2/Lt Joseph Stephen METCALFE 3 Mons, KIA 17.1.17

[Guest Pete Wood]

Name: METCALFE, JOSEPH STEPHEN

Initials: J S

Nationality: United Kingdom

Rank: Second Lieutenant

Regiment: Monmouthshire Regiment

Unit Text: 3rd Bn.

Date of Death: 17/01/1917

Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead

Grave/Memorial Reference: Panel 129 and 130

Cemetery: LOOS MEMORIAL

The Loos Memorial forms the side and back of Dud Corner Cemetery, and commemorates over 20,000 officers and men who have no known grave, who fell in the area from the River Lys to the old southern boundary of the First Army, east and west of Grenay. Loos-en-Gohelle is a village 5 kilometres north-west of Lens, and Dud Corner Cemetery is located about 1 kilometre west of the village, to the north-east of the N43 the main Lens to Bethune road.

SDGW says Killed In Action

1/3 Monmouth Regiment was a Territorial Regiment and was made up, initially, of men from South Wales – Abergavenny, Risca and Newport.

3rd Battalion: 4th August 1914: Territorial Force, Headquarters Abergavenny, Monmouthshire as part of South Wales Brigade, Welsh Division. 5th August 1914: Moved to Pembroke Dock. 10th August 1914: Moved to Oswestry, Shropshire. End of August 1914: Moved to Northampton. 14th February 1915: Landed in France. 3rd March 1915: Assigned to 83rd Brigade, 28th Division. 27th May 1915: Amalgamated with 1/1st and 1/2nd Battalions in 84th Brigade, 28th Division. at Vlamertinghe. 11th August 1915: Battalion resumed its identity and rejoined 83rd Brigade, 28th Division. 28th September 1915: Became Pioneer Battalion 28th Division. 9th August 1916: To GHQ troops. 31st August 1916: Battalion disbanded and personnel assigned to 1/1st and 1/2nd Monmouths.

As the 3 Monmouthshire Regt had almagamated with 1 Monmouthshire and 2 Monmouthshire, I looked at deaths from all Monmouthshire Bns for that day. From the 16th of January there are a small, but steady number of casualties in 2 Bn Monmouthshire. So I would suggest that Joseph Metcalfe was with 2 Bn, when his death occurred.

As an officer, his death would very likely be recorded in the Bn war diary – held at the PRO.

[Guest Pete Wood]

Joseph Stephen Metcalfe was born in Fearby, Yorkshire in September 1892. When the 1901 census was taken, the family is recorded as living in the parish of Ambleside (which today is classed as Cumbria).

Joseph was the youngest of five children, with three sisters and one brother (William), who seems to have survived the war. Their father, Stephen, was a foreman coachbuilder (L & NWR?).

Age in March 1901 (from census info)

Stephen Metcalfe 43 Foreman Coachbuilder

Ann Metcalfe 48

Lilian Metcalfe 17 Dressmaker

Amy Metcalfe 16

Isabel Metcalfe 12

William Metcalfe 10

Joseph Metcalfe 8

So our man was just 24 years of age when he was killed.

[Northern Soul]

He is commemorated on Ambleside War Memorial.