Others who served in 79th Brigade.

The Diary of Captain Arthur Impey, 78th and 79th Brigade R.F.A. , A & C/79.

Captain Impey was initially with 78th Brigade and later moved to “A” Battery 79th Brigade on 1 July 1917. On 28 September he was injured and went back to England, returning to the Brigade on 22 August 1918, serving in “A” and “C” Batteries. His diary covers August to November 1918.

Acting Bombardier Arthur Edwin Pickering, C/79.

28644 Acting Bombardier PICKERING A.E. was injured on 23 April 1917 while with “C” Battery of 79th Brigade near Monchy-le-Preux. Prior to this he had been with 11th Divisional Artillery Column, and afterwards he joined the Royal Engineers. He contracted Spanish Flu / pneumonia, and died on 19th November 1918.

Captain Anthony Mario Ludovici, B & C/79.

Anthony Mario Ludovici was amongst other things a (very controversial) philosopher and a prolific author. In one of his books, “Man’s Descent from the Gods,” he wrote;
“All the time we were in the line on the Somme, for instance, scarcely a day passed that the food, at least of the men, was not stewed;* but then, as the officers and men of my battery will be able to remember, our casualties from boils and scabies (a sort of dermatitis revealing at the very least a low state of resistance to bacterial infection if not subacute scurvy itself) were pretty heavy throughout the latter months of 1916 . Nor could this be ascribed to dirt alone, as one of the smartest and cleanest N.C.O’s of the left section now alas! dead suffered from it most severely.”
* I am speaking of C Battery, 79th Brigade, R.F.A. “

He described himself during the period on the Somme as “a miserable and vermin-ridden trench-rat.”

He initially joined “B” Battery 79th Brigade on 31 March 1916 at Armentiéres as a 2nd Lieutenant, probably moving to “C” Battery in May when the Brigades were reorganised before the Somme. At some point he was promoted to Captain. Later in the war he joined the Intelligence Staff at the War Office, rising to head his department (MI6 A).

Captain Edward Nottidge, D/79.

Captain Nottidge commanded “D” (Howitzer) Battery 79th Brigade from 6 July 1916 until his death near Thiepval on 8 November 1917.

Major C.H.A. Huxtable, D & B/79.

He was listed in the War Diary as having been slightly injured on 1 March 1916 while a Lieutenant in D Battery. On 24 July 1917 (by then an Acting Captain) he was appointed to command B Battery. He prepared some notes on B Battery during the German Spring Offensive 21-23 March 1918, this is also on the Documents page.

Major William Hay Gosse M.C. A/80 and A/79.

Australian-born William Hay Gosse went to France as a Lieutenant in “A” Battery 80th Brigade on 15 July 1915. Although the linked biography states he was promoted to Captain on 1 January 1917, the war diary refers to him being a Captain and commanding A/79 on 4 September 1916. 80th Brigade had been broken up on 31 August and the personnel had gone to either 78th or 79th Brigade.

The diary shows he was wounded on 18 April 1917 at Monchy-le-Preux, (by that time he had been promoted to Major), and on 15 October 1917 at Langemarck. Presumably following treatment for his injuries, he was re-posted from Base to command A/79 on 18 November 1917, at this point an Acting Major. Captain Impey above was his second-in-command between July and October 1917.

On 31 December 1917 he returned from a gunnery course and assumed temporary command of 79th Brigade in the absence of Lt. Col. L.E. Warren on leave. On Warren’s return on 16 January 1918, Major Gosse returned to commanding “A” battery. He was killed on 5 April 1918 at Senlis by a direct hit on his dugout.