- 4th Battalion, Rifle Brigade during the Great War -
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4th Battalion, Rifle Brigade
8th Jan 1915 Reliefs
14th Jan 1915 Reliefs
28th of April 1915 Report
26th May 1915 Reliefs
29th May 1915 Poisoned Water
8th July 1915 Posting
16th Oct 1915 The Derby Scheme
1st Dec 1915 Derby Scheme Armlets
11th Sep 1915 Last day of Derby Scheme Recruitment
10th Jan 1916 Group System Reopens
9th February 1916 Call UpsIf you can provide any additional information, please add it here.
Want to know more about 4th Battalion, Rifle Brigade?
There are:5240 items tagged 4th Battalion, Rifle Brigade available in our Library
These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Great War.
Those known to have served with
4th Battalion, Rifle Brigade
during the Great War 1914-1918.
- Auger F. Rflmn. (d.20th Aug 1918)
- Beacham Charles Joseph. L/Cpl. (d.25th Aug 1915)
- Kadwill William Arthur. Sgt. (d.16th October 1918)
- Millard John Herbert. Pte.
- Perryman Alfred George. A/Cpl.
- Perton Frank Giles. Rfmn. (d.10th May 1915)
- Shores Frederick. Cpl.
- Simpson Reginald Charles. L/Cpl.
- Smith Benjamin J. Sgt. (d.8th May 1915)
- Wood Alfred A. Rifleman (d.10th May 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 4th Battalion, Rifle Brigade from other sources.
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L/Cpl. Reginald Charles Simpson 4th Battalion, C Coy Rifle BrigadeGranddad, Reginald Simpson, enlisted in 1916 (or was conscripted not too sure). He served in Salonika and was discharged on 25th of September 1919.C Anderson
A/Cpl. Alfred George Perryman 4th Battalion Rifle BrigadeAlfred Perryman joined up on the 30th October 1906 aged 18 and was sent to India. In 1911 he was shown on the census as being in Egypt. However he was in India in August 1914, and sailed to Britain, landing at Devonport on 18th of November 1914. They suffered badly as they still had there tropical uniforms. They were then moved to Magdalen Hill near Winchester and sent to France on 20th of December 1914. The 4th Battalion was sent to Salonika in November 1915 but Alfred appears to have stayed in France according to his record card. My father, his son, has said he was gassed in 1917 and was awarded the Silver War Badge No.246749, but as records missing we cannot find anything else so far. He was awarded 'pip,squeak and wilfred' medals. He also joined the RAMC in WW2.Martin Perryman
Rfmn. Frank Giles Perton 4th Btn. Rifle Brigade (d.10th May 1915)Frank Perton was my grandfather's oldest brother and his death is recorded on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial.Christine Davies
Pte. John Herbert Millard 4th Btn. Rifle BrigadeJohn Millard was taken prisoner in Salonica, ib April 1918, but after his release he lived to see his 100th birthday in October 1983.Ian Taylor
Cpl. Frederick Shores 4th Btn. Rifle BrigadeFrederick Shores served with the 4th Battalion, Rifle Brigade
Rflmn. F Auger 4th Btn. Rifle Brigade (d.20th Aug 1918)Rifleman F Auger died whilst the 80th Infantry Brigade of the 27th Division were preparing for the Final Offensive in Salonika. He is buried in Plovdiv Central Cemetery, Bulgaria, grave ref: C. 7.S Flynn
L/Cpl. Charles Joseph Beacham 4th Battalion The Rifle Brigade (d.25th Aug 1915)This is taken from an article in a magazine called Light and Truth dated October 1915:Fell In Action, August 25TH 1915.
A/Cpl. Charles Joseph Beacham, 4th Battalion Rifle Brigade, was one of our heroic men who answered his country's call last December. He had previously served his King nine years in India, and after three years' service in the Homeland, he returned to civil life, and was free from further military service. Notwithstanding this, when war broke out he felt the call of duty, and in reply to his wife said: "I should feel a coward if I stayed at home." So on December 4 he again answered the call of King and Country.
He and his excellent wife joined us in membership at St. George's Hall some three years ago. Mr. Beacham's duties prevented his being in regular attendance at divine worship on Sundays, but when off duty it was a pleasure to see him and his wife sitting together in the House of God.
We greatly sympathise with Mrs. Beacham in her sore bereavement; she is a capable worker, and rendered this Mission valued service during the great Dock Strike both as a voluntary visitor and assistant in the extra clerical work which the Strike involved.
Her husband is one of the many obscure, unknown heroes of this terrible war, who, if they had their due, would doubtless have received the Victoria Cross for distinguished and heroic service. Mrs. Beacham was accustomed to receive a daily letter from her husband, and has given me the privilege of reading some of them, from one of which I have taken the liberty of making the following extracts.
This letter was written from:- "Somewhere, 15/5/1915. "...I am pleased to say I am in the best of condition again. My slight wound has healed up. The captain of my company was shot down and me and my chum were called on to pick him up, and we had to carry him across an open space, where shells were bursting and falling like rain, but, thank God we got him through safe, and ourselves, except for a wound behind the right ear for me, and my chum was hit on the right knee. It was as if we were walking to our deaths, for scores fell trying to reach the other side, and we went through it three times and only got slightly wounded, and mine is quite healed now. Then, two days after, we had a badly wounded man in the trench, and they asked for two volunteers to carry him to safety, and me and my chum carried him away, and the Germans fired on us all the way. Shells were bursting all round us as we carried him down the road, then we got into a ditch and walked along that but they still fired, then we got into the growing corn and, thank God we got him to safety. There is no doubt God's guarding hand has been over us two during the last week, for we have faced death to help others and pulled through. The doctor says we were heroes, but the sacrifice was too great, and he could not understand men facing death like that. I told him we were thinking of the wounded man not of ourselves. At the time I lost all my belongings...all we had was what we stood up in...My regiment has been in the heaviest and thickest fighting, and about 300 of us faced thousands of Germans and kept them back and saved the situation, and they are all proud of us and say they do not know how we kept them back as we were only a handful; they could have walked over us, but they have not got the pluck to face our bayonets. I will tell you all about it when I come home...Have you read the story of Neuve Chapelle...Our battalion made their name there and my chum was recommended for gallantry there. Poor Humphrys is dead, Manville was hit in the back, and I carried Jimmy Fryer out on a stretcher from the trenches on Wednesday night, shot in the stomach."
What manner of men and women ought you and I be for whom such a price is being paid?
Jennie Johnson.
Andrew Beacham
Rifleman Alfred A Wood 4th Battalion The Rifle Brigade (d.10th May 1915)I have a person in my family tree called Alfred Wood who was killed 10 May 1915 and the CWGC tells me that he was a Rifleman in the 4th Battalion of the Rifle Brigade, and the medal roll tells me 2/Rifle Brigade. I am trying to find out a little bit more information on him.Information from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission: He was the husband of Rose Hurst (formerly Wood) of 53 Allerton Street, Nile Street, Hoxton, London. He was age 28 when he was killed.
Ken Rhoades
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