Following is a listing of records of service for some of the Dover boys who served in World War I.
It is not a complete list and is excerpted from "DOVER TIDINGSÓ a little newsletter published in Dover on October 20, 1919.
LEON A. BEAN
February 25, 1918, reported for service at Camp Devens which place he left
July 8, 1918, in the 801st Regiment Mounted Police; went across via London,
arriving in France August 25; on duty as M. P. for five months in Nevers,
St. Armand and other places; transferred to Advanced General Headquarters,
going forward to Trier, Germany; left Germany June 9, 1919, arriving in Camp
Mills, N. Y., the 10th of July; demobilized July 16, 1919.
JOHN J. BREAGY
Entered infantry service September 4, 1918; trained at Camp Upton and Camp
Mills, Long Island; sailed for Brest October 11, 1918; assigned to Toul sector
in 82d Division; there till the armistice and then went to Rest Camp at Chaloncey
and at Loupiac, Southern France; home June 6, 1919.
EDWARD J. COMISKEY
Ensign: May 12, 1917, enrolled seaman, 2d class, at Newport, and on July
18, 1917, was transferred to the Mine Detail at New London; again was
transferred, February 16, 1918, to U. S. Submarine Chaser 238 at New York;
April 5, 1918, the Chaser joined the Atlantic Fleet and ehgaged in patrol
service; August 29, 1918, he was assigned to the Naval Academy with the rank
of Ensign; then after the armistice was under orders for inactive duty and
so, on February 4, 1919, ended his service.
ARTHUR B. EMMONS, 2D
Major: Entered medical service and on May 3O, 1917, left Dover to report
at Fort Benjamin Harrison to the Medical Officers Training Camp; made First
Lieutenant in Medical Reserve Corps and assigned to Instruction Company G
at Evacuation Hospital 2; promoted to Captaincy August 6, 1917, and assigned
to Camp Merritt, N. J.; went "across" reaching Bazoilles-sur-Meuse February
1, 1918, where his unit constructed hospital buildings for a large base;
then to Baccarat and set up a hospital where he remained eight months working
within six miles of the front line till after the armistice; after that to
Coblentz with the Army of Occupation and there became the officer in charge
of the chief hospital of the group of five evacuation hospitals in the area;
some time before the armistice he was put in charge of the medical department
of the hospital till relieved for home-coming; made Major February 17, 1919,
and demobilized same month.
ELIOT WIGHT HIGGINS
First Lieutenant: Training Camp, Plattsburg, May 12, 1917, for two months;
transferred to aviation service and went to Massachusetts Institute Technology
Graduate School, August 1; graduated and sailed for France October 17, 1917,
going directly to the large American Aviation Camp at Issoudun; from there
February 10, 1918, ordered to Italian Government Aviation School at Foggia
where he received the Italian flying brevet, also, commission as First
Lieutenant, and after four months flying and propaganda work returned to
France to engage in artillery observation; stationed at Tours and later assigned
to advanced flying training at Issoudun on French planes; demobilized February
5, 1919.
J. RUSSELL HIGGINS
Sergeant: Entered Medical Corps December 19, 1917, and ordered to Fort Standish,
Boston Harbor; there till October, 1918, when he changed to the infantry
service and was transferred to the Central Officers Training School at Camp
Gordon, Ga., there he continued till the armistice; demobilized December,
1919.
CHARLES JACKSON
Entered service October 22, 1918, in artillery and assigned to Camp Zachary
Taylor, Army Officers Training Camp; demobilized December 3,1918.
WILLIAM LEO MAKER
Went to Camp Devens April 26, 1918, and went overseas with Company D, 804th
Infantry July 8, 1918, arriving in London the 24th; thence to La Havre, arriving
;July 80; transferred to Company F. 116th Engineers August 28; trained with
several other companies with outlook toward the front; sailed for home December
25 with the 109th Casual Company, and discharged February 8, 1919.
HAROLD L. MACKENZIE
Entered artillery service December 7, 1917, and sent to Fort Standish, Boston
Harbor, then to Fort Banks, Winthrop, and to Camp Merritt, N. J.; sailed
for Liverpool March 26, and after a brief stay in English camps was shipped
to Havre and assigned to a light artillery training camp; thence on to the
front in the Toul sector where he was taken ill and sent to hospital; upon
recovery he rejoined his unit just before the Soissons drive and was in that
and in the Argonne battles, where, as he said, "I got mine"; made whole in
the hospital he was afterwards assigned to interior guard duty and on March
26, 1919, sailed for home; demobilized April 21.
WILLARD F. SMITH
Entered naval service May 28, 1917, and ordered to Newport and assigned to
U.S.S. Massachusetts; then sent to submarine base at New London, Conn., and
placed in the Listening School; sailed from Charleston, S.C., March, 1918,
on board Submarine Chaser 851 to St. Nazaire and Brest; then with Portsmouth
and Weymouth for base on patrol duty in the English Channel, and the same
service from Plymouth as base till the armistice; on board ship in France
till September 17, 1919, when he was mustered out.
WARREN SULLIVAN
A good sailor-man; applied for enlistment but was directed to the merchant
marine; went in February 28, 1917, and spent eighteen months on ships chiefly
engaged in carrying munitions the while "dodging submarines"; quit for good
October 30, 1918.
CHARLES BUSH THOMPSON
Upon entering the service he went into training at Camp Devens which he left
July 7, 1918, and arrived in France July 28; was assigned to police duty
in several small towns in central France till December, 1918; then went to
Trier, Germany, with the Army of Occupation; March 6, 1919, he was selected
to go to the A. E. F. University at Beaume where he engaged in several studies
till ordered home to be demobilized.
WILLIAM JOSEPH WALL
Was also in the merchant marine doing his part. He was stationed chiefly
in Boston.
HOWARD A. WELCH
Sergeant: Assigned to 101st Engineers and sailed from the States September
26, 1917; in battles at Chemin des Dames, Xirray Defensives, Pas Thierry
sector, Champagne-Marne defensive, Aisne Marne offensive, St. Mihiel offensive,
Meuse Argonne offensive; gunshot wound at Belleau July 20, 1918, and in May,
1918, cited for a successful " Coup de main " on the enemy's lines; promoted
Sergeant First Class April 3, 1919, and demobilized April 28.
The following article was written by Rev. Daniel Monro Wilson, Managing Editor of "DOVER TIDINGS" and included in the publication of October 20, 1919:
'In this issue there is begun a "Record of our Crusaders." A brief statement is made of the more important experiences of those who were in service. This cannot be done for all in a single issue of the TIDINGS, but in a succeeding number the record may be completed.
Of only a few of the Crusaders do we know where they went, of only a few do we know the fine things they did. We should like to know everything. Personally we may on auspicious occasions draw from our rather reserved participants in the Great War a satisfying story of things done, things attempted and things dreamed of.
How good it would be if such free utterances could be set down for future generations to read. That, however, is much beyond the scope of our most sanguine hopes.
A little we may save from oblivion. Our indefatigable town bookkeeper, Miss Clara P. Atkinson, is trying hard to secure the complete record for which the State calls. But in spite of her sympathetic interest in this task she is finding it difficult to win even the most meagre details from but a few.
Please respond more speedily and heartily! And as to the TIDINGS, is the dream of a still larger response to be realized? Note what in this issue we are printing and let us have your record at an early date.'
THE SAME GOES FOR NOW TOO....
If you have any information about other Dover people
who served in World War I
please respond speedily and heartily. Send me the info and I'll be happy
to add it here.
Click the blue Link to send E-MAIL - To Dick Vara