Military History

Stafford was placed on the 31st Ambulance Train on 14 Feb 1917 at Bray suffering with Colitis. The train departed at 16.30hrs and travelled to Abbeville where it arrived at 00.30hrs the next day, 15 Feb 1917. He would then have been transferred to either the 2nd Stationary Hospital or the 5th British Red Cross Hospital which were located at Abbeville.

Newspaper reports state that Stafford was accidentally (unspecified) killed on 20th July 1917 and buried at Abbeville which was a grave yard used by both of the above mentioned hospitals. However we have checked the war diaries for both the 2nd Stationary Hospital and the 5th British Red Cross Hospital and neither makes any reference to any form of accidents in or around the hospitals.

We suspect that Stafford died of illness as in the February 1917 1st Battalion Royal Warwicks war diary he is shown as in hospital and in March 1917 is shown as "Not on Strength - classified as "P.B" & struck off strength". The P.B. classification was used to designate a soldier as medically unfit for active frontline service but still fit enough for limited duties. As can be seen below he first appeared on the strength of the 1st Battalion in November 1916 and was classified as P.B. in March 1917 and did not appear again in the Battalions Monthly Roll of Officers

• 30 November 1916 - First appears in 1st Battalion War Diary Roll of Officers
• 31 December 1916 - On strength
• 31 January 1917 - On Strength
• 28 February 1917 - On Strength but marked as in Hospital - per the note above regarding the 31st Ambulance Train
• 31 March 1917 - Not on Strength - classified as "P.B" & struck off strength. This classification was used to designate a soldier as medically unfit for active frontline service but still fit enough for limited duties.

In summary we believe that Stafford was taken ill in February 1917 and transferred to a hospital in Abbeville where he died of his illness in July 1917.