|
|
This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site you agree to accept cookies.
If you enjoy this site please consider making a donation.
Site Home
Help & FAQs
Features
Submissions
Information
Advertisements
World War 1 One ww1 wwII greatwar great 1914 1918 first battalion regiment
Tpr. John James Mansfield Lock
British Army Crewkerne Sqn 1st/1st West Somerset Yeomanry
from:Rushiewood Farm, Hazelberry Punknet, Crewkerne
698 Private John James Mansfield Lock was a Trooper with the 1st/1st West Somerset Yeomanry and Sapper 229th Brigade Signals Section, Divisional Signals Company Royal Engineers, 74th (Yeomanry) DivisionJack Lock joined the West Somerset Yeomanry on the 3rd March 1913 at Crewkerne, Somerset. He attended two summer camps, with his own horse on Salisbury Plain in May 1913 and at Porlock in May 1914. The Regiment was embodied on the 5th August 1914 and was soon deployed to Essex on anti-invasion duties. The WSY finally deployed overseas in the infantry role, landing at Suvla Bay, Gallipoli on 9th October 1915.
They were evacuated from Gallipoli with the rest of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force the WSY landed at Alexandria, Egypt on 31st of December 1915.
The WSY served in Eygpt against a native rebellion and it was in January 1917 that the WSY became the 12th Battalion, The Somerset Light Infantry. On the 21st February 1917 Jack was transferred to the Royal Engineers as a member of the Brigade Signals Section. The 74th (Yeomanry) Division served with distinction in General Allenby’s Palestine campaign against the Turks and was still engaged in operations there when the German March 1918 offensive was launched on the Western Front. The Division was moved to France and part of the desperately needed reinforcements from Palestine. The Division was fully engaged in the final 100 days.
Jack was discharged from the Army in July 1919 and returned to Somerset to become a farmer as many generations of his family had done before him. He passed away peacefully in his sleep in Sept 1979 when I was 12 years old. He talked briefly to me about his experiences, showing me a few photos from his time in Gallipoli, Egypt and Palestine. He never spoke of his service to my father his son and gave me his three campaign medals, still in their boxes having never been worn. He lost many of his good friends and was clearly deeply effected by his experiences, my Grandmother said he often experienced dreadful nightmares. As a Linesman in the Signals Troop it would have been his job to have repaired severed telephone lines, cut by artillery fire, often whilst still under fire.
Related Content:
Can you help us to add to our records?
The names and stories on this website have been submitted by their relatives and friends. If your relations are not listed please add their names so that others can read about them
Did your relative live through the Great War? Do you have any photos, newspaper clippings, postcards or letters from that period? Have you researched the names on your local or war memorial?
If so please let us know.
Do you know the location of a Great War "Roll of Honour?"We are very keen to track down these often forgotten documents and obtain photographs and transcriptions of the names recorded so that they will be available for all to remember.
Help us to build a database of information on those who served both at home and abroad so that future generations may learn of their sacrifice.
Celebrate your own Family History
Celebrate by honouring members of your family who served in the Great War both in the forces and at home. We love to hear about the soldiers, but also remember the many who served in support roles, nurses, doctors, land army, muntions workers etc.
Please use our Family History resources to find out more about your relatives. Then please send in a short article, with a photo if possible, so that they can be remembered on these pages.
The free section of The Wartime Memories Project is run by volunteers.
This website is paid for out of our own pockets, library subscriptions and from donations made by visitors. The popularity of the site means that it is far exceeding available resources and we currently have a huge backlog of submissions.
If you are enjoying the site, please consider making a donation, however small to help with the costs of keeping the site running.
Hosted by:
The Wartime Memories Project Website
is archived for preservation by the British Library
Copyright MCMXCIX - MMXXIV
- All Rights Reserved -We do not permit the use of any content from this website for the training of LLMs or for use in Generative AI, it also may not be scraped for the purpose of creating other websites.
