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21st (Yeoman Rifles) Battalion, Kings Royal Rifle Corps
21st (Yeoman Rifles) Battalion, King's Royal Rifle Corps was raised in September 1915 from volunteers from the farming communities of Yorkshire, Durham and Northumberland by the Northern Command. They trained at Duncombe Park, Helmsley, moving to Aldershot to join
124th Brigade, 41st Division for final training. They proceeded to France in the first week of May 1916, the division concentrating between Hazebrouck and Bailleul. In 1916 they were in action at The Battle of Flers-Courcelette and The Battle of the Transloy Ridges on the Somme. In 1917 they fought during The Battle of Messines, The Battle of Pilkem Ridge, The Battle of the Menin Road and took part in the Operations on the Flanders coast. In November the Division was ordered to Italy, moving by train to Mantua. The Division took the front line near the River Piave, north west of Treviso. In February they were summoned back to France and departed from Campo San Piero, travelling by train to concentrate near Doullens and Mondicourt. At this time the army was being reorganised and in March the battalion was disbanded in France with the troops transferring to other units.
7th May 1915 On the Move
30 Sep 1915 Yeoman Rifles begin training at Helmsley In late September the newly formed 21st (Yeoman Rifles) Battalion Kings Royal Rifle Corps arrived at Duncombe Park near Helmsley to begin training.http://www.1914-1918.net/krrc.htm
1st May 1916 On the Move
8th May 1916 Concentration
9th May 1916 Orders
10th May 1916 Orders
11th May 1916 Preparations
12th May 1916 School of Instruction
13th May 1916 Postponement
14th May 1916 Trench Raid
15th May 1916 Instruction
17th May 1916 Gas Alert
18th May 1916 Orders 
11th Jun 1917 Reliefs
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These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Great War.
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Those known to have served with21st (Yeoman Rifles) Battalion, Kings Royal Rifle Corps during the Great War 1914-1918. - Banks William. Rfm.
- Barrell Reginald Percy. Rflmn. (d.26th March 1918)
- Blomeley Frederick George. Sgt. (d.17th Sep 1916)
- Bonsall Harold Reevely. L/Sgt. (d.17th September 1916)
- Bousfield MM Edward Albany. L/Cpl
- Brading Henry Thomas. Rifleman (d.20th September 1917)
- Denison MM. Thomas William. L/Cpl. (d.5th to 10th Oct. 1916)
- Eden MC. Robert Anthony. Capt.
- Gains Tom. Pte. (d.17th Sep 1916)
- Gover John Norman. L/Corporal (d.30th July, 1917)
- Hammond MC and Bar. Walter. A/Capt.
- High Gordon Alexander. Rflmn. (d.8th Aug 1916)
- Horsman Samuel Beecher. Sergeant (d.7th Aug 1917)
- Keen James William. Rifleman (d.14th Aug 1917)
- Marron Andrew Joseph Patrick . L/Cpl. (d.10th Oct 1916 )
- Marron Andrew Joseph . L/Cpl. (d.10th Oct 1916 )
- Mawer James Robinson. Rifleman (d.20th Sep 1917)
- McEvoy John Stanislaus. L/Cpl. (d.22nd June 1917)
- McRoy John George. Pte. (d.17th Jun 1917)
- Miller Frederick Thomas. Rfmn. (d.14th Aug 1917)
- Miller Thomas. Rflmn.
- Powell Charles Henry. Rfmn. (d.17th Jun 1917)
- Scott Thomas. Cpl.
- Sharpe Ernest St.Clair. Rfmn. (d.7th Jun 1917)
- Simpson James Watson. Rfmn.
- Thompson Harry. Rflmn. (d.15th Sep 1916)
- Weldon John Jackson. Rifleman (d.15th Sep 1916)
- Wetherill MM. Herbert Edward. L/Cpl. (d.3rd Sep 1918)
- Wiles Cecil. Pte. (d.8th Jul 1916)
- Wilson Fred. Pte.
- Womersley Harry. Pte.
- Young Joseph. Sergeant
All names on this list have been submitted by relatives, friends, neighbours and others who wish to remember them, if you have any names to add or any recollections or photos of those listed,
please Add a Name to this List
Records of 21st (Yeoman Rifles) Battalion, Kings Royal Rifle Corps from other sources.
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Timecapsule to preserve stories from other conflicts for future generations.
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Sgt. Frederick George Blomeley 21st (Yeoman Rifles) Btn. Kings Royal Rifle Corps (d.17th Sep 1916) Frederick Blomeley served with the 21st Battalion, Kings Royal Rifle Corps.
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L/Cpl. Andrew Joseph Marron 21st Btn. Kings Royal Rifles Corps (d.10th Oct 1916 ) My Uncle Andrew Marron, served with the 21st Battalion Kings Royal Rifles Corps.
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L/Cpl. Andrew Joseph Patrick Marron 21st Btn. Kings Royal Rifle Corps (d.10th Oct 1916 ) Andrew Marron was my great uncle. His name is on the Heanor War Memorial (his home town) and on the Thiepval Memorial.
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L/Cpl. Herbert Edward Wetherill MM. 21st (Yeoman Rifles) Battalion Kings Royal Rifle Corps (d.3rd Sep 1918) Herbert Wetherill was born in Hampstead about 1884, he married Dora around 1910.
Although 21st KRRC was noted for recruiting from farm workers in the North East and North Yorks, Herbert was a solicitors clerk, pre-WW1.
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Rifleman John Jackson Weldon 21st (Yeoman Rifles) Battalion Kings Royal Rifle Corps (d.15th Sep 1916) Jack Weldon is believed to have died of his wounds on 15th of September 1916. He was an unmarried farmer from Ellerby, Yorkshire. Upon his death his father got his effects.
The family had been farming in the area for hundreds of years and the only other child, a son, Henry Lazenby Weldon, also served in the Great War.
We are distant relations from NZ and found out about John Weldon on Ancestry. It seemed appropriate to see that his sacrifices were acknowledged.
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Capt. Robert Anthony Eden MC. 21st Battalion King's Royal Rifle Corps Robert Eden, 1st Earl of Avon, KG MC PC served with the 21st Battalion King's Royal Rifle Corps in the Great War. He was Prime Minister from 1955 to 1957.
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L/Corporal John Norman Gover 21st Battalion Kings Royal Rifle Corps (d.30th July, 1917) John Glover is my great uncle who was killed on the 30th of July 1917. He was serving alongside his brother Sydney, who survived that day, unsure of all the circumstances... He was just 24 years of age.
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L/Sgt. Harold Reevely Bonsall 21st (Yeoman Rifles) Btn. King's Royal Rifle Corps (d.17th September 1916) Harold Bonsall served with 21st (Yeoman Rifles) Battalion, King's Royal Rifle Corps.
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Rflmn. Thomas Miller 21st Btn. Kings Royal Rifle Corps Thomas Miller, my grandad, used to tell me about fixing cheese to the end of his bayonet and waiting for rats to nibble it and then firing his rifle.
He never spoke about the horrors of it all, but mentioned how proud he felt when walking beside the tanks. Thomas joined on 31st January 1916 and was wounded in September 1916, losing his right eye. He was discharged on 4th May 1917.
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Pte. Fred Wilson 21st Btn., Platoon B Coy King's Royal Rifle Corps Fred Wilson was my father. He was wounded in 1916 with shrapnel in his head. He had an operation and they put a silver coin in his head. He was offered a pension, he used to say of 8/6d per week, or a lump sum of £80. He took the pension and lived until he was 76. He always said it was the best decision he had made.
He spoke very little about the war, he lost a brother, George Wilson, and his name is on the war memorial in St Barnabas Church in Bromborough, Wirral.
I have a platoon photo, presumably taken after training in Aldershot, which is too big to scan.
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Rflmn. Reginald Percy Barrell 21st Btn. att. 41st Machine Gun Corps. King's Royal Rifle Corps (d.26th March 1918) My great uncle, Reggie Barrell, was the youngest brother of my grandfather (my mother's father). He was a farm labourer and had 13 siblings. His mother Annie Elizabeth couldn't write so signed the birth certificate with an X. The family worked the land and lived in a hamlet in Baylham, then Nettlestead, in Suffolk.
My grandfather eventually came to London and became a master butcher owning his own shop and Uncle Reggie came to visit and probably stayed with his brother in Camberwell when he joined the army, possibly going on to Aldershot, as my grandfather owned property near there.
Uncle Reggie and his regiment was posted to Italy and then sent back to France where he was killed at the Somme aged 22 years. He is laid to rest in the CWG St Hilaire Cemetery, Frevent, France. RIP dear uncle Reggie.
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Pte. Tom Gains 21st Battalion Kings Royal Rifle Corps (d.17th Sep 1916) Tom Gains was one of a large farming family who lived in the country around Knaresborough. He was called up in 1915 at the age of 18 and joined the 21st Yeomanry Battalion being trained at Helmsley and then on to Salisbury Plain and France.
The battalion undertook later operations on the Somme Battle and was engaged in an attack on Flers Courcellette in September 1916. Tom died in the attack and has no known grave but is included on the Somme Memorial at Thiepval
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Rflmn. Gordon Alexander High 21st Btn. King's Royal Rifle Corps (d.8th Aug 1916) Gordon High is buried in Essex Farm Cemetery.
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Cpl. Thomas Scott 21st Btn. King's Royal Rifle Corps My grandfather, Thomas Scott, was a farmer in Cornhill and joined up in January 1916 (according to his short service record). He was wounded and returned to England for treatment in September 1916 at the Red Cross Hospital in Derby. He was later discharged in May 1917 due to the severity of his wound which caused him partial paralysis.
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Pte. Harry Womersley 21st Btn. Kings Royal Rifle Corps My grandfather, Harry Womersley, was a signaller with the 21st Battalion KRRC. He joined up in Harrogate and fought in at least 6 countries surviving the Battle of the Somme and listng many others in his memoirs which I have including his war medals. He lived till 1995.
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Rfmn. Frederick Thomas Miller 21st Btn. Kings Royal Rifle Corps (d.14th Aug 1917) Fred Miller died in France, about one mile from the border with Belgium, in August 1917, during the Third Battle of Ypres (known as Passchendaele). This was another attempt to break through the German line of trenches and bring the war to an end. It did not succeed. The war continued for another 15 months.
Fred Miller was the oldest child of Henry and Elizabeth Miller, who lived in Poplar, in the East end of London. Henry was born in Poplar and worked as a painter, mainly in the shipbuilding yards in the dock area, but also in the building industry. His own father had been in the same trade, originally at Gravesend, in Kent, moving to Poplar in the early 1860s. Elizabeth was also born in the East end, but had been a domestic servant in the city centre. They married in 1896 and Fred was born on 28 June 1898.
When the war started in August 1914, Fred was 16. He would have been at work for two years. He now had four younger brothers - Thomas, Charles, Sidney and Henry, and a younger sister, Grace. Just before he joined the Army, he was working at a clothing shop in East India Dock Road. We do not know whether he volunteered for service or just waited for his turn to be ‘called up’ under the compulsory military service scheme introduced in 1916 but we know he was taken into the King’s Royal Rifle Corps as Rifleman 27542 of the 21st Battalion. He would have joined with no illusions – his mother’s brother, a very frequent visitor to the house, was a regular soldier and had been killed in the first few weeks of the war.
His Army record was probably destroyed along with thousands of others during the Second World War when a bomb hit the Army Records Centre but he would have done his basic training in England in 1916, and he certainly came home on leave before he went out to France. One of his brothers remembered him leaving, saying to them, ‘Look after Mother’. We know he died of wounds in No 11 Casualty Clearing Station near Godeswaersvelde (a French village one mile inside the Belgian border, near Hazebrouck) on 14 August 1917. He was 19 years old.
The family were told that he had been shot by a German sniper. The exact circumstances are not known but they understood that he was a Signaller, so he may have been out of the trench, working on telegraph lines. His battalion had fought in the second phase of the battle (Pilckem Ridge, which finished on 2 August) and was probably in preparation for the third phase of the battle in September. The Battalion War Diary records that 3 Officers and 26 Other Ranks were killed in August but gives no real clue as to how Fred received his deadly wounds. The Battalion was taken out of the front line on 6 August and returned on 10 August, spending the next three days ‘consolidating the line’ with various working parties. On the morning of the 14th, ‘a raid was attempted against enemy dug outs’ but the raiding party returned with only ‘slight casualties’. Fred may have been among them, or he may have been hit during one of the ‘working parties’ in the previous few days. He must have arrived in the Casualty Clearing Station within a few days of his death because the wounded who survived the first few days were sent to hospitals much further behind the lines.
Thousands died, on both sides, in the September attack and if Fred had not been killed a few weeks earlier, he might well have been killed then.
The Cemetery where he is buried is one of the many smaller military cemeteries in that part of northern France – some 900 graves. It must have been very close to the Casualty Clearing Station. In 1917 the grave was marked with a wooden cross, and family were sent a photograph of it with very brief details written on the back. A little later, headstones were placed there with details of the dead and a short verse chosen by the family. The verse on his stone reads
‘How I miss the sunshine of your smile
Mother’.
Back home, it was the custom for the bereaved family to put a little display in the window of their house – a picture of the soldier, some flowers, and a slogan, ‘For King and Country’. The Miller family did this too but, no royalists, made their slogan, ‘For Home and Country’. -
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Rfmn. Charles Henry Powell 21st Btn Kings Royal Rifle Corps (d.17th Jun 1917) Charles Henry Powell was my Great Uncle. He died of his wounds on the 17th June 1917, aged 24, and is buried at Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery.
My mother, his niece, and I visited his grave in 2010 when my mother was 94. She was the first relative to ever visit his grave.
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L/Cpl. Thomas William Denison MM. 21st Btn. "B" Coy. Kings Royal Rifle Corps. (d.5th to 10th Oct. 1916) Thomas William Denison was from Moor End, Dunkerwick, Harewood, Leeds. He was awarded a Military Medal but was killed in action between 5th October & 10 October 1916.
I have found a record of the award of his MM but not able to locate a reason for the award. I am also trying to locate a photograph of Thomas William Denison or a photograph with him in it.
Can anyone help?
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A/Capt. Walter Hammond MC and Bar. 23rd Btn. Middlesex Regiment Walter Hammond's Military Cross citation dated 9th Jan 1918 reads: T./2nd Lt. Walter Hammond, attd. Midd'x - For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. He led a raiding party with great coolness and dash against enemy concrete dug-outs which were strongly garrisoned. He shot the Serjeant-Major in charge of the garrison, and by his fine leadership compelled a number of the enemy to surrender. He then returned to his trench under heavy machine gun fire, taking nineteen prisoners with him. The war diary of the 1st of January 1918, mentions Hammond leading a raid which captured 19 prisoners.On the 18th of Feb 1918 he was awarded a Bar to the MC, the citation reads: 2nd Lt. (A./Capt.) Walter Hammond, M.C., Midd'x R. For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. When in command of a large raiding party he carried out a successful operation, and brought his party back with three prisoners and only a few minor casualties, despite heavy shell and rifle fire. Previously to the raid he had been of the greatest assistance to his commanding officer both in; making preparations, reconnaissance, and in training the men for the operation. His skill and gallant leadership throughout were most marked. He was discharged on the 25th of Oct 1919 at the completion of his service. Walter had enlisted with the 21st Btn, KRRC and was commissioned on the 29th of May 1917.
The War Diary of the 23rd Bn Middlesex Regt for the 25th of Mar 1918 lists him as being wounded, the same day as Walter Tull, the first black officer in the British Army, was killed, he served in the same unit.
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Sergeant Samuel Beecher Horsman 21st Btn. King's Royal Rifle Corps (d.7th Aug 1917)  Taken from ‘Neath a Foreign sky’ by Paul Allen –
After the battle of Flers the Yeoman Rifles had lost the identity that it had gone into battle with on the 15th September, the replacements for the men lost in the action coming predominately from the London area. Despite its change in character the Yeoman Rifles had soldiered on, and during 1917 had taken part in the Third Battle of Ypres. Perhaps better known simply as ‘Passchendale’, ‘Third Wipers’ had opened on Tuesday the 31st of July 1917 with the so called Battle of Pilckem Ridge, however, during these operations the Yeoman Rifles had played little part, nevertheless, by Saturday the 4th of August the Battalion had been stationed in trenches near to the village of Hollebeke, where during that day the Germans had mounted a ferocious counterattack which, despite suffering heavy casualties, the Yeoman Rifles had managed to beat off. During the following day the Germans had continued their assault a by mounting another two counterattacks which had also been driven out. However, severely weakened by this time, the Yeoman Rifle had been unable to stem a third assault which had eventually seen the Germans getting a foothold in the by then shattered village of Hollebeke.
During these attacks the Yeoman Rifles had suffered many casualties including a Scarborough born ‘Yeoman’ who had been hit in the face by a splinter of enemy shell. This deadly piece of shrapnel had lodged in the soldier’s brain, and despite being evacuated to a Base Hospital at Boulogne the Scarborian had succumbed to his wounds on Tuesday the 7th of August 1917.
Born in Falsgrave during 1887 at No.50 West Bank; C/12137 Sergeant Samuel Beecher Horsman had been the sixth of seven children of Sarah [formally Bilham] and ‘clerk’ Enos Horsman. A pupil of Falsgrave’s Council School, during 1901 the outstandingly bright Samuel Horsman had graduated to Scarborough’s prestigious Municipal School and had remained at ‘The Muni’ until 1905. Having chosen to lead a career in teaching, Horsman had subsequently become an assistant teacher at Scarborough’s Central School for boys. Located in Trafalgar Street West, Horsman had remained at the Central between 1906 and 1907, when he had duly left town to undergo teacher training at York’s St. John’s College. In 1909 Samuel was captain of the first eleven as cricket. Graduating as a fully-fledged teacher during 1909, Horsman had returned to Scarborough to teach at his old Falsgrave School, where he had reportedly especially excelled as a teacher in sports activities.
Along with elder brother Enos, Sam Horsman had also built an enviable reputation as a player with Scarborough’s football team before the war, during the season of 1911-12 Samuel had appeared on forty occasions for the club, thus scoring the highest attendance record of any ‘Boro’ player that year. However, with the coming of hostilities sport had been put aside and the two Horsman brothers had prepared for war.
At the outbreak of war Samuel Horsman had been residing with his widowed mother in ‘The Garlands’, a house located in Seamer Road. Enlisting into the Yeoman Rifles at Scarborough on the 4th of November 1915, Horsman had duly joined the Battalion at Duncombe Park, Helmsley, five days later. With his advanced education it had been obvious that Horsman had been Non Commissioned Officer, if not Officer material, and had soon been promoted to the rank of Corporal and shortly to that of Sergeant.
Taken ill with ‘trench fever’ shortly after the Battle of Flers, Sam Horsman had eventually been evacuated to ‘Blighty’ for treatment and had thus had the fortune to miss most of the horrors that had been experienced by the remainder of the Yeoman Rifles during the winter of 1916/17. However, pronounced fit for duty by May 1917, Horsman had duly returned to war and had rejoined the battalion in Flanders, where the unit had shortly [June 1917] taken part in the Battle of Messines and eventually the start of ‘Third Wipers’
Following the demise of one of Scarborough Football Club’s most respected players at No.13 General Hospital, the remains of Sergeant Horsman had been interred in a large civilian burial ground located in Boulogne’s ‘St. Martin Boulogne’ district just beyond the eastern [Chateau] corner of the Citadel [Haute Ville] known as ‘Boulogne Eastern Cemetery’. Amongst over five thousand casualties that had been interred in this Cemetery during the Great War, the former school teacher’s final resting place is located in Section 4, Row A, Grave 57.
In addition to being commemorated on Scarborough’s Oliver’s Mount War Memorial, elsewhere in the town Samuel Horsman’s name can be found in Falsgrave’s St James Church on a magnificently carved ‘Rood Screen’ memorial which bears the names of fifty former members of the church who had gave their lives during the First World War [including three civilians that had lost their lives during the Bombardment of Scarborough during December 11914]. In addition, Sergeant Horsman, a former pupil of Scarborough’s Municipal School had also been remembered on that School’s ‘Roll of Honour’ that lists the names of over sixty ‘old boys’ who had lost their lives whilst on active service between 1914 and 1918. Originally erected by ‘The Old Scholars Club’, this large memorial is located in the present day Graham School, located in Scarborough’s Woodlands Drive.
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