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Remembrance
- The Yorkshire Regiment, First World War Photos of Groups of Soldiers
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Officers of the 2nd Battalion the Yorkshire Regiment, - 1913.
This photograph is from the Green Howards Gazette, and shows the Officers of the 2nd Battalion some time in 1913. Sitting in the front row is Major R Fife, who retired from the regiment in December 1913 but then rejoined with the 7th Battalion on the outbreak of war. This may help date the photo.
Those named are;-
(Back row) : 2nd Lieut Barmby, 2nd Lieut Brooksbank, 2nd Lieut Kreyer, 2nd
Lieut Chauncy, Lieut Crawley-Boevey
(Centre row) : 2nd Lieut Kidd, 2nd Lieut Legard. 2nd Lieut Worsley, 2nd
Lieut Marriage, Lieut Burbury, Lieut Palmer, Lieut Phayre, Lieut Franklyn
(Front row) : Capt Rollo, Capt Moss-Blundell, Capt Walker, Major Fife, Lieut
Col King, LT & Adj Forsyth, Capt Cumberbatch, Capt Marsden, Capt Levin.
To view a large size version of image below, simply select the thumbnail. Close the window that opens to return to this page.
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Officers of the 2nd Battalion the Yorkshire Regiment, - October 1914.
This photograph hangs in the Outpost Office of the 2nd Battalion Yorkshire Regiment (the Green Howards) in Trinity Church, Richmond. The Officers are identified in the larger photo that opens up when you select the thumbnail, below. There are further details on each individual Officer in the pages devoted to the photos of individual soldiers.
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Soldiers of the 2nd Battalion the Yorkshire Regiment, - Guernsey, 1913.
Peter Rudd (<peter.rudd7@ntlworld.com>), grandson of Private E
J Rudd, has provided this photograph. It shows a group of soldiers of
the 2nd Battalion on a recruiting exercise in Guernsey in 1913.
Private E J Rudd, Peter's grandfather, is behind the Corporal, - the man
with his cap on the skew.
Select the thumbnail image, above, for a larger version which opens in a nnew window.
Click anywhere in the new window to close it.
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Soldiers of the 2nd Battalion the Yorkshire Regiment, - 1919.
This group of soldiers of the 2nd Battalion is, allegedly, all that remained
in 1919 of the original Battalion whohad entered the War in 1914. The group
of soldiers was photographed outside the old Gallowgate Barracks in Richmond.
Identified so far are;-
Corporal Tom Riordan (seated second from left)
Private Tom Everitt (fourth from left, back row).
Sergeant (later Major) Frank Allen
(seated second from right)
Sergeant George Richard Hill
(standing third from right)
Select the thumbnail image, above, for a larger version which opens in a new window.
Click anywhere in the new window to close it.
Officers of the 4th Battalion the Yorkshire Regiment, - 1910 - 1920.
Simon Barnard (<barnard.4@btinternet.com>) and Christopher Constantine (<Tophercon@aol.com>), both of whom are related to the Constantine brothers who photos appear on this website, have sent four fascinating group photos to the website.
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An informal study of a group of 4th Battalion Officers,
dated 1910, in camp at Richmond. If anybody can identify any of the officers, PLEASE LET US KNOW. |
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A group of 4th Battalion Officers taken before the First
World War, but date unknown. Simon Barnard has tentatively identified
several of the officers, in addition to the two Constantine brothers.
The names of these officers is attached to the photo. The officers identified are;- H B Blackett A Beresford-Pearce H Howitt H Fawcett L P I'Anson (Killed 25/4/1915) C G Jervelund H C Matthews (killed 25/4/1915) A Graham (Killed 11/4/1918) William Whitesmith Constantine (subsequently Lieutenant Colonel) is seated in the centre row, - second from the right. Herbert Norman Constantine (subsequently Captain) is seated on the ground on the far right. He later won the MC, but was killed in 1918. If anybody can identify any of the other officers, PLEASE LET US KNOW. |
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A group of 4th Battalion Officers taken after the First
World War, but date unknown. William Whitesmith Constantine (subsequently Lieutenant Colonel) is seated in the centre. If anybody can identify any of the other officers, PLEASE LET US KNOW. |
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"A" Company of the 4th Battalion, taken at
Camp in Scarborough in 1920. If anybody can identify any of the men in this photo, PLEASE LET US KNOW. |
Bill Danby (<bandl.danby@ntlworld.com>)
has very kindly provided the following photos of
soldiers of the 4th Battalion Yorkshire Regiment, at camp before the
outbreak of war. The photographs are also to be found
on BIll's website, - http://homepage.ntlworld.com/bandl.danby/001BnIndex.html,
which provides a history of the 4th Battalion in the First World War,
together with details of casualties in the 4th Battalion.
The following have been identified in the photo, and are individually
shown in the pages for individual
soldier's photos;-
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| Private Fred Appleton (back row,
extreme right) Charles Preston (middle row, extreme right) Corporal Herbert Cook (middle row, second from right) |
A postcard (from J Wood to J Robson), - text on the right, showing a group of band members of the 4th Battalion at Camp in 1913. Private Fred Appleton is 2nd from the right, back row. | |
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Peter Appleton (<peter.appleton3@ntlworld.com>)
has provided some photos which show his grandfather,
Lance Corporal Fred Appleton of the 4th Battalion, together with
groups of soldiers in the band and in camp. We are extremely grateful
to Peter Appleton for use of these photos. Click on one of the small
images below to be presented with a larger version in a new window.
Click anywhere in the window that opens to close it
The 4th Battalion Camp was held between 26 July and 8 August 1913.
Both the Cleveland Standard and the North Eastern Daily Gazette files
almost daily reports on this Camp. These reports are shown below as
a PDF file. The reports contain many names, and are worth reading
for a historical insight into the life of the Battalion at that time.
| The Band of the 4th Battalion "somewhere on the Western Front". Fred Appleton is in the front row, second from right. He is showing his Good Conduct stripe but not his Lance Corporal stripe. He would have earned his Good Conduct stripe in February 1916. He earned his Lance Corporal stripe in April 1917. Thus we can narrow the date down to sometime between March 1916 and March 1917. |  |
| Members of the 4th Battalion
in Camp (July / August 1913) |
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| Members of the 4th Battalion
in Camp (July / August 1913) |
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| Members of the 4th Battalion
in Camp (July / August 1913) |
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Two photos of the Pickering
Company of the 5th Battalion Yorkshire Regiment (Territorials)
showing them leaving Pickering Station by train for Scarborough and Divisional
Camp in August 1914.
(Note the troop of Boy Scouts lined up to see them off).
The two photos are courtesy of the Beck
Isle Museum, Pickering.
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Officers of the 6th Battalion the Yorkshire Regiment, - 1915.
This photograph was published in the September 2008 issue of "The Green Howard". The photograph is remarkable as it shows the Officers of the 6th Battalion immediately prior to embarkation for service in the Dardenelles. Of these 30 men who took part in the Gallipoli landings, only 3 survived intact; 16 were killed and 11 were wounded.
The Officers are identified in the larger photo that opens up when you select the thumbnail, below. There are further details on each individual Officer in the pages devoted to the photos of individual soldiers.
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Soldiers of the 6th Battalion the Yorkshire Regiment, - date unknown (early 1915?).
Claire David (<claire_david@yahoo.com>) has sent this photo of a group of men of the 6th Battalion, which includes her great uncle Michael Kelly
Corporal Michael Kelly is shown in the above group of soldiers of the
6th Battalion
by the "X" above his head. The photo is marked on the back
as having been taken
in France, though the date is unknown. However, if the officer with
this group of
men is Lieutenant Casley,then the date would be early 1915, - as Lieutenant
Casley
was killed in Gallipoli in August 1915.
Click on the above photo for a larger sized image which opens in
a new window.
Information from posts on "The Great War Forum"support the view that this photo was probably taken in January / February 1915 in the UK rather than France. The dating is made after a consideration of the uniforms being worn (in particular, a man in the centre is wearing a Kitchener side cap), and no leaves on the trees.
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Chris Todd (<chris@bridgelegal.co.uk>) has sent us a photograph of what is now believed to be the 7th Battalion band, with his great grandfather Private Sidney Stevens standing beside the Bass Drummer. Private Stevens is marked by a small arrow.
Not a great deal is known about either the photo (when it was taken, or even whether it definitely was the 7th Battalion band). However, it has been dated by the fact that a number of the bandsmen have "wound stripes" on their lower left sleeves. A wound stripe is a vertical bar, and these were only issued after July 1916.
Private Stevens joined the 3/4th Battalion in November 1915. He was examined at Northallerton and enlisted at Stokesley. He later transferred to the 7th Battalion. Medical records confirm that Sidney was wounded on 4th July 1916, - almost certainly during the first days of the Somme. The 7th Battalion were involved the well-known action at Fricourt, and although they had withdrawn from Fricourt by 4th July it is possible that Private Stevens had been wounded earlier.
Another intriguing aspect of the photo is the presence of two exceptionally young members of the band in the front of the group.
If anyone can help identify the photo, or provide further information on Private Stevens, please contact the website.
Chris Todd (<chris@bridgelegal.co.uk>) has also sent us a copy of a poem written at Scotton Camp describing Christmas in the camp. As the letterhead is for the 4th Reserve Battalion, this tends to date the poem as having been written in December 1916 as the Battalion was formed by the amalgamation of the 3rd/4th and 3rd/5th Battalions in September 1916. The poem can be read by selecting this link.
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Alan Kendall (<alan.kendall@tesco.net>)
has sent us a postcard photo of the 10th Battalion, taken in 1915 when
the Battalion was billeted in Aylesbury.
Alan's grandfather, Private Mark Kendall, is
on the right of the back row.
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Two photos from 1921have been provided
by Alan Gilbert (<alangilbert.carlow@gmail.com>), which are of interest.
The first (on the left) shows the Green Howards' Sergeant's
Mess in 1921. CSM Herbert Friend,
the grandfather of Alan Gilbert, is on the middle row on the extreme left.
Other members of the Mess are currently not identified.
The second photo shows the unveiling of the Richmond
Memorial in 1921.
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Poem written by Private Langley describing Christmas at Scotton Camp, 1916
Select the thumbnail image for a larger copy of the original. Below the image is a transcription by Chris Todd (<chris@bridgelegal.co.uk>)
Scotton Camp
T'was Xmas Eve at Scotton Camp, The huts were full of holly,
And everyone who was there was cheerful, content and jolly.
Some had gone on a few days' leave, Drums and bugles lay forgotten
But those who stayed behind made things home(?) at Scotton
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Hut Sixty Five, Well, it topped the bill with songs and Recitations
In fact we had a pleasant time beyond our expectations
We sang old songs of England, Scotland and Bobbie Burns
Duets, quartettes, parodies, were all sung in their turns
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"Paddy Loughran" was the first to sing and Come Back to Erin was
the song
The "Pte Woodgate"(?) did his best by singing "Shuffling
Along"
When the fields were white with daisies was sung by Pte Green
But he was beaten by Tommy Davison(?) with the Girl from Aberdeen
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Pte Charlton was the next to do his bit, with, let me like a soldier fall
He sang it well till the last verse when his head came against the wall
The singing was stopped for just a while till Charlton was put on his bed
The lacky(?) got to his feet and recited The Old Homestead.
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Johnny Kidd now got up and kept the company laughing.
For he had got some civie clothes on and was acting Charlie Chaplin.
Our programme now was ended everyone said they had a good time
But Atkinson wanted a little more so we all sung Auld Lang Syne
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We "toasted" the Boys in the trenches and wished them luck galore.
The King the Queen and the allies we couldn't do anymore.
So our concert came to an end and it will never be forgotten
How we spent our first Xmas Eve in the one eyed hole of Scotton
Pte W G(?) Langley
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