The Tyneside Irish and the Somme part 1: To France

Local author John Sheen will be writing a series of blog posts throughout the year following the Tyneside Irish on their journey to the Battle of the Somme and their part in the campaign.

Tyneside Irish shoulder title, Imperial War Museum IWM Non Commercial Licence © IWM (INS 7625)

By the end of 1915 the divisions of Kitchener’s Fifth New Army were completing their training in the south of England. These men of the Fifth New Army were formed into the 30th, 31st, 32nd 33rd, 34th and 35th Divisions and mostly contained the famous "PALS" battalions.

Serving in the 34th Division were the Tyneside Irish and the Tyneside Scottish Brigades, which had been recruited as part of the Northumberland Fusiliers throughout the North East during the autumn and winter of 1914.

Whilst these troops were completing their training, in France plans were being made for a large British Offensive against the German Army along the River Somme designed to relieve pressure on the French Army at Verdun.

So it was that 100 years ago this month, the 34th Division mobilized for service in France. Apart from the 50th (Northumbrian) Division that contained the Durham Light Infantry’s territorial battalions, no other formation deployed to France and Flanders contained as many men from County Durham in its ranks. Two of the infantry brigades of 34th Division, as well as the Wearside Brigade of the Royal Field Artillery, had large numbers of Durham men in their ranks. Indeed the 103rd (Tyneside Irish) Brigade recruited over 70% of its soldiers from the towns and villages of County Durham.

Based at Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, it was a hectic time for all ranks, every man of the brigade had to be medically examined, those considered unfit had to be sent to a reserve battalion and fit replacements absorbed into the ranks. All equipment had to be inspected and checked that it was serviceable with unserviceable equipment being replaced. Equipment reserves needed to be at full strength, if it was stated that the unit should have twenty spare sets of horse shoes or ten additional tents, these had to be indented for and received from the Ordnance depots.

Final parades were held as the Brigade commander and then the General Officer Commanding the 34th Division inspected the battalions.

The 24th (Service) Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers (1st Tyneside Irish) ready for an inspection by the General Officer Commanding 34th Division (from the John sheen Collection)

By 8 January, all battalion advance parties were warned to be ready to go, and the first to leave was the advance party of the 26th Battalion, on 9 January, taking with it all the battalion baggage and transport. The 26th Battalion's main party was next to go, leaving Warminster Station in two trains on the morning of 10 January. They travelled via Folkestone to Boulogne, arriving at 4:00pm and spending the night at St Martin's Camp. As they had crossed the channel their boat passed a hospital ship. Michael Manley recalled, 'We shouted across to them, but they called back "You'll soon change your tune", and they were right.'

Next to leave was the 24th Battalion, leaving in three trains in the early hours of 11 January. The Battalion travelled to Southampton, arriving at 8:30am and rested on the docks until embarking on the SS Mona's Queen at 2:30pm and sailing for Le Havre at 3:30pm. The Isle of Man Steam Packet the Mona’s Queen became famous later in the war when it rammed a German U-boat.

The Mona's Queen, around 1917 with dazzle camouflage, carried the 1st Tyneside Irish to France in 1916 (from the John sheen Collection)

The 27th Battalion left at 7:35am going via Folkestone, and arrived in Boulogne by 6:15pm.

Then last but not least, the 25th Battalion were routed via Southampton and starting at 8:40am they travelled in three trains at hourly intervals.

A horse being hoisted aboard ship, unknown date, The War Illustrated

Upon disembarking, the horses and wagons were unloaded and the battalions marched to rest camps near the port and remained there overnight. In the morning, the battalions marched at different times to the railhead, where they entrained for St Omer, travelling in the now famous cattle trucks bearing the sign, '40 men or 8 horses'.

They were on their way to the front, and hundreds were never to see Durham again.

___________________________________________

We've been having a few issues with the Durham at War website but we're happy to say a lot of these have now been resolved.

Smile, and the world smiles with you

James Jeffries of the Tyneside Irish, used with kind permission of Newcastle City Library

Newcastle Libraries have been doing an amazing job of digitising First World War photographs from the Illustrated Chronicle and putting them on Flickr: 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/illustratedchronicleww1

Volunteers have helped them scan over 11,000 photographs of service men, women war workers, nurses and charity workers. Many of the men fought with the Durham Light Infantry or were from “our” side of the Tyne, so are of interest to Durham at War.

While scrolling through the pictures, our colleague, Steve Shannon, found a photograph of the Tyneside Irish soldier, pictured above, that piqued his curiosity. Not only does James Jeffries have an infectious smile, he was born in Bombay.

All three of us were intrigued and each did a little more digging. We found that he appeared in the 1911 census as a sailor, “sea going”. His birthplace was recorded as Bombay but he stated that he was a British subject “by parents”. We wondered whether this might mean that he was of Anglo-Indian heritage? At the time of the census he was living in a boarding house at 40-46 Stanley Street, Jarrow. Perhaps this explains why he joined the Tyneside Irish; Grange Road, just a few streets away, was the site of one of the Tyneside Irish recruiting centres.

His medal card tells us that he had the regimental number 25/302 and that he served from 16 November 1914 to 19 March 1919. He didn’t earn the 1914/15 Star, so he can’t have fought abroad until 1916, but his medal card and roll show that he was awarded the Military Medal. The London Gazette records the award in its edition of 28 January 1918. It seems that, later in the war, James suffered some sort of injury in the line of duty because he was given the Silver War Badge.

The Absent Voters’ List of 1918 records that his residency had changed from Jarrow to Shotton and that he was living at 100 Fourth Street. He stayed on in Shotton because he also appears on the 1920 Electoral Register at that address, living with a family called Nyas. David Nyas, the head of the household, was born the West Indies. Unfortunately, the trail then goes cold.

When the Durham County Record Office team began the planning for the Durham at War project one of the concerns of the team would be that First World War fatigue would set in. However, our project, and others such as this one at Newcastle Libraries, continue to unearth stories that surprise even seasoned military researchers like Steve. Luckily, this also seems to be the case for our ever-enthusiastic volunteers. Again and again, a human story, a smile on a photograph or a line in a love letter bridges across the century and dispels the fog of war.

From the railways, to war, and back again

DCRO Accession, LNER Ledger

We recently received this volume transferred to us from the National Railway Museum in York. Whilst it looks pretty nondescript from the outside, it is in fact a ledger from the London and North Eastern Railway containing the details of men who fought in the First World War who worked in the Shildon, Darlington, Middlesbrough, Ferryhill, and West Hartlepool districts.

The Railway Museum has indexed the names of the men who died, not just from the LNER, but other railway companies, and you can find their database here: http://www.nrm.org.uk/RailwayStories/WW1/railway-workers.aspx

However, for the Durham at War project we are getting volunteers to index all the names. It is a valuable piece of work as it is often harder to trace those who survived the war and the majority of the men in the book did so.

Crop of DT (55.06) 1915 edition Ordnance Survey map, NER works, Darlington

The information given includes their job with the LNER and their service/regiment during the war. It also says when they resumed work after the war. The men didn’t just join the army (and they joined many different regiments) but also the Royal Navy, and the Royal Naval Air Service.  Once the ledger has been indexed, further research can be done on the men. It is a document that once again shows the breadth of experience of the men from County Durham.

'Who is this, Gran?'

John Sheen has been collecting First World War militaria with a North East connection for many years, and has written several books including books on the Durham Pals and the Tyneside Irish. He is sharing his collection of photographs and postcards with the Durham at War project. Here, John talks about how he became interested in the First World War.

Private Walter Sheen of the 8th Green Howards With many thanks to John Sheen, from his personal collection (A001)

Researching World War One has been a very long term project for me. Back in the early 1950s I was visiting my paternal grandmother, together we were looking at the photographs on her sideboard, of my father and his brothers, all in battledress uniform. On the end was a photograph of a man in a different uniform, and I asked, “Who is this Gran?”

'That's your Grandfather, he was in the Green Howards, by those lads could fight, but not like the Tyneside Irish', she replied. I had heard of the Green Howards but not of the Tyneside Irish, so I asked “what’s the Tyneside Irish?' Your great grandfather, my father was in the Tyneside Irish, the best fighting Regiment in the Great War”. With that remark tears came into her eyes and she clouted me across the head and told me to mind my own business. Why had I got a clout because of the Tyneside Irish? From that day I wanted to know more about these men.

That started it, first it was collecting cap badges and odd bits of militaria, then after getting married I moved into family history – but it was always the Tyneside Irish that fascinated me. I began cross-referencing as many sources I could find on the brigade and over time built up a handwritten nominal roll of over 7,000 names cross referenced against seventy sources. 

When I left the army in 1992, Steve Shannon asked me to do a talk on the brigade at the DLI museum. I remember that day very well. So many people with family stories to tell, the man with a German bullet wedged in the strings of the Tyneside Irish harp cut from his dead uncle’s tunic. Of course all that led to the book, which gave me the writing bug and I went on to do another five on North East units and one about the German advance in 1918.

Cover of the Tyneside Irish, by John Sheen

But how things have changed over the years! I can now do in one evening in my bedroom, work that would have taken a whole week at Kew. When I came to Durham on leave in the 1980s I would visit the Record Office and extract names ranks and numbers from the Absent Voters List, how lucky we are in County Durham that so many have survived.

But this Durham at War project has taken it to a whole new level, now I don’t stop at the military research for my photos but get back into the census returns and learn more about the men’s lives before they joined up.

But here I would like to thank the project intern, Candela*, for all the hard work she has put in adding the photos to the site.

*Candela’s internship has now ended but look out for a blog post by her in the future.

Happy New Year

D/DLI 13/2/208

Happy New Year from the Durham at War team.