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General => Armed Forces => World War One => Topic started by: T4bsF on Sunday 07 February 16 18:26 GMT (UK)
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John Frederick Griffin. 2nd Battalion, Welsh Regiment. Regimental no. 8456. born 5 Oct 1886. died 25 Sep 1914 in a field somewhere in France/Flanders.
John Frederick Griffin (my Grandad) was born in Birmingham and for whatever reason, moved to Cardiff and was a Corporal in the Welsh Regiment, in the Maindy Barracks in Cardiff. This information was given as his address at the time of his marriage to my Grandmother, Grace Lilian Rowe, in 1909. By the time of the 1911 census he was working on the Railways and they were living in Pontypridd, so he must have left the Army. When war broke out he re-enlisted (or was recalled from the Reserve). He was shipped out to France, with the Welsh Regiment - 2nd Battalion, in early August 1914. He left my Grandmother at home with his two daughters, my mother, Lilian Lottie Griffin and her sister Grace Emily. At this time my Grandmother was heavily pregnant with what turned out to be his third daughter, my Aunty Dolly (Doris Maud), who was born on the 19th August 1914. As he died on the 25th September, 1914, it is unlikely that news of this third daughter would have reached him. His name is listed on a Memorial stone in the La Ferte Sous Jouarre War Cemetery in France.
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Hello & welcome
Is there a question you want to ask?
They were here on the 25th. Sept. 1914:
Beaulne, Vendresse-Beaulne, France.
Heavily shelled by the Germans.
He was one of 47 OR's that fell that month.
It was called the Battle of the Aisne.
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You are correct that he would have been a Reservist. But they were still part of the army. He would have enlisted for 12 years - 7 years in uniform and 5 years in the First Class Reserve. He would only have been discharged from the army after his time as a Reservist.
As with most Reservists he did not record the fact in the census.
Ken
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No questions really, as I thought this thread was to commemorate soldiers who lives had been lost, but I'm always grateful to receive any extra information. I can see that my images have not uploaded too well - is there anything I can do to make them more viewable? I had tried to find out what the battle he would have been caught up in was - so you have answered that question. I have a War Diary transcription of the days surrounding his death and it seems that, yes, they were in a place called Vendresse. Also of interest in this diary entry is that a soldier had been Court-Martialled for "throwing away his arms in the presence of the enemy" and "creating alarm and despondency"...... see transcription below.
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Let's hope he wasn't one of the 346.
Edit:
According to the list he wasn't.
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Let's hope he wasn't one of the 346.
Sorry to be a thickie - but one of the 346 what???
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Men shot at dawn.
Over 3000 men were sentenced to death in WW1 but only 346 were actually shot.
The list says he wasn't.
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Thanks Jim1 - I hadn't heard this statistic previously. I would assume that if a soldier was shot at dawn, that this would automatically forfeit his right to campaign medals. If this is so, then I know my Grandad wouldn't have been one of them, as I know my Great-Grandfather applied for, and got, his son's medals. The Sgt. Teasdale (mentioned in the war diary entry) would probably be one of the ones who escaped being shot at dawn, as I read somewhere that he only had 5 days loss of priveleges for his crimes.
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I think he got 5 years HL & reduced to the ranks.
However there's an MIC for a Robert Teesdale 2nd. Batt. WR being transferred to the Fusiliers in 1917 & the RE in 1918. Also received the SWB.
Maybe they had a clear out at the prison & sent him back.
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That sounds feasible - you're probably right. All the battles featured in dramas or books, always seem to be about the Somme or Dunkirk. I haven't read any yet that cover the very first 6-8 weeks of the war. Do you know of any that might be interesting?
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Read about Mons.
Pre trench warfare. The grandfather of a friend was in the 1st. Cheshires & ended up fighting behind a bale of hay in a cornfield.
3 Batts. were left behind to fight a rearguard action against 5 German divs.
They suffered 80% casualties.
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There is an excellent series of books about the Great War by Lyn MacDonald
www.goodreads.com/author/show/24474.Lyn_Macdonald
The first book is 1914: Days of Hope: "an account of the first few months of the Great War, from the build-up of the fighting to the first Battle of Ypres"
Others in the series include They called it Passchendaele, Somme, and The Roses of No Man's Land
They are an amazing mix of original letters, diaries, interviews and other observations.
Milly
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Thanks Milly - I've downloaded that book - it looks really interesting.
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The whole series is. My favourite is "They called it Passchendaele" which reduced me to tears.
Milly