Military History

Albert is listed as being killed in action on 23 Aug 1917. The very brief 1st/5th Battalion War entries for the period 22nd to 24th are transcribed below, they refer to Appendices IV & V which unfortunately cannot be located in the diary and are presumed to be missing.

Canal Bank - Night 22/23: C Coy attacked and reoccupied gunpits at C.12.d.7.3

Canal Bank - Night 23/24: Moves took place as in Appendices IV & V

Canal Bank - Night 24 - 3am: Enemy attacked the gunpits with flamethrowers and drove back and out C Coy. Operations as in Appendices III & IV.

Military History

We have not located a service record for George not could we find any medal cards or rolls. We cannot tell why or when he was transferred from the Devonshire Regiment to the Labour Corps, but it was most often because of being medically unfit. We know from his war gratuity amount that the enlisted within 30 days of the 7 October 1917. The absence of any medal records indicates that he never served outside of the UK.

The 620th Labour Corps was Headquartered in Warwick which means that George would have been working on farms fairly local to Hockley Heath.

Military History

Henry is listed as being killed in action on 18th August 1918. The 1st/7th Battalion war diary entries for 17th to 19th August 1916 are transcribed below.

17 August 1916 – Trenches near Bouzincourt: Fine day German aeroplane brought down in flames in our lines. Enemy artillery fairly quiet.

18 August 1916 - Trenches near Bouzincourt: Showery day. A few Gas Shells were sent over, no Casualties. Enemy fired many Very flares during night, instructions received to attack.

PM: Rainy day. Preparation for attack being made, bombs carried up etc. Attack commenced 5.5pm by C Coys, Lt. Murry & Lt Pirie led bombing parties against German Bomb Stop at X.2.c.3.9 both were wounded almost at once. Party driven back to our Bomb Stop X.2.c.3.8. Capt. Payton reorganised his men & attack proceeded at 6.20pm, it succeeded in capturing bomb stop post but driven back at 6.50pm.

7pm: Capt. Payton again reorganised but orders were received from Brigade to postpone attack until after dark.

19 August 1916 - Trenches near Bouzincourt: 2am Bombing party of B Coy under Lt. Crow attacked said bomb stops over open but were unsuccessful.

5am: 2 bombing parties of D Coy under Lt. Caley were successful in taking Stop & pushing on to X.2.a.2.2.

8.45am: They succeeded in reaching in X.2.a.2.5

9.20am: They got in touch with 1/5 R War R at X.2.a.6.5.

12.45pm: Took point X.2.a.1.6 and were held up between this point & X.2.a.1.9 by enemy who were in force. Front line, support line & reserve line trenches were heavily shelling.

During whole afteronn. Gas & Tear shell being freely used. Remainder of day we were engaged with enemy at X.2.a11.75 where we erected a bomb stop, enemy unable to proceed further.

Military History

Frederick died of Trench Nephritis 10th March 1916 at the 4th Northern General Military Hospital, Lincoln, Lincolnshire. The medical evacution chain is listed below.

• 18 Jan 1916 - Landed in France
• 29 Jan 1916 - Admitted to No 1 Canadian Field Ambulance with anemia
• 11 Feb 1916 - Mont-des-Chats [Hospital] with anemia
• 18 Feb 1916 - No 3 Canadian Field Hospital, Boulogne with Nephritis
• 04 Mar 1916 - Admitted to Lincoln Military Hospital with Nephritis
• 10 Mar 1916 - Died of Nephritis

Frederick was one of 35,000 British and 2,000 American casualties of the disease which is now thought to have been caused by the Hantavirus. At the time little was known about the cause of the disease but clearly trenches and battle fields were infested with rodents.