William Baldwin was born circa 1878. He served under the regimental number 95633 as a Sapper with 131st Field Company, Royal Engineers, part of 26th Division, the Field Company joining the division on or by 25 April 1915, and then, after assembling in the Salisbury area, landing in France in late September 1915. Spr Baldwin’s 1914-15 Star roll entry shows that he first went to France, landing on 23 September 1915, and was therefore entitled to the 1914-1915 Star. After a short period in the French theatre of war, the Company travelled to Salonika via Marseilles, landing on 23 November 1915. Its battle honours included Doiran 1917 and Doiran 1918. Field Companies undertook a variety of field engineering roles for their divisions including creating and maintaining trench systems, building concrete emplacements and divisional facilities, bridging, and wiring; for example the 131st Company was in action during the capture of Horseshoe Hill on 17 August 1916 using wiring material. Whilst in Salonika, at around the time of the Battle of Horseshoe Hill, William Baldwin was hospitalised with Dysentery. By this time he was a Lance Corporal with 1 year 3 months’ service (suggesting that he enlisted around May 1915) and 11 months service with the Field Force. He was admitted to No. 31 Casualty Clearing Station (presumably to the Isolation ward) with Dysentery on 10/08/1916, being transferred to Sick Convoy (Ambulance Train) on the following day, 11/08/1916. His medical record from this admission gives his Religion as Church of England and confirmed his unit as the 131st Field Company. Presumably recovering, Acting Corporal Baldwin was Discharged to the Army ‘Z’ Reserve on 11 December 1919. For his service he was entitled to the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal.
Arthur Alfred Romain (or Romaine) Ball was born circa 1882 (or 1884; records vary) in Newington, London to Jessie J Ball. By the 1911 census, aged 19 he was living with his widowed mother in Lambeth, and working as a carman. Arthur A R Ball married Katie Elsie Richardson on 15 February 1914 at Colchester, St. Giles, Essex. They subsequently had a child, Vincent Ramaine [Romaine] Ball.
Possibly a ‘Derby’ or ‘Groups’ Scheme volunteer, as 44454 Private Arthur A R Ball he served with the 10th, 26th, 1st and 12/13th Battalions, Northumberland Fusiliers. Probably, like 44434 Pte Arthur Burwood, he was mobilised in June 1916 and, after training, posted overseas to the British Expeditionary Force in early November 1916. This posting would have been ostensibly to join the 10th Battalion but whilst at base depot in Etaples Burwood was posted to the 26th (3rd Tyneside Irish) Battalion, joining them in the field on or around 21 November 1916; the same probably applies to Pte Ball. Of the seven men (including himself) identifiable as having numbers within the 44450-44459 bloc, six were killed in action or died on the Western Front. Pte Ball was Listed as Wounded in War Office Daily List No.5437, Report Date 08/12/1917. Considering the casualty records of the men in his bloc, this was most probably with the 26th Northumberland Fusiliers. The date would indicate that he was most probably wounded in late October or early November 1917, either in the line near Poelcappelle in the course of the Third Battle of Ypres (one of 68 men wounded during a tour of operations in flooded country between 17 and 22 October), or in early November in an otherwise quiet sector of the line at Fontaine/Cherisy, near Arras. Pte Ball was thereby entitled to wear a "Wound Stripe" as authorised under Army Order 204 of 6th July 1916, the terms of this award being met by being named in this list. The List confirmed his Next of Kin Address as Colchester. It was probably after recovering from his wound, and possibly returning overseas again from England, that he was posted to the 1st Battalion; again, this may have been a paper posting with him spending little or no time with the battalion, instead being posted-on (this time to the 12/13th Battalion) fairly rapidly. He was again Listed as Wounded under the name “A Bell”, but with the same regimental details and next of kin address, in War Office Daily List No. 5696, Report Date, 15/10/1918, indicating that he was probably wounded again in September 1918 during the Allied Hundred Days Offensive; this was probably with the 12/13th Battalion, possibly he was one of 87 other rank casualties incurred in the battalion’s attack on 18 September on the Brown and Green lines at Epehy, the battalion being in the centre of the 62nd Brigade attack. The attack was launched at 5:20am and completed by 7:10am, and although taking place in a downpour, resulted in both objectives being taken plus 2 officer and 183 other rank prisoners plus war materiel.
Pte Ball was discharged under paragraph 392 xxviii of King’s Regulations (Discharge on demobilization), thus indicating that he was serving on a ‘duration of war’ engagement. This was presumably some time in 1919. For his service, his full entitlement was the British War Medal and Victory Medal.
Ancestry.co.uk - UK, World War I War Diaries (France, Belgium and Germany), 1914-1920
44450 Morris or Maurice Isaac Wright killed in action 9 June 1917, 26th Northumberland Fusiliers
44452 Edwin Hope died 28 August 1918, 12/13th Northumberland Fusiliers
44453 John tom Burbridge died of wounds, 26th Northumberland Fusiliers 6 February 1917
44455 John Nussey killed in action 9 April 1917, 25th Northumberland Fusiliers
44457 Harry William Batchelor killed in action 28 April 1917, 25th Northumberland Fusiliers
44459 James Arthur Beckwith killed in action 13 April 1918 12/13th NF
John Finch, a labourer from Bromley, Middlesex, was born circa 1895. Standing 5’ 6 ½” tall, and bearing a tattoo of a sailor’s head on the right forearm, he enlisted at Stratford on 19 June 1916. He served with the Royal Fusiliers as a Private under the regimental number 54581, and then the Labour Corps, also as a Private, under the regimental number 61372. The latter number is in the range associated with the 103rd Labour Company, which (along with the 104th) was formed in 1917 from the 35th (Labour) Battalion, Royal Fusiliers, itself formed at Falmer, near Brighton. He may have gone overseas as a Royal Fusilier between June and December 1916, probably with the 35th (Labour) Battalion, which went overseas on 8 June 1916 and moved to Rouen where it was engaged in unloading from ships docked at the port. However at some point in his service career he appears to have passed through the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, absenting himself from their Labour depot at Purfleet on 23 December 1916 whilst still seemingly (from the regimental number given) on the strength of the Royal Fusiliers. In January 1917 (30/01/1917) he was reported as a Deserter or Absentee from His Majesty's Service (see: Police Gazette, Volume XXXIII No.3292) but clearly returned (or was apprehended) in time to undertake active service as a Private in the Labour Corps, to which he transferred in April 1917, most probably serving (at least initially) in the 103rd Company. The 450-man Labour Companies were employed all along the forward areas running behind the front lines on a range of labouring and other tasks ranging from road mending and ammunition loading to drainage, ditching and sanitation. Being constantly within shelling range at the very least, the job was often dangerous, 2300 men of the Corps being killed in action or dying of wounds between May 1917 and the end of the war. Men of the Corps also received nearly 500 decorations for gallantry during the First World War. As 61372 Private J Finch, Labour Corps, he was Listed as Wounded in War Office Daily List No. 5457, Report Date 04/01/1918, suggesting that he was wounded in late November or early December 1917. As such, he was entitled to wear a "Wound Stripe" as authorised under Army Order 204 of 6th July 1916, the terms of this award being met by being named in this list. The List confirmed his place of enlistment as Stratford, E.
He was demobilised on 1 December 1919. A subsequent request for a pension was rejected. His full medal entitlement was the British War Medal and Victory Medal.
John Leyden served as a Private under the regimental number 8190 in the Scottish Rifles. He was born circa 1874 to William Leyden and came from Greenock, Renfrewshire. He was a Presbyterian and brother to Mrs McBride of 17 Baker Street, Greenock. In civil life he was a moulder with Messrs Houston & Kerr, mechanical engineers and ironfounders, of Greenock. Enlisting around September 1914, he may have been an early recruit to the 11th (Service) Battalion, The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles), which was formed in October 1914 at Hamilton. He first proceeded overseas to France roughly 11 months later, on 20 September 1915, with the 11th, as part of the 77th Brigade of the 26th Division. After landing at Boulogne-sur-Mer and spending a short period on the Western Front, he was subsequently posted, with his battalion, to the Macedonian Theatre. After having concentrated at Flesselles, the Division entrained for Marseilles from 9 December 1915 onwards, embarking for Salonika two days afterwards and beginning to arrive on the 23rd. The following month units moved from Lembet (north of Salonika) to Happy Valley Camp, completing concentration by early February at Happy Valley and joining XII Corps.
Pte Leyden would have probably taken part in the Battle of Horseshoe Hill, South West of Dojran, on 10/08/1916, Horseshoe Hill being one of a series of crests overlooking Doiran. Having been taken ill on or before 29 August, he was transferred to hospital (No. 28 Casualty Clearing Station) on 29/08/1916, and placed in ward MY1. At the time he was serving with the 1st Company of the 11th Scottish Rifles, He died of Dysentery at No.28 CCS, Salonika at 11:15pm on 2 September 1916, aged 42. At the time of his death he had 2 years’ service, including one year with the Field Force.
Pte Leyden was buried, and is commemorated, in Salonika Anglo-French Military Cemetery, (Lembet Road, Salonika). His financial effects of £4 11 2 and War Gratuity of £9 were split between his sisters Ellen/Helen, Sarah and Mary, his 1914-15 Star being issued in the latter half of 1919 (reissued, with a correction to the regimental number impressed, in 1920), whilst his British War Medal and Victory Medal issued some time in 1921.
William Graham Thompson was born circa 1885 (1883 according to some records) and married Isabella Walton on 10 July 1912 at the Parish Church Lamesly, County Durham. The couple had a son, George Graham Thompson, born in May 1915. A master butcher from Gateshead (in 1915 living at 3 Essex Gardens, Gateshead), and standing 5’ 7 ½” tall, William first attested his willingness to serve under the ‘Derby’ Scheme on 12 December 1915. After a period on the Army Reserve, he was approved and appointed for general service with the 21st (Local Reserve) Battalion, Durham Light Infantry in July 1916, under the regimental number 37272, joining at Newcastle. He also passed through the 4th (Reserve) Battalion, Durham Light Infantry, being posted there on 1 September 1916. Here he gained 1st Class proficiency pay as a 1st Class Shot; he was qualified as a stretcher bearer. After a period in Brighton Grove Military Hospital, Newcastle, he was initially posted to the BEF (11th Durham Light Infantry) via Folkestone on 2 June 1917. However, on 22 June 1917 whilst still at infantry base depot he was transferred to the Manchester Regiment and then posted to the 2/9th Battalion, the Manchester Regiment, joining the battalion in the field on the same day. After a couple of periods in hospital for a skin infection to his thumb in November 1917 and a sprained ankle and concussion in March 1918, upon his recovery in June 1918 he was transferred again to the East Lancashire Regiment under the regimental number 31773 and posted to the 2nd Battalion. After a period of UK leave in late August, he was wounded with the East Lancashire Regiment (Gun Shot Wound to the thigh) on 13 October 1918 and admitted to 23 Casualty Clearing Station, his wound being recorded in War Office Daily List No.5739, Report Date 04/12/1918. This was in the course of the final advance in Artois. This List gave his Next Of Kin Address as Gateshead. He was accordingly entitled to wear a "Wound Stripe" as authorised under Army Order 204 of 6th July 1916, the terms of this award being met by being named in this list. After being medically examined at Enghien, he was sent to the UK for demobilisation on 7 February 1919 (having been selected for early dispersal by reason of having a guarantee letter – presumably of employment in his trade of master butcher), and transferred to the Army Class ‘Z’ Reserve 1 month later.
For his service he was entitled to the British War Medal and Victory Medal, receiving them in April 1922.
UK, British Army World War I Service Records, 1914-1920 - Ancestry.co.uk
