Rifleman. 3rd Battalion, Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort’s Own). Service number B/1689.
Early life:
Oswald’s parents were Peter Thomas Johnson and Annie Johnson née Holt who had married in Haslingden in Rossendalle, Lancashire. They were a schoolmaster and schoolmistress. In the 1881 census Peter was aged 24 and Annie was aged 26. They were living at Lidget in Oakworth and Peter was a schoolmaster. Oswald was born in Oakworth the next year and his birth was registered in Keighley in the first quarter of 1882. In the 1891 census he was nine years of age and living at Hunshelf near Holmfirth with his parents, plus siblings Rowena aged seven, Eric aged five and Hildred aged three. They also had a general domestic servant called Edith Shore who was fourteen.
Army service:
At the age of eighteen, Oswald enlisted for seven years with the colours and five year with the Reserve, with the Royal Regiment of Artillery on 1st May 1900 at Lancaster. His medical details were: Height, 5 feet 4 inches; Weight, 123 lbs; Chest, 34 to 36 inches. His complexion was fresh and he had blue eyes and yellow hair. He was a Wesleyan Methodist. His civilian occupation was ‘valet.’
He arrived at Glasgow on 3rd May as a Driver with no. 2 Depot RFA. He went absent without leave on 29th August and was back at duty on 5th September, a period of seven days and this offence was ‘disposed of summarily’ and he was docked seven days towards his pension.
He was posted to the Royal Horse Artillery depot as a driver on 1st February 1902 and to ‘M’ depot on 28th March.
Oswald was granted good conduct pay at 1 penny on 5th September 1902.
On 5th April 1904 he extended his service to complete 8 years with the colours.
He was granted class 1 pay at 4d on 1st May 1905 and his second good conduct badge on the same date.
In the 1901 census he was recorded as nineteen years old and serving as a driver with the Royal Field Artillery at the government barracks at Maryhill in Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland.
He gained the 3rd class certificate of education on 10th June 1905 plus swimming and rowing instruction on 1st July 1905.
A rather serious incident appears on his record as: Incised wound, throat. 26th January 1908 (not on duty.) He was admitted to Wakefield Asylum on 30th April 1908 and discharged as ‘not insane’ on 1st June 1908 after a stay of 31 days, for the whole of May.
He was discharged from the Army the next day, 2nd June 1908. He had served for a total of 8 years and 34 days until his discharge: ‘Services no longer required.’ Strictly speaking he would normally be in the Reserve as that is what he signed up for, but the SNLR may have affected that.
By 1911 he was twenty-nine years of age and a boarder living with Fred and Grace Knight (both were also aged 29) at 17, Wellbeck Street in Gorton, Manchester. He was working as a driller along with Fred, in the gun mount department of the Ordnance Works.
At the same time, his parents were living at 1, Clitheroe Lane in Freckleton, Lancashire. Thomas aged 54, was an unemployed schoolmaster and Fanny aged 55, was on home duties. They had been married for 31 years and had four children, all still alive.
War service:
Oswald enlisted in Manchester on the 29th of August 1914. (He received proficiency pay from the same date.) He was posted to the 7th Service Battalion, Rifle Brigade five days later on the 3rd of September. (He would not have been a reservist as that would have expired in June 1913.)
He was transferred to the 6th Reserve Battalion Rifles at Sheerness on 17th October 1914.
Oswald went to France, disembarking on the 3rd December and was posted to the 3rd Battalion Rifles at the 6th Infantry Base Depot, proceeding to the front on the 8th of December 1914.
The 3rd Battalion were in the trenches at Chapple D’Armentieres at that time. Oswald was probably part of a group of reinforcements consisting of one Sergeant and 63 other ranks which joined the Battalion on 9th December and is mentioned in the Battalion war diary.
(National archives – WO-95/1613/1/2)
WO-95/2206. War diary:
3rd Battalion Rifle Brigade, August 1916.
BOIS DE TAILLE.
17th August. Relieved the 1st Battalion Royal Fusiliers on GUILLEMONT FRONT under XIII Corps.
GUILLEMONT FRONT.
18th August. Received orders to attack 2 lines of enemy trenches on this front, which was carried out with following casualties. Complete surprise was effected and 70 prisoners including 1 officer, some booty including 2 Machine Guns were captured.
21st August. A further attack was successfully carried out on GUILLEMONT VILLAGE by the battalion, the total casualties for 18 – 21 August being 5 officers killed, 62 other ranks killed. 6 officers wounded, 198 other ranks wounded.
Oswald was listed as ‘wounded in action’ in the field on the 18th of August 1916, having been reported wounded and missing, and later accepted as dead on that date.
He had served for one year and 356 days.
Oswald was originally buried in a battlefield grave along with many others, about half a mile away from the Delville Wood Cemetery. His body and the others were exhumed and identified, then he was reburied in grave 7, row H, plot XVII of Delville Wood Cemetery in January 1921 as part of the battlefield clearances. The family inscription on his headstone reads: “For Whom Christ Died.”
Post war:
Thomas received Oswald’s personal effects on 4th December 1917. The record is very faded and it appears to list just his identity disc.
For his war service, Oswald was posthumously awarded his service medals. These were sent to his father Thomas on the following dates: 1914-15 Star on 21st February 1920, British War Medal on 29th January 1921 and Victory Medal on 2nd July 1921. On 11th November 1919, Thomas received a bronze war memorial plaque and a scroll inscribed with Oswald’s name.
Thomas also received a war gratuity of £9 on the 8th of January 1920.
Annie (Fanny) received a Dependant’s pension of 4 shillings per week beginning on 7th August 1917.
After the war his parents lived at 53, Woodlands Road, Ansdell, near Lytham in Lancashire and are recorded at this address in the 1921 census.
His father Peter Thomas Johnson died on 7th July 18930 at 122, Bloomfield Road in Blackpool leaving £236 15s 0d to his widow Fanny.
In the 1939 register, Fanny was living at 5, Crawford Road at Urmston in Lancashire with her daughter Hildred Showell and her grandchildren Rolfe aged 19 and Oswald aged 23.
Fanny died aged 86 in 1942 and her death was registered at Bootle in Lancashire.
Remembrance:
He is named on his gravestone at Delville Wood Cemetery.
Oswald is not named on any war memorial in his birthplace of Oakworth or nearby but he has been added to the Oakworth Great War Centenary roll of honour which was unveiled at Oakworth Community Hall in 2019.
Note:
Ansdell is a district of Lytham and St Annes. However, Oswald’s name does not appear on either war memorial.
There is a memorial plaque at Ansdell Unitarian Church in Channing Road, Ansdell with 17 names on the memorial, 14 who served and returned, plus 3 who died and he may be named on there. There is also a memorial of some kind at the Ansdell Institute on Woodlands Road, Ansdell but we have not been able to obtain a list of names from here either.
Information sources:
England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1837-1915.
1891 England Census.
Royal Hospital Chelsea Pensioner Soldier Service Records, 1760-1920.
1901 Scotland Census.
1901 England Census.
Lunacy Patients Admission Registers, 1846-1921.
1911 England Census.
British Army WWI Service Records, 1914-1920.
Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
Soldiers Died in the Great War, 1914-1919.
Delville Wood Cemetery grave photo by Andy Wade, 2006.
British Army World War I Medal Rolls Index Cards, 1914-1920.
World War I Service Medal and Award Rolls, 1914-1920.
WWI War Diaries (France, Belgium and Germany), 1914-1920.
3rd Battalion Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort’s Own).
National Archives. WO-95/1613 and WO-95/2206.
World War I Pension Ledgers and Index Cards, 1914-1923.
1921 England Census.
England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007.
England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1995.
1939 England and Wales Register.
The Long, Long Trail website by Chris Baker.
