Soldier Record

My Grandfather served with the 12th Battalion from1915, it was one of the Bantam Battalions in which men under the minimum height of 5ft 4in served. The Battalion served with distinction at the Battle of Cambrai and in particular at Bourlon Wood.

Wounded three times during his service when the 12th Bn was disbanded at Le Havre in 1918 he was transferred to another Regiment and worked with the Imperial War Graves till he was discharged from service in 1919. He then was employed by the commision and worked for them at various graveyards until he retired in1950. His family were with him at Messines until the returned to the U.K. to work, his three sons to the Beds and Herts Regiment and his two daughters to their Aunt's family in Luton. He escaped Belgium with my Grandmother in1940 but he returned after the Second World War until he finished. If you look at the places he worked it reads like a list of Battle Honours: Armentieres, Messines, Kemmel, Paschendael, Ypres, all places he helped recover and rebury the dead.