Tracing Your Great War Ancestors

by Simon Fowler

  Also worth looking out for are the divisional histories, which describe the war from the perspective of the division HQ. Histories of the 11th, 29th, 42nd, 52nd and Royal Naval Divisions have been reprinted by the Naval & Military Press.

  There is a detailed bibliography arranged by regiment and arm available on the Army Museums Ogilby Trust website (www.armymuseums.org.uk).

  The Imperial War Museum and the National Army Museum have major collections, while The National Archives and the Society of Genealogists library also contain useful collections. Regimental museums and local libraries should have regimental diaries for units raised in their area. Many such histories have been republished by the Military & Naval Press.

  Since the 1970s there has been an explosion of unofficial battalion histories, such as the series about the Pals battalions for Pen & Sword, describing the activities of individual units. Most are meticulously researched and illustrated and are well worth consulting.

  TRENCH MAPS

  From early 1915 British surveyors and mapmakers began to map the trenches using sketches drawn by observers in aircraft. They were particularly needed in Gallipoli, in part because of the almost non-existent pre-war mapping but also because of the difficult terrain.

  During the eight months of the campaign a varied range of different maps were drawn up, but they are typically not as thorough or accurate as their Western Front equivalents. The Western Front Association has published some 300 maps on the DVD Gallipoli: Mapping the Front. As well as maps, there are photographic panoramas of Gallipoli that were used by the artillery. Details are available at www.westernfrontassociation.com/great-war-mapping/mapping-the-front-great-war-maps-dvd/great-war-map-lists/860-maplist-gallipoli.html. They are based on maps at TNA in series WO 301. In addition, there are a few maps in WO 153, and unit war diaries often contain copies of maps showing trench systems in their sectors.

  Copies can also be found at the Imperial War Museum. The National Army Museum, Royal Naval Museum and regimental museums may also have copies.

  Further Reading

  Peter Chasseaud (with Peter Doyle), Grasping Gallipoli – Terrain, Maps and Failure at the Dardanelles (Spellmount, 2005) and Mapping the First World War: The Great War through maps from 1914–1918 (Imperial War Museum, 2013).

  OFFICIAL HISTORIES

  During the 1920s the government commissioned historians to prepare detailed official histories of the war, formally known as the History of the Great War based on Official Documents. The intention was to learn lessons, both tactical and logistic, from the war and also to provide an authoritative historical account. Historians have often dismissed official histories as mere propaganda – ‘official but not history’, in the military historian Basil Liddell Hart’s tart phrase. But they are worth consulting, if for no other reason than that they contain some superb maps of the battlefields. However, they are likely to be hard going for the novice, as the official histories can be quite technical.

  Official histories for the Gallipoli Campaign are Gallipoli. Vol. I: Inception of the Campaign to May 1915, compiled by Brigadier General C.F. Aspinall-Oglander (London: William Heinemann, 1929), with a separate volume of appendices, and Gallipoli. Vol. II: May 1915 to the Evacuation, compiled by C.F. Aspinall-Oglander (London: William Heinemann, 1932), with a separate volume of appendices. In addition, both the Australian and New Zealand governments also commissioned official histories: C.E.W. Bean, The Story of ANZAC (2 vols, 1921) and Fred Waite, The New Zealanders at Gallipoli (1921).

  Two semi-official accounts are Sir Ian Hamilton’s Despatches from the Dardanelles and Sir Ian Hamilton’s Final Despatch from the Dardanelles (1916). Hamilton’s Gallipoli Diary (1920) and Henry Nevinson’s The Dardanelles Campaign (1918) are other contemporary works worth looking out for.

  With the exception of Bean’s Story of ANZAC and Hamilton’s Diary, reprints of the other books are available from the Naval & Military Press and most can also be downloaded free of charge from the Internet Archive (www.archive.org).

  Before the histories were published, drafts were sent to officers who had fought in the campaign for their comments. Their replies can be very informative and offer honest insights into how battles were viewed by officers, although inevitably their opinions often contain more than a hint of hindsight. Major B.G. Weller of the Royal Marines commented on a paragraph describing the exhaustion of the RM Light Infantry’s Plymouth Battalion in July 1915:

  … the reason for the exhaustion was chiefly because of dysentery. In the Plymouth Bn [Battalion] … scarcely an officer or man was immune and it was the same in the other Bns. Sheer physical weakness from dysentery was at the root of everything. Further, men who had been up all night in the front line or those in rear who were digging at night (as happened with the utmost frequency) could get no sleep by day owing to the plague of flies which swarmed over everyone and everything … [CAB 45/245 with copy in WO 95/4291]

  The correspondence, together with a small collection of private diaries and related paperwork, including several enemy accounts, is at The National Archives in series CAB 45/215–261. You may also come across copies in the war diaries themselves (as with the example of Major Weller above).

  OFFICIAL DESPATCHES

  After each war or campaign, commanders-in-chief are expected to summarise the successes and failures in a despatch that is then published in the London Gazette. The ones for the First World War are surprisingly readable. Sir Ian Hamilton, the commander of the British forces for most of the Gallipoli Campaign, was a published poet and an engaging writer. In the despatches they traditionally mention service personnel of all ranks worthy of special praise, hence the term ‘Mention in Despatches’ (sometimes abbreviated to MID). The Official Despatches are now rarely used by historians, but might be of interest, particularly if your ancestor was one of the men and women who were mentioned in despatches. It is rare, however, to find why an individual was so commemorated.

  The despatches are available online through the London Gazette website (www.thegazette.co.uk), but it is probably easier to read the texts on the Long Long Trail website at www.1914-1918.net/Gallipoli.htm, although Chris Baker does not include any of the lists of names which accompanied the original despatches. Sir Ian Hamilton wrote three despatches, which were published in 1916.

  THE DARDANELLES COMMISSION

  A Royal Commission was set up in July 1916 to investigate the failures of the Dardanelles Campaign and eventually issued an anodyne report in 1919. It was, as The Times said, to be ‘a study in surrender’. Members interviewed most of the major protagonists, particularly Sir Ian Hamilton, so if you are looking at a particular commander or action there may be something useful here. The records of the Commission are largely in series CAB 19, with the conclusion online at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/firstworldwar/battles/p_dard_comm.htm.

  PHOTOGRAPHS AND FILM

  By far the largest collection of First World War-related material is at the Imperial War Museum. At the heart of the Museum’s collections are some 40,000 official photographs showing all aspects of the war. As it took time for a satisfactory system to be set up, and particularly to overcome suspicion from the military authorities, the photographic record is more comprehensive from mid-1916 onwards than it is for the first half of the war, so there is relatively little for Gallipoli. Initially a number of soldiers took cameras with them to the battlefields, but cameras were banned in the spring of 1915. The Australian authorities took a much more relaxed attitude to photography, so there are major collections of material at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. This collection is supplemented by material donated by individual servicemen. Many images, but certainly not all, are described in the online catalogue at www.iwm.org.uk/collections/search.

  Regimental Museums and local studies libraries may also have collections of material. For example, the Suffolk Regiment Archive at Suffolk Record Office in Bury St Edmunds has an album of photographs taken by Lieutenant B.W. Cockell of the 5th Bat
talion, and loose photographs donated by CSM C. Smith MM. In addition, TNA has a small collection of photographs in series WO 317.

  The Imperial War Museum’s Film and Video Archive has by far the largest collection of films. The collection is described in Roger Smithers (ed.), The Imperial War Museum Film Catalogue Volume 1: The First World War (Flick Books, 1997). One or two films are now online, notably the 1916 Australian production Heroes of Gallipoli, which lasts about twenty minutes (www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1060023379).

  Also worth checking out are newsreels – short news stories shown at local cinemas. Those for the First World War largely concentrate on the ‘home front’. There is a list at http://bufvc.ac.uk/newsonscreen/search. British Pathe (www.britishpathe.com) and Movietone (www.movietone.com) have clips from their newsreels available on their websites free of charge. Unfortunately there is almost nothing about the Dardanelles or Gallipoli, although there are several short films (and longer features) on YouTube.

  WAR DIARY, 2ND BATTALION, SOUTH WALES BORDERERS, 24–5 APRIL 1915

  The 2nd Battalion landed on S Beach, which was captured without much effort. Without further orders they did not advance as perhaps they should have to take advantage of Turkish weakness. It is thought now that there was no more than a platoon or two of enemy soldiers on or near the beach.

  24 April

  5pm – Received order to go on board HMS Cornwallis. 4 trawlers came alongside SS Alannia to take Battalion Office. 7.3pm – All battalion embarked except 6 sick, 4 staff sergeants and 4 storemen.

  25 April

  4.30am – Stood by ready to get into the trawler. Cornwallis signals to trawlers to come aside about 5am. Men rapidly change into trawlers and Cornwallis steams slowly in towards MORTO BAY …

  7am – Cornwallis makes signal for men to enter small boats 7.30am – Landing effected as follows: trawlers in succession steam in towards shore, on getting in as close as possible a stern anchor was thrown out and small boats cast away. These boats row for the shore as quickly as possible.

  D Company first to land made for DE TOTTS Battery at once. C & B companies on landing made the trench in front of beach at range of about 100 yards. Manoeuvre completely successful. D Company cleared DE TOTTS and B and C Companies took trench with the bayonet capturing about 15 Turks.

  8.30am – Our position secured. D Company on DE TOTTS Battery and B and C Companies on a ridge about 400 yards North North West. Some Marines from Cornwallis land with us to assist with the boats, these men did excellent work.

  Our casualties were not heavy considering the position we attacked. Had it been held by resolute men we should never have been able to capture it without some loss.

  Casualties – Officers Major G C Margesson and Lieutenant R P Behrens killed. Captain D G Johnson, G H Birkitt and Lt W J Chamberlain wounded. Other ranks killed 12, wounded 40, missing 6.

  9am – Watched the landing at SEDD-EL-BAHR. This however did not appear to be a success. We could see troops trying to work up through the ruined village but without success.

  10am – Troops observed moving from X Beach moving East. This attack however appeared to be diverted towards SEDD-EL-BAHR. From this fact we gathered that the landing at SEDD-EL-BAHR had failed and we were quite isolated. Steps at once taken to consolidate our position, especially as prisoners informed us that 2000 Turks were in our vicinity.

  Position taken up, D Company and half a platoon C Company in DE TOTTS Battery. Three platoons B Company and half a platoon C Company in small raids North East of landing place with 3 platoons C Company and 1 platoon B Company and Royal Engineer Detachment in support.

  Field hospital detachment with Naval detachment remained in trees just beneath DE TOTTS where there was excellent supply of water. Guns from KUM KHALE continually shelled our position but without much damage …

  Our orders were to push on towards North North West (NNW) and join up with our Brigade, but in view of the state of affairs the Commanding Officer decided to remain where he was.

  12.20pm – General situation appeared very involved.

  Troops appeared to be moving towards Hills 138 and 114 and Turks retiring from 114 were heavily shelled by [HMS] Queen Elizabeth and Cornwallis.

  2pm – Message received: ‘On W and Y Beaches landing is progressing favourably but on V Beach attack is held up by wire – Australians doing well.’

  11pm – Alarm given and a great deal of firing took place at our position; we did not fire much, a few rounds now and then when anyone came close.

  This extract was taken from the Unit War Diary in WO 95/4311 at The National Archives. For more about the South Wales Borderers on S Beach there is a useful essay by Peter Hart at http://archive.iwm.org.uk/upload/package/2/gallipoli/pdf_files/SBeach.pdf.

  Chapter 6

  THE ROYAL NAVY

  The Royal Navy played a major, if now almost forgotten, role in the Dardanelles campaign. Initially it was hoped that bombarding the Turkish forces and passing through The Narrows between Europe and Asia Minor towards the Sea of Marmara and Constantinople would have forced a Turkish surrender. Had the navy been successful in taking control of the seas in February and March, the Gallipoli invasion might not have taken place. But this was not to be. Instead, naval ships continued to play a key role in landing troops, evacuating the wounded, bombarding Turkish positions and protecting the peninsula from attack by enemy naval forces. But the Dardanelles exposed the weaknesses of the big ships, which were vulnerable to attack by enemy submarines – on 13 May HMS Goliath was sunk by a Turkish torpedo boat, with the loss of 570 lives, and a fortnight later, on 27 May, HMS Majestic was sunk by the German submarine U-21 with 700 casualties – or in danger of blundering into unknown minefields, as happened on 18 March when three battle-cruisers were lost. The big capital ships were withdrawn to safer anchorages and thereafter made only infrequent visits. This not unnaturally caused the troops, who had become used to seeing the ships on the horizon, to feel that they had been abandoned in some way.

  Naval aircraft conducted aerial reconnaissance over the area, while submarines probed the Narrows and sank a number of Turkish merchant ships. In addition, sailors from the Royal Naval Division fought alongside their army colleagues in many of the battles, although its most famous member, the poet Rupert Brooke, died of acute blood poisoning a few days before the landings.

  The naval operations were the responsibility of two men. Rear Admiral Michael De Robeck, commanding the Eastern Mediterranean Squadron, directed naval operations. He reported to Rear Admiral Rosslyn Wemyss, the Senior Naval Officer on Lemnos. According to James Goldrick’s biography in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography:

  Wemyss soon encountered all the confusion which marked the early operations against Turkey. Lemnos was Greek and thus neutral, but Wemyss was expected to act as governor and senior naval officer with no formal instructions and no legal authority. More critically, he had no depot ships, little physical plant, and very few administrative staff to organize a base. Wemyss succeeded in matching conflicting service and national priorities with his necessarily hand-to-mouth organization by relying almost wholly on his personal influence. Mudros proved a miracle of improvisation and the ability of the allies to sustain the long Dardanelles campaign of 1915–16 depended very largely upon it.

  UNIT RECORDS

  It can be frustratingly difficult to track down reports and descriptions of naval activities during the First World War. No records are yet online and the cataloguing of the records leaves a lot to be desired. The logs of individual ships, which are in series ADM 53, normally include only weather and navigational details. Perhaps of more immediate use are the ships’ histories at www.battleships-cruisers.co.uk/royal.htm. In addition, brief histories can generally be found on Wikipedia.

  Detailed reports of operations (including reports from individual ship’s captains), plans, drawings of the beaches, signals, recommendations for honours and awards and so on are mainly in series ADM 137. There are som
e forty volumes under the heading of Dardanelles alone, but it is also worth trying series ADM 1 and ADM 116 as well. There is quite a lot of duplication, but if you are prepared to wade through the volumes you will be able to build up a very good picture of naval operations around Gallipoli. Fortunately, many individual volumes are indexed, so they are easy to go through. The private papers of both De Robeck and Wemyss relating to the Dardanelles Campaign are at Churchill College, Cambridge. There is also likely to be some material at the Royal Naval Museum in Portsmouth (www.royalnavalmuseum.org/research.htm) and at the Royal Marines Museum and the Royal Navy Submarine Museum, both also in the Portsmouth area. In addition, a few charts of the area are in ADM 344. War diaries for the Royal Naval Division and its brigades are in WO 95 and ADM 137.

  However, any study of the naval side of Gallipoli should begin with the official history. The Naval History Net website has made available Sir Julian Corbett’s official history, which was published in 1921. Although dated, it is still the best place to start in order to understand the role that the navy played. Individual ships and senior officers may be mentioned, but it is rare to find mention of junior officers or ratings. The Naval & Military Press has also republished the Royal Naval Division’s official history by Douglas Jerrold.

  There was little formal air activity over Gallipoli. Royal Naval Air Service aircraft flew aerial reconnaissance and artillery spotting missions and launched occasional raids on Turkish fortifications from ships positioned in the Dardanelles. There are a dozen files in the AIR 1 series that might be useful. There is also an interesting article by Peter Hart on the air war at http://archive.iwm.org.uk/upload/package/2/gallipoli/pdf_files/GallipoliAirWar.pdf and another by Raul Colon at www.century-of-flight.net/Aviation%20history/airplane%20at%20war/turk.htm

  PERSONNEL RECORDS

  Unless indicated otherwise, the records described here can be downloaded (for a fee: currently £3.30 per document) from The National Archives Online Records Service. Service records for men who were in the navy after the mid-1920s are with the Ministry of Defence. You can find details at www.veterans-uk.info.