LOCKREY, James Alfred
| Service Number: | 848 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 1 February 1916 |
| Last Rank: | Sapper |
| Last Unit: | Australian Electrical and Mechanical Mining and Boring Company |
| Born: | Glebe, New South Wales, Australia, November 1897 |
| Home Town: | Glebe, New South Wales |
| Schooling: | Glebe Superior School |
| Occupation: | Electrician |
| Died: | Natural causes, 4 November 1991, place of death not yet discovered |
| Cemetery: |
Northern Suburbs Memorial Gardens and Crematorium, NSW |
| Memorials: | Glebe Roll of Honor, Glebe Superior Public School WWI Memorial, Sydney Morning Herald and Sydney Mail Record of War Service |
World War 1 Service
| 1 Feb 1916: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Sapper, 848 | |
|---|---|---|
| 20 Feb 1916: | Involvement Sapper, 848, Mining Corps, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '6' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Ulysses embarkation_ship_number: A38 public_note: '' | |
| 20 Feb 1916: | Embarked Sapper, 848, Mining Corps, HMAT Ulysses, Sydney | |
| 20 Feb 1916: | Embarked Sapper, 848, Mining Corps, HMAT Ulysses, Sydney | |
| 20 Feb 1916: | Involvement Sapper, 848, Mining Corps, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '6' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Ulysses embarkation_ship_number: A38 public_note: '' | |
| 30 Sep 1916: | Involvement AIF WW1, Sapper, 848, Australian Electrical and Mechanical Mining and Boring Company | |
| 9 Dec 1918: | Embarked AIF WW1, Sapper, 848, Australian Electrical and Mechanical Mining and Boring Company, returned to Australia onboard HS Leicestershire, crushed left foot | |
| 11 Mar 1919: | Discharged AIF WW1, Sapper, 848, Australian Electrical and Mechanical Mining and Boring Company |
Tues. 24/12/1918 - "Booby Traps; Little Tricks of the Huns" - by Willie Wombat
The following article was written for the Sydney Morning Herald under the nom-de-plume of ‘Willie Wombat’, a member of the 2nd Tunnelling Company. The early work of the Tunnellers was totally secretive and therefore little information of their duties was publicly given. The article was printed months after the event, giving the families some insight as to the Tunnellers role in the war. The article is how it appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Tuesday December 24, 1918
"BOOBY TRAPS."
LITTLE TRICKS OF THE HUNS.
(By Willie Wombat.)
FRANCE, Sept 17.
"Booby trap" hunting, while possessed of a certain amount of sport, has its element of risk. It requires men with strong nerves, a clear head and a keen eye. Presence of mind, too, is a great essential; in all these the Australian miners excel.
Hunting for traps and mines is no sinecure. The Germans have organised the system to such an extent, especially when making an organised withdrawal from certain positions, that great care must be exercised. The most likely places for traps, and which are regarded with special suspicion by troops until expert parties of miners examine them, are elaborately furnished dugouts, dugouts under roads, single houses left standing where others are destroyed, all new work or new trench or other equipment in the midst of weather worn ground, second hand articles, recently disturbed soil, new metalling, new trench boards, souvenirs (such as helmets, shells, badges and bayonets left in conspicuous positions), articles sticking in the ground, such as stick grenades or shovels.
Methods of firing these traps and mines are many. Delay action fuses depend on the eating away of a wire by a corrosive solution. They are absolutely silent, and require no connections outside the charges. The long delay action fuse is an imitation pattern of a Hun gun fuse, and is chiefly intended for blowing up guns and munitions. Clockwork devices are of complicated make, and their only chance of discovery is by ticking being heard. There are also percussion methods, which may be set in action by treading or pressing on a board hidden under earth, or by pressing against a railing, when a safety pin will be withdrawn or a striker may be driven into a detonator. Electrical systems depend on a pull on a wire or pressure on some article to complete a contact. Telephone wires found are cut at once. Care, however, has to be taken in the matter of taut wires, which may be found mixed with stack wires as they may be empty supporting a weight which, if the wire is severed, will drop on a detonator.
Dugout traps are many. A shovel stuck into the side of a dugout between the timbers when removed may pull a wire which explodes a mine. A trench stove may have a stove-pipe dismantled, and one wire attached to the leg of the stove and the other to the stove-pipe. When the stove-pipe is picked up a mine is fired. A charge of 2000lb of perdite may be in the seemingly dead-end of the gallery of a dugout, and connected to ordinary telephone wires. A window weight may be suspended by a fine cord stretched across the entrance of a dugout and on a man entering the cord would be broken and the weight fall into a box of detonators connected to a charge of explosives. Cap badges, artificial flowers, bits of evergreen, pieces of shell, and other articles likely to be picked up as souvenirs, are left in dugouts and attached to charges. Handrails on the steps of dugouts may be attached by wires to charges. Charges may be placed in a chimney, with a length of fuse attached, which would be ignited if a fire were lighted. A book on a table may have a wire down the leg of a table to a charge. A step in the stairway of a dugout of thin planking walked on will make contact with a mine.
Other dugout tricks consist of placing a branch of a tree over the entrance as if to conceal it. On moving the branch the explosion takes place. A dozen stick grenades may be fired by means of a wire attached to a sandbag, which has to be moved before the door of a dugout can be opened. A blown-in entrance to a dugout is not always a safety sign, as charges may be concealed in the un-destroyed portions-they are generally crudely arranged contact charges.
One of the timbers on the side of the staircase of a dugout was noticed to be projecting slightly inwards at the top, though it was in place at the bottom. It was found that a nail had been driven through the lower end, and the point was placed against the cap of a cartridge, which had a charge of explosive behind it. A slight push on the plank and the nail would have struck the cap and exploded the charge.
In the trenches the Hun traps are not so numerous but there are four kinds which are looked for. They are hand grenades, liable to explode when kicked or trodden on. Two days after the beginning of the Australian advance a party of Tommies, a corporal and five men, were coming along the road between Villers-Bretonneux and Warfusie, when one of the men in the lead carelessly kicked a grenade out of his way. It exploded, and three men were killed and the rest of the party wounded, two seriously. New trench boards on the fire step may detonate grenades when trodden on. Barricades, interlaced with wires, may be attached to stick grenades. Hand grenades may be buried in a trench, attached to a telephone wire, just showing above the earth.
Mine traps on roads may be cavities hollowed out under the road, leaving only the crust, and 8-inch shells are placed in the cavities with contact fuses arranged to fire at the slightest pressure. An automatic box mine, designed apparently to explode under a weight greater than that of a man has been found on a road, the box being a few inches below the surface of the road. Some hundreds of this latter class have been discovered and destroyed by Australian miners and engineers during the past six weeks.
The setting of "booby traps" by the Allied armies is unknown. In our biggest retreat, from Cambrai to before Amiens, our engineers could have laid thousands of these if they had so desired. The creation of craters on main highways and cross roads and the demolition of bridges before an advancing army must not be confused with "booby traps." They are legitimate methods for covering a retreating army.
Submitted by Julianne T Ryan, courtesy of Donna Baldey. 27/03/2017. Lest we forget.
(The article was transcribed by Donna Baldey from microfilm held by James Cook University, Townsville.)
Submitted 27 March 2017 by Julianne Ryan
Tues. 24/12/1918 - "Enemy Army Orders; Tributes to Australians" - by Willie Wombat
The following article was written for the Sydney Morning Herald under the nom-de-plume of ‘Willie Wombat’, a member of the 2nd Tunnelling Company. The early work of the Tunnellers was totally secretive and therefore little information of their duties was publicly given. The article was printed months after the event, giving the families some insight as to the Tunnellers role in the war. The article is how it appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Tuesday December 24, 1918
ENEMY ARMY ORDERS
TRIBUTES TO AUSTRALIANS
(By Willie Wombat)
FRANCE, Aug 18 [1918]
An interesting document signed by General von der Marwitz on July 6 was captured by the Australians. It complains that divisional generals are permitting the enemy (Australians) in minor operations to take prisoners the whole front line battalions, as well as others from the supports, which he emphatically points out is due to bad leadership. He says:—“The forward positions gained by us in our offensive contain too large a garrison, and the main fight takes place too near the front line.”
Von Marwitz, accordingly instructed commanders that very few men were to be utilised in manning the front line, and as few as possible for a distances of a thousand yards back.
The second army order was the beginning of a series of divisional orders. The commander of the 41st division issued the following on July 9 :— “The enemy (Australians) penetrated the forward zone of the 108th Division at midday yesterday without artillery preparation, by means of large patrols, and did the same again at 11 o’clock with artillery astride the Villers-Bretonneux railway. He occupied the trench where this outpost lay, and apparently captured the outpost, consisting of 15 men. A larger part of the forward zone has been lost.”
The order concludes with the following unique tribute:—“The enemy, who has grown up in the Australian bush, wriggles to our posts with great dexterity from flank and rear in the high crops, in order to overwhelm them. It has often happened that complete pickets have disappeared from the forward line without trace. I expect this division to remember its good reputation.”
On July 13 von Marwitz issued the following further order:—“During the last few days the British (they were Australians) succeeded in penetrating and capturing single posts and pickets. Gradually, sometimes even in daylight, they managed to get possession of the greater part of the forward zone of one division. The tactical situation of the army front has thus been considerably altered for the worse.”
Submitted by Julianne T Ryan, courtesy of Donna Baldey. 27/03/2017. Lest we forget.
(The article was transcribed by Donna Baldey from microfilm held by James Cook University, Townsville.)
Submitted 27 March 2017 by Julianne Ryan
Tues. 13/08/1918 - "An Australian's Feat" - by Willie Wombat
The following article was written for the Sydney Morning Herald under the nom-de-plume of ‘Willie Wombat’, a member of the 2nd Tunnelling Company. The early work of the Tunnellers was totally secretive and therefore little information of their duties was publicly given. The article was printed months after the event, giving the families some insight as to the Tunnellers role in the war. The article is how it appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Tuesday, August 13, 1918
AN AUSTRALIAN’S FEAT.
(By Willie Wombat.)
FRANCE, June 18. [1918]
There are many Australian who show an utter disregard for danger and treat with contempt any suggestion that they “weren’t game to put a ‘stunt’ on to Fritz.” A brilliant young Australian, with a geological turn of mind, picked up a curiosity in chalk formation after a fight in the vicinity of Villers-Bretonneux. He, however, lost it in a scrimmage that took place afterwards, and having an idea of the place he set out to find it. He lost his bearings and got into the lines of an English division. He told some of them what he was looking for, and they laughed, and suggested that if he wanted souvenirs there were plenty “over-there”—indicating the direction of the enemy lines. They told him that they were expecting an attack from the Hun at any time, and a Hun would be a useful souvenir for information. He agreed to the proposal without any argument—although, really, the division concerned thought they were taking a rise out of him. He adjusted his equipment, and hopped over the bags into No Man’s Land. He started off, wriggling like a snake, until he gained the leeward of a hummock, after which he walked boldly along. Shortly afterwards he came in touch with an enemy working party, and after yelling and cheering and brandishing his bayonet after the fashion of some native war-dancer he ordered all hands to return to the dugouts except one, whom he wanted to have a chat with. They seemed to understand, and did as they were told. One German he guided back to the line of the English division, much to their surprise, at the point of a bayonet. On arrival he absolutely refused to hand over his Fritz, whom he would himself hand over to his own divisional headquarters. He didn’t mind their interrogating the prisoner, but as the captor was an Australian he would hand over the Hun to Australians. It was impossible to make Australian headquarters that night without exceptional exertion, so he decided that the prisoner and himself should have a sleep. So that the prisoner should not escape or fall into the hands of the others for delivery he strapped Fritz’s leg to his own and also buttoned his tunic to that of the prisoner. This ingenious and gallant Australian delivered his prisoner in good order and condition.
Submitted by Julianne T Ryan, courtesy of Donna Baldey. 27/03/2017. Lest we forget.
(The article was transcribed by Donna Baldey from microfilm held by James Cook University, Townsville.)
Submitted 27 March 2017 by Julianne Ryan
Biography contributed by Julianne Ryan
born 29 November 1896, the second eldest of nine children.
Father James Herbert Lockrey and Mother Malvina Kingdom Lockrey (nee Pritchard)
lived at Glebe, New South Wales
An electrician by trade, he had been apprenticed to the Public Works Department, Sydney for 5 years. He named his mother, Mrs. Malvina K Lockrey, also of Glebe, as his Next of Kin.
Brothers in service:
4956 Lieutenant Ernest Henry Lockrey – 11 Field Ambulance / 2nd Infantry Battalion
Married to Doris Lockrey
29/06/1915 enlisted
22/08/1916 embarked Sydney onboard HMAT A18 Wiltshire
as a Sergeant with 2nd Infantry Battalion, 19th reinforcements
18/12/1916 joined the 2nd Infantry Battalion
28/05/1917 promoted to 2nd Lieutenant
10/01/1917 promoted to Lieutenant
05/07/1917 seconded as Intelligence Officer to the 1st Infantry Brigade
returned to Australia on the Ascanius
09/01/1920 discharged from service
Father of Bruce, father in-law of Doris Lockrey
06/05/1951 passed away at Masonic Hospital, Ashfield
cremated in: Rookwood Crematorium
WWII
N79544 Corporal Albert Edward Lockrey - Australian Army Pay Corps
Born 09/11/1908 at Glebe, NSW - lived at Campsie, NSW
05/12/1940 enlisted into WWII at Sydney, NSW
29/05/1941 discharged from service
67804 Leading Aircraftman Albert Edward Lockrey - 2 Embarkation Depot
17/07/1942 enlisted into WWII at Sydney, NSW
13/03/1944 discharged from service
KOREAN WAR: B2925 Assistant Commissioner Albert Edward Lockrey - YMCA
29/05/1952 1st Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment
18/04/1953 discharged from service
24/08/1969 passed away
NX51407 Private John Eric Lockrey - 2/10 Field Ambulance
Born 13/01/1911 at Glebe, NSW - lived at Ashfield, NSW
27/06/1940 enlisted into WWII at Paddington, NSW
17/01/1941 discharged from service
NX136488 (N54270) Captain Colin Lockrey (MID) - 2nd Australian BIPOD
Born 19/01/1919 at Glebe, NSW - lived at Ashfield, NSW
19/01/1940 enlisted into WWII
04/07/1940 promoted to Corporal
08/12/1940 promoted to Sergeant
05/11/1941 promoted to Lieutenant
appointed to Australian Army Service Corps
03/10/1942 at Port Moresby, New Guinea
12/07/1943 changed Next-of-kin to wife: Mrs Doris Merle Lockrey
08/02/1944 posted to Bulk Issue Petrol and Oil Depot (BIPOD)
12/06/1945 promoted as Captain
08/03/1946 discharged from service as Honorary Captain with 2nd Aust. BIPOD
03/05/1986 passed away
Sons in service:
412553 Flight Sergeant Ronald John Lockrey - 460 Squadron RAAF
Born 30/09/1922 at Paddington, NSW
19/07/1941 enlisted with RAAF at Sydney, NSW
He was a Lancaster Tail Gunner.
26/06/1943 killed in action - air battle over Germany
buried in: Reichswald Forest War Cemetery, Germany
His name is commemorated on Panel 107 at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra, ACT.
422963 Leading Aircraftsman Eric James Lockrey - RAAF Station Garbutt
Born 26/04/1924 at sea off coast of Spain
15/06/1942 enlisted at Sydney, NSW
26/08/1946 discharged from service
James Lockrey was just 19 years and 3 months old when he enlisted in the A.I.F. on 1 February 1916 at Casula, NSW.
James was 6ft and ½" tall with a fair complexion, blue eyes and light brown hair. He weighed 143lbs. He was found to be fit for active service and was appointed to the 1st Reinforcements to No.2 Company, Australian Mining Corps.
Lockrey was assigned to No 1 Mining Corps and almost immediately embarked for overseas service 19 days later from Sydney aboard HMAT Ulysses, on 20 February.
At a civic parade in the Domain, Sydney on Saturday February 19, 1916, a large crowd of relations and friends of the departing Miners lined the four sides of the parade ground. Sixty police and 100 Garrison Military Police were on hand to keep the crowds within bounds. The scene was an inspiriting one. On the extreme right flank, facing the saluting base, were companies of the Rifle Club School; next came a detachment of the 4th King’s Shropshire Light Infantry, then the bands of the Light Horse, Liverpool Depot, and the Miners’ on the left, rank upon rank, the Miners’ Battalion.
The Corps boarded HMAT A38 Ulysses in Sydney, NSW on February 20 and sailed for the European theatre. Arriving in Melbourne, Victoria on February 22 the Miners camped at Broadmeadows for a stay of 7 days while further cargo was loaded.
Another parade was held at the Broadmeadows camp on March 1, the Miners’ Corps being inspected by the Governor-General, as Commander-in-Chief of the Commonwealth military forces.
Leaving Melbourne on March 1, Ulysses arrived at Fremantle, Western Australia on March 7 where a further 53 members were taken on board. On Wednesday March 8, 1916 the whole force, with their band and equipment, paraded at Fremantle prior to leaving Victoria Quay at 9.30 o’clock.
The ship hit a reef when leaving Fremantle harbour, stripping the plates for 40 feet and, although there was a gap in the outside plate, the inner bilge plates were not punctured. The men on board nicknamed her ‘Useless’. The Miners were off-loaded and sent to the Blackboy Hill Camp where further training was conducted.
The Mining Corps comprised 1303 members at the time they embarked with a Headquarters of 40; No.1 Company – 390; No.2 Company – 380; No.3 Company – 392, and 101 members of the 1st Reinforcements.
Finally departing Fremantle on April 1, Ulysses voyaged via Suez, Port Said and Alexandria in Egypt. The Captain of the ship was reluctant to take Ulysses out of the Suez Canal because he felt the weight of the ship made it impossible to manoeuvre in the situation of a submarine attack. The troops were transhipped to HM Transport B.1 Ansonia, then on to Valetta, Malta before disembarking at Marseilles, France on May 5, 1916. As a unit they entrained at Marseilles on May 7 and detrained on May 11 at Hazebrouck.
On his way to Hazebrouck with 2 Company, 1 Mining Corps.
A ‘Mining Corps’ did not fit in the British Expeditionary Force, and the Corps was disbanded and three Australian Tunnelling Companies were formed. The Technical Staff of the Corps Headquarters, plus some technically qualified men from the individual companies, was formed into the entirely new Australian Electrical and Mechanical Mining and Boring Company (AEMMBC), better known as the ‘Alphabetical Company’.
No.2 Company was redesignated 2nd Australian Tunnelling Company and James worked with that unit until he was transferred to the newly formed, and unique, Australian Electrical and Mechanical Mining and Boring Company on 29 September, being taken on charge on 30 September.
He was transferred to the Australian Electrical and Mechanical Mining Engineer Second Tunnelling Company on 30 September 1916 and served with them for over a year before being wounded by a piece of shrapnel which lodged in his cheek on 29 November 1917 (his twenty first birthday - he later related that he was unimpressed with the enemy's timing); his mother was informed shortly after that he had been 'wounded slightly but remains at post'.
James reported sick on 27 April 1918 and was hospitalised (with trench fever at Boulogne and Rouelles) until 23 May when he was discharged back to the Base Depot before rejoining his unit 3 June.
Granted two weeks leave from 23 August 1918, James Lockrey accepted the offer of a Scottish soldier, Jack MacLaren, to spend his leave with MacLaren's family in Inchture, Scotland where James met and fell in love with Jock's sister Bessie. Before his leave was over, he declared his love for her and proposed marriage. She accepted.
An accidentally crushed foot on 30 October, although considered only mild, saw him evacuated on 4 November 1918 for admission to the Voluntary Aid Detachment, Cheltenham, England. He was transferred to the 3rd Auxiliary Hospital at Dartford for further treatment and then discharged to the No.2 Command Depot at Wymouth on 27 November 1918.
Obliged to return to France, his war ended shortly before Armistice with an accidentally crushed foot, suffered on 20 October which kept him in hospital until late December 1918.
Probably against his will, Sapper Lockrey was invalided back to Australia aboard HMAT Leicestershire which embarked from England on 20 December and arrived Sydney 23 January 1919, without being able to return to Bessie.
He was discharged on the grounds of medical unfitness on 11 March 1919 and returned to his job as an electrician with the Sydney Morning Herald.
His fiancee was able to travel to Australia as a war bride aboard SS Megantic and the couple finally married at Penshurst on 27 March 1920.
Entitled to wear the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.
In 1930 James Alfred Lockrey, electrician, and Bessie are living at 2 Station Street, North Strathfield. The 1933, 1936 and 1943 Electoral Rolls record James Alfred Lockrey, electrician, and Bessie living at 9 William Edward Street, Lane Cove, NSW.
In the 1930s-1940s, James Alfred Lockrey was a Trustee of the Grand Lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and at various times held the offices of Grand Master and Grand Warden.
In 1949 James Alfred Lockrey, electrician, and Bessie living at 12 River Road West, Lane Cove and their son, Eric James Lockrey, audit clerk, are living at 9 William Edward Street, Longueville, NSW.
Eric married Margaret Jean Walsh in 1952 at Rockdale, NSW. In 1954 James Alfred Lockrey, electrician, and Bessie are living at 12 River Road West, Lane Cove with sons Eric James Lockrey and Keith Lockrey, audit clerk.
1958 James Alfred Lockrey, electrician, and Bessie living at 12 River Road West, Lane Cove with Keith Lockrey, audit clerk. Eric James Lockrey, accountant, and Margaret Jean Lockrey are living at 3 Epping Road, Lane Cove. Between 1963 and 1968 James Alfred Lockrey, electrician, and Bessie are living at 12 River Road West, Lane Cove, and Eric James Lockrey, accountant, and Margaret Jean Lockrey living at 3 Epping Road, Lane Cove.
In 1971 J. LOCKREY was President of the A.E.M.M.& B. and Tunnelling Co., 1st A.I.F. Reunion Committee. His name appears in their Register in 1928 with the address Herald Electrical Staff, Pitt Street, Sydney. In 1934 he was residing at William Edward Street, Longueville and later at 12 River Road, West Lane Cove. During the 1960’s his address became 2/16 Avon Road, Dee Why and his aged care took place at the War Veterans Home in 105 East Block in Narrabeen, NSW.
Bessie Lockrey died in 1973 at St Leonards, NSW, the daughter of John and Louisa MacLaren.
In 1980 James Alfred Lockrey is living at War Veterans Home, Narrabeen.
Sydney Morning Herald - Wednesday November 6, 1991: DEATHS
LOCKREY, James Alfred—November 4, 1991, of Narrabeen, formerly of Lane Cove, dearly loved husband of Bessie (deceased), loved father and father-in-law of Ron (deceased), Eric and Margaret, Keith and Elayne and loved grandpa of Gilbert and Cathy, David and Catherine, Philip, Denise, Stewart and Mary, great-grandpa of Kylie and Alexander, dearly loved brother of Ernest, Jack, Albert, Sam, Colin, Flo and Edna (all deceased), and Rita. Aged 94 years Loving memories.
FUNERALS
LOCKREY—The relatives and friends of the late JAMES ALFRED LOCKREY are invited to attend his funeral service to be held in a chapel of the Northern Suburbs Crematorium, Friday (November 8, 1991), commencing at 1.50 p.m.
PARKWAY FUNERALS - DEE WHY - 981 5066 - F.D.A., N.S.W.
NOTE: "‘Coal Miner Diggers – Hunter Valley Coal Miners at The Great War", David H. Dial OAM, page 36:
“Author’s Note: After months of exhaustive research which I had undertaken to identify ‘Willie Wombat’, it is almost certain that ‘Willie Wombat’ was Sapper James Alfred Lockrey, a nineteen year old electrician from Glebe, in Sydney, who was employed at the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper before enlisting in the Australian Electrical and Mechanical Mining Unit of the AIF Mining Corps.”
Articles by Willie Wombat were published in the Sydney Morning Herald through the War.
Submitted by Julianne T Ryan, courtesy of Donna Baldey.
Thank you Donna for all your hard work and research.
24/03/2017. Lest we forget.
Biography contributed by Faithe Jones
James was born at Glebe in 1896, and educated at the Glebe Superior Public School. He joined the electrical department of the Sydney Morning Herald in July 1915.
Enlisting in Feburary, 1916, as an electrician in the Mining Corps he was on arrival in France attached to the Electrical and Mechanical Mining and Boring Compnay, which was formed out of that corps, and was engaged on the electrical work for the mining operations on different parts of the front. The Principal operations in which he took part were those at Armentieres, Givenchy (near La Bassee), Arras and Loos. He was slightly wounded at givenchy. He was on the Western Front until practically the end of hostilities.
A brother Ernest Herbert Lockrey, who went as Sergeant with reinforcements for the 2nd Battalion, was promoted on the iled to the rank of Lieutenant.
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