The Wolds Waggoners - page 19
Image details
| Corps | RPC |
|---|---|
| Material type | Books |
| Book page | |
| Chapter head | |
| Chapter key | |
| Chapter number | |
| Full title | The Wolds Waggoners |
| Page number | |
| Publication date | 1988 |
| Real page | |
| Colour | Yes |
| Grey | No |
| Early date | 1908 |
| Late date | 1983 |
| Transcription |
«Trt»* : Roadmaster Ernest y . . . . on horseback. A roadmaster was the equivalent of a sergeant in the rest of the Army November 1914. Wagoner 1007 Johnson Leighton, a Beverley man who had joined at Bainton, was killed in the Ypres Salient, serving with the transport units of the 7th Infantry Division. His division had been involved in heavy fighting on the southern side of the Salient, around Gheluvelt. It seems likely that Wagoner Leighton was badly wounded here, and he died in hospital in Bailleul on 9th November. He is buried in Bailleul Communal Cemetery. During 1915 a number of wagoners were discharged and sent home. It seems Iikelv that these were the older men, who found living under active servic conditions more arduous than the younger lads. In theory, the nature of their original enlistment meant that the wagoners were only obliged to serve for one year in wartime, but most of them stayed on - the fact that seven men of 2nd Pontoon Park chose to stay on for the duration is singled out for special mention in that unit's war diary. Some men were transferred to other Parks and Depots, both at home and elsewhere abroad. Roadmaster 9 Claude Megginson of Towthorpe, who had risen to the rank of Company Sergeant Major, and was serving with the 1st Pontoon Park, returned to England to try for a commission. He succeeded, and served with a number of Army Service Corps units, including the 1st Park, and with the 12th Divisional Train, before finally being demobbed as a captain in January 1919. In time, the Parks became ordinary horse transport companies amongst so many others. This did not mean, however, that their work was done; the war may have become a static affair of trenches and barbed wire, but supplies, whether rations, pit- props or road material, still had to be carted to the front. Even with the increasing use of mechanical transport prompted by the War itself, there were times when a horse wagon could reach places inaccessible to the internal combustion engine, and the services of the horsed companies remained in demand throughout the War. Most Parks moved every couple of months or so, following the ebb and flow of the various offensives. This was not always as simple as it may sound, as the CO. of 1st Park was to find out. Having been told to prepare to spend the winter of 1915-16 in one village on 18th September, the unit was ordered to move elsewhere on the 26th; on the 21st October, it was ordered to a third village, only to be told on arrival that it should return to where it had started from. One month later, it finally arrived at the village where it was to spend the winter - and found itself in a place where there was little or no stabling for the Park's 300 horses. Supplying the Front remained difficult and demanding work. The 2nd Park was attached tc the Canadian Corps in 1917, and spent many January and February nights |
| Book number | R0398 |