Serjeant 21822 Gerald Ernest Hemingway

All civil as well as military records show the last name with one ‘m’, whilst the CWGC shows Hemmingway.

 

In 1901 they are living in Woodkirk, West Ardsley, Yorkshire, where his father is a stone quarry manager.  Gerald is 6.

 

By 1911 they have moved to Smethwick, Birmingham, and are living at 132 Milford Road.  His father, 40, is a manufacturer’s agent, building trades, working on his own account. His mother is 41, and Gerald is 16, employed as a commercial clerk.

 

Some time between 1911 and 1914 the family moved to Merseyside.

 

Gerald enlisted in Liverpool on 18th December 1914, as Private 21822, 19th Battalion The King’s Liverpool Regiment, giving his age as 20 years, and his occupation as clerk. He is 5’ 5 and a quarter inches tall, weighing 112 lbs, and his physical development is described as fair.  He gives as next of kin his father, at 4 Myrtle Grove, Kenilworth Road, Seacombe, Cheshire. He was posted the same day to the 19th Bn K.L.R. His service record survives and shows -

 

16/01/1915 appointed unpaid L/Cpl

20/4/1915 posted to 89th Bde Depot

18/8/1915 posted to 22nd (Reserve) Bn K.L.R.

25/9/1915 reverted to Pte at own request

 

On 21st October 1915 Gerald was admitted to St. Helens Hospital with acute appendicitis.  After removal of his appendix he was discharged on 30th November 1915.

 

08/3/1916 appointed paid L/Cpl

14/3/1916 posted to 20th Bn and arrived in France 

01/7/1916 appointed Acting Corporal

 

In July 1916 the 20th Bn saw action at the Battle of the Somme.

 

30/7/1916 appointed Acting Sergeant 

30/7/1916 confirmed in rank as Sergeant 

 

27/10/1916 evacuated to the U.K. on Hospital Ship Dieppe

28/10/1916 U.K. admitted to 2nd Eastern General Hospital, Blackpool, “trench feet”

12/01/1917 admitted King’s Lancashire Military Convalescent Hospital, Blackpool

Fleetwood Chronicle 22nd June 1917

An Unmerited Slur on Lady Artistes

[To The Editor]

Sir, I wish to draw attention to the "R.A.M.C. Magazine" of June 15th 1917, page 14, "Things we want to know," which says: "Who are the lady artistes performing on the Central Pier who left their apartments to R.A.M.C. boys being billeted there Some patriotism is it not readers ! Are all their men still in civvies?"

A love of justice and fair play makes me take up the case, although from a purely impersonal standpoint.

I am in the happy position of knowing "who" the lady artistes are, they had excellent private reasons for changing their apartments, and R.A.M.C. friends flatter themselves if they imagine that they are the cause. I defy the authors of this charge to find anything unpatriotic about these ladies. I have proof that at least one of them has not spared herself in her efforts to amuse and bring cheer to both or naval and military comrades since 1914. "Are all their men still in civvies!" No! Most decidedly no! All their men are in khaki, and have been doing their bit with "fighting regiments" out yonder for some considerable time. Also every one of them is a volunteer. I do not, of course, know the men responsible for this paragraph in the "R.A.M.C. Magazine," but feel constrained to remind them that "one volunteer is worth ten pressed men." If the cap fits any of them perhaps they will wear it. - Yours Truly,

G.E. HEMINGWAY, Sjt, K.L.Regt. (convalescant).

K.L.M.C. Hospital, June 17th, 1917.

25/6/1917 at Blackpool, forfeited 2 days’ pay, absent without leave 24 hours

02/8/1917 discharged to furlough (202 days in hospital)

11/8/1917 posted to 3rd (Garrison) Bn, served in Cork, Ireland

 

31/01/1918 at Cork, when in charge of guard room, reprimanded for neglect of duty for “not paying proper compliments to the C.O.”, and for “allowing a soldier in arrest to leave the guard room without a proper escort”. 

 

05/02/1918 at Cork, requested transfer from 3rd Battalion Kings Liverpool Regiment at Victoria Barracks, Cork, to the King’s African Rifles to serve as instructor.  He was found medically fit and there was no objection from his C.O. but the posting never went through.

 

14/8/1918 returned to France.

 

06/9/1918 posted to 1/6th Bn

09/9/1918 joined his unit in the field

Barely two weeks after joining the battalion in the field, Gerald was wounded in action. On 24 September 1918 the 1/6th KLR launch an attack from Festubert on La Basse Road, by the time it ended on the 29th September there are 50 other ranks wounded. It is highly likely that Gerald is one of them as he died of his wounds on 26th September 1918, aged 23, at No.15 Casualty Clearing Station (at Ruitz) and was laid to rest in nearby Houchin British Cemetery.

The cemetery was opened in March 1918 when the 6th Casualty Clearing Station came to Houchin. From April to September the German advance made Houchin unsafe for hospitals, and the cemetery was used by the 55th (West Lancashire) Division. In September 1918, the 6th Casualty Clearing Station returned to Houchin and was joined by the 15th CCS in October. Houchin British Cemetery contains 700 Commonwealth burials of the First World War and two from the Second World War. There are also 39 German and one Belgian war graves. The cemetery was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens.

 

Gerald’s Army effects and a War Gratuity of £21 went to his mother Charlotte, at 4 Myrtle Grove, Seacombe.

 

His medal roll shows only service in the 20th and 1/6th K.L.R.

 

His father died in 1927, aged 56, and his mother in 1934 aged 64, and they are remembered on the family headstone in Dewsbury, Yorkshire (spelled Hemingway).

 

Gerald is commemorated on the Victoria Central Community Hospital Memorial, Wallasey [Gerald G. Hemingway]