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The 1/4th Battalion, the East Yorkshire Regiment was a teritorial battalion based at Londesborough Barracks, Hull as a territorial battalion. They served as part of York and Durham Brigade, Northumbrian Division. At the outbreak of war they were recalled to Hull and then went to Darlington for training where a number of men were displated to guard the wireless station at Stockton on Tees. Over 75% of the men volunteered for service abroad at the first time of asking, by the end of October 1914 those who had not volunteered were transferred to other units and other volunteers took their place in the 4th battalion which moved to Newcastle for further training.
They went abroad on the
17th of April 1915 landing at Boulogne in France They saw action on the Western front with thier introduction to battle being as replacements in the gas warfare at Ypres four days after arriving in France. On the 12th of May became 150th Brigade of the 50th Division.
On the 15th of July 1918 the battalion was reduced to cadre and transferred to Lines of Communication, then on the 16th of August they transferred to 116th Brigade, 39th Division. The Battalion was demobilised on the 7th of November 1918.
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Pte. Richard Henry Webb 4th Btn East Yorks Regiment Richard Henry Webb was my mother's father, he was born in Bermondsey 1st Feb 1896 (to a family with roots in both East London and Hull). He lost his father in 1899, and his mother in 1906, and grew up in the family of his aunt in Hull. He enlisted 7th Nov 1912 with 4th Bn East Yorks Regt and served with Army Cyclist Corps and Royal Horse Guards.
On the back of his cycling map he has written the following: "V Corps Army Cyclist", "My Best Friend in France and Belgium 1915-1918", "Landed April 17th 1915", "Ypres 2nd Battle", "R.H.Webb". His Movement Order (in very frail condition) is dated 11 December 1917, and bears the stamps "Poperinghe" "Hazebrouck".
By late January 1918 he was convalescing,I don't know any details of his injuries, in Stamford, Lincs, where he struck up a relationship with Cathie Piggott, my grandmother, just before his 22nd birthday. The relationship started very suddenly, and became serious so quickly that Cathie ditched her current boyfriend just as he had decided to propose to her! They became engaged in May, and were married by licence on 23rd October in Stamford, his address on the Bishop's Licence was "The Parish of Great Bentley, Colchester in the county of Essex".
Dick Webb transferred to the Royal Horse Guards, taking the Service Number 3157, in February 1919, and was disembodied on April 21st. He enlisted with the Territorials at Stamford in 1920, and stayed with them until 1923. He died in October 1936, on their 18th wedding anniversary, when he collapsed with a heart attack at his garden gate, having just been to his allotment to get some vegetables for Sunday lunch. My grandmother noted that the doctor told her "his arteries were like a man of 60, and it would be aggravated by his war service". He left a widow and four children aged 5 to 15. His only son, Arthur, died aged 19 in December 1944 on the Arctic Convoy when his ship HMS Cassandra was torpedoed near Murmansk. |
