Does anyone out there have ancestors who served in the Sheffield City Battalion (Sheffield Pals)? Saw a great programme about the battalion and their part in WW1's Battle of the Somme (Time flyers BBC 2 end of November) and just wondered if anyone out there knew any interesting details/anecdotes about the Battalion and its servicemen.

My grandfather served for 3 years in the Royal Field Artillery , all of them on active service in France and Belgium. He was at the Somme, Mons and Ypres.I had 4 great uncles fought in France as well,one of them killed in action aged 19. For a good insight into what it must have been like read BIRDSONG by Sebastian Faulks. 1914 to 1918, The War To End All Wars ?

Hi,
Yes, I have read and enjoyed 'Birdsong'. I had not really thought much about the mining aspect of the trench warfare before. I had two gt uncles in the Sheffield Battalion. One died of trench flu in 1918 and the other was killed in action, but I have no record of where/when. The C.W.G.C. have no record of him either. My grandfather fortunately missed the Somme battle due to a bad reaction to the trench injections which hospitalised him. Good job, otherwise I wouldn't be here! Your grandfather sounds like he had someone watching over him to have survived so much.

My uncle Frank Terry served with the Sheffield Pals in France where he had his right leg and half of his pelvis blown away whilst carrying a stretcher. Two other local men were killed by the same shell but another man Cyril Pont survived but lost both his legs.

I was told that Frank with five of his comrades used to attend the Armistice parade. Every year he would blow 'The Last Post' on his bugle in front of the memorial in Weston Park.

These old soldiers could not march very far and so as the parade used to reach the Brown Bear on Norfolk Street they used to do a smart right turn and leave the parade by marching into the pub.

Don't blame them. Sounds like they thoroughly deserved their pint!

The Sheffield City battalion ( officially known as 12th Battalion ,the York and Lancaster regiment) went into action at the battle of the Somme.

Within less than an hour the battalion was virtually wiped out!
The men of sheffield who had whistled and sang their way to the frontlinehad been given the task of capturing a small village called Serre as their part of the big offensive. But what was not known, was, the village was heavily defended and as the battalion advanced in waves, it was mown down by machine gun fire.

About 600 casualities were suffered by the battalion, most of them in the first ten minutes of the battle.
266 officers and men died, 246 were seriously wounded and two were taken prisoner.

This terrible battle was described later, by a wounded Sheffield soldier, as ' like advancing through the very gates of hell'

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I've been over to the Somme battle fields a number of times. There are a lot of cemeteries on the outskirts of Serre. The Sheffield Pals battalions attacked towards Serre on 1st July 1916, and I believe was one of the only first day objectives that was never captured when the offensive died down in November 1916. The jumping off trenches weaved around 4 copses, named by the troops as Mathew, Mark, Luke and John Copses. In one of the woods (maybe Mark), there is a Sheffield Pals memorial, behind which there is Railway Copse cemetery. Nearby there is also Queens Cemetery, Luke Copse Cemetery, and many others, including Serre Road number 2 which is one of, if not the biggest cemetery on the Somme battlefields.
It’s a deeply humbling experience to see the rows upon rows of Portland headstones, I’d recommend anyone in the area of the battlefields to have a look, or if very interested to try and get over there specifically for a look around.
The CWGC who look after the cemeteries (288 or so on the Somme) have their funding linked to the number of entries in the visitors booklets at the entrance of every cemetery, so as the number of visitors dwindles, so does their ability to keep these monuments looking their best.

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Death of one's own free choice, death at the proper time, with a clear head and with joyfulness, consummated in the midst of children and witnesses: so that an actual leave-taking is possible while he who is leaving is still there.

my cousin archie brammer was killed,on the 1st day of war aged 22,according to the corpral he was with ,there was just them too,then archie dissapeared,im glad i know where he is ,i will visit one day soon.

The Battalion suffered an awful fate along with the Acrington Pals who I believe were also trained at Redmires. They suffered such heavy casualties that they had to eventually be disbanded. It's amazing to think that the front line trenches were only 25 yards apart in some places.

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Death of one's own free choice, death at the proper time, with a clear head and with joyfulness, consummated in the midst of children and witnesses: so that an actual leave-taking is possible while he who is leaving is still there.

my grt Uncle was killed at the battle of the Somme. He was a member of the Sheffield pals. His name was John Henry Kelk. His body was never found and he is mentioned on the thievapal monument. I have never seen a photograph of him and I often wonder what he looked like. When somebody was reported missing presumed dead would the Sheffield Star print a photograph of them? I will have to have a look when I next visit Sheffield Local Study Library.

Dear Gleighton

If you get to Sheffield and do find anything on the Pals in the Sheffield Star, I would really like to know. My gt. Uncle is not recorded anywhere officially and I would like to know if he gets any local mention - Godfrey Cowlishaw. I wondered if he was killed in the early days of the Somme offensive.

Kseavill

Have a possible Godfrey in census records if thats any use.

There is a novel called 'A covenant with death' by John Harris, which my father-in-law introduced me too, which we're both convinced is about the Sheffield Pals - there is a lot of background stuff in the novel that almost certainly points to Sheffield as the origin of the unit that is described in the pages.

My grandfather was quite a lucky fellow - he was wounded on the first day of the Somme, July 1st 1916. He got shelled and woke up a PoW, and spent the rest of the war in Germany helping on a farm.

If anyone's interested in the land war in WW1 in general I have a reasonable reading list that I could PM or post to people.

Joe

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There is a GD Cowlishaw listed inthe Sheffield City Battalion book by Ralph Gibson and Paul Oldfield. Its brief says, he was a student at Sheffield University. Could this be your uncle?

Covenant with Death is about the Sheffield pals, thinly disguised (Redmires becomes Blackmires etc). I think John Harris was a journalist in Sheffield when or just before he wrote it, but I'm not certain. Either way it's a good read.

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If anyone missed the Time Flyers programme about the Sheffield Battalion it's on TV tonight (Saturday 8th). You'll need freeview though. 22:00 UK TV History channel. It's followed at 22:30 by the Derwent/Ladybower dam episode.
Well worth watching.

Retep,

Many thanks. Is that the 1901 census you are referring to? I think that is the last official record I have of Godfrey, other than my grandfather recalling his parents getting a telegram informing them of his death (telegram has long since disappeared). He was old enough to signed up at the very start of WW1.

Siren,

Thanks. I came across the G D Cowlishaw in the book you mention, but as far as I am aware Godfrey had no middle name and was working as an architect at the time he signed up to the Pals, but very many thanks for taking the time to reply.

Kseavill