Approximately two thirds of the men of Teignmouth and Shaldon that served in the armed forces in the Great War were in the Army.
Men could choose to join any regiment and they had did so (they might be transferred later). Approximately a third of them served with the Devonshire Regiment.
Another popular choice was the Royal Medical Corps (RAMC), in 1910, the 24th (1st Wessex) Field Ambulance opened a detachment at Teignmouth, and during Great War several Teignmouth men served in the ranks of the 24th.
Royal Medical Corps stretcher bearers © IWM (Q 3180)
These men did not carry arms but stretcher bearers had one of the highest fatality rates as they attempted to retrieve wounded men in the midst of enemy fire.
"Private William Coombes was at the advanced dug-out dressing station, attending to the wounded, when a German shell hit the dug-out and exploded in the middle of it, killing and wounding about a dozen men.
Teignmouth Post
Friday 25th 1916
Devons in India 1915
Large numbers who joined the Army served on the Western Front, but they also fought (and many died in the process) on the other fronts.
Six local men died at Kut el-amara in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) 3500 miles away from Teignmouth. One of them was Private Alfred Albert Vicary of Teignmouth, aged 16 .
There were many roles other than fighters in the Army, the "A" company of the Army Supply Corps ran bakeries, supplying the 2 million men in the field with bread. Before the war Private Reginald Claud Hore was working as a baker at 40, The Strand, Teignmouth, when he enlisted in 1915 he found himself in the Army bakery.
Taking the dough out of the bins to be made up into loaves. Attribution National Library of Scotland License: CC BY 4.0
Men who served at the Front Line did not spend their whole time in the trenches, behind the lines there was a support network including billets, hospitals etc. Generally battalions would be in the trenches for a few days then replaced with others whilst they went for rest, resupply and further training.
Life expectancy in the trenches was however, only six weeks and enemy guns had the capabilty for their shells to reach literally miles across the lines.
Artillery. Photo "The War Illustrated" Public Domain
Below are the regiments that our men "belonged to" we have started with "The Fallen", the men who were killed in battles, of which we have to date we have added profiles of 260 local men. Over the course of time it will be an honour to also include our research of those who served and survived the war.
4th Royal Irish Dragoon Guards
5th (Princess Charlotte of Wales's) Regiment of Dragoon Guards
5th (Royal Irish) Lancers
6th Jat Light Infantry
15th Ludhiana Sikhs
37th Lancers (Baluch Horse)
114th Mahrattas
Army Service Corps (ASC)
Australian Imperial Force (AIF)
Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF)
Cheshire regiment
Coldstream Guards
Devonshire Regiment
Dorsetshire Regiment
Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry
Durham Light Infantry
East Kent Regiment
East Lancashire
East Surrey
Essex Regiment
Gloucestershire Regiment
Grenadier Guards
Hampshire Regiment
Highland Light Infantry
Honourable Artillery Company Infantry
Irish Guards Regiment
King's Liverpool Regiment
King's Own Malta Regiment of Militia
Kings Royal Rifle Corps
Labour Corps
Lancashire Fusiliers
London Regiment
Machine Gun Corps
Military Foot Police (MFP)
New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZRB)
Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders
Queen's Own (Royal West Kent) Regiment
Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort's Own)
© IWM (INS 8067)
Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC)
Royal Engineers (RE)
Royal Field Artillery
Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment)
Royal Garrison Artillery
Royal Horse Artillery
Royal Irish Fusiliers (Princess Victoria's)
Royal Irish Rifles
Royal Leicester Regiment
Royal Marines
Royal Munster Fusiliers
Royal Northumberland Fusiliers
Royal Scots (Lothian Regiment)
Royal Warwickshire Regiment
Scots Guards
Sherwood Foresters
Somerset Light Infantry
South Lancashire Regiment
Suffolk Regiment
South Staffordshire Regiment
South Wales Borderers
Tank Corps
The Duke of Cambridge’s Own (Middlesex Regiment)
The Prince of Wales’s Own (West Yorkshire Regiment)
Wiltshire Regiment
Worcestershire regiment
Worcestershire Yeomanry (Queen’s Own Worcestershire Hussars)
York and Lancaster Regiment
