6th Siege Battery BEF

[castle]

Hi, I am trying to find some information on the 6th siege Battery RGA. My Grandfather Ernest James Moxhay official number 28190 joined in 1908 so I guess must have been part of the BEF and from his pension records was attatched to the 6th siege Battery it also mentions the 28th siege Battery, he was a gunner 1st class. He was discharged December 1915 with "Fits" which was later diagnosed as epilepsey by the army.

I would be interested if anyone knows where he would have served during the War and which battles he would have been involved in? It would give me a greater understanding of what had contributed to the "Fits" as he had never had them prior to the outbreak of the War and as far as the family know he did not suffer from them after he was discharged.

Many thanks

[battiscombe]

I have 6th Siege Bty arriving in France in late September 1914 (so that agrees with his medal card showing he arrived in France 23 Sept .. his records how a day later) having been formed from men in 23rd, 39th and 107th Companies RGA (as the majority of RGA units were identified prewar I think .. as Companies..) ..and 107th Company appears on his service record as his postng 1 August 1914, based at Plymouth in 1914) I see,.... and joined the BEF forces on the Aisne I think, before being moved to Ypres area in early October.. 23rd Siege Company was based at Fort Grange at Portsmouth .. so the new 6 Siege Bty was created from men from these static fort units. As he went home ill in December 1914 he will have spent most time around Bethune-Ypres area where the BEF was deployed late 1914.. 10 pages of the war diary might well cover much/all of the time he was with the Bty..obtainable from National Archives for £8.50 or suchlike.. ....

david

[Ron Clifton]

Hello castle, and welcome to the Forum!

Each of the three Siege Companies mentioned by battiscombe provided two Siege Batteries, each of four six-inch howitzers. 1 and 2 SBs came from 23 Co, 3 and 4 from 39 and 5 and 6 from 107. Batteries were increased from four guns to six later in the war.

The 6" howitzer was the heaviest gun available to the Royal Garrison Artillery in the original BEF, and would later become the main weapon of the RGA although larger guns followed. It fired a shell weighing about a hundredweight (50 kg) so prolonged exposure to its fire at close range, even if at the giving rather than receiving end, could well induce some form of shell-shock which might well explain the "fits" and also why they did not recur in later life.

Its War Diary for almost the whole of the war is in the National Archives at Kew in file WO95/472. Visit their website at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk and you should be able to order a copy online: tell them which months you need and they will quote you the cost. War Diaries rarely mention men by name other than officers but the location of the unit, and a description of its activities, is given for each day.

Ron

[castle]

I have 6th Siege Bty arriving in France in late September 1914 (so that agrees with his medal card showing he arrived in France 23 Sept .. his records how a day later) having been formed from men in 23rd, 39th and 107th Companies RGA (as the majority of RGA units were identified prewar I think .. as Companies..) ..and 107th Company appears on his service record as his postng 1 August 1914, based at Plymouth in 1914) I see,.... and joined the BEF forces on the Aisne I think, before being moved to Ypres area in early October.. 23rd Siege Company was based at Fort Grange at Portsmouth .. so the new 6 Siege Bty was created from men from these static fort units. As he went home ill in December 1914 he will have spent most time around Bethune-Ypres area where the BEF was deployed late 1914.. 10 pages of the war diary might well cover much/all of the time he was with the Bty..obtainable from National Archives for £8.50 or suchlike.. ....

david

Thank you so much for your reply, I have been in touch with the "National Archives" at Kew and although they have the war diaries for the 6th siege bty unless I can tell them the exact page numbers within the diary they can not help, unless I wish to hire them to research further.

My Grandfather never spoke about the war and we have only recently found his pension records (his service records did not survive WW2)My son is currently doing a project for his GCSE's part of which is to write a war diary. He wish's to base it in his great Grandfather in his memory, the information you have given us is invaluable as he would wish to keep it as acurate as possible.Strangely we live very near Plymouth but Grandpop was a londoner through and through. - thank you again

[castle]

Hello castle, and welcome to the Forum!

Each of the three Siege Companies mentioned by battiscombe provided two Siege Batteries, each of four six-inch howitzers. 1 and 2 SBs came from 23 Co, 3 and 4 from 39 and 5 and 6 from 107. Batteries were increased from four guns to six later in the war.

The 6" howitzer was the heaviest gun available to the Royal Garrison Artillery in the original BEF, and would later become the main weapon of the RGA although larger guns followed. It fired a shell weighing about a hundredweight (50 kg) so prolonged exposure to its fire at close range, even if at the giving rather than receiving end, could well induce some form of shell-shock which might well explain the "fits" and also why they did not recur in later life.

Its War Diary for almost the whole of the war is in the National Archives at Kew in file WO95/472. Visit their website at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk and you should be able to order a copy online: tell them which months you need and they will quote you the cost. War Diaries rarely mention men by name other than officers but the location of the unit, and a description of its activities, is given for each day.

Ron

Thank-you for your reply, When reading my Grandfathers pension papers "shell-Shock" crossed my mind even though he was diagnosed with epilepsy. From the papers he was treated with compassion and recieved a full pension. I have mentioned in my last reply that Kew are being a little unhelpful even though I asked for spacific dates, My Grandfather qualified a a Siege specialist (Observer) 1911 but no amount of training I guess would equip you for the real thing. Would I be right in thinking that an Observer would be tracking the incoming and outgoing shells?

Many thanks again

[Ron Clifton]

Hello castle

An observer would be concerned with observing the fall of outgoing shells, and reporting back to the battery on their accuracy, normally by telephone from a forward position. Simple codes were used for "too far left", "short of target" and similar corrections.

I agree that Kew are being unhelpful. If your interest extends to Dec 1915 you might like to order Pages 1 to 10, see how far that gets you, and then order pages 11 to 20, or 11 to 15 or whatever looks like covering your period. Alternatively, you might ask them how far the first ten pages takes you, in date terms.

In the longer term I think that Kew intend to put all the War Diaries online but at present they seem to be concentrating on the infantry ones, for which there is probably the greatest demand.

There are a number of RGA experts on the Forum so please feel free to add further questions if you wish.

Good luck with your son's project. Incidentally, just before the war began, most of the heavy artillery in the UK was concentrated in the coastal defences, especially at the great Naval bases like Portsmouth and Plymouth, and even the men and weapons earmarked for use in the field tended to gravitate around there too!

Ron

[ororkep]

Castle,

When you have posted x 10 the PM facility will become available to you. PM me then and I will give you the pages you require for your son’s project. All the early Sge Bty's that went out, did so before the official forms were issued and their diaries are recorded on perforated pages as per the attached. It is also worth noting that your battery of interest was horse drawn and the 6 in Howitzers were of the older 30 cwt type. You can see two photographs of one of their Hows in the Osprey book 'British Artillery 1914-19'

Rgd Paul

[mikesmith]

Hi, I am trying to find some information on the 6th siege Battery RGA. My Grandfather Ernest James Moxhay official number 28190 joined in 1908 so I guess must have been part of the BEF and from his pension records was attatched to the 6th siege Battery it also mentions the 28th siege Battery, he was a gunner 1st class. He was discharged December 1915 with "Fits" which was later diagnosed as epilepsey by the army.

I would be interested if anyone knows where he would have served during the War and which battles he would have been involved in? It would give me a greater understanding of what had contributed to the "Fits" as he had never had them prior to the outbreak of the War and as far as the family know he did not suffer from them after he was discharged.

Many thanks

Hi Castle ..I've been doing some research myself on my irish grandfather , John Joseph Keegan. # 20005 .Born 1887. We have his demob papers ,Z11 ,Z18 and Z21 and medals(3) Shows him enlisting in regular army 1904 and transfer to reserve in 1919 as Sgt of 6 Siege Battery ,RGA , with Gun layer and Telephonist skills.He may well have known your grandfather if he embarked with 6 siege battery in the BEF of 1914.His Z18 was signed off by his CO , Major R Dalton in 1919 who commented in his remarks that 'Sgt.Keegan had served with 6th SB for over 4 years in France.He has been a signaller and No.1 of his gun, etc "

I hope this helps with the other valuable and insightful comments posted by the members on this board. I've read the WO95/Ref472 perforated diary in Kew of the 6 SB movements from 1914-1918 ..very touching .The average soldier only mentioned if he was wounded or killed.They had many dull days of inactivity aswell as the constant challenges of muddy flanders fields and the scarifying shell bombardments in between Email me.

John Keegan died 1925 of pneumonia , an electric car conductor , and is buried in Cathays cemetary , Cardiff ,Wales. Our family also has his membership certificate of the Cardiff branch of the ' Comrades of the Great War ' .

Wish I'd got to know him .. but am learning more about his short but eventful life. I would like to know where he was born in Ireland, Couny Cork I think?.He married my grandma in Queenstown(Cobh) .

Anybody ...Would his service records still exist ?

Thanks for any help ... and good luck in your search

Mike

[mikesmith]

5th and 6th siege batteries RGA, Does anyone know of any existing photos of the men of 5th and 6th Siege batteries ? They arrived in France with their equipment in late September 1914.

Many Thanks

Mike Smith

Remembering my irish grandfather: John Joseph Keegan ,gunner then sargent 6th siege battery RGA # 20005

[SFayers]

Hi Mike,

Are you aware that the Imperial War Museum has a small collection of photos taken by Lt Col Haymes (the first OC of 5 Siege Battery [briefly], and then the OC of 6 Siege Battery when it first arrived in France):

http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/search?query=Haymes&items_per_page=10&submit=

There's always the possibility your grandfather might be on one of the photos of the battery. To date I've not found any early war photos of 5 Siege Battery, though I do have copies of a few photos of individual battery members.

All the best

Steve