24570 Private Edward Plant, 1st Bn RWF

Hi

I am looking for any information which members may have about my great uncle Edward (Ted) Plant.

He was killed in action 3/9/16 and buried in the Delville Wood cemetery, Longeuval.

I recently got the battalion War Diary from the National Archive and it looks as if he was one of 22 other ranks killed on that day in the attack on Ginchy.

Luckily his service records survived and I have found them on Ancestry so to be honest I've been lucky so far but anything further about his life and service would be gratefully received.

Thanks

I should know more, but unfortunately I don't. This is what I have in my Other Ranks list:

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Born in Hanley, Staffordshire. Landed, date unknown (c.09/1915). No record of wounds or illnesses. KiA 03/09/1916. Buried Delville Wood Cemetery.

I'd be very interested in the personal file, as I do not (yet) have access to Ancestry. Could you perhaps post it here?

John

Forgot to mention: if you would like a photo of the grave, try Monsieur Pierre Vandervelden (http://www.inmemories.com/) who once a month goes on a tour of cemeteries in Belgium and Northern France. Longueval may be too far afield for him, but if you don't ask you don't know.

John

Tim, based on your info I have amended the entry for your uncle:

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Born in Hanley, Staffordshire, 21/04/1896. Collier. Enlisted 3 RWF 27/03/1915. Landed 30/09/1915. Slightly wounded (accident) 02/02/1915. Remained at Duty. KiA 03/09/1916. Buried Delville Wood Cemetery.

Much better now. Strange that his accidental injuries were not mentioned in the Casualty Reports.

Do you have a photo of your uncle, perhaps?

Hwyl,

John

Hi

Glad the info was of use to you.

Unfortunately we don't have a photo though we do have his medals.

Thanks

The four or five days culminating on 3rd September was a dark time for my home village and surrounding areas (Deiniolen, Caernarfonshire) with a loss of around 10 men with 1st RWF and many more wounded. (Predominantly numbers in 40XXX range and would only have been at the front a few weeks)

Re the 22 ORs killed bit. Also note the 87 ORs classed as Missing. Most, if not all, of these men were to be later regarded as KIA that day. They are commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial.

Gwil

Thanks for that Gwilwil

My uncle was actually from Stoke but appears to have enlisted in Wrexham, was he an exception or was there any kind of tradition of men from the area enlisting with RWF?

Thanks

I'm just looking generally through the posts and have read about perhaps wanting a photo from Delvile Wood Cemetery........ I may be there in April and if you haven't yet organised one I may be able to do it for you, just let me know the details,
Colin

Colin

As well as Ted Plant from the opening post there are another 94 RWF men at the cemetery.

10th Battalion have around 30 from their action on 20th July 1916

1st Battalion have around 36 from the action I described end August/start Sept 1916.

There are then around 24, predominantly 13th Bn men, from end August/start 1918 (brings home that the battlefield didn't move much in 2 years!)

Undoubtedly there are more there as the CWGC info states it is a post Armistice cemetery where they brought burials in from all over the area. Of the 5523 burials, 3593 are unidentified. A good number of these (if not all) will have their names on Thiepval Memorial and of course they are represented also via the tomb of the Unknown Warrior at Westminster Cathedral.

If you have room on your camera I would appreciate any of them that you spot as you walk around but especially the 1st Bn ones (as would John I should think). The only problem nowadays with emailing photos is that they are now so big in size it takes ages to send more than a few. Maybe some techy savvie people know a better way. Anyway if you can get the RWF ones that'll be great but if not then no worries.

Hywyn

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Gwilwil

If you have room on your camera I would appreciate any of them that you spot as you walk around but especially the 1st Bn ones (as would John I should think). The only problem nowadays with emailing photos is that they are now so big in size it takes ages to send more than a few. Maybe some techy savvie people know a better way. Anyway if you can get the RWF ones that'll be great but if not then no worries.
Hywyn

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You could use one of the many free websites offering to send large files for free, such as http://www.sizablesend.com/. You can send unlimited files up to 2GB each

I would recommend putting the pictures into a folder and compressing it (zipped). All you need to do then is upload it to their site and a link will be emailed to the intended recipient showing them where to download the files from.

Thanks Bob

I have used similar large file transfers. It is/was the zipping of files bit that I'm not fully up on. Will have to have a look at it.

Hywyn

You beat me to it, Bob.

I would like to add that zipping jpgs would only be useful for keeping the files together (e.g. in packages of just under the max allowed size). As a way of saving space zipping jpgs is pretty useless as the savings in my experience are rarely more than 0.5 %.

It is also possible to use Skype to transfer large files. Possible but slow. I sent Swiper a 500 meg file by Skype - it took about 24 hours. But it got there.

Another point: it is often useful to check for availabilty of grave photos with Monsieur Pierre Vandervelden of http://www.inmemories.com/. He is French speaking but will answer mails in English without any problem. And another possible source is the War Grave Photographic Project at http://twgpp.org/

John

Hywyn,
I'll do my best and be in touch afterwards
Colin

Additionally http://www.britishwargraves.co.uk/ They hold 50% of the graves at Delville Wood.

Interesting site....shows what I know because I didn't even know it existed