Sydney Cecil Geering 2nd Lieut

[jim1]

The 56 Div. RAMC were around Arras including their Field Hospital.
I can't see your man on the 4/Batt. Officer casualty lists Jan-May 1918.
This makes me think that he may have been transferred or seconded to another Batt. prior to his death.

[MaxD]

Jim

I had come to the same conclusion.  I have looked at the 56 Div ADMS diary for the period which is very good on locations, nothing to be found there.

maxD

[jim1]

His record may make a mention.
As an aside the Ronville caves sound interesting.

[MaxD]

Did you read the memo on the caves at Appendix ii to May 1918 in the ADMS diary - "Some observations by a Regimental MO".  That particular diary is a mine of information on the casualty handing system.

maxD

[jim1]

Yes I read the MO's report.
Not best pleased was he.

[Paul The Rat]

Hi Jagoman
Did you find any more on Sydney Cecil Geering?
He is my Great Uncle, I went to the Hangard Cemetery in 2016. I arrived as the sun came up & written on the head stone it reads. "At the breaking of dawn, we will meet again" My Austin 7 race car is named after Henry, his brother, my Grandad. At dawn I brought the brothers back together.
A post said Julia is buried in Hereford, that would surprise me as they lived in Hertford, Hertfordshire. I have no record of where she is buried.
What is your interest?
I have been trying to find out more as I return to France this year to race & would like to visit a battlefield or location he would have been to.
Paul

[MaxD]

Something I missed earlier when I posted some info was that he was initially buried in the German cemetery at Herleville and brought in to Hangard after the armistice.  The cemetery is in the village - Google Herleville cimitiere allemande, there are a number of images.

Herleville is some distance south of Arras which would accord perhaps with jim1's thought that he was attached to another unit at the time of his death.

The location may help further. A man from 2 Rifle Brigade who died on 29 April was also buried initially by the Germans at Herleville

MaxD

[jim1]

It may be worth mentioning again that as ShaunJ said his service records are available & MaxD & I agreed that they were required as it appeared (to us anyway) that he may have been attached elsewhere.

[MaxD]

I thought that a likely scenario is that he was taken prisoner and died before he was shipped to the east to a POW camp and properly registered.

There is  Red Cross POW card for him with "missing 24 4 1918" . It has the indications that his next of kin enquired about him to the Red Cross and that as he had not been registered as a POW, they sent a negative reply - the process is described here: https://grandeguerre.icrc.org/Content/help/3step-E15-01.pdf
That of course is not what proves he was a prisoner, rather it is the fact that he was buried by the Germans.

While I don't find him with 2 RB, that battalion were fighting in the area immediately to the west of Herleville so an attachment to an 8 Div unit looks a possibility.

MaxD