The King's Regiment (Men-at-Arms)

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At that point his war was finally over. In just 214 days in France one in every four of his mates had been killed, and at least 57 had been wounded. xxiv] It has been estimated that the world-wide death toll of the flu pandemic was between 50 and 100 million.

I've seen the aerial photo looking west across Becelaere in your excellent book. As you say, it's difficult to see what's going on in the critical area beyond Becelaere. The 7th Bn of the Norfolk Regt. had been holding the line in the vicinity of Albert in the Somme region for some weeks when the weight of the German offensive fell upon them on 21st March, and their losses were heavy. In the ten remaining days of that month 11 officers and men were reported killed, 80 wounded and 212 missing. On 10th April the survivors were withdrawn from the front to a rest area at Toutencourt some 8 miles behind the lines and en-route they paused briefly in the village of Hénencourt (see map Figure 21) The Life Guards and The Grenadier Guards have been part of the Sovereign’s personal troops since before the Restoration of the Monarchy. Today, alongside the Royal Navy and the King’s Colour Squadron of the Royal Air Force, who also received new service Colours from The King, The Grenadier Guards and The Life Guards were the first Regiments in the British Army to receive precious ceremonial flags with the new King’s Cypher and Crown; Colours and Standards that will be borne proudly on ceremonial events for years to come. After a few days rest they began to move forward on 9th Oct when patrols found the German position in front of them unoccupied. The static lines of trenches were by now long behind them and their advance took them more and more into open country and through civilian occupied villages. The German forces were retreating steadily, though taking every opportunity to delay the Allies' progress by destroying anything that might be of use to their pursuers and laying booby traps. Figure 15/15a: Present day views of Hénencourt. The chateau is just visible at the top of the main street. It was an odd feeling to walk in my father’s footsteps from almost 100 years beforexvii] The abbreviation GSW came to be used to describe not only bullet wounds but also penetrating wounds from shrapnel or shell fragments. It's possible that this wound was caused by a fragment of the exploding shell itself. Within months, the regiment received notification that it would be stationed in Kenya, which was emerging from the Mau Mau Uprising and nearing independence. Arriving in 1959, 1 KINGS was accommodated in Gilgil, situated in the Rift Valley between Naivasha and Nakuru, until relocated to Muthaiga Camp, near Nairobi. Detached from the regiment at this time were elements of headquarters and two rifle companies ("A" and "D"), which became part of the Army's contribution to the Persian Gulf garrison in Bahrain for more than a year. [7] Subordinated to 24 Infantry Brigade, which Britain maintained in Kenya as part of the Strategic Reserve, 1 KINGS became liable for deployment to various locations in Africa and Asia. [7] The Ferret was operated by the regiment's reconnaissance platoon in West Germany before and after conversion to armoured infantry. Then suddenly, after a number of years, during which more information had come onto the web, by sheer chance, I stumbled across a clue that caused the knot to unravel (described in "The End of my Dad's War - An Unexpected Conclusion", below) - it spurred me to revive the search for the gassing incident.

When my mother told me that Dad was in hospital when the armistice was signed - she was right, but it was not for the reason I had assumed - it wasn't because of gas poisoning, it was because he was a victim of the Spanish flu epidemic that spread through the army and across the world in 1918. [xxiv] Discovering that fact was a breakthrough that came to light in an extraordinary way. Prior to the firefighters' strikes of 2003, the regiment received basic firefighting training to provide emergency cover. The battalion operated in the Greater Manchester area during the strikes as part of Operation Fresco. In the immediate post-war period, the army was significantly reduced: nearly all infantry regiments had their first and second battalions amalgamated and the Supplementary Reserve disbanded. A defence review by Duncan Sandys in 1957 decided that the King's would be amalgamated with the Manchester Regiment, to form the King's Regiment (Manchester and Liverpool). They united as the 1st Battalion on 1 September 1958. I began to explore numbers higher than 49099 by entering "4910?" and "Norfolk" into the TNA Medal Index Card search box (see Figure 5) - but there were no results and four further attempts, taking the search up to 49150, were equally unsuccessful. It was clear that the sequence had run out, and that 49099 Robert WHITE was the last man in the list.At 6:20 am on 8th August, the 7th Norfolks had clambered out of their trenches and in a few hours had established a new front line between Morlancourt and the River Ancre to secure the northern flank of the advance by Fourth Army. Records indicate that in the assault four of the 'Liverpool boys' died and at least 8 were wounded. [xx] But at this time, in the turmoil of the German Spring Offensive, the pressure on manpower was such that a tour at the front seems to have become six days or more at each location in the trenches. It was a very tough introduction to the war for the raw 'Liverpool boys' and the other young lads like them. a b "5th/8th (Volunteer) Battalion The King's Regiment". Archived from the original on 6 October 2007 . Retrieved 23 August 2020. The analysis revealed a complete alphabetic series of names from AKRILL to YATES with consecutive KLR numbers. Here was a coherent group of men of the Kings Liverpool Regiment who at some time were split up and transferred to other regiments. (Figure 9). The message came from Keith Marshall in Clitheroe Lancs. who was also researching his father's WW1 experience.

Figure 24: Extract from the Norfolk Regt. Casualty Book showing my Dad's transfer to hospital in Leicester. His pension record card (see Figure 10) indicates a change of circumstance on 10 March 1919 that triggered a pension of 5s/6d per week until 9th Sept 1919. That suggests that his army service was terminated on 9 th March 1919 but that he remained in hospital or convalescence, with a reduced pension (reflecting that subsistence was provided) at an unknown location, until finally being discharged from medical care in September 1919. saw the creation of a Home Service Force company- E (HSF) Company, with platoons spread throughout the company locations. The HSF was disbanded, however, in 1992 at the end of the Cold War, and therefore so was the company. At the same time as E Company disbanded, the battalion was reduced down to three rifle companies, and retained this structure until amalgamation in 1999. [34] [35]The Commonwealth War Graves Commission database of those who died on active service [viii] is another one-dimensional name-based collection that is designed to reveal details of a single individual, and it does that job well, but it can't be used effectively to research groups, e.g. the losses suffered by a Battalion, a Regiment, or group of Pals etc. - and that seems to be a sad neglect of the power of digitised records. Fortunately, there is a solution. I have pics of that area as well, but not as good. An aerial picture from 1914/15 showing Becelaere looking towards Polygon Wood is shown in my book "Defending the Ypres Front 1914-1918". Unfortunately the area of Reutel is not very clear.