King's Own Royal Regiment Museum

First World War

1st/5th Battalion, King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment at Didcot, 1914

Members of the 'Pals' Company of the 5th Battalion at Didcot in September 1914.  Left to right, back row: Harry Wright, Bill Morris, George Jackson, Cliff Mawson, Harry Dolan, Bert Vince; middle row: Harry Cross, Jerry Kirk, Bob Gardner, Bill Gill, Bill Gardner, Freddie Happold; front seated: Alan Ripper, E R Simpson, Biddy Davies and Jack Gilchrist.

Harry Wright, not traced in records.
Bill Morris, not traced in records.
George Jackson - discharged medically unfit, 9 October 1914.
Cliff Mawson, probably Private James Radcliffe Mawson, number 2152, who died of wounds on 24th April 1915, from Hest Bank near Lancaster.
Harry Dolan - promoted Lance Corporal, with C Company, wounded 3rd May 1915.
Bert Vince - promoted Corporal, with C Company, wounded 24th April 1915.
Harry Cross - promoted Lance Corporal, with C Company, wounded and returned to duty 4th May 1915.  Commissioned in the Field on 14th August 1915.
Jerry Kirk - commissioned to 2nd Lieutenant Gerald Kirk, died of wounds on 24th April 1915, having being wounded at Wieltje on 23rd April in the 2nd Battle of Ypres.
Bob Gardner - commissioned on 3rd January 1915 to 2nd Lieutenant, killed in action on 5th May 1915 at Frezenberg.
Bill Gill -not traced in records.
Bill Gardner - with C Company, wounded on 23rd April 1915.
Freddie Happold - commissioned into the York and Lancaster Regiment on 28th December 1914.  Awarded the Distinguished Service Order with them as 2nd Lieutenant.  Lived at 22 Penny Street, Lancaster at Happold Pork Butchers.  A family of Germans who settled in Lancaster in 1860.
Allan Gilbert Ripper - promoted Lance Corporal, killed in action on 8th May 1915.
E R Simpson - served with C Company and wounded on 9th April 1915.
Dennett Howard Davies - killed in action on 24th May 1915.
Jack Gilchrist - served with C Company, promoted Sergeant, wounded on 5th May 1915.  Commissioned on 7th September 1915 and later Mentioned in Despatches, published in the Supplement to the London Gazette on 15th June 1916.
Accession Number KO1091/12, KO1364/01 and KO1898/39

An unknown group of soldiers pose for the camera whilst taking a breaking from guarding the railway bridge.  Near Didcot, 1914.
Accession Number KO1138/03

The guard at North Moreton, near Didcot, preparing a meal. Sergeant C Austin, number 1757/240339, is on the extreme right, he lived at Gerrard Street in Lancaster, went across to France on 14th February 1915 and was wounded, but returned to duty, on 13th April 1915.
Accession Number KO0784/007

Soldiers of the 1st/5th Battalion, King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment at an unidentified railway station in the Didcot area whilst guarding lines of communication in September and October 1914.
Accession Number: KONeg0172

Eight soldiers of the 1st/5th Battalion, King’s Own Royal Lancaster Regiment on guard on the Great Western Railway in the Didcot area, Sep 1914.
Postmarked Reading 18 Sep 1914. Photo by Gaelic Studios, 17 Oxford Street, Reading. Photograph has added ‘Awaiting Kaiser Bill’ to the image.
Message to ‘Brother’ ‘Mr W Winder of 19 Lennon Street, near Burnley.

Accession Number: KO3100/57

Private Harold Gordon Cooper of the 1st/5th Battalion, King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment, guarding the Great Western Railway line in the Didcot area circa September 1914.  The battalion were deployed to protect lines of communication against German attack.
Accession Number: KO2412/06

See also: Warning Notice - Guarding Lines of Communication, August 1914.

Unknown soldier of the 5th Battalion with a small local child, Didcot, 1914.
Accession Number: KO2683/01

1st/5th Battalion soldiers 'spud bashing' at the Corn Exchange, Didcot, 1914.
Accession Number KO0104/48 and KO1898/36

Detail of KO0104/48

         
Guard on railway bridge at South Moreton near Didcot, 1914. 
Accession Number KO0784/009

For an unknown reason the sentry at South Moreton railway bridge is accompanied by a goat!
Accession Number KO0784/010

Private James Radcliffe Mawson, number 2152, at Didcot Railway Station, September 1914.  Mawson died of wounds on 24th April 1915. His father, Thomas Mawson, was a landscape architect of note and was one of the group responsible for the establishment of the War Memorial Village at Lancaster.
Accession Number KO0784/002

Group at Moreton Bridge, near Didcot, including Sergeant Davies, Corporal Whiteside and Austin.  Sadly it is not clear who is who.
Accession Number KO0784/008

        
The Barrow motor lorry used for drawing rations from Abingdon and Oxford.  Regimental Quartermaster Sergeant Joseph Woodcock is sitting in the front on the right.
Captain Albert Hodgkinson, the Quartermaster, writing after the war:  "My recollections of the first days of the war are vague, but one incident stands out clearly.  The 5th Battalion were returning to Lancaster after a hectic week at Barrow, where amongst other things, we had picked up a miscellaneous assortment of transport mainly milk floats, and a superb motor lorry.  The motor lorry drew rations from Abingdon and Oxford.  The milk floats came in useful being stationed at intervals along the 50 miles of railway to deliver rations brought by train to various posts.

Research by the North West Evening Mail in 2014 uncovered the origin of the motor lorry.  EO 746 was one of a pair of Berna Tipper vehicles registered to Barrow in Furness Corporation on 22nd July 1914 (the other was EO 765).  Berna was a Swiss company and it is believed that during the First World War vehicles were assembled in Newcastle upon Tyne by Henry Watson & Son. 

RQMS Woodcock, front right, held the regimental number '92' and had been in the Volunteer Force long before the creation of the Territorial Force and 5th Battalion in 1908.  He went overseas to France on 14th February 1915, and was discharged on 21st November 1916.  His medals, now in the regimental museum, comprise the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Allied Victory Medal, 1911 Coronation Medal and Volunteer Long Service Medal.  (Medals Accession Number KO0938)  Photograph Accession Number KO0104/45

Training of the 5th Battalion King's Own at Didcot.
Accession Number: KO0104/46

    
Detail of KO0104/46

    
Detail of KO0104/46

Group of seven soldiers of the 5th Battalion, King’s Own Royal Lancaster Regiment at Didcot, with the postmark stating 10 Sep 1914. Lance Corporal Sidney Cartmell, number 2094/240500 of the 1st/5th Battalion, King’s Own Royal Lancaster Regiment is marked with an ‘x’.
To the rear of the photograph can be seen the Didcot Corn Exchange, Didcot Railway Station and the Prince of Wales Hotel.
The postcard is postmarked ‘Didcot’ and dated 10 Sep 1914. Addressed to Miss B Cartmell, 80 Dorrington Road, Lancaster.
Accession Number: KO1417/07

Colour Sergeant William Ralph and members of his Platoon, 5th Battalion, King's Own at Didcot, September 1914.
Accession Number: KO1071/03

Members of the 5th Battalion at Didoct, September 1914.
Identified as, left to right: C Longton, J Keen, B Bainbridge, Bostock, J Watson, E Winder, Sergeant Brown and Saer.
Accession Number: KO1091/06 & KO1091/07

'Part of the famous 200' at Didcot, 1914.  From left to right: William Alfred Morris (number 2166, with C Company, wounded on 9th April 1915.  Discharged 10th January 1916), G Jackson (discharged unfit), F Happold (later commissioned into the York and Lancaster Regiment), R Gardner, H Dolan, J Gilchrist, E R Simpson, H Cross and Harry Harold Wright (number 2030, with A Company, wounded on 26th April 1915.  Renumbered to 240467 and discharged on 3rd January 1918.)
Accession Number KO0784/003

Some members of the 5th Battalion alongside the railway line near Wantage, Oxfordshire, August 1914.  The postcard is dated 25th August 1914.
Accession Number KO2607/08

Group of soldiers of the 5th Battalion, King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment, August 1914.
Accession Number: KO1678/18

1st/5th Battalion Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) at Didcot, 1914.  The officers in the front row, from left to right, are Lieutenant Bill George, Medical Officer, Brigadier Hibbert, Lieutenant Colonel Lord Richard Cavendish, the Vicar of Didcot and Captain J Young, Adjutant.
Accession Number KO0592/01

Members of the 1st/5th Battalion, King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment, at Wootton Bassett Junction railway station, 1914.  It was not previously known that the battalion operated this far to the west of the Didcot area.
Accession Number: KO2917/64

"German War, 5th King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment.  Goring. 8th September 1914."  Goring, which has a railway station, was on the line towards Reading to the East of Didcot.  Clearly these soldiers of the 5th Battalion were based in the village and were photographed with some of the railway staff.
Accession Number: KO0715/18

Photo: Major Bates and Major Cadman on horseback, Didcot, Sep 1914.
Accession Number: KO2160/37-038

Sergeant George R Snowden, 5th Battalion, King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment whilst guarding the Great Western Railway line in Berkshire at Green Lane Bridge, August to October 1914.
Accession Number: KO2998/01

Sergeant George R Snowden, and other members of the 5th Battalion, King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment whilst guarding the Great Western Railway line in Berkshire at Green Lane Bridge, August to October 1914.
Accession Number: KO2998/02

Nine soldiers of the 5th Battalion, King’s Own Royal Lancaster Regiment at
Wantage Road Station, which was on the Great Western Main Line in the Vale of the White Horse, actually at the village of Grove, more than two miles north of Wantage. Wantage Road Station is a few miles to the West of Didcot.
The rear of the card is marked “No. 4 Post, No. 5 Sub Section, Bridge Guard, E Company, 5th Battalion, King’s Own Royal Lancaster Regiment. Wantage Road Station, Berkshire, Aug 1914”
Photograph by Tom Reveley, Wantage and Abingdon on Thames.
Private Tom Walton is at the end on the right.
Accession Number: KO3018//04

Lancaster Pals of the 5th Battalion, King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment at Didcot, September 1914.
Named: back row, left to right, Corporal Alfred Clowes, H Hunter, A Johnson, M Thomas, W A Morris, W Matthews (Swindon), D Wright, D Sweeney, F D Huntington, H H Wright, William Huntington.
Second Row: W Gardner, Captain E G Clark, T W Huntington, T Frear.
Front Row: N Blacow, J J Gilchrist, A Ripper, W D H Davies, R Gardner and G Slinger.

Corporal Alfred Clowes – 1753 – Also served South Africa 1901 and well known publican of Lancaster.
Herbert Hunter - 2196, 240548 Commissioned 25 Oct 1917
A Johnson -
Mortimar Thomas – 2217, died of wounds 9 Jun 1915, buried Lancaster Cemetery
William Alfred Morris – 2166 (KO2061)
W Matthews (Swindon) -
Douglas C Wright – 2037, killed in action 23 Apr 1915 Lived Dale Street, Lancaster.
D Sweeney –
Frank D Huntington – 2116, Commissioned 30 Mar 1915
Harry Harold Wright – 2030, 240467, enlisted 6 Sep 1914, discharged 3 Jan 1918 (wounded) (ko1529)
William Huntington, 2199, Commissioned 21 Sep 1915.
W Gardner – 2058, C Coy, Wounded 23 Apr 1915
Captain E G Clark –
T W Huntington -
Thomas Edward Frear – 2103, 240504, commissioned into Royal Army Service Corps, 1 Apr 1918
N Blacow –
John J Gilchrist – 2036 Commissioned 7 Sep 1915
Allan Gilbert Ripper – 2159, killed in action 8 May 1915 lived Laurel Bank, Lancaster
W Dennett Howard Davies – 2234, killed in action 24 may 1915
Robert Gardner – 2108, Commissioned 3 Jan 1915 killed in action 5 May 1915 as 2nd Lieutenant
George James Slinger – 2156, 240530, served 1st/5th, 7th and 1st/4th King’s Own.
Accession Number: KO2795/10

1st/5th Battalion, King’s Own Royal Lancaster Regiment Group
Accession Number: KO0439/17a

Lancaster Pals of the 5th Battalion, King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment at Didcot, 8th October 1914
Accession Number: KO1261/01

Lancaster Pals of the 5th Battalion, King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment at Didcot, 8th October 1914
Accession Number: KO0779/01

Unknown photograph which could possibly of the 5th Battalion King's Own at Didcot, although the suggestion that Colours are amongst the parade would suggest that this is not correct, the battalion having just laid up Colours in the Priory Church, Lancaster on 5th August 1914.
Accession Number: KO2618/02

Group of soldiers of the 5th Battalion, King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment, at Didcot, 1914.
Accession Number: KO0439/16

Soldiers of the 1st/5th Battalion, King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment in Didcot, autumn 1914.
Accession Number: KO1898/35

Group of seven soldiers of the 5th Battalion, King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment, at Didcot, soldier marked with 'x', the first on the left of the standing group of five is Private Albert Corless.
Accession Number: KO2590/415

Soldiers of the 1st/5th Battalion, King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment, believed to be at Didcot, 1914.
Accession Number: KO1898/40