Those who served in both World Wars

Quite intrigued by this Chap who due to my lack of knowledge on 1940 I must admit I'd never heard of. I wonder if he ever wrote his autobiography? Going to go and find out.

Dudley Graham Johnson - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

would have to be 1 of the last boer Vets still standing

Regards

simon

 

Quite intrigued by this Chap who due to my lack of knowledge on 1940 I must admit I'd never heard of. I wonder if he ever wrote his autobiography? Going to go and find out.

Dudley Graham Johnson - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Hi Jonathan found this on Find A Grave : Dudley Graham Johnson (1884 - 1975) - Find A Grave Memorial

 

Slightly off topic but a large percentage of the Home Guard ( 70% I think ) had seen action in WW1 and I've always thought they would probably have given a good account for themselves if the invasion had come, albeit in penny packets .

 

Air Vice Marshal Sir Stanley Flamank Vincent CB, DFC, AFC, DL, RAF (7 April 1897 – 13 March 1976) was a pilot in the Royal Flying Corps and later a senior commander in the Royal Air Force (RAF). He was the only RFC/RAF pilot to shoot down enemy aircraft in both world wars.


3 in WW1:



As Station Commander Group Captain Vincent Northholt 1940

Vincent often accompanied his station squadrons (usually 229 and 257 Squadrons) on scrambles and also flew lone 'station defence' sorties. He considered personally that he shot down 5 Do 17 enemy bombers on his various sorties. As he was alone on many of these sorties, confirmation has never been substantiated. He claimed a further two victories ( over Bf 109's) on 30 September 1940.During one action he was wounded, crash landing at Kenley. He later had numerous pieces of shrapnel removed from his back, having narrowly missed his spine.
He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross in recognition of his skill and bravery. I

 

I can give you a name of a really unlucky officer. (or lucky as it may be)
Lt Col. Tod (of the 2nd Bn Royal Scots fusliers) served in France 1914-18 and captured in 1917.
Commanded the 2 Bn in Belgium and was captured in 1940 and finished the war as British CO of Colditz!

Capt. Holme (the HQ Coy commander in 1940, also served in the first world war)

But conversly there were alot of very young subaltens (19 years old)

Boer war as well eh? Ok..
Lets say they were a 18 year old junior soldier in 1902 (second Boer war), they would be 30 in 1914 and then they would be 56 in 1940 - home guard or perhaps a Naafi worker?
Not impossible, but highly improbable!

 

My Grandfather (Percy Lynch) may have a record of service that's quite unique. He served in the British Army (Essex Regiment) in WWI and the Royal Australian Navy during WWII. He was born on January 1st 1900, which should have made him too young for the First War and too old for the second.

Stephen

 

My grandfather ran off to join the Army during the Great War as a 16 year old. Its not a great scan but I think its a Royal Artillery badge. It looks like my brother has lost the original so I cant get a better one. He was turned down on age grounds for the Army in ww2 so he tried the RAF. The RAF took him as a cook as he was a qualified chef. The second photo shows him in Berlin just after the war. Though he died before I was born my dad says he would happily talk about ww2 but he spoke very little at all about the Great War.

Keith

 

Not both world wars, but my Great grandfather was in the 2nd Boer War and WW1. I sometimes wonder how different those two theatres of war must have been for him, especially as he was in his 40s for WW1!

 

My Grandpa maternal side served in WW1 as a Lieutenant with the Bavarian Artillery and as a Captain in WW2 with the 11.th Panzer-Division. And later in other units.

 

My Grandpa maternal side served in WW1 as a Lieutenant with the Bavarian Artillery and as a Captain in WW2 with the 11.th Panzer-Division. And later in other units.

I would be interested to know where your Grandpa served in WW1, Ulrich? For instance if he fought on the Western Front or perhaps in Russia or Italy?

 

He served at the Western Front at different places.

 

Ooops, forgot to add at which unit he was. It was the 11. Königlich Bayerische Artillerie-Regiment ( 11.th Royal Bavarian Artillery Regiment).

 

TAYLOR, ARTHUR

Rank:
Warrant Officer Class II
Trade:
Q.M.S.
Service No:
7871505
Date of Death:
10/06/1940
Age:
47
Regiment/Service:
Royal Armoured Corps

1st King's Dragoon Guards
Grave Reference
Sec. O. Grave 153/154/167/168.
Cemetery
WALTHAM HOLY CROSS NEW CEMETERY
Additional Information:
Son of Mr. and Mrs. George Taylor, of Waltham Abbey; husband of Helen K. F. Taylor, of Waltham Abbey. Also served in the 1914-18 War.

 

Hi, I'm new on this forum.

My Grandfather fought in both wars, Enlisting into the Royal Scots TA in 1912 then winning a M.M with the Royal Scots in France in 1918, then re-enlisting in 1938 with 14 LAA (West Lothian Scots) until 1943, then was given an emergency commission into the Pioneer Corps. After that he ended up in the RWAFF. He was released in 1946.

He wasn't famous, but his son was (sort of!) He was a Scots Guard during WW2, came out in 1946, and signed for the great Blackpool team of the time, playing up front alongside Stanley Matthews and Stan Mortenson etc. He played in the 1948 FA Cup Final Blackpool v Man Utd

 

IIRC there were at least 3.5 million WW1 veterans alive and well in 1939 in UK alone (one reason why the German general staff were extremely dubious about invading Britain). Hence there must have been very large numbers - probably hundreds of thousands - who had active (ie combat, rather than home defence) uniformed service in WW2.


My grandfather was in Derby LDV/Home Guard, which was full of reserved occupation men (Rolls Royce and other critical workers) and recalls that it was much like a regular battalion, albeit of older men than the field army.

 

IIRC there were at least 3.5 million WW1 veterans alive and well in 1939 in UK alone (one reason why the German general staff were extremely dubious about invading Britain).

I'm curious as to what your source would be for that second claim. Although there were plenty of reasons for the Germans to be hesistant about the prospects for SEALION, I've never heard that an outsized respect for the British WWI veteran had much to do with it.

Certainly the Adjutant General's department of the War Office was rather less impressed by the utility of the veteran generation. War is a young man's game, after all, and enthusiasm alone cannot make up for the ravages of time and the atrophying of skills over twenty years. Although it was found necessary, for example, to recall many WWI-era officers from the Emergency Reserve to help train the rush of new conscripts in the summer and autumn of 1940, this was not seen as anything but a stopgap measure, the old lags having plenty of spirit but little knowledge of modern battle conditions.

Best, Alan

 

As mentioned on another thread, Bury Grammar School old boy Thomas Cartman served in both World Wars and was killed in the Second. He volunteered for the Manchester Pals in September 1914 , was commissioned, and served throughout the war , winning the Military Cross as a Captain at Arras in April 1917. After some difficult times in the inter-war period he re-enlisted in 1939 and became a Lieutenant in the Royal Military Police. He took part in the North West Europe campaign before dying in the sinking of the 'Arandora Star' carrying Italian and German internees to Canada in July 1940, aged 47. He is commemorated on the Brookwood Memorial.

 

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One of my ex-neighbours (Now gone) was born in 1903, so was too young to actually fight in either war. But during the second war, apart from his normal day work, served as a fire-watcher in my village for the duration.
Recently I have been reading (Again) my Action Stations, book and have just re-read about the exploits of a 52 year-old leader of the Polish Parachutist Brigade, and that was September 1944. Stanislaw Sosabowski was his name.Yet another Hero !!