203897 PTE Leslie Ewart LOUGHTON, 2/4th and 7th Lincolnshire Regiment - diagnosed Neurasthenia (Shell shock)
Leslie Ewart Loughton was born in Somercotes, in the county of Lincolnshire in 1899. A farm labourer by trade, he enlisted on 3 May 1917, being examined and medically categorised A1 at Lincoln the following day, aged 18 years 325 days. He was noted at the time as having a slight stammer. He was recruited for service as a private in the 4th (Reserve) Battalion, the Lincolnshire Regiment under the regimental number 203897. This was part of the post-1917 Territorial number sequence, indicating service with the 2/4th Lincolnshires (absorbed on 31 January 1918 by the 1/4th Battalion, and renamed the 4th Battalion). It is not recorded when he went overseas. However, his medical history sheet shows him as having had dental treatment completed at Grimsby on 8 October 1917. (His teeth had been noted as an area where work was required upon first being medically examined.) This would seem to suggest that he did not go overseas until the middle of that month at the earliest - possibly, like 204181 Pte William Ashton Ainsworth, on 19 October 1917. If so, he would have been part of a later draft to the battalion, which had gone out overseas in the March of that year, and it seems likely that - like Pte Ainsworth -, it was at Base Depot in France that his transfer to the 7th Battalion, a Kitchener service battalion, took place. This transfer is reflected in an undated fragmentary list of Sick and Wounded N:C:O's and men of the Expeditionary Force. It was probably done to replace casualties incurred in the 7th's attack on Taube Farm and Turenne Crossing, Ypres the previous week.
Pte Loughton suffered from neurasthenia deriving from shell shock, incurred according to his pension record on 18 November 1917, when he was in a trench blown up by a shell - seemingly only a matter of weeks after his likely entry into theatre. On this precise date, the battalion was out of the line in Soult Camp, Elverdinghe. It seems more likely therefore that the pension record is slightly wrong and the event occurred when the battalion took over front-line trenches from Turenne Crossing to Gravel Farm on the 22nd /23rd; this tour lasted only four days. On the 25th/26th, having been relieved, the battalion marched to Boesinghe and entrained for International Corner (Dragon Camp).
After his injury Pte Loughton was sent via a Casualty Clearing Station to 48 Stationary Hospital, Boulogne and thence to 7 Convalescent Camp for a three week stay, culminating in a transfer to the Labour Corps under the regimental number 583647.
His disabling symptoms, still present after the war, included hysteria (slight) and manifested as an inability to speak, tremors and slightly exaggerated reflexes.
Pte Loughton transferred to the Army Reserve Class 'Z' on 1 March 1919. His home address on discharge was given as Hogsthorpe, Alford, Lincolnshire.
In 1920 his condition, still present, was considered 50% disabling. His pensioner's record card of 6 January 1920 noted that "He makes an effort to speak but does not get beyond the first word or syllable".
He appeared before Special Neurological Boards at Nottingham in January 1921, 1922 and 1923. Initially presenting with a range of symptoms including sleep disturbed by war dreams, by 1923 his case presented as frontal headaches, tremors, hesitation in speech and stammering (related to a slight pre-war speech impediment), being finally considered less than 20% disabling. Accordingly he was pensioned at a rate of 7/6 a week for 104 weeks (2 years).
Leslie Ewart Loughton died in Thames Street, Hogsthorpe, Lincolnshire on 8 June 1978.
Name:Leslie E LoughtonRegiment or Corps:Lincolnshire Regiment, Labour CorpsRegimental Number:203897, 583647
Name:Leslie Ewart LoughtonMilitary Year:1914-1920Rank:PrivateMedal Awarded:British War Medal and Victory MedalRegiment or Corps:Labour CorpsRegimental Number:583647Previous Units:203897 Pte Linc. R.
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