Background
This article contains clips from a study I made some years ago on behalf of a private client. It examined the military service of Pte 2961, later 355380, William Edward Powell Tidman. He was enlisted into the Montgomeryshire Yeomanry on 22 May 1915 and trained with the 3/1st stationed in Ireland.
William was part of a draft of 40 men of the Montgomeryshire Yeomanry, under Captain H. D. Clinch, that departed from Southampton on 20 December 1916. It was under orders to proceed to Marseilles to board the former Cunard liner “Ivernia” for the onward journey to Alexandria in Egypt to join the 1/1st Montgomeryshire Yeimanry. Four days into its voyage from Marseilles, at 10:12am on 1 January 1917, “Ivernia” was sunk after being torpedoed by the German submarine UB-47. Her position was in the Kythira Strait some 58 miles southeast of Cape Matapan in Greece. 36 crew members and 84 troops lost their lives. William survived this episode and eventually joined his regiment.
The 25th Battalion
On 4 March 1917 the 1/1st Montgomeryshire Yeomanry merged with 1/1st Welsh Horse to form 25th (Montgomery & Welsh Horse Yeomanry) Battalion of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers. It was placed under command of 231st Brigade in 74th (Yeomanry) Division, a formation that was part of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF)
By the Third Battle of Gaza, the EEF had been ordered to advance northwards from Egypt, via the northern side of the Sinai, into Palestine and there defeat the Ottoman army. It had twice met with a sharp repulse at the strongly entrenched enemy position in front of Gaza but by October 1917 had been considerably strengthened. The third attack included a wider move aimed at outflanking the Ottoman defences to the east and encompassed the capture of the Nagev desert town of Beersheba (Beer’sheva). It was in this outflanking movement that the 25th Battalion came into action on 31 October 1917. The attack proved to be highly successful and broke the Ottoman defences. The campaign in Palestine essentially became one of pursuit of a fragmenting enemy through to the north and eventually into Syria. William was wounded during the battle.
The battalion in Third Gaza
The 25th Battalion’s war diary, typically written in pencil, is rather faded and not easy to photograph under artificial light. At time of writing, it has not been digitised.
The entry for 31 October 1917 reads,
“The battalion was in position and deployed with battle outposts at 0200. The enemy shelled intermittently all night but caused no inconvenience to us. From daybreak on the battalion was heavily shelled, causing a number of casualties. Men had dug in as much as possible with entrenching tools in hard stony ground. A patrol of 4 men under Lieut. Charlesworth went out and returned about 0430 having been stopped by snipers in Y Wadi.
At 0648 D Company on the left began to advance in conjunction with A Company on the right. The advance was well done in spite of heavy shell fire and before Y Wadi was reached these two companies supported by C and B came under heavy rifle and machine gun fire.
At 0730 received a message that [our] artillery were forced to cease fire owing to being unable to see on account of the dust.
Message was sent to 24th Welsh [Regiment] to send on two companies in support. The battalion kept pushing slowly forward through very heavy shrapnel, rifle and machine gun fire. The advance after a while was held up until the guns were able to concentrate [fire] on the battalion part of the [enemy] line. The men dug in as well as possible but a large number of casualties were occurring as the fire was very heavy.
Soon after 1200 the guns opened a very heavy fire on the enemy trenches and the troops were able to go forward and capture the objective. The part of the line the battalion attacked was very strongly held and all apparent cover was enfiladed by guns and machine guns. The battalion lost heavily, the number of casualties amounting to about 220 including Captain Fitzhugh who was killed. The men fought very bravely and kept going very well in spite of intense fire from the enemy. It was very hot and trying lying about in the open.
About 140 prisoners wounded and unwounded were taken by the battalion.”
Casualties
Table listing the battalion dead of 31 Octobefr 1917 (Date from Commonwealth war Greaves Commission). All are buried at Beersheba War Cemetery except for Privates Corfield and Ingram. They have no known graves and are commemorated at the Jerusalem Memorial.
| Rank | Number | Surname | Forenames | Age |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Private | ‘62381’ | ASCROFT | CHARLES HENRY | 36 |
| Private | ‘355944’ | CHANDLER | PERCY | 27 |
| Private | ‘355097’ | CORFIELD | JOHN | |
| Private | ‘15449’ | DOYLE | JOHN | 32 |
| Private | ‘355109’ | EVANS | R | |
| Corporal | ‘355753’ | EVANS | THOMAS | 26 |
| Captain | FITZHUGH | GODFREY | 44 | |
| Private | ‘315235’ | GRAYSTON | H | 22 |
| Private | ‘72986’ | HILL | GEORGE HARRY | 29 |
| Corporal | ‘355286’ | HUTT | EDWARD DAINES | 29 |
| Private | ‘355478’ | INGRAM | JOHN | |
| Private | ‘355148’ | JONES | DAVID | 27 |
| Private | ‘355373’ | JONES | EDWARD HENRY | 25 |
| Private | ‘356028’ | JONES | EDWARD THOMAS | 22 |
| Lance Corporal | ‘355145’ | KENDRICK | JESSE | 21 |
| Lance Serjeant | ‘355631’ | LANG | W GUNSTONE | 46 |
| Private | ‘355347’ | LEWIS | W | 33 |
| Lance Corporal | ‘40905’ | OWEN | OWEN RAWSON | 22 |
| Private | ‘356034’ | OWENS | O T | |
| Private | ‘355258’ | PIGHILLS | FREDERICK HEATON | 32 |
| Private | ‘355376’ | POWIS | WILLIAM | 30 |
| Lance Serjeant | ‘355162’ | PRICE | REGINALD SIDNEY | 22 |
| Lance Serjeant | ‘355302’ | PRITCHARD | J | |
| Serjeant | ‘355546’ | READ | R | 38 |
| Private | ‘355407’ | ROBERTS | HERBERT HENRY | 22 |
| Private | ‘355973’ | WATKIN | DAVID | 32 |
Wounded
It is rarely an easy task to isolate all of a unit’s wounded from a major battle. William Tidman was one of the many RWF wounded who were named in the War Office daily list of 24 November 1917. This is part of the list, which is likely to include men of 24th Battalion and well as 25th, and possibly others.
