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A Grandad lost...

This is my Great-Grandad, Private James Herbert Batty 23007 of the 13th Battalion Yorkshire Regiment. More importantly he was the father of three young girls and worked as a Greengrocer in Sharrow, Sheffield. Three girls who survived him by over 70 years. He never got to see them grow up to be fine young women with families of their own.. James enlisted in Sheffield in early 1916. Though his records were destroyed in the 2nd World War, it seems he was sent south to Aldershot for training the the spring. My late Grandma's only recollection of him was of him walking up the street, during which I assume would have been leave after training, in his uniform. Apparently he'd been for a pint first.. and he dropped to his knees to hug his three girls. After this he was sent (in July) to a country he would only have read about, France, and onwards to the Somme Offensive. He never quite made it that far.. James was killed in action during the Battle of Flers-Courcelette in Northern France 22nd September 1916.. little more than 5 months after being a greengrocer in England. No heroic stories have ever been passed on.. just a young man, 17 years my junior, doing his duty in a far flung field, I imagine frightened beyond belief. He lies in Philosophe British Cemetery, Mazingarbe. My Grandma never saw him again nor saw his grave. James Herbert Batty RIP
A photo of Private James Herbert Batty 23007 of the 13th Battalion Yorkshire Regiment

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CONTRIBUTOR

David Howarth

DATE

1916-04 - 1916-09-22

LANGUAGE

eng

ITEMS

1

INSTITUTION

Europeana 1914-1918

PROGRESS

START DATE
TRANSCRIBERS
CHARACTERS
LOCATIONS
ENRICHMENTS

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METADATA

Source

UGC

Contributor

europeana19141918:agent/14cc077adcab4320eac7351fa76acfab

Date

1916-04
1916-09-22

Type

Story

Language

eng
English

Country

Europe

DataProvider

Europeana 1914-1918

Provider

Europeana 1914-1918

DatasetName

2020601_Ag_ErsterWeltkrieg_EU

Begin

1916-04

End

1916-09-22

Language

mul

Agent

David Howarth | europeana19141918:agent/14cc077adcab4320eac7351fa76acfab
James Batty | europeana19141918:agent/3973ea1c6a5c69b656da4f75b2126054

Created

2019-09-11T08:13:00.810Z
2020-02-25T08:06:54.637Z
2013-01-21 14:14:31 UTC
2013-01-21 14:20:02 UTC

Provenance

INTERNET

Record ID

/2020601/https___1914_1918_europeana_eu_contributions_4899

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Michael Hughes - Grandad & Auntie Mary

2 Items

I had known very little about my Grandfather (he died 19 years before I was born). He entered the British Army (in peacetime) as something for him to do in a place where work was not plentiful. He served for 12 years (until 1904). The photographs attached shows him with his eldest daughter, Mary (she was 5) taken in 1915. She died in her 99th year in 2009. He had 3 daughters before he left for Gallipoli and had 4 sons upon his return from the war. His medal roll is probably all that survives of his war records. They were matched from the number on the reverse of one of the 3 service medals. || His name was Michael Hughes. from Prospect Hill in Galway City, (West of Ireland) He had been in the British Army in the 1890's and into the early 1900's mostly in India, and in South Africa (Boer War). He had killed a Boer in a trench infiltration incident. As a devout Catholic Family they prayed the rosary every night and he always added a decade for the man he had killed (according to my father who was 8 at the time of his father's death). He finished up in the regular army in 1904 and then re-volunteered at the outbreak of the Great War. He had 3 daughters at the time. He was very expert with horses so he was sent into the Royal Garrison Artillery (Heavy Guns) and served in Gallipoli and afterwards in Mesopotamia (present day Iraq). He had come to the attention of his commanders when a horse bolted at a parade and he brought it under control. So they said they needed his talents in the artillery where teams of 6 horses pulled the big guns. He held 3 service medals (known as Pib, Bubble & Squeak). His medal roll card is attached and the relevant numbers are on the reverse of the medals but they have gone to relatives and I do not know where they are now. We know they worked the battery in shifts on the campaign so the guns were nearly always in action. His battery took a direct hit 5 minutes after he came off shift and most of the gun team were killed or badly wounded. These counter barrages were common practice, in what was really an artillery war for the most part. Thereafter he was in the Royal Engineers and served until 1919. He died in 1931. The photo is from early 1915 before his departure and taken with his eldest daughter Mary. The photo is staged in a photo studio but is a happy one and his pride in his daughter is obvious.

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