220808 Pte. Wilfred Joseph Bateman British Army 12th Btn. Gloucestershire Regiment from:Hanham, Bristol Wilfred Joseph Bateman joined up in 1916. At 5ft 2" he wasn't the biggest recruit. His father owned the Blue Bowl in Hanham.
He moved to the front in December 1916 seeing action east of Bethune in places like Cuinchy, Auburs and Richeborg; essentially La Bassee front. This was an area of heavy fighting, particularly the brickstacks around Cuinchy. The regimental diary talks of a daring trench raid in this area which took two prisoners.
Sadly, or fortunately, his war would end at the end of March 1917. The unit was in Burbure away from the front training on the 29th. Wilfred's hand was blown off during grenade practice. He was brought back to England from Le Havre on the hospital ship Panama where he recovered. He spent some time in Queen Mary's Auxiliary Hospital in Roehampton, where skin grafts developed, presumably to have his hand treated.
He married in October 1917.
The family story was always that he had lost his hand shielding a young Australian boy from a grenade blast. My Nan, his daughter, said the boy's father, a vicar, always wrote each Christmas, to thank him for his heroism. However, there is no recorded account of this and the regimental diary only talks of a training accident and a premature explosion. We will never know. Great Grampy Bateman lived to the age of 90, dying in 1977. He could open a bottle of beer with one hand late in his life!
|