231710 Cpl. Joseph Arthur Sargeant British Army 5th Btn. Notts & Derby Regiment from:Long Eaton, Derbyshire Joe Sargeant was conscripted into the 2nd/5th Battalion, Sherwood Foresters. He later marked up a copy of The Green Triangle (a history of the 2/5th during WW1) by W. G. Hall. From which it is seen that he took part in fighting against the Irish Rebellion of Easter 1916, in B company stationed at Island Bridge garrison in Dublin. At one point his best ever billet was in the Guinness brewery. He was detailed to command an escort party taking prisoners to Wandsworth Jail in London.
On the 20th of July 1916 Joe left the Battalion, then billeted on the Curragh, to join the 21st Battalion at Walton-on-the-Naze. He went to France with them. Then he joined the 15th Battalion in France during September 1917.
Joe was home to marry Lillian Hancox on 11th of January 11th, wearing a blue hospital uniform. It is not known where he was injured, shrapnel in his legs and trench feet, but he spoke of being on the Somme, at Vimy-Ridge and at Passchendaele. Then having been stuck in a shell hole for three days, with only a chocolate bar as iron rations. A Mr. Clifton of Long Eaton is said to have pulled him out, across duck boards, by attaching him to his belt.
Back to the Green Triangle; Joined the 5th Battalion 28th September [1918], C Company . The remnants of the 1/5th and 2/5th had moved up as an integral part of the 5th, The Robin Hood Rifles, with whom Joe saw it through to the end; after which he was put in charge of a Chinese working party.
Joe served again for WW2 in The Home Guard.
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