240354 L/Cpl. Christopher Grieves British Army 24th (Tyneside Irish) Btn. B Coy, 5 plt. Northumberlad Fusiliers from:Leamside, Co. Durham Dad served in WW1 initially in the 1st Tyneside Irish, Northumberland Fusiliers. He was wounded in action on the Somme, France on 1st of July 1916.
It is likely that Dad was wounded more than once because I know he had been wounded in the leg, had shrapnel in his neck and had lost a finger. He told a story about being wounded, and said that on one occasion he was separated from his battalion and took shelter in a shell hole in `no-mans land'. He took three days to crawl to the safety of a first aid station and during this time he suffered severe frostbite to the arm with the lost finger. This obviously happened in winter, so it was a different occasion to him being wounded during the summer offensive in 1916 at La Boisselle. In 1916-17 he was with the 3rd Battalion, Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry.
At the end of the war, Dad was a Second Corporal in the Royal Engineers Special Brigade P Company, 4th Battalion 74th Section. He was involved with gas cylinders and gas warfare.
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