21st Division 1914-18

[berthaowen]

Harry Owen was my mother's father and I have had his battered aluminium tag on a chain for 40 years. He was a sapper in the signal company and I have only just found a website that let me make sense of "21 Sig Coy". I knew he had been gassed at the Somme and in later life could not have the surgery he needed. I knew that he rarely talked about his experiences to my father (his son in law). I knew he had to be trained to ride a horse and had two horses shot from under him, and I was able to find out about the cable wagon that he must have ridden with. However I would like to find out more about where he was, who he was with and what the signal company did during the Great War. I would be grateful for any help with this.

Regards

Peter Dineley

[The Boss]

Peter,

I have a copy of the 21st Signals war dairy. Can you give me any other information such as dates etc. enlistment dates, was he dis-charged due to gas? If so we may be able to narrow down his service and I can then look at the dairy and see what he would have been involved in.

Regards
Andy

[berthaowen]

Dear Andy
I have seen a document which was an honourable discharge and I have his number 44581, but that is all the information I have.
As I said this was not a subject he talked about. My father remembers him saying that the Germans thought that the serrated edge of the British bayonet was not right but that anyway on a night raid it was better to use a sharpened spade, and it still chills me to think about that. When I was starting to learn French at school, he said two things; "Voulez-vous promenader avec mois ce soir?" and "Avez-vous des oeufs?". Typical soldiers vocabulary really.
Unfortunately that is the sum total of my knowledge.

Regards

Peter

[berthaowen]

Dear Andy
Just an update. I checked if my father knew any more. Harry Owen enlisted as soon as war broke out and was gassed in the first battle of the Somme where gas was used in 1916 and then invalided out.

Regards

Peter

[The Boss]

Peter,

If you click the e-mail symbol at the side of this post you can send me an e-mail that will enable me to attach a few copies of some relevant war dairies for the period around July 1916. It s more fun I think if you do the searching work yourself, rather than have me give you a synopsis of the events. The company dairy will not be extensive however so i will see what else I can find in the divisional dairy.

regards
Andy