1
THE DAGNAN FILES.
Enrolled in Worcesters (6th?) with number 35950. Trade is difficult to read Coal
Deliverer? or could it be Canal something?
Age 36, married, lived Burgage Road. Never been in forces.
2
5ft 6 with a 40inch chest - wow, can you find me one!
next of kin Sarah Hannah Dagnan
Married Sarah Hannah Palmer at Parish Church, Nuneaton, 25 Dec 1904 (I think Dec, def
Oct/Nov/Dec) - Married in name George Bernard DagnIn (confirmed on Marriage
records)
3
children Thomas; Joseph Bernard; Agnes(?) and Arthur
Home 30/8/16 (hence Arthur!)
In action 5/2/17
Gas shell wound severe ??/?/18 - 15/3/18 or 25/3/18 ?? ( I think 15th)
4
Joined 30/8/16 6th Worcesters
UK 30/8/16 to 7/12/16
8/12/16 BEF = British Expeditionary Force to 10th Bn for a few days, then 14th Bn. until
wounded in 1918.
The 14th Bn. were a Pioneer battalion known as the Severn Valley Pioneers which means
they did a lot of the digging of trenches and other manual work - see http://www.19141918.net/worcester.htm. No easy task as until the trenches are dug, there's nowhere to
duck down.
25/3/18 assigned to "D" - depot battalion which means he's back in UK which suggests
that wounded on 15th March.
31st May - I don't know what this means
31st July - Attached ADC Warley
3/9/18 transferred to 667 Agricultural Company of the Labour Corps (with the new
number)
Feb 1919 absent without leave fined 20 days pay
26/4/19 Demobbed - transferred to class 'Z' means to reserves, so could be re-called if
necessary. Character good.
5
Nothing exciting in this one
6
Discharge Certificate 29/3/19
Discharged from Fovant camp
Medical class B2, born 1880
6 Burgage Walk Nuneaton
7
Obviously over the worst of the injury Granted furlough (leave) from 17 to 27 May 1918
8
tells us he was 'B' company 14th Worcesters
Pension payments
from 667 Agr Company, Labour Corps
30% disablement - can't read the rest
Pension from 2/4/19 for 26 weeks
8/3 per week and 6/- for the children
9
Not interesting, just passing Arthur's birth certificate between departments
10
Self explanatory
They probably wanted to see the certificate because of the surname spelling
11
Absent without leave for 19 days! Bad boy.
10 days Confined to Barracks & loss o 20 days pay which would hurt his family more
than him.
Basically same as 10 of 12, uninteresting
12
Final Email re Dagnan
Attached is a single page from the Worcesters History of WW1 by Stacke. This covers
Feb & March 1918, the time when he was wounded. Sounds strange to say, but maybe
he was lucky. From 21 to 31 March, 29 men of the 14th Worcesters were killed in the
German March Offensive - 22 of them on 25th March. I'm sure he suffered from his
injury, but he got home to his wife & kids.
The following website (looks like sourced from Stacke) gives the history of the 14th
during the WW1 period so you can see where Pte Dagnan was for the duration.
http://www.worcestershireregiment.com/wr.php?main=inc/bat_14
All the information above relates to your Great Grandad Dagnan, Grandmum Harris’
Dad
13
All the above information and copies of documents have come from a friend of Aunty
Maureen and Uncle Dek. I tried to get access to these years ago, and was told that
they had been destroyed in a fire at the records office. This Andy is obviously a
researcher who knows what he’s doing, and we should be grateful for discovering the
information.
As you can see, the documents do indeed look damaged.
All the notes on each page are from Andy, not me.