39th Division

14th (Service) Bn. Hampshire Regiment

Raised at Portsmouth by a local committee 3rd Sep 1914 Disbanded in France 22 March 1918. There first C.O. Lt. Colonel Ramsbottom-Isherwood from the 3rd York and Lancaster. The battalion was originally allotted to the 121st Brigade in the Fortieth Division in December 1914 but was transferred to the newly-organized 39th Division attached to 116th Brigade, in April 1915 which came together around Winchester in October 1915. The Division moved to Witley ( In Surrey) in November and remained there until ordered to mobilize in February 1916. Lt. Colonel Ramsbottom-Isherwood had been replaced by Lt. Colonel Hickie (Royal Fusiliers) in January, with Major Furley as senior Major and Captain Finlay as Adjutant. The Battalion left Witley on March 5th crossing that night from Southampton to Havre then travelled by train to the concentration area around Blaringham.

The Division had been allotted to the First Army and received its initiation to war under the 23rd Brigade in a sector in which no Hampshire's had yet visited, Laventie, opposite the Aubers ridge. Here in a bombardment "C" company's rations and kit were destroyed and one 2/Lt. Killed. On April 14th put into the trenches at Givenchy and South of the La Bassee Canal at Cuinchy or further North at Festubert. When out of the line they would usually go to Riez du Vinage or Annequin.

The Battalion lost an Officer and a C.S.M in a mine explosion on May 28th. In Its first raid at Cuinchy on June 7th when a party under Lt. Ashmore got into the German trenches driving the trench garrison back some way with bombs and inflicting several casualties, five of the 20 men who took part being wounded. Drafts from the 13th & 16th Hampshire Battalions kept the ranks pretty full. This was a quiet part of the front and by June 30th 24 men of 14th had been killed, 42 wounded.

Lance Corporal Duncan Blackmore ( on the right ) From the 14th Battalion. He was injured taking part in a raid on the German trenches near Festubert on the 30th July. He was missing for three days during which the Hampshires were relieved from the frontline and he was found by the relieving regiment. Pictures from Gavin Long