In this section the names of all the Officers, N.C.O.s and men of the original 1st Battalion who gave their lives in the first crucial months of the Great War are listed in order of the dates they died. Simply click the link on the menu on the left to take to each month. For those who survived 1914 many were to die later, killed in action or of wounds received. These are listed under a separate heading below.
Other links (see below) will take you to Memorial where the men are commemorated or the Cemetery where each is buried.
Some were listed as "Killed in Action", some subsequently "Died of Wounds", whilst others simply "Died" - all have been listed here.
The information comes from an amalgamation of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission site and the "Soldiers Died in the Great War" database. In each case, as far as possible, you will be able to link to the CWGC site to the record of each soldier, and also to look at details of the cemetery that is their final resting place or the monument that is their place of their commemoration.
1st Battalion, The Cheshire Regiment
Officers, N.C.O.s and Men of the 1st Battalion, Killed in Action, August - December 1914
The lists of the Battalion War dead have been arranged by month and can be accessed using the navigation bar on the left. Also you can return to the diary pages via the menu bar.
Within each month - for the NCOs and men lists - the casualties are further divided into the dates when they fell.
Of special note should be the actions of 24th August 1914 at Audregnies, near Mons where the Battalion lost 3 Officers and 54 NCOs and men killed in action, with many more wounded or taken prisoner.
On that day in all 78% of the Battalion was lost - killed, wounded or missing - in an heroic action that protected the withdrawal of the British Expeditionary Force. The Battalion was exposed to the onslaught of two German Army Corps in open fields near the village.
Their heroic stand saved the British Expeditionary Force from a disaster and is celebrated as a second Regimental Day on 24 August.
Note should also be made of the actions of 17th to 22nd October, around Festubert and Voilaines. Three Officers and 75 men gave their lives in an attempt to take La Bassée.
For its third major engagement in this short period - what was to become known as the 'First Battle of Ypres' - the 1st Battalion moved into the trenches on 5th November 1914.
Battle Honours for all of these actions are born on the Queen's Colour (left)
Source: ukonline.co.uk
Between then and 20th November the War Diary reports 35 killed, 99 wounded and an unspecified number missing.
Other sources, such as photographs, etc. have been incorporated wherever they have become available.
Officers and men of the 1st Battalion who died in the period 4th August to 31st December 1914 are commemorated on three memorials to the Missing and are buried in 24 Cemeteries spread throughout France, Belgium and Germany.
In addition, 39 men of the original Battalion, who formed part of the British Expeditionary Force, were killed or died later in the War (i.e. 1915 - 1919), some from wounds received during the actions of 1914; some from subsequent battles and others whilst in captivity, as prisoners-of war. These are commemorated on one other Memorial (Thiepval) and buried in 14 other cemeteries.
These are 'The Old Contemptibles' of the Cheshire Regiment.
All of these Memorial and Cemeteries are listed below and you can link from the buttons to see those buried and commemorated in each place.
