Soldier Record

Joe, the soldier

When I was looking for some thread in the drawer of my mother's sewing machine I found 1920's chain purse and under this I found a card about Joseph Ball's death in 1916. I asked my mother about this and she told me he had been my father's eldest brother who had been killed somewhere on the western front. My father had been only 18 months old when he left for Flanders and two and a half when he was killed and he had no memories of his brother at all. The family never talked about him and by the time I found the card it was part of the past.

I found Joseph George Ball, private 23208 on the Commonwealth war graves site. His name is on the Menin Gate memorial at Ypres. He was killed on the seventh of October 1915. His body was never found and he is one of 54896 similar casualties with no known grave remembered on the memorial.

Joseph was in the Worcestershire Regiment. Why, when he lived in London? Presumably he volunteered in 1915 and was posted out to join a regiment of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) as a reinforcement. He joined the 3rd Battalion, Worcestershires who were a regular army unit.

Joseph was killed in the battle of Loos which ran from 25 Sept to 19 Oct 1915 ( the Big Push), the first time the British retaliated in using gas. His battalion were involved in a subsidiary attack to the main Loos action, at Bellewaarde.

How did Joe die? As he has no known grave it probably was not in a trench where his body could be identified, but in an 'over the top' action, or by artery fire. Did my grandparents receive a communication 'missing presumed dead' in October 1915, followed by the 1916 card that I found confirming his death? How they must have prayed that he would turn up injured.