Royal Field Artillery

[Guest Shirley G]

Can anybody help please. 1942 Bombardier Thomas Price died on 30/5/1917 and is buried in Lissjenthoek Cemetary. From the date and area I think he may have been involved in the preliminary bombardment of the Messines Ridge. He is listed on the CWGC website as having been in "D" Battery, 73rd Brigade. Does this refer to his Brigade at the date of death? Only, it seems that by then LXXIII Brigade RFA had been transferred and absorbed into different Brigade numbers. Could it mean attached to 73rd Brigade (of Infantry?), who were in the area with 24th Division at the time? If so, is it feasible he would have been in 73rd Trench Mortar Battery, even though he was RFA? Is the use of arabic numerals over roman numerals significant?

Many thanks in advance for any enlightenment.

[Simon R]

D btys. were 4.5" howitzer batteries and as such often got attached to other units as and when the need arose. They did get shunted around quite substantially and (in my experience) can appear in brigade formations for anything between the length of a specific action and a couple of months. 73rd brigade could also be the pre-transfer and re-numbering designation of his unit that has persisted and ended up on his grave.

There will be CWGC conventions about unit names on grave markers, try posting in Cemys. and Memorials.

[rflory]

Shirley: I don't think there is any question from what you indicate that he was serving in D Battery, LXXIII Brigade, RFA when he died, but as you indicate that brigade was broken up in July 1916 and he did not die until 30 May 1917. I think the answer may be that Soldiers Died in the Great War indicates that he Died of Wounds rather than being Killed in Action, so it is possible that he was serving with D/73 when he was wounded some time in 1916 before the brigade was broken up and that he then did not die of those wounds until May 1917. Do you know when he was actually wounded?

SDGW

indicates that he was born at Sutton, Coldfield and enlisted at Nuneaton.

Regards. Dick