Photographic Collection: Major John Patterson, Staffordshire Regiment, Staffordshire Yeomanry, Walsall Home Guard
- Ref No: 1385
- Repository: Walsall Local History Centre
- Date: c1905 - 1962
- Creator: various
- Description: Primarily this is a photographic collection, but there are items of other ephemera within it. It is unclear as to the context of much of the material, so the collection has been arranged into three main series based on a chronological sequence; Pre World War One, World War One and post World War One. However, these are not guaranteed. Many photographs are in fact post-card photographs, some of which have been used.
- Admin History: John Patterson was born in Walsall around 1890 and lived in Walsall all his life. He joined the army around 1909. By the outbreak of war, and at the age of 21, he was a sergeant. In 1915 he was appointed as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Staffordshire Yeomanry, a Territorial Regiment; where he went on to achieve the rank of Captain.
The Staffordshire Yeomanry (Queen's Own Royal Regiment) was a unit of the British Army first raised in 1794. It first served overseas at the time of the Boer War. Patterson served with the Yeomanry at many training camps prior to World War I. At the outbreak of the war, Patterson and The Staffordshire Yeomanry, after a short period of training at Diss, Norfolk, were ordered to join the Egyptian Expeditionary Force in 1915.
The Regiment was attached to the Yeomanry Mounted Division in the Sinai and Palestine Campaign against the Ottoman Turkish and German army 1916-1918. It fought in the indecisive First Battle of Gaza and Second Battle of Gaza in March and April 1917. They finally won through in the Third Battle of Gaza in October 1917 and the crucial follow up Battle of Beersheba on 6 November 1917, where Allied victory at last left the field open for the capture of Jerusalem on December 9, 1917.
In July 1918 the Division was reformed as the Fourth Cavalry Division under the command of General Allenby and the Regiment played a key role in the decisive Battle of Megiddo (1918). The 1/1st Staffordshire Yeomanry joined the Desert Mounted Corps under the Australian General Henry George Chauvel and took part in his strategic cavalry 'bound' from the desert through Beisan, a forced march which covered an epic 87 miles in 33 hours: a record in cavalry history. After resting four days during which they took 5,800 prisoners, they converged with the spearhead of the Allied advance and made a triumphal entry into the Syrian city of Damascus with Allenby on October 1, 1918. After a week, the Regiment started on a 200-mile trek to Aleppo, having been reduced to just 75 men, 200 of them having become casualties from malignant malaria caught in the Jordan valley. However, Aleppo was captured on 25 October 1918. Five days later, Turkey surrendered.
After the war, Patterson remained with the Yeomanry for a number of years. In 1935 he was required to relinquish his commission having reached the maximum age for service. Patterson eventually went on to join the 27th Battalion Staffordshire Home Guard, later the Civil Defence Corps, where he headed a Company. He was given life membership of the British Legion in 1950 and remained in contact with the regiment through dinners and gatherings. He met the Queen in 1962, at the presentation of the guidons and colours to her. It is not currently known when he died. - Extent: 1 box
- Level: Fonds
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- For more information contact: Walsall Archives / Local History Centre
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