208577 CSM. Alexander Anson British Army 1/5th Btn. Durham Light Infantry from:Hartlepool My Grandfather, Alexander Anson joined the 1st VB DLI on 16 March 1906 at Castle Eden. He progressed up the ranks and by the outbreak of WW1 he was a Colour Sgt. He was appointed CSM C Company 1/5th DLI on 30 January 1915 and went with the Regiment to France on 17 April 1915.
He was involved in the 2nd Battle of Ypres at the Battle of St Juliaan that month and then in the Battle of Bellewaarde ridge at Sanctuary Wood. He was gassed on 24 May 1915 and invalided home. He was sent to St John Red Cross Hospital in Weymouth to recover and subsequently joined 3/5th DLI at Catterick and was appointed Acting RSM.
He was then transferred to the Inland and Waterways Royal Engineers at Port Richborough in Kent for the remainder of the war. (He had been a plater in a shipyard before the war and they needed his skills)
He was demobbed in 1919 WO1.
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