By John D Ellis
Julian Clarence Gogerly (his surname also transcribed as Gogerley and Gogerty) was born in Maradana, Columbo, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in 1895. An electrician by occupation, he enlisted in the Royal Fusiliers in London in April 1916. On enlistment, he was 21 years of age, and 5 feet 7 inches tall.(1) He nominated his father, (Herbert Lindon Gogerty of Maradana, Columbo), as his next of kin. As JC Gogerly was a widower, his son, Charles Lindon Gogerty, was being cared for by his father and an allowance of 7 shillings a week [reduced to six shillings a week from 20th May 1917] was deducted from Julian’s pay and sent to his father for the maintenance of the boy. Julian undertook basic training with the 104th Reserve Training Battalion in Edinburgh, Scotland.(2)
During his time in Edinburgh he met Jeannie Crombie Bell Polsom. They were married in Newington in September 1916.(3)
By November 1916 he was serving as #44273 Private JC Gogerly in the Northumberland Fusiliers.(4)
Julian Gogerly served as a Private in the Northumberland Fusiliers in France between November 1916 and November 1917, (during which time he served successively in the 17th, 6th and 8th Battalions of the regiment and was wounded in the head by shrapnel).
In May 1917, a daughter, Ellen Isabella Gogerly, was born in Edinburgh.(5)
He was “at Home” (in Britain), between December 1917 and April 1918 (possibly linked to his wound). On returning to France. he was transferred to the 2nd Battalion of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry (here-after the “Ox and Bucks”). His regimental number then changed to No.35725. In June 1918, shortly after transferring, he was court martialled charged with disobeying a lawful order (specifically, to assist in the construction of a shelter). He was convicted and sentenced to thirty days of Field Punishment Number 1. Field Punishment Number One, (referred to as “F.P. No. 1” or just “No. 1”), consisted of the convicted man being placed in handcuffs and attached (often in a “stress position”), to a fixed object, such as a gun wheel or a fence post, for up to two hours per day, three days out of every four. It was usually applied in field punishment camps set up for this purpose a few miles behind the front line, but when the unit was on the move it would be carried out by the unit itself.
Following his punishment, he soldiered on in France with 2nd Battalion Ox and Bucks until the armistice was declared in November 1918. The following year he was discharged, and in May 1920 he was living in Edinburgh, awaiting re-patriation to Columbo. To facilitate re-patriation he had to be temporarily recalled to colours. Thus, and once more as Private in the Ox and Bucks LI, he and his family moved to Winchester, Hampshire. Accompanied by Jeannie and Ellen, he departed from England for India on the SS. Mandala (of the British and Indian Steam Navigation Company. Brought into service in 1915, the Mandala was scrapped in Italy in 1934)) in July 1920.
In 1921 he was awarded the British War Medal 1914-1920 and the Victory Medal.
In August 1931 he wrote to the War Office in London detailing his service in the Great War and describing how it had impacted on his health. He referred to himself as “a Ceylonese ex-soldier” (the only indication in the many documents on his file that he was not white – a white man would have been unlikely to describe himself in this way) and detailed the hardships he suffered, including being wounded, and suffering from both trench foot and shellshock (the latter perhaps being a factor in his refusal to obey orders and subsequent court martial).
He revealed that he was now father to three children and, because of poor health attributable to his wartime service, he was finding it difficult to work. He requested that his service be counted towards his pension by his employer, the Ceylon Telephone and Telegraph Department. There is no record of a reply. His fate, and that of his family, remains unknown.
Sources:
1)UK, British Army World War I Service Records, 1914-1920. War Office: Soldiers’ Documents, First World War. TNA WO 363. From ancestry.co.uk
2)After conscription was introduced in mainland Britain in 1916, the responsibility for basic training was removed from individual regiments and replaced by the Training Reserve. Trained soldiers were then sent where-ever they were needed.
3)1916. Gogerly, Julien Clarence. Newington, City of Edinburgh. Statutory Civil Register – Marriages 685/5/72. National Records of Scotland. www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/view-image/nrs_stat_marriages/2404830?return_row=0 The marriage entry identifies Julian Gogerly’s mother’s name as Ellen and reveals that his father was a retired Railway Guard. Interestingly, his address in Columbo was given as Hopetown Studies, Slave Island. Which was formerly the address of Adolphus William Andree (1869-1910), an accomplished Ceylonese photographer.
4)UK, British Army World War I Service Records, 1914-1920. War Office: Soldiers’ Documents, First World War. TNA WO 363. From ancestry.co.uk
5)1917. Gogerly, Ellen Isabella. St Giles, City of Edinburgh. Statutory Civil Register – Births 685/4/551. National Records of Scotland. www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/view-image/nrs_stat_births/46938766?return_row=0 Ellen was born at 51a Nicholson Street, Edinburgh on the 20th of May 1917. Julian Gogerly registered the birth.