Historic Records Men of 1914

Arrived overseas: 11 August 1914 Connection:  Connection: 2nd Middlesex Regiment football team photo, 1912. George Flatt's regimental number dates to late November or early December 1901 and he certainly saw service with the 3rd Middlesex Regiment during the Seocnd Anglo-Boer War, being awarded the QSA and KSA medals. By the time this photo of him was taken, he would have been approaching the end of his 12-year engagement and thus, to have arrived overseas in France on 11th August 1914 must have either re-engaged to complete 21 years' service with the regiment or opted for four years' service as a Section D Reservist. I suspect the former. He's probably the same 36-year-old out-of-work carman who appears on the 1921 census with his wife and three children, living at 28 Retreat Place, Hackney. George was awarded the Millitary Medal for Bravery in the Field in 1916, the awarded gazetted on the 11th October 1916 which suggests either a retrospective award for 1914, The Bat...

Arrived overseas: 7 November 1914. Connection: 2nd Middlesex Regiment football team photo 1912.  John Ainger was a corporal when this photo was taken of him in 1912, but he'd been tried by a district court martial later that year and reduced to the ranks. Surving papers show that his 'crime' was "Conduct to the prejudice of good order and military discipline - being in the corporals' room during prohibited hours". He'd been in the army for six years by then, and undeterred by his demotion, in 1913 elected to extend his period of colour service to complete 12 years with the colours. He landed in France as a corporal on the 7th November 1914, having been promoted to that rank just two days earlier. John Ainger was killed in action on the 23rd December 1914. He was 26-years-old, the son of Christopher and Kate Ainger of 14 Sothern Road, King's Road, Fulham. He is buried in Rue du Bacquerot No 1 Military Cemetery in Laventie. His grieving parents paid to h...