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World War 1 One ww1 wwII greatwar great 1914 1918 first battalion regiment
Pte. Andrew W.T. Greenwell
British Army 18th Btn. (1st Tyneside Pioneers) Northumberland Fusiliers
from:Burradon, Northumberland
(d.25th April 1916)
My great uncle Andrew, born about 1888, was originally Andrew White until his mother Elizabeth married her second husband William Greenwell. No-one in the family had ever mentioned him and we only discovered him whilst researching the family history through census records. My grandfather, Andrew's step-brother would have been a teenager when Andrew died. Andrew was a coal miner and the family breadwinner after the death of William. providing for his mother, step brother and 2 step-sisters. He was a single man, living in Fryers Terrace above the Co-op in Burradon, when he joined the Tyneside pioneers. After guarding trenches in the next village (Cramalington) he was sent to France in early 1916.
We found his death recorded as 25th April 1916 and were able to track the details from a book Historical Records of the 18th (Service) Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers (1st Tyneside Pioneers) by Lt.Col. J. Shakespeare. He set out on the night of St Georges day with comrades to lay cables in the trenches around La Boisselle near Albert when a "petrol mine" landed in the trench killing him and a number of his comrades. All present were injured and for some, no bodies were recovered. Andrew was taken to hospital but died on the 25th. He is buried in Warloy Baillon Cemetery.
Why was he forgotten by his family? By volunteering he left my grandfather at the age of 18 as the "man of the house" and when killed left a family living in relative poverty. Why did he join up? He was a miner and there was a recruiting campaign to enlist these men for their experience. He had never married, had taken responsibility for his step-family, worked in a dangerous "gassy" mine and the prospect of seeing new things and adventure lured him. The saddness was that within months he was dead and until we found him in the records it was as if he had never existed.
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