Royal Fusiliers WW1

[Welford1]

Hello everyone,I would really appreciate any further information on my great grandad,he went into the Middlesex regiment but saw action in the royal fusiliers,his name is John Robert Alcock,on his medals is J.R Alcock G/S 79037,I would really love to know the dates served,where he served and was he wounded,I don't really know much about him,thank you in advance for any information

[jim1]

You've put this on someone else's old post .Perhaps a mod. can move it.
Anyway just to start you off he was in the 9th. Batt. RF.
The medal roll gives dates of 16/7/18-31/8/18 which seems a bit short for overseas service but may refer to something else.
How old was he ?

[Welford1]

I'm so sorry about that,I'm useless with computers and iPads,I think my great grandad would have been about 17 or 18 years old,he was born in 1900 in hastings,sussex

[jim1]

The date looks like that's when he went to France. The Regulation was that the earliest a man could serve overseas was 18 1/2.
The War diary of the 9/RF states that there was 11 replacements July 1918.
Where has the Mddx. Regt. come from?

[Welford1]

Thanks for the reply back,so basically he fought from July 1918until August 1918,I'm thinking that he must have been wounded,great,I've finally got a little info about him,thank you

[Welford1]

I'm thinking the reason why he started of in the Middlesex regiment is because the lady he was seeing probably at the time and went on to marry her lived in bow in East London,at that time I think it came under the Middlesex area.

[jim1]

Where he lived had no bearing on which Regiment he would have gone into.
He would have gone anywhere where men were needed which was pretty much all of them.
Had he been wounded & discharged he would have received the Silver War Badge (SWB) & he's not on the SWB Roll.

[Welford1]

Thanks for the info Jim,now I know that he was a Middlesex soldier and saw action with the 9th batt fusiliers and saw action in France between July 1918 to August 1918,but apart from that I don't think I'm going to find out anything else,I'm grateful for the info you gave,thanks jim

[jim1]

When he arrived his Batt. were at Oresmaux a few miles south of Amiens in Div. reserve. This was the usual period Batts. took on replacements.
He had a period of training until the end of the month when they marched to Vignacourt NW of Amiens & finally to Franvillers which is NE of Amiens.
On the 8/8/18 they received orders to move up to Morlancourt which is S. of Albert.
They went out the same day as part of a much larger offensive (2nd. Battle of the Somme) called the Battle of Albert.
They were at first successful but were driven back. They went out again on the 22/8/18 & this time completed all objectives. They continued to fight until the end of the month.
By the end of the month they had lost 21 Officers & 595 Other Ranks, that is killed, wounded or missing.