Dr James Anderson Loughridge. Information needed.

[janwhin]

I did spend £30 at Glasgow on each of the WW2 army records for my dad and uncle, fantastic amount of info. However, looking at the local papers, I don't think Dr Loughridge had a WW2 role. Interestingly he was president of the local British Legion branch in 1935. Now would they have any records?

I don't know about grilling their knockwurst, they could have done with toasting your fat fingers.....giving me a senior moment like that

[Alan J.]

I may be wrong but wasn't there something posted recently that Dr Loughridge was medical officer to the Amble home guard prior to his death.

[Coquet]

I was thinking the same thing about the Home Guard Medical Officer. In the Baston thread post #6 he is mentioned as the Medical officer of the ARP, but that is just pre WW2, so no Home Guard in existence. I'm sure we have something regarding him as the Home Guard Medical Officer, but I don't think that would be published during the war years as it would be secret. Not sure where we have seen that.

[Coquet]

Originally Posted by janwhin

I did spend £30 at Glasgow on each of the WW2 army records for my dad and uncle, fantastic amount of info. However, looking at the local papers, I don't think Dr Loughridge had a WW2 role. Interestingly he was president of the local British Legion branch in 1935. Now would they have any records?

I don't know about grilling their knockwurst, they could have done with toasting your fat fingers.....giving me a senior moment like that

That Amble British Legion connection is interesting. Surely they produced some leaflets from time to time with a photo of their President in them? So who has some pre war Amble British Legion flyers in their bottom drawer then?

[Coquet]

this is from the Alnwick Gazette 2? Aug 1942




Amble Doctor's Death

M.O.H. FOR 30 YEARS

Great regret and sorrow was felt throughout Amble and district when it was learnt on Tuesday morning of the passing of Dr. J.A. Loughridge M.B., at his home at High Street, Amble at the age of 63.
He practiced in Amble for the past 37 years and was widely known and esteemed throughout the neighbourhood. A true friend of good causes, he took a deep interest in the public life of the town. A native of Larne, Northern Ireland, he was educated at Belfast and took his medical degrees at Edinburgh. He came to Amble as an assistant to the late Dr. H.M. Stumbles, about 35 years ago, a practice that continued for some years.
Dr Loughridge served in the R.A.M.C. during the Great War, both in Salonica and France. He was taken prisoner of war on the Western Front and undoubtedly the time he spent in captivity in Germany greatly affected his health, up to the time of his death.
He had been Medical officer of health for Amble for nearly 30 years, and since the present war commandant of the 1st aid post and ambulance service. He took a deep interest in many things affecting the welfare of the town. Ever since its inception he has been president of the Amble British Legion, and was a vice president of various sports clubs and societies in the town. The funeral takes place in Amble West Cemetery on Friday.

[Coquet]

The Long Long Trail; Salonika.



If our assumption that he served from the latter part of 1917 is correct, then the fact that he served in Salonika leaves only one option 'Division wise' to me: The 10th (Irish) Division (his capture in France was not late enough for him to be in the 60th Division)


[also assuming he was not moving around between field ambulances.]

[janwhin]

Lovely job, Coquet. I guess you've been sitting over the microfilm reader in Alnwick Library again.

Great to finally see a photograph of the man himself.

[Coquet]

Yep, on the Alnwick torture machine for 3 hours. Got WW1 up to end of June 1918 - nearly complete, but 1919 will still have plenty of stuff as well I suspect.

I got a more detailed account of the John Patten death at Broomhill colliery in 1916. Do you want it emailed? There was an underground fire in the 'South Hadson' area which had been burning for 5 years. This had spread and Patten was sent in to fix a hole in a leaking stopping and was killed by carbon monoxide.

[Coquet]

Regarding the 10th Irish Division, back to square one trying to find Loughridge's field ambulance, as that division went Egypt and Palestine after Salonika, not France so he was not with them.

This is the reference to Loughridge from the newspaper dated 27th April 1918. He was captured during the German Spring Offensive in March, Germany's last throw of the dice.



AMBLE DOCTOR MISSING

There was no better known man in Amble district than Dr. Loughridge R.A.M.C. and everyone will regret to learn that he is missing since the great battle in France on the 26th March.
In a letter to Mrs. Loughridge at Belfast, Captain Campbell, OC Field Ambulance to which Lieut. Loughridge was attached, states that the Ambulance was detailed to look after the evacuation of wounded in the Division and he was in charge of one of the posts, accompanied by a corporal and seven men - all picked soldiers. The Germans attacked and captured the village but the ambulance party succeeded in getting out in time, and resumed work in some old trenches further back. About 7.30 p.m., however, a stray German patrol worked round behind and cut them off. Fortunately there is no reason to suppose Lieut. Loughridge or any of his men were wounded, although they were taken prisoner by the enemy.

[janwhin]

Originally Posted by Coquet

I got a more detailed account of the John Patten death at Broomhill colliery in 1916. Do you want it emailed? There was an underground fire in the 'South Hadson' area which had been burning for 5 years. This had spread and Patten was sent in to fix a hole in a leaking stopping and was killed by carbon monoxide.

Thanks Coquet, I'll have it, and add it to the info we have.

[janwhin]

Originally Posted by Coquet

AMBLE DOCTOR MISSING

There was no better known man in Amble district than Dr. Loughridge R.A.M.C. and everyone will regret to learn that he is missing since the great battle in France on the 26th March.
In a letter to Mrs. Loughridge at Belfast, Captain Campbell, OC Field Ambulance to which Lieut. Loughridge was attached, states that the Ambulance was detailed to look after the evacuation of wounded in the Division and he was in charge of one of the posts, accompanied by a corporal and seven men - all picked soldiers. The Germans attacked and captured the village but the ambulance party succeeded in getting out in time, and resumed work in some old trenches further back. About 7.30 p.m., however, a stray German patrol worked round behind and cut them off. Fortunately there is no reason to suppose Lieut. Loughridge or any of his men were wounded, although they were taken prisoner by the enemy.

The National Archives has stuff on prisoners of war online but I haven't been able to track down our doctor.
BTW I notice Amble Council plans to set up a website for all the extra information they collected while researching their booklet on the Fallen. According to this week's Gazette, that is.

[Coquet]

BTW I notice Amble Council plans to set up a website for all the extra information they collected while researching their booklet on the Fallen. According to this week's Gazette, that is.

Yes I was told they were putting their data into a website. [that will be the data we were promised to be given for online publication] So what do we do when a lottery funded public sector website squeezes the private sector website? (that's a negative revenue public sector website ) Apply for a lottery grant? I guess I'll have to concentrate on something else. They'll definitely be the loudest kid in the playground regarding the subject in an online form, with the 'Ambler' and the 'Gazette' reporting every development. Bit of a shame really as WW1 has been a passion of mine since I was a boy (if you hadn't guessed). Sadly I can't devote the time I would like to the site as I still have to try and scrape a living. (I have a large bag of WW1 Cyclist Battalions army badges I have to photograph and put on ebay over the next week or so, which is very time consuming. So I can't even escape WW1 in my day job either.)

I think what I would have liked to have done regarding WW1 and Amble, was create a definitive list of those who served, perhaps across two pages, Amble east and west, with a 'hotspot' E/W Amble map at the top of each page marked with a 'hotspot dot' over the home of the casualties, which when you mouse over you get the individual casualty details. This idea was used and shown on TV with one of the Tyneside WW1 history groups doing it on their website. Would be interesting to see I think.

But I'm not going to duplicate material in competition with the council or any other website so it would be better if we moved on to another subject.

My favorite thoughts, AFTER I finish your (our) Mining Memorial, the Acklington Record Book and Warkworth cemetery photo processing :


1) FINALLY a page for Amble Battery
2) Timeline for Radcliffe Colliery and Village
3) WW1 'people' abandoned so do WW2.
4) Amble Colliers and other notable ships.

Of course I might just be dreaming with my time constraints.


ok back to work, first badge photographed and it's gone 12.30pm

now is it worth 40p, £4 or £40 ? I haven't a clue!

[Coquet]

Actually after that whinge by me, looking at one of our WW1 Pages it will probably be much broader in the area covered, so only partial duplication.

ie http://www.fusilier.co.uk/north_east...ww1_index.html


those pages would have been in year blocks, that one 1915, another for 1916 etc. I have an update for that one, but still not complete.

Once we had those complete, the next step to a couple of "those who served" pages from there, the absent voters list, casualty list and the surviving service papers would not be to difficult. (but still time consuming)

Worth noting Google does not like duplicated content so one website gets penalised I believe (or ignored in preference to the other, that will be us in the ignore category I assume )

[Coquet]

Back to the data from Alnwick, the WW1 medal citation for the Amble Baston serving with the Canadians is in there. (somewhere in my mass of photos )

[Coquet]

The Warkworth Cemetery Monumental Inscriptions are just about complete.
Making smaller images with copyright notice takes time, but anything and everything is being "borrowed" without credit for this site, so we have to make the effort from now on.

[janwhin]

Originally Posted by Coquet

Actually after that whinge by me, looking at one of our WW1 Pages it will probably be much broader in the area covered, so only partial duplication.

ie http://www.fusilier.co.uk/north_east...ww1_index.html

I reckon you've got it about right, this site certainly has a lot broader coverage, and we know all about the Council and its website plans.....remember the one about the East cemetery? Is there a chance they might mean this website and not their own, the Gazette may have misreported it
As I've said before, I would be happy to help a bit more....my job isn't everyday, well apart from home duties as the Australian electoral rolls say, and I definitely don't go actively looking for dust, it has to find me.

[janwhin]

Originally Posted by Coquet

Actually after that whinge by me, looking at one of our WW1 Pages it will probably be much broader in the area covered, so only partial duplication.

ie http://www.fusilier.co.uk/north_east...ww1_index.html

There's an awful lot of work in this already. I can see now why you were interested in GE Darling. I have a Duke School piece for Philip Scott Wood. I recognised the name as his mother was a Whinham

[Coquet]

I've become the custodian of Darling's medals. I'll have a Google later to find out about "Jack Johnsons" all of the guys talk about them in WW1 memoirs. I assume it's a trench mortar or shell of some sort.

Regarding transcriptions: I'll parcel together a couple of months worth of casualties and you can have a go at transcribing them if you can (get ready for eye strain). I'm extremely grateful for everything you get done for the site!

Anymore volunteers for eyestrain interesting transcribing of 100 year old newspaper reports?

Perhaps we can do a few in each year to get the pages live then add stuff as we go. The pages will actually be 1914-15 (already online), 1916, 1917, 1918-1919

[janwhin]

Too late, I've already got new reading specs as well as varifocals.......oh and a magnifying glass of my granddad's that he used to view his horses in the newspaper

[janwhin]

Originally Posted by Coquet

I've become the custodian of Darling's medals. I'll have a Google later to find out about "Jack Johnsons" all of the guys talk about them in WW1 memoirs. I assume it's a trench mortar or shell of some sort.

Well I've found out what "Jack Johnsons" or "Coal Boxes" were. A nickname used by British infantrymen for a heavy German shell (15cm artillery shell)which burst in thick black smoke, named after the World heavyweight boxing champion of the time, Jack Johnson (African American).