249912 T/Capt Kenneth Furgus McAlpin MiD.British Army 2nd Battalion Royal Fusiliers from:Deal, Kent When Grandfather, Kenneth, left Marlborough College, he joined Guy's Hospital to start his training as a dental surgeon. However, he also joined the University of London Officer Training Corps, where he remained until 12th September 1915. He he was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant into the Light Royal Fusiliers (now known as the Regiment of Fusiliers), 2nd Battalion, arriving on the 12 November 1915 in the Dardanelles, Gallipoli.
By the 16th November he had his first battle field promotion to T/Lieutenant. It was during this time that he was transferred to the Machine Gun section of the Battalion, which would in time form part of the Machine Gun Corp. where he would see action later on in the Great War as part of the 52 Battalion Machine Gun Corp
He was finally evacuated from Gallipoli as part of the general withdrawal back to Palestine in December 1915, where the battalion stayed until embarking to Marseille, France in April 1916. As part of the pre planning and build up for what we now know as the Battle of the Somme, the battalion made its second debut in major operations in another attempt to achieve the impossible. On this occasion it took part as part of the 29th Division in the holding attack north of Ancre. It was here that Grandpa received his second battlefield promotion to T/Captain.
He was wounded during the Battle of the Somme on 16th of August 1916 at Delville Wood. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find out the nature of the wound, but it was, I expect nothing too serious as he was back at the front fairly quickly. He remained in the front line in France until December 1916, when the battalion where again withdrawn back to Palestine, where the battalion stayed for the whole of 1917.
In January 1918, the Battalion found itself back on the western front, where the Battalion was heavily engaged with the Big Push by the German Imperial Army and the resulting The Spring Offensive, then later in the Battle of Amiens in August 1918, which has seen the nation remembering this decisive battle, which is widely recognised as the turning point in the Great War, where the lessons of the Somme had been learnt. This battle saw for the first time Infantry, Artillery and Tank regiments together with the air support all coordinating in one single action, with devastating results, that the German Imperial Army where never to recover from.
Grandpa stayed in France after the amnesties on the 11th of November 1918 until Spring 1919. It was during this period that Grandpa was Mentioned in Dispatches on 2 separate occasions. The first occasion was in the dispatch from General Sir Edward Allenby on the 5thof April 1918 and the second occasion was in the dispatch from General Haig on the 8th of November 1918. Unfortunately, I have not been able to see what he did to warrant these mentions. I have no recollection of this been discussed within the family. Unfortunately, we will probably never know, as the majority of the records in the War Office where destroyed by a direct hit during the 2nd World War.
This period also saw the last of his battle field promotions, to A/Major in the Machine Gun Corps on the 25th April 1918. He was finally discharged from the regular Army in Aug 1919, where he resumed his studies at Guy's Hospital to finally qualify as a dental surgeon.
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