At some point, I will set out a list of identifiable images of yeoman. These are photos, postcards, newspaper clippings etc where it is possible to put a name to a face. I have a large number of images that can't be identified (they all look the same to me !). We're now up to 212 identifiable images. For a regiment that only ever put one battalion into the field, I think that is quite amazing.
I continue to add items to the collection as and when funds and opportunities permit. A sizeable collection of BY medals came along in 2016 and, more recently, a couple of kind collectors offered me medals; I now have a list of 200 men for whom WW1 medals are known or stated to exist (grateful thanks, Nigel, Keith and Malcolm). I sourced a nice trench map case which belonged to a BY officer and came across several postcards relating to the BY - although I find that postcards are seriously expensive for what they are, so I'm happy to make do with a copy.
I have positively identified (in a genealogical sense) 1,758 men who served in the BY the Great War. I have 2,137 men listed as having served so that leaves nearly 400 men where I can't make a positive identification. If that seems a lot, it's only because a good number are mentioned in a source only briefly and can't be found using other records. Take G. Mowles, for example. This chap is shown in the Dunstable Directory for 1916 as serving in the Beds Yeomanry and living in Houghton Regis. That entry is the only source that I can find for such a name - it could be a spelling error, the initial might be wrong (the Mowles family were in Houghton Regis at the time) etc etc. I go back to these names every so often just to try and solve the riddle with the benefit of more records.
2,137 isn't the number that served in the Great War but I don't think it's far off. The real problem in finding men arises with those that didn't serve aboard or who were transferred to other regiments before serving abroad without a surviving service record.
My database now has 219 pages of names of men and their service/personal details. It has just gone past the 150,000 words mark. If that isn't anywhere near 'War and Peace', it certainly feels like it and you have to bear in mind that the database contains a lot of abbreviated terms. Here's an example:
Girling George Leonard 920 Pte FD Choral Society LBO shown as son of Mr G late of The Bank, L/Buzz but as Leonard disch Dec 1915 after pneumonia and later died 16.4.17 (shown on L/B Mem as Trpr L Girling) LBUROH born Sep 1892q Luton 3b 413 no census disch on med grounds from 2/1 on 21.12.15 (PRO) d June 1917q Rochford 4a 712 aged 24 ent SWB 15002 on TK/12 as George e 12.3.14 d 21.12.15 para xvi sickness mic confirms -concert LN 15.10.14 - more details in WO NO MEDALS +++++++++++ WO364 DONE
Setting that out in full detail (noting the presence of a pension record in series WO364) would probably produce at least a page !
Here's to the next 150,000 words. As always, if you have any items to offer or just need a bit of advice and assistance, do get in touch.
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I used to go to watch the Arsenal quite regularly and the Emirates is a huge, expansive stadium. When it's full, it takes over 60,000 people. It's only when you look around at the rows and rows of spectators that you can begin to appreciate what 60,000 people looks like. It's an enormous body of people but that's pretty much what was lost on that fateful day by way of death and injury.
Fortunately, the Bedfordshire Yeomanry was in reserve on that day, waiting patiently for the breakthrough which never occurred.
I've decided to raise funds for the Royal British Legion by pedalling around 80 kilometres of the north Bedfordshire countryside on 19th June. It will be my small contribution to the nation's remembrance of those that perished on the Somme and all other battlefields during the Great War, and my own efforts to keep alive the memory of the Bedfordshire Yeomanry. I've set up a page on the Just Giving page - if you can spare a few pence to support a very worthy cause, please do.
Just go to: www.justgiving.com/David-Doorne.]]>
On a similarly depressing note, I thought it worthwhile to report that there are a number of fake military crosses doing the rounds. Fakes of this decoration are not unusual and quite commonly appear on well-known internet auctions. What makes the current batch unusual is that they are engraved singles i.e. they are engraved to record the individual recipient and have no accompanying medals. I hear you saying that an engraved MC is not an uncommon beast ? This is true but the current batch are (a) almost certainly fake crosses and (b) engraved in more or less the same style, despite covering the period from WW1 to WW2. Difficult to think that all those MC recipients went to the same jewellers over a long period of time ! Seemingly, a lot of buyers are not doing their homework and are paying large sums to acquire fakes. The items all come from the same seller. I've always steered clear of engraved medals unless they were issued that way; after all, who's to say when any engraving was done and by whom ? As was said in a certain American police drama - "Be careful out there !". If you want to see a longer discussion about this, do go to the British Medals Forum.
On a happier note, I'm pleased to be able to report that I have been offered a small collection of Bedfordshire Yeomanry items. These will be added to the inventory. Eventually, I will be arranging to place a note of all the archived and inventory items on the website so everybody will be able to see what is known to survive......and I hope to put a lot of on display next year. If you have anything that you wish to to offer, please let me know - I will beat any price you are likely to get from a dealer or auction.
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Harold served his country and is remembered]]>
39 years old and born in Whitby ? There is no record of any such birth in about 1875 or anything even close. Suffice it to say that I have trawled births, deaths, marriages, baptisms, censuses and every other such record that I can find, and there is no reasonable match between 1861 and 1911, save that mentioned below. There is one clue that assists, however. A Thomas Adamson enlisted into the Imerial Yeomanry in January 1901, giving his age as 26 years and 5 months and indicating that he didn't have any relatives. He gave his birthplace as Whitby and his then address as Canterbury, Kent. He served until the end of the Boer War in South Africa and was discharged as being unfit for further service, having suffered a bout of enteric fever. If the details given are correct, he was born in about August 1874. Still no match for any of the usual sources.
The Bedfordshire Times confirms that Thomas was buried on 3rd January and his body carried to the church on a gun carriage belonging to the Royal Artillery. He is recorded as being a groom in the service of the Duke of Bedford. The Thomas who enlisted in 1901 was also a groom. One sad event occurred after his death when the room that he was occupying in a cottage in the High Street, belonging to Mr Henry Wright, a milkman of Hatfield Peverel, caught fire. Mr Wright and his wife had decided to fumigate the room after the soldier's death by lighting a sulphur candle; they had then left the property to stay with relatives for a few days. Unfortunately, the candle appears to have fallen over and the resultant fire was reported by Mrs Griggs, the next-door neighbour. The room and contents were lost.
The nearest match that I can make is that Thomas was the son of Rebecca Adamson, the wife of David Adamson, a seafarer. In 1871, the family is shown at 11 Andersons Yard, Whitby with Clara Isles and her husband George. In 1881, Rebecca has moved to Lofthouse(Loftus), just up the road from Whitby and her birth county is shown as Kent. Clara Isles now becomes Clara Linklater. They are all living with others in lodgings and are shown as tinkers and hawkers. Thomas Adamson is recorded as aged 9 and born in Whitby. My guess is that Thomas came from an itinerant family where births, deaths and marriages were loosely recorded, if at all (since none of the persons recorded can be traced further) and that his connections were lost at a fairly early age, certainly by the time that he enlisted in 1901.
Whoever he was, Thomas Adamson served his country and is remembered.
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Percy Griffiths of Bedford had joined the regiment in 1915 at the age of 21. He had married the previous year. He failed to turn up for parade in Bedford on 4th April 1916 and it was soon discovered that he had thrown himself under a train at Cow Bridge, Kempston earlier that day. He suffered multiple injuries and died at Bedford Hospital. At the subsequent inquest, the coroner considered it a case of a man lacking the necessary backbone to serve as a soldier. Percy is buried in Bedford Cemetery.
David Warnes had served with Compton's Horse in South Africa during the Boer War. At the outbreak of war in 1914, he was given a commission in the Royal Field Artillery and was soon sent to the East African theatre of war. In June 1917, he was attached to a transport column that made its way to Kirongo, just north of Lake Victoria. Described as a tense and nervous man, he shot himself through the head with his rifle, to be discovered by his man servant. His body would have been buried locally, but is now in the Dar Es Salaam War Cemetery, Tanzania. I have a photograph of David and will post it to the website shortly.
Sidney Green was a well-known resident of Luton, taking a senior role in the JW Green brewing company. He had been a territorial soldier with the Bedfordshire Yeomanry for many years, and earned a Territorial Decoration in 1916 before being seconded to the Scots Guards as a Major. His bravery with that famous Scottish regiment earned him a Military Cross in 1918 and he was also mentioned in despatches. Post-war, he resumed his love of horse racing and was the joint owner of the winner of the 1924 Grand National, Master Robert, a rank outsider. Sadly, he was found near to his home one morning in 1930 having shot himself through the head with his revolver. He was aged 54. He was buried in the family plot at Crawley Green Road Cemetery, Luton.
May they and all others who served their country rest in peace.]]>
I received a call in March from Major Jon Searle of 201 Battery and he enquired if I would like to look through whatever they possessed that related to the Bedfordshire Yeomanry before it was all packed up and sent to some repository, yet to be determined. I was rather surprised as I couldn't imagine how or why they would have had anything of any historical note. As I say, a silly notion really, as it's almost inevitable that a successor regiment will have something that relates to its predecessors, however distant in connection or time. To cut a long story short, I agreed to meet Jon at the TA Centre in Marsh Road, Luton. I took my daughter with me as I thought she could take photographs whilst I made notes.
It was clear when I got there that I'd arrived fairly late in the process. Stuff was literally packed in boxes, a lot of it not related to the BY. Some items had already gone - including the side drum that would have accompanied the bass drum that I described in a previous post. We managed to narrow down the items of real interest to just 3. But what lovely items they were. I've put a photograph of one of the items on the home page and the other two are shown below.
My grateful thanks to Major Searle for making contact.
 "Bedfordshire Employers Challenge Cup Bedfordshire Yeomanry 'A' squadron Presented by William Henry Allen as representative of Employers of the Bedfordshire County Territorial Association 1910" Approximately 18 inches in silver. |  "Bedfordshire Imperial Yeomanry "B" Squadron Biggleswade Town Challenge Cup for shooting" Approximately 20 inches in silver Won by: 1907 SQM Sergt G D Thomas 1908 Pte F V Angell 1909 Pte E Batterson 1910 Pte C A Ekins 1911 Cpl J H Elliott |
Many apologies if you did try to contact me over the past year or so and didn't get a response.
The centenary of the carnage that was the Great War hasn't helped my situation. Any number of people have decided to have a go at researching the men on their local war memorial and enquiries have risen many times the previous levels. And there was I thinking that the Bedfordshire Yeomanry wouldn't stir up much interest !
One item that did get my attention recently was the fact that Findmypast has the Royal Artillery attestation papers 1883-1942 online. As some of you know, finding a soldier's service details after WW1 (for any regiment) means a request to the Ministry of Defence, but the attestation papers are sometimes just as valuable. The post-WW1 papers for the different regiments and corps are scattered about the country in various museums and archives but those for the Royal Artillery are now available to all those with a subscription to FMP. It attracted my attention because the Bedfordshire Yeomanry became a Royal Artillery regiment after WW1 and I just wondered if some of my WW1 chaps appeared in the records ? I have taken advantage of a 14 day free trial with FMP and have started to search some of the more obvious candidates. Unfortunately, it appears that those that did serve in WW1 must have decided that they'd had enough or were perhaps too old to continue. So far, I've found 3 of the old warhorses who decided to re-enlist in the newly mechanised unit - I was already aware of 2 of them, so not much of a boost to the data. But at least it's all free ! ]]>
So how did a Leicester boy come to enlist in a yeomanry regiment far away from his home ? Did he succumb to pneumonia or was he a shell victim ? A trip to Leicester archives is required in the hope that a local newspaper might shed some light on the matter.
Joseph earned a 1914-15 star, British War Medal and Victory Medal. That last medal turned up on ebay a few weeks ago in Leicester. Battered and dull, it is unremarkable (that's the medal, not Leicester) but is nevertheless a vital reminder of a life given in a higher cause. ]]>