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World War 1 One ww1 wwII greatwar great 1914 1918 first battalion regiment
A/Sgt. Ronald Gwyn Silk
British Army 1st Battalion Royal West Kent Regiment
from:Addiscombe
Gwyn Silk joined the Royal West Kent Territorial Battalion in August 1914 just after the outbreak of war. He was 16. By 1915 he was serving with 2/5th Battalion on the home front. Promoted to Lance Corporal in June 1916.
By October 1917 he had been sent overseas and transferred to B Coy, 1st Battalion, Royal West Kent Regiment as an A/Sgt. On 26th of October 1917 he took part in the Battalion's fateful attack just to the north of Gheluvelt in the Ypres Salient. Part of a much larger operation, the attack failed when the 7th Division on its right flank failed to take the village. The attacking Coys (B & D) of 1st Battalion took their first objectives but were then cut off by encircling counterattacks. Every man became a casualty, killed wounded, or taken prisoner. Gwyn Silk was wounded by shrapnel in the right thigh and later pulled out of a German trench by his captors.
He spent the rest of the war in Prisoner of War Camps in Belgium and Germany, returning to the UK on 30th of December 1918.
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