WWI Roll of Honour – The General Electric Company

The IET Archives has just received the donation of a book titled, ‘Roll of Honour, The Great War 1914-1919, The General Electric Co. Ltd’. We are very grateful to the Staffordshire Regiment Museum in Lichfield for facilitating this deposit. The cover of this volume is shown below

This book was produced by The General Electric Company (GEC) in memory of its employees who died in World War I, and contains images and biographies of each of those individuals. GEC’s introduction to the book explains the impact of World War I on its workforce and that introduction is reproduced below.

“The General Electric Company Limited, with its various Branches, Works and Allied Companies, employed at the outbreak of War some 10,000 men. Two thousand one hundred and fifty of these men served with the colours: one hundred and fifty held commissioned rank: one gained the D.S.O.: thirteen gained the Military Cross (two with Bar): nine gained the D.C.M.: twenty-nine gained the Military Medal (one with Bar): three gained the M.S.M.: nine gained the French Croix de Guerre: one gained the Medaille Militaire and one the Serbian Cross. Of those who thus fought for their Country two hundred and fifty-two lost their lives: two hundred and eighty-one were wounded and thirty-two were taken prisoner. Those whose names are recorded in this book worked with The General Electric Company Limited at one or other of its Branches, Works or Allied Companies.”

Relevance of this Roll of Honour to the IET Archives

Many of the members of the IET’s predecessors, particularly the Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE), worked for The General Electric Company, and there are many GEC publications and also papers of GEC employees in the archive collections. This is despite the main GEC/Marconi archives being held at the Bodleian Library. The Bodleian Library already had a copy of this publication but we did not have our own copy.

In addition to the IEE’s own Roll of Honour for World War I, the IET Archives also holds several corporate publications produced by UK engineering companies which cover their involvement in the war for example, British Thomson-Houston Company’s ‘Our Part In The World War, 1914-1918’, to which this new donation will make a useful addition.

The Entries in the GEC Roll of Honour

The individual entries are much briefer than those in the IEE’s own Roll of Honour. A typical entry showing Gunner W Pickett, Royal Field Artillery, appears below.

Unfortunately the biographical information does not give details of memberships held by individuals. This means that some of the named individuals may have been members of some of our many predecessors other than the IEE, such as the Junior Institution of Engineers (JIE), but this wouldn’t be readily apparent.

One individual that does appear in both the GEC Roll of Honour and the IEE’s Roll of Honour is Second-Lieutenant Harry Gustav Byng, Second Battalion, The Border Regiment. Harry’s image from the GEC Roll of Honour is shown on the left below and his image from the IEE Roll of Honour is shown on the right below.

Harry was the third son of the Founder and first Chairman of GEC, Mr Gustav Byng (originally Gustav Binswanger). What wouldn’t have been obvious from the IEE Roll of Honour, but is evident from the GEC Roll of Honour, is that Mr G Byng’s second son, Lieutenant L G Byng MC, Grenadier Guards, was also killed in World War I. L G Byng died from wounds received 24 August 1918, less than 3 months before the armistice was signed on 11 November 1918.

For those interested in viewing the GEC Roll of Honour, it has been catalogued with an archive reference NAEST 248/1 and is available to consult by appointment at the IET Archive Centre, Savoy Hill House, London.

 

68th IEE Member to Fall in World War 1 – Second-Lieutenant G M Frieake

Second-Lieutenant Gordon Minter Frieake died 1 August 1916. His obituary was published in the IEE World War I Honour Roll and these details have been reproduced below (right click on the text image to enlarge the text).

67th IEE Member to Fall in World War 1 – Second-Corporal C J Burrage

Second-Corporal Charles James Burrage died 1 August 1916. His obituary was published in the IEE World War I Honour Roll and these details have been reproduced below (right click on the text image to enlarge the text).

66th IEE Member to Fall in World War 1 – Lieutenant R T Challoner

Lieutenant Rex Thomas Challoner died 25 July 1916. His obituary was published in the IEE World War I Honour Roll and these details have been reproduced below (right click on the text image to enlarge the text).

 

 

 

65th IEE Member to Fall in World War 1 – Private R L Castle

Private Reginald Lancelot Castle died 21 July 1916. His obituary was published in the IEE World War I Honour Roll and these details have been reproduced below (right click on the text image to enlarge the text).

 

64th IEE Member to Fall in World War 1 – Lieutenant S M Rawson

Lieutenant Stuart Milner Rawson died 20 July 1916. His obituary was published in the IEE World War I Honour Roll and these details have been reproduced below (right click on the text image to enlarge the text).

63rd IEE Member to Fall in World War 1 – Lieutenant J H W Palmer

Lieutenant John Henry William Palmer died 20 July 1916. His obituary was published in the IEE World War I Honour Roll and these details have been reproduced below (right click on the text image to enlarge the text).

62nd IEE Member to Fall in World War 1 – Second-Lieutenant F R Hoggett

Second-Lieutenant Frank Reginald Hoggett died 18 July 1916. His obituary was published in the IEE World War I Honour Roll and these details have been reproduced below (right click on the text image to enlarge the text).

 

61st IEE Member to Fall in World War 1 – Captain C S Wolstenholme

Captain Charles Skaife Wolstenholme’s obituary was published in the IEE World War I Honour Roll and these details have been reproduced below (right click on the text image to enlarge the text).