Private William W Parkin commemorated on the Theipval Memorial - help please

[copperbeech5]

Hello  Chaps,

I am seeking some help please  - as I am entering an area in which I have no knowledge.

I would very much like to find out a bit more (if possible) about my great uncle.  Might it be possible to know things like the progression of his journey to the Somme?
Any information would be wonderful.

Private William Watson Parkin.
266247

He died 1.7.1916  age 18 - and is commemorated on the Thiepval memorial.

He was with (3881). 1st/7th Bn.
Sherwood Foresters
(Notts & Derby Regiment)

Thank you in anticipation.

Copperbeech5

[MaxD]

As you have perhaps seen on Rootschat before, the first thing to note is that over 60% of detailed service records were lost to bombing in WW2, his appears to have been among them.  From what has survived and from other sources:

He joined in about March 1915 (from the Register of Soldiers' Effects *) and would have first trained in Derby at the depot.  His medal records* say he went to France on 27 October 1915.  The war diary* for 1/7th Bn Sherwood Foresters is WO 95/2694/2 at the National Archives. 

Those records marked with asterisks above are on Ancestry.co.uk where they have free access 8-12 November so you might like to find them yourself?  The army knew him as William Hudson (or William H) Parkin.

When you have tracked those down, come back if there are any queries, we chaps and indeed chapesses will be happy to help again.

MaxD

[MaxD]

Addendum

You might alsoike to look at the war diary of 139 Brigade to which 1/7th Sherwood Foresters belonged.  That has also a detailed account of the 1 July 1916 action to the east of Foncquevillers in which almost half the 1/7th Battalion became casualties.  The area in which the action took place started in square 22 d (where the word Brayelle appears) towards the red trenches where "Little Z" appears.

https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=15&lat=50.1529&lon=2.6481&layers=101465221&right=BingHyb

MaxD

[copperbeech5]

Thanks MaxD, I am enormously grateful for your help and words of wisdom.

I will follow up with the information you have provided - interesting that they have given him a different middle name!

Many thanks,

Copperbeech5

[MaxD]

His Effects Register record has him as William Hudson Parkin with a note "alias William Watson Parkin".  Highly likely that on his very first army record, the Watson was badly written and thereafter he became Hudson until they went to pay his effects to his father.

MaxD

[copperbeech5]

I have just been reading the war Diary - it is mind blowing - thank you for pointing me in the direction of that.

Interesting now to hear there is an Effects Register too - I am learning fast.

Kind regards,
Copperbeech5