Labour Corps WW1

[smudgepants]

Hi Alex
Only just read this post and not sure if you are still doing your research. My great grandfather was in the Labour Corps 107th Co and died on Dec 1st 1917. His name is on the memorial at Cambrai.He was previously in the Royal Fusiliers.
Karen

Sorry Karen, I never saw this. Do you know where he was based at all? 

[kall]

Hi Alex...no I don’t am afraid....so many John Smiths

[MaxD]

Kall

Your John Smith was, as you say, in 107 Company Labour Corps.  That company had been formed from 37 Labour Battalion Royal Fusiliers which was most likely the battalion he had served with first.  Half the company were taken prisoner at Gouzeaucourt during the Battle of Cambrai in an attack on 30 November 1917 which very probably was the same action in which he fell on 1 Dec 1917.  As he is commemorated on the Cambrai Memorial it is because he has no known grave.  Exactly where they were during the attack may be able to be established.

MaxD

[kall]

Hi Max. Thankyou for that. His regiment number was 63993 and he enlisted in Edenbridge in Kent. His Royal Fusiliers number was 45128
Karen

[MaxD]

As you probably now, apart from his medal records and the entry in the Register of Soldiers' Effects, no service record for him survives.  There is also no war diary for 107 Labour Company.

However, Rudyard Kipling's history of the Irish Guards has reference to men of the Labour Corps being taken prisoner on 30 November 1917 when the Guards were sent from Metz in urgent response to an enemy breakthrough in the area of Gonnelieu which caused a general retirement of troops in that area.. 
As was pointed out by an observer of that curious day—“’Tis little ye can do with gunsights, an’ them in the arrums av men in a great haste. There was men with blankets round ’em, an’ men with loose putties wavin’ in the wind, and they told us ’twas a general retirement. We could see that. We wanted to know for why they was returnin’. We went through ’em all, fairly breastin’ our way and—we found Jerry on the next slope makin’ prisoners of a Labour Corps with picks an’ shovels. But some of that same Labour Corps they took their picks an’ shovels and came on with us.”
  Link here http://www.telelib.com/authors/K/KiplingRudyard/prose/IrishGuardsv1/1917sommegouseaucourt.html

It is highly likely that your John Smith lost his life along with the Irish Guards in the action that day, his death being reported the day after, 1 Dec 1917.   It took place in the area on the link:
http://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=14&lat=50.0600&lon=3.1001&layers=101465203&right=BingHyb
The enemy came from off the map to the centre right and the Guards encountered them in the area of the D7 road between Gouzeaucourt and Gouzeaucourt Wood, half way towards Metz.

MaxD

[River Tyne Lass]

Here is a link about the Labour Corps:

http://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/army/regiments-and-corps/the-labour-corps-of-1917-1918/

[kall]

Thankyou so much Max and River Tyne Lass.

[Gordon163]

I've just come across this very interesting thread.

My gt-gt-uncle, James Johnson, was initially in KRRC Reg No. 98.

Later in the war he transferred to The Labour Corps Reg No. 396512.

The medal roll says that he was discharged on 28 Feb 1919.

Does anyone know where he might have gone with the Labour Corps, please?

Regards,

Gordon

[MaxD]

Welcome to Rootschat!

The usual start to an enquiry about the Labour Corps goes "notoriously difficult to research".  You are luckier than most in that his (very badly damaged) service record is on line on a subscription site.  It at least says which company he was in  - 263 Area Employment Company but that is when the luck begins to run out. It was a company attached to III Corps but, like most LC companies, it did not keep its own diary.  In addition, it isn't clear at first reading when he transferred from KRRC.

There is a suggestion in the record that he served in the Boer War.  Can you give his date and place of birth and any other personal info (wife/kids) that will help confirm the records are not mixed up with another one and we'll have another look.

Meanwhile you might like to consider a trial sub or look at Findmypast at a library?

MaxD