LIEUTENANT C.W. TERRY, LEINSTER REGIMENT (LATE PRIVATE, 17TH BATTALION LONDON AND CORPORAL

LIEUTENANT C.W. TERRY, LEINSTER REGIMENT (LATE PRIVATE, 17TH BATTALION LONDON AND CORPORAL, DUKE OF CORNWALL’S LIGHT INFANTRY), RECOMMENDED FOR A COMMISSION IN 1917 BY HIS LOCAL M.P., WILLIAM THORNE. Three: 1914-15 Star (officially impressed: 3-3706 CPL. C.W. TERRY. D. OF CORN. L.I.) British War and Victory Medals (officially impressed: 2. LIEUT. C.W. TERRY.). Reverse of 1915 Star cleaned abrasively at some time (light hairline polishing marks), otherwise generally Almost Extremely Fine.

Group accompanied by extracts 1891 and 1901 census returns, 7 pages Army Reserve (Special Reserve) service papers, 14 pages Officer’s Service Papers, and copied WW1 Medal Index card.

Charles William Terry was born in Customs House, Essex, in January 1891, the son of Albert and Grace Terry. He is recorded in the 1891 census as a 2 year old child resident in the parish of Holy Trinity, West Ham, London, with his parents, elder brother and sister, and in the 1901 census as a 10 year old schoolboy resident with his parents in Custom House, Essex. Terry enlisted into the 3rd (Special Reserve) Battalion Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry at Stratford on 4/1/1909. At the time of enlistment he was 17 years and 11 months old, gave his trade as labourer and stated that he had previously seen service with the 17th (Poplar and Stepney) Battalion, London Regiment. Terry was promoted Lance Corporal, 1911, Corporal, 4/9/1914, and first saw active service in France during WW1, entering that theatre of operations on 28/11/1914. In France Terry was promoted Lance Sergeant, 6/12/1914, but was reduced to Corporal, 28/9/1915. Terry was transferred to Infantry Base Depot in France, 18/12/1915, was repatriated to England 27/12/1915 and discharged “time expired (7 years)” on 3/1/1916, having seen active service in France with the British Expeditionary Force from 28/11/1914 to 28/12/1915 with the 1st Battalion Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry.

Terry re-enlisted into the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry, 7/12/1916, and was initially posted for service with the 3rd Battalion with the rank of Corporal on the same day. He transferred to the 6th (Service) Battalion D.C.L.I. on 31/12/1916 and to the 10th (Cornwall Pioneers) Battalion on 17/1/1917.

Terry was recommended for a commission by his local M.P., William Thorne, on 23/1/1917 and posted to the 17th Officer Cadet Battalion at Rhyl on 27/4/1917.

After re-enlisting Terry was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant, 3rd (Reserve) Battalion Leinster Regiment, 28/9/1917 and posted for service with the 2nd Leinsters on 19/10/1917. Terry embarked for France on 29/10/1917, joining the 2nd Leinsters in the field on 18/11/1917.

Terry was admitted to the 73rd Field Ambulance on 17/1/1918 (officers papers state reason for admission as gunshot wound, left hand), was hospitalised on 18/1/1918, and subsequently invalided to England on 23/1/1918, where he was admitted into the Countess Radnors Hospital in Salisbury on 25/1/1918. After recovering from his injury, Lieutenant Terry was posted for service at a prisoner of war camp in southern England, spent the rest of the war guarding prisoners of war, and was discharged on 1/1/1920.

It is highly unlikely that Terry was wounded in action on 17/1/1918. Regimental history and the War Diary of the 2nd Battalion Leinster Regiment confirm that the 2nd Leinsters were out of the line permanently between 5th and 21st January 1918 and that during that time the officers and men of the battalion were based at Hancourt, where the regimental history states that their time was taken up in intensive training and playing football and hockey matches with other units. Terrys officers service papers contain a medical report dated February 1918 which confirms that his injury actually consisted of a broken bone in his left hand and that the injury was sustained whilst playing football.

Medal Index card gives home address as “Mawgan”, St Columb, Cornwall. Officers service papers give three home addresses: Prince Regent Lane, Plaistow, Cornwall, Sevongan Constantine, Cornwall and Bullers Terrace, Redruth, Cornwall.

The 3rd Battalion Duke of Cornwalls Light Infantry was at Bodmin when WW1 broke out on 4/8/1914 and remained at home till the end of the war, providing drafts for active service battalions at the front.

The 6th Battalion Duke of Cornwalls Light Infantry was formed at Bodmin in August 1914. The battalion landed in France at Boulogne on 22/4/1915 and was disbanded in France on 20/2/1918.

The 10th (Cornwall Pioneers) Battalion Duke of Cornwalls Light Infantry was formed at Truro on 29/3/1915 by the Mayor of Truro. The battalion landed in France as a unit at Havre on 20/6/1916 and saw service in France as the Pioneer Battalion of the 2nd Division, and was still serving in France on 11/11/1918 at Ruesnes, north-west of Le Quesnoy.

The 2nd Battalion Leinster Regiment was stationed at Cork when WW1 broke out on 4/8/1914. The battalion landed as a unit in France at St Nazaire on 12/9/1914 and saw service initially with the 17th Brigade, 24th Division, transferring to the 73rd Brigade, 24th Division on 19/10/1914, to the 47th Brigade, 16th Division at Tincourt on 1/2/1918, to 88th Brigade, 29th Division at Hondeghem on 23/4/1918 and ended the war on 11/11/1918 serving with the 88th Brigade, 29th Division, west of Lessines in Belgium.

William Thorne (1857-1946), trade union activist, was one of the first members of the Labour Party to be elected a member of the Houses of Parliament. Enormously popular with the electorate, Thorne won the seat for Plaistow in 1918 with 94.9% of the vote, an all-time record for any Labour candidate which still stands to this day. He retained his seat until his retirement at the 1945 General Election, when, aged 87, he was the oldest sitting member at the time. Terry was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1930 and was made a Privy Councillor in 1845.