223464 Pte. William Baldwin British Army Bedfordshire Regiment My grandfather William Baldwin joined up in 1916 and served in the Suffolks, and then with the Bedfordshire regiment. I know this from hearing first hand and from his demob papers which I have.
He was a Lewis gunner and achieved musketry 1st class and completed a bombing course. This information is recorded on the papers. For some reason however on the rim of his service medals it gives his army number and Essex regiment?
I recall many stories my grandad told me as a lad and the most poignant was when they overan a German trench and were ordered not to take any prisoners. That haunted my grandad until the day he died. He was wounded 3 times shot through the right leg hit by grenade shrapnel and mustard gassed. He maintained that he got away lightly. The biggest wound stayed with him for life: the day he killed a young German of a similar age to himself begging for his life. As my grandad said "to the victor the spoils". No war crimes committed that day apparently.
My grandad once returned to the front after leave to find only one man left alive in his platoon after a direct hit from a whizz bang shell. My grandad told me that some men would vomit and pee themselves before they went over the top and often said he couldn't go to hell as he had already been.
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