Hi Mat
I've just come across the message you posted three years ago on the Patman family! I'm afraid I don't have any information but I can throw some light on Arthur's story which may be of interest.
My brother and I are researching early WW1 motorcycle despatch riders, specifically a small number of men who were recruited into the Royal Engineers early in August 1914. The selection process was very unorthodox - they were selected simply because they could ride a motorbike, and most of them brought their own motorcycles (which the Army paid them for). Although they had no military training whatsoever they were all promoted to the rank of Corporal because their job was to deliver messages to officers and military law forbade private soldiers from addressing officers. Many of those recruited were graduates or undergraduates at elite colleges and historians have remarked on how much they had to use their own initiative in the first few weeks of the war.
Initially there was no trench fighting - the German Army invaded Belgium and France in overwhelming numbers and simply swept the small British force away. They retreated southwards ending up near Paris and the despatch riders had a vital role in keeping the generals in touch with all their units and preventing the retreat from becoming a rout. By December 1914 the war settled down into stalemate with both sides dug into trenches which stretched from Switzerland to the sea - many of the men who had been recruited in August then cast about and applied for commissions, often in other units such as the Royal Flying Corps, or Artillery, or the Tanks Corps.
They were on the "front line" in the very first days of the war, and many were killed or taken prisoner. But those that survived the first few months tended to survive the rest of the war. Some of them had very distinguished careers after the war - in particular, many famous surgeons and doctors, and Viscount Portal who was Churchill's Chief of Air Staff in WW2 started as a despatch rider.
The photograph of Arthur is delightful - my brother will be able to date the bike (and may know if it still exists). Aged 30, Arthur would have been older than most of the other DRs, many of whom were early 20s or even late teens.
Please feel free to contact me if you would like further information about the work he did - equally, I'd be delighted if you had any other information about him and his background, eg medals, photographs, or letters. My email address is (*), and I'm based not far away from Grantham, as it happens - I live in Chilwell near Nottingham.
Nick Shelley
(*) Moderator Comment: e-mail removed in accordance with RootsChat policy,
to avoid spamming and other abuses.
Please use the Personal Message (PM) system for exchanging personal data.
New members must make at least three postings before being allowed to use the PM facility.
See Help-Page: http://www.rootschat.com/help/pms.php
