TOPIC:

Steve - John Walter Argent served in WW1 as well, in the Welsh Regt Reg No 16615. He was wounded in the hand. He attested in Sept 1914 in Cardiff and his previous 18 years service in the GG is noted. He gave his age as 38 but definitely him as his wife Maria is mentioned. Think he transferred to the RE during the war. To find his WW1 papers do a Military search on Ancestry - just put his full name in and he comes out top of the selections. He can also be found on the 1911 Census lodging with his elder brother Abraham & family in Swansea. Regards, David.

Thank you David,
I will follow your leads and improve the previous post. Nice to know he had 18 years service in GG. A good old soldier.
Cheers Steve

icture courtesy of Noonan's

DCM GV (8421 C. S. Mjr: E. Frost. 1/G. Gds:);
QSA (2) Cape Colony, South Africa 1902 (8421 Corpl: E. Frost. Gren: Gds:);
1914-15 Star (8421 Sjt. E. Frost. G. Gds.);
BWM and VM (8421 W.O. Cl. II. E. Frost. G. Gds.)

Together with Memorial Plaque (Elijah Frost), this with post and nut fitting soldered to reverse.

DCM LG 28 March 1918: ‘For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty in an attack. Seeing that one of the platoon sergeants had become a casualty and that the platoon was losing direction and suffering casualties from machine-gun fire, he doubled across the open to the platoon under heavy fire. He corrected their direction, ordered a sergeant to take command, and enabled them to reach their objective. He showed great promptness and initiative.’

Annotated gazette states: ‘Gouzeaucourt, 1 December 1917.’ Elijah Frost was a native of Long Eaton, Derbyshire, son of James and Mary Frost. He enlisted at Nottingham and served with the 1st Battalion, Grenadier Guards, in France from 1 May 1915. He won the DCM for gallantry at Gouzeaucourt during the attack by 3rd Guards Brigade on the village of Gonnelieu on the morning of 1 December 1917. He was wounded by shell fire on 30 July 1918, and died of his wounds that night. Company Sergeant-Major Frost is buried in Bac-du-Sud British Cemetery, Bailleulval.

Picture courtesy of Noonan's

Sudan (5441 Pte. E. Etheridge. 1/Gren: Gds:);
QSA (5) Belmont, Modder River, Driefontein, Johannesburg, Belfast (5441 Pte. E. A. Etherage, Gren: Gds:);
1914-15 Star (19849 Pte. E. A. Etheridge. A.S.C.);
British War and Victory Medals (19849 W.O.Cl.2. E. A. Etheridge. A.S.C.);
Coronation 1902, Metropolitan Police, bronze (P.C. A. Etherage. N. Div.);
Army MSM GV (SS-19849 A. Sjt: E. Etheridge. A.S.C.);
Khedive’s Sudan (1) Khartoum (Pte. E. Etherage. Gren. Gds.)

Ernest Arthur Etherage/Etheridge was born at Westbury on Severn, Gloucestershire, and enlisted into the Grenadier Guards at Bristol on 19 August 1895, aged 19 years 6 months, a labourer by trade. He served abroad at Gibraltar from September 1897 to July 1898, then in Egypt until October 1898, and in South Africa from October 1899 to January 1901, including the Nile Expedition of 1898 and the war in South Africa 1899-1901.

KSA roll entry crossed through. 'A note says To England 10.12.00' (WO100/317p147).

He was discharged medically unfit for further service on 31 December 1903, although in the period 1901-03 he also served as a Police Constable in the Metropolitan Police. The outbreak of war in 1914 saw him registered as a Class 2 National Reservist with the Gloucester Territorial Force Association. He rejoined the army on 13 October 1915, as a Private in the Army Service Corps, proceeding to France on 7 November 1915. As a ‘Supply Specials and Labour’ recruit he was attached to 23rd Company Labour Corps, becoming an Acting Sergeant and awarded the MSM for services in France (London Gazette 1 January 1918 refers).

He was discharged on 9 March 1919.

Picture courtesy of Noonan's

QSA (6) Belmont, Modder River, Driefontein, Johannesburg, Diamond Hill, Belfast (5546 Pte. A. H. Palfrey, Gren: Gds:);
KSA (2) (5546 Pte. A. Palfrey. Grenadier Guards.)

Picture courtesy of C and T Auctions

Described as:

Accoutrements Tin of Lieutenant Colonel C V C Hobart, First Commanding Officer of the 8th Battalion (Princess Beatrice’s Isle of Wight Rifles) Hampshire Regiment Territorial Force, the japanned storage tin with brass name plaque to the lid ‘Lt Col C. V. C. Hobart 8th Bn Hampshire Regt’. Inside the tin is a pair of officers gloves, three regimental cap badges, pair of plated spurs, tunic medal ribbons and regimental ribbons etc. The DSO register gives the following details, ‘HOBART, CLAUD VERE CAVENDISH, Lieutenant, was born 12 March 1870, only son of Sir Robert Henry Hobart, Baronet, KCVO, CB, Official Verderer of the New Forest, of Langdown, Hants, and of the Honourable Julia Trollope, eldest daughter of the first Baron Kesteven. He was educated at Eton and Sandhurst, and entered the Grenadier Guards 16 July 1890. Lieutenant Hobart, after serving nearly seven years in the Grenadier Guards, was in 1897 seconded for service in the Uganda Protectorate, at that time under the administration of the Foreign Office, and joined the Protectorate Forces, consisting chiefly of Sudanese, who had previously served under Emin Pasha at Wadelai, whilst on a punitive expedition in the Nandi country. Order having been restored, he was detailed to march two companies of Sudanese back to Headquarters at Kampala. On the way he received news of the disaffection of Mwanga, the native King of Uganda, who had raised the standard of revolt in Buddu, one of the southern provinces of his kingdom. He hastened on to the capital, and was thence despatched with his men in a fleet of canoes down the west coast of Victoria Nyanza to occupy and hold the crossing over the Katonga River, separating Buddu from the rest of Uganda, whilst the main forces of the Protectorate under Colonel T P B Ternan, DSO, moved down overland. He successfully carried out his instructions, and the rebels were subsequently defeated in two engagements, at which he was present, which resulted in King Mwanga fleeing into German territory and the bulk of his followers dispersing into the wilds of Ankole. Lieutenant Hobart was left in charge of the reconquered province with two and a half companies of Sudanese. These remained loyal during the subsequent mutiny of portion of the same force in the eastern part of the Protectorate, and though hard pressed at one time, he succeeded in holding his own against the Baganda rebels, who collected again on the news of the mutiny, being joined by the ex-King Mwanga, who contrived to escape from German custody. After several expeditions had been organized against them, in all of which he took part, he was fortunately enabled, whilst in command of an advanced guard composed of Baganda levies, to come up to and inflict a decisive blow on King Mwanga's main forces at Kisalera. Mwanga's ally, the rebel King of Koki, was killed, and Mwanga himself barely escaped, only to be captured a few months later in the north of the Protectorate with the remnants of the Sudanese mutineers, who were finally defeated with the assistance of a native regiment from India.For his services during the above operations he was mentioned in Despatches, and also in Parliament, and received the Uganda Medal and clasp. He was also created a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order [London Gazette, 20 May 1898]: "Claud Vere Cavendish Hobart, Lieutenant, Grenadier Guards. In recognition of the, services during the recent operations in Uganda".

On the outbreak of the South African War in 1899, Captain Hobart had just returned to England, and was sent out with the first contingent of troops to the Cape to act as Staff Officer on the Midland Line of Communications. In this capacity he assisted in raising several corps of local volunteers, by whom the Midland Line of railway from Port Elizabeth to Naauwpoort was seized and garrisoned; but falling a victim to a severe attack of enteric fever, he was invalided home in the summer of 1900, subsequently receiving the Queen's South African Medal with clasp for Cape Colony.

In 1902 Captain Hobart officiated as a Gold Staff Officer at the Coronation of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra, and was also in charge of Apolo Kagwa, the native Prime Minister and Regent of Uganda, who came over to attend the ceremony, and for whom he interpreted on the occasion of his being granted an audience by King Edward. In December 1906, Major Hobart retired from the Regular Army, and was placed on the Reserve of Officers; but in 1908, on the inauguration of the Territorial Force, he was appointed Lieutenant Colonel Commanding Princess Beatrice's Isle of Wight Rifles (8th Battalion The Hampshire Regiment), which he raised and reorganized from a small volunteer nucleus and commanded till 1913, when he retired. He again acted as Gold Staff Officer at a Coronation—that of King George V and Queen Mary, in 1911. On the European War breaking out in 1914, Lieutenant Colonel Hobart, after serving for short periods on the Embarkation Staff at Southampton and the Military Landing Staff at Havre, was sent to the front in Flanders as a Railhead Commandant, being subsequently appointed Administrative Commandant of the railheads of an army. He was mentioned in Despatches in 1916 and 1918, and received the 1914 Star. Lieutenant Colonel C V C Hobart married, on 10 December 1900, at St Peter's, Eaton Square, London, Violet Verve, second daughter of John Wylie, of West Cliff Hall, Hants, and they had one son, Robert Hampden, born 7 May 1915. Late Rod Flood collection. Provenance Christies 1st February 1991, Lot 107.