INVICTA: With the First Battalion The Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment in the Great War

When war broke out the 1st R West Kents were stationed in Dublin, forming part of 13th Infantry Brigade, 5th Division which was one of the four original infantry divisions of the BEF. Apart from the four months December 1917 to March 1918, which was spent in Italy, the division served on the Western Front throughout the war. 1st R West Kents remained in the same brigade and division from start to finish. The battalion arrived in France on 15th August 1914, embarkation strength was 26 officers and 1015 other ranks; eleven of the officers would be dead within the first three months. The battalion ended the war some fifteen miles from where it had fought its first battle, at Mons, four and a quarter years earlier.
This single battalion account is compiled for the most part from the war diary, eye-witness accounts and extracts from personal diaries, and it makes for a most interesting narrative with many personal touches. Each chapter deals with a specific period or battles, as indicated in the chapter headings. Casualties are reported, identifying officers and sometimes NCOs and men though usually other rank totals are given after each action; drafts arriving are also reported. There is no roll of honour nor list of honours and awards, but there is an appendix of 75 pages containing the names of those who were brought to notice for special acts of gallantry and good work and describing their deeds, in the case of other ranks number and rank is given. These citations, there are some two hundred and forty of them, are grouped within time frames, thus, for example, the first list (Part I) is for the period August 1914 to March 1916, the third (Part III) from July to September 1916 and so on. Unfortunately it is not stated whether any award was made, but the date is given. As it points out in the introduction to the appendix; “Those in this list who received no reward may be consoled by the fact that their actions were none the less appreciated by their comrades.” True, but it doesn’t help the medallists.