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World War 1 One ww1 wwII greatwar great 1914 1918 first battalion regiment
L/Cpl. Alfred Edward Ward
British Army 5th Btn. Durham Light Infantry
from:Darlington
(d.22nd March 1918)
Pte. Alfred Ward
British Army 18th Btn. Durham Light Infantry
Sgt. Alfred John Ward
British Army 2/21st Btn. London Regiment
from:60 Royal Terrace, Newington
Alfred Ward was a volunteer soldier in A company, 21st Battalion, London Regiment (First Surrey Rifles) Territorial Army based at Flodden Road, off Camberwell New Road at the age of 18 in 1903 long before the Great War and had become a corporal by the 1st April 1908 after four years and 264 days of service. He gained a reputation for being a marksman and won silver spoons for target shooting in 1907 and 1909. He attained an Assistant Instructor's Certificate of Signalling on 23rd September 1909 at Aldershot.
He reported promptly at the start of hostilities with Germany on 7th September 1914 to join again the 2/21st Battalion 60th London Regiment (First Surrey Rifles). They were only slowly kitted with uniforms and initially old Japanese rifles and lived at home for much of 1915. In early 1916, they were trained in the Warminster Ranges on Salisbury Plain and were inspected by King George V on 31st May. They finally crossed to La Havre France in on 24th/25th June 1916 as part of the 60th London Division, XVII Corps and were moved by 13th July to the Western Front to join the Third Army under Lieutenant-general Edmund Allenby. Here, they spent a third of their time in the frontline trenches south of Vimy Ridge and north of Arras, a third in the reserve trenches at Ecurie & Roclincourt and a third in billets resting at trun & Maroeuil northwest of Arras. On the front line they were involved with sporadic mining, crater fighting and trench raiding. Before they could be involved in the utter carnage that is known as the Great Somme October Offensive, they were moved to the Macedonian Front in Salonika to fight the Bulgarians, disembarking on 8th December 1916 to be part of XII Corps. They were at Dove Tepe by the border with Serbia (the modern northern Greek border with Macedonia), carrying out one night raid during a rather static period and they were involved in the indecisive Battle of Doiran to the west in April and May, 1917. The British presence in Salonika was reduced and the First Surrey Rifles were moved on again.
On 16th to 18th June 1917, they were moved to Marseilles and onwards to Malta and Egypt to join the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, XX Corps (181st [2/6th London] Brigade) where they were re-equipped and intensively trained. Previously, the Ottomans had made incursions into Sinai and had come close to the east bank of the Suez Canal but had been driven back to their border. General Murray had failed twice to take Gaza in March and April. By the 4th July the Surrey Rifles were concentrated at Moascar on the Suez Canal and were moved up to Deir al Balah by the 23rd July on the static front line with the Ottoman Empire. Sergeant Alfred Ward was detached to attend a Visual Signalling and Field Telephone course at the Imperial School of Instruction at Zeitoun, Cairo. He qualified as a First Class Signaller in visual, field telephone and buzzer reading at 16 words a minute, on 11th of August 1917 under Lieutenant S. Gibbons. At exactly the same time, army intelligence set up a small radio station on top of the Great Pyramid to listen to Turkish radio traffic and the operator never failed to decode the intercepted messages (Lord, 1971). I wonder who this might have been?
Since June 1917 General Edmund (The Bull!) Allenby had replaced Archibald Murray as the head of command, EEF. Most of the infantry available to him were of Territorial divisions activated in 1914 such as the 2/21st Surrey Rifles. The 2/21st Battalion had been stationed at Kent Fort on the Shellal - Karm front line from 1st to 21st October 1917 and then on to Tel el Fara location M2b from 21st where they relieved to 2/17th London Regiment to the 26th, El Gamw on 27th and Rashid Bek on 28th to 29th October. After the Turkish incursions into Sinai had been pushed back during 1916 and early 1917 and the sixth month stalemate after the 2nd Battle of Gaza, Allenby was planning a major offensive to take Palestine from the Ottomans to start on Z day as it is called in the 2/21st Battalion war diary, on 31st October 1917.
Alfred was mentioned in a dispatch of 23rd of October 1917 from General Edmund Allenby to the Secretary of State for War for "gallant and distinguished service in the field" as recorded in The London Gazette on 16th January 1918 and signed by Winston Churchill. The London Gazette just lists his name without mentioning why he was so mentioned and I have also not found any mention in the Battalion war diary either. Was this for carrying important despatches by motor cycle, possibly under fire from the Turks and just before the British Palestinian campaign started? The only activity on 21st and 22nd October on the line was a move of the 60th and the 2nd light Horse (Anzac) Brigade down the Wadi Ghazzeh to Esani to develop the water supply before the attack on Beersheba and the unopposed occupation of Karm, another important water supply. On the 12th September Arthur C. B. Neate of the Desert Mounted Corps rode his horse close to the Turkish line and barely evaded capture. In the chase, he dropped a haversack, smeared with horse blood, with fake military plans, letters and a page of cipher in it. The plans falsely described how the British were to capture Gaza. (On 10th October, Richard Meinertzhagen, famous hoaxer, liar, Ornithologist, Entomologist and donator of specimens to the Natural History Museum, London and the author sees his specimens almost daily! claimed to have done the same [Garfield, 2007]). False radio messages were sent between 24th and 31st October also prompting the Turkish forces to think Britain was going to attack Gaza which could be decoded with the lost page of cipher. Additional radio messages directing that no secret documents be carried where they might be lost to the enemy, made up the Turkish Army's mind: the British Army was going to attack Gaza. Was Alfred that or one of these radio operator(s)? (Cocker, 1989: 103-104).
John Shea was not in favour of a second Trans-Jordan raid but his 60th Division was volunteered for the raid on the 30th April, less the 181st Brigade kept in reserve in the Judean Hills until 3rd May when they left Bethany and crossed the Jordan at Goraniyeh and bivouacked in Wadi Nimrin. This too was a failure with El Salt being taken and lost again and with 1,160 casualties for the 60th Division, ending in withdrawal back across the Jordan on the 4th May The battalion diary ends in June 1918 when long lists show the reassigned officers and men being shipped back to the western front to be replaced by mostly Indian soldiers from Mesopotamia and the Western Front so as to fulfil a promise to France to keep British troops defending French soil. Alfred obviously stayed on and was also probably still there to be part of the Battles for Megiddo and Sharon in September 1918.
Whilst attending a 20th Corps Signal School in Jerusalem in October 1918, he bought a bible with cedar of Lebanon board covers and got his sergeant colleagues to sign it as they did a group photo, see below. (The author had the bible repaired and re-bound in 1999.) Alfred finished his war service on 19th March 1919, being disembodied as opposed to de-mobilised from the TA. As far as I can tell Alfred was eligible for three campaign medals; the British War Medal, 1914-18 (colloquially known as squeek), the Allied Victory Medal (Wilfred) with oak leaf emblem for a "Mention in Dispatch" and the Territorial Force War Medal 1914-19. He was a very modest man and probably never applied for the medals.
Cpl Alfred William "Bud" Ward
Canadian Expeditionary Force Royal Canadian Engineers
from:Laurier, Manitoba
Alfred Ward served with the Royal Canadian Engineers.
Pte. Arnold Ward
British Army 10th Btn. York and Lancashire Regiment
from:49 Manvers Road, Walkley, Sheffield
(d.3rd Jul 1916)
Arnold Ward was at the Battle of the Somme and died on the 3rd of July 1916. He was a private in the 10th Battalion, York and Lancaster Regiment.
Until around 2016 of this year his nephew, Ken Ward, was unaware that he had an Uncle Arnold. Ken's father, Horace Ward, served with the West Yorkshire Regiment and also served in WW1 also and was attached to the Machine Gun Regiment.
Pte. Arthur Bowsher Ward
British Army 1st Btn. East Yorkshire Regiment
from:Hovenden Highstead
(d.15th Aug 1918)
Pte. Arthur James Ward
British Army 8th (Pioneers) Btn. Welsh Regiment
from:Lower Bullingham, Herefordshire
(d.18th Oct 1918)
Arthur Ward died from pneumonia and bronchitis and is buried in Basra War Cemetery.
Pte Augustus Simon Ward
British Army 1st Btn East Yorkshire
from:Foston Hall, Yorks
(d.20th Oct 1918)
Augustus Ward was my Grandfather who died 1n 1918 when my late Mother was a small child. I have been searching for information to give my Grandson, who is learning about the Great War. I have Army Form B. 104-82 which was sent to my late Grandmother. It is dated 1-1-1920. It states that my Grandfather died on 20-10-1918. So close to Armistice Day. He left three children, my Mother being the youngest.
Pte. Benjamin Ward
British Army 9th Battalion Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry
from:Crofton Wakefield
(d.1st July 1916)
Benjamin Ward was my great-grandfather. He died on the 1st day of the Somme and has no known grave. He is remembered on the Thiepval Memorial
Pte. Bertram Allen Ward
British Army 10th Btn. Sherwood Foresters
from:Derby
(d.14th February 1916)
Bertram Ward served with the 10th Battalion, Sherwood Foresters.
Sgt. Billy Ward
British Army King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry
Sgt Billy Ward was a prisoner at Friedrichfeld POW Camp. He escaped to Holland.
T/WO Charles Francis Ward
British Army 1st Btn. Notts and Derby Regiment (Sherwood Foresters)
from:Nottingham
My grandad, Charles Ward was in the Sherwood Foresters and the Royal Scots Fusiliers. He had previously served in India and had his family there. His wife was Mary O'Leary.
Pte. Charles Heber Ward
British Army 14th (London Scottish) Btn. London Regiment
(d.16th Aug 1917)
Rflmn. Charles Edward Ward
British Army 2/7th Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment
from:Leeds, West Yorkshire
(d.15th Feb 1917)
Pte. Charles Percy Ward
British Army 1st Btn. East Surrey Regiment
from:Kent
(d.3rd Sep 1916)
Percy Ward enlisted 22nd February 1916 and died in action in France on 3rd of September 1916, aged 33.
Private Dick Ward
British Army Signals Section, 1st Battalion Gordon Highlanders
from:Stamford Bridge, Yorkshire
(d.15th June 1917)
Dick Ward was born at Charity Farm, Skipwith in 1897 was the youngest child of Frank Ward (b. South Milford, 1854) and Annie Gertrude Durham (b. Wheldrake, 1854). Frank and Annie married in 1876 and had 10 children. Annie died in 1900 when Dick was aged 3. It is likely, Dick was brought up by his older sister Annie Elizabeth (b. 1871 d. 1958). Annie Elizabeth was 21 when their mother died.
Dick’s burnt war records show he was 19 when he joined the Gordon Highlanders in Aberdeen on the 7th of February, 1916. Dick signed on in Aberdeen as his Attestation dated 9th of February 1916 gives his address as Stamford Bridge where he was a Farm Servant and it appears living at home, Danegelt House. It’s uncertain why Dick joined the Gordon Highlanders and signed on in Scotland. Perhaps he was estranged from his father and family, perhaps he had found work in Scotland or perhaps he had just run away from home to join up!
Dick was posted, presumably for training, on the 11th of February 1916. On the 1st of November 1916 he sailed from Folkestone to Boulogne, then onwards to Etaples, a fishing port and base camp 15 miles south of Boulogne. Etaples was an important base for the British Army, using Boulogne as its port for personnel. Calais was used mainly for stores, ammunition, etc. Etaples was the BEF's main infantry base, with sections for every regiment with battalions at the front. In theory, the base held a ten per cent reserve for every frontline battalion, but these figures fluctuated significantly depending on the levels of casualties at the front and the supply of fresh troops from England. Troops held at the base were toughened up while waiting dispatch to the front. Etaples serviced the Regular and New Army battalions at the front and included 16 hospitals. Having passed through Etaples. Dick was posted to the front on 20th of November 20th 2016. Dick is likely to be one of the 19 other rank soldiers who arrived in Vauchelles on 23rd of November.
In June 1917 the 1st Battalion of the Gordon Highlanders were involved in the Battle for Infantry Hill. Infantry Hill near Monchy-le-Preux, southeast of Arras, exchanged hands several times. It was captured in May but retaken by the Germans, and captured again by the Royal Newfoundland Regiment. By the middle of June it was once more in German hands, but on the 14th June of a surprise daylight attack was made by the 1st Gordon Highlanders and the 1st Essex, without artillery support. Success was achieved very quickly, but the enemy drove them off and the attack had to be made one more time to secure Infantry Hill for the British. Dick’s records state he was killed in action on the 22nd of June 2017. He was actually killed on Friday 15th of June 1917, the Battle for Infantry Hill. He spent only 7 months in action on the front line.
On the 28th June his father Frank wrote to Dick’s commanding officer for further details of his son’s death. Apparently in the notification of Dick’s death no date had been stated. He was checking whether the notification of his son’s death was true. He also queries whether he can have Dick’s possessions and whether or not Dick had made a will. In response on the 2nd July the Major requires more details of Dick’s regiment. Frank’s reply on the 4th July is, I think, very poignant, he writes ‘I hope you will be able to trace him’. Clearly my Great Grandad hopes the notification of Dick’s death is a mistake! A letter from the War Office in London dated 11th of October 1917 advises the Officer i/c Infantry Records in Perth to dispatch Dick’s belongings to Frank in Stamford Bridge. On the 22nd October Dick’s possessions were forwarded to his father. They were, A disc, a Pocket Book, Photographs, Signal Certificate, AFB 2079, 1 receipt, his Registration Card and a Society Card. So few personal items.
On the 22nd of October 1919 Frank received a letter from the Officer in charge of Records asking for a declaration regarding Dick’s relatives so the Death Plaque and medals could be issued. Frank completed the declaration on the 3rd November 1919. At this time Frank describes himself as a farmer and is still living in Stamford Bridge. Frank is 60 and his brothers Willie (39) Frank (35) and Peter (29) are living on the farm. Nearly 2 years later in October 1921 Frank finally received Dick’s British War Medal and Victory Medal. My Great Uncle, Private Dick Ward of the Signals Section, 1st Battalion Gordon Highlanders is commemorated on the Arras Memorial. Just one of 34,816.
Pte. Donald Ward
British Army 6th Btn. York and Lancaster Regiment
from:Dogdyke, Boston, Lincs
(d.14th June 1917)
Donald Ward was the son of Mr. W. and Mrs. L. Ward, of Bedford House, Dogdyke, Lincoln. He died of wounds on the 14th of June 1917 and is buried in Bailleul Communal Cemetery Extension.
CSM. Edward Ward DCM and Bar.
British Army 1/5th Battalion Royal Berkshire Regiment
from:Herne Hill, Surrey
(d.28th October 1918)
At the start of the war in 1914 Edward Ward was a regular soldier. Not long after he was made a Company Sergeant Major. A story he told his family was about a route march he was on. His men sang "A little child shall lead us". The officer in charge made everyone march again. Ted said he wasn't offended by the hymn only by the double length route march. He died in a military hospital in Manchester.
CSM. Edward James Ward DCM.
British Army Royal Warwickshire Regiment
My Grandfather CSM Edward Ward was awarded the DCM following a mine being exploded under the defences. He extricated himself and attacked a German patrol on his own, killing the leader and one other while driving the patrol back. He was wounded in the action.
Grandad joined the Terrors in 1910 and went overseas in 1914. He died in 1939. I am still looking for the site of the action. It took place at Moated Grange, La Gorgue. It is written in the war diaries of the Royal Warwicks
Edward Ward
British Army 5th Battalion Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders
(d.14th October 1918)
Edward Ward was serving with the 5th Battalion Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders when he was killed in action on the 14th October 1918
Pte. Ernest Ward
British Army 11th Battalion. Essex Regiment
from:Colchester
(d.15th Oct 1916)
Ernest died on 15th October 1916 in Ypres, aged 19. He is buried in Bancourt British Cemetery, Pas De Calais, France.
Lg.Btn. Fred Ward
HM Coastguard
from:Northcorner, Devonport
(d.2nd May 1915)
Leading Boatman Ward was the Husband of A. M. M. Hearn formerly Ward), of 29A, Holmans Buildings, Northcorner, Devonport.
He was 39 when he died and is buried north-east of the church in the Carlingford (Holy Trinity) Church of Ireland Churchyard, in Co. Louth, Irleand.
Pte. Frederick Ward
British Army 17th (1st South East Lancashire) Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers
(d.14th October 1918)
Frederick Ward was the brother of our great, great grandmother. The family story was that he died on the last day of the Great War, but after searching the CWCG records, we found he died almost a month earlier. It is possible the family received the telegram confirming his death on 11th of November 1918.
Pte. George Ward
British Army 1st Btn. Royal Berkshire Regiment
(d.26th Sep 1914)
George Ward served with the Royal Berkshire Regiment 1st Battalion. He was executed for cowardice 26/09/1914. He is commemorated on the La Ferté-sous-Jouarre Memorial to the Missing, Seine-et-Marne, France.
Private George Ward aged 20 years who was executed on 26th September 1914, his was the second execution of the war. What is astonishing about the case of Pte. Ward is that his offence occurred on the 14th September his third day of active service. He had landed in France on 12th September and the brief duration of his service, before committing the crime of ‘cowardice’ that cost him his life, was the shortest of the war.
A soldier who was a member of a firing squad described what happened. ‘I think it was hard lines that I should have had to make one of the firing party, as he was a chum of mine. . . We were told that the only humane thing that we could do was to shoot straight. The two men were led out blindfolded, tied to posts driven into the ground, and then we received our orders by sign from our officer, so that the condemned men should not hear us getting ready. Our officer felt it very much, as he, like me, knew one of the fellows years before. The other I never knew, but his case was every bit as sad, he was only a boy’.
Pte. George Samuel Frederick Ward
British Army 10th Battalion Worcester Regiment
from:Tottenham, London
(d.13th Jan 1916)
My great grandfather was George Ward. I was privileged this year to visit his grave at the Vaast Post Cemetery in Richebourge being the only member of my family to do so in 97 years. The sad part of our family story is that my grandmother was only 4 years of age when her father died and didn't really remember him, but on my grandmother's death we found a small picture hidden away in her handbag of two men and written on the back in my nan's handwriting was written "one of these two men is my dad" which we found very upsetting and despite extensive research we have never been able to confirm the identity of the two men.
Pte. George Ward
British Army 18th Btn. Durham Light Infantry
WO Harry Ward DCM, MM
British Army 2nd Btn. Royal Warwickshire Regiment
from:Birmingham,
Gnr. Henry Robert Ward
British Army 82nd Bde. Royal Field Artillery
from:Hendon, London
(d.20th Oct 1917)
Harry Ward served with 82nd Brigade, Royal Field Artillery.
Eng 2 Homer Randolph Ward
United States Navy USS Harrisburg
from:Lenoir City TN
Pte J A Ward
British Army 10th Battalion Royal Warwick Regiment
(d.7th June 1917)
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