The Great War > 1914 - 1918

2nd Battalion Officers.

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timberman:
 List of Officers that served with the 2nd Battalion the Manchester Regiment in this Topic.

 Some of these will have been covered before on the forum, I'm just consolidating them in one place.
 
 At the top of each new page will be a list of Officer's covered on that page as follows.

 1) Captain Frank Oswald Medworth served with the 13th and 2nd  Battalions of the Manchester Regiment.
 
 2) Captain and Adjutant Frank Scobell NISBET 2nd Battalion of the Manchester Regiment

 3) Lieutenant Robert Horridge 4th Battalion Manchester Regiment attached 2nd Battalion, Manchester Regiment.

 4) Captain Huntly Warwick Nicholson 1st Battalion Cheshire Regiment attached 2nd Battalion, Manchester Regiment.

 5) Second Lieutenant, Herbert Ronald Farrar 3rd Battalion Leicestershire Regiment. attd. 2nd. Bn. Manchester Regiment.

 6) Second Lieutenant, James Kirk VC 2nd. Bn. Manchester Regiment.
 
 7) Captain Charles Fitzgerald Hamilton TRUEMAN 2nd. Bn. Manchester Regiment.

 Timberman

timberman:
 1) Frank Oswald Medworth

The following is from the Museums web site for the life of the month.

Early Life
Frank was the son of Joseph Medworth of Mortlake, Surrey and the late Caroline Medworth.
Service Life
Captain Frank Oswald Medworth served with the 2nd and 13th Battalions of the Manchester Regiment. Frank was commissioned on the 24 November 1914 and was quickly promoted. Frank landed in France on the 6 September 1915 before sailing to Salonika, landing in November 1915, where he was wounded.
Returning to active service, Frank won the Military Cross, ‘for conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. He commanded the right company in the assault and led his men through the various barrages with very few casualties.
He consolidated his lines with great skill and resource’ (London Gazette: 26 July 1917). Frank joined the 2nd Battalion for duty in Blairville, France on 12 May 1918. For his service in the army, Frank was also awarded the Allied Victory Medal, British War Medal and 1914-1915 Star. Frank’s medals can be seen in the Museum of the Manchester Regiment.
We Shall Remember Him
Frank was 35 years old when he was killed in action on 13 May 1918, just one day after arriving in France.
He is buried in the Cabaret-Rouge British Cemetery - Souchez, France (Grave/ Memorial Reference – VIII. OI).
His Next of Kin Memorial Plaque is on display in the Museum of the Manchester Regiment in the Ladysmith Gallery memorial cabinet drawer 2.

The following is from the London Gazette the citation for his M.C

 Temp. Capt. Frank Oswald Medworth, Manch. R. For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. He commanded the right company in the assault and led his  men through the various barrages with very few casualties. He consolidated his lines with great skill and resource.

 The first is a photo of him.
 The second and third photos are of his obituaries in the SAR Magazine.

Although it says the 6th September in the Life of the month as his entry
into the theater of war it says 7th on his MIC. 

His entry on the CWGC site

Captain
MEDWORTH, FRANK OSWALD
Died 13/05/1918

Aged 35

2nd Bn.
Manchester Regiment

M C

Son of Joseph Medworth, of Mortlake, Surrey, and the late Caroline Medworth.
Previously wounded at Salonika, 1917.


From the War Diaries for the 13/05/1918 .
Battalion in the line, casualties 6 O/R wounded.
Usual patrols out on the Battalions front, wiring
carried out.
Captain F O Medworth MC (commanding C company)
killed at 8-30 pm.

Timberman

timberman:
2) Captain and Adjutant Frank Scobell NISBET

2nd Manchester Regiment
KIA 26 August 1914, Le Cateau, France
Medals: South Africa, Queen’s Medal (3 clasps), King’s Medal (2 clasps); 1914 Star, Mentioned in Despatches (October 1914)
War Grave: None. La Ferte-sous-Jouarre Memorial

The following is from a PDF on
GREAT WAR STAINED GLASS WINDOW MEMORIALS IN KENT

Frank Nisbet was born on 22 November 1878 at St Luke’s Vicarage in Gloucester, the elder son of Reverend (later Canon) Matthew Alexander Nisbet and his wife Louisa Janey, née Scobell. He was educated at The Grange Preparatory School in Folkestone and, between 1891 and 1894, at Winchester College. In his final year at the school his younger brother died at the age of fourteen. Nisbet determined on a military career and entered RMC Sandhurst, where he captained the Association Football XI and played cricket and golf. He retained a keen interest in these sports during his military career, being a member of the MCC and playing cricket for the Free Foresters and other clubs when quartered in different parts of the country. In 1896 he won the Singles Tournament of the Royal Cinque Ports Golf Club in Deal.
He was gazetted to the 2nd Battalion Manchester Regiment in 1898 and was promoted to Lieutenant in July 1899 and to Captain in July 1901. By the time of his second promotion he was serving with the British forces in the Boer War. At first he was given charge of the 17th Brigade’s Ammunition Column, taking part in operations that led to the surrender of Boer forces in the Caledon Valley in August 1900. He subsequently rejoined his battalion during operations in the Orange River Colony. He returned to England in 1902.
In 1912 Nisbet was appointed Adjutant of the 2nd Battalion and thus was responsible for ‘the hundred and one things that is  necessary when a Regiment has orders to mobilise’. The battalion was stationed at the Curragh in Ireland at the outbreak of war. Under the plans for creating a British Expeditionary Force (BEF), the battalion became part of 14th Brigade, 5th Division in II Corps. It arrived at Le Havre on 16 August 1914 and on the 17th entrained, arriving at Le Cateau at noon on the following day. From there the battalion made an eight-hour march to Landrecies, around which the 5th Division was concentrating. After a few days resting, the battalion advanced towards Mons, taking up its assigned position between Jemappes and Bois de Boussu on the Mons-Condé canal during the afternoon of the 22nd.
The 2nd Battalion did not play a major part in the Battle of Mons on 23 August, as 14th Brigade was in reserve. Indeed, the BEF’s first significant clash of arms appears not to have been noticed. The War Diary of another 14th Brigade battalion, compiled after the event, states that ‘The news reached us later that a great battle had been fought from our position on the left to Mons on the right and that certain units had suffered terrible losses’. The 2nd Manchester’s War Diary does not have an entry for 23 August, possibly owing to the notes of events being in Nisbet’s possession when he was killed. That evening, however, despite II Corps holding its own, the great withdrawal began when it was realised that the French Fifth and Fourth Armies, the former after heavy fighting at Charleroi and the latter in the Ardennes, were retreating and had left the BEF’s right flank exposed. There was a real possibility that the BEF could be enveloped and pushed back into Mons.
II Corps withdrew from the trap without too much harm, but the movements in the next forty-eight hours led to both the battalions becoming increasingly separated and a worrying gap of about five miles emerging between the BEF’s two corps. General Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien’s orders from GOC Sir John French were to retreat to St Quentin, but in light of the Corps’ inability to throw off the pursuing Germans, he decided that he had to stop and fight. By giving the enemy a bloody nose he might gain time to break contact and allow his exhausted and hungry troops a breathing space. On his own initiative he decided to fight at Le Cateau.
The 2nd Battalion Manchester Regiment played a much more prominent role at Le Cateau on 26 August than at Mons. The 5th Division was placed on the right of the line, with 2nd Suffolk’s at the extreme right and 2nd Manchester’s in support. The latter’s War Diary recorded the events: ‘About 10 am Germans advanced, attacking the Suffolk’s and [the RFA] batteries vigorously with shell fire and machine guns. The battalion was ordered to support them and A Company under Captain Trueman went to right and B Company under Captain Knox to left with Captain and Adjutant Nisbet’. The rest of the account concentrates on the right side of the line and there is no account of what happened to B Company. Nisbet’s death was, however, recorded: ‘The casualties in the centre were very heavy, Captain Nisbet being shot through the head and 13 other officers wounded’. Among the wounded was Knox. This may explain why The Bond of Sacrifice account related that Nisbet ‘was killed … while leading a company whose Captain had been put out of action’.
Smith-Dorrien’s decision to fight at Le Cateau was vindicated as II Corps was given some breathing space to continue its retreat to St Quentin the next day as a more cohesive unit. The retreat ensured, however, that Nisbet’s body was never recovered. No doubt it was buried by the Germans or by local inhabitants, but no record of the site exists. Nisbet is thus memorialised on the La Ferte-sous-Jouarre Memorial to the Missing.


Timberman

timberman:
When it came to deciding on an appropriate memorial to Frank,
the parents chose to erect a stained glass window in memory
of all their dead children.

This was in the form of a beautiful two-light window. The parish
church chosen was St Nicholas in Ringwould, a Cinque Port village
between Deal and Dover, where his father had been Rector.

Timberman

Keith Brannen:
timberman,

Medworth: "Frank was 35 years old when he was killed in action on 13 May 1918, just one day after arriving in France."

The 2nd Battalion WD has Medworth joining the battalion on 16 April 1918, so it should be "one month after arriving in France".
Also states that he was commanding "C" company when killed.

Keith

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