Genealogy Forum UK

Can anyone find any more details on,
Private A Hodgkinson. no, 14888, 9th Bn, Worcs Reg.
he died on 16 Jan 1917.
I have the details from the war graves.

Hi Jimmy,

I've checked the service records and I thought we'd hit the jackpot becasue I found Arthur Hodginson born Kidderminster served Worcester Reg and was killed in action but it was the service records of another Arthur who was born abt 1886 and killed in France in 1914 (would he be a relative of your family) ? I'm afraid it looks like your Arthur's services records were destroyed during the Blitz.

I would however be able to give you details of Arthur's Regiments involvement during the war, the engagements he would have been involved in and where he was sadly killed. I'm not sure if you already have this information but if you want me to investigate further just let me know.

Regards
Adrian

Hi Adrian,

I think the one you found was a cousin of the one I was after, the one I am after was my partners grandmothers brother, if you don't mind can you give me what you can on is regiment etc.

Thanks a lot for looking.

Hi Jimmy,

I've found this information on Arthur's Regiment during the war and from different pieces of information I can confidently identify his movements even without his service records.

We know from his Medal Index Card he only served with the 9th Battalion of the Worcestershire Regiment and first saw service overseas on the 4th July 1915 at Gallipoli against the Turks. Arthur then saw service in Persia (Iraq) and was killed in action during the The Battles of the Hai salient, Dahra Bend and the Shumran Peninsular 11/01/17 - 24/02/17 (based on the dates and the information on the 9th Battalions whereabouts).

MIC (Medal Index Card)
Name: Arthur Hodgkinson
Regiment: 9th Btn Worcestershire
Regiment no: 14855
Rank: Private
Medals awarded:
1915 Star medal roll: L/5B page 91
Victory medal: roll: L/103 B14 page 3180
British medal: roll: L/103 B14 page 3180
Theatre of war first served in: Balkans
Date of entry there in: 4.7.15
Remarks: Killed In Action

Worcestershire Regiment
Battalions of the New Armies
9th (Service) Battalion
Formed at Worcester in August 1914 as part of K1 and attached to 39th Brigade in 13th (Western) Division. Moved to Tidworth but by January 1915 was in billets in Basingstoke. Moved to Blackdown (Aldershot) in February 1915. Sailed from Avonmouth in June 1915 and landed on Gallipoli next month. January 1916 : Division evacuated from Gallipoli and moved to Egypt.

The history of 13th (Western) Division
1915
13 June 1915 : first transports left port, and sailed to Alexandria. By 4 July, all units had moved to Mudros, preparatory for landing at Gallipoli. Between 6-16 July 1915 the Divisional infantry landed on Cape Helles and relieved 29th Division. They left and returned to Mudros at the end of the month, and the entire Division landed at ANZAC Cove between 3-5 August 1915.

Gallipoli
The Division took part in the following actions on Gallipoli:
The Battle of Sari Bair, 6-10 August 1915
The Battle of Russell's Top, 7 August
The Battle of Hill 60, ANZAC, 27-28 August

1916
The last Turkish attacks at Helles, 7 January 1916
On 8-9 January 1916, the Division was evacuated from Helles and by 31 January was concentrated at Port Said. The Division held forward posts in the Suez Canal defences (Egypt).

12 February 1916 : began to move to Mesopotamia, to strengthen the force being assembled for the relief of the besieged garrison at Kut al Amara. The Division took part in the following, more successful, operations:

1917
The Battles of the Hai salient, Dahra Bend and the Shumran Peninsular 11/01/17-24/02/17 ( Arthur was sadly killed in action 16th January 1917 which matches the date and the Worcestershire Regiment website which states the 9th Battalion was at the Hai salient from January 1917 )

If you go to the links below they're packed full of information on the history of the Worcetershire Regiment and includes information on the 9th Battalion's involvement at Gallipoli and Persia including maps and details of engagements with the Turks.

http://www.worcestershireregiment.com
http://www.wfrmuseum.org.uk

We can't be 100% sure Arthur was involved in all the actions described without checking his service records because he may have been in hospital or withdrawn from the frontline for different reasons. What we do know is that he would have been in the thick of some if not all of the actions described and from the date he went overseas he would have enlisted or been called up from the reserves.

Hope this helps.

Kind regards
Adrian