Royal Newfoundland Regiment at Gallipoli

As I mentioned in a previous post, 25 April 2015 marks the 100^th Anniversary of the landing of Allied forces at Gallipoli, including forces from Britain, Australia and New Zealand. The only North American unit in the entire 8 month long campaign was the Royal Newfoundland Regiment (RNR) that landed later on 20 September 1915. However, today is not Memorial Day in the province.

Later in the war, the regiment was virtually wiped out on 1 Jul 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme. Since then July 1 has been Memorial Day in Newfoundland and Labrador. Traditionally, remembrance ceremonies are held in the morning, and then the day gives way to celebrations for the nationwide holiday, Canada Day.

Britain entered World War I on 4 Aug 1914 and about 1000 men had enlisted for the Newfoundland Regiment by the end of September. They trained on the outskirts of St. John’s before shipping out for more training in England and Scotland where they became part of the 29^th Division of the British Army. (Newfoundland was a British Dominion and not part of Canada at the time.)

The British and French wanted to get supplies to their allies in Russia. Overland routes were blocked and getting past the German north coast in the Baltic was problematic. The third route was to get supplies through to the Russian Black Sea ports via the Dardenelles Strait controlled by the Ottoman Empire, allies of the Germans. The Gallipoli Peninsula is at the Mediterranean end of the north side of the Dardanelles.

Conditions on the battlefield were awful with both water shortages and weather to challenge the Allies. There was trench warfare here as well as Europe. The RNR are renowned for capturing Caribou Hill, which the Turks were using to snipe at the allied forces. No military breakthrough occurred so it was decided to withdraw.

While not arriving at Gallipoli at the beginning of the campaign, the Newfoundland Regiment provided necessary cover on the last day as troops pulled out, 9 Jan 1916. Thirty men had been killed or mortally wounded. Ten more had died of disease. In one of the worst winters in decades, the soldiers really suffered. One hundred fifty were treated for frostbite and exposure.

After a short rest period, the regiment would be assigned duty in France and suffer an immense loss. In all, 6200 men served in the RNR with 1300 dead – a very high price.

Sources: www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/history/first-world-war/fact_sheets/gallipoli

                www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/royal_newfoundland_regiment

Wisdom Wednesday: 2015 UK Military Anniversaries

The latest Federation of Family History Societies (FFHS) ezine reminded me that there are three significant military anniversaries during the next ninety days! As genealogists we saw that last year’s commemoration of the hundredth anniversary of the beginning of the First World War gave us new databases to search. I am thinking of soldiers wills and war diaries put online for the first time in 2014. We still have three years before these commemorations end, presumably on 11 November 1918.

FFHS tells us that the first two events happened in 1915, and the third will be the two hundredth anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, famous in history as well as language and song. You can subscribe to this free online magazine here.  This issue highlighted these events:

1.        The Gallipoli Landings (April 1915)
2.        The Sinking of the Lusitania ( 7 May 1915)
3.        The Battle of Waterloo (18 Jun 1815)

The Gallipoli Landings

While all countries involved will recognize this centennial, it will be significant for Australians and New Zealanders as they join together to remember the Gallipoli campaign, which marks the first major military action fought by the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) during World War I. The battle involved more than 550,000 Allied troops on land and in ships off the coast of Turkey and lasted more than eight months. Troops first landed on April 25, known in Australia and New Zealand as ANZAC Day. This year there will be a Commonwealth and Ireland ceremony at the Helles Memorial in Turkey, the site of the largest ANZAC commemoration outside of Australia and New Zealand.

“In London, there will be three separate events taking place on the 25 April. For details please visit the Australian High Commission (UK)website.  Please visit the Australian Memorial website for details of ceremonies taking place, exhibitions and links to ‘The Anzac Collections Project’ where you can read stories of ordinary people caught up in the extraordinary events of the war. For details of ANZAC commemorations in New Zealand, please visit the New Zealand Government website which includes a useful and informative ‘Guide to Gallipoli’. “ (FFHS)

Note: The only North American unit in this battle was from Newfoundland, then a British dominion and not part of Canada. Information about the role of the Newfoundland Regiment can be found at www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/history/first-world-war/fact_sheets/gallipoli

The Sinking of the Lusitania

“The sinking of RMS Lusitania occurred on 7 May 1915; an event regarded as having been a turning point of the First World War. The ship was torpedoed by the German U-boat U20 and is reported to have gone down in 18 minutes off the coast of Ireland. The sinking was a contributory factor to the American entry into World War One. Of the known 1,960 people on board, 768 survived and 1,192 perished in the disaster…The Lusitania Resource website contains much information on its history, Passenger & Crew Biographies, and Lusitania Facts..."  (FFHS)

To read some very poignant biographies, please visit www.rmslusitania.info.” This website seems to be the best on the subject. On the home page, the menu on the left lets you choose passenger list, crew list, survivors, victims, stowaways…plus a few more categories.

Note: A new book about the Lusitania is topping the non-fiction charts even though it has not been released, as I write this. It is Dark Wake by Erik Larsson, the very successful author of The Devil in the White City and In the Garden of Beasts.

The Battle of Waterloo

The phrase 'meet your Waterloo' has been with us since the fateful day in June 1815. In commemoration of the bicentenary of Waterloo, the 2015 issue of FFHSs ‘really useful information leaflet’ contains an article by military historian, Simon Fowler, which will assist you in researching those who fought in the Napoleonic Wars. Download the leaflet here www.ffhs.org.uk/rul-2015-03.pdf.

Wisdom Wednesday: The Great War Commemorations

World War I in Europe spanned the years from 1914 to 1919.  The commemorations of this muddy, lice-infested, entrenched war will begin this year – one hundred years later.  Special websites are appearing and established websites are announcing specific WWI projects. I will keep you posted as new sites and projects come to my attention.

One of the first new websites is a unique digital archive The Welsh Experience of the First World War (cymru1914.org). It has been developed as a collaborative initiative led by The National Library of Wales, in partnership with the Archives and Special Collections of Wales which itself includes the country’s major universities; BBC Cymru Wales; The People’s Collection, Wales; and archives and local records offices that are part of ARCW: the Archives and Records Council of Wales. 

The site is somewhat spare right now with no pictures but a search box that allows you to look within the entire collection or only one of the universities or archives.

If you don’t know if you have an ancestor in this war, you can consult the relatively new site www.forces-war-records.co.uk. Quite a bit of information is free, but more details require a subscription of one month for £8.95, three months for £25.95 and several longer choices.

Wisdom Wednesday: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich

The Royal Museums Greenwich include among others, the Royal Observatory, the Cutty Sark and the National Maritime Museum (NMM). If you are interested in all things nautical, then the Maritime Museum will amaze you with its collections from both the merchant and royal navies.

The NMM Library, also known as the Caird Library has resources for family researchers. The website is www.rmg.co.uk/library. Before you decide to visit in person, you will want to read a few of its 78 research guides online. From the home page, click ‘researchers,’ then in the right hand column, double click on ‘The Library’ and pick ‘research guides’ from the dropdown menu. 

The number of topics listed is very comprehensive, for example, The Royal Navy, The Merchant Navy, HMS Titanic, Medals, and World War Two. Perhaps starting with guide A3: Tracing Family History from Maritime Records is most sensible. Guide E2 is, World War Two: The Dunkirk List. Let me quote from its first sentence:

"This guide provides an introduction to the official record of Operation Dynamo, the mass evacuation of British troops from France in 1940 during the Second World War, largely carried out by a fleet of 'Little Ships' that sailed from the south coast of England and the Thames Estuary."

Other titles include:

                  B1: The Royal Navy: Tracing People

                 B7: The Royal Navy: Ship Records

                 C1 & C2: The Merchant Navy: Tracing People

If you can visit in person, the Caird Library is open Monday- Friday 10:00 a.m. – 4:45 p.m. and Saturday 10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. and 2:00-4:45 p.m. Admittance is free with a reader’s card that you can order online. In fact, you can use the online catalogs and have the items you want to search waiting for you.

Wisdom Wednesday: forces-war-records.co.uk

My post a few weeks ago has inspired me to learn more about researching UK military records. A tiny item in the June 2013 issue of the Norfolk Ancestor, the journal of the Norfolk Family History Society, led me to the ‘forces war record’ site whose URL is in the title of today’s post.

Although a subscription site, there is plenty of useful free information, and the subscription rate is low at £8.95/month. You can search for a person by first name and surname and specify a war or era. Thinking about my timeline of a few weeks ago, I am happy to share this sites categories: Napoleonic, 1799-1815; Early 19^th Century, 1815-1853; Crimean, 1853-1856; Victorian Conflicts, 1857-1899; Boer, 1899-1902; WWI; WWII.

Searching World War II records for the surname BRETT, I got a free list of 330 names with rank, year and the unit or ship where the person served. It was fascinating to see that the last category included people marked as “civilian war dead.” There were also names of military personnel serving in foreign units like the Royal Canadian Air Force and the South African Engineer Corp.

There are at least two ways to get to a very complete Military Genealogy Tutorial. The easiest is on the home page, click ‘search’ and then tutorials. Topics include the army, royal navy, and medals.

There is a place to click to perform a free search of medieval records so again I searched for BRETTs. Among others, I found William Le Bret, an archer in 1440. Next to his record was a lengthy explanation of the Hundred Years War. Be sure to try a medieval search because the results come up with the heading, ‘Thy search hath yielded 943 results.’ Too cute!