25th January 1915, William Shakeshaft, aged 29, Coldstream Guards

[andrewdwilliams]

William, known as “Bill” to his family, was born on the 29th August 1885 in Balby, just outside Doncaster. His father, Charles Shakeshaft, was 29 at the time and worked on the railway. Bill's mother, Ann Williamson (nee Spink), was 23 at the time. Bill had, in total, 11 brothers and 10 sisters although most of them died shortly after birth. Notably, one brother of his, Ezra Williamson Shakeshaft, served in the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry during World War One and briefly alongside Bill in 1904.

He is my great great uncle, and although this is relatively distant connection, I feel closely linked to him as my great grandmother, his younger sister Mary, whom I never met, was evidently a big fan of his. So much so that she kept several of the letters he sent as well as his three medals and his Coldstream Guards red plume. Through this physical link, I feel a connection to Bill that I find hard to achieve with people that I only have Census entries for.

Following a brief stint working on the railway with his father, Bill thought the Army life was the life for him and joined the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, supposedly the local regiment, in 1904. This, we discover, was not his cup of tea as he only spent 17 days in the KOYLI before purchasing his discharge.

In a letter back home to his parents, Bill complains that he does not get “half a belly full” and that his “arm is bad” and he “don't get enough sleep on a night”. The regimental depot is “just like a prison”, so much so that he is forced to “take my belt up a hole every night”. Apparently, they were “talking about keeping us for twelve months this week now this was has broke out”. Although I do not know for sure, he is talking either about the Russo-Japanese War or the British expedition to Tibet. Regardless of this, Bill wrote that he would be “about dead if they did”. Worst of all, Bill reported that he “don't get teacakes for tea now”.

However, it took only a matter of years before Bill decided he was ready to join up again. Unfortunately, as it appears that Bill's service record was lost in the Second World War, I do not know exactly when he joined up. I estimate either 1907 or 1908, although for all I know it could have been as early as 1905.

According to a letter sent on the 14th November 1908, Bill discovered that he will be sent to Egypt, departing on the 20th November. This puts his time of arrival in Egypt at either December 1908 or January 1909. He is definitely in Egypt by September 1909 as he sent a Christmas card back to his family in that month. And he is still in Egypt on the 2nd April 1910, when he sent another letter.
 
However, we know that Bill was in England for at least part of December because on the 21st December 1908, Bill is mentioned on page 8 of the Nottingham Evening Post in an article about a fight at the football match between Balby Albion and Belmont. Bill and his brother, Ezra, were ordered to pay 17s. 6d. costs for assaulting Arthur Pyle, a Belmont player. A case against Pyle for assaulting Bill was dropped in the proceedings.

On the 2nd March 1910, Bill sent a letter back home to his younger sister, Mary Shakeshaft. He thanks her for the ivory she sent, saying “we don't see any at all out here”. He then says that he has attached a photo that she has been “longing for” and that he hopes she likes it. It is reasonable to infer that the photo in question if the photo taken in Egypt with humorous goings on including the presence of two rabbits and a monkey.

Bill then writes that he has fallen in with a “black girl” and hopes and that Mary can be he is enjoying himself. He then writes “you know there is a lot of black people out here they seemed rather funny at first but we soon get used to them”. Bill Shakeshaft, in 1910, was breaking racial boundaries that continue to exist to this day. Bill carries on with the letter, saying his is “in the pink” and hopes that Mary is too, and that he expects she wishes she could just “come over in an airship”. He finishes the letter by sending his love.
 
By the time of the 1911 England Census, Bill is in the Tower of London with the rest of the 3rd Battalion, Coldstream Guards. As Bill wrote in 1908, the facilities at Chelsea Barracks are “a lot better than the Tower being a lot cleaner and better lighted than the old Tower”. He clearly did not hold the Tower of London in high regard, and it is safe to assume his peers did not either.

[andrewdwilliams]

(Part 2/2, apparently messages have a 5500 character limit   )

On the 4th August 1914, 1st Battalion was stationed at Aldershot as part of the 1st (Guards) Brigade, 1st Division. In August the Battalion was mobilised for war and moved to France as part of the British Expeditionary Force, arriving on the 14th. In 1914, the Battalion took part in the Battle of the Mons and the subsequent retreat, the Battle of the Marne, the Battle of the Aisne and the First Battle of Ypres. The Battalion then went on to take part in the fierce fighting dubbed the Winter Operations of 1914-1915. The Battle of Aubers. The Battle of Loos.

It was on the 25th January 1915, that Bill Shakeshaft was killed in action whilst serving with the 1st Battalion, Coldstream Guards. It seems that Bill was going to appear in De Ruvigny's Roll of Honour but as a copy of one correspondence from Marquis De Ruvigny to Ann Shakeshaft, Bill's mother explains, Ann objected to this and so he did not appear in the Roll of Honour that contains information on 26,000 other dead soldiers. It also appears from De Ruvigny's correspondence that Bill was reported missing in January 1915, and it was unknown if he had died or not until later.

Bill was posthumously awarded the 1914 Star with November Clasp as well as the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. His family received all three in 1919, after the War had ended and peace had been made.

In July 1928 Bill's grave was moved from the “vicinity of Cuinchy” and his remains were re-interred in Arras Road Cemetery, at Plot 2, Row E, Grace 19. This re-interment was carried out in “accordance with the agreement with the French and Belgian Governments to remove all scattered graves and small cemeteries with less than 40 graves”.

This is a poem, called The Pilgrims of the Night. I'm not sure who wrote it, but I'm quite sure it wasn't Bill. He'd probably enjoy it though.

"The Pilgrims of the Night

When you are a little army corps
Upon your body forming fours
Always on a night attacks
Making charges up your back
Then you will with all your might
Shape the pilgrims of the night

Though some hundreds you may kill
You will find there's hundreds still
For they hide behind each other
And are smart at taking cover
Then they have an awful bite
Plus a shocking appetite

There are families by the dozens
Fathers, Mothers, Sisters, cousins
And they have their married quarters
Where they hear their sons and daughters
And they take a lot of catching
Likewise causing endless scratching

When you are getting off to sleep
They are forming up two deep
When you are in the land of nod
They are forming up in squad
And you will find it most annoying
When the section starts deploying

But at last! There will come a day
When you will throw your shirt away
And you like to cast your kilt
Did it not reveal ones guilt
And adopt the ancient style
Of wearing nothing but a smile"

[IMBER]

Is there any special reason why you think his records were lost in WW2? It's true that a majority were destroyed by enemy action but the the Guards regiments kept their records elsewhere and so a majority have survived. You would need to contact the Regimental Archivist:

https://www.coldstreamguards.org.uk/histories-of-the-coldstream-guards/archives.html

Or perhaps you have already tried that?

Imber

[andrewdwilliams]

Is there any special reason why you think his records were lost in WW2? It's true that a majority were destroyed by enemy action but the the Guards regiments kept their records elsewhere and so a majority have survived. You would need to contact the Regimental Archivist:

https://www.coldstreamguards.org.uk/histories-of-the-coldstream-guards/archives.html

Or perhaps you have already tried that?

Imber

Ah, thanks Imber. I hadn't realised that was a possibility, as I naively assumed that if I couldn't find it on the classic genealogy sites (ancestry and findmypast), I assumed it wasn't out there. I'll contact them, also because there is a family belief that Bill was a regimental boxing champion, and amongst other things, had a match against the famous (of the time) William 'Iron' Hague.