FOURTH BATTALION THE KINGS’S OWN (ROYAL LANCASTER REGIMENT) AND THE GREAT WAR

The 4th (TF) Battalion of the King’s Own went to France in May 1915 as part of the N Lancashire Brigade (154th), which had replaced a Highland brigade in 51st Highland Division. The brigade’s parent division, the West Lancashire Division, had been broken up to provide reinforcements for the BEF. In January 1916 the division was re-formed in France as 55th (W Lancs) Division and the brigade rejoined it as the 164th. The division became one of the best in the BEF, winning more VCs (12) than any other non-regular division, including the only VC and Bar to be awarded (Capt N.Chavasse, RAMC); 4th King’s Own won three VCs. The battalion fought at Festubert, Arras, the Somme, Third Ypres and at Givenchy where the division’s memorial is, commemorating its defence of that place in April 1918, stopping the German assault. This is a good, informative account of the battalion’s fortunes in France and Flanders (it could do with maps) and the appendices (which are paginated with roman numerals) provide a wealth of information: nominal roll of officers on mobilization; nominal roll of officers who went to France with the battalion; additional nominal roll of all officers who served with the battalion, listed in order of joining (196 of them!); roll of officers and other ranks killed, died of wounds, wounded, missing and prisoners of war; list of honours and awards with citations for the VCs. There are no dates with these various nominal rolls. According to the divisional history, the battalion casualties from January 1916 (when the division re-formed) to November 11th totalled 3,061. Finally there is an index.