|
|
|
16th Battalion, Devonshire Regiment
| Want to know more about 16th Battalion, Devonshire Regiment? There are:5230 items tagged 16th Battalion, Devonshire Regiment available in our Library
These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Great War.
|
|
|
|
- The Wartime Memories Project is the original WW1 and WW2 commemoration website.
- 1st of September 2023 marks 24 years since the launch of the Wartime Memories Project. Thanks to everyone who has supported us over this time.
|
Want to find out more about your relative's service? Want to know what life was like during the Great War? Our
Library contains many many diary entries, personal letters and other documents, most transcribed into plain text.
|
Looking for help with Family History Research?
Please see Family History FAQ's
Please note: We are unable to provide individual research.
|
|
Can you help?
The free to access section of The Wartime Memories Project website is run by volunteers and funded by donations from our visitors.
If the information here has been helpful or you have enjoyed reaching the stories please conside making a donation, no matter how small, would be much appreciated, annually we need to raise enough funds to pay for our web hosting or this site will vanish from the web.
If you enjoy this site
please consider making a donation.
Announcements
- 27th April 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 264001 your submission is still in the queue, please do not resubmit.
Wanted: Digital copies of Group photographs, Scrapbooks, Autograph books, photo albums, newspaper clippings, letters, postcards and ephemera relating to the Great War. If you have any unwanted
photographs, documents or items from the First or Second World War, please do not destroy them. The Wartime Memories Project will give them a good home and ensure that they are used for educational purposes. Please get in touch for the postal address, do not sent them to our PO Box as packages are not accepted.
|
We are now on Facebook. Like this page to receive our updates, add a comment or ask a question.
If you have a general question please post it on our Facebook page.
|
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.
|
|
|
Pte. Albert Henry Shears 16th Btn. Devonshire Regiment (d.2nd Sep 1918) I know very little of my distant relative, Albert Henry Shears.
He was the youngest of three children of Alfred Ernest Shears and Thomasine Trevise nee Toy
|
Pte. Claude E. Cole 16th Btn. Devonshire Regiment (d.3rd September 1918) Claude Cole served with the 16th (North Devon Yeomanry) Battalion, Devonshire Regiment. He lost his life on the 3rd of September 1918. Aged 21 he was the son of Alfred and Dorothy M. Cole of 224 Pinhoe Road, Exeter.
|
Pte. John Hearn 16th Btn. Devonshire Regiment (d.2nd Sept 1918) John Hearn from Bideford was in the Devonshire Regiment in 1915 at Gallipoli in conflict against the Turks and also fighting against flies, disease and dysentery until Dec 1915.
Then to Egypt just in time for 1916 New Year celebration and fighting the Turks again.
In January 1917, at Moascar, Egypt the two North Devon Regiments, The Royal 1st Devon Yeomanry and the Royal North Devon Hussars were amalgamated into one unit and renamed the 16th Battalion, Devonshire Regiment.
John and the 16th Devons were sent to the front at Gaza fighting against the Turks in the Invasion of Palestine, and the Second and Third Battles of Gaza, including the capture of Beersheba and the Sheria Position.
They left Egypt in April 1918 and arrived in France in May.
By August 1918 John Hearn, in the 16th Devons was taking part in some of the Battles on the Somme, and from 21st August to 3rd September 1918 they were fighting at what becomes known as the Second Battle of Bapaume second phase of the battle of Amiens.
In the evening of 1st of September 1918 the 16th Devons, attached to 229th Brigade, 74th Division, took over trenches from the 58th Division east of Bouchavesnes. They had orders to attack the German lines at 5.30 the next morning. Next morning, 2nd September, at zero hour the West Somersets led the attack with the Fifes and Forfars in support. A and B Companies of the 16th Devons were to follow them up, and as they passed Moislains the Devons were to veer off to clear the village, believing that little opposition, if any, was there. But as they went forward the West Somersets and the Fifes and Forfars were enfiladed with gun-fire from trenches near the village and suffered terribly. As A and B Companies of the Devons went forward they ran into a hail of machine-gun fire, and they too suffered terribly and were stopped at the outskirts of Moislains.
This was the day that John Hearn was killed. He has no known grave but is Remembered with Honour at the Vis En-Artois Memorial in France. His widow Edith was left with their three young daughters. Edith remarried and had another four children, but soon after the birth of her youngest, both mother and baby died. They are buried together at East-the-Water, Bideford, North Devon.
|
Pte. William Cartmell 1/6th Batt Devonshire regiment (d.16th July 1916) William Cartmell was my grandfather, he served with the 1/6th Devonshire Regiment in Mesopotamia and died on 16th July 1916. He is buried in the Amara War Cemetery in Iraq.
|
Recomended Reading.Available at discounted prices.
|
|
|
Site Home
Help & FAQs
