Now I was not prepared for the picture of Private James Biddle’s war grave.
He was just 27 years old when he was killed in the closing stages of the Great War.
His name appears on the war memorial in Didsbury, and his father was on the committee that oversaw the erection of the memorial in 1921.
That should almost have been the end of the story, but for the picture which was taken today, by Régine Verguier of the grave stone in Buqouy Road Cemetery, near Arras in France.
I was prepared for the white headstone and the details of Private Biddle’s life, but not for the inclusion of Lieutenant R.J. Rawlinson of the Canadian Infantry.
He too was aged 27 and died of wounds on September 30th.
What drew me, in were the badges of the Manchester Regiment and the Maple Leaf at the head of the stone.
And that led me to want to know more about Lieutenant Robert John Rawlinson who was born in 1891 in Furness.
He had enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force on September 23, 1914, at Val Cartier military training camp nine miles north of Quebec City.
He had already done four years in the 4th Battalion of the Kings Own Regiment based at Lancaster.
With more research I might be able to discover what he was doing in Canada in 1914, given that his wife was still in Furness.
But the little I know is remarkable enough.
In 1916 he was promoted to the rank of corporal, and in December of the following year to sergeant and at his death was a Lieutenant, added to which he was awarded the Military Medal in October 1916.
Unlike Private Biddle his army records have survived and will offer up more of his life.*
But for now, that is it.
Location France
Picture; the gravestone of Private James Biddle, and Lieutenant R.J. Rawlinson, 2018, Buqouy Road Cemetery, courtesy of Régine Verguier
*Library and Archives Canada, https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/military-heritage/first-world-war/personnel-records/Pages/item.aspx?IdNumber=595612
His name appears on the war memorial in Didsbury, and his father was on the committee that oversaw the erection of the memorial in 1921.
That should almost have been the end of the story, but for the picture which was taken today, by Régine Verguier of the grave stone in Buqouy Road Cemetery, near Arras in France.
I was prepared for the white headstone and the details of Private Biddle’s life, but not for the inclusion of Lieutenant R.J. Rawlinson of the Canadian Infantry.
He too was aged 27 and died of wounds on September 30th.
What drew me, in were the badges of the Manchester Regiment and the Maple Leaf at the head of the stone.
And that led me to want to know more about Lieutenant Robert John Rawlinson who was born in 1891 in Furness.
He had already done four years in the 4th Battalion of the Kings Own Regiment based at Lancaster.
With more research I might be able to discover what he was doing in Canada in 1914, given that his wife was still in Furness.
But the little I know is remarkable enough.
Unlike Private Biddle his army records have survived and will offer up more of his life.*
But for now, that is it.
Location France
Picture; the gravestone of Private James Biddle, and Lieutenant R.J. Rawlinson, 2018, Buqouy Road Cemetery, courtesy of Régine Verguier
*Library and Archives Canada, https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/military-heritage/first-world-war/personnel-records/Pages/item.aspx?IdNumber=595612
Pleas may I post this to the War Graves Photographic Project? This, I think, would be of real interest.
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