I have at least three family members that I am aware of who fought in the First world war.
Edward Clack in 1917, his military medal ribbon visible. His wife, who he married that year, Madge Hayes is also shown.
The first, who I know the most about, is Lance-Sergeant Edward Clack who joined up on the 18th August 1914, joining the Wiltshire Regiment at Devizes and being assigned to the 5th Battalion and sent to Anzac bay in August 1915, landing to support the 'August Offensive'. However during the Ottoman counter-attack of the 10th August, he and a group of four other men were wounded by Ataturks forces and trapped in a gulley for a fortnight before being found and retrieved by a search party.
Quote:
The Battalions diary for the 10th August notes:
Tuesday August 10th 1915. (Battalion War Diary entry).
(01.00): Battalion moves away in single file less D company and part of B Company. Order of march C - Machine guns - A - B companies "Move by a steep and winding course to a cup-shaped deformation at the head of the Gulley to the right and some distance in front of our salient." (Words of 2 Lieut R.W.M. Dewhurst one of the few officers on the march who subsequently survived.) The Battalion was guided, as far as I am able to ascertain by a New Zealand Officer. Here they arrived two hours before sunrise (0300) and the men were told to dig into dugouts and make themselves comfortable as the position was quite safe. Men therefore removed equipment and rifles. This position I take it to be just N. of the H in Chunuk Bair and the march to it from the Aghyl Dere must have been via the APEX (Ref. Gallipoli Map 1.20,000 Koya Dere) (0430) As soon as it was light machine guns opened on the men lying in their dug outs. About 1/4 of an hour later there was a rush of Turks from both sides of the depression which drove the men, unarmed and unequipped down the gulley (SALZLI BEIT). The bottom of the gulley commanded by machine guns and so escape was cut off. Three courses were possible:-
1. To rush past the machine guns down the Sazli Beit, this was tried but in nearly all cases proved fatal.
2. To climb the northern slope of the ravine under fire and try to escape over the top. This was done in a few cases
with success.
3. Hide in Gulley till night; this also was done with more success. (A party of 5 men was rescued from the Gulley
having been there 16 days from August 10th to August 26th. They reported numbers of men, who were wounded,
unable to get away and died of exhaustion and starvation.).
Parties arrived on the Beach in fours, fives, and some carried bodies during the 11th, 12th and 13th unarmed, unequipped and demoralised.
FROM: http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/fo...owtopic=154975
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The medical record I have on file from the then Private Edward Clack have his date of wounding on the 10th August, but the record itself is not actually dated until the 26th August. It is therefore likely that he was one of the group of five men rescued from the Gulley on the 26th.
He suffered a gun shot wound to the left leg and was returned to England.
In December of the same year he returned to service as part of the 6th Battalion Wiltshire Regiment, where he served until the 5th July 1916, where he was wounded again during the Battle of the Somme at La Boisselle (part of the Battle of Albert) suffering wounds in the right thigh and shoulder. Again, he returned to England, and again he came back, on the 5th April 1917, joining the 1st Battalion of the Wiltshire Regiment in the field. He was involved as an orderly, conducting messages during the attack on Messines Ridge in July 1917, where he was awarded the Military Medal for his service under fire, apparently at one point he was half buried by shell fire, but dug himself out and continued in his duty. Promotion to Lance Corporal soon followed, and by the 12th August he was Corporal Edward Clack. However, nine days later he was wounded at the Battle of Passchendaele, likely in the Westhoek area (although it is possible that he was wounded at Dominion Camp by an enemy aircraft, the Battalion diary notes on the night of the 20th August that '3 Casualties were caused to the Battn by bombs dropped in the neighbourhood of the camp by enemy aeroplanes on the night of the 20th. Wounded, 2nd Lieut G B Hillings and 2 other ranks.), receiving a gun shot wound to the left arm. Following recovery, this time he was posted into the reserve unit, joining the 3rd Battalion back in England, and being promoted to Lance-Sergeant. It was there he remained until wars end, being demobbed in March 1919.
Private James Collins, date unknown.
The second relative who I am aware of, is Private James Collins, who served with the Gordon Highlanders (and possibly the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders too), I don't know much of his service record but I know that he was injured in the Roclincourt area, between the dates of 9-12th April 1917, possibly by machine-gun fire, and he subsequently died of his wounds a month later. He's mentioned in the Casualty list of the Highlanders here:
http://gordonhighlanders.carolynmorr...tApril1917.htm and the Battalion diaries mention casualties from machine-gun fire around that period:
http://gordonhighlanders.carolynmorr...-April1917.htm
Robert Currie, date unknown
The third relative is Robert Currie, and sadly I have no real information about him other than he left his wife and she subsequently told her grand-children that he had died during the war when in fact he had survived, and it wasn't until my great-uncle was 22 that he finally met him. I don't know what unit he served in, but it would seem from the photos I have that he had something to do with horses, so he could have been an artillery driver or cavalry based.
There is a fourth relative, who I think might be my great-grandmothers father, but aside from his photograph I have no information about him and there's no-one left alive on that side of the family to assist.