Second Lieutenant C H (Harry) Blackford
9th Royal Warwickshire Regiment
Harry Blackford is one of Ivo's ancestors.
Before World War 1 Harry worked as a teacher in Birmingham, England. He joined the army in July 1915 (?) and was sent to Gallipoli first, then Egypt and Mesopotamia.
On 6 November 1916 (year?), while at the Abu Shitaib Camp in Amara, Mesopotamia there was a Court of Inquiry into how Harry had wounded himself while giving a lecture and demonstration to his platoon about weapon safety. During the procedings, Harry himself testified as the 1st witness. His testimony, and that of two further witnesses are as follows:
1st Witness At
Abu Shitaib camp at about 10.30 a.m. on Saturday November 4th 1916
was giving a (?) to my platoon in the (?). To illustrate the importance of
keeping the contactor(?) and extractor clean and free from sand and proceeded
to (?) the detail of (?) extraction and
incidentally raised the point as to why the cartridge was conically shaped. To
illustrate this I inserted a live round
into the chamber, holding the rifle with the muzzle(?) pointing to the ground.
I closed the bolt retaining hold on the bolt leverwith the intention of slowly
drawing it back to show the men the principle of extraction.
At
this point one of the men asked me a question and I proceeded to answer him
which took several minutes. During this time I rested the muzzle with the toe
of my boot while explaining to the men.I heard an explosion and found that I
had shot myself in the toe.
2nd Witness Nr
6033 Sgt R Harrison 13th Divn Cyclists on being duly sworn in states
At
Abu Shitaib camp about 10.30 a.m. on Saturday 4th November 1916 Lt
CH Blackford was giving a lecture to the platoon on the care of arms. As Lt
Blackford had just inserted the cartridge in the breach one of the men asked
him a question and Lt Blackford proceeded to give a long explanation to him
taking his hand off the cartridge lieing in the breach. During this explanation
the rifle was heard to fire and the first thing I saw was the hole in Lt
Blackford’s foot.
3rd Witness Lt
E.L.Hopkins, RAMC, being duly sword in states
At
Abu Shitaib camp in the reception tentfor the 39th Field Ambulance
at about 11.30 a.m. on Saturday 4th
November 1916 I was asked to see Lt C.H. Blackford, 13th Divn
Cyclists company. I found him suffering from a perforating gunshot wound at the
extreme end of the second toe of his left foot. Apparently the bullet entered
at the root of the nail bed and came out
Harry eventually gained the rank of Lieutenant in the 9th Royal Warwickshire Regiment.
Following the end of the war, Harry was discharged from service on 18 March 1922. For his service, he was awarded the 1915 Star, the Victory Medal and the British War Medal.
After the war, Harry's brother Fred became the General Manager of the Brabant Needle Factory in Redditch. Harry took the role of Works Manager in the same company. He later became a member of the Redditch Urban District Council and Vice Chairman of the Estates Committee.
Sources of information
Family held records
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