'Other Ranks' Photographs and Biographies from the 1st Battalion (1)

Private 33588 Arthur George ALLEN

Arthur was born in and lived in Wellingborough, and enlisted from Bedford. Initially he served as Trooper 2512 in the Bedfordshire Yeomanry before being transferred into the veteran 1st Battalion, probably on recovering from wounds received whilst in the Yeomanry. Interestingly, his service number is only 4 away from Joseph Bugby who also initially served in the Yeomanry but who fell in the 8th Battalion in October 1917. This suggests the two are likely to have known each other and probably enlisted together. Arthur was posted as missing but was eventually accepted as being killed in action on the 23rd April 1917 when the Battalion attacked La Coulotte during the Battle at Arras and lost almost 350 men.

Private 14759 William Russell Castle

Gordon Gilby got in touch to ask for and share information on this man, William Castle, his mother's brother. William was born around 1895 in Layston, Hertfordshire, to John and Katherine Castle. He lived with his widowed mother in Buntingford when war broke out, at River Green.

William travelled to Royston to enlist and from his service number, we know that he enlisted on the 4th September 1914. After training, William was sent to France and served only briefly in the 1st battalion, arriving in France on the 27th April 1915. Three days later he was with them in the front lines, opposite the bitterly contested Hill 60, south-eats of Ypres. William, along with many of the 300 young men who arrived with him as replacements on the 30th April was wounded in the early gas attacks of the war within days of arriving. During a particularly determined German assault to take control of the hill, during which Edward Warner won a Victoria Cross in William's battalion and Captain Gledstanes and a further 300 of his comrades fell, William was wounded.

He died of his wounds on the 7th May 1915 aged just 20. Sadly, as is the case with many of the early war deaths, William's grave was lost in the fighting that raged there for a further three and a half years, so he is remembered on the Menin Gate Memorial to the missing in Ypres.

Arthur Edwin Clement

Linda Fox contacted me to share her Grandfathers service and photographs with the site. This is Arthur Clement who was born in Station Road in Tottenham, London on 20th September 1888 and enlisted into the Regiment around October 1906 as Private 8613.

He served in the 2nd battalion before the war, seeing Gibraltar (1907 - 10), Bermuda (1910 - 12) and South Africa (1912 - 13). After South Africa he joined the regiment in England, having completed his seven years with the colours, going into one of the Reserve battalions until recalled to the colours when war broke out in August 1914. Arthur landed in France on the 16th August with his fellow Old Contemptibles of the 1st battalion and served during the battles of Mons (23rd August 1914), Le Cateau (26th August 1914), Crepy en Valois and Meaux during the Battles of the Marne, the Battle of the Aisne and at Missy, La Bassee, Givenchy and Rougers.

Arthur was probably wounded in the spring 1915 engagements as in November 1915 he was transferred to the 5th Royal Irish Fusiliers as Private 22254, who were recovering from their ordeal on Gallipoli. He spent the rest of his service during the war with them in Salonika, which was when the photo below was taken as he recovered in hospital from an illness he picked up whilst there.

Either one of the recurring illnesses associated with service on Salonika or another wound resulted in Arthur being in the Hope Ancillary Hospital in Salford by 1918, where he met his future wife. Ironically they married in Salford on 11th day of the 11th month 1918!

Arthur was discharged from the army in 1919 and was one of the numerous veterans who 'died early', passing away in 1935 in Tottenham. He caught a cold which because his lungs had been weakened turned to pneumonia and then to septicaemia. He is buried in the Tottenham Cemetery.

Private 8055 William John CLIFFORD

William was an "Old Contemptible" and lived at Wilmington Cottage, Charlton Kings in Gloucestershire. He was born in Upper Slaughter, the son of John and Emily Clifford who lived at the above address in 1914. Before the war he had been a railway guard at Tondu Glamorgan but later he enlisted as a regular soldier in September 1904, giving an address in Upper Slaughter.

He was serving as a regular in Ireland when war was declared and landed with the 1st Battalion in France 16th August 1914. Having survived the battles at Mons, Le Cateau and the rearguard actions in September, William was killed in action during the defence of Givenchy at the Battle of La Bassee on 13th October 1914, aged 29 and is commemorated on the Le Touret Memorial. The 1st Battalion suffered around 150 casualties during the fighting that day - including 23 who were killed. He left a widow Charlotte Winifred (known as Winnie) Clifford (nee Bond) who lived at 1 Moreton Place, Brookway Road, Charlton Kings.

(My thanks to John Hamblin for the pre-war bio and his photo)