The 11th Batt. South Lancs Reg. The St Helens Pals.

[PRV]

The St Helens Townships Family History Society has received the support of HLF to undertake a massive project which could involve hundreds of people in St Helens.

 

I am happy to annouce that there is major research project now ongoing with particular emphasis on this Battalion.

 

We are looking for volunteers to help in checking the thousands of records which will be sent up from Kew as part of this project.

 

We intend to produce a complete and accurate list of men who enlisted in this Battalion. Later we will be collecting family stories which match the names on that list.

 

All the information collected from the Medal Rolls will be published on our web site. Eventually a book will be produced and each volunteer in the project will be given a copy.

 

This is a developing topic and all contacts should use the following email address, especially if you would like to volunteer in the first phase of the research programme.

 

pals@sthelenstownshipsfhs.org.uk

[Phyll]

Hi PRV, Good Luck with your project.

Do you have to live in the UK to volunteer?

[PRV]

Thank you Phyll for reminding me of a very important piece of information which I failed to give.

 

No you do not have to live in St Helens to volunteer in this project.

 

Anyone anywhere, who has access to a computer, will be able to take part in the 'online training'. It is not yet available as the training is to be done as part of the project.

 

People who have ordinary computer skills, will be taught on-line, how the system works.We hope to get up to 20 people to help in the initial sorting process, they can be anywhere in the world as the operation will be controlled by a computer programme especially written for this project.

 

You can sign up now and will be told when the training (its really not that difficult at all) will begin.

 

This project is in several parts. the first is getting the data out from Kew, then the sorting and analysis. We plan for this to be about three months from now, so we look forward to having our volunteers about Feb/March, but sign up now just as the Pals did.

The Battalion was raised in less than a week.

pals@sthelenstownshipsfhs.org.uk

[PRV]

Though this is an on line site our project wants to hear from anyone who has information, or family connections with The South Lancs (and in particular with the 11th Battalion, The St Helens Pals)

 

Please spread the news, those of you on-line can use pals@sthelenstownshipsfhs.org.uk and encourage any else to go to the Archive library and leave contact details which I will follow up.

 

 

[Phyll]

Here's an interesting article I found about The Pals.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/britain_wwone/pals_01.shtml

[SKYMAN]

That was most interesting Phyll.

I have great respect for everyone

involved in wars,but reading and seeing

film of the great war ,the conditions

and the suicidal missions they endured,

those guys at the somme just knew the outcome

yet over the top they went all those lives lost

from both sides in that war to end all wars,

we must never forget,and every generation should

be made to remember,it hurts even to talk about it.

how can humans act in this way against each other,

i dont mean the guys who are just obeying orders,

with respect, maybe one of you believers have the answer,

 

[PRV]

Hello again to everyone. We never went away but have been soooo busy finding names for the men of the 11th Battalion,The South Lancashire Regiment.

 

We always knew this would be a massive research project, but even the most enlightened of our Military Researchers have been surprised. We are well past the half way stage of transcribing the material which we have had posted from Kew, looking (and recording) at some 30,000 records and finding more than 2600 men who served in The St Helens Pals.

 

We can explain this, but not here..not today.

 

11th Battalion The South Lancs Regiment (The St Helens Pals) was made into a Pioneer Battalion and with their 'Crossed Rifle and Pick' collar tags, supported other Battalions by digging trenches and making roads and railways. They were a Service Battalion,and many of the men died, not in the trenches, but working away behind the front line, and digging new support trenches, and a million and one other things.

 

This is to bring them back to your notice and to tell you of a big event at Langtree Park on Sunday 9th September.

Please help by talking about it to your friends, not only on Connect, but every where you go.

 

Have you checked your family yet? Virtually every family name in St Helens is now on our list. Go to Langtree Park to find out if yours is there.

 

Let's have 'Everybody talking about it'!

 

This Project will go on through 2012 and 2013, designed to conclude by November 2014. Please all join in somewhere along the line.

[RATTY]

PRV Thanks for the update on this exciting project, I for one cant wait to see it comlete but what is the big event at Langtree though, can we have more details?

[PRV]

The Event at Langtree Park will serve three functions.At the moment we have been contacted by about 130 people who think that they have a connection to the Pals.We want them to come to see us and bring their memorabilia,photographs, and the family story, so that we can record all of them. We will scan the photographs and the family story if it is already typed out, or record it if not.

Many people are still unsure about what happened in the Great War; if they have a name and any paperwork, we will check that out against our very large data base.

For the first time since 1935 there will be a reunion of people who have a connection with 11th Battalion South Lancs Reg.

We know that many men enlisted from out side of St Helens, for example Widnes, Warrington and Wigan, and all places in between,including Prescot. All of these people will be welcome too. We will have lots to keep them all interested. Remember 'Everybody is talking about it', keep it in the forefront of all conversations

[Dave]

PRV, are your team keeping tabs on the things that our team on the Rolls of Honour site have accomplished in terms of the casualties? Most credit for that goes to Le200 and Ste Nulty (I'm just an oily rag tech on it ).

[PRV]

The volunteers on our project, some of them gathered from Connect, are following a different line, though eventually both will be complementary. We decided to transcribe 40 books of Medals Rolls which we hope will contain all of the men who served in the 11th Batt South Lancs.

 

Obviously these medal rolls will contain thousands of men who didn't serve in the 11th, or even in the South Lancs in some cases.The 16 books which contain those men who were awarded the SWB, will contain all those discharged with injuries so severe that they could no longer serve.Our data sets are not being put on line until we have completed the task which we set out to do.

 

To answer your question directly, we are not using the material which other reseachers are producing, simply because it was never part of our project plan

 

I have no doubt that the people who are building the Roll of Honour Site are doing a wonderful job, but we have chosen not to follow the same path.

 

One of the outcomes of our project will be an enhanced War Diary which will contain all of the directions and orders, given to The 11th Batt., and also the names of those other ranks, killed or wounded, on the relevent day (according to the information coming out of our research)

 

We want to work with everyone who is researching the men of St Helens, and I will meet with anyone who wants to record this particular time in our history.We want to find the families of these men and get their family story, so far we have found over 2500 names, but we already know that they come from a very widespread area, not just St Helens.

Best wishes to anyone who is doing real research, using their own time for the eventual benefit of others.

[RATTY]

Sounds like a great project

 

Did you get the large image of the 11th Service Battalion I posted on here a while ago with everyones name underneath?

[PRV]

Yes thank you. We are aware of all of the photographs which are in the MX Collection in the Archive Library.

When the Library re-opens we will begin to work with them again. We are surprised that only 57 individual photographs on men from the 11th, have so far been brought to our attention.

 

One of the key functions of the Langtree Park Event is to try to get many more than that from present members of families.

 

We are inviting anyone with a name and a photograph, to come to Langtree Park, and we will match names to Battalions in The South Lancs.

 

The data base is growing daily. Even I am amazed, already, and we have still lots to do.

Stephen Nulty is working with us and we should be able to enhance his data bases as he helps with enquiries.

[PRV]

About six months after this Battalion was formed it was called a Pioneer Battalion. So it is also true to say that the men served in the Pioneers.

 

Their collar tags became a pick crossed with a rifle. They spent their time working away, digging trenches and making railways, filling in craters and generally looking after everyone else.

 

Lots of them were manual workers, and indeed one Company 'The Luisitana Company' was formed by advertising in the newspapers for '250 Handy Men'

 

They were involved for much of the time setting up camps and making billets, for some of the time digging forward trenches. Many our their casualties were due to spiper fire and shell busts as they worked between the lines.

 

Come to our big event at Langtree Park, we have names from almost every family in St Helens

[busybee]

What time is the event at Langtree Park?

[PRV]

The Event will take place between 10am and 4pm in the Players (Bar) Room. That is on the top floor, on the right as you look from the front entrance.The room will hold about 200 people, there will be plenty to do, throughout the day.

 

 

[Dave]

Added to the Calendar

 

http://www.sthelens-connect.net/forums/calendar/event/24-%7B%3F%7D/?module=events

[PRV]

We will welcome anyone who thinks that their relatives served in The South Lancs Reg. Try to bring a name and a number (if possible)and the Family Story. We will do our level best to sort out the records for you

[busybee]

I have a photo of my Grandad who was in the 5th Batt. South Lancs Reg, I know you are looking at the 11th but would you have an info on the 5th?

 

Busybee

[Dave]

From what I can gather they aren't really interested in anything other than the 11th Pals. The funding doesn't stretch outside that remit. If your granddad's picture isn't already on the St Helens Rolls of Honour, I'm sure that the guys will be only too pleased to include it.

[PRV]

It is true that the project brief (and advice) tells us that we are to concentrate on The 11th Batt. However, we recognise that the 5th Batt was actually the local battalion of choice for years before the 11th existed. What we have found in our research is that many men who were enlisted in a variety of other battalions, or even regiments, were in fact transfered into the 11th later in the war. I know for example that my grandfather was in the 5th, he was not transfered into the 11th but has appeared during our research because he was in one of the books which we had transcribed.

 

So to restate the case, to be included in the project book, the soldier would have had to have been in The 11th Batt. South Lancs Reg., but we are interested in all soldiers who served in any of the 20 battalions of the South Lancs, as that was our local Territorial force. They were all volunteers, but the various battalions were formed at different times for different reasons. We have identified around 3000 men who were in the 11th, but our records will be of over 20,000 men. Equally at Langtree Park we will have people from Townships FHS society tasked with helping people to identify their relatives, whatever the battalion.

We know that 300 men were transfered from The Lancashire Fusilers, it is likely that the families do not know about that because they don't seem to be related to the Pals.

Please turn up on the day, I'm sure that you will find something of interest, if you are working on soldiers in the Great War.

[PRV]

As we approach this event, I have to say that the family story is beginning to become so important. If you have the family story to go with a photograph, a number and a possible regiment, then we want to talk to you.

 

Our present research (now at about 80% of the work which will be done) has 32,000 men recorded. Obviously, these will not all be in our project, but it is not true to say that we are not interested in them.

 

Recently,the new owner of what was till recently The Navy Club, contacted me and showed me the original wall tablet which declares that it was called 5th Batt. South Lancs. Was I interested? You bet I was.

[Le200]

That picture is somewhere in the Connect archive Peter

 

[Phyll]

I love that photo, here are some more recent ones.

 

http://www.sthelens-.. Search / Clear

 

http://www.pugh-auct..er/20110602/011

 

What a shame, it's not the same as it was,

think of all that history in those streets.

 

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Mill+Street+%2F+Volunteer+Street,+St.+Helens,+Merseyside&hl=en&ll=53.456435,-2.740359&spn=0.009059,0.022724&sll=53.456256,-2.740703&sspn=0.00911,0.022724&hq=Mill+Street+%2F&hnear=Volunteer+St&t=m&z=16&layer=c&cbll=53.456256,-2.740705&panoid=_Pwr_5uPdJWC5jsA8tj6oA&cbp=12,40.67,,0,0

Edited August 7, 2012 by Phyll

[PRV]

The event on Sunday is your chance to find out about that photograph or those medals which have been in the box since Grandad died.

 

Bring a name and number, if possible and we will probably find your relative for you.

 

We will be delighted if he turns out to be in 11th South Lancs, but still pleased for you if we can help.

 

Now that the archive library is open again we are there on a Monday evening to help with your research.