Morning Chaps I'm trying to find anything on Fusilier 4192728 J R Mathias, 1<SUP>st</SUP> Bn., RWF who is remembered on the Dunkirk memorial. His date of death is shown as “between 31/05/1940 and 02/06/2940”. Any RWF experts out there who can perhaps advise when he may have gone to France and what actions he may have been involved in. Also, why the spread of dates for his death.<O:p</O:p <O:p</O:p Cheers<O:p</O:p SN
Stephen, Here is a map from "Dunkirk Fight to the Last Man" by Hugh Sebag Montefiore. 1 RWF were in 2nd Div. The same book states 1RWF had taken 25 officer 490 OR casualties when they reformed in UK after Dunkirk. The spread of dates in your post implies to me that after the battle the unit was in retreat and it was chaos and no-one was keeping records.
Stephen, The spread of dates in your post implies to me that after the battle the unit was in retreat and it was chaos and no-one was keeping records. Owen Many thanks for the map and information. I had assumed that the date of death was as a result of the confusion that no doubt reigned about thast time. Cheers
Hi, The 1<SUP>st</SUP> Bn., RWF was attached to the 6<SUP>th</SUP> Inf Bde, 2<SUP>nd</SUP> Inf Div, 1<SUP>st</SUP> Corps. On the 24-9-1939 they embarked for <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comffice:smarttags" /><st1:country-region w:st="on">France</st1:country-region> and <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Belgium</st1:place></st1:country-region>. Regards Arthur
Stephen , drop the museum a line too. Royal Welch Fusiliers Museum situated within the Caernarfon Castle, North Wales. and ask Grumpy on the Great War Forum too.
As of 30th May the 6th Brigade (1 RWF's Bde) could only muster 250 men all ranks and were withdrawing North through Bergues to defend the canal line along with the rest of 2 Div. He must have been left behind somewhere along the line as the 2 Div were evacuated by 31st May 1940 according to Philson's BEF Orbat. I think 1 RWF's war diary is on my list for the next visit at Kew so I'll come back to this when I've got the diary.
From 30th May to 1st June 1940 The following Missing Men file at Kew may contain more details: WO 361/89 British Expeditionary Force, France: The Royal Welch Fusiliers; missing men
From 30th May to 1st June 1940 The diary extract begins on the 29th may at Meteren. Co-incidentaly, the photos that I posted a couple of days ago on the 2 RHA tread were taken just a couple of miles from there and do indeed show the disruption which occurred when French horse-drawn arty. got mixed up with MT http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/1940/35657-2nd-regiment-royal-horse-artillery.html
Drew, I think that's a badly written 'K'. I'd read that as "Accepted Category C Killed in Action (10/1/42)" I have no idea what the categories A,B and C are but all three are used on that page.
