Joining Philadelphia's Own

On the 6^th October 1917, 100 years ago my Great Uncle Solomon Charles Wraight enlisted in the United States Army.

Solomon had been born in Lambeth, Surrey on the 22^nd May 1895, the eldest child of Solomon and Alice Wraight (nee Uden). The family, originally from Kent moved to Wandsworth, Surrey in 1894/95 and by 1911 the Wraight family were living in Battersea, Middlesex with both Solomon and his father working as carpenters / joiners.

In August 1915, Solomon emigrated to the USA, and found employment as a carpenter in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, eventually becoming a naturalised American citizen in May 1917. His younger brother William, also a carpenter by trade, had joined the Royal Navy Air Service in March 1917.

America had declared war on Germany on the 6^th April 1917 and had immediately set about the task of training it’s men to face the harsh realities of the battle fields on the Western Front.

Solomon Charles Wraight USA Army - Camp Meade 1917

Solomon enlisted in the 315^th Infantry regiment was based at Camp Meade, Maryland. He had been living at 150 North – 12^th Street, Philadelphia. The first recruits for the regiment had starting arriving on the 21^st September and by the 15^th October the regiment had a full strength of 2,731 men, all from the Philadelphia area. The Regiment adopting the name by which it has always been known “Philadelphia’s Own”. All new recruits were lined up and were integrated as to their history, each experienced a shot in the arm and the rigours of an army medical exam (Source: The Official History of the 315 Regiment USA).

Much of the early weeks involved building Camp Meade, clearing land, erecting barracks etc. as well as rifle practice and drilling.

Solomon was part of the machine gun company, which as the official history of the regiment explains was selected in the following way.

“The machine Gun Company, better known as the Suicide Club, was formed in the dark and stormy days of September 1917, just like any other company in the regiment i.e. by marching a bunch of cheerful young nuts holding the lucky (?) numbers in Uncle Sam’s lottery into a big, bare, pine barracks. After the usual inspections, the boys were given a hat and shirt. Then each one was asked which branch of the service he preferred. If he were a mechanic, that was just exactly what the machine gun company needed. The same thing applied to bartenders, hotel clerks, milk men and chauffeurs (on account of their knowledge of mules) etc.”

One can only assume the same suitability applied in Solomon’s case to carpenters!

The Official History continues – 

“The company trained for quite a while as a rifle company, but after some time they received Colt machine guns and wooden models of the Vickers, and the company had very strenuous drill in the art of quick mounting and dismounting of the gun, replacing casualties in the gun team, camouflaging gun positions and so forth. Finally, these make shift guns were all turned in and we received the Browning machine guns, which eventually the company would use in France.”

Solomon's journey during the Great War years had taken him from Battersea across the Atlantic Ocean to a new life in America and now as a naturalised US citizen he joined the Army which in all probability would likely take him back to Europe.

Sources : The Official History of the 315 Regiment USA.

Wimbledon War time Marriage

On the 26^th February 1916 Frederick Lemon (my Great Grand Uncle) married Edith Annie Lambert at St. Andrew Church, South Wimbledon, Surrey.

Frederick Lemon was born in Wimbledon in 1885, the seventh of nine children, born to Joseph and Eliza Lemon (nee Walker). He had two brothers Edward Albert (born Wimbledon 1873) and Joseph (born Wimbledon 1881) and five sisters, Sarah Jane (born Wimbledon 1871) Emily Elizabeth (born Wimbledon 21^st May 1875), Rosey (born Wimbledon 1878), Olive (born Wimbledon 1889) and May (born Wimbledon 1890).

Fred Lemon

His sister Emily Elizabeth Lemon had married by Great Grandfather Albert Henry Bush on the 9^th July 1898.

In 1911 both families were living next door to each other The Lemon’s at 118 Graham Rd, Wimbledon and the Bush’s at number 120. Fred Lemon was working as a Carpenter, as was his father Joseph.

Fred had been serving as a Private with the 1^st Battalion East Surrey Regiment and had been in France since 16^th August 1914. At some point during the War he transferred to the Labour Corps and it may have been during this time that he married Edith.

Wimbledon Home Front

Between January and March 1915, Edwin Maurice Bush (my first cousin, 3 times removed) married Rosetta Turner in Wimbledon, Surrey.

Edwin, aged 21, was born in Wimbledon on the 22^nd November 1893 the son of Edwin Ernest and Ada Bush (nee Searle). His father, Edwin Snr. was a bricklayer by trade and Ada his mother had passed away in 1910. 

He was the oldest of six brothers Alfred, Frederick, Arthur, Albert and George. He also had two brothers who had died as infants (Horace and John). 

In 1911 the family were living at 41a Cowper Road, Wimbledon. Frederick was away at an Industrial School for Boys in Isleworth, Middlesex and Edwin who was working as an errand boy was lodging at No. 49 Cowper Road, Wimbledon with the Turner family, just a minute’s walk away.

His wife Rosetta Ada Phyllis Janet Turner, was aged 17, born on the 25^th November 1897 also in Wimbledon and was the daughter of William and Emily Turner. Rosetta had two brothers (Phillip and Martin) and three sisters (Frances, Edith and Alice). Her father had passed away in 1909 and her mother died in 1912 when she was aged just 14.

The first days of War - In pursuit of the enemy

As the lights went out across Europe at the Outbreak of World War One, Robert Harris, my Great Grandfather in law was serving on board HMS Indomitable, part of the Mediterranean fleet based in Malta.

Robert Harris - HMS Indomitable

Robert, at 5 foot 3 3/4 inches and with a sallow complexion, joined the Royal Navy on the 1st September 1913 serving on HMS Pembroke as a Stoker (2nd Class) and had transferred to the Indomitable on the 10th February 1914. Born on 22nd June 1895 in Bethnal Green, he was one of eight children of Dock Labourer Samuel Harris. His mother Emily (Nee Emily Spence) had passed away in 1903 aged just 38.

In 1911 the family were living in Newling Street, Bethnal Green with widow Ann Baker and her family, 12 people in all, in just 4 rooms! By 1913, when Robert joined the Navy, he was living in Barnet Grove, Bethnal Green and listed his trade as cabinet maker. His father Samuel married Ann Baker in early 1914

At 09.30 on the morning of the 4th August, HMS Indomitable accompanied by HMS Indefatigable, under the command of Admiral Milne encountered the German battlecruiser SMS Goeben and the light cruiser SMS Breslau sailing in the opposite direction heading east after a bombardment of the French Algerian port of Philippeville. Unlike France, Britain and Germany were not yet at war (the declaration would not be made until later that day, following the start of the German invasion of neutral Belguim), so Milne turned to shadow the Germans as they headed back to Messina in Italy to re-coal. 

Initially ordered by Churchill to attack, However, a meeting of the British Cabinet decided that hostilities could not start before a declaration of war, and at 14:00 Churchill was obliged to cancel his order. Milne reported the contact and position, but neglected to inform the Admiralty that the German ships were heading east, rather than west and hence threatening French transport ships, which Britain had agreed to protect, Churchill therefore still expected them to threaten the French transports, and he authorised Milne to engage the German ships if they attacked. 

British ships following The Goeben and Breslau

All three battlecruisers had problems with their boilers, and the Goeben could only manage 24kn (her normal speed was 27kn) and this was only achieved by working men and machinery to the limit; four stokers on board the Goeben were killed by scalding steam, but the Goeben and Breslau were able to break contact and reached Messina by the morning of the 5th.

By this time war had been declared, after the German invasion of Belgium, but an Admiralty order to respect Italian neutrality and stay outside a six-mile limit from the Italian coast precluded entrance into the passage of the Strait of Messina, where they could observe the port directly. 

Therefore Milne stationed HMS Inflexible and HMS Indefatigable at the northern exit of the Strait of Messina, still expecting the Germans to break out to the west where they could attack French troop transports, the light cruiser HMS Gloucester at the southern exit and he sent HMS Indomitable to re-coal at Bizerte (in modern day Tunisia) where she was better positioned to react to a German sortie into the Western Mediterranean.

The German ships however, eventually evaded the British fleet and passed through the Dardanelles to reach Constantinople on the 16th August, where they were eventually handed over to the Ottoman Empire. 

In October, The Goeben, renamed Yavuz Sultan Selim, was ordered by its German captain to attack Russian positions, in doing so brought the Ottoman Empire into the war on the side of the Central Powers.

Writing several years later, Winston Churchill - who at this time was First Lord of the Admiralty - expressed the opinion that by forcing Turkey into the war the Goeben had brought "more slaughter, more misery, and more ruin than has ever before been borne within the compass of a ship."

HMS Indomitable and Robert Harris remained in the Mediterranean to blockade the Dardanelles.

Tony

References
1911 Census of England and Wales (via Ancestry.com)
Robert Harris - Royal Navy Service Record (Personal collection)
Pursuit of Goeben and Breslau - (via Wikipedia.org)

100 Years on...The story of my family in the Great War 1914-18

In the halcyon summer of 1914 the world stumbled inevitably, it seems now, towards a global conflict that would effect a whole generation. My hope, in this blog, over the next four years is to chronicle some of the stories and details of that human catastrophe as they effected my ancestors exactly 100 years before.

I can only claim to be a keen amateur family historian, so there may be mistakes or omissions as I go along, these are all honestly made and I would welcome advice, suggestions and any additional information that I haven't uncovered as yet. I'm sure there is plenty of information easily available on family history websites and maybe once I've retired after winning the lottery I will have the money to add to the family archives!

I hope my family, friends and long lost relatives which I'm slowly uncovering around the world through my family history research like this blog and find it interesting to them and if they wish to contribute their own WWI ancestor stories that would be very welcome.

My Grandfather - Arthur Hollins

Having spent many enjoyable years researching my ancestors I amazed how many must have been involved in WWI, many I have no service details for, but for that generation, it was rare for someone of active service age not to have been called to the colours in some way. So my research will continue and occasionally new information will come to light after the centenary of that event has passed. This blog is not intended to be a finished, polished academic study, but rather an organic and forever growing testimony to my family ancestors, so I hope you will forgive any chronological errors.

Sadly much of information that is easily obtainable concerns those that did not return home and I suppose we are all lucky that our direct ancestors did and that we are able to relate their stories.

This blog, rather than featuring stories of daring exploits and boys own capers is more about how ordinary young men left their family homes in Rugeley, Staffordshire, Wimbledon and Hackney for far flung fields of conflict, the horrors of which I cannot even begin to understand. I hope only to honour their memory in some small way and this blog over the next four years is my tribute to my family ancestors in the 1914-18 First World War.

Tony