1st Battalion Kings Own- Royal Lancaster Regt

[danw81]

I am trying to investigate a relative (Lancelot Watkin), service number 2409. 1st Battalion Kings Own- Royal Lancaster Regt.

He was killed on 30 Jan 1915 and is buried at the Strand Cemetery.

I have downloaded the Regimental diary from National Archives. On the date of his death, it was a quiet day with no reported action or casualties. No casualties reported for at least the preceding week, which seems strange.

I am new to this type of research, just wondering if anyone had any ideas of how I might be able to find any further information (how, where he was killed etc)

thanks

[christanel]

Welcome to the British-Genealogy forums.

If you came to us from Forces War Records reading this will tell you a little about us.
Are you aware that 60% plus of WW1 service records were destroyed by bombing/fire in WW11.

For those wishing to help

UK, Army Registers of Soldiers' Effects, 1901-1929
Name - Lancelot Bernard John Watkin
Death Date 30 January 1915
Rank - Private
Regiment - King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment
Regimental Number - 2409
His mother Margaret sole legatee and his will in favour of Margaret She received 1 pound 17 shillings Had brothers William and Claude who both received 1 pound 10 shillings.

His Medal Roll index card shows he received the British, Victory and 15 Star.
No surviving service record that I can see.
Christina

[Lesley Robertson]

Of course, many men died from wounds, days or even weeks after their were injured, and a surprising number died of various diseases.
That said, ""Soldiers who died in the Great War" says KIA.
It's always possible that when the war diary was written, they were not yet aware that he was dead rather than just missing, or even wounded and at one of the aid stations....

Have a look at the CWGC notes on the Strand Cemetery. Apparently there was an Advanced Dressing Station nearby. More importantly for your search, it was not used between Oct 1914-April 1917 after which casualties from small cemeteries in the surrounding area were brought together at Strand. There's a list of the smaller cemeteries which may give you a better idea of where he was actually hit.

{Digging deeper, it seems that he was originally buried at the Le Bizet Convent cemetery, and identified from the cross on the grave. The two men from the same cemetery were from the Leicesters and Durham LI.

Interestingly, he's the only casualty from his regiment buried in Strand over quite a while - from 4 Dec 14 to 15 Feb 15... Were they actually based in the area? Did something happen in transit? Could he have been attached to another unit?

[Peter Goodey]

You have looked at the CWGC site, presumably.

It suggests (at least this is my reading of it) that he was reburied from...

"PLOEGSTEERT WOOD NEW CEMETERY, WARNETON, in the South-East corner of the wood, contained the graves of 19 soldiers from the United Kingdom who fell in the loss and recapture of Le Gheer, October, 1914."

What do others think? Am I misinterpreting things?

[helachau]

FMP has "killed in action 30 Jan 1915".

The 2 newspaper entries (3 March 1915) have him recorded under the heading "Killed" rather than "Died of Wounds". The reports appear under the header "Non commissioned officers and men of the Expeditionary Force are reported from the Base, under date 7th February"

[Lesley Robertson]

Peter, if you look at his CWGC entry, there's a tab labelled "Concentration". That leads to a document labelled "burial returns" which says that he and two others were found at Le Bizet.
The others were 3707 Pte J Grace of the Leicesters and 10794 Pte C Hindmoor, Durham LI.

Also, he died on 30th January 1915, not October 1914.

[Peter Goodey]

Peter, if you look at his CWGC entry, there's a tab labelled "Concentration"

Thank you. I knew there would be someone who would do the job properly

[Lesley Robertson]

I said it in #3....

[danw81]

thank you all for your help on this.

I have this week been to the Strand Cemetery and visited his grave, a very powerful experience. Unfortunately I had very limited time to visit anywhere else in the locality (due to 2 young children!) to investigate further.

I guess the records are just not complete enough to work out anything further. I hadn't realised the extent of records that were lost during WW2.

[freddie fish]

Even had the service record survived its very unlikely anyone less than a Major would have a mention of how they were killed/where they were killed in my experience.
On quiet days (i.e. where a group action wasn't recorded in the war diary) it could be a minor trench raid, a short lived artillery/mortar attack or a sniper, few of these would be recorded unfortunately.