Gallipoli Veterans Meet at Papplewick, 29th June 1916

The meeting of two wounded veterans of the Gallipoli campaign in the rather different surroundings of Papplewick Moor (which had been considered as a suitable site for an aerodrome before Hucknall but was deemed unsuitable due to the boggy ground) was reported on 29th June 1916. Lieutenants Marsh and Reed, presumably neither fit for front line service, were attached to labour battalions of the Nottinghamshire & Derbyshire Regiment and Leicestershire regiments that were billeted in Hucknall.

“This war is proving that truth is stranger than fiction by such events as we chronicled last week concerning the brothers Willett of Hucknall. Another strange incident comes to hand now by the meeting of two lieutenants on the aerodrome “somewhere in Papplewick” after being wounded in the Dardanelles, namely Lieut. E.H. Marsh [1], in charge of the Sherwood Foresters, and Lieut. Reed [2], who commands the Leicester Regiment, which has just arrived.” [3]

[1] Lieutenant Ernest H. Marsh, 9th Battalion Nottinghamshire & Derbyshire Regiment, is shown as having landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula on 1st July 1915. He was wounded there and ended the war as a Captain in the Royal Air Force. In 1st April 1918 Air Force List, he is shown as an officer serving “under the Ministry of Munitions”.

[2] No battalion of the Leicestershire Regiment served at Gallipoli and, in he absence of further details, it is not possible to trace Lieutenant Reed – for now.

[3] ‘Hucknall Dispatch’, 29th June 1916.

Photograph: http://www.yourlocalweb.co.uk/nottinghamshire/papplewick/pictures/