Genealogical war memorials for Bournemouth’s fallen
Battle of Sahil: November 17th, 1914
Introduction
Tales from the Front (20) tells the story of Harold Charles Legg, born in Victorian Bournemouth, who fought in the Great War. Born into a family of skilled craftsmen, connected to entrepreneurial farmers, Legg stepped away from this tradition to become a professional soldier. He enlisted at the age of 18 to go halfway around the world. He served with the 2nd Dorset Battalion, then stationed in India. From there, his battalion formed part of the force which invaded Iraq to protect British oil. Legg suffered wounds at the Battle of Sahil, from which he did not survive.
Tales from the Front (20): part 1
A fuller picture
Official references to the Bournemouth natives who fell in the Great War tend to flatten their lives. They report an individual at a single moment, but they give little insight into the person’s nature, physical or mental. Harnessing several genealogical fragments together may induce some insight, but much of the jigsaw remains unsolved. Though damaged by fire, the surviving British Army service records can breathe life into these fragments. One of these ‘Burnt Documents’ survives for Legg. It portrays an 18-year-old labourer of fresh complexion, blue eyes, and brown hair at enlistment. A scar ran over his right eyebrow. His left forearm bore a tattoo: ‘NT’, perhaps a girl. Slated for service abroad, Legg had two typhoid inoculations before leaving for India, two more whilst there. Difficulty with musketry reduced his pay until he improved. Thus, a fuller picture has emerged of a man who improved himself by application.
Tales from the Front (20): part 2
A successful journey
Legg’s father, an agricultural labourer’s son, seemed intent on improving his social position. First, he trained to become a carpenter, a skilled craftsman. Second, he showed a willingness to travel many miles and to different places to secure employment, even in his early seventies. Third, he secured marriage into a family a level above his, a cluster of farming entrepreneurs. Born in Affpuddle, 20 miles from Blandford Forum, in 1849, he married his wife, also native to his village, in Bournemouth. After producing two children here, he took his family back into Dorset before settling in Winton, Legg’s birthplace. Later in life, he and another son found employment through an extended kinship network provided by his wife’s sister’s husband, a prosperous farmer and businessman based in East Coker. Thus, through ninety years, Legg’s father had demonstrated enterprise and hard work to elevate and maintain his family’s improved social position.
A longer trek
Legg perhaps also experienced the restlessness that had pushed his father to break with his family’s tradition of rural labouring. As the youngest son, born and raised in Winton, he watched his elder brothers take up their father’s trade of woodworking. The lathe did not attract him. The army presented him with the opportunity to broaden his horizons. The Dorsetshire Regiment beckoned, persuading him to forsake labouring for soldiering. He joined the Regiment’s second battalion. Installed on the Rohilla, a British India Steam Navigation Company passenger steamer, he sailed in 1909. The 1911 census placed him in Poona, the site of the 2nd Dorsets’ barracks. When the battalion departed Bombay, most expected a return to Europe. Instead, Legg and his pals found themselves in Lower Mesopotamia, today’s Iraq. This sudden shift in destination took him to a distant, harsh landscape, where he encountered testing conflict against Ottoman forces.
Tales from the Front (20): part 3
The sad day
Early successes at Fao perhaps led British leaders toward faith in Ottoman collapse under a determined bayonet charge. Their perspective expected scant resistance from Turkish troops at Sahil fort. Thus, they ordered Legg and his Dorsetshire colleagues across a plain, flat and vacant as a billiard table. Torrential rain churned this earth into thick mud. Even though Turkish troops lay 1,000 yards distant, modern German Mauser rifles increased the jeopardy. Instead of a brief rush, the mire extended this advance for half an hour. Thus, the Dorsets stayed under Turkish volley fire far too long. This lack of pace made them easy targets. Also, faulty intelligence failed to prepare the men for lethal crossfire. Fatalities rose alongside high numbers of wounded, among them Legg. He died the next day. This tragedy marked a grim end for a Bournemouth soldier and an early reassessment of the capabilities of Ottoman troops.
Aftermath
Legg’s death deepened the tragedy for this family. Three of his sisters had already died before reaching 30, all unmarried. Yet, life continued. Government support for Somerset’s flax industry employed the family. His uncle became Managing Director of The Wessex Flax Factory Ltd. Legg’s father, still willing to travel, appears in 1921 working for the company at a site near Taunton. A brother applied his carpentry skills for Wessex Flax at Yeovil. The other brother, also a woodworker, worked for a shop-fitting company in Poole.
Within a few days, the Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force had advanced to take Basra, which the Turkish forces had abandoned. Basra, repaired and restored, became a British strongpoint. Thus, the British had succeeded in securing oil supplies for the Royal Navy. Yet, a fabulous prize lay just over the horizon: Baghdad. The ancient city’s reputation as a cultural landmark would become the greatest mirage of all.
Takeaway
Tales from the Front (20) has explored the background, life, and military career of Harold Charles Legg (1891-1914). Far from being a flattened statistic on a war memorial, Harold belonged to a family defined by a restless drive for social improvement. While his father used his carpentry skills to elevate the family’s status through hard work and travel, Legg sought his own path through the wider opportunities offered by the British Army. His journey took him from the familiar streets of Winton to the barracks of Poona, and finally to a rain-swept, muddy plain at Sahil.
‘Tales from the Front’
A collection of personal stories honouring Bournemouth’s natives who lost their lives on the battlefield and the regiments with which they served. Combining social and military history with genealogical insights, it examines their roots, families, occupations, and the sacrifices they made for their country. Set against the backdrop of regimental war diaries and enriched by contemporary media accounts, the series provides a compelling and intimate portrait of Bournemouth’s wartime heroes — a mosaic of personal bravery within the broader scope of history. Serving as a companion and continuation to Victorian Bournemouth, ‘Tales from the Front’ is part of News from the Past: History for the Rest of Us.
References
For references and engagement, please get in touch. Main primary sources: here and here (subscriptions needed). For War Diaries, go here. See also here. The featured picture shows an imagined scene.
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