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Cranston Fine Arts  Military Art and Artists 19th Century Military History 19th Century Regiments  East Surrey Regiment |
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The East Surrey Regiment by Richard Simkin No text for this item |
Sergeant Packard Checking The Enemys Attack With A Machine Gun At Richebourg LAvoue. On advancing to attack the British trenches at Richebourg LAvoue, the Germans threw themselves flat on the ground when about eighty yards distant. With the help of a private, Sergeant Packard (East Surreys) took a machine gun over the parapet of his trench and along a ditch running at right angles to and between the opposing lines. When almost opposite the prostrate Germans, he mounted the machine gun and began firing. Before long some of the enemy appeared in the ditch, and as they crept close up to him. Packard turned the machine gun on them and they were soon wiped out. Swinging round he face the men lying in the open, and the moment they rose to attack, he directed a deadly fire on them. The Germans fell back in disorder, leaving the ground heaped with their dead and wounded. The conspicuous gallantry of Sergeant Packard was rewarded with the D.C.M. |
Private J. E. Healey Narrowly Escapes With His Life While Acting As A Messenger. At Richebourg on October 28th 1914, Private James Edward Healey, of the 1st Battalion, East Surrey Regiment, was sent with an urgent message for reinforcements. His way lay along an open road, and he had gone about 100 yards when there was a blinding flash, and a shell exploded just in front of him. He was blown back twenty yards into a ditch by side of the road. With great pluck he got up to continue his journey, but he had hardly restarted when he was ht by a machine gun bullet. He continued on his way, however, and delivered his message at Headquarters. He had carried many messages under heavy fire, and for his conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty was awarded the D.C.M. |
History of the East Surrey Regiment 1917 - 1919 Volumes II and III by Colonel H W Pearse, DSO and Brigadier General H S Sloman, CMG, DSO. These two volumes cover the history of the East Surrey Regiment throughout the Great War. In August 1914 the East Surreys comprised two Regular (1st and 2nd), one Reserve (3rd), one Extra Reserve (4th) and two Territorial battalions (5th and 6th); the Regimental Depot was at Kingston-on-Thames. As the war went on further battalions were added: eight so-called Service battalions (7th to 14th) in Kitcheners New Armies and a second and a third line battalion for each of the Territorial battalions for a total of eighteen battalions of which only nine saw active service overseas, and it is their war record which is the subject of this history. Each volume is divided into sections dealing with different periods, such periods being so defined as to bring out the successive phases of the war on the Western Front or in other theatres, and the successive chapters in each section deal with each battalion in the order of its seniority. Volume II, which has three sectins, contains the records, up to March 1917, of all the battalions which served overseas, including operations in Salonika, and in addition, in Chapter I, the services up to December 1919 of those battalions that remained in the UK. This same chapter also describes the raising of all the battalions that came into being after the outbreak of war. Volume III has four sections the first three of which cover operations from April 1917, including Salonika and Mesopotamia, Italy and Aden, to the Armistice; the fourth section takes the record from the Armistice to December 1919 describing the disbandment of the Service battalions and operations in North Russia and Mesopotamia. Officer casualties are given by name in the text whereas other rank casualties are shown periodically as totals. However, the one appendix contains the consolidated Roll of Honour of other ranks, listed alphabetically giving rank but not date nor theatre nor battalion identification. Total casualties amounted to 6,750, seven VCs were won and 62 Battle Honours awarded. |
East Surrey Regiment by Harry Payne. No text for this item |
12th Bermondsey Battalion - East Surrey Regiment in the Great War. J Aston and L M Duggan. The 12th E Surreys were raised on 14th May 1915 by the Mayor and Borough of Bermondsey, and in October the battalion joined 122nd Brigade, 41st Division, the last of the Kitchener divisions. It remained in the same brigade throughout the war. A year later, May 1916, the division arrived in France where the battalion served until November 1917, when they were sent to Italy. In March 1918 they returned to France where the battalion remained for the rest of the war. The authors have made every effort to be accurate in their account, but the main aim has been to provide a narrative, not so much for the general reader as for the members of the Battalion Association and their friends. In pursuit of this aim they have included plenty of yarns using the actual words of the individual narrator which, they believe, will prove the best part of the volume. In fact this is the most anecdotal unit history I have yet come across. Reading it today, some ninety years later, it is clear that these personal contributions add a great deal to the story, bringing a feeling of reality to the scenes being described. There are plenty of references to individuals, references which are always welcome in what amounts to a family history, telling the day-to-day story of a close knit battalion. There is no doubt it will have brought to mind those who died and will have helped to recall incidents, localities, friendships and dangers shared. The division was one selected for the Army of Occupation in Germany and the battalion ended its war service on garrison duty in the Rhine bridgehead. 217 officers and 4,487 other ranks served with the battalion during the war, and total casualties amounted to 128 officers and 2,675 other ranks of whom 38 and 683 respectively died. The appendices contain a wealth of information, of great help to the researcher. There is the nominal roll of officers and men who served with the battalion; there is a list of cemeteries in which the dead are buried, each is numbered and keyed to the Roll of Honour so the place of burial can be checked; and there is the list of honours and awards. This is a very comprehensive history. |
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