The Wartime Memories Project

- 249th Field Company, Royal Engineers during the Great War -


Great War>Allied Army
skip to content


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

    Great War Home

    Search

    Add Stories & Photos

    Library

    Help & FAQs

 Features

    Allied Army

    Day by Day

    RFC & RAF

    Prisoners of War

    War at Sea

    Training for War

    The Battles

    Those Who Served

    Hospitals

    Civilian Service

    Women at War

    The War Effort

    Central Powers Army

    Central Powers Navy

    Imperial Air Service

    Library

    World War Two

 Submissions

    Add Stories & Photos

    Time Capsule

 Information

    Help & FAQs



    Glossary

    Our Facebook Page

    Volunteering

    News

    Events

    Contact us

    Great War Books

    About


Advertisements

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

249th Field Company, Royal Engineers



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





Want to know more about the Royal Engineers?


There are:8767 items tagged Royal Engineers 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

249th Field Company, Royal Engineers

during the Great War 1914-1918.

  • Curd Charles Henry. Spr. (d.24th Apr 1917)
  • McArdle Charles Edward. (d.9th Nov 1919)
  • Redman Charles E..
  • Taylor Arthur Elgar. Spr. (d.17th Oct 1917)
  • Taylor Arthur Elgar. Spr. (d.17th Oct 1917)
  • Wilkin MM.. Cyril William. Spr.
  • Wright H. W.. Mjr.

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

Records of 249th Field Company, Royal Engineers from other sources.


  • 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

  • 13 4th May 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 264114 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.






263993

Spr. Cyril William Wilkin MM. 249th Field Company Royal Engineers

Cyril Wilkin with the Royston Fire Brigade

Cyril Wilkin from Royston in Hertfordshire joined No 2 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps in October 1912 aged 19 or 20 as an 2nd Air Mechanic and was stationed at Montrose. He went with his squadron to France in August 1914 immediately after the war being declared. Soon after his arrival he was injured after the plane he was in was brought down and after recovering was discharged from the RFC on 16th of January 1915.

Cyril Wilkin subsequently enlisted as a Royal Marine Engineer in the Royal Naval Division on 3rd of February 1915 who were soon sent to the Dardanelles and landed at Helles on April 25th of April 1915. Sapper Wilkin was in No 3 Field Company R.M.E. and was a plumber by specialist trade. During the campaign, he was shot through the hand although was only in hospital for a short time before returning to the fighting line. After being evacuated from the Dardanelles in Feb 1916 he was stationed in Stavros, Greece for four months.

He subsequently was sent to the Western Front where his company had been re-designated as the 249th Field Company R.E. In the 63rd (Royal Naval) Division and was now within the British Army rather than the Royal Marines.

Sapper Wilkin was awarded the Military Medal for conspicuous bravery in carrying out details under gas and shell fire on or around 11th of March 1918. He was severely gassed in this action and was blind for about 4 days. He was initially hospitalised at Rouen before continuing his recovery in Cardiff.

After the war Cyril married Nellie and had 3 children (Eileen, Derek and Graham) and worked as a plumber. He also served as a fire officer for many years when it was a volunteer service. Cyril was also one of a handful of local ex servicemen who established the Royston branch of the British Legion. He also represented Royston at football and cricket.

During the Second World War, Cyril worked as a fitter for the air ministry initially for the RAF and subsequently for the US Air corps when they took over the local air base. Cyril died in 1979.

Glyn Wilkin




262756

Spr. Arthur Elgar Taylor 249th Field Coy. Royal Engineers (d.17th Oct 1917)

Arthur Taylor

On 17th of October 1917, my grandfather Arthur Taylor and Major H. W. Wright were shelled while on duty in Belgium. My grandfather did not survive and his mate was with him when he passed - his last words being "I think I'm done." My grandmother received a letter from this man which was written in April of 1918 telling her what had happened and his last words. My son now has this letter in his possession.

Newspaper clipping

Obituary

Marjorie Culver




262752

Mjr. H. W. Wright 249th Field Coy. Royal Engineers

H W Wright

On 17th of October 1917, my grandfather Arthur Taylor and Major H. W. Wright were shelled while on duty in Belgium. My grandfather did not survive and his mate was with him when he passed, his last words being "I think I'm done." My grandmother received a letter from this man which was written in April of 1918 telling her what had happened and his last words. My son now has this letter in his possession.

Marjorie Culver




255233

Charles E. Redman 249th Field Coy. Royal Engineers

Charles Redman served in the 249th Field Company.

Marjorie Culver




255231

Charles Edward McArdle 249th Field Coy. Royal Engineers (d.9th Nov 1919)

According to a letter from Charles McArdle to my grandmother in April of 1918 and while he was in hospital, he informed my grandmother that he was with my grandfather, Arthur Elgar Taylor, in Belgium, when they were shelled and my grandfather was hit. He told my grandmother that my grandfather's last words were, "I think I'm done." My son now has that letter and it is considered to be a real treasure and we were very happy that she held onto it and it was passed down in the family.

Marjorie Culver




255230

Spr. Charles Henry Curd 249th Field Coy. Royal Engineers (d.24th Apr 1917)

Charles Curd was killed in action at Arras, aged 32, son of Susan Curd of Durrington. He was born in Newhaven and enlisted in Brighton at Carpenter St. Paul's. He died on Tuesday 24th of April 1917 and there is no known grave.

Marjorie Culver




231339

Spr. Arthur Elgar Taylor 249th Field Coy. Royal Engineers (d.17th Oct 1917)

All I know is that my grandfather, Arthur Taylor and grandmother went back to England where they were both born. He was with the Royal Engineers, 249th Field Coy., and died 17th of October 1917 and is listed as Commonwealth War Dead. He is buried in La Brique Military Cemetery No. 2 in Belgium. I am trying to find out about his company and where they fought in the war.

Marjorie Culver






Recomended Reading.

Available at discounted prices.









Links


    Suggest a link
















    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.