In Search of a Soldier

perseus

Active member
My Cousin is very much involved in genealogy and set out to discover the circumstances of our ancestors death on the Somme in WW1. He was killed near Ginchy on the Somme in the same battle which unsuccessfully used tanks for the first time on 15th September 1916

I have just uploaded some of the documents to a blog for him. My computer is rather slow, so it would be interesting to know if the pdf and powerpoint download OK. Perhaps I should use a cut down version, or convert it to html for faster loading?

Before you ask, his age was printed incorrectly on the memorial and a Lance Corporal has two stripes in the Scots Guards.

http://owlsmoor.wordpress.com/
 
Go to CWG they often have information of when and where he died and what unit

Joseph Robert Chappell L/Cpl Scots Guards No 8771 and is on the Memorial at Thiepval


The Battle of Flers-Courcelette, was a battle within the Franco-British Somme Offensive which took place in the summer and autumn of 1916. Launched on the 15th of September 1916 the battle went on for one week. Flers-Courcelette began with the overall objective of cutting a hole in the German line by using massed artillery and infantry attacks. This hole would then be exploited with the use of cavalry. It was the third and final large-scale offensive mounted by the British Army during the Battle of the Somme. By its conclusion on September 22, the strategic objective of a breakthrough had not been achieved; however tactical gains were made in the capture of the villages of Courcelette, Martinpuich and Flers. In some places, the front lines were advanced by over 1.2 miles (2 kilometres) by the Allied attacks.
 
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Thanks LeEnfield. Just to clarify 'In search of a soldier' is the title of his research. As is often the case the specific circumstances of his death may never (thankfully) be known, but he has researched into the surrounding events in the attached report.
 
By the way although Joseph is wearing a full corporals stripes he is only a L/Cpl as they have a different way of doing things in the Guards. A Guardsman with three stripes is often only a Corporal. If you trawl through the net you should be able to find the Regimental Battlefield reports for that day for the Scots guards. Many of my relations were killed in the Middlesex Regiment and there are the daily reports on what they were doing on that day and often a list of dead and wounded
 
As far as I am aware, a Guardsman with 3 white stripes is a corporal, while 3 gold stripes designate a sergeant.

I've been trying to find out more about my Grandfather who served in the Middlesex on the Somme, he was fast asleep when Hill 60 went up. He formed part of a firing squad to shoot a Belgian woman, who was found guilty of working for the Germans by poisoning the water. I have done all manner of searches to find out more about the woman, but have hit a brick wall.
 
Don't even go there with Cavalry Regiments with their Corporal of Horse(Sgt) and Regimental Corporal Major(Regimental Sergeant Major)!!! :shock:
 
Oy, I was Corporal of Horse,
We have unusual ranks, to confuse the rest of the army.
Works too!.
 
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