PRIVATE H. BEAUMONT, 1/5TH BATTALION WEST RIDING REGIMENT. Three: 1914-15 Star (3393 Priva

PRIVATE H. BEAUMONT, 1/5TH BATTALION WEST RIDING REGIMENT. Three: 1914-15 Star (3393 Private, West Riding Regiment) British War and Victory Medals (240723 Private, West Riding Regiment). Extremely Fine.

Group accompanied by photocopied Medal Index Card and BWM and Victory Medal roll. Medal Index Card states that Harold Beaumont first saw service as 3393 Private, West Riding Regiment and subsequently as 240723 Private, West Riding Regiment and that he first saw active service in France, entering that theater of operations on 29/6/1915. This indicates that Beaumont would have seen service with the 1/5th Battalion West Riding Regiment, rather than the 2/5th Battalion, and that he was an early reinforcement to that battalion, the 1/5th Battalion having already landed in France over two months earlier, on 14/4/1915, whereas the 2/5th Battalion did not land in France until January 1917. Beaumont was eventually disembodied on 22/5/1919.

The 1/5th Battalion West Riding Regiment took part in the Somme operations in 1916 with 147th Brigade, 49th (West Riding) Division. They spent the night of 30/6/1916 in Aveluy Wood and moved forward to the South Bluff at Authuille on 1/7/1916, beginning tours of duty on the front line at Thiepval the following day, 2/7/1916. On 3/9/1916 the battalion took part in the 147th Brigade attack on Schwaben Redoubt, during which attack some 350 of the 450 men from the 1/5th West Ridings who took part in the assault became casualties.