My great Uncle Machine Gun Corps WW1 - when did he join and where did they go?

[nicdigby]

His Commonwealth War Graves entry tells us he was in 41 Battalion Machine Gun Corps:

https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1629958/digby,-cecil-walter/

The Register of Soldiers Effects (Ancestry) gives us the ability to calculate his date of enlistment as Jan/Feb 1917.

There is another record on Findmypast which confirms the above and gives us a little more.  It is a medical record from Jan 1918 when he spent about a week in a field ambulance and then a rest station with pyrexia (fever) confirming he had been in the army for 11 months and in France for 2 months (ie since Nov 1917).  It also gives us the MGC company he was with before 41 Battalion.
 This was 199 Company which was one of the 41 Division's companies that on 1 March 1918 formed 41 Battalion.  He would have not been sent overseas until he was 18 so as he was born in 1898 he clearly spent some time after joining being trained first and then waiting his turn to go overseas.

Back tomorrow with thoughts about reading the war diaries to find where he was killed.

MaxD

PS Crisane - I have sent a PM

Thanks so much, this is GREAT. I look forward to hearing about the war diaries.

[MaxD]

In Jan 1918 the medical record shows he was in 199 MG Company which at that time was in Italy with 41st Division (so not France as I first said).  The division moved to France end Feb 1918 and 199 became part of the newly formed  41 Battalion MGC on 4th March 1918. 

The diary for 199 Company covering the period Nov 1917 (about when he went overseas) and Feb 1918 has not been digitised and would have to be viewed at Kew (or copied). 
 
The 41 Battalion MGC diary from its beginning in March 1918 can be downloaded here:

http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C7354351

I'll look at it a bit later to see what I can highlight.

MaxD

[nicdigby]

Thank you. I look forward to hearing more about the diaries 😀

[MaxD]

When the four MG companies came together in 41 Battalion at the beginning of March, they became A - D Companies of the battalion but which became which isn't recorded!  Secondly, as was normal, the companies were spread out among the brigades of the division for the operations undertaken by 41 Division.  The war diary doesn't give any clues as to how or exactly where your great uncle was killed.  The best that can be done is to say that the division was, with others, engaged in what became known as the 5th battle of Ypres at the end of September /beginning October 1918
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth_Battle_of_Ypres with 41 Division in the area south and east of Ypres.

While short of detail, hopefully that gives you enough to answer your original questions?

MaxD

[nicdigby]

When the four MG companies came together in 41 Battalion at the beginning of March, they became A - D Companies of the battalion but which became which isn't recorded!  Secondly, as was normal, the companies were spread out among the brigades of the division for the operations undertaken by 41 Division.  The war diary doesn't give any clues as to how or exactly where your great uncle was killed.  The best that can be done is to say that the division was, with others, engaged in what became known as the 5th battle of Ypres at the end of September /beginning October 1918
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth_Battle_of_Ypres with 41 Division in the area south and east of Ypres.

While short of detail, hopefully that gives you enough to answer your original questions?

MaxD

Thanks ever so much, that is really helpful.