147 Brigade, Royal Field Artillery

CXLVII Brigade, Royal Field Artillery served as Divisional artillery with 29th Division. The Division was formed in late 1914 from regular units arriving home from the most distant garrisons of Empire, having been replaced by Territorial units. The new division concentrated in the Stratford-Warwick-Leamington-Rugby-Nuneaton area in the first three months of 1915. They were training for France when orders arrived to prepare to depart for Gallipoli. They embarked from Avonmouth between the 16th and 22nd March 1915 sailing via Malta to Alexandria then on to Mudros in April. They landed at Cape Helles, Gallipoli on the 25 April 1915 and were involved in heavy fighting until the evacuation on the nights of the 7th and 8th of January 1916 when they returned to Egypt. In March they were sent to France, sailing to Marseilles and travelling by train to concentrate in the area east of Pont Remy by the end of March. In July they went into action in the Battles of the Somme. In January 1917 they left 29th Division.

Feb 1915 Training

Mar 1915 Training

12th Mar 1915 Inspection

17th Mar 1915 On the Move

24th Mar 1915 On the Move

26th Mar 1915 On the Move

28th Mar 1915 On the Move

29th Mar 1915 Accomodation

30th Mar 1915 Into Billets

31st Mar 1915 Training

1st Apr 1915 Orders Issued

2nd Apr 1915 Orders Issued

3rd Apr 1915 Preparations

4th Apr 1915 Preparations

6th Apr 1915 Inspection

7th Apr 1915 On the Move

9th Apr 1915 Embarkation

10th Apr 1915 Embarkation

19th Apr 1915 Orders

20th Apr 1915 Orders

21st Apr 1915 Conference

22nd Apr 1915 Preparations

23rd Apr 1915 Transports Sail

24th Apr 1915 At Sea

25th Apr 1915 Landing

10th September 1917 Programme of Relief Operational Order No.16.

7th of April 1918 A Relief Ordered

4th Nov 1918 In Action

5th Nov 1918 In Action

6th Nov 1918 Attacks Made

If you can provide any additional information, please add it here.

Want to know more about 147 Brigade, Royal Field Artillery?

There are:5260 items tagged 147 Brigade, Royal Field Artillery 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
147 Brigade, Royal Field Artillery
during the Great War 1914-1918.

Atherton Walter. Gnr. (d.5th October 1918)
Cleminson William. Gnr. (d.16th Apr 1915)
Gibson Andrew. Gnr. (d.6th Nov 1916)
Syers MC.. Thomas Scott. Capt. (d.14th Nov 1918)
Welsh Robert. Dvr. (d.16th Apr 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 147 Brigade, Royal Field Artillery from other sources.

The Wartime Memories Project is the original WW1 and WW2 commemoration website.

1st of September 2024 marks 25 years since the launch of the Wartime Memories Project. Thanks to everyone who has supported us over this time.

Want to find out more about your relative's service? Want to know what life was like during the Great War? Our Library contains many many diary entries, personal letters and other documents, most transcribed into plain text.

Looking for help with Family History Research?
Please see Family History FAQ's

Please note: We are unable to provide individual research.

Can you help?
The free to access section of The Wartime Memories Project website is run by volunteers and funded by donations from our visitors.
If the information here has been helpful or you have enjoyed reaching the stories please conside making a donation, no matter how small, would be much appreciated, annually we need to raise enough funds to pay for our web hosting or this site will vanish from the web.
If you enjoy this site please consider making a donation.

Announcements

19th Nov 2024
Please note we currently have a massive backlog of submitted material, our volunteers are working through this as quickly as possible and all names, stories and photos will be added to the site. If you have already submitted a story to the site and your UID reference number is higher than 264989 your submission is still in the queue, please do not resubmit.

Wanted: Digital copies of Group photographs, Scrapbooks, Autograph books, photo albums, newspaper clippings, letters, postcards and ephemera relating to the Great War. If you have any unwanted photographs, documents or items from the First or Second World War, please do not destroy them. The Wartime Memories Project will give them a good home and ensure that they are used for educational purposes. Please get in touch for the postal address, do not sent them to our PO Box as packages are not accepted.

World War 1 One ww1 wwII greatwar great battalion regiment artillery
Did you know? We also have a section on World War Two. and a Timecapsule to preserve stories from other conflicts for future generations.

253726

Dvr. Robert Welsh 10th Battery, 147th Brigade Royal Field Artillery (d.16th Apr 1915)

My great uncle Robert Welsh was drowned en route to Gallipoli on 16th of April 1915. He was a driver in the Royal Field Artillery and was aboard HMTS Manitou when it was challenged by a Turkish gun boat and told to abandon ship before they sunk it. Lifeboats were lowered but one capsized and 40 out of 60 aboard were drowned. The Turks fired torpedoes at the Manitou but did not hit it, a terrible waste of life for nothing, one of the many during the Gallipoli Campaign. His body was not recovered and he is commemorated on the Helles Memorial.
He was born in 1891 at 45 William Street, Duntocher, Dunbartonshire, Scotland to James and Elizabeth Welsh nee Donald and was their oldest child. His mother died in 1901 and his father in 1916. He was survived by two sisters and a young brother. His sister Marion (Minnie) was engaged but her fiance survived the war and died from Spanish Flu when he returned home.
Lorraine Pease

Add to this record.

233809

Gnr. Andrew Gibson 147th Brigade, 10th Bty. Royal Field Artillery (d.6th Nov 1916)

Andrew Gibson was probably a bit of an adventurer and risk-taker at heart. At the age of 19 in 1901 he volunteered to go and fight in the Anglo-Boer War. By the time he arrived in South Africa the conflict was largely being conducted on horseback - the life of a trooper largely consisted of chasing across miles and miles of scrub to find on arrival that the Boers had all ridden off. Violent interaction was limited but perhaps he gained a love of horses and this influenced his decision to join the RFA. When he signed up in October 1914 the RFA was all about canons being towed hither and thither across the battlefield by teams of horses supporting infantry and cavalry attacks. By 1915 the war had turned into the industrial, entrenched conflict we all know about today. I imagine the transformation and the growing realisation that the fighting was going to go on a lot longer than he had imagined weighed heavily with him, as it did many others.
He enlisted for WW1 at the age of 31, as a married man with four children and another on the way. He was destined never to see his fifth child Margaret, who was born when he was in Egypt, just a week or two before he embarked for Gallipoli. Soldiers were occasionally permitted leave, not often and not for long but being far from home, logistical difficulties and the fear of desertion probably condemned him to spend any leave he did get abroad.
He was killed on the Somme on 6th of November 1916 but he had very nearly died the year before. On the trip from Egypt to Gallipoli his brigade consisting of 650 men was on board the troopship SS Manitou when it was intercepted by a Turkish gun boat. They were given a few minutes to evacuate but they only had lifeboats for a third of them. The Turks made three attempts at torpedoeing the Manitou before being chased off by HMS Minerva. It seems like a farce, they were, after all, at a standstill in the water but in the panic to evacuate, one of the lifeboats broke and spilled its contents into the water and 50 men were drowned.
Despite the carnage elsewhere, Andrew was statistically unlucky to have died since only 16 members of the 147th were killed in WW1 post-Gallipoli. The daily war diary entry for 6th November 1916 reads as follows: Weather unsettled. A normal day. 2 shells pitched into 10th Battery low position. The second of these wounded 2 Other Ranks. No.108662 Gnr Cummings R. and No.40635 Gnr A Gibson. Andrew is recorded elsewhere as having died of his wounds later that day and he is buried in Bernafay Wood Cemetery near Montauban.
Robert Cummings, who must have been a mate of Andrew's, survived the shelling that day and indeed the remainder of the war. He returned home to Lancaster where he married and had two children, dying there in 1967 at the age of 77. On his medal card it states: Returned unclaimed.
Rod

Add to this record.

231499

Capt. Thomas Scott Syers MC. 147th Brigade Royal Field Artillery (d.14th Nov 1918)

Thomas Syers joined the Bedfordshire Regiment on the 22nd of Mar 1901. He Commanded 147th brigade RFA during the landings at Cape Helles, Gallipoli, on the 25th of Apr 1915 and later commanded the 29th Divisional Trench Mortar Battery He was wounded on the 8rh of July 1915 and sent home to the UK where he died from his wounds 4 days after the war ended 14th of November 1918 His Military Cross was gazetted 29 Oct 1915

Add to this record.

215121

Gnr. William Cleminson 147th Bde Royal Field Artillery (d.16th Apr 1915)

William Cleminson was aged 34 when he died on 16th April 1915, whilst serving with 147th Brigade Royal Field Artillery. Born in Stockton, he was the son of John and Mary Jane Cleminson. He enlisted in Jarrow.
William is remembered on the Helles Memorial.
Vin Mullen

Add to this record.

Recomended Reading.

Available at discounted prices.

The Wartime Memories Project
- 147 Brigade, Royal Field Artillery during the Great War -

147 Brigade, Royal Field Artillery

Want to know more about 147 Brigade, Royal Field Artillery?

Those known to have served with
147 Brigade, Royal Field Artillery
during the Great War 1914-1918.

Can you help?

If you enjoy this site please consider making a donation.

Announcements

Recomended Reading.

Links

The Wartime Memories Project - 147 Brigade, Royal Field Artillery during the Great War -

147 Brigade, Royal Field Artillery

Want to know more about 147 Brigade, Royal Field Artillery?

Those known to have served with147 Brigade, Royal Field Artilleryduring the Great War 1914-1918.

Can you help?

If you enjoy this site please consider making a donation.

Announcements

Recomended Reading.

Links

The Wartime Memories Project
- 147 Brigade, Royal Field Artillery during the Great War -

Those known to have served with
147 Brigade, Royal Field Artillery
during the Great War 1914-1918.