Army Service Numbers 1881-1918

12 July 2009

2/15th London Regiment - Illustrated War News 1915

I've added a cracking photograph of 2/15th London Regiment officers to the page for the 15th London Regiment. That photo, and the two above, were originally published in volume 44 of the Illustrated War News, published on 5th June 1915. Click on the images for readable versions.

10 July 2009

The King's (Liverpool Regiment) - 1st & 2nd Battalions

This post will look at army service numbers issued to men joining the 1st and 2nd Battalions of The King's (Liverpool Regiment) between the regiment's formation in 1881, and the day Britain went to war with Germany: 4th August 1914.

The King's (Liverpool Regiment) was formed in July 1881 from the 8th (The King's) Regiment of Foot. Service records for all of the numbers listed below, survive in WO 363 (Burnt Documents) and WO 364 (Pensions) in the National Archives. They can also be viewed on-line via the Ancestry.co.uk website.

157 joined on 21st October 1881
210 joined on 18th February 1882
376 joined on 5th July 1883
690 joined on 18th March 1884
1028 joined on 1st January 1885
1647 joined on 29th April 1886
2055 joined on 21st April 1887
2373 joined on 1st February 1888
2880 joined on 30th March 1889
3344 joined on 18th April 1890
3541 joined on 29th May 1891
3811 joined on 10th May 1892
4098 joined on 16th February 1893
4443 joined on 1st February 1894
4874 joined on 31st July 1895
5290 joined on 16th April 1896
5659 joined on 5th March 1897
6125 joined on 9th July 1898
6351 joined on 4th February 1899
6733 joined on 20th February 1900
7332 joined on 9th January 1901
8151 joined on 22nd May 1902
8418 joined on 24th February 1903
8774 joined on 28th April 1904
9316 joined on 8th July 1905
9622 joined on 10th September 1906
9923 joined on 25th April 1907
10477 joined on 9th November 1908
10578 joined on 9th June 1909
10799 joined on 11th January 1910
11102 joined on 15th March 1911
11226 joined on 12th February 1912
11588 joined on 26th May 1913
11987 joined on 4th August 1914

Number 11987 enlisted as a career soldier for 12 years' long service, and there would be many thousands of men following in his footsteps, albeit the vast majority of these for shorter, war-time only service.

The King's did not start a separate series for the Kitchener volunteers but used the same number series that had been in use by the regulars up until then. The only differentiation between a man enlisting for a regular period of service was - initially at least - the prefix before the number. Numbers for the volunteers were prefixed with the letter K/ whilst those enlisting for regular service had the letter L/ placed before their numbers. The King's appear to have abandoned the K/ prefix by around mid November 1914, but the L/ prefix continued to be used - inconsistently - for regular enlistments; certainly into 1915 at least.

I've borrowed the image on this post from the Wikipedia page about the King's (Liverpool Regiment). It shows men from The King's (D Company; battalion not stated) at Wellington Barracks, Nova Scotia in 1890.

From the Naval & Military Press:

Click on the image for more information.

"Liverpool Pals, is a record of duty, courage and endeavour of a group of men who, before war broke out in 1914, were the backbone of Liverpool's commerce. Fired with patriotism, over 4,000 of these businessmen volunteered in 1914 and were formed into the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th (Service) Battalions of the King's (Liverpool Regiment); they were the first of all the Pals battalions to be raised, and they were the last to be stood down. It is commonly held that the North of England's Pals battalions were wiped out on the 1st July, 1916, certainly this befell a number of units, but the Liverpool Pals took all their objectives on that day. From then on they fought all through the Somme Battle, The Battle of Arras and the muddy hell of Passchendaele in 1917, and the desperate defence against the German offensive of March 1918.

09 July 2009

Essex Regiment - 3rd (Special Reserve) Battalion

This post will look at numbering in the 3rd (Special Reserve) Battalion, The Essex Regiment. Service records for all of the numbers referred to in this post survive at the National Archives in the WO 363 (Burnt Documents) and WO 364 (Pension) series. They can also be viewed on-line via the Ancestry.co.uk website.

The Essex Regiment was one of those regiments which, under the Army Order of 23rd December 1907, lost a militia battalion when the Militia was converted into the Special Reserve.

The old 3rd (Militia) Battalion was converted into the 3rd (Special Reserve) Battalion, but the 4th (Militia) Battalion was one of 23 militia battalions to be disbanded. These battalions are listed in the Army Order appendices.

My data suggests that 3rd Militia Battalion men transferring to the 3rd (Special Reserve) Battalion, retained their old militia numbers whereas old 4th Militia Battalion men and new recruits were given numbers from a new series beginning with 1.

So 6472 Pte Thomas Page and 9507 Pte John Ballinger, who both joined the 3rd Essex on 12th July 1908, were old militia men of long-standing. Thomas Page had originally joined the 3rd Militia Battalion in March 1900 and had fought against the Boers in South Africa. John Ballinger had enlisted later, probably in 1902 or 1903, but both men retained their militia numbers when they joined the 3rd Essex in 1908. Leonard Collard, on the other hand, who was given the number 8820 when he joined the 4th Militia Battalion on 11th June 1902, was re-numbered 77 when he transferred to the 3rd (Special Reserve) Battalion on 10th February 1908. I've reproduced a letter from him (above) which outlines his extensive military service with the Essex Militia, the Essex Special Reserve, the 2nd Essex Regiment and finally the Machine Gun Corps. The image is Crown Copyright.

Here then, are some sample 3rd Essex army service numbers from the 'new' number series, and their corresponding joining dates.

3/460 joined on 19th August 1908
3/695 joined on 29th March 1909
949 joined on 26th May 1910
1256 joined on 24th Match 1911
1614 joined on 16th May 1912
1938 joined on 11th June 1913
3/2218 joined on 20th April 1914
3/2304 joined on 8th August 1914
2583 joined on 4th September 1914
3321 joined on 5th October 1914
3/3547 joined on 4th November 1914

My data for 3rd Essex enlistments ends at this point, and as can be seen from the small series above, the 3/ prefix was used on some but by no means all numbers issued to 3rd Battalion men.

Also see my posts on other Essex Regiment battalions:

1st and 2nd Battalions

4th Battalion (TF)
5th Battalion (TF)
6th Battalion (TF)
7th Battalion (TF)
8th (Cyclist) Battalion (TF)

9th – 14th (Service) Battalions

08 July 2009

Royal West Kent Regiment - 1st & 2nd Battalions

This post will look at army service numbers issued to men joining the regular battalions - the 1st and 2nd Battalions - of the Royal West Kent Regiment between 1881 and 1917.

The regiment was formed in July 1881 from the 50th (Queen's Own) Regiment of Foot and the 97th (Earl of Ulster's) Regiment of Foot.

I've compiled the list below as a result of looking at service records in the WO 363 and WO 364 series and as usual this is a snapshot of Royal West Kent Regiment army numbers - one per year from 1881 until 1913 - from a far larger database. Service and pension records for all of the numbers listed below are held at the National Archives on microfilm and are also available on-line through a FREE 14 day trial via the Ancestry.co.uk website.

The L/ prefix was used inconsistently for regular enlistments and I've omitted it - on those numbers where it appeared - in the list below.

61 joined on 5th September 1881
328 joined on 25th January 1882
627 joined on 22nd January 1883
848 joined on 25th January 1884
1122 joined on 29th April 1885
1410 joined on 20th February 1886
1893 joined on 5th May 1887
2310 joined on 28th February 1888
2456 joined on 15th January 1889
2751 joined on 11th March 1890
2909 joined on 2nd January 1891
3246 joined on 5th February 1892
3697 joined on 6th January 1893
4077 joined on 8th January 1894
4228 joined on 11th January 1895
4683 joined on 3rd February 1896
4859 joined on 13th February 1897
5105 joined on 12th January 1898
5483 joined on 18th April 1899
5819 joined on 24th February 1900
6211 joined on 25th June 1901
6485 joined on 9th April 1902
6586 joined on 19th August 1903
7509 joined on 27th January 1904
8009 joined on 14th January 1905
8228 joined on 3rd January 1906
8689 joined on 15th July 1907
8897 joined on 27th January 1908
9240 joined on 11th January 1909
9368 joined on 3rd February 1910
9523 joined on 9th January 1911
9790 joined on 17th January 1912
10031 joined on 1st January 1913
10398 joined on 2nd July 1914

When Britain went to war with Germany a month later, the Royal West Kent Regiment started new number series for men joining the service battalions for war-time service only. In common with some other regiments like the Buffs (East Kent Regiment) the Middlesex Regiment and The Royal Sussex Regiment, it continued with the series above for men who, during war-time, wished to enlist as career soldiers for regular 7&5 terms of enlistment.

Service battalion recruits were issued with numbers prefixed with G/ whilst regular enlistment service numbers were prefixed with L/.

L/10456 joined on 26th August 1914
L/10491 joined on 3rd September 1914
L/10542 joined on 22nd October 1914
L/10550 joined on 5th November 1914
L/10600 joined on 5th December 1914
L/10709 joined on 21st March 1915
L/10730 joined on 12th April 1915
L/10758 joined on 1st May 1915
L/10899 joined on 21st June 1915
L/10923 joined on 7th July 1915
L/10976 joined on 10th August 1915
L/11043 joined on 19th September 1915
L/11067 joined on 2nd October 1915
L/11128 joined on 8th November 1915
L/11161 joined on 21st December 1915
L/11171 joined on 11th January 1916
L/11180 joined on 1st February 1916
L/11200 joined on 9th March 1916
L/11320 joined on 11th July 1916
L/11394 joined on 2nd September 1916
L/11448 joined on 9th January 1917

Pictured above, L/9457 Corporal Horace Frank Wood of the 8th Royal West Kent, bearing two wound stripes on his left cuff; the result of wounds at Loos in 1915 and Arras in 1917. His number indicates that he must have joined as a regular in May or June 1910. His story appears on my Chailey 1914-1918 website.

Royal West Kent Regiment literature from The Naval & Military Press:

INVICTA: With the First Battalion The Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment in the Great War. Click the image for more information.

History of the 50th (or the Queen's Own) Regiment from the earliest date to the year 1881
A little earlier than the scope of this blog but nevertheless a widely researched history. Contains 40 plates (some of these in colour) and ten maps.

Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment 1881-1914
Picking up from where the previous volume left off. This first part of a 3-volume history of the Royal West Kents takes the regiment from its formation out of the 50th and the 97th Regiments of Foot. The regiment fought against Pashtun tribesmen on the North-West frontier of the Punjab in 1897-98, and in South Africa during the Boer War from 1900-1902.

Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment 1914-1919
The second volume of the three volume series details the regiment’s part in the Great War from 1914-1919. The regiment lost 6,866 killed out of a total of 21,000 casualties. Click on the link for more information about this volume.

Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment 1920-1950
The third and final volume of the three volume history. Again, beyond the scope of this site but a volume which tells the story of the Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment from the aftermath of the Great War in 1920 down to the wake of the Second World War in 1950. Click the link for more information.

07 July 2009

Can I ascertain a man's battalion from his number?

In most cases, the answer is probably no but I've just done a little research on a Royal Fusiliers casualty which - up until a point - does suggest a battalion based on his number and his age.

I've posted that research - and my conclusions - on a separate blog: WW1 Remembrance - George John Albrecht.

Knowing the different army number series used by the regular battalions and the special and extra reserve battalions up until 1914 at least, is generally going to be useful. Take, as an example of this, the four regular battalions of the Royal Fusiliers, the 5th (Special Reserve) Battalion, the 6th (Special Reserve) Battalion and the 7th (Extra Reserve) Battalion.

In 1913 the four regular RF battalions were numbering in the 15000s, the 5th Battalion in the 9000s, the 6th Battalion in the 2000s and the 7th Battalion in the 8000s. This would make it a straightforward task if, for argument's sake, a new RF recruit in 1913 was given the number 2100. He could only have joined the 6th Battalion (and his number may also have been prefixed with SR/ - Special Reserve). Even without knowing the year of joining we'd be able to narrow our hypothetical recruit down to the 6th Battalion and from there, come up with a rough estimate of when he joined, which actually would be January 1913. However, there'd be no way of telling - if the man's number was 15800 - whether he'd joined the 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th Battalion because all four battalions shared the same number series. We'd know that he was a regular and that he'd joined in October 1913 but we wouldn't know which battalion.

George Albrecht's number marked him out as either a candidate for the 5th or the 7th Battalion, and a little extra digging to determine his age has ascertained that he would have been too young for the 5th Battalion and therefore must have joined the 7th and transferred shortly after that (but keeping his 7th Battalion number).

And that's where the trail goes cold. George was killed on the Somme whilst serving with the 8th RF but he'd already been to the Balkans, arriving there in September 1915, and to have done so means he must have served with another RF battalion. The medal rolls may reveal exactly which one.

But army service number series (particularly if blocks were set aside for specific battalions) and army service number prefixes, can certainly help in identifying which battalion a man initially joined, even though they may not reveal subsequent postings within the same regiment.

Puzzled image from Marquette University.

06 July 2009

Middlesex Regiment - 1st, 2nd, 3rd & 4th Battalions

This post will look at army service numbers issued to men joining the regular battalions of the Middlesex Regiment between 1881 (when the regiment was formed) and 1916.

From 1881 to 1900 the Middlesex Regiment comprised two regular battalions: the 1st Battalion - formerly the 57th (West Middlesex) Regiment of Foot - and the 2nd Battalion - formerly the 77th (East Middlesex) Regiment of Foot. In 1900, during the Boer War, two more regular battalions were authorised and these became the 3rd and 4th Battalions. This presented a problem for the two Middlesex Regiment Militia battalions - the Royal Elthorne Militia and the Royal East Middlesex Militia - which prior to 1900 had been the 3rd and 4th Battalions respectively. With the addition of the two new regular battalions they now became the 5th and 6th Battalions.

After the conclusion of the Boer War, the Middlesex Regiment retained its two additional battalions and therefore went to war in 1914 with four regular battalions. Three of these four battalions - the 1st, 2nd and 4th - were fighting in France before the year was out. The 3rd Battalion was stationed in India in August 1914 and didn't reach the Western Front until January 1915.

The L/ prefix was generally, but by no means uniformly used for regular Middlesex Regiment enlistments and I have omitted this prefix (where it occurs) from the list below. The data - which should be regarded as a snapshot - has been compiled as a result of looking at service records held in the WO 363 and WO 364 series at the National Archives and now accessible on-line. All of the following records can be viewed via Ancestry.co.uk which is currently offering a FREE 14 day trial.

121 joined on 15th November 1881
462 joined on 20th November 1882
539 joined on 10th January 1883
888 joined on 12th January 1884
1344 joined on 29th April 1885
1735 joined on 29th April 1886
2244 joined on 6th September 1887
2356 joined on 2nd January 1888
2562 joined on 9th February 1889
3033 joined on 24th October 1890
3233 joined on 15th May 1891
3490 joined on 28th January 1892
4049 joined on 18th January 1893
4631 joined on 29th March 1894
4710 joined on 16th August 1895
4792 joined on 21st February 1896
5160 joined on 16th September 1897
5332 joined on 14th February 1898
5669 joined on 16th January 1899
6165 joined on 23rd March 1900
6865 joined on 15th January 1901
7729 joined on 30th January 1902
8326 joined on 2nd January 1903
9590 joined on 15th January 1904
10063 joined on 16th February 1905
10888 joined on 2nd January 1906
11492 joined on 12th February 1907
12137 joined on 10th March 1908
12466 joined on 26th January 1909
12818 joined on 4th January 1910
13356 joined on 30th January 1911
14082 joined on 13th May 1912
14442 joined on 29th January 1913
14821 joined on 2nd March 1914

When Britain went to war with Germany in August 1914, the Middlesex Regiment maintained the number series above for men enlisting for regular periods of service and started new number series for those men enlisting for wartime service only. It also started new series for war-time enlistments joing the 5th (Special Reserve) & 6th (Extra Reserve) Battalions which I'll deal with in future posts.

War-time only enlistments in the 11th - 15th service battalions, the 20th - 22nd Battalions, the 28th - 32nd Battalions and the 1st Garrison (Home Service) Battalion had their numbers prefixed with the letter G/ (or GS/ in some cases). Those men enlisting as regular, career soldiers, still received their numbers from the old series, prefixed with the letter L/.

L/15019 joined on 15th August 1914
L/15278 joined on 2nd December 1914
L/15371 joined on 18th February 1915
L/15446 joined on 14th March 1915
L/15449 joined on 14th April 1915
L/15680 joined on 11th May 1915
L/15807 joined on 1st June 1915
L/16013 joined on 21st July 1915
L/16079 joined on 6th August 1915
L/16314 joined on 26th October 1915
L/16315 joined on 1st December 1915
L/16433 joined on 10th February 1916

I've borrowed the image in this page from Norfolk County Council's (NCC) website. NCC notes the soldier as Private Reginald Eugene Kerridge of the 1st Middlesex. Private Kerridge's number was G/24450 indicating that although he may have served with the regular 1st Battalion, he joined up for war-time service only.

From The Naval & Military Press:

The Die-hards in the Great War
"The ‘Die-Hards’ is the nickname of the Middlesex Regiment, earned at the battle of Albuera in the Peninsular War in May 1811. The Regiment was one of five that had four regular battalions before the outbreak of war, it also had two Special Reserve battalions (5th and 6th) and four Territorial battalions, 7th to 10th..." Click the link to read more.