Royal Garrison Artillery, 68th Siege Battery (Pembrokeshire Battalion)

[joanne.rees1]

My great great uncle Arthur G. Munning, 371111, is in the attached photo, (back row, eleventh from the right). He was in the Royal Garrison Artillery, 68th Siege Battery (Pembrokeshire Battalion, T.F.). He was killed on the 5th April 1918, and is buried in the Ribemont Cemetry, near Albert, Somme. I would appreciate any information on the unit, the guns they would have used, where the photo was taken and what was happening when he was killed, or any other information any one might have.

[kevinrowlinson]

Hi Jo,

May I suggest you edit your heading to include 68th Siege Battery. There are a few members who may be able to help with what that battery were doing at that time.

MUNNING

Initials: A G

Nationality: United Kingdom

Rank: Lance Bombardier

Regiment/Service: Royal Garrison Artillery

Unit Text: 68th Siege Bty.

Date of Death: 05/04/1918

Service No: 371111

Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead

Grave/Memorial Reference: IV. J. 3.

Also have a look at The Long, Long Trail which is linked at the top of this page.

Hope you get your photo attached.

Kevin

[clive_hughes]

Hello Jo,

the Pembrokeshire RGA (Territorial Force) was formed in 1907. It was not a "field" unit such as the Welsh (Carnarvon) RGA (TF) which went out to France, but part of the "Fortress" division of the RGA (TF), Western Coast Defences. This was for static defence of the coasts, often in forts or fixed batteries guarding ports and harbours.

Its headquarters were at Pembroke Dock, together with a detachment from No. 3 company.

No. 1 Company was based on Milford Haven - it had originally been formed out of the Milford Haven company of the 1st Volunteer Battalion, Welsh Regiment.

No. 2 Company was based at Saundersfoot, with a detachment at Tenby.

No. 3 Company (except the Pembroke Dock detachment) was based at Fishguard.

On 1st January 1917 the men of the Pembrokeshire RGA were renumbered: Arthur G Munnings had originally held the number 413 according to his medal card (National Archives online). In the renumbering process he became 371111, because the Pembs RGA series of numbers ran from 371001 to 374000, and so logically he was the 111th in order of seniority based on date of enlistment. This makes me wonder whether he was a pre-1914 Territorial with the unit.

Despite the Pembs RGA being his parent unit, like very many others he was transferred elsewhere for overseas service - in his case as Kevin says he died while with the 68th Siege Battery RGA. You should try asking other Forum contributors for help with the armament of this unit and what it was doing at the time he died.

Regards,

LST_164

[essdee]

Jo

68th Siege battery were formed at Dover 9th October 1915, half of the personnel joining from Pembroke RGA(TF)

I've attached the Allocation sheet for them which shows their arrival and movements between the various Heavy Artillery Groups. The last group, the 89th, were at the time of his death operating within the Third Army.

LST's suggestion of him being a pre war territorial would seem to be correct. I have some, but not all, of the Territorial Force War Medal roll details for RGA and have found the following

371053 Young. William 68th Siege -323

371107 Pricket James 68th Siege - 407

371383 Miller. Maurice 68th Siege - 758

371147 Caisley. Percy 68th Siege - 467

Your man would appear to be one of this group. If you download from the NA his MIC (medal index card ) details this would confirm the receipt of a TFWM.

Stuart

[jay dubaya]

Hi Jo, Arthur is shown on SDGW as born; Gorleston, Norfolk and enlisted in Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire. SDGW have his rank as P/L/Bdr (not sure what the P signifies). I have just started to transcribe the Haverfordwest Great War Memorial on which there is a Private A. Munning RGA. Hope this is of some help,

cheers, Jon

[clive_hughes]

Hi Jo, Arthur is shown on SDGW as born; Gorleston, Norfolk and enlisted in Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire. SDGW have his rank as P/L/Bdr (not sure what the P signifies). I have just started to transcribe the Haverfordwest Great War Memorial on which there is a Private A. Munning RGA. Hope this is of some help,

cheers, Jon

Hi Jon,

By "Haverfordwest Great War Memorial" do I take it you mean the one down by the Council Offices, with a large Welsh dragon crouched on top? This is the Pembrokeshire County War Memorial, as opposed to the one which is based round a gateway up at the back of St.Marys Church.

Worked in H'west for 8 years - have nice memories of Pembs generally.

All the best,

LST_164

[jay dubaya]

Hi ya Lst_164, yes it is in fact the Pembrokeshire County War Memorial and not the Haverfordwest Memorial, many thanks for pointing this out,

cheers, Jon

[joanne.rees1]

Hi Jo,

May I suggest you edit your heading to include 68th Siege Battery. There are a few members who may be able to help with what that battery were doing at that time.

MUNNING

Initials: A G

Nationality: United Kingdom

Rank: Lance Bombardier

Regiment/Service: Royal Garrison Artillery

Unit Text: 68th Siege Bty.

Date of Death: 05/04/1918

Service No: 371111

Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead

Grave/Memorial Reference: IV. J. 3.

Also have a look at The Long, Long Trail which is linked at the top of this page.

Hope you get your photo attached.

Kevin

Many thanks for the advice and information. I have got the photo attached finally !!

[Guest oldtimer]

Hello everyone, I'm new to this forum so I'll apologize before I start. I'm looking for information about Gunner Percy Caisley who is listed in this topic. He was is related to my wife (her maiden name is Caisley) We have some details about him but need to fill in more details particularly relating to WW1. If anyone can help it would be most appreciated.

[jay dubaya]

Welcome to the forum oldtimer,

I can't add much to what is listed above, I have his address as 71 Priory Road, Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire. His former 3 digit number suggests that he was a pre-war Territorial Force Gunner with the Pembrokeshire RGA (TF). He was an original member of the 68th Siege Battery that went out to France on 31st March 1916 and I'm sure he's in the photo at the top of this thread (I do have a better copy if needed). At some point he transferred to the 155th Heavy battery RGA and went out to Italy with this battery on the 17th November 1917, it was with this battery that he was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM) this appeared in the London Gazette Issue 31372 published on the 30th May 1919, sadly I have no other details of this award, but hopefully the experts will pick up on this - it may be worth starting a new thread regarding this award.

Below is his entry in the Pembrokeshire RGA medal roll

[Scalyback]

Just out of interest.

Why was number 2 coy based on Saundersfoot and detachment at Tenby? I thought saundersfoot was a smaller place than Tenby. Plus you have the Palmerston fort in Tenby. Just curious.

[little bob]

371147. Gnr. P. Caisley, 155th Hvy. By., R.G.A. (Milford) (LG11 March 1920) (ITALY)

At Lovadina, during operations on the Piave from night 26th-27th October 1918, to morning of 28th October, he was one of the forward observation party, and during the night 26th-27th had to repair breaks in the line several times. On the morning 27th he established a visual station in the front line and for five hours was heavily shelled.

Bob

[Guest oldtimer]

Many thanks to everyone that replied to my post - it's really appreciated. We've since found out that he (Gnr Caisley) married a Pembrokeshire girl in 1928 and they had one son. I'm documenting all the family history and shall include all the information supplied by everyone. There are other family members who served in WW1 and I shall post any details I have at a later date. I'm struggling with uniform identification so if anyone can help with that it'll be great. Many thanks again.

[Tans]

Hi, I am trying to find out information about my Great Uncle James Ellis 85731 who died on the 31st March 1918.  What would he have been doing as part of the 68th Siege Battery at that time?  Any information gratefully received to pass on to the children of the family.

Tana Danielson

[kevinrowlinson]

11 hours ago, Tans said:

What would he have been doing as part of the 68th Siege Battery at that time?

 

Tana,

 

You should first view his service records, which are probably free to view on Ancestry or FindMyPast this weekend, which will give you his enlistment details, the other battery he served with and other details. As he didn't appear to have passed any trade or skill exams one would have to speculate he was a member of a gun detachment. He was appointed Acting Paid Lance-Bombardier only 2 days before being KIA ( his substantive rank was still Gunner).

 

As Stuart pointed outing in post #4, 68th Sge Bty was attached to 89th Brigade at the time of his death whose diary can be downloaded from the Nat. Archives site for £3.50 at WO 95/480/2 -http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/e388b3b6ce304a658d9cfa4a2da4a696 .

 

Kevin

[Tans]

Thanks so much ... will get on to it!

 

[Tans]

HI Kevin,

I wondered whether you could help any further?  I have looked at the diary and whilst some of the writing is legible I cannot decipher the references to make sense of it.  I have attached the two pages that relate to 31/3/1918 which is the day he died.  

Best Regards,

Tans