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5th Battalion, East Kent Regiment (The Buffs)
The HQ of the 5th (Weald of Kent) Battalion, East Kent Regiment (the Buffs) was in Ashford. A Company was drawn from Cranbrook and Benenden, B Coy from Hawkhurst and Sandhurst. C Coy from Headcorn, Staplehurst, Marden and Sutten Valence. D Coy from Horsmonden, Goudhurst, Lamberhurts, Brenchley, Yalding and Paddock Wood. E Coy from Ashford, Pluckley, Smarden, Bethersden. Aldington, Broughton Aluph and Ham Street. F and H Coy were in Ashford, G Coy from Tenderdenm Lydd, Woodchurch, New Romney, Appledorem Wittersham and Rolvden.
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Pte. Rochus Edward Bevan 1st/5th Btn. East Kent Regiment (d.15th Apr 1917) Rochus Bevan fought in the Samarrah Offensive and is buried in the Baghdad Cemetery.
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Pte. Frederick James Rigden 5th Btn. East Kent Regiment Frederick Rigden joined the Buffs in December 1915 and was sent to Mesopotamia in August 1916 to be part of the Indian Expeditionary Force. He was invalided out with Splenic Anemia upon arrival in Basra, Iraq, most likely having contracted in illness en route in India. Due to this illness, he was declared unfit for service and medically discharged in November 1917.
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Pte. John Blackman 1st/5th Btn. The Buffs (East Kent Regiment) (d.16th October 1918) Private Blackman was the husband of E. L. Nye (formerly Blackman), of 124 Magpie Hall Lane, Bromley Common, London.
He was 36 when he died and is buried in Poonamallee Cemetery in India, Row 33, Grave 688.
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Pte. Frederick George Young 5th Btn. The Buffs (East Kent Regiment) (d.4th June 1914) Private Young was the son of Robert A. and Clara Young, of 41 Rodney St., Ramsgate, Kent.
He was 18 when he died and is buried in the Kamptee Roman Catholic Cemetery in India.
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Pte. James Gardiner 5th Btn. East Kent Regiment James Gardiner served with the 5th Btn. East Kent Regiment.
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Capt. Edward Boulding 5th Btn. East Kent Regiment  Edward Boulding, born at Parsonage Farm in Bonnington near Hythe in 1882, was the eldest of four children. His father, a farmer, died very young while Edward was only six or seven years old. As the eldest of the children he helped his mother work the farm and must have learned self-reliance at an early age.
In 1900 he became an apprentice blacksmith and wheelwright at Bilsington. He remained at the village forge until he was mobilised as a Territorial at the outbreak of the 1914-18 war. He served in India and Mesopotamia where he was injured at the Battle of Kut (Sheik Sa'ad, 7th January 1916) and later was one of the first British soldiers into Baghdad when it was taken by the 5th regiment the Buffs in March 1917.
After service in Mesopotamia, after which he was commissioned as a Captain, in 1920, two years after the end of the war he returned to England and decided to embark on a teaching career.
My late father recalled that his father Edward was at Shorncliffe army training camp when he was born in September 1914. As a baby of a few months old when Edward went off to war he did not know his father until he was eight years old when he returned from the Mesopotamia. My father remembered being taken around the village by a man in uniform to visit aunts and uncles.
After the war Edward Boulding spent two years at Goldsmiths College, London, after which he was appointed assistant master at Pembury. In 1927 he moved to Sandhurst as headmaster living at Windmill Cottage and later buying some land and building Windyridge where he lived until his death in 1960.
Edward seemed to be involved in just about every local activity that you can imagine:
He was a member of Cranbrook Rural Council and of the parish council and often presided at committee meetings. He helped in negotiations for which he secured the playing field for Sandhurst village.
He became a member of the West Kent Div Executive Committee of the KEC. He was governor of Cranbrook School and chairman of the governors of Cranbrook County Secondary School for Boys.
Capt. Boulding was also made a foundation governor of the Mary Sheafe School, Cranbrook.
His activities in the world of music were so many they could not all be listed. In addition to being church organist, he trained several choirs and was a leader among choral societies and also a keen bell ringer.
Among the many village tasks in which he took a pride was keeping the clock on time by winding it regularly.
In the last war he was head of the local Special Constabulary. 
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Capt. Edward Boulding 5th Btn. Royal East Kent Regiment  Edward Boulding was born 4th December 1881, Parsonage Farm, Bonnington, Hythe, Kent. He was married to Florence. Before the war he was an assistant Overseer & Rate Collector. Edward had qualified as Assistant Schoolmaster under Board of Education 1906 (Prelim. Certif Exam) and held Language Qualifications in Hindustani (Working Knowledge) and Arabic (Working Knowledge). He was mobilised with his battalion on the 4th August 1914 and in October 1914 he had 2 days embarkation leave prior to joining Mesopotamia Expeditionary Force with D Coy, 5th Buffs. He was promoted to Company Sergent Major on the 1st of May 1915.
The Battle of Sheikh Sa'ad, which occurred between 6–8 January 1916 during the Mesopotamian Campaign of the First World War. The battle took place along the banks of the Tigris River between the Anglo-Indian Tigris Corps and elements of the Ottoman Sixth Army. The engagement was the first in a series of assaults by the Tigris Corps to try to break through the Ottoman lines to relieve the besieged garrison at Kut. Edward was wounded at Shaik Said on the 7th of January 1916
He was admitted to hospital on the 17th. Notes by Medical Doctor: Two Gun Shot wounds [enhamcet?] flesh wound right upper arm & VIII 4 severe Right middle finger.
Edward was commissioned on the 29th of Aug 1919. He was the Regimental Signals Officer between July 1918 and Feb 1919. Then he was the
Adjutant and Qm Base PL of C from 28th Feb to 4th April. On the
12th of April he became the Officer in Command War Gifts Meso & Sec CRC.
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Pte. John Blake 1/5th Btn. East Kent Regiment (d.14th Sep 1943) Jack Blake died on 14th of September 1943.
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Pte. William Charles Pierson 1/5th Battalion The Buffs (East Kent Regiment) William Charles Pierson was born in 1889 in Milton, the only child of Charles Pierson, a Cordwainer (Boot and Shoemaker) and Sarah Ann Buley.
After working as a bricklayer he joined the army for a 4 year term on 6 March 1911 when he was 22. He joined the 1/5th Battalian, East Kent Regiment (The Buffs) and served with them for 8 years, finally being discharged on 20 April 1919.
Having researched the Battalian here is a summary of their movements and events that I believe William Pierson was involved in:
The 1/5th Battalian was formed in August 1914 in Ashford and on 29 October 1914 was sent to India. The Division was broken up on arrival in Bombay in December and this Battalian joined Jubbulpore Brigade in 5th (Mhow) Division which was a regular Division of the Indian Army and remained in India.
In November 1915 the Buffs then joined the 35th Brigade in 7th (Meerut) Division, another regular division of the Indian Army, and were sent to Mesopotamia in December 1915 after having spent some time in India.
They landed at Basra on 31 December 1915. They went to Mesopotamia in order to relieve the forces besieged at Kut al Amara. Their first action was on 7 January 1916 when they lost 251 officers and men at Sheikh Saad on the northern bank of the Tigris. The battalion was reduced by half after an attempt to attack through floodwater and then they joined a flanking movement but were forced by the enemy to retreat. After another attempt to attack through floodwater they received the news on 29 April 1916 that Kut had fallen to the Turks.
The following month, in May 1916, the Brigade moved to the newly formed 14th (Indian) Division (which served in Mesopotamian until the Armistice on 31 October 1918). The Buffs then returned to action a few weeks later in December 1916 in the advance to Hai and in the clearing of Khadairi Bend. On 15 February the Buffs launched a successful attack at Dahra Bend pushing in a north easterly direction to the bank of the Tigris and broke the Turks’ defence lines capturing 1000 Turks who surrendered and having suffered 80 casualties. Dahra was finally taken on 16 February. The British recaptured Kut a few days later on the 24 February in the second battle of Kut after crossing the Tigris on 23 February. The troops then joined the March on Baghdad which resumed on 5 March 1917. Three days later they reached the Diyala River in the outskirts of the city after some exhausting marches and a few brief fights. After a sudden assault by the British on 10 March 1917 the Ottoman troops evacuated.
The Buffs reached the Iron Bridge at dawn on March 11 1917 and the 1/5 were ordered to lead the 35th Brigade across the river in a variety of native boats. They entered the citadel without a fight and hauled down the Turkish flag, and hoisted a Union Jack that today hangs on the wall of Canterbury Cathedral.
The Turks battled on and the 5th were kept marching and fighting them for another 9 months. In December 1917 they then returned to occupational duties having won honours. The Battalian had lost 689 men.
The 1/5th Battalian Buffs remained in Mesopotamia until 31 October 1918.
This information has been gathered from a variety of sources on the web and also from a Book about the East Kent Regiment.
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2nd Lt. William Haffenden Winch 5th Btn. East Kent Regiment (d.13th Jan 1916) William Haffenden Winch was the only son of Billy and Jane Winch of Cranbrook Kent (they also had a daughter Catherine). William served as a Second Lieutenant with the 5th Battalion East Kent Regiment and died on the 13th January 1916 from wounds received in the Battle of Sheikh Saad in Mesepotamia and is buried at Al Basra. According to his war record card he was awarded the Victory, British and Star medals. A posthumous tribute was printed in De Ruvigny's Roll of Honour.
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Pte. Harry Cockerell 4th Battalion Royal West Kent Regiment  Harry Cockerell was born on the 7th of June 1883, in Tonbridge, Kent. Like his father and grandfather before him, he worked as a Cricket Ball Maker. Harry was married to Edith, and they had 4 children aged 5 and under, when he signed up to serve in the 4th Royal West Kent Territorials TF/1687, a day after his 31st birthday on the 8th June 1914.
Harry's War records state that he was a private and his regiment embarked for India on 29th Oct 1914. He was transferred to 1/5 Buffs (East Kent Regiment 6076/242852) on 3rd Oct 1916, and served at Es Sinn and Basra. Harry was wounded in action on 24th Jan 1917, with a gun shot wound to his right tibia and invalided to India, he was later transferred to Edmonton Military Hospital, London, which was one of several hospitals in England given over to the care of wounded soldiers in WW1.
Harry survived his injuries and returned from service to a civilian life once more in Tonbridge. Harry and Edith went on to have two more sons. Harry died aged 64 on 6 Jan 1948, at 64 Barden Road, Tonbridge.
Sadly, I didn't know my grandfather, as he had died before I was born. Apart from Harry's war records and a few family photos, all the suffering and hardships Harry and his family had to endure, would be lost forever.
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L/Cpl. George Creek 5th Btn. East Kent Regiment (d.21st Mar 1917) George Creek enlisted in Royston into the 1st Battalion The Bedford Regiment. Transferred as Lance Corporal to the 5th Battalion, The Buffs (East Kent Regiment), he died of his wounds with the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force probably in Mesapotamia (Iraq) 21st March 1917.
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Col. John Body DSO, MID. 5th Battalion East Kent Regiment John Body became Lt-Col in October 1916 and was awarded Companion of Distinguished Order of the 5th Buffs East Kent Regiment, Territorial Force 1916 at St. James London. He was instrumental in sending The Buffs' memorial Window to Baghdad to be placed in the Mesopotamia Memorial Church to commemorate the part by the 1st Buffs in the near East Campaign. He was made Battalion Colonel of the 5th Buffs on the 21st March 1922.
John was mentioned four times in dispatches, he entered Baghdad at 09.00 hrs on the 11th of March 1917. After defeating the Turks 9 Miles away, Capt. G K Harrison hoisted the Union Jack on the Citadel. The flag was bought back and now hangs in Canterbury Cathedral.
John was Deputy Lt. of the County of Kent in 1945 and opened the Tenterden War Memorial Kent where two of his cousins, once removed were named having given their lives in First World War. He died suddenly at Wittersham Court.
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