Frederick charles barnard

[jim1]

I'd like to know where Mary got the list from.
The bit that concerns me is the incident date.
Was this when he was wounded bearing in mind that there were no reported casualties in the 4/Mddx. that day or when he received his wound stripe or when it was published.

[mary bonner]

Thanks so much, all of you

[Regorian]

It's probably not worth continuing with this Mary. As Jim said there were minimal losses in 4/Middlesex Regiment. Your grandfather was just unlucky to be on the receiving end of a random German shell after the battle.

Overall, this was after the end of the Battle of Passchendaele (3rd Ypres). which ended in November. 37th together with 19th Division in IX Corps were at the southern end of the Front from the beginning on the Menin Road running SE from Ypres.

Not so the Australians and New Zealanders, who suffered horrendous casualties. The New Zealanders had to be replaced by Canadians.

Passchendaele was like a moonscape with stunted tree stumps and a sea of mud. Still, I suppose it had to be done. Otherwise we would be ruled by the Hohenzollerns today. Hang on, if we stay in the EU it might come to pass anyway .     

[mary bonner]

Hello.
In answer to Jims question, The list came from a researcher from forces war records.

[jim1]

This is the problem when you don't have the original record.
Incident date is too vague to have any meaning.
Your researcher should have explained what that was.
I don't know how long ago you were in touch but if it was recently I'd ask that question.

[jim1]

OK. We're never really going to know what happened to him when or where.
You did mention that he was gassed. The diary for 3/9/17 & 3/10/17  states a total of 45 men were gassed.
He may have been one of these.
The casualty list may be quite a bit behind the event owing to the huge number of casualties suffered during the 3rd. battle of Ypres.
I think the date 28/12/17 is the date the list was published & the comment that he was entitled to the wound stripe is a general remark applying to all of those on the list as they were all wounded in action rather than by accident or self infliction.
When he was declared fit he's been transferred to the Labour Corps.
Earlier in the year they were in the Arras sector, they moved to the Ypres Salient on June 1st. where they remained for the rest of the year. So at least you know where he was as he wouldn't have been wounded earlier than June.
I think this is a reasonable educated guess but as I said we'll never know for sure.

[mary bonner]

Thanks Jim. You have been very helpful. Yes I agree, thats about as far as we are going to get.   
Mary