December 2024 – A Long Overdue Update

Summary

• 967 – Men identified with service number (no change)
• 869 – Confirmed ’08 service numbers (+49)
• 154 – Men identified without service number (+39)
• 175 – Portraits (+65)
• 59 – Profiles drafted (+2)

It’s now been 14 months since I last sat down to write an update. While I could offer many excuses, the truth is that the demands of a very intensive job have meant I haven’t found the time to sit down and gather my thoughts.

That said, this doesn’t mean I’ve been idle. Despite the limited time, I’ve managed to make significant progress. Key achievements include:

• Completing the second pass through the nominal roll
• Conducting deeper research into the ‘Men without Service Numbers’
• Contacting dozens of new families and sharing information with them
• Locating 65 new portraits of men from the Brigade

I’m going to pick a few highlights for this update.

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Strong Progress with the Portrait Gallery

Over the past 14 months, the most significant progress has been made on the Portrait Gallery, with over 200 portraits of the men of the Brigade now located—175 with service numbers and 26 without.

This progress has come through various routes. Once again, making contact with families has uncovered a wide range of photos and documentation. Additionally, a new subscription to Newspapers.com revealed 15 new photos of men from the Brigade.

The biggest surprise, however, came from a random online search. This led to a link to a website that indexed a series of old glass negatives housed in the Cambridgeshire Collection (stored in my local library). On the list were a couple of names I recognized, so a trip to the library uncovered six beautiful photos of men from the Brigade, taken during their time in Cambridge between Christmas 1914 and May 1915. To eliminate any doubt, the glass negatives even included the service numbers! After spending so much time researching these men, it was a delightful coincidence to find original photographs so close to home.

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New Group Photos

A variety of sources have contributed a fascinating range of new group photos of the men of the Brigade. These include pre-war pictures of the Band and Church Parade, as well as wartime group photos—some of which are even named and finally photos from the re-unions held in the 1930’s.

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Men Without Service Numbers

In addition to completing the second pass through the Nominal Roll, I focused on the Men Without Service Numbers, using this as an opportunity to conduct further research and uncover more about these individuals.

This proved to be a rich vein of research, revealing several new names and a wealth of fascinating information. As a result, I decided to add their profiles to the Nominal Roll and include the photos I found in the Portrait Gallery—though, of course, without a Brigade Service number.

Portraits of Men Without Service Numbers

The most touching document uncovered was an original condolence letter to the wife of Eddy Morse sent by his officer shortly after his death. Gunner Morse enlisted in the Brigade in 1915, transferred to the Regulars in September 1916 and was Killed in Action on 3 Dec 1917 near Cambrai. Lt Shackles wrote to his wife on 10th January 1918: 

Dear Mrs Morse

I am very sorry to hear that no practicalities concerning your husband’s death have been sent to you.

Gnr Morse was working on a gun with two other men of the battery when a shell came over and hit the guns they were working on. I went with a party of men to see what damage had been done and found that all the three men had been hit.

Your husband had evidently been killed instantaneously and couldn’t have suffered any pain at all.

All the personal belongings of your husband have been despatched to you and I expect you will have received them by the time you get this letter.

I was awfully sorry about Gnr Morse’s death as he was such a good man and although he had not been with us long, he was very much liked by all the other men.

Please accept my sympathy in your great loss.

I remain, Your very sincerely, Colin L. Shackles. Lt.

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What next?

Going forward, I plan to continue write up and share more of the research on individual men that I have completed over the last 14 months, I also want to create a page focussed on The Band as I have gathered a lot of information over the years.

Finally, I want to continue with the Brigade history and start to look at 1917 and 1918. Although the Brigade was broken up and a became the C Batteries of 265 and 266 Brigades for the remainder of the war, they continued to serve together and made a huge contribution to the battles against the Ottoman Forces.

Thanks for reading.

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