Best published WW1 battalion history

[stevem49]

Unless you are going for around 500 pages!, entries for every man killed is 'impossible' . My aim was to make sure that the other ranks got a mention as often as possible and it took me 5 years to dig out info. It is a good idea to contact local papers with appeals for information on men of the battalion and also check the old papers for war entries for the men. I ended up with 255 pages (A4) and could not add all the information I had gleaned over the years. In the end you have to decide what you think is best to add. I also added a number of appendices including - nominal rolls, deaths and location of burials, gallantry awards, Despite checking CWGC, SDGW, Medal rolls and other sources, I still did not get every man and even today (6 years on) more emerge,

Mine was an amateur attempt to make sure the men of the battalion would be remembered.

By advertising widely I even came into contact with the daughter of a VC winner and we ended up as firm friends.

Lastly - best of luck - he will need it

PS - I am not implying that my book comes even close to 'best published' but if you want the men to be remembered, then I think I did that. Mine was for family members to find out what their man did and to date many have thanked me for giving 'Grandad or Great Grandad' his bit of 'glory'

[Bernard_Lewis]

I agree with John and Steve. Often you have a man or men killed and no real idea as to the circumstances. You can't then tell 'the story' in the absence of even basic facts. A memorial type book with every known man listed is a different matter.

Bernard

[John_Hartley]

Often you have a man or men killed and no real idea as to the circumstances. You can't then tell 'the story' in the absence of even basic facts.

(1) The Blankshires started another tour of duty in the trenches on 20 February. It was cold and wet but the German shelling was light over the next three days. Fred Jones, a 23 year plumber's mate from Blankchester, was the first of seven men who would be killed during those days, losing his life within hours. Like the others, he has no known grave that his young wife, Alice, could ever visit. As far as is known, she never remarried and continued to live in Blankchester until her death in 1975."

(2) The Blankshires started another tour of duty in the trenches on 20 February. The war diary has few details of the next three days but, the same day, Fred Jones, Joe Bloggs and Ronald Williams were killed. The next day, Joe Josephs, John Hartley and Bernard Lewis became fatal casualties. Casualties were lighter on the final day, with only one man, Robert Davies, killed, although another six were wounded.

[Charles Fair]

A recent book that I think is absolutely superb is History of the 43rd and 52nd (Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire) Light Infantry in the Great War Volume ii. The 52nd Light Infantry in France and Belgium by Simon Harris which I picked up last year in TNA. It was published in 2011 but is more akin to the post-war histories in style, but with added biographical info and more photos than would be expected from a book of that period. The maps are plentiful and very good. One of those books that is so beautifully produced that I just had to buy it there and then... managed to sneak it indoors when I got home.

[Bernard_Lewis]

Noted John, but 300+ of those gets a bit tedious?

Bernard

[John_Hartley]

Exactly, Bernard.

[Moonraker]

A book with brief notes on 300+ soldiers from one battalion is hardly a commercial proposition, especially in these heady times when so many subjects are being offered to publishers. It does have value as a useful research document, but only if copies are lodged with the obvious libraries and museums - IWM, NAM, NA, regimental museum, local institutions and copyright libraries, for example.

In some cases it might be argued that the local interest is limited even if the unit bears a local title; as has been pointed out many times before, the battalion of a county regiment might have a majority of men from other parts of the country.

Moonraker

[John_Hartley]

I can confirm, from experience, that Moonraker is correct. My second book, a history of the 17th Manchesters, has a very large appendix of mini-biographies of around 1000 men who were the original members of the battalion, going overseas in November 1915. I knew it was not a commerical "runner" but punted it to Pen & Sword on the off-chance and with the expected rejection coming quickly.

I ended up going down the route of "assisted self-publishing" with Reveille Press. It is not a cheap option, costing several hundred pounds, but it was a project very close to my heart and if that's what it took to be in print, then that's what it took. I doubt it will ever sell more than a large handful.

[Moonraker]

Hopefully, John, you've made copies available to some of the institutions I've named in my last post?

I remember someone (perhaps not in this Forum) moaning about the requirement to supply a copy to each of the six copyright libraries. (At least with my self-published Wiltshire book of 1999 I was able to drop off all six copies at somewhere in central London that forwarded them to the respective libraries.)

But if someone is relying on their work being of use to posterity there's no point in flogging a few to friends and interested parties, with whom they may remain hidden away until the odd one is offered on eBay. It needs to be available to researchers past and present.

Moonraker

[billmills1968]

"Bristol's Own", The 12th Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment 1914-1918, by Dean Marks, published in 2011, is very good indeed.

Bill.

[Charles Fair]

William, is your relative writing a history of a battalion that has never previously had a history written? Or did it have a history written in the 20s or 30s? The answer might well affect how he wants to approach the book. [Jill Knight's book on the CSR didn't try to duplicate anything in the excellent 1921 history which is readily available as a reprint. She brought a lot of new material such as the social history, photos and other ranks letters which complements the material in the earlier work (which IIRC contains rolls of honour etc.)].

[WilliamRev]

William, is your relative writing a history of a battalion that has never previously had a history written? Or did it have a history written in the 20s or 30s? The answer might well affect how he wants to approach the book. [Jill Knight's book on the CSR didn't try to duplicate anything in the excellent 1921 history which is readily available as a reprint. She brought a lot of new material such as the social history, photos and other ranks letters which complements the material in the earlier work (which IIRC contains rolls of honour etc.)].

It is a Territorial battalion which has been included in a regimental history of all the battalions, but which didn't get a particularly detailed treatment. He has some new material, plus the brigade war diary (only the battalion war diary was used in the regimental history I understand) but I don't think he has much new in the way of new photos.

Feel free, everyone, to keep contributing to the thread..., but in the meantime may I give hearty thanks to all who have posted - I think some interesting points have been raised.

William

[John_Hartley]

I've no wish to teach anyone how to suck eggs - but has he searched on the IWM and Liddle Collection archives for any memoirs, diaries, etc pertaining. These are usually the best sources for personal accounts which can add so much life to the story.

[edwin astill]

I am in the middle of a short work on the St. Luke's College, Exeter, Roll of Honour - which maybe the University will publish next year. Estimated sales - a couple of dozen I guess, but it is a way of remembering. The only information I have is the surname and initials of those killed, and other records were destroyed in WW2. Problem: most names and initials come up with a number of entries in CWGC database. So a trawl though Ancestry Census , NUT War Records database etc to establish which of the names were connected with teaching (St Luke's was a teacher training college). That still leaves me with some names that cannot be traced (trying tracking down Smiths with only their initial to help you!

For those identified it is a matter of looking at War diaries, regimental histories, and other sources (forum particularly useful!) Even so, it is difficult to establish the exact circumstances of their death. Where 2 of my men died on 16th July 1916 with the 2/4th Gloucesters, it is reasonable to assume they died in the failed attack at Fromelles, others can be inferred - e.g. where a war diary says for the day "Quiet, weather fine, 1 OR killed" it is my man. I'd like to give as many of the men as possible a paragraph at least, so that they are not just a name, but something of their life is associated with the name.

So good luck to all those out there ensuring that "Their Names Liveth for Evermore"

Edwin

[neverforget]

I met a relative of mine recently after many years, and he is planning to write the history of an infantry battalion in the Great War (English, territorial, but he'd rather I didn't mention which one at the moment). He asked my opinion about which published battalion history I considered the best - i.e. the one that he could model his one on.

He has the unit war diary, some private letters etc., and he plans to include all fatalities within the narrative as they occur and not just in an alphabetical list at the end.

Can pals help please? I only own a couple of battalion histories and was only of limited help. Which recently researched and written WW1 battalion history (doesn't have to be territorial, or indeed infantry) do you think is the best, and which would be a decent model that I can suggest he get hold of as a model for his one? And why?

William

William. If you care to take a look at the study via the link below, I think you may find it full of ideas for your friend.

Best wishes.

http://etheses.bham.ac.uk/13/1/Williams00MPhil.pdf

[WilliamRev]

Shameless plug for my own: http://www.9thirishfusiliers.co.uk/reviews.html

9th Royal Irish Fusiliers. Somewhat removed from 'English Territorial' but I'd be happy to tell him what I learned about what not to do as I wrote it!

Nick

I noticed a cheap "used" copy (actually turned out to be brand new with a damaged cover) of Nick Metcalfe's "Blacker's Boys" on Amazon, so bought it - the Revels family (ie mine) coming originally from County Armagh, so thinking I'd find people of interest within.

Well, I really think that it is the gold-standard in battalion histories. Simply wonderful. A biography of every one of the officers and men killed would be a fine thing (and probably achievable for most infantry battalions as long as the writer had access to Kew for the officers' service records), but Nick has provided biographies of virtually every man that served, casualty or not, taking up around 450 of the book's 914 pages, and he has unearthed details, such as battalion sports results, and details of which men arrived in which drafts, that probably don't exist for many battalions.

I'm hanging on to my copy, but this is the one that I shall get my relative (on whose behalf I originally asked the question) to get hold of for himself.

William

[gilly100]

Hi All

From an Australian unit history perspective, I like to have both the 'old' history, as written by one that was there, as well as the 'new' history, written in much more recent times. They can complement one another, and across both you will have, hopefully, all you need for the remembrance of a regiment/battalion. This is why I hope someone gets cracking on the units that have only the older history. Coming to mind straight off the top of my head are 9th Light Horse, 16th Battalion, 11th Battalion, Camel Corps and numerous others. I feel quite sure that this will happen over time and will only add positively to our particular history.

Ian