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1914 1918 first battalion regiment
1st Battalion, Royal West Kent Regiment
1st Battalion, Royal West Kent Regiment was based in Dublin with 13th Brigade, 5th Division when war was declared in August 1914. hey proceeded to France landing at Le Havre on the 15th of August 1914. They were in action in The Battle of Mons and the subsequent retreat, The Battle of Le Cateau, The Battle of the Marne, The Battle of the Aisne, The Battles of La Bassee and Messines and The First Battle of Ypres. In 1915 they were in action at The Second Battle of Ypres and the Capture of Hill 60. In autumn 1915, many units were exchanged with units from the newly arrived volunteer 32nd Division, to stiffen the inexperienced Division with regular army troops, but the 1st West Kents remained with 5th Division. In March 1916 5th Division took over a section of front line between St Laurent Blangy and the southern edge of Vimy Ridge, near Arras. They moved south in July to reinforce The Somme and were in action at, High Wood, The Battle of Guillemont, The Battle of Flers-Courcelette, The Battle of Morval and The Battle of Le Transloy. In October they moved to Festubertand remained there until March 1917 when they moved in preparation for the Battles of Arras. On 7 September 1917 the 5th Division moved out of the line for a period of rest before, being sent to Flanders where they were in action during the Third Battle of Ypres. 5th Division was sent to Italy and took up positions in the line along the River Piave in late January 1918. They were recalled to France to assist with the German Advance in late March 1918 and were in action during the Battles of the Lys. On the 14th of August 1918 the 5th Division was withdrawn for two weeks rest. Then moved to The Somme where they were more or less in continuous action over the old battlegrounds until late October 1918 and saw action in the Battles of the Hindenburg Line and the Final Advance in Picardy. At the Armistice they were in the area of Le Quesnoy and moved to Belgium to the area around Namur and Wavre in December and demobilization began.
23rd Aug 1914 German attack at Mons The Battle of Mons began early in the morning with a German artillery bombardment of the British lines, concentrated near a bend in the canal close to the town of Mons. At 9:00 am the German infantry assault began as they attempted to force their way across the four bridges that crossed the Mons-Conde canal. The demolition charges had been placed beneath the bridges by the Royal Engineers, whilst under fire from enemy snipers.
Four German battalions attacked the Nimy bridges, defended by a single company of the 4th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers and a machine gun section led by Lieutenant Maurice Dease at the south side of the railway bridge. The 4th Royal Fusiliers were positioned along the canal between the two bridges, the swing bridge having been turned to prevent crossing. The German infantry suffered heavy losses as they advanced in "parade ground" formation, the well-trained British riflemen were making hits at over 1,000 yards So heavy was the British rifle fire throughout the battle that the Germans thought they were facing machine guns.
To the right of the Royal Fusiliers, the 4th Battalion, Middlesex Regiment and the 1st Battalion, Gordon Highlanders were suffering heavy casualties in facing the German assault. With reinforcements from the Royal Irish Regiment (acting as the divisional reserve) and fire support from the divisional artillery, they managed to hold the bridges. The Germans then widened their attack, to the British defences along the straight section of the Mons-Conde canal to the west of Mons. Aided by the cover of a plantation of fir trees they inflicted heavy casualties with machine gun and rifle fire on the 1st Battalion Royal West Kent Regiment and the 2nd Battalion, King's Own Scottish Borderers, who despite their losses, managed to repulse the Germans throughout the morning.
The order to withdraw was given at 3pm, after a German soldier swam out to the swing bridge and activated the mechanism, allowing his comrades to cross easily. To the east the Germans had crossed the canal and were advancing on the British flank. The 3rd Division was ordered to retire to positions a short distance to the south of Mons which necessitated a similar retreat in early evening by the 5th Division, and by nightfall a new defensive line had been established at the villages of MontrÅ"ul, Boussu, Wasmes, Paturages, and Frameries. The Germans had spent the late afternoon building pontoon bridges over the canal, and were approaching in great numbers. News arrived that the French Fifth Army was also retreating, dangerously exposing the British right flank as night fell.
23rd Aug 1914 Battle of the Canal The Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment and 2nd KOSB at are at Tertre.
24th Aug 1914 The Battle of Mons At 2 a.m. on 24 August, II Corps was ordered to retreat into France to defensible a position along the Valenciennes to Maubeuge road, requiring a number of sharp rearguard actions against the pursuing Germans. 5th Brigade were ordered to to act as rearguard and fought a holding action at Paturages and Frameries, with Brigade artillery in particular, inflicting heavy casualties on the Germans.
At Wasmes, units of the 5th Division faced a heavy assault from German artillery which began bombarding the village at daybreak, followed at 10 a.m. by an infantry assault by German III Corps who advanced in columns and were "mown down like grass" by British Rifle and Machine Gun fire. Soldiers of the 1st West Kents, 2nd King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, 2nd Duke of Wellington's Regiment, and 1st Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment held off repeated German assaults on the village, despite taking heavy casualties, and then retreated in good order to St. Vaast at mid day.
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Pte Richard Edward Woodcock 1st Btn. Royal West Kent Regiment
Richard Woodcock was captured at Neuve Chappelle in October 1914.
He was held at Friedrichsfeld and Gevelsburg until his escape in March 1916.
He is believed to be the first British PoW to successfully escape from a German PoW camp and was invited to meet King George VI in recognition of this.
L/Cpl. Charles Henry Dyer D Company, 1st Battalion Royal West Kent Regiment (d.20th July 1916)
Charles Dyer joined up in March 1914, he was treated for shrapnel wounds to his face in March 1916 then re-joined his unit but was killed on the Somme on 20th of July 1916. He was 19 when he died. He is remembered at the Thiepval Memorial.
Pte. Albert Thomas Chappell 1st Btn. Royal West Kent Regiment (d.1st Dec 1918)
Albert Chappell was born in 1894 at Tresham, Gloucestershire to Albert James and Kate Elizabeth Chappell. In 1901, he was residing with his parents and siblings at The Sheet, Hawkesbury near Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire; and in 1911, he was living with his brother William Albert, mother, and stepfather Richard Godfrey at Bowldon near Tetbury, Gloucestershire. His occupation was farm labourer.
He enlisted into the 13th Gloucestershire Regiment on 9th of December 1915 at the age of 22 years and 3 months and was posted to the army reserve to await his mobilization. At the time, he was residing at Ragonel Terrace, Synwell, Wotton-under-Edge. On 23 December 1916, he married Winifred Tavinner at the Tabernacle, Wotton-under-Edge.
He was called to the colours with the 1st Royal West Kent Regiment on 22nd of February 1917 at Horfield Barracks, Horfield, Bristol. Then on 11th June 1917, he embarked for France. On 21st of April 1918, he received a shrapnel wound to his left thigh, and on 6th of October 1918 was transferred to the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. He died of influenza at No. 2 Casualty Clearing Station on 1st of December 1918, and is buried in Caudry British Cemetery, France.
Pte. Daniel Bovis 1st Btn. Queens Own Royal West Kent Regiment (d.24th Oct 1914)
Daniel Bovis was the second son of David Bovis and his wife Eliza nee Harvey.
He was born on 5th April 1897 at Crowland in Salehurst, Sussex, although the 1901 Census gives the birthplace as Bodiam.
He put his age up by two years and joined the Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment on 15th or 16th of August 1913.
It is possible he may have served, therefore, in Ireland before the 1st Battalion moved to France in 1914 and would have fought at Mons and throughout the Retreat.
He carried one of his wounded schoolfellows, from Sandhurst Council School, who was serving in the same company, about a mile and a half to the rear, during the First Battle of Ypres. Daniel was killed soon after returning to the firing line on the 24th of October 1914.
He is commemorated on the Richebourg-l'Avoue Memorial.
Pte. Percy Charles Bradford 1st Btn. Royal West Kent Regiment
My father Percy Bradford was born on the 18th July 1897. He joined the first Battalion of the Royal West Kent Regiment 31st of March 1914 at Woolwich, Kent. He was an assistant Nurseryman before enlisting.
He was only 16 years of age and was amused by having joined under age! He stood 5' 6" and he is described in his Small Book as being of fresh complexion with black hair and Hazel eyes. His religion was C of E.
Initially he went to Dublin and from there to Le Havre. Like all old soldiers who had had terrible experiences, he spoke very little about the actions that he took part in but on prompting by me he would sometimes divulge snippets of information.
He talked about marching for days through thick mud up to his thighs and being covered in lice. The food was remembered with disgust, he hated corned beef or bully beef as he called it and the cheese and biscuits he said they called bung hole. One can only imagine why!
Dad talked about being left alone in no man's land and crawling back through the barbed wire to be challenged by a sentry of the Kings Own Scottish Borderers. Dad let out a trail of expletives at him and then they let him back.
He related that when on Hill 60 in April 1915 he was ordered by Captain Tuff to follow him in charging a machine gun nest. Captain Tuff was killed and out of D Company only 10 men were left alive. My father is in the Imperial War Museum photograph far left at the back.
We have a photograph showing his company after they had been on the front line for nineteen days (he is front row second from the left). After continuously being in action he was badly wounded on the 1st of July 1916 during the Battle of the Somme and returned to the Military hospital in Southampton.
He was advised by the medical officers that he should have his damaged hand amputated which he refused. He told me that with only one hand he would never get work and so he used to bathe his arm in salt water which he said saved the arm although he could not use his hand for the remainder of his life. He is still bandaged in the photograph taken of him with the first of his nine children in 1919.
On being discharged from hospital he was transferred into a Labour Battalion and sent to Ireland until his discharge from the Army in 1919.
He followed his father into work at the docks in the port of London. He suffered from what we now know was Combat Stress Disorder for the rest of his life and his WW1 pals were the last thing he mentioned to me before he died in 1985.
L/Cpl. Walter Stephen Turner 1st Battalion Royal West Kent Regiment (d.1st August 1916)
Walter Turner was born in Clommell, Tipperary on 20th of November 1879, to Henry and Catherine Creagh. He enlisted in Woolwich. He died of wounds in battle on 1st of August 1916.
Pte. George Hill 1st Battalion Royal West Kent Regiment (d.3rd March 1917)
George Hill lived with his family in Deptford. His family wrote letters to the War Office as they had not heard from him. On 3rd of March 1917 George was declared missing, presumed dead.
A/Sgt. Ronald Gwyn Silk 1st Battalion Royal West Kent Regiment
Gwyn Silk joined the Royal West Kent Territorial Battalion in August 1914 just after the outbreak of war. He was 16. By 1915 he was serving with 2/5th Battalion on the home front. Promoted to Lance Corporal in June 1916.
By October 1917 he had been sent overseas and transferred to B Coy, 1st Battalion, Royal West Kent Regiment as an A/Sgt. On 26th of October 1917 he took part in the Battalion's fateful attack just to the north of Gheluvelt in the Ypres Salient. Part of a much larger operation, the attack failed when the 7th Division on its right flank failed to take the village. The attacking Coys (B & D) of 1st Battalion took their first objectives but were then cut off by encircling counterattacks. Every man became a casualty, killed wounded, or taken prisoner. Gwyn Silk was wounded by shrapnel in the right thigh and later pulled out of a German trench by his captors.
He spent the rest of the war in Prisoner of War Camps in Belgium and Germany, returning to the UK on 30th of December 1918.
Pte Samuel Alfred Cadby 1st Btn. B Coy. Queens Own Royal West Kent Regt. (d.22nd July 1916)
Samuel Cadby served in the Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment and was sent to the Somme in France during July 1916. He served his Country during battles there for approximately three weeks before being killed in action at the Somme his name appears on the Thiepval Monument.
Pte. Alfred Slade 1st Btn. Royal West Kent Regiment (d.5th May 1915)
Alfred Slade was the third oldest son to Alfred and Caroline Slade of Winchmore Hill, Buckinghamshire, England. He was the sixth child of eleven.
Upon enlisting in the British Army, Alfred was 19 years old, living at home with his parents and working as a carter. Prior to that he had been a farm labourer upon leaving school.
He landed in France on 22nd of April 1915 and was reported missing on 5th of May 1915. This was later used as his date of death and marked as killed in action. His body was never recovered. His name is engraved on The Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial along with 54,000 other soldiers who died before 16th August 1917 and have no known graves.
He had no wife and no children. He was quite simply a farm boy.
Pte. Harold Edwin Rosevear 1st Btn. Royal West Kent Regiment
Harold Rosevear enlisted on 8th December 1915. He was initially posted to the 2/5th battalion of The Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment. He embarked at Folkestone on 12th September 1917 and disembarked at Boulogne. He was then posted to 3/4th Battalion, arriving at the infantry base in Etaples. He was then posted to 1st Battalion Royal West Kent Regiment and was noted as in the field on 16th September 1917. On 3rd October 1917 he was wounded in action, receiving gunshot wounds to the head and leg.
Pte. Joseph Victor Roe 1st Btn. West Kent Regiment
My grandad Joseph Victor Rowe was in the 1st Battalion of the West Kents. He'd only rejoined them on 14th August 1914, he was a Reservist having been in the Army 1904-1907.
He was reported missing on 24th August 1914, presumably at Mons. He spent the next 4 1/3 years in a prison camp in Germany, only returning to England in December 1918.
Pte. Joseph Victor Rowe 1st Battalion Royal West Kent Regiment
My Grandad, Joseph Rowe, was in the army from 1904 to 1907. I'm not sure whether he joined in Dublin or Rochester. I always thought that he and his family had spent some time in Dublin so it may have been there. Possibly he left the Army to get back to Kent but he was down as a Reservist from 1907. So he was mobilised from the start of WW1. He joined the 1st Battalion of the West Kents on 14th of August 1914 in France.
He was reported as missing on 24th of August after the BEF started retreating at Mons on 23rd August. He was in a German prison camp for the duration of the war. He was repatriated to West Kent Depot on 16th of December 1918 and received the Silver War Badge and a £20 war gratuity in May 1919.
Sgt.Mjr. Alfred Reynolds MC, MSM. 1st Btn. D Coy. Royal West Kent Regiment
Alfred Reynolds was a Pre-War regular who had joined up in 1896 and fought in the 2nd Boer War earning a Queens Medal with 3 Clasps and Kings Medal with 2 Clasps.
He fought with the 1st Battalion throughout the Great War and he was awarded the MC in Feb 1915: "As Sergeant Major of "D" Company, did exceptionally good work, especially when his Company was commanded by a very junior officer."
He ended the war as a Warrant Officer 1st Class and was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal in 1918: "His Majesty the King has been graciously pleased on the occasion of His Majesty's Birthday, to approve of the award of the Meritorious Service Medal to the under mentioned Warrant Officers, Nora-commissioned Officers and Men in recognition of valuable services rendered with the Forces in Italy."
He retired in 1920.
Pte. Hughie James Sontag 1st Btn. D Coy. Royal West Kent Regiment (d.20th July 1916)
Hughie Sontag was my great uncle and I uncovered the events leading to his death through my family history research at the regimental museum. I am indebted to their archivists and Jonathan Saunders in particular for providing me with some of the details.
Hughie enlisted on 10th of September 1914, five days after the publication of Lord kitchener’s famous poster and opted for service in the Queens Own Royal West Kent Regiment. On 26th of May 1915, after completion of his training, Hughie was posted to ‘D’ Coy, 1st Battalion in ‘France and Flanders’.
After various engagements the Battalion later arrived on the Somme on 17th of July 1916 to take part in the great offensive that had commenced on 1st of July. On 19th of July the Battalion was ordered up to support positions. Before entering the trenches, eleven officers and a proportion of NCO's and men were detached, in accordance with Army orders, and sent to remain with the transport. (Experience in the past had shown the necessity for making sure of a nucleus of survivors, should the unit suffer very heavy losses). Hereafter this was always done before going into action, and those left behind were called the "dumped personnel". They then moved up to High Wood, which was jointly held by the British and Germans.
The Battalion marched soon after noon that day to Mametz, crossing the old German front line, thus seeing the country that most of the officers and men had looked longingly towards in 1915. ‘A’ and ‘B’ Companies dug themselves in between Bazentin and Longueval in support to the KOSB, while C and D Companies occupied an old German trench north of Montauban. There was considerable artillery activity during the day and night, but the Battalion only suffered two casualties.
On the night of 19th-20th, troops in the front line attacked, with the result that the Germans were slightly pressed back, and High Wood (Bois des Foureaux) was partly occupied. The Battalion moved into the front line after dark on the 20th. ‘A’ and ‘B’ Companies occupied the track running from the south corner of High Wood in a South Easterly direction, ‘D’ Company was in support, and ‘C’ in reserve. The Germans put a heavy barrage behind the front line after dark, and ‘D’ company was "badly caught" when moving up.
In all, the 1st Battalion suffered 14 fatalities killed in action on 20th July 1916 (this does not include wounded or wounded who later died of wounds). Hughie was 24 years old, his body was never found and his death was recorded as missing in action’. He is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial.
Pte. George Wilkin 1st Btn. Royal West Kent Regiment (Queen's Own) (d.27th Sep 1918)
George Wilkin served with the 1st Battalion, Queens Own Royal West Kent Regiment during WW1.
He died on the 27th September 1918 and is commemorated onthe Vis-en-Artois Memorial in France.
He was the son of George and Rhoda Wilkin of 7 Dordans Road, Leagrave, Luton. Beds.
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