Tag: Royal Fusiliers (London Regiment)

Edward Hunt: A Cheriton Fusilier of the Great War

Edward Hunt, born in Cheriton, Kent, on June 13, 1897, served as a Private in the Royal Fusiliers during World War I. His military experience included battles on the Western Front and suffering from trench fever and gas injuries. He died on October 1, 1918, from epileptic convulsions, remembered locally in Cheriton.

Early Life and Family

Edward Hunt was born at Cheriton, Kent, on 13 June 1897, the son of George Hunt and Sarah Ann Rigden. He grew up in a family rooted in the village, appearing in the 1901 census as a four-year-old son and, ten years later, at 53 Church Road, Cheriton, where he was recorded aged fourteen. [1]

Edward came of age as Europe moved towards war. The surviving records do not identify a civilian trade before enlistment, nor do they record a marriage or children. They instead present the outline of a young man whose adult life was dominated by military service, illness, injury and the long medical consequences of campaigning on the Western Front. [1]

By 1918, Edward’s parents were living at 903 Stadacona Street East, Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada. This Canadian address was recorded by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission after Edward’s death, demonstrating that his family’s connections extended from Cheriton to the Canadian prairie city even while he remained commemorated in his Kentish birthplace. [1]

Edward Hunt was a Cheriton-born soldier whose service took him through trench fever, gas injury and repeated hospital admissions before his death at home in Kent.

Military Service

Edward served as Private GS/52653 in the Royal Fusiliers, formally the City of London Regiment. His medal entitlement included the British War Medal and Victory Medal; the records also associate him with a wound stripe and the Memorial Plaque issued to the next of kin of those who died as a consequence of the war. [1]

His medical records show that he served first with the 32nd (Service) Battalion, Royal Fusiliers, known as the East Ham Battalion, in the 41st Division. This locally raised unit was one of the wartime service battalions formed for Kitchener’s Army, and it served on the Western Front until its disbandment in March 1918. [2][3][1]

Edward’s surviving case sheets provide unusual detail about the physical burden of his service. In February 1917, after nine months in uniform and two months with the field force, he was admitted through 139th Field Ambulance with suspected trench fever and transferred onward from the 41st Divisional Rest Station on 1 March. [1]

On 25–26 July 1917, he was again recorded by 139th Field Ambulance as “gassed”, with the entry marked as a wound. He was transferred through No. 21 Ambulance Train for further treatment. The record supports his eligibility for a wound stripe and shows that he suffered the direct effects of poison gas during the Third Battle of Ypres period. [1]

Further admissions followed: tonsillitis in February 1918, from which he returned to duty on 25 February, and pyrexia of unknown origin in June 1918. His June medical entry places him in the chain of evacuation passing through the V Corps Walking Wounded Dressing Station, No. 11 Casualty Clearing Station and No. 38 Casualty Clearing Station. [1]

The East Ham Battalion

The 32nd Royal Fusiliers had been raised in the summer of 1915 by the Mayor and Borough of East Ham, then an Essex suburb of London. As part of the 41st Division, it joined the Western Front in 1916 and took part in major operations including the Somme fighting, Messines and Third Ypres. [3][2]

Edward’s 1917 illness and gassing occurred while the battalion was part of the 41st Division during a demanding year. The division fought at Messines in June and at Pilckem Ridge and the Menin Road during the Passchendaele campaign. Conditions in the Ypres salient combined shellfire, mud, disease, heavy rain and gas warfare, leaving their mark on many men who survived the immediate fighting. [3][1]

In March 1918, the 32nd Battalion was disbanded. Edward was subsequently associated with the 7th (Extra Reserve) Battalion, Royal Fusiliers, a unit serving in the 190th Brigade of the 63rd (Royal Naval) Division. The transfer placed him within a formation that had fought at the Somme, Arras, Ypres and Cambrai before facing the German spring offensive and the Allied advance of 1918. [4][5][1]

The 7th Battalion’s principal role was front-line infantry service. In 1918 it took part in fighting on the Somme, at Albert, Bapaume, the Hindenburg Line and the Canal du Nord. Edward’s June medical entry, which identifies the 7th Battalion, therefore reflects service during the period in which the Allies had halted the German offensives and were preparing for the sustained advance that began at Amiens in August. [5][1]

His surviving medical papers trace a soldier’s war beyond the battlefield: field ambulances, rest stations, clearing stations and ambulance trains were recurring features of Edward Hunt’s service.

Unit Context at Death

By late September 1918, the 63rd (Royal Naval) Division and its 190th Brigade were engaged in the Allied advance against the Hindenburg Line and its associated defensive systems. The 7th Royal Fusiliers’ official battalion history lists 1918 operations including the Somme, Albert, Ancre, Cambrai, St Quentin, Bapaume, the Hindenburg Line and Canal du Nord. [5]

Edward did not die in an attack on the Western Front. His service records indicate that he had returned to England, where he died in the Elham registration district on 1 October 1918. The immediate certified cause was epileptic convulsions. Although this was not a death caused by enemy fire on the day, the CWGC recognised him as a war casualty, reflecting the continuing consequences of his service and illness. [6][1]

The timing is striking. He died as his battalion and division were pressing forward in the final Allied campaigns, only weeks before the Armistice. His last documented field-force service had already involved sickness, gassing and fever, a reminder that military deaths could result from accumulated physical damage as well as combat wounds. [5][1]

Death and Burial

Private Edward Hunt died on 1 October 1918, aged twenty-one. His death certificate recorded epileptic convulsions as the cause of death. He was buried in Cheriton (St Martin) Churchyard, near the community in which he had been born and raised, in grave reference 1629. [1]

His burial at St Martin’s gave the Hunt family a local grave, unlike the many families whose relatives remained buried overseas or commemorated on memorials to the missing. The CWGC record identifies him as the son of Mr and Mrs G. Hunt, then of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, and confirms his Royal Fusiliers service, date of death and burial place. [6][1]

The record is also preserved through a Find a Grave memorial and through the British Army registers of soldiers’ effects and pension records. Together with the National Archives medical series MH106, these sources make it possible to recover an unusually detailed view of Edward’s wartime experience. [1]

Legacy

Edward Hunt’s life was short, but the surviving evidence reveals a fuller story than a simple casualty entry. He was a Kent village boy, a Royal Fusilier, a patient in the military medical system and a young man repeatedly returned to duty despite illness and gas injury. His records demonstrate the human cost of the Western Front beyond the moment of battle. [1]

His service connected two very different Royal Fusiliers battalions: the locally raised East Ham battalion of the 41st Division and the 7th (Extra Reserve) Battalion of the 63rd (Royal Naval) Division. Both units served in major operations, but Edward’s own papers show how combat, disease and medical evacuation shaped an individual soldier’s war. [3][5][1]

Edward is remembered in the churchyard at Cheriton, in the CWGC register and in the family record that names his parents in Canada. His grave and his medical papers ensure that he is remembered not only as one of the war dead, but as a son of George Hunt and Sarah Ann Rigden whose service spanned the harsh final years of the First World War.

Sources and Further Reading

Sources
[1] Individual-Report-for-Edward-Hunt.pdf https://ppl-ai-file-upload.s3.amazonaws.com/web/direct-files/attachments/141549598/c4e16fc9-b9fe-4f25-82e1-4d4cec11a546/Individual-Report-for-Edward-Hunt.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=ASIA2F3EMEYEZY2SYA54&Signature=%2BUriuB%2BVUxClaszYRdF0%2BVTnpAw%3D&x-amz-security-token=IQoJb3JpZ2luX2VjELb%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2FwEaCXVzLWVhc3QtMSJHMEUCIQCiQcU3Xtyi17F2gJKFFG8HTouSQTeEYy2pse%2FW0KL7MgIgSpg9GspEXWFvVXpCkeF%2B1D%2Fmt3hp2oq4lo%2BO7a3iUS0q%2BgQIfhABGgw2OTk3NTMzMDk3MDUiDBWyraZS7lPT%2BhAVhCrXBLRhQa5VL2tVs0VxMsBOWceXpVY8i2E8pKrO0uCtxaoMgx%2Fo9e%2BE%2BTXxVft1b8aJWKKf7RLhnWxTSTGyGKYS6ArN5HeTfRdLy7pJDRTbAgtDHb820FGp7hOyXY3lsWj%2BLfk0DxRHGRI%2FPTu3TjeeSXDiE82uiiQ6BmdXc%2BsTmiEyBQJdUkiLEIUK%2BDnSEqaAMFaQ8PIM%2F6g280zFRvIy9EMm12bcGBX8SjIqB%2BpEfJY161S7xVF8Yngjwn2MzsnRHpzlcGdF32F5hKfoygBBHqkkKkstc2OLlBIS%2Bo2E8aSnQ%2BxkrVHlVJPjeg%2BbihhsqLp0OpDHAEWkM4j4dR%2BtRaJfW0o3ircRADgVOxgRfPjDvx0oYUNB6Y7hGXjO7XH90uh7kwds3lqdT3%2FpVTtfLrjwUKU31ZKtgXfSW%2FSesyW3yqtbe%2BYl%2B061x5TNeMMP0C0Uril57gnmk2iIJOsTJcFk0PulFWAkTlZQWJa6sNAt02r%2FpaVgwHhMs4WB54SoyaoBxyv6FJK2lrtRlY9LcirkgYjTORZH%2BYFoxd1e5yOmHVEvYr9PhB36p4T3Ph%2FTfIed0kT2rY88ILeKSDZfIIfZ%2F%2BMFYNJ12x6H0k%2Fo7pkZFT7r8wVpGe3PfZ%2FLV5fDDBSPANzVlsvMKdoDl1lUzjxwfooGy2cXyrYSEJFps55%2Fg2CxK1Zi3Yf3QRYmL0oCmG06Gg6lWStyRp2f1LdcDdKZaXUCNLQt8IqYtmQa0LnGA7T%2BiGE6wreY%2FqL%2BaOLS16sLrJR832c0vp00kREpQLbRGN0SWlVuMI%2B9%2BdUGOpgBFGkxhp9BbW7EaPN%2FN8BCUcLb%2B1LbVSwO%2BxQEWFpsmhhiPw7Ey%2Fi6MwQVrnZtLsNnL%2BiSQzGCkCqcAWOxR2Ak7WmRMHAfSpUsjOcCsH12ERqchqMqtt61%2BMSMoD4eXDX%2BY4vK2bUWlKAhKGo5GJISnKqvlJOnpOeZxmDphCUkeUomD4qjyEgbGpWSPly1NEA38%2Bst0N%2BQPPE%3D&Expires=1790862003
[2] 32nd (Service) Battalion, Royal Fusiliers (East Ham) – Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/32nd_(Service)_Battalion,_Royal_Fusiliers_(East_Ham)
[3] 41st Division – The Long, Long Trail https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/army/order-of-battle-of-divisions/41st-division/
[4] The Royal fusiliers in the great war https://archive.org/download/royalfusiliersin00onei/royalfusiliersin00onei.pdf
[5] [PDF] the royal fusiliers [the city of london regiment] locations of battalions … https://www.fusiliermuseumlondon.org/download?id=12382
[6] Private Edward Hunt Royal Fusiliers. Died Tuesday 1 October … https://astreetnearyou.org/person/368719/Private-Edward-Hunt
[7] Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment) https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/army/regiments-and-corps/the-british-infantry-regiments-of-1914-1918/royal-fusiliers-city-of-london-regiment/
[8] Research – FusilierMuseumLondon https://www.fusiliermuseumlondon.org/research
[9] Royal Fusiliers. World War One Photos, Obituaries & Service … https://ww1photos.com/Regiments/RFusiliers/7th.html
[10] Forces War Records – Historical military records https://uk.forceswarrecords.com/
[11] Royal Fusiliers – Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Fusiliers
[12] Records for the War Dead of WW1 http://www.greatwar.co.uk/research/military-records/ww1-war-dead-records.htm
[13] Royal Fusiliers. World War One Photos, Obituaries & Service … https://www.ww1photos.com/RoyalFusiliers.html
[14] Full text of “The 32nd Division in the World War, 1917-1919” https://archive.org/stream/32nddivisioninwo00wisc/32nddivisioninwo00wisc_djvu.txt
[15] Unit and operational histories | Imperial War Museums https://www.iwm.org.uk/research/family-history/british-army/unit-and-operational-histories
[16] 7th Royal Fusiliers – Soldiers and their units – Great War Forum https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/29587-7th-royal-fusiliers/

Arthur Champion: A London Soldier’s Story

Private Arthur Thomas Champion, 231505, “B” Company, 2nd/2nd Battalion, London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers), was killed in action on 17 May 1917 and is commemorated on the Arras Memorial.

Family report and Commonwealth War Graves Commission

Early Life and Family

Arthur Thomas Champion was born on 18 June 1896 in Southwark, Surrey, the son of Richard Edward Champion and Charlotte Lugton Grosert.[file:58] He was baptised on 30 August 1896 at St Andrew, Newington, an early record that firmly places the family in south London at the close of the Victorian period.[file:58] By the time of the 1901 census he was living at 19 Vineleigh Road, Penge, Surrey, and in 1911 he was recorded at 23 Lyham Road, Brixton, working as a butcher’s errand boy.[file:58]

These details show Arthur growing up in the expanding suburban districts south of the Thames, in a household tied to the working life of Edwardian London.[file:58] His later residence at 22 Glenelg Road, Brixton, is the address given in the military and commemorative records, and it became the family home associated with his remembrance after his death.[file:58][page:1] No marriage or children are recorded in the supplied material, and the report lists him without spouse or issue.[file:58]

Military Service

Arthur enlisted in Westminster in 1917 for service in the Western European theatre, at a time when the British Army was absorbing large numbers of London recruits into Territorial and reserve formations.[file:58] His records show two service numbers, 4075 and 231505, and identify him as a Private in the London Regiment, specifically associated with the 2nd City of London Regiment and later recorded under the Royal Fusiliers (London Regiment).[file:58] The report further identifies his sub-unit as “B” Company, 2nd/2nd Battalion.[file:58]

The 2nd (City of London) Battalion, London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers), often known as the 2nd Londons, was a Territorial battalion with roots in the Volunteer movement of the nineteenth century and a strong association with Westminster and central London.[page:1] During the First World War the original battalion was split into several lines, including the 1/2nd Battalion for overseas service and the 2/2nd Battalion as its second-line counterpart, later also serving abroad.[page:1] The family report’s references to both the London Regiment and the Royal Fusiliers reflect the regiment’s somewhat complex administrative identity, since the London Regiment battalions retained their local titles while also being connected to older county regiments such as the Royal Fusiliers.[file:58][page:1]

Unit Context at the Time of Death

At the time of Arthur’s death on 17 May 1917, the British Army was still engaged in the prolonged fighting that followed the opening of the Arras Offensive in April 1917.[file:58][web:65] The Arras Memorial commemorates those who died in the Arras sector between the spring of 1916 and 7 August 1918 and who have no known grave, placing Arthur among the men lost during that hard-fought campaign.[web:65][web:68] His commemorative panel reference is Bay 9 on the Arras Memorial.[file:58][page:1]

The broader history of the 2nd (City of London) Battalion shows how heavily the London battalions were committed on the Western Front, first through the 1/2nd Battalion’s service in France from early 1915 and then through the reinforcement and reshaping of related battalions as the war intensified.[page:1] The battalion history records the severe strain of trench warfare, repeated drafts, and the transfer of men between lines of the same battalion, which helps explain why Arthur’s paperwork shows both incomplete and renumbered service references.[file:58][page:1] In practical terms, he belonged to one of the London Regiment formations tied to the Royal Fusiliers that supplied infantrymen for front-line duty in France and Flanders during a period of sustained attrition.[file:58][page:1]

Because Arthur was killed on 17 May 1917 and is commemorated at Arras rather than buried in a marked grave, it is likely that he died in the fighting or immediate aftermath of operations in the Arras sector and that his body was either not recovered or could not later be identified.[file:58][web:65] The date falls only days after the main phases of the First and Third Battles of the Scarpe, when British units in the Arras area were still engaged in trench holding, patrol clashes, shellfire, and local actions even when no major set-piece assault was under way.[page:1][web:65] That context helps explain the apparent simplicity of the official phrase “Killed in Action”, which often masked highly chaotic front-line circumstances.[file:58]

Arthur Champion’s service belongs to the wider story of London Territorial battalions that carried the burden of attritional fighting in the Arras sector in the spring of 1917.

London Regiment battalion history and Arras Memorial context

Circumstances of Death

Arthur Thomas Champion was killed in action in France on 17 May 1917 at the age of twenty.[file:58] His record gives his regiment or service as the London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers), with “B” Company, 2nd/2nd Battalion, and identifies him as the son of Edward and Charlotte Champion of 22 Glenelg Road, Brixton, London.[file:58][page:2] Although the supplied report names his father more fully as Richard Edward Champion, the commemorative wording using “Edward” is not unusual in military records, where middle names and familiar names were sometimes substituted in official returns.[file:58]

His death occurred in the Arras sector, one of the most fiercely contested regions of the Western Front in 1917.[web:65] The Arras Memorial stands within the Faubourg d’Amiens British Cemetery and commemorates nearly 35,000 servicemen of the United Kingdom, South Africa and New Zealand who died in the sector and have no known grave.[web:65][web:68] Arthur’s inclusion there confirms both the location of his loss and the fact that no identified burial place survived for him.[web:65]

Commemoration

Arthur is commemorated on the Arras Memorial in Bay 9 rather than in an individual grave.[file:58] The memorial was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, with sculpture by Sir William Reid Dick, and it serves as one of the principal places of remembrance for soldiers lost in the Arras battles and surrounding trench warfare.[web:65][web:68] For families such as the Champions of Brixton, the memorial became the symbolic grave of a son whose remains were never recovered or identified.[web:65]

His entitlement to the Victory Medal, British War Medal, and Memorial Death Plaque reflects the standard post-war recognition awarded to British soldiers who served overseas and died during the conflict.[file:58] These medals and commemorative items would have been important material links between his bereaved family in London and his service on the Western Front.[file:58] They also confirm that his service was formally recognised within the post-war system of imperial remembrance.[file:58]

Legacy

Arthur’s life was brief, moving from childhood in Southwark and Penge to working life in Brixton before military service cut it short in 1917.[file:58] He represents the many young London working men who entered the army from ordinary urban trades and were absorbed into Territorial battalions connected to the older county regiments.[file:58][page:1] The family report identifies him as a fourth cousin twice removed to the researcher, showing how his memory still survives within extended family history.[file:58]

Sources and Further Reading