264 Field Company Royal Engineers

Looking for information on 264 (Sussex). RE; I would be interested to hear if anyone has any previous research on them, or make contact with any others with the same interest.

I did have some contact years ago but since the internet age I have only managed find a very little about them .I have read the basic Wikipedia item for them, an old thread on this forum made some mention of them during their research on a Spr Edmond Charles Golding.
Many thanks

 

spindrift,

Welcome aboard. I tried a search on 264 Field Company being here, nowt. Changed to Fld and this 2012 thread appeared: Spr Edmond Charles Golding ' Ted ' 2077931

I see that thread's author mykid had Edmond's service records, alas they never posted them here and they were active here 2012-2015. I assume you are not mykid! Are you interested in him or the company?

Bit of a long shot I will send him a PM, assuming his email given at registration is active. Update: no private conversation is allowed with the.

You can only use the PM facility after x5 posts.

That appears to be the only thread here on the unit.

If you search with "264 field company" there are a few threads, which suggest service in France 1940 and Italy later. Amended to "264 field company" + "sussex" and a few more appear. One hit using coy: George Edward James Hurst

This might help: Field Company Royal Engineers | Researching the Lives and Records of WW2 Soldiers

It is not uncommon to find even a company has little easily found online. Too small for a regimental history or a Facebook group. So good luck and some research tips next via PM.

 

Hi

From a old RE OOB document I found online many years ago.

264th Field Coy RE 2nd line TA; 3 Sep 1939: Lewes; embodied 3 Sep 1939 (12th (Eastern) Infantry Division became operational 7 Oct 1939); relieved 10 Jul 1940.
Assigned XII Corps by Sep 1940. Transferred Dec 1941 to VIII Corps and Jul 1942 to 2nd GHQTRE. Disbanded Sep 1945+.

Hope this helps

Gus

 

Can help post VE Day

264 Field Company RE – 2 GHQ Troops to 11 Dec 45
Steinbergen south-east of Minden 31 Oct 45

21st Army Group later British Army of the Rhine (under construction)

 

Thanks for the helpful reply ,yes its the 264 re that is my interest more than any specific individual person at this stage.

 

Good information, thanks for posting

 

Interesting link and info, thank you for posting

 

Following on from the help/advice given ,so far found these men listed as KIA

Louis Henry Borrill [Sapper] KIA: Tunisia/23.06.1943

George Edward James Hurst [Sapper] KIA: Tunisia/26.06.1943

John Dennis Vickery [Lance Corporal] KIA: Italy/10.11.1944

Robert Cain Edmondson [Sapper] KIA: Italy/13.11.1944

Arthur Flaherty [Driver] KIA: Italy/04.01.1945

 

Via the NA site these two are mentioned as - Recommendation for Award

Serjeant Ronald Topliss [Award:Military Medal] Theatre of Combat Italy
Service No: 2077381

Lieutenant Peter Douglas Hammond [Award:Member of British Empire]
Service No: 222697

 

At one time [decades ago] I use to receive some letter/ posts from previous 264 Field Company RE. From memory, at least one mentioned a book that a sergeant had once written ,I don't recall a name being mentioned, however I think its possible that its the one listed on the Royal Engineers Museum website

A HISTORY OF 264 FIELD COMPANY RE 1939-45
Author K LARKIN, SGT, RE
Year of publication 1967

I have no realistic chance to ever visit the museum to view the book and its contents. neither do I have any contacts that could view it for me. It's not available to view on-line so would be interested to know if these sort of books ever come on sale second-hand, and if so any good dealers that can be recommended ?

The author being "K Larkin" guessing it is actually SGT K Larkin, and if so he was mentioned in dispatches during the time they were in Italy. Is there any way to get more information on any of this ? Thanks.

 

After some online searching I found the following tracer card for a Peter Douglas Hammond ,however as the service no [5178863 ] is not a match for the Lieutenant Peter Douglas Hammond no [222697 ] on the NA site, is this a change of service number or a completely different person ?

Card on FMP



Lieutenant Peter Douglas Hammond - National Archives

 

F Larkin [MBE]
35 Years of service including France and Mesopotamia ,demobelised 1918
1922 joined 210 Sussex Feild Coy [T] RE ,then mobilised in 1939
then onto France with 264 Sussex Field Coy RE [T] 12th Division
Demobilised 1945, then joined 210th Sussex Field Squadron Royal Engineers [T] until 1947

K.F.Larkin [son of above]
210 Sussex Field Coy [T] RE before transfer to 264 -
Sergeant in the 264 Field Coy Royal Engineers [T]
Mobilised at the outbreak of war and seen active service France with 264 RE with 12th Division
Both father and son being mentioned in dispatches, K Larkin later was the author of A HISTORY OF 264 FIELD COMPANY RE 1939-45

 

At this time I have about 80 names most being sappers that served for a time with 264 including - J F Potter [Sergeant]/
F Larkin [Sergeant] /R Topliss [Sergeant] / K F Larkin [Sergeant]/ P E White [Corporal]/ E Sayer [Corporal]/ J D Vickery [L/Corporal]


Have also discovered some of the Officers, however its to be remembered many men of all ranks were transferred out to other units, just as some were transferred into 264 for various tasks or as replacements
Officers:-
K M J Norris/P D Hammond /T R Montague/G H Bullock/W Imrie/L T Pease/G Jones/P Brewin/
E B Mac Carthy/ F W Howson.

 

Hello folks,
I have just joined this group in order to reply to this thread. I may be able to help you with some details of 264 personnel. K. Larkin was 'Ken' and his father F.Larkin was Frank.I met Ken some years ago at his house in Lewes. I was with my father Fred Else who was also in 264. Ken had written a series of seven short booklets over a number of years which were his personal accounts of 264 in various theatres of war. (I wasn't aware that he had written a full book about 264. I would be pleased to see a copy myself.) I was seeking his permission to collate these seven booklets into one volume of seven chapters with an index etc. He gladly gave me the permission and I subsequently printed about 25 copies which were given to Ken to distribute at, probably, the last 264 reunion dinners held, I believe, at the Ship Hotel in Brighton. I later printed a further copy which I donated to the R.E. Museum at Chatham. I still have the electronic version of the book which I would be happy to send to anyone with an interest in 264. If you give me your email address I will send a copy. There are plenty of names mentioned within but there are many more that I remember my dad talking about, some of whom I have met. A few that come to mind are:- Si Hawkins from Deal,Kent, Bill Steadman of Lewes, Frank Cornwell of Chailey, Sussex, Percy Thompson and several more I could find with a little thought. I also have a few photos of 264 personnel both formal (taken in wartime) and informal ( one taken at the first reunion at the Cafe Royal, London in 1955, I believe, and the last reunion mentioned.
I hope this is of some interest to you all.
Best wishes
Vernon Else

 

A Huge thankyou for posting the reply.

That's all great information you have posted, reading that reminds me of previous contact I had when they still had the re unions, so far I have about 80 names and numbers [including F Else] of the Sappers but far more to go.

A basic 264 Website and constantly searching for any info that can be found. It was possibly late 1980s-90s I last seen images some others low quality early photocopy days I seem to think it was either K Larkin or in snail mail about the dinners they held.

I shall try posting you via the internal mail system.

Many thanks

 

Slight problem. I have just remembered that the file was created in MS Publisher 2007 which few people have installed so I am currently busy transferring it to MS Word which I hope will be more useful to everyone. There may be a short delay but I'm working on it.
regards
Vernon

 

Hello all, just found this while passing by.
I used MS Publisher to write a book on my old computer , no longer on line.
I convert the book to pdf to send to interested parties.
Should be able to do it on Microsoft or if not use Adobe for pdf.

Good luck hope this is of use.

 

I have 264's file on my TNA reading list as they were hopefully in the (Mid) Sussex area. However I have found the RE War Diaries to be generally light on info but I can have a look on a future Kew visit.

 

Hi thanks for posting , any information is always welcome anytime .

 

The following quote was originally posted by mykid on the thread --2077931 Spr Edmond Charles ' Ted ' GOLDING, RE it relates to 264 Field Coy .

In recent weeks I have read more that possibly relates directly to this incident, and two quotes following hopefully giving a broader picture of events given the passage of time and peoples position to those involved .

First is a basic report of the diary and the second item being lines from a relevant paragraph by E Philips as published in the book about 264 RE by K Larkin [Sgt]