'Third Battalion growing fast. One hundred men were enlisted at Swallowfield camp yesterday'. Remembering the 3rd Battalion (2nd Jamaica War Contingent - 22 officers, 1100 men) of the British West Indies Regiment who sailed from Jamaica on 7 January 1916 (having earlier collected men from The Bahamas) arriving in Plymouth on 20 or 26 January 1916. Between October 1915 and March 1916, Seaford was used as a training camp for the men from the West Indies in preparation for fighting in Europe. Withnoe camp, Whitsand Bay, Plymouth was also an arrival camp. The new arrivals were inadequately clothed for the harsh realities of the British cold in winter and the huts badly insulated. As a result the camps became rife with diseases and men lost their lives totally unnecessarily. The 3rd battalion transferred to Alexandria, Egypt on 24 February, arriving 8 March 1916. For those who died extra information has been collected from the Soldiers' Effects records, but for lots of these men there are only medal records because they managed to survive; (the medal rolls are however split by island and show their original battalion). So they sailed from home, served in the war and then sailed home again, with the regiment not invited to the Peace (Victory) Parade held in London July 1919 // incomplete.
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~jamwgw/contin.htm
Created by: , Deborah102878
Died 1916
British Army 3230 Private British West Indies Regiment 3rd Battalion
Born 1892
British Army 3678 Private British West Indies Regiment
British Army 2980 Private British West Indies Regiment
British Army 3637 Private British West Indies Regiment
Born 1895
British Army 3322 Private British West Indies Regiment
Born 1888
British Army 3186 Private British West Indies Regiment
Born 1894
Died 1917
British Army 3481 Private British West Indies Regiment 3rd Battalion
British Army 3687 Private British West Indies Regiment
Died 1916
Other Empire Force 958 Private Jamaica War Contingent
British Army 2665 Private British West Indies Regiment 3rd Battalion
Born 1896
Other Empire Force 1088 Private Jamaica War Contingent
British Army 2966 Private British West Indies Regiment
Born 1895
British Army 3542 Private British West Indies Regiment
British Army 2736 Private British West Indies Regiment
Born 1894
British Army 2743 Private British West Indies Regiment
Born 1894
Other Empire Force 2464 Private Jamaica War Contingent
British Army 2754 Private British West Indies Regiment 3rd Battalion
Born 1884
British Army 2660 Private British West Indies Regiment
Born 1895
Other Empire Force 1159 Private Jamaica War Contingent
British Army 3666 Private British West Indies Regiment 3rd Battalion