CCLXXVII (277th) (III West Lancs) Brigade, RFA Feb-Oct 1918

[Blue Dragoon]

Good Afternoon to you all

I'm new to the site and am looking for some assistance from some kind forum memebers in the military history of my wife's great grandfather's 1st World War Unit:

CCLXXVII (277th) (III West Lancs) Brigade, Royal Field Artillery.

I am only interested in the period Feb to Oct 1918. Actions, Areas of Operation, Maps, war diaries refernces in books or on the wen. Any and all assistance gratefully received.

Here's what Ive compiled so far (mostly extracted from the Great War Forum and with the help of Great War Forum members):

HARRY JARMAN 1st WORLD WAR

May have served pre-war in the Territorial Force with the Bedfordshire Regt.

794564 & 283339 Gnr Harry Jarman (1883-1953) of Abington Piggots, Nr Royston, Cambridgeshire.

1. Attested 4th December 1915. He was then placed on the Army Reserve and sent home to await mobilisation on 3rd June 1916.

2. Mobilised 3rd June 1916. He was initially a Private but a week later on 8th June he was made a Gunner and posted to the RFA Depot.

3. Posted to the 10th Prov Battery on 6th July 1916.

4. Posted as a driver to the 6th Reserve Brigade on 6th December 1917.

5. Posted to the Base Depot in France on 23rd January 1918 (probably Le Havre).

6. Posted to C Battery the 277th Army Bde, RFA as a Gunner on 29th January 1918. He remained with that unit until the 11th October 1918.

7. Medically Evacuated to Warden House, Deal, on 12th October 1918.

8. Discharged no longer physically fit (Nephritis) on 14th January 1919 to 2 Cromwell Terrace, Queens Rd, Royston.

CCLXXVII (277th) (III West Lancs) Brigade, Royal Field Artillery. (Extracted from the Long Long Trail)

This Brigade was attached to 55th (West Lancs) Division pre-war. In the first years of the war the Brigade remained in England when most of the rest of 55th Division was broken up to reinforce the British Expeditionary Force on the Western Front. The Brigade was then attached to the 2nd Canadian Division and moved to France in October 1915. It rejoined 55th (West Lancs) Division in January 1916. On 8 January 1917 the Brigade was re-rolled as an Army Brigade and stayed in this role until July 1919.

CCLXXVII (277th) (III West Lancs) Brigade, Royal Field Artillery. (Information provided by Ian Riley on the Great War Forum).

The 55th (West Lancashire) Division was essentially the pre-war West Lancashire Territorial Division. When war broke out battalions were sent piecemeal to support the BEF, the first to go being 10th (Scottish) Basttalion, The King's (Liverpool Regiment), otherwise known as the Liverpool Scottish, on 1 November 1914 having gone from Liverpool to Edinburgh (Forth Defences) to Tunbridge Wells and thence to 3rd Division at Kemmel. Other battalions followed early in 1915. The North Lancashire Brigade went as a formation to join the Highland Division of the Territorial Force at Bedford in April 1915 (which must have been a mutual culture shock) and then to France as part of the 51st (Highland) Division. The Territorial RFA Brigades of the West Lancashire Division (I, II, III and IV West Lancs) went to France at the beginning of October 1915 and joined the 2nd Canadian Division.

The entire division was reformed at the beginning of January 1916 (all its battalions then being in France and Flanders with other formations) concentrating in the region of Hallencourt. and numbered as the 55th. The only change from their pre-war designation was the addition of 2/5th Battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers which, I think, had replaced the 5th Bn King's Own (Royal Lancaster Regiment) in the North Lancashire Brigade (it became 164 Infantry Brigade when it rejoined the 55th Division) and 1/5 KORLR eventually replaced 1/4th Battalion of the South Lancashire Regiment in the South Lancashire Brigade (166 Infantry Brigade), the latter battalion having taken on the rôle of the 55th Divisional pioneer battalion. The last infantry battalion to turn up was I think the socially exclusive 1/6th King's who had clearly found a good party at which to linger. The divisional commander, Jeudwine, had a very difficult job to prise his full complement of engineers out of the clutches of some other division.

The artillery units of the RFA arrived almost immediately from 2nd Canadian Division and, whilst I am quoting from memory here, I am sure that their arrivals are recorded in the divisional General Staff war diary during early January 1916. Archibald Becke (Order of Battle of Divisions Volume 2 that covers the First Line Territorial Force divisions) describes a rather dizzying series of reinforcements and re-numberings that leaves the brigades as CCLXXV through to CCLXXVIII in direct descent from their West Lancashire Territorial designations. According to Becke, in June 1916 the first three first three brigades were running four batteries each (designated as A, B and C and one howitzer battery each, D) and CCLXXVIII was running three batteries (A, B and C).

Kamp Knews: The Offical News-ance of the 3rd. West Lancs Brigade RFA (Liverpool: Editions of Christmas 1916, 1917 and 1918).

Kamp Knews was submitted to the British Museum so may be in the British Library! It records the transformation of the 3rd West Lancs Brigade into Army Field Artillery (the number is not given but other sources indicate 277) and in particular the 1918 edition demonstrates the linearity of Territorial descent with the statement that the brigade had eight remaining out of the original twenty-four Territorial] officers who went out to France and Flanders in 1915. The obituaries and other stories carried clearly show that the 3rd West Lancs was a Territorial Force unit with an antecedent tradition in the Lancashire Artillery Volunteers. It does not give any meaningful detail of the employment of the brigade during 1918 other than it suffered 45 killed and 186 wounded in the last thirteen months of the war.

Wadsworth states that brigades within the 55th Division were to have batteries of six guns from October 1916 and 288 Brigade was dissolved to effect this (p. 49). Becke states that 277 Brigade (renamed from the 3rd West Lancs) became Army Field Artillery in January 1917

I am afraid that I do not have detailed organisation of the 3rd West Lancs Brigade pre-war except to say that its batteries were numbered 12 (Admiral Street, Liverpool), 13 Earp Street, Garston, Near Liverpool) and 14 (Widnes). Possibly the minute books of the West Lancs Territorial Force Association might give more details of manning and equipment

277th Army Brigade, Royal Field Artillery in 1918.

In March 1918, just before the 1918 German Somme offensive, 277th Army Brigade, Royal Field Artillery (commanded by Lt Col JE Cochrane) were supporting 16 (Irish) Division (commanded by Major General Sir C. P. A Hull.) who were part of VII Corps (commanded by Lt-Gen Sir Walter Congreve, VC, KCB, MVO). VII Corps were themselves part of the 5th Army (commanded by General Sir Hubert de la Poer Gough GCB, GCMG, KCVO ).

277th Army Bde, RFA were initially located in the vicinity of Ronssoy, astride the main German thrust along with 177, 180 & 189 Bdes RFA. At the end of the offensive these 4 RFA Bdes were down to a total of 6 x 18-pr and 4 x 4.5 inch Howitzers out of a starting total of 72 x18 pdr and 24 x 4.5 inch Howitzers. 277th Army Bde RFA was still fighting on 4 Apr in the Le Hamel area when the German offensive reached its limit and was stopped by artillery fire.

http://www.dublin-fusiliers.com/battali ... isers.html

The above link is a good account of the withdrawal from a 16 (Irish) Division perspective who 277th Army Bde, RFA were supporting. It also has a good map which can be used in conjunction with the 277th war diary notes for the period of March 1918 which can be found following the link below.

http://collectionscanada.gc.ca/pam_arch ... tillery%29

Farndale, History of the Royal Artillery - Western Front 1914-18

The action on 4 Apr was a strategic victory, it marked the stopping of the German offensive at its deepest point. 14 & 18 Divs were the ones in the way. On 4 Apr one gun of C Battery 277th Army Bde, RFA (Harry Jarman’s Battery) was in the open firing without pause for 2 hours and survived. Commander Royal Artillery 14 Div issued his famous order "This attack must and can be stopped by artillery fire. If any battery can no longer effectively stop the enemy from its present position, it will at once move fighting to a position on the crest, to engage the enemy over open sights. It is essential that the artillery should hold the line and they will do so." And they did.

14 Div Arty (46 Bde only), 177 & 180 Bdes (16 Div), 174 & 186 Bdes (39 Div), 277 Army Bde, fire from 50 & 66 Div Artys, 21, 22, 23, 68 & 76 Hvy Bdes.

Operation MICHAEL

Operation Michael was a First World War German military operation that began the Spring Offensive on 21 March 1918. It was launched from the Hindenburg Line, in the vicinity of Saint-Quentin, France. Its goal was to break through the Allied lines and advance in a north-west direction and seize the Channel ports which supplied the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and drive the BEF into the sea. Just two days into the operation, Ludendorff changed his plan, and pushed for an offensive due west along the whole of the British front north of the Somme. This was designed to separate the French and British Armies and crush the British forces by pushing them into the sea. The offensive ended at Villers-Bretonneux, a little to the east of the key Allied communications centre of Amiens, where the Entente managed to halt the German advance. The German advance stalled largely through very heavy casualties, an inability to maintain supplies to the advancing troops and the arrival of Entente reserves. Since much of the territory involved consisted of the shell-torn wilderness left by the 1916 Battle of the Somme it was known to some as the 1918 Battle of the Somme, and to the French as the Second Battle of Picardy (French: 2ème Bataille de Picardie).

The failure of the offensive marked the beginning of the end of the First World War. The arrival in France of large reinforcements from the United States replaced material and men lost by the Entente, but the German Army was unable to recover from its losses before these reinforcements deployed. Operation Michael had failed to achieve its objectives, namely in separating the Allied Armies.

All territory gained during this offensive was lost during the British-led Allied counteroffensive, known as the second battle of the Somme, which started on 21 August, during the Allied Hundred Days Offensive.

5th ARMY

In 1918 the Fifth Army took over a stretch of front-line previous occupied by the French south of the River Somme and on 21 March bore the brunt of the opening phase of the German Spring Offensive, known as Operation Michael. The failure of the Fifth Army to withstand the German advance led to Gough's dismissal and the disbanding of the broken army. In April and May 1918, the Fifth Army was nominally commanded by General Sir William Peyton but when it was reformed as an army some months later, its command was given to General William Birdwood but, it saw little action in the remainder of the war.
Historian Andrew Roberts offers a more favourable assessment of Gough's contribution:

.... ‘the offensive saw a great wrong perpetrated on a distinguished British commander that was not righted for many years. Gough's Fifth Army had been spread thin on a forty-two-mile front lately taken over from the exhausted and demoralised French. The reason why the Germans did not break through to Paris, as by all the laws of strategy they ought to have done, was the heroism of the Fifth Army and its utter refusal to break. They fought a thirty-eight-mile rearguard action, contesting every village, field and, on occasion, yard . . . With no reserves and no strongly defended line to its rear, and with eighty German divisions against fifteen British, the Fifth Army fought the Somme offensive to a standstill on the Ancre, not retreating beyond Villers-Bretonneux’ .....

Other historians such as Les Carlyon concur in holding the opinion that Gough was unfairly dealt with following the Michael Offensive, but also regard Gough's performance during the Great War in generally unflattering terms, citing documented and repeated failings in planning, preparation, comprehension of the battle space, and a lack of empathy with the common soldier.

Post Mar 1918

Subsequently 277th Army Bde, RFA are recorded in the 56th (London) Division and 281st Bde RFA War Diaries:

21 May 1918. 02.00. The 8th Battalion Middlesex Regt (56th Div). Raid near Tilloy - Wancourt Rd (SE of Arras). Fire support provided by, among others, the 277th Bde.

28th May 1918. 23.00. 8th Middlesex and 1st Londons (56th Div) again mounted a raid in the same area and were again supported by 277th.

20th July 1918. Arras Station. 281st Bde RFA relieved by 277th and 311th Brigades RFA.

More research being undertaken to fill in what Harry did after the German Somme offensive in March and before he was evacuated to Deal in October.

The 100 Day Offensive 1918

The battle of Amiens, 8 August-3 September 1918, is often seen as the turning point on the Western Front (First World War). The first half of the year had been dominated by German offensives, starting with the second battle of the Somme (21 March-4 April 1918), which had driven the British back almost to the outskirts of Amiens, creating a massive salient in the Allied lines.

The Allied counterattack began during the second battle of the Marne (15 July-5 August 1918). This saw the failure of the final German offensive and a Franco-American counterattack (Aisne-Marne Offensive, 18 July-5 August) that pushed the Germans out of the Château-Thierry salient. On 24 July, while this battle was going on, the Allied commanders-in-chiefs met at Bombon to decide what to do next. The general assumption was that the war would continue into 1919, but Foch planned a series of counterattacks for 1918. The initial aim was to push the Germans out of three awkward salients, at St. Mihiel, Château-Thierry and Amiens. If theses attacks went well, then a general offensive would follow.

The British contribution to this plan was the battle of Amiens. Even before the meeting at Bombon, Haig had directed General Rawlinson, in command of the Fourth Army around Amiens, to prepare for an attack on the salient. Rawlinson developed a plan for a tank battle. Rawlinson had a multi-national army, with American, Australian, Canadian and British divisions. He was given 530 British and 70 French tanks, of which 96 were supply tanks, 22 gun carriers and 420 fighting tank, including 324 Mark Vs. For the purposes of the Amiens attack Haig was also given control of the French First Army (Debeny), to the right of the British position. Eight French divisions would take part in the attack at Amiens.

The key to Rawlinson’s plan was surprise. He was planning a ten division attack against a 10 mile front (with the Canadians and Australians making up the majority of the infantry). It was essential that the Germans did not suspect what was coming – a well timed German counter-bombardment could have inflicted crippling casualties on the British attack. Accordingly, Rawlinson planned to attack without any preliminary artillery bombardment. The attack would begin with the tanks, supported by infantry and protected by a creeping barrage. The artillery would open fire at the same time as the tank advance. To the right the French First Army was short of tanks. In order to preserve the surprise, the French would begin an artillery bombardment at the same time as the British attack, and then follow up with their infantry 45 minutes later.

The German line was defended by twenty tired divisions from the Eighteenth Army (von Hutier) and Second Army (Marwitz). In the four months since they had captured the salient, the Germans had created a strong defensive system. According to Ludendorff, “the divisional fronts were narrow, artillery was plentiful, and the trench system was organised in depth. All experience gained on the 18th July had been acted upon”.
The attack began on 8 August. In the first few hours of the battle six German divisions collapsed. Entire units began to surrender. Ludendorff called 8 August the “Black Day of the German Army”. By the end of the day the Allied had advanced nine miles over the entire ten mile front. 16,000 prisoners were taken during the first day.

The first phase of the battle ended on 11 August. The Germans had retreated to the lines they had held before the first battle of the Somme. Haig felt that these lines were too strong to attack without a proper artillery bombardment – the old Somme battlefield was a wasteland of shell craters unsuited to tank warfare.

Instead, Haig launched a second attack further north, using the Third Army (Byng) and part of the First Army (commanded by General Henry Sinclair Horne, 1st Baron Horne GCB, KCMG).

The purpose of this attack, known as the battle of Bapaume, was to force the Germans back to the line of the Somme. This attack began on 21 August. After seeing off a German counterattack on 22 August, the British advance forced the Germans to retreat to the Somme. The attack expanded to include the First and Fourth Armies, while the French continued their own attack further south.

On 26 August the Germans held a new line running along the Somme south from Péronne, then across open country to Noyon on the Oise. On 29 August the New Zealanders capture Bapaume, in the centre of this line. The Australians made the next breakthrough, fighting their way across the Somme on the night of 30-31 August and capturing Péronne. Finally, on 2 September the Canadian Corps, fighting with the First Army, broke through the Drocourt-Quéant switch, south east of Arras. These breakthroughs forced the Germans to abandon the line of the Somme and retreat all the way to the Hindenburg Line.

The unexpected extent of the British and Commonwealth armies’ successes at Amiens and Bapaume encouraged Foch to plan a massive triple offensive for the end of September, with the intention of breaking the Hindenburg Line and forcing the Germans out of France (Meuse-Argonne offensive, battle of Flanders and battle of Cambrai-St. Quentin).

The Germans suffered very heavy losses during the battle of Amiens. The British and French captured 33,000 prisoners and inflicted between 50,000 and 70,000 casualties on the Germans. The British lost 22,000 men, the French 20,000. The great triple offensive would achieve its main aim, and trigger the eventual German collapse, but at much higher cost.

11 Nov 1918 277th Army Bde, RFA were recorded as being orbatted in the First Army Artillery Group commanded by Maj Gen Alexander

What was a Royal Field Artillery Brigade?

The Brigade was the basic tactical unit of the field artillery of the British army in the Great War of 1914-1918. It was composed of a Brigade Headquarters and a number of batteries of guns or howitzers. At full establishment, a brigade of 18-lbr field guns consisted of 795 men of whom 23 were officers. For a 4.5-inch howitzer brigade, this was 755 and 22. The following notes refer to the establishment of a field gun brigade. Where howitzer brigade details differ, they are highlighted.

Brigade HQ

The Brigade was usually commanded by an officer with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. Brigade HQ also had two other officers : a Captain or Lieutenant filled the role of Adjutant (in charge of administration); similarly a Captain or Lieutenant was the Orderly Officer (responsible for stores and transport); an officer of the Royal Army Medical Corps was attached, as was an officer of the Veterinary Corps.Brigade HQ also included a Sergeant-Major plus two Corporals, two Bombardiers, nine Drivers, 7 Gunners, a Clerk, and a Trumpeter. These filled roles as signallers, telephonsists and assisted with range-taking duties. A Corporal and 3 privates of the Royal Army Medical Corps were attached for water duties; 8 Gunners acted as Officers Batmen (personal servants), and 2 as Orderlies for the Medical Officer. The Brigade HQ was in command of 3 Batteries and an Ammunition Column.

Batteries

Usually lettered A to D, each of the Batteries numbered 198 heads at full establishment. Each was commanded by a Major or Captain, with a Captain as Second-in-Command, and 3 Lieutenants or Second-Lieutenants in charge of 2-gun sections. Battery establishment also included a Battery Sergeant-Major , a Battery Quartermaster Sergeant , a Farrier-Sergeant, 4 Shoeing Smiths (of which 1 would be a Corporal), 2 Saddlers, 2 Wheelers, 2 Trumpeters, 7 Sergeants, 7 Corporals, 11 Bombardiers, 75 Gunners, 70 Drivers and 10 Gunners acting as Batmen.
(NB In 1916 most Btys were of 4 guns (although at least some of the pre-war regular Btys may have retained 6). In 1916 the BEF decided to re-organise the RFA by in effect disbanding the 4.5 H Bdes and distributing their 3 Btys to the 3 x 18 pr Bdes in each division, thus raising them to 4 btys. One of these Bdes then became an Army Bde. In practice the re-organisation wasn't this tidy (after all this is the British Army and various factors will have determined which Bde HQ was chopped in each Division) and the re-organisation continued into 1918. In fact on 11/11/18 there were still some Bdes that had not achieved 4 Btys. That said the 277th Army Bde, RFA orbat for 11/11/18 shows 4 Btys A-D and their March 1918 war diary entries record a combination of both 18 pdr and 4.5 howitzers.

[MaryA]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

You have done an amazing amount of research, well done! and your post has attracted a lot of interest, I hope there is somebody who can help you fill in your missing bits.

[Blue Dragoon]

Bingo!!

I now have a copy of the Divisional and Corps attachments for 277 Army Bde RFA (III (Lancs) Bde) for the period in question. What I'm in the process off googling (with only a modicum of success) is the Army to which the specified Div/Corps were attached to at the specified time period and the corresponding Sector AOs of the specified Army (or if known the Corps or even Division). I'm assuming the majority of attachments were to 1st Army but stand to be corrected. Grateful for any help or links to sector maps for the time period.

22nd April 1918 – 14th July 1918 – Attached 56 (London) Division XVII CORPS

The division remained in the Arras area until the allied offensive 8 August 1918.

Subsequently 277th Army Bde, RFA are recorded in the 56th (London) Division and 281st Bde RFA War Diaries:

21 May 1918. 02.00. The 8th Battalion Middlesex Regt (56th Div). Raid near Tilloy - Wancourt Rd (just SE of Arras). Fire support provided by, among others, the 277th Bde.

28th May 1918. 23.00. 8th Middlesex and 1st Londons (56th Div) again mounted a raid in the same area and were again supported by 277th.

20th July 1918. Arras Station. 281st Bde RFA relieved by 277th and 311th Brigades RFA.

22nd April 1918 – 14th July 1918 – Attached 56 (London) Division XVII CORPS.

15th July 1918 – Attached 15 (Scottish) Division XVII CORPS.


15th July 1918 – 31st July 1918 - Attached 1 and 4 Canadian Divisions CANADIAN CORPS.

19-20 July Reserve.

31st July 1918 – 13th August 1918 – Attached 52 (Lowland) Division XVII CORPS.

14th August 1918 - 2nd October 1918 – Attached 8 Division VIII CORPS.

2nd October 1918 – 5th October 1918 – Attached 20 Division VII CORPS.

[Blue Dragoon]

Here's the full list of III (West Lancs) Bde RFA attachments from January 1917 when they became 277th Army Bde RFA. Attachments are shown to Div/Corps

VIII
19.01.1917
26.01.1917

39
VIII
27.01.1917
19.02.1917

55
VIII
19.02.1917
02.03.1917

Rest
VIII
03.03.1917
21.03.1917

55
VIII
22.03.1917
27.05.1917

41
X
28.05.1917
01.07.1917

47
X
01.07.1917
08.07.1917

8
II
09.07.1917
02.08.1917

25
II
02.08.1917
12.08.1917

18
II
14.08.1917
17.08.1917

8
II
17.08.1917
24.08.1917

Rest and Move
25.08.1917
08.09.1917

37
IX
09.09.1917
11.09.1917

19
IX
11.09.1917
13.10.1917

Rest and Move
14.10.1917
30.10.1917

46
I
01.11.1917
10.11.1917

Move
11.11.1917
14.11.1917

12
III
14.11.1917


HQ, A & D Btys
6
III
29.11.1917
06.12.1917

HQ, A & D Btys
12
III
06.12.1917
08.12.1917

Complete Bde
16
VII
08.12.1917
05.01.1918

VII
06.01.1918
01.02.1918

16
VII
02.02.1918
25.03.1918

16
XIX
25.03.1918
06.04.1918

07.04.1918
21.04.1918

56
XVII
22.04.1918
14.07.1918

15
XVII
15.07.1918

1 Canadian
Canadian
15.07.1918
18.07.1918

GHQ Reserve
XVII
19.07.1918
20.07.1918

1 Canadian
Canadian
21.07.1918
24.07.1918

4 Canadian
Canadian
24.07.1918
30.07.1918

4 Canadian
XVII
30.07.1918
31.07.1918

52
XVII
31.07.1917
14.08.1918

8
VIII
14.08.1918
02.10.1918

20
VIII
02.10.1918
08.10.1918

50
VIII
08.10.1918
13.10.1918

12
VIII
13.10.1918
03.11.1918

52
VIII
03.11.1918
04.11.1918

Move
05.11.1918

63
XXII
06.11.1918
Onwards

[BerniHA]

Hello,
Thank you for your very informative notes about the 277th RFA. I am researching for a documentary about my Grandfather, Henry Hunt, who I believe was a Bombardier in the 277th. We believe he was gassed at Ypres during the summer of 1917, and your notes about the division/ corps, to which the 277th were attached, are extremely valuable.
I would be grateful for any further information you could give me, and any pointers to where primary sources are to be found!
I've had a look at the war diaries at the National archives, but they are not very helpful.
We have very little information about Henry, as his war records were destroyed during WW2, and he died in 1924, leaving only snippets of his tragic story. He was from Preston originally, but we have not been able to locate him there in the 1911 census - perhaps he was in Liverpool?!!
Thanks once again for any information you can give. Berni

[MaryA]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

I understand about the shortage of information with which to trace Henry, but just in case our crew are able to assist, please give the full details from his marriage certificate.

[dickiesam]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

I understand about the shortage of information with which to trace Henry, but just in case our crew are able to assist, please give the full details from his marriage certificate.

Hi BerniHA,
In addition to his marriage cert details that Mary A asked for, that would give us a location, an age and his father's name/occupation, do you have any knowledge of any siblings Henry might have had?

In advance of the marriage cert information I decide to do a little digging. Assuming you have his death year correct then this is him:
Deaths Dec 1924> Hunt, Henry - 35 - Preston - 8e - 616.

EDITED to remove incorrect information!

And this would be his marriage:
Marriages Mar 1915> Hunt, Henry and Whittam, Alice - Preston - 8e - 946.

Dickiesam

[BerniHA]

Hello, Thank you for the interest in Henry. He married widowed Alice Whittam (nee Nelson) in February 1915 (if I remember correctly). Her first husband, David Whittam, was in the regular Army and had died in the First Battle of Ypres (October 1914). I get the feeling that he had deserted her a long time before this (details to follow), and that she had known Henry for quite a considerable length of time.

Henry has an interesting family, including Irish ancestry on both sides. I have pretty well researched all I can on his parents and Irish genealogy (Hunt and Coady from Mayo and Co Clare respectively, via South Africa!!!!), and will get together a synopsis of his pedigree for the genealogical part of this website. (By the way I have paid for research to be done in Ireland, to find out more about his family - so far without any result).

John Hunt, his paternal grandfather, can be found in the 1851 census for Liverpool. I would be interested to find out anything about the district in which he resided at the time of the census - in particular if this was a rich/poor district, typically emigrant or more settled etc? Born in county Mayo circa 1836 (?), he signed up with the army in Liverpool a few years later.

I will dig out the details from the file, and post a more thorough genealogy over the next few days.

Thank you for your in interest.