War diary of the 7th Battalion British West Indies Regiment

War diary of the 7th Battalion British West Indies Regiment

After arriving at Brest in June 1917 the 7th Battalion BWIR (6th Jamaica War Contingent) were moved to their final destination of 'International Corner' at Hazebrouck. As they left the train, almost immediately they were under shell fire and one burst 400 yards from the men. Whilst marching to camp another burst in front of a platoon, with shrapnel just missing a sergeant. This was to be their norm; they were working at the railhead and ammunition dumps and almost every day of the war diary lists men evacuated to base hospital or clearing stations. There was brief respite on 6 July when the battalion lined Zwynland Road for His Majesty King George V. On the 12 September the camp area was bombed. 6 men were killed and 39 men were wounded. On 11 December alone there were 56 casualties. Unusually for a war diary, all of the men are listed individually with number, rank, name and initial, but unfortunately the number used at the beginning of the diary is for JWC, and a mixture of JWC and BWIR in the middle! Names have been cross-referenced with the BW & V medal roll with a high proportion of unique names matched successfully. A few men from 6th Battalion are also in the casualty lists. Amongst the names in the community are men from other regiments. This is because army regulations did not allow black soldiers to rise to senior ranks and it was therefore necessary for senior NCOs to be attached to BWIR to complete the establishment. The battalion moved to Taranto at the end of December 1917.

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  • British Army 10631 Private British West Indies Regiment

  • British Army 10697 Private British West Indies Regiment

  • Profile picture for Joseph Clarke, Or Clark

    Born 1898

    Died 1919

    British Army 9822 Private British West Indies Regiment 7th Battalion

  • British Army 8792 Gunner Royal Field Artillery

    British Army 8792 Acting Battery Quartermaster Serjeant Royal Field Artillery

  • Profile picture for E Luther Thompson

    Died 1917

    British Army 10673 Private British West Indies Regiment 7th Battalion

  • British Army 10578 Private British West Indies Regiment

  • British Army 9529 Private British West Indies Regiment

  • Profile picture for Theophilus Stewart

    Died 1917

    British Army 10595 Private British West Indies Regiment

  • British Army 10644 Private British West Indies Regiment

  • Profile picture for John H Peters

    British Army 240982 Colour Serjeant Liverpool Regiment

  • British Army 10431 Acting Corporal British West Indies Regiment

  • British Army 8808 Private British West Indies Regiment

  • British Army 9602 Private British West Indies Regiment

  • British Army 9531 Private British West Indies Regiment

  • British Army 10483 Acting Corporal British West Indies Regiment 7th Battalion

  • British Army 10715 Private British West Indies Regiment

  • British Army 10239 Private British West Indies Regiment

  • British Army 10118 Private British West Indies Regiment

  • Profile picture for Samuel Higgins

    Born 1895

    Died 1918

    British Army 10105 Private British West Indies Regiment

  • British Army 31840 Battery Serjeant Major Royal Garrison Artillery

    British Army 31840 Serjeant Royal Garrison Artillery