What did my uncle do in Italy and the Middle East?
Q
My uncle, John Anderson, was born in 1882 and enlisted to serve during the First World War while living in Greenock, Scotland.
His military number was 153061 and I think he was probably in the Royal Horse Artillery. The only photograph I have of him shows him wearing a bandolier, which I understand was part of the uniform.
I know that John travelled through Basra, Baghdad and Jerusalem, and I also have a postcard he sent from Padua, northern Italy, on 31 July 1917.
I understand that you probably cannot trace individual soldiers, but I would appreciate it if you could at least tell me where the Royal Artillery served in Italy and the Middle East. Bill Anderson
A
Researching artillerymen is often difficult, but in this case it’s possible to say a lot about John Anderson’s service.
Fortunately, you have your uncle’s number – presumably from the card he sent. Using this combined with his name, we can find parts of his service record on ancestry.co.uk and
findmypast.co.uk, revealing that he served in the Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA), while his Medal Card shows that he was awarded the British War Medal and Victory Medal. His service record also shows that he enlisted as part of a Group Scheme in January 1916, but wasn’t mobilised until April 1917.
Unusually, the RGA Medal Roll (on Ancestry) reveals that John first went abroad with 392 Siege Battery. Checking WO379/16 at The National Archives in Kew shows that they embarked on 25 July 1917, travelled through France by train and arrived in Padua on the 31 July. The first British troops to fight in Italy only went there later in 1917, so 392 Battery were crossing Italy for the Middle East, avoiding a longer sea route and U-boat danger.
392 Siege Battery were in Mesopotamia at the end of November 1917; Order of Battle records show them present but not assigned a task. They were armed with four 6-inch howitzers – really big guns used for demolishing defences and enemy artillery.
The battery then served with 1st Indian Army Corps north of Baghdad, but in April were noted as under orders to join the British forces in Egypt. Their only surviving war diary, WO95/4486 (which hasn’t yet been digitised), shows them leaving Kantara, on the Suez Canal, by rail on 1 July 1918 and heading for Palestine, where, as part of 103 Brigade RGA, they fought in the Battle of Megiddo before the armistice with Turkey on 31 October.
They later moved back to near Jerusalem and were gradually dissolved. John Anderson arrived home in August 1919. Phil Tomaselli