"So great is the roll of the regiment that it may be taken to be the British Army, or indeed the British race, in little. If you seek men of leisure, you may find them here; if sportsmen, here they are; if bankers, accountants, stockbrokers, lawyers, men of science, administrators, poets, writers or 100,000 cockneys grousing in a characteristically hearty manner and concealing a wealth of heroism and kindliness under a proper protective irony - here they are. In fine, here is the British race in frieze and fustian."
Welcome
This web site is dedicated to the memory of the officers and men of the 12th Battalion Royal Fusiliers 1914-1918.In these pages we chart the journey of 12RF through World War One, from being raised in 1914 to the unit's disbandment in 1918. The idea behind the original notes was simply to add some extra interest to a short holiday tour around Picardy and Flanders that descendants of one Royal Fusilier were planning in 1998, a sort of 80th Anniversary travelogue through the areas in France and Belgium where the 12th Royal Fusiliers had served in the war. We just wanted a few dates and a few place names as focal points.
But we got carried away.
And we defy anybody not to have been so. It is an extraordinary story of a real-life struggle to survive against the odds. It is also a story of unbelievable courage and generosity of spirit and humour, and that is why, twelve years later, we are still at it.
Other than one Medal Roll with a limited number of names, and the Battalion War Diary, these men, having done their duty, had simply disappeared. No records are extant specifically regarding this unit which was one Kitchener's New Army Battalions. When the war was over, most papers were destroyed. Research began twelve years ago to try and rebuild those records. It has involved the examination of some 100,000 pages of documents held at the National Archives, the Imperial War Museum, and other Regimental Museums including the RF Museum at their old HQ (HM Tower of London). To date we have succeeded in tracing the names and the fate of some 3,000 men who served in this Battalion.
The result, this tribute to those men of 12RF, chronicles their fate and their three year journey as they battle up and down the Western Front trenches endeavouring to defy the statistics that now tell us that 30% would die, 60% would be wounded, and only 10% would return home physically unscathed. Arguably, 100% of those survivors were mentally 'wounded' by their nightmare experiences.
This web site is not about warfare per se. It is in part about two worlds - "Another World" that existed before 1914, and the one that emerged from the trenches in 1919. World War One was, as the historian Lyn Macdonald titled it, "The Death of Innocence" an end to an era. Above all, though, this web site is about people - people who once served their country but subsequently served only to make up the statistics that to us remain incomprehensible despite "the changed regard for numbers that the war insensibly produced" as the eminent military historian, H. C. O'Neill, so aptly puts it in his book "The Royal Fusiliers in The Great War". He went on to say about the Royal Fusiliers:
This, then, is the story of one man and one Battalion as they fought their way round the battlefields of The Great War. Who would survive? Did he survive?
Accessing this Web Site
The web site is not yet open for public access. It will be soon and to enter it you will need a username and password.
The web site has over 200 pages of information and includes several thousand images. In addition to my own research papers, over the years I have received a considerable amount of help, information, and image and text contributions, from many people around the globe, including families of 12RF men. In every case I have obtained their permission before preparing any information or images for inclusion on this web site - appropriate attribution is made throughout, of course. Copyright also applies to much of what will be on the web site. Subject to copyright restrictions, if readers wish to download material then I will seek prior permission from the contributors concerned.
If you are interested in receiving notification when 12RF.org is due to open, please email me here.