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- Bedfordshire Yeomanry during the Great War -


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World War 1 One ww1 wwII greatwar great 1914 1918 first battalion regiment

Bedfordshire Yeomanry

Territorial Force:

  • 1/1st Battalion, Bedfordshire Yeomanry
  • 2/1st Battalion, Bedfordshire Yeomanry
  • 3/1st Battalion, Bedfordshire Yeomanry

       The HQ of the Bedfordshire Yeomanry was in Ashburnham Road, Bedford, they were part of the Eastern Mounted Brigade when war broke out in 1914. A Squadron were from Bedford, B Squadron from Biggleswade and Shefford. C Squadron from Dunstable, Leighton Buzzard, Woburn and Ampthill. D Squadron was drawn from Godmanchester, St Neots, Kimbolton, Ramsey, Somersham, Sutton and Charteriss.

    1st Feb 1915 Found Brother Killed

    13th June 1915 Church Parade

    29th Oct 1915 Palatial Trenches

    28th Jan 1916 

    17th October 1916 On the March

    If you can provide any additional information, please add it here.



  • Want to know more about the Bedfordshire Yeomanry?


    There are:6588 items tagged Bedfordshire Yeomanry available in our Library

      These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Great War.


    Those known to have served with

    Bedfordshire Yeomanry

    during the Great War 1914-1918.

    • Brawn MM & Bar Augustus Edwin. Sjt. Attached to 15th King's Hussars
    • Dickins Arthur Herbert . Sgt. (d.24th May 1915)
    • Heygate Leonard William. Pte.
    • Lovell Herbert Edward.
    • Pays Leonard Sydney Thomas. Pte. 2/1st Btn.
    • Ping Aubrey Alec.
    • Sawyer Ernest Edgar. Pte. A Squadron (d.31st March 1918)
    • Sawyer Ernest Edgar. Pte. A Sqd. (d.31st March 1918)
    • Wicks Ernest Theodore. Tpr.

    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

    More Bedfordshire Yeomanry records.


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    Announcements

    • 12th March 2024

          Please note we currently have a massive backlog of submitted material, our volunteers are working through this as quickly as possible and all names, stories and photos will be added to the site. If you have already submitted a story to the site and your UID reference number is higher than 263705 your submission is still in the queue, please do not resubmit.

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        World War 1 One ww1 wwII greatwar great battalion regiment artillery
        Did you know? We also have a section on World War Two. and a Timecapsule to preserve stories from other conflicts for future generations.






    246322

    Sgt. Arthur Herbert Dickins 5th Battalion (d.24th May 1915)

    Arthur Dickins was born on 12th May 1891 in Bedford, son of Walter and Alice Dickins, 20 Russell Avenue, Bedford. Service papers show he was a farmer at time he enlisted on 22nd of September 1914 at Valcartier, Canada with 5th Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force. Paperwork also shows he had previously served with the Bedford Yeomanry. He was killed in action on 24th May 1915 age 24 years in the vicinity of Festubert. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Vimy Memorial. A pupil of Bedford Modern School 1898-1907, he is commemorated on the School War Memorial, which was unveiled in 1923 and in the Roll of Honour, published in The Eagle, December 1923.

    Caroline Hunt




    246279

    Pte. Ernest Edgar Sawyer A Sqd. Bedfordshire Yeomanry (d.31st March 1918)

    Ernest Sawyer was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1895. In 1910 his family moved to Bedford in England where he was educated at Bedford School.

    In 1914, he joined the Queens Engineering works as a trainee engineer and he volunteered for overseas service at the beginning of the war. His recruitment card shows that he reported for training on the 22nd September 1914. He served with A Squadron, Bedfordshire Yeomanry and with the exception of two leaves at Christmas 1916 and February 1918, was in France throughout the war until his death. He was killed on the 31st March 1918 at Marcelcave near Villers Bretonneux during the German Spring offensive and his grave was lost during the subsequent fighting over the battlefield.

    He was the only son of Ernest and Elizabeth Sawyer and had four younger sisters. He is commemorated on the Memorial to the Missing at Pozieres, and on the school memorials at Bedford School, Bedford and St Davids, Inanda, South Africa.

    Bedfordshire Yeomanry in Hatfield Peveral 1915 before leaving for France

    Pte Sawyer Recruitment Card

    Bedford School War Memorial Plaque





    242874

    Pte. Leonard Sydney Thomas Pays 2/1st Btn. Bedfordshire Yeomanry

    My Dad, Leonard Pays Served with the 2/1st Btn. Bedfordshire Yeomanry. I am trying to find information. He died in August 1972

    Graham Pays




    239573

    Pte. Ernest Edgar Sawyer A Squadron Bedfordshire Yeomanry (d.31st March 1918)

    Ernest Sawyer served with A Squadron, Bedfordshire Yeomanry.

    1917 Private E E Sawyer

    Jenny Copley-Forster




    213791

    Herbert Edward Lovell Bedfordshire Yeomanry

    Herbert Edward Lovell

    My grandfather Bert Lovell was wounded in WW1 while serving 1915 in the Bedfordshire Yeomanry. My great uncle was also in the same unit. The family story says that he was injured while mounted on a horse and his horse was killed. Fours others accompanying him were killed along with their horses. He was the only survivor because as he was blown off his horse from the shell shockwave and impact of the explosion (the shell exploded between them) He was also shielded from some of the shrapnel by the body of his horse. He then crawled in a badly injured state to the aid station to notify them that his horse was dead; as horses were more valuable than people. Even though shielded by his horse and a survivor he still spent months in hospital with physical injuries and shell shock and thereafter had to take anti epilepsy drugs for the rest of his life. He still had unremoved metal and scars on his neck and head until he died at 82 yrs old. He never talked about the war (my grandmother said the information was relayed from his unit) and he would get very agitated if anyone whistled. He was reported to be relaying war stories to the nurses in hospital the day before he died when they had taken him off all his heavy doses of medication.

    Jo Bennett




    204983

    Pte. Leonard William Heygate Northamptonshire Yeomanry

    My Grandfather Leonard William Heygate was born on the 3rd September 1889. His father, Richard Ralph Heygate (1852 to 1923) was a varnish manufacturer in Hackney and a gentleman farmer in West Haddon, Northants. Leonard had a brother Gerald Ralph (1886 to 1951)who also joined the army in the First World War. Their Mother Lizzie Emma was also from the Heygate family.

    I have not been able to find very much First World War information on my grandfather Leonard, except that he joined the Northamptonshire Yeomanry as a Private and apparently, according to my Mother Margaret Ruth Heygate, he was engaged to my Grandmother Evelyn Lucy Underwood of Long Buckby, Northants. He had to go to Ireland to learn to ride horses and Evelyn, accompanied by her Mother, travelled to Ireland to see him! Leonard had been training to be an Auctioneer at Rugby but was also joint owner, with his Father of some agricultural land at West Haddon, Northants, where he lived.

    I have some information that he served in France, date of entry 18.04.1915. He also seemed to have served with the Bedfordshire Yeomanry. At the Army Museum it states in the Army list February 1918 L W Heygate 333 Yeomanry Territorial Force 332, Bedforshire, Ashburnham Road, Bedford. Uniform blue. Facings white. Plume black and white. Commissioned 3/1st Beds Yeo 16.4.17, 2nd Lieutenant 17.4.1917. Reserve Brigades Artillery (TF). L W Heygate September 1918 332 (attd 2-1) York, Dns, Yeo 17 April 1917. Attached to the York Dragoons Yeomanry. On one piece of paper I have Medal 15 star, roll cc/5b page6. Also it states 'on R T or and F Roll CC/106B1/36. NW/2/3606.

    My Grandfather was rather a shy, quiet gentleman and would not talk about his experiences of the First World War. Years later, my brother was on a school trip to France and he happened to send his Grandparents a postcard from Arras. The only thing my Grandfather said to my Mother was, 'I was there' and he was very sad. He apparently, on hearing that World War 2 had broken out, disappeared out of the house into the fields and probably cried. I just want to know more about where he was in France and whether he was at the Battle of Arras. I think I am right in saying that he had a wound to his face from shrapnel.

    He was very fortunate to survive the war and had a pleasant life as a gentleman farmer at Creaton and West Haddon, Northants. He married Evelyn and produced three children, Margaret, Barbara and Michael John. He had five grandchildren. He died on 3rd August 1975 and is buried in West Haddon Churchyard.

    The only other thing I would add about the Second World War. When Coventry was bombed, Grandpa had a bonfire in one of the fields at Creaton and to the family's horror, they saw the German aeroplanes flying overhead and the bonfire which had been earlier put out, sprang to life, so the family ran across the fields with buckets of water to put the flames out! They all survived but witnessed the sky all lit up from Coventry and could hear the bombs landing.

    Elizabeth Anne Heygate Gates








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