Photo Of 11th Essex Regt Somme Fatality Turns Up In Transylvania.

[leigh kitchen]

I post this thread because I'm feeling a little pleased with myself.
I was searching online re. army berets, and a link took me to this photograph on ebay as the seller had included "beret" in his heading of "Elegant man, suit, beret, hat, old photo".
There is no beret shown in the photo.
The photo was located in Transylvania, Roumania.
I bought it as I know who the man in the photo is...........

[leigh kitchen]

Twenty-odd years ago I bought this photo and some newspaper clippings, it is of a Long Sutton, Lincolnshire born man who settled in Whittlesea, a Fenland town now in Cambridgeshire.
On Sunday 15th October 1916 he "disappeared" when his battalion, the 11th Essex, attacked Misty & Cloudy Trenches, bombing along the Guedecourt - Beaulencourt Road and entering the German lines during the Battle of the Transloy Ridges, Battle of the Somme.
Part of the battalion made it into the lines of German trenches but were cut off by German counter attacks along the lines of trenches that the Essex had taken, another British battalion failing to advance far enough to secure their flank.
On 29th December 1917 the Red Cross wrote to inform his widow that it was concluded that he had lost his life at the time he went missing.

The photo always stuck in my mind, a poor, awkward looking lad in a stiff pose, wearing hand me down Sunday best, who never lived to see his four sons (& their half brother) go off to fight in WWII, serving in a variety of theatres of war.

The eldest son, bearing the same name as his dad, died as a POW in Japan.
His mother continually sent him letters and postcards, only to find out that she'd been sending them to a man who'd been dead for years.

Anyway, I'm pleased to have this duplicate of the photograph and in such unusual circumstances - I hadn't seen the original one that I have for about 10 years or so, but as I say, the image always stuck in my mind.

So far I've failed to find out how my "new" photograph turned up in Transylvania.

[irish]

Wonderful story, one can let the mind wander as to how this young mans photo ended up in Transylvania.

[leigh kitchen]

A large framed photograph that I've had for years - the same man in uniform.