong, in October 1915.
He was with the Company (then 215 strong) when it set sail on the Olympic, and joined the 2nd Cheshire Regiment outside Salonika on 13th of January 1916. The Company became A Company of the 2nd Cheshires.
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Pte. Samuel McCarthy 2nd Battalion Cheshire Regiment Samuel McCarthy served from 1908, with the 1st Battalion, Cheshire Regiment in India.
He transferred to the 2nd Battalion and served in France in the 2nd Battle of Ypres for 4 months before being captured and taken as a prisoner of war for 3 and a half years.
He was demobbed 1919, settled in East London where he got married and raised a family of 4 children. He died in 1946.Rebecca Heuerman-Williamson
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Pte. Jack Rushton 2nd Battalion Cheshire Regiment (d.8th May 1915) Jack Rushton was 18 years when he died, having joined up in March of the same year. He is my great uncle on my mother's side of the family. He was the second young member of our family as the following day the 9th May 1915 on my mother's side of the family they lost Thomas Drinkwater aged 17 years. He died at Aubers Ridge, with the Royal Irish Rifles. I still think of them although I never knew them. We must never forget what all these brave men did for us and perpetuate their remembrance. Thank you.
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2nd Lt. Leslie Stewart Cole 3rd Btn. att. 2nd Btn. Cheshire Regiment (d.3rd Oct 1915)  Second Lieutenant, 3rd Battalion attached 2nd Battalion, Cheshire Regiment. Killed in action at Loos 3 October 1915. Aged 24. Son of Henry Alexander and Rhoda Cole, of The Homestead, Vyner Rd., Bidston, Cheshire. Educated at Uppingham School and Clare College, Cambridge. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Loos Memorial.
Extract from De Ruvigny's Roll of Honour 1914-1918:
"Cole, Leslie Stewart, 2nd Lieut., 3rd (Reserve), attd. 2nd (22nd. Foot), Battn. The Cheshire Regt., eldest s. of Henry Alexander Cole, of The Homestead, Bidston, co. Chester, by his wife, Rhoda, 19 May, 1891; educ. Uppingham School, and Clare College, Cambridge; subsequently joined his father's firm, Messrs. Henry A. Cole & Co. Ltd., Liverpool and Birkenhead, of which he was the prospective head; volunteered his services on the outbreak of war, and was gazetted 2nd Lieut. 3rd Cheshire Regt. 15 Aug. 1914; served with the Expeditionary Force in France and Flanders from May, being then attached to the 2nd Battn. as Machine Gun Officer, and was killed in action at the Hohenzollern Redoubt, during the Battle of Loos, 3 Oct. 1915, while in command of the machine guns. A brother officer, who was wounded in the same action, wrote: "He was always cheery and welcomed wherever he went. His men had the greatest regard for him, and would have followed him anywhere. I had not seen him in real action until we met in the Hohenzollern Redoubt, and I was struck by his remarkable coolness and bravery under the terrible ordeal. He was working his guns with deadly effect to the attacking enemy, and holding them in check, completely stopping their rushes and for a time saving our line from being surrounded. He died in a noble attempt to save his comrades.""
I am researching the names on the 1914-1919 War Memorial in my local church (St Oswald's, Bidston).
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Pte. James Sines 2nd Btn. Cheshire Rgt. (d.8th May 1915) Jimmy Sines was a family member adopted by my 2x gt. aunt Lydia Emma (nee Greaves) and her husband James Sines, a regular Army veteran. A very childlike-looking lad of barely 21, he was lost without trace at the 2nd Battle of Ypres on 8th May 1915. His devastated parents received £11 in exchange for their boy.
His name is known to those who remain in England, America and Australia. His photograph is cherished and his war medal photocopied and distributed amongst the family. He is remembered as 'poor little Jimmy Sines'. So few of his 2nd Btn. Cheshire regiment survived the pulverising German bombardment. Its remnants were combined with others and moved on to the next hell hole.
Because Jimmy's friends were wiped out with him, no one was able to tell his parents exactly what happened. Poor Lydia and James were left believing Jimmy drowned in the mud and it haunted them all their days. I prefer to hope his sufferings were brief and he and his immediate comrades were blown to oblivion.
The Sines family in the mid 1800s were travelling basket and chair makers, who were `on the tramp' round Surrey following the cycle of harvesting, making and hawking. By the later decades this branch of the family were settled around the Epsom Common area, seemingly escaping the harsher life of travelling, seasonal recourse to the workhouse and the vagrancy and semi-criminal life of some of the younger, more feckless cousins. Jimmy's father, James Sines, is believed to have been a relative rather than his biological father. However, they strongly resembled one another. James Snr. hardly spent any time with his parents and siblings and joined the Army, serving in two Burma campaigns. He spent much of his career hospitalised with a variety of fevers, malaria etc and the ubiquitous 'ague'. It is not known how he met my 2x gt aunt whose parents also lived in Epsom, but were slightly better off, being a bailiff officer of Epsom court and ex-metropolitan policeman. James Snr. was an upright Victorian man who wore his campaign medals on special occasions with pride, but must have known only too well what lay ahead for Jimmy when the boy enlisted for the Great War. James and Lydia never recovered from their loss.
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Pte. Albert Matley 2nd Btn. Cheshire Regiment (d.3rd Oct 1915) The 2nd Battalion Cheshire Regiment were involved in the Battle of Loos. My great uncle Albert Matley (17469) was killed there and is commemorated on panel 49 in the Loos Cemetery.
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2nd Lt. Peter Paul McArdle 1/2 Btn. Att 1/4th Btn. York & Lancs Rgt. Cheshire Regiment (d.26th April 1918) Peter McArdle is commemorated with two of his brothers on the war memorial at Bishop Eton Catholic Church in Liverpool.
He is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial in Belgium.
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Cpl. Ernest Shep Toyne MM, CdeG. 2nd Btn. Cheshire Regiment Ernest Shep Toyne enlisted in the 3rd Battalion, Cheshire Regiment on 23rd of November 1914. He was later promoted to Lance Corporal on 16th July 1915. He was posted to 2nd Battalion, Cheshire Regiment and embarked for Alexandria, Egypt on 20th January 1916. He disembarked at Alexandria on February 2nd only to then embark at Alexandria on the 11th, joining the 2nd Battalion on 16th February in Salonika.
Ernest was promoted to Corporal on 7th June 1916. On 20th December 1917 he took part in a raid on the Bulgarian lines at Butkova Dzuma. For his actions here he was awarded the Military Medal. At some point he was also awarded the Croix de Guerre with Palm. In November 1918 he was attached to the 1/89th Punjabis as Platoon Sergeant.
He was discharged in 1919 and in April of that year returned to Lincoln. After the war he worked at the Saracen's Head Hotel as an Ostler.
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Pte. George Senior 2nd Btn. Cheshire Regimeny (d.25th May 1915) Geroeg Senior is remembered on the Menin Gate in Ypres.
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George Hoaen 2nd Btn. Cheshire Regiment My father always said my Grandfather George Hoaen, who was in the Cheshires his number was 9204, was shipped from India in 1914 straight into battle still in their tropical kit. My Grandfather was fortunate to come through the war alive, though not uninjured he had a 20% disability pension. Subsequently, he served in the Royal Engineers, and Nottinghamshire Yeomanry, before being demobbed in 1919.
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Thomas William Allman 2nd Btn. Cheshire Regiment My Gt Grandfather, Thomas William Allman, enlisted in the 2nd Cheshire Reg't on 30/6/1915. He was posted to Salonika on 20/1/1916.
On 15/4/1918 he was reported missing, but in May that year he was located by the United States Consul being held as a Prisoner of War at Radomir, Bulgaria. News was released that he had suffered severe gun shot wounds but was recovering well. Thomas was eventually freed from the camp on 31/10/1918 and arrived home the following January, where he was discharged from the service due to his health.
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