21/1116 Pte Peter Brown: three times wounded, twice with the Northumberland Fusiliers (latterly whilst on the strength of the 5th Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry) and once with the Labour Corps, the first most probably with the 2nd Tyneside Scottish at La Boisselle on 1 July 1916 and the second with the 14th (Light) Division at the Battle of the Avre.
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Peter Brown was born circa 1879. A miner, he married Margaret Brown at Killingworth, Longbenton, Northumberland on 22 April 1905. The couple had five children, the youngest of whom, Jane, died of whooping cough in May 1918, aged 8 months. Peter lived at 6 or 9 Blue Row in Killingworth and worked as a coal hewer. He enlisted on Thursday 12 November 1914 at Newcastle-on-Tyne into the 21st (Service) Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers (2nd Tyneside Scottish), being given the regimental number 21/1116. He was aged 35 years 6 months on enlistment.
The unit, composed mainly of men from the North-East, many of Scottish descent, was first raised on 26 October 1914 and began training in Newcastle before relocating to Alnwick Camp in January 1915. Pte Brown's first entry on his charge sheet noted that he was awarded punishment of three days confined to barracks for smoking on parade. He later absented himself from 30 November to 7 December 1915. He would have gone overseas with the battalion in January 1916.
The 2nd Tyneside Scottish was part of 102nd (Tyneside Scottish) Brigade in 34th Division and was heavily engaged on 1 July 1916 in the attack by Pulteney's III Corps on the German lines around La Boisselle. Their attack was made on the northern side of the Lochnagar crater (blown south of La Boisselle underneath the German defensive position the Schwaben Höhe) by men from the 21st and 22nd Battalions of the Northumberland Fusiliers, with the 26th battalion in support. Starting from the Tara–Usna Line (a British reserve position behind the front line), the units of the brigade crossed a mile of open ground before they reached no man's land, leaving the attacking trenches around 7.30am with the debris of the Lochnagar crater explosion still falling around them. With a relatively short span of no man's land itself (200 yards) to cross, the attackers successfully stormed the first German defensive line at the Schwaben Höhe and advanced up the west side of Sausage Valley, before finding themselves coming under enfilading machine-gun fire from La Boisselle as the columns passed the village, the grenade-armed bombers and stokes mortar barrage having been unable to suppress the garrison. Although elements of the Brigade pressed on and made the deepest penetration into the German lines of the day, as far as Bailiff Wood, they were eventually forced back, the 34th division being relieved from the footholds it had gained at dawn on 2 July. As a result of the attack all four battalion commanders had been killed by the end of the day and the 21st battalion suffered 123 men killed in action.
It seems most likely that Pte Brown was amongst those wounded in the attack of 1 July, one of 6,380 casulaties incurred by the Division in the attack. Passing through the hands of an unidentified field ambulance unit and casualty clearing station before being evacuated to the coast, on 2 July 1916 Pte Brown was sent to No.1 Stationary Hospital, Rouen with a gunshot wound through the calf of the right leg and then on 3 July evacuated to England aboard the Hospital Ship 'Asturias'. He was simultaneously posted back to the Northumberland Fusiliers' depot. In the meantime, the 19th (Western) Division had relieved the battered 34th Division and completed the capture of La Boisselle between 4 and 6 July.
Pte Brown featured in War Office daily casualty list 5573 dated 27 August 1916 and on 20 October 1916 was posted to the 85th Training Reserve battalion, possibly for reconditioning.
By November 1916 he was on the strength of the 3rd (Reserve) battalion, from which he went absent again, this time for 14 days, until 1 December 1916; he then registered a further absence from 19 January until apprehended by the civil police at Killingworth on 1 February. He proceeded overseas to France again on 7 February 1917, arriving at 31st Infantry Base Depot on 9 February, ostensibly on posting to the 22nd Northumberland Fusiliers (3rd Tyneside Scottish). However, he was posted onwards to the 16th (Newcastle) battalion on the 27th of the month, joining them in the field around the same time. Possibly he was part of a draft of 135 men who joined the battalion in camp at Beaufort on 1 March 1917. At this point the battalion was in and out of the line in the Amiens sector. Pte Brown would subsequently have been involved in following up the German retreat to the Hindenburg Line. Then, whilst at Voyennes and Offoye on the Somme canal, where the battalion was engaged in digging bridge defences, he was fined ten days' pay (and made to pay for the deficiency) for being deficient iron rations on 25 March 1917. Subsequent duties would have taken him to the Nieuport sector and then, after the close of the great battle, to line-holding in the Ypres sector.
On 7 February 1918, the 16th Northumberland Fusiliers was disbanded, and on 22 February 1918 Pte Brown joined the 13th Entrenching Battalion under Lt Col J.G. Kirkwood. This battalion was formed on 19 February 1918 at II Corps Reinforcement Camp at Merckeghem, around the core of the 10th Gloucestershire Regiment with additional men from the 16th Northumberland Fusiliers and 17th Highland Light Infantry.
Entrenching battalions formed in effect holding units, which could keep men usefully employed on defensive works whilst they awaited posting to fighting units under control of the parent formation as gaps arose through wastage and battle casualties. Around 8 March Pte Brown was awarded seven days' Field Punishment No.2 for being drunk on active service, and by 21 or 22 March 1918 the battalion was in III Corps (14th (Light) Division) area at Cugny, where it was caught up in the German Spring Offensive on the Somme (Operation Michael). It appears that from 24 to 31 March the 13th Battalion was attached to the 42nd Brigade, taking position with the rest of the 14th Division on the west side of Noyon Canal, covering the crossings at Haudival and Beaurains, remaining attached to the Brigade until disbanded on the latter date, it and its sister 14th Entrenching Battalion being absorbed into the infantry battalions of the 14th (Light) Division to make up for losses incurred during the offensive. This might explain how Pte Brown came to be on the strength of the 5th Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry (of the 42nd Brigade) in early April.
Entrenching battalions were under Army or Corps (rather than divisional) control and were not intended for deployment closer to the fighting front than the Rearward zone, although this appears to have been disregarded once the German Spring Offensive began. Regardless, Pte Brown was wounded again in the finger (described as 'left hand, mild' at the time, even though he eventually lost the finger) on 4 April 1918. This was probably during the Battle of the Avre, in which fifteen German divisions attacked a force of seven Beirish and Australian divisions in the final thrust of the German Spring offensive towards Amiens. Interestingly, the wound was reported on his casualty form by the 5th Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, which may indicate that he was serving with them at the time. At this time the 42nd Brigade, including the 5th OBLI, was in the area of Hamel, being forced to withdraw under heavy German attack and shell-fire and make a new line at Vaire. Pte Brown was reported as wounded in War Office Daily List No.5573 of 23 May 1918, being one of 500 casualties of the 1350 men in the already understrength brigade when it first moved into the line. He was placed under the care of 12 General Hospital, Rouen and then 73 and 74 General Hospitals Trouville - possibly B8 Ward.
Subsequently, he was posted to the 19th Northumberland Fusiliers, a pioneer battalion, however his time with them was relatively short as on 8 July he was sent to No.2 Infantry Base Depot and medically graded B.ii. On 14 July 1918, he was permanently and compulsorily transferred for the benefit of the service to the Labour Corps, and given the new service number 607371. He was sent to no.65 Labour Company (formerly 22nd (Labour) Battalion, the Cheshire Regiment), joining it in the field the following day. At around this time the company, having been moved to Poperinghe in May, was employed on light railways in the Ypres Salient, as Starling and Lee's 'No Labour, No Battle' notes, "often working within the range of German guns". Pte Brown was wounded again later in 1918, with a wound to the back, again mild, on 27 September, possibly due to shell-fire. This injury led to him featuring in War Office Daily List No.5707 of 28 October 1918. He was taken under the care of No.1 Australian General Hospital, then proceeding to No.2 MB Base Depot and [not fully legible- possibly L C for 'Labour Corps' or 'line of communication'] Base Depot, before joining his unit around 13 October. Subsequently, as recorded by the officer commanding 47 Labour Group headquarters, he was identified to proceed to the UK for release as a miner, returning home on 14 November. He was posted to the Northern Command Labour Centre via the dispersal centre, Ripon, on 18 November and then transferred to the Army Reserve Class 'P' with effect from 23 November, having accumulated four years eleven days' service. Transfer to the 'P' Reserve indicated that he was regarded as one ‘whose services are deemed to be temporarily of more value to the country in civil life rather than in the Army’ and entitled to a pension owing to length of service or, in this case, disability upon discharge (5/6 for 52 weeks in consideration of a 20% disabling wound to the left hand). He was discharged on 12 March 1919 under paragraph 392 (XVIa) of King's Regulations - Being surplus to Military requirements (having suffered impairment since entry into the service) - and was entitled to the Silver War Badge. His Character on discharge was given as "Fair". Subsequently he was awarded a gratuity of £40 for the loss of the middle finger of his left hand, with a further £16 service gratuity and £5 gratuity for one child.
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