TOPIC:

Picture courtesy of Noonan's

DCM GV (607 Sjt: C. Utting. 2/F. Co. R.E.);
QSA (3) Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal (607. Cpl. C. Utting. R.E.);
KSA (2) (607 L.Cpl. C. Utting. R.E.);
1914 Star, with clasp (607 Sjt. C. Utting. R.E.);
British War and Victory Medals (607 Sjt. C. Utting. R.E.);
Army LS&GC GV 1st issue (607 Sjt: C. Utting. R.E.)

DCM London Gazette 123 June 1915; citation published 30 June 1915: ‘For conspicuous gallantry at Neuve Chapelle on 10 March 1915 when seven of his men had been killed or wounded by a shell, in going back under machine gun fire, improvising stretchers, and getting three of the wounded under cover. Sergeant Utting has also done much good work in the trenches since November 1914.’

Charles Utting attested for the Royal Engineers and served with them in South Africa during the Boer War, and then with No. 2 Field Company during the Great War on the Western Front from 5 November 1914.

Picture courtesy of Noonan's

QSA (3) Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal (7 Corpl. W. Scott. R.E.) engraved naming;
KSA (2) (7 2nd. Cpl. W. Scott. R.E.);
BWM (7 Sjt. W. Scott. R.E.);
[ VM ];
Army LS&GC GV, 1st issue (7 Sjt: W. Scott. R.E.)

Noonan's state that William Scott was born in Hull, Yorkshire, in 1876 and attested for the Royal Engineers at Beverley, Yorkshire, on 13 April 1896. He served with the Balloon Section in South Africa during the Boer War from 7 March 1900 to 2 March 1902, and was captured and taken Prisoner of War, being released at Frederikstad on 19 July 1900. Advanced Sergeant, he was awarded his Long Service and Good Conduct Medal with Gratuity per Army Order 412 of 1914, and saw further service during the Great War with the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force from 15 September 1916 to 25 July 1918. He was finally discharged on 22 August 1918, after 22 years and 132 days’ service.

QSA listed on WO100/156p22 (9th Co RE) with clasps that are not similar to the other members of the 9th Co RE on this page. KSA listed on 313p75.

His link to the Balloon Section emanates only from the South Africa War Casualty Roll, p42 (21 March - 31 July 1900).

I cannot see anything in Scott's papers about the Balloon Section. William A Bourne who is on the Balloon Section roll has these qualifications:



These are William Scott's qualifications:



On the same QSA roll page as William Scott is 1015 John Ramsay who did have a connection to the Balloon Section but he is listed on the Balloon Section rolls.

Can anyone link William Scott to the balloonatics?

All three balloon sections had been stood down by the middle of 1900. My great grandfather’s Second Section became the 3rd Field Troop immediately after the Relief of Ladysmith. As a result, the QSA medal roll prepared in July 1901 shows all his men serving with the 3rd F.T., with no indication that they had been “balloonatics” for the first four months of the war. Service papers, similarly, rarely show a ballooning connection.

So, to identify men of the 2nd Balloon Section, one needs to be aware that their unit was repurposed as No 3 Field Troop in March/April 1900. Matters are then complicated by the fact that by the end of the siege the Company had become severely depleted due to enteric, and new sappers had to be drafted in to bring the unit up to strength. Defence of Ladysmith clasp entitlement is a good indicator of which men of the 3rd F.T. had originally belonged to the 2nd Balloon Section. This, however, does not identify those who had remained at Durban to operate the hydrogen gas factory.

The exceptions in this case are a few men who transferred to the 1st Balloon Section. A separate 2nd Balloon Section roll exists for these seven men.

It would be helpful to know which R.E. companies the men of the 1st and 3rd Balloon Sections joined once aeronautical reconnaissance had been abandoned.

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Colonel C.M. Watson's article "Military Ballooning in the British Army", published in the Professional Papers of the Corps of Royal Engineers, Vol. 28 (1902), states that the 1st Balloon Section became No. 2 Field Troop, the 2nd Section became No. 3 Field Troop, and the 3rd Section was "transferred to the railway department".

A fourth improvised section, which saw service under Captain Phillips during Buller's Tugela operations, was "broken up". This unit had been made up of Engineers with no previous ballooning experience.

Checking the QSA roll for No. 2 Field Troop, I note that Captain Fair has helpfully filled in the "Remarks" column, indicating which men had seen previous service with the 1st Balloon Section. However, only five men fall into this category.



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