Family :

Service Life:

Campaigns:

• The First World War 1914-1918, World-wide.

Post War includes all operations in all theatres up to 31st August 1921. This excludes the campaign in Russia against the Bolsheviks. It also includes men who succombed to wounds post war and who died from various causes whilst still in the services but post war.

Detail :

WELCHMAN, Patrick Eliot, Lieutenant, 99 Squadron RAF Patrick Welchman lived in Lichfield and was educated at the King's School in Canterbury. His father was a Surgeon and was Mayor of Lichfield between 1906-07. Patrick Welchman worked at Lloyds Bank in Lichfield and joined 2nd North Midland Field Company in March 1913. Welchman was mobilised with the Company in August 1914 and went with 1/2nd North Midland Field Company to France on 1st March 1915. He was later awarded the Military Cross for his bravery during 46th (North Midland) Division's assault on the Hohenzollern Redoubt on 14th October 1915. He took over command of 1/2nd North Midland Field Company in December 1915 when Major Hatton was wounded. In early 1916, Welchman left the Company and joined the Royal Flying Corps, serving as an Observer with 8th Squadron. The 8th Squadron records that on the 18th of September 1916, Keith Caldwell chalked up his first kill whilst he and his observer, Captain P.E. Welchman, were engaged on artillery observation work. They shot down and destroyed a Roland C.II at Grevillers-Bucquoy. He was awarded a Regular Army commission in the King's Own Scottish Borderers in the same year. While out on a photographic reconnaissance flight over Bapaume on 26th September 1916, he was wounded by a shell splinter and was evacuated to England. After recovering from his wound, he was injured again on 4th June 1917 in a flying accident at Northolt. Patrick Welchman joined 99th Squadron of the Independent Force of the Royal Air Force in April 1918. He served initially as a flight commander and commanded the Squadron from September 1918, the same month in which he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. He was shot down and captured near Metz whilst returning from a bombing raid on Thionville on 26th September 1918, during which he was again wounded. He was shot through the lungs and was repatriated on 28 November 1918 and Died of Wounds on the 29th November 1918 at Charmes. He died of his injuries at 42nd Stationary Hospital on 29th November 1918 and is buried at Charmes Military Cemetery, Plot I, Row D, Grave 3. Patrick Welchman was also Mentioned in Despatches twice during the war. One obituary suggested that his death was the result of neglect in a German hospital in Metz.

Birmingham Daily Gazette 19 November 1915 - "Lieutenant (temporary Captain) Patrick Eliot Welchman, 1st/2nd North Midland Field Company, Royal Engineers, Territorial Force. - On 14 October, at Hohenrollern Redoubt, throughout the night and during the morning mist, he worked continuously under difficult and dangerous circumstances, collecting and bring in the wounded from in front of our trenches. This is not the first time that Captain Welchman's name has been brought to notice for similar gallantry."

Birmingham Daily Post 22nd November 1915 - "LICHFIELD LIEUTENANT AWARDED MILITARY CROSS - Lieutenant (Temporary Captain) Patrick Eliot Welchman, 1/2 North Midland Field Company Royal Engineers, Territorial Force, who has been awarded the Military Cross for conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty on October 14, at the Hohenrollern redoubt, is the eldest son of Dr. Eliot W. Welchman, who was the Mayor of Lichfield in 1906. He is an old Lichfield Grammar School boy, and was formerly engaged in the local office of a bank. For his services in the field he was promoted to the rank of temporary captain in June."

He is commemorated on the war memorial at Lichfield (along with his father), on the memorial at Minster Pool, and at King Edward VII School, Lichfield. He is also commemorated in the Lloyd's Bank memorial book.

Citations & Commemorations :

Masonic :

In the records of United Grand Lodge under Middlesex Lodge Patrick appears recorded as Francis Eliot Welchman.

Source :

The project globally acknowledges the following as sources of information for research across the whole database:

• The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• The (UK) National Archives
• Ancestry.co.uk - Genealogy, Family Trees & Family History online
• ugle.org.uk - The records of the United Grand Lodge of England including the Library and Museum of Freemasonry

Additional Source:

• Founder Researchers : Paul Masters & Mike McCarthy
• Researcher : Bruce Littley