Norfolk Regiment - 3rd (Special Reserve) Bn

This post will look at numbering in the 3rd (Special Reserve) Battalion of the Norfolk Regiment.


The battalion was formed in January 1908 on the demise of the militia. Up until that point the Norfolk militia had had two battalions, the 3rd and the 4th, but the 4th was one of 23 infantry militia battalions which was ordered to be disbanded. Thus when the 3rd (Special Reserve) Battalion of the Norfolk Regiment was formed, it took in men from both the 3rd and 4th militia battalions, these men retaining their old militia numbers. In theory then, it would have been possible for two men to share the same number: 1234 Tommy Atkins joining from the 3rd Militia Battalion and 1234 Bill Smith joining from 4th Militia Battalion. I have not so far come across any examples of duplicates but I wouldn’t bet against it.

New recruits to the 3rd Battalion start at around the 627* range in 1908 but there are plenty of examples of men with far lower numbers joining in 1908 who had already seen many years service in the militia.

By August 1914 numbering had reached 9999 and then there appears to have been a bit of confusion, men numbering after this point first being given numbers starting from 1 again; thus SR/1 (or 3/1), SR/2 (or 3/2) for example. This system can clearly be seen on the front of some attestation papers from this period although appears to have been rectified later on, men’s numbers appearing as 3/10001, 3/10002 etc.

Many of the men joining in August and September 1914 were old soldiers who had seen service in the regular army or in militia or volunteer battalions (and in some cases a combination). These men generally joined up for one year’s service (or duration) and many of these men would shortly find themselves rushed out to France to fill in gaps in the regular 1st Battalion.

5th (Flintshire) Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers

This post will look at numbering in the 5th (Flintshire) Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers between the battalion's formation in April 1908 and January 1915.  Like its sister battalions, the 6th (Carnarvonshire and Anglesey) Battalion and the 7th (Merioneth & Montgomery) Battalion, the battalion was administered by two County Associations; in its case, the Flintshire Association (which administered seven companies), and the Denbigh Association (which administered one company, as well as the entire 4th Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers).

The battalion had its origins as the 1st Admin Battalion of Flintshire Rifle Volunteers which was formed with headquarters at Rhyl in August 1860.  In 1874, the 1st to 5th Carnarvonshire Corps were added and the battalion became the 1st Flintshire and Carnarvon Royal Volunteer Corps.  Ten years later, General Order 78 of June 1884 redesignated the battalion as the 2nd Volunteer Battalion, Royal Welsh Fusiliers. By 1896 the establishment of the battalion had reached sixteen companies and this was reduced to eight the following year when the Carnarvonshire personnel were removed to form the 3rd Volunteer Battalion (later the 6th RWF).

By February 1914, the distribution of the companies (headquartered at Flint) was as follows:

A Company: Mold
B Company: Hawarden, with a drill station at Buckley
C Company: Rhyl, with a drill station at St Asaph
D Company: Holywell, with a drill station at Mostyn
E Company: Flint, with a drill station at Bagillt
F Company: Caergwrle
G Company: Colwyn Bay
H Company: Connah's Quay

The battalion formed part of the North Wales Infantry Brigade with the Welsh Division.

Although at this point in time I have nothing more than gaps in my database to base the following theory on, I suspect that as far as  numbering in the battalion was concerned, the Flintshire companies all drew numbers from one series whilst the Denbighshire company - probably G Company based at Colwyn Bay - began its numbering at 2000, only later falling into line with numbering in the other seven companies. For now though, sample enlistment dates and numbers (for all companies except G Company) from 1908 to Jan 1915 as follows:

322 joined on April 10th 1908
623 joined on April 20th 1909
810 joined on 22nd September 1910
842 joined on 2nd March 1911
978 joined on 23rd March 1912
1174 joined on 4th March 1913
1442 joined on 26th March 1914
1546 joined on 4th August 1914 (the day Britain declared war on Germany)
2208 joined on 15th September 1914
2290 joined on 2nd October 1914
2442 joined on 10th November 1914
2561 joined on 30th November 1914
2627 joined on 4th January 1915

As far as the Denbighshire company is concerned, Soldiers Died in The Great war lists the following men:

2011 Pte Robert Jones, Died at Malta on 18th September 1915
2032 CQMS Ernest William Reckless, DoW at Sea on 23rd August 1915

I suggest both of these men were 1908 enlistments.  Furthermore, there is a MIC for 2061 W T Williams whose enlistment date is given as 4th February 1909 and one for 2106 J M F Lyon Smith who enlisted on the 28th February 1912. I have no date for 2122 Thomas Roberts, but his renumbered TF number is 240582 which would normally have suggested September 1914 to me... had it not been for 2131 John Power whose MIC clearly states a joining date of 12th February 1913 (albeit the enlistment date on a MIC is just that: an enlistment date rather than the date the man joined the regiment he was being discharged from). 2143 John Owen Jones joined the 5th Battalion on the 12th November 1913, and so on.  There's not a lot to go on, but enough for me to be as certain as I can be that the 5th Battalion, just like the 6th and 7th Battalions of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers operated two numbering systems - up until a point - this purely because the battalions were administered by more than one County Association.

When the Territorial Force was renumbered in 1917, the 5th RWF  - all of the men in all of the companies - was allocated numbers within the range 240001 to 265000.

I've borrowed the photograph on this post from the website of the Royal Welch Fusiliers Museum.  It shows the Machine-Gun section of the 5th (Flintshire) Battalion in 1915.

The formation of The Labour Corps in 1917

Not for the first time, I am indebted to my pal Graham Stewart for supplying the following scans of ACI 611 which in turn reference The Royal Warrant of 21st February 1917 (issued as Army Order 85 of 1917) which sanctioned the formation of The Labour Corps.

Whilst I have detailed information on the numbering patterns in most corps, I have always steered clear of The Labour Corps and The Army Service Corps.  This information from Graham therefore fills a huge gap for me personally and will, I hope, be of interest to others as well.  Click on the images for readable versions.

Army Council Instruction 611

Appendix 106

Appendix 107

North Staffordshire Regiment - 5th Battalion

This post is a snapshot of North Staffordshire Regiment enlistments into the 5th (Territorial Force) Battalion between 1908 and the end of 1914.  The information has been compiled from surviving service and pension records in WO 363 and WO 364. 

The 5th North Staffordshire Regiment was headquartered at Hanley. Prior to the formation of the Territorial Force in 1908 it had been designated the 1st Volunteer Battalion North Staffordshire Regiment (since 1883) and before that, the 2nd Staffordshire Rifle Volunteers

89 (a former member of the 1st North Staffordshire Volunteer Battalion) joined on 14th April 1908
445 joined on 17th February 1909
1042 joined on 11th March 1910
1334 joined on 19th February 1911
1649 joined on 23rd January 1912
2146 joined on 18th March 1913
2414 joined on 18th February 1914

On the outbreak of war the disposition of companies was as follows:

A Company: Longton
B Company: Hanley

C Company: Burslem

D Company: Tunstall
E Company: Stoke on Trent, with a drill station at Hanley
F Company: Stafford
G Company: Newcastle-under-Lyme
H Company: Burton-on-Trent

The battalion was part of the Staffordshire Infantry Brigade of the North Midland Division in the Northern Command.


2590 joined on 11th August 1914
2919 joined on 3rd September 1914
3514 joined on 1st October 1914

A 2/5th Battalion was formed at Hanley on the 1st November 1914 and the 4th Battalion was now re-designated as the 1/4th Battalion.

3800 joined on 5th November 1914
3961 joined on 28th December 1914

A 3/5th Battalion was later formed in May 1915.

The photo on this post is borrowed from the Staffordshire Past-Track website and shows former 1/5th men at a reunion in 1927.  2/5th and 3/5th Battalion information courtesy of The Long, Long Trail website.

Royal Warwickshire Regiment - Militia and Special Reserve

This post will look at numbering in the regular, militia, special and extra reserve battalions of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment and will attempt to explain the vagaries (and applied logic) of regimental numbering.  But first, a snapshot of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment in 1897.  The regiment had two regular battalions; men generally enlisting for short service (typically seven years with the colours and five on the reserve) or for long service (twelve years with the colours and no obligation to serve with the reserve).  In 1897 the two regular battalions of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment were disposed as follows:

1st Battalion: Stationed in Egypt
2nd Battalion: Stationed in Chatham, Kent

Both of these battalions drew their regimental numbers from the same number series. A man joining the regiment as a regular soldier in 1897 would typically arrive at the regimental depot, be issued with his number and then undergo ten weeks' training at the depot before joining the 2nd Battalion (or whatever the home battalion happened to be). Typically, after two years' service with the home battalion, he would then be posted to the 1st Battalion (or whatever regular battalion of the regiment was serving overseas). This was a pattern that was repeated throughout the British Infantry of the Line regiments and one which meant that the most experienced soldiers were generally serving in the British Empire's far-flung outposts, whilst the newer, more inexperienced men were learning the ropes with the home service battalion in the UK (which at that time included the whole of Ireland). Battalions were supposed to do an overseas tour of duty for 16 years and then swapped places with the home battalion. 

In 1897, the Royal Warwickshire Regiment also had two militia battalions, the 3rd and 4th Battalions. These two battalions each had their own distinctive regimental number series and both battalions, like the two regular battalions, were administered from the regimental depot at Warwick. The militia was a part-time, home service army which largely drew its recruits from the local area. The regular battalions, whilst territorially organised since 1st April 1873, recruited men locally but also drew men from further afield. See my post on Border Regiment recruitment in 1906 as an example of this.

On the 6th April 1898, The Royal Warwickshire Regiment raised a third, regular battalion in Ireland which was designated the 3rd Battalion. The regimental depot was thus now issuing numbers to men who could be posted to any of the three regular battalions - and be posted between battalions - and still retain their regular number. The creation of a fourth regular battalion (the 4th Battalion, raised at Colchester on the 3rd February 1900) was treated in exactly the same way: one number series for regular soldiers which was shared between the (now) four regular battalions.

The creation of two more regular battalions with numbers already allocated to militia battalions now created a problem which was logically solved. What had been the 3rd and 4th Militia Battalions of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment now became the 5th and 6th Militia Battalions. Although I've not seen any Army Council Instruction dealing with the re-numbering of militia battalions, it would appear that this happened at around the same time as the new 3rd (Regular) Battalion was formed. Alfred Ashfield and Frank Kirk both joined the 4th (Militia) Battalion on the 7th April 1898 (the day after the 3rd Regular battalion was formed) and Richard Ryan joined the 4th Battalion on the 12th April 1898. All of their attestation papers clearly show that they joined the 4th Battalion, rather than the 6th. By the 15th of April 1898 however, John Coney had joined the 6th Battalion, and my research of attestation papers for the Royal Warwickshire Regiment militia battalions for April 1898 onwards would suggest that by the middle of the month, the 3rd and 4th militia battalions had ceased to exist, being replaced by the 5th and 6th Battalions. It's interesting to note however, that old rubber stamps for the 4th Battalion (and probably the 3rd as well) were still being used as late as September 1898, the new number 6 being crudely over-written, as in the example below.

As for the numbering in the militia battalions, this remained unchanged. Men who had joined the 3rd militia battalion and now found themselves with the 5th Battalion, retained their 3rd Battalion numbers. New men joining the 5th Battalion from around mid April 1898 were simply given numbers in continuation of the (old) 3rd Battalion number series. The process worked in exactly the same way for the serving men and new recruits into the 4th/6th militia battalions.

Fast forward nine years.

By April 1907 the two newest regular Royal Warwickshire Regiment battalions - the 3rd and 4th - had both been disbanded and so when the Special Reserve was formed in 1908, the two Royal Warwickshire Regiment SR battalions were designated the 3rd (Special Reserve) and 4th (Extra Reserve) Battalions. Men transferring from the militia battalions into the Special Reserve retained their old militia numbers whilst new recruits into the two Special Reserve battalions were simply given numbers in continuation of what had been the old militia number series. For example, 129 Leon Taylor joined the 6th (Militia) Battalion on the 5th March 1907 and 367 William Dearn (a man with no prior military service) joined the 4th (Extra Reserve) Battalion on the 10th April 1908.

This concludes my post on militia and SR numbering in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, and indeed my posts for 2011. I wish all readers of this blog a happy and successful 2012.

The image I've chosen for this post is an anachronism, depicting a cross belt plate of the 6th Regiment of Foot. It comes from the 1812 History website.

3rd & 4th Scottish General Hospitals

Stobhill Hospital in Glasgow was opened in 1904. In 1914 it was requisitioned by the Royal Army Medical Corps and operated as the 3rd and 4th Scottish Hospitals.

My data on personnel working for these two hospitals is very thin indeed but it looks as though men joining the 3rd Scottish General Hospital commenced a new number series in early 1913, these numbers later suffixed with the letter A. So for instance, 91A George Pirie joined the 3rd Scottish General Hospital on the 14th November 1914, 92A John Gracie on the 21st, 96A Archibald McDonald on the 2nd December 1914 and so on.

Men joining the 4th Scottish General Hospital were given numbers from a different series and again, it looks as though a new number series was also begun for these men in early 1913. These numbers had no suffix and it seems logical to suggest that this was deliberate and a way of differentiating 3rd SGH men from 4th SGH men.

See also, 1st Scottish General Hospital, and 2nd Scottish General Hospital.

2nd Scottish General Hospital

The 2nd Scottish General Hospital was, during the war years at least, situated at Craigleith, Edinburgh and a new numbering series appears to have been instituted in August 1914. This from my number series for the 2nd Scottish General Hospital.

My data for Royal Army Medical Corps personnel serving at the hospital is thin and I would welcome additional details to help fill some of the gaps.

555 joined on 18th November 1908
1311 joined on 23rd January 1911
1504 joined on 22nd March 1912

New series of numbers commenced at some point; possibly on the outbreak of war.

19 joined on 9th August 1914
59 joined on 3rd September 1914
88 joined on 10th October 1914
95 joined on 2nd November 1914
116 joined on 27th January 1915
130 joined on 24th May 1915
136 joined on 8th July 1915

See also, 1st Scottish General Hospital and 3rd & 4th Scottish General Hospitals.

1st Scottish General Hospital

The 1st Scottish General Hospital was situated at Aberdeen and during WW1 had capacity for 62 officer beds and 1297 Other Rank beds.

My data for Royal Army Medical Corps personnel serving at the hospital is thin and I would welcome additional details to help fill some of the gaps.

844 joined on 8th June 1909
1267 joined on 26th March 1912
1368 joined on 23rd April 1913
1469 joined on 13th January 1914
1471 joined on 8th February 1915
1476 joined on 11th March 1915
1487 joined on 15th April 1915
1495 joined on 12th May 1915
1572 joined on 7th June 1915
1611 joined on 7th July 1915
1613 joined on 9th August 1915
1666 joined on 16th October 1915
1687 joined on 11th December 1915

See also, 2nd Scottish General Hospital, 3rd & 4th Scottish General Hospitals.

Highland Light Infantry - Regular enlistments 1914

I've just been browsing back issues of the Highland Light Infantry Chronicle for 1914.  Volume XIV, No 4 published in October 1914 (priced fourpence) gives the following list of "recruits joined since last issue and during mobilisation".  All of these men are regular recruits, the gaps in between their numbers being filled - so I believe - by men joining up for wartime service only.  I have identified some of these men as having surviving service records in WO 364 and have therefore been able to put dates next to their numbers.

12325 Pte E Semple
12326 Pte J Baker
12327 Pte S Haughey joined 6th July 1914
12329 Pte P Leith
12331 Pte E King
12332 Pte J Hall
12333 Pte G Taylor
12334 Pte John Livingstone joined 29th July 1914
12335 Pte H Whitehurst
12336 Pte R McCallum
12337 Pte T Lenaghan
12338 Pte J Goodlad
12339 Pte J McCabe
12340 Pte E Conway
12343 Pte G Braid
12344 Pte W Barrett
12345 Pte G McLeod
12346 Pte E McKay
12347 Pte R Brough
12348 Pte A Brown
12349 Pte W Miller
12350 Pte G Haynes
12351 Pte J Johnston
12352 Pte D Craig
12353 Pte J Milligan
12354 Pte W Dick
12355 Pte G Kidd
12356 Pte S Proctor
12357 Pte J Todd
12358 Pte H Forbes
12359 Pte W Anderson
12360 Pte A Osbourne
12361 Pte H Lennon
12362 Pte J McDonald
12363 Pte R Russell
12364 Pte J Summerville
12365 Pte E Connall
12366 Pte G Quigley
12367 Pte S Rankin
12368 Pte P Milligan
12369 Pte James McNaughton joined 10th August 1914
12370 Pte C Sneddon
12371 Pte J Barbour
12372 Pte P Callaghan
12373 Pte J McAulay
12374 Pte J Ross
12375 Pte G Dunn
12376 Pte W Wilson
12377 Pte P Montgomery
12378 Pte W Stevenson
12379 Pte G Monaghan
12380 Pte J Barrie
12381 Pte J Hartvig
12382 Pte L Waterston
12383 Pte J Schuman
12384 Pte A Reid
12385 Pte H McSherry
12386 Pte T McCurdy
12387 Pte E Benson
12388 Pte P Shearer
12389 Pte P Carroll
12390 Pte W Kennedy
12391 Pte D McKeegan
12392 Pte A McDonald
12393 Pte J Beverley
12394 Pte W Roy
12395 Pte T White
12396 Pte James Marshall Rankin joined 15th August 1914
12397 Pte A Watt
12398 Pte D Simpson
12399 Pte A Fleming

[Note gap between 12399 and 12901]

12901 Pte W Green
12902 Pte E Bray
12903 Pte J Scott
12904 Pte J Lugton
12905 Pte G Carter
12906 Pte Francis Gillespie joined 25th August 1914
12907 Pte W Martin
12908 Pte H Forrester
12909 Pte J Hoggan
12910 Pte H Hynman
12911 Pte S Ryder
12912 Pte E Simons
12913 Pte A Paterson
12914 Pte James Mooney joined 10th August 1914
12915 Pte R Nairn
12916 Pte W Clark
12917 Pte W Robb
12918 Pte J Watters
12919 Pte N Haggerty

[Note gap between 12919 and 16370]

16370 Pte J Ferrell
16371 Pte D McIntyre
16372 Pte P Carroll
16373 Boy H G Robinson (injured by a runaway horse and lorry on December 15th 1914)
16374 Pte J Anderson
16375 Boy W Venables
16376 Boy S Kirkland
16377 Pte T McCabe

The next volume, XV, No 1, dated January 1915, continues where the previous volume left off:

16378 Boy F H Green

16379 Boy William Button joined aged 14 years and 351 days on 26th October 1914.  Later transfered to Army Cyclist Corps and discharged from ACC on 22nd November 1918.

16380 Boy G H King

1720 Boy Joseph James Burgess joined as a 14 year old on 4th December 1914.  Discharged medically unfit on the 2nd February 1915.  I have no idea why this boy was given this number.

18279 Boy E White
18280 Boy W Short

18364 Boy George Copeland joined 20th January 1915 aged 15 years and 10 months.  Discharged medically unfit on the 13th November 1915 (but not before he'd appeared before a District Court Martial in January in September 1915 and been sentenced to 56 days detention for "when on active service stealing goods, the property of a comrade...").

18502 Pte Patrick King joined on 29th January 1915, General Service for duration of war.
18526 Pte G Davison
18527 Pte R Corinns
18528 Pte E Gittings

Note that with two exceptions, numbers 16373 to 16380 are all Boy enlistments, then there's an odd number - 1720 - and then another large gap until we get to 18279 and 18280 (two more Boys). 18502, Patrick King is a war-time service only enlistment, I'm not sure about Privates Davison, Corinns and Gittings.

The portrait is of Captain Robert Guy Ingledon Chichester, 2nd Battalion, Highland Light Infantry and a veteran of operations in India (1897-1898) and the Boer War, who was killed in action on the 13th November 1914.  He wears the India Medal and the Queen's South Africa Medal.

1st (Royal) Dragoons 1880-1906

This post will look at numbering in the 1st (Royal) Dragoons. The information on this post has been compiled as a result of examining service records in WO 97, WO 363 and WO 364.  All of these series are now online via subscription or pay per view.

2035 William Henry Jeffrey joined on 23rd April 1880
2076 Patrick McCarthy joined on 13th January 1881
2120 Edwin Alfred Harris joined on 19th November 1882
2135 Francis Oxley joined on 6th January 1883
2394 Francis William Henry Potter joined on 29th March 1884
2560 James Miller joined on 16th Janaury 1885
2720 Robert Nicholson joined on 1st April 1886
2832 John Milligan joined on 1st January 1887
2947 John Spencer joined on 16th April 1888
3163 Thomas Singleton joined on 13th May 1889
3215 Spencer George Gill joined on 3rd January 1890
3374 Charles Smith Bond joined on 2nd July 1891
3472 Robert Hide joined on 18th March 1892
3595 Joseph Murphy joined on 4th April 1893
3721 Henry Edward John Edgington joined on 18th January 1894
3849 Henry Clue joined on 29th January 1895
3967 Tom May joined on 27th February 1896
4048 John Edwin Barker joined on 23rd January 1897
4280 Harry Hart joined on 20th June 1898
4390 Alfred Bearman joined on 27th January 1899
4664 Walter Bush joined on 5th March 1900
5171 George Alfred Gatland joined on 24th July 1901
5573 Thomas Ernest Bishop joined on 29th March 1902
5705 Frank Bonnet joined on 31st October 1903
5714 Paul Ensell joined on 1st May 1904
5826 William Niven joined on 7th September 1905
5879 John Burns joined on 5th September 1906

Army Order 289 of December 1906 changed the numbering as far as cavalry of the line was concerned.


Prior to this Army Order, all cavalry regiments had numbered individually by regiments. Now, line cavalry and household cavalry were differentiated, and each corps of line cavalry was to use a separate number series extending to 49,999.  So beware, a line cavalryman with the 1st (Royal) Dragoons number 2035 could be William Jeffrey (above) who joined in 1880 or it could be a man from any one of the Corps of Dragoons regiments who joined up in May 1908.

Silver War Badge roll on Ancestry

This post really belongs over on my Army Ancestry blog, but as I've already posted there today about the Imperial War Museum's marvelous new Faces of the First World War project on flickr, I'll write about the SWB rolls here.

Pictured above is an extract from the Silver War Badge Roll for the East Surrey Regiment, and an old favourite of mine, Charles Sabourin.  Charles lost his right leg at Mons on the 23rd August 1914 and, taken prisoner by the Germans, was repatriated to England in early 1915, then spending several months convalescing at Chailey in Sussex.  You can read more about Charles Sabourin - and see a photo of him - on my Chailey 1914-1918 blog.

The Silver War Badge roll is probably the most comprehensive of all the WW1 medal rolls and now you can search them on Ancestry - but only if you have a premium membership.

Typical information you'll get from these rolls will be the man's name, number, regiment, battalion, date of enlistment, date of discharge, cause of discharge and sometimes, the man's age or his date of birth.  The badge number is always given and the rolls tend to be organised in badge number order. The East Surrey roll above does not give the battalion or the man's age. However, the London Regiment extract below, gives both.

With a bit of care, it is also possible to use the information on the SWB rolls to determine enlistment dates for a soldier you are researching.  Care should be taken however, because although the man's date of enlistment may be given, the regiment he was discharged from may not necessarily be the regiment he originally joined.

However, looking at the East Surrey Roll we see the following numbers and enlistment dates:

8505 on 1st February 1905
7487 on 15th September 1902
9733 on 6th November 1908
10864 on 29th April 1914
10536 on 1st October 1912
6738 [Charles Sabourin] on 31st October 1900
8860 on 7th August 1906...

As it happens, all of these numbers are spot on for The East Surrey Regiment for the dates given, the majority of these men presumably having gone out with the BEF in August 1914 and, like Charles Sabourin, being wounded - or falling sick - shortly afterwards.

So all in all another great resource from Ancestry but it's a pity that more and more of the military stuff on their site seems to be falling into the premium rate category.  I'm lucky that I can afford to subscribe at that level and I personally still think that it's a bargain, but then again I'm a heavy Ancestry user and now that these SWB rolls have appeared, I shall be an even heavier one.

South Wales Borderers 1881-1914 - 1st and 2nd Battalions

The information contained this post has been compiled as a result of looking at service records in WO 97, WO 363 and WO 364. All of these series, joy of joys, are now online via subscription or pay per view. Clicking on the links will take you to these pay-sites. My online correspondent, Greenwich Pensioner (GP), has also contributed data for 1907-1908 and I am grateful to him for his research.

The South Wales Borderers was formed on the 1st July 1881 from the 24th (the 2nd Warwickshire) Regiment of Foot.

The newly formed regiment was established as the county regiment for Brecknockshire, Cardiganshire, Monmouthshire, Montgomeryshire and Radnor and started numbering from 1 in 1881.

12 joined on 12th August 1881
263 joined on 29th June 1882
732 joined on 26th June 1883
985 joined on 8th January 1884
1433 joined on 7th April 1885
1725 joined on 21st January 1886
2169 joined on 5th April 1887
2355 joined on 16th February 1888
2621 joined on 26th April 1889
3237 joined on 28th April 1890
3598 joined on 13th January 1891
3910 joined on 22nd January 1892
4150 joined on 13th March 1893
4520 joined on 10th January 1894
4851 joined on 10th January 1895
5188 joined on 25th January 1896
5551 joined on 12th January 1897
5894 joined on 18th March 1898
6076 joined on 13th January 1899
6623 joined on 9th March 1900

The South Wales Borderers raised two complete volunteer service companies during the South African War and one volunteer service section comprising one officer and 31 men. Numbers were allocated as follows:

1st VSC: numbers within the ranges 6720 to 6738 and 7502 to 7612
2nd VSC: numbers within the range 7613 to 7727
3rd VSC: numbers 7731 to 7761

The 1st VSC departed home locations on 29th January 1900 and by May that year had joined the 2nd Battalion at Osfontein in South Africa. The 2nd VSC was mobilized at Brecon on the 15th February and arrived at Cape Town on the 16th April 1901.

6977 joined on 1st April 1901
7257 joined on 16th April 1902
7868 joined on 8th January 1903
8341 joined on 28th January 1904
8841 joined on 31st July 1905
9246 joined on the 3rd July 1906

1907-1908

By 1905, the 1st Battalion South Wales Borderers was in Karachi and a number of drafts from the UK were sent to Karachi during the time frame 1907-8 (about 450 men in all). When it was time for the 1st to come back to the UK, and for the 2nd Battalion to deploy overseas to South Africa (Pretoria), around 250 men were transferred to the 2nd so that the new overseas battalion was well up to strength.

The majority of the following numbers and names from 1907 and 1908 are reproduced here thanks to research undertaken by GP.

9495 Thomas Thomas joined on 8th January 1907
9510 joined on 29th January 1907
9579 Alfred Walker joined on 11th July 1907
9605 Ernest Charles Andrew joined on 24th August 1907
9607 Morgan Hopkins joined on 21st August 1907
9610 Harry Jenkins joined on 26th August 1907
9613 Albert William Powell joined on 22nd August 1907
9614 John Carlton joined on 29th August 1907
9616 Noah Francis joined on 30th August 1907
9617 William Gabb joined on 29th August 1907
9621 William Gough joined on 4th September 1907
9624 Walter Nash joined on 2nd September 1907
9630 Bedwin Robert Watson joined on 3rd September 1907
9637 David Williams joined on 3rd September 1907
9641 Arthur Ernest Peacock joined on 5th September 1907
9642 William Storer joined on 5th September 1907
9643 Joseph Humphries joined on 6th September 1907
9644 Osborn James Hales joined on 4th September 1907
9645 Will F Manning joined on 4th September 1907
9648 Alfred Smith joined on 5th September 1907
9656 James Camplin joined on 7th September 1907
9664 William Pope joined on 9th September 1907
9669 Eugene McCarthy joined on 11th September 1907
9679 Alfred E Box joined on 11th September 1907
9680 Henry George Spencer joined on 12th September 1907
9683 Sidney Ernest Collins joined on 12th September 1907
9686 William Joseph Powell joined on 12th September 1907
9690 George Warner joined on 16th September 1907
9696 William Suggett joined on 16th September 1907
9700 Isaac Rees Evans joined on 18th September 1907
9704 Peter Blake joined on 19th September 1907
9715 Evan John Davies joined on 23rd September 1907
9720 Eric Leslie Bowyer joined on 23rd September 1907
9726 Edgar William Wall joined on 23rd September 1907
9729 Nathan John Goat joined on 24th September 1907
9739 Alfred Ernest Mayhew joined on 12th October 1907
9745 Alfred Gibbons joined on 19th October 1907
9746 Thomas Davies joined on 21st October 1907
9750 John Hudson joined on 22nd October 1907
9752 Francis John Court joined on 24th October 1907
9758 Joseph Jennings joined on 5th November 1907
9769 Thomas Jones joined on 22nd November 1907
9785 John Dillon joined on 30th December 1907
9790 Robert Carver joined on 4th January 1908
9791 William Ludwick joined on 4th January 1908
9805 Ernest Cruise joined on 17th January 1908
9818 Fred Round joined on 16th January 1908
9861 Ernest Reuben Loveridge joined on 29th April 1908
9908 Gerbert Cockeran joined on 20th July 1908

10238 joined on 15th January 1909
10492 joined on the 12th August 1910
10648 joined on the 6th July 1911
10818 joined on 28th May 1912
11041 joined on 5th May 1913
11115 joined on 5th February 1914

The First World War

When Britain went to war in August 1914 an attempt appears to have been made to differentiate between those men who were enlisting for war-time service only and those men who were enlisting during war-time, but under regular terms of enlistment.

By August 1914, The South Wales Borderers had three separate number series running: one for the two regular battalions, one for the 3rd (Special Reserve) Battalion, and one for the Territorial Brecknockshire Battalion. Quite a simple differentiation on the face of it, but the South Wales Borderers numbering is far from straightforward from August 1914 onwards.

Numbers prefixed with the number 3/ start appearing on attestation papers of men who were joining up for a career in the army. The 3/ appears to be a red herring, a way of differentiating perhaps, between war-time only enlistments and regular enlistments. However, the same prefix also appears – as it might be expected to do - on some 3rd Battalion numbers. Thus, for example 3/11283 joined up for seven years with the colours and three years on the reserve on the 2nd September 1914. However, the same number had already been issued to a man joining the 3rd (Special Reserve) Battalion in March 1913.

At the same time, some men who were joining up for war-time service only were issued with numbers from the 3rd (Special Reserve) Battalion, even though their papers are clearly not those of Special Reservists but rather men signing up for active service for three years or duration.

In summary, and ignoring the 3/ prefix, it looks as though numbers up until around 12300 were held back for men who wanted to join the SWB as career soldiers whilst numbers higher than this were issued to war-time only recruits.

Recruitment rates 1881-1911

Between 1st July 1881 and 25th February 1891, The South Wales Borderers recruited 3,598 men, a good average of 375 men each year. Of the sixty-nine infantry regiments recruiting at this time, The South Wales Borderers was the seventeenth most successful infantry recruiter.

Recruitment in the 1890s dipped for the regiment and by April 1901 it was issuing number 6977 to its latest career soldier, an average recruitment rate of 330 men per annum and put the regiment in thirty-eighth place out of the sixty-nine infantry regiments recruiting at the time.

Recruitment in the regiment picked up in the first decade of the twentieth century and by July 1911 the regiment had issued number 10648 to its latest recruit; an above-average recruitment rate for the 1900s of 358 men.

1st Battalion stations 1881-1914

1881 Colchester
1883 Kilkenny
1885 Curragh
1887 Dublin
1889 Aldershot
1893 Egypt
1895 Gibraltar
1897 Chakratta
1903 Dalhousie
1905 Karachi
1909 Quetta
1910 Chatham
1913 Bordon
1914 France and Flanders (from August)

2nd Battalion stations 1881-1914

1881 Sheffield
1883 Mullingar (India)
1888 Cork
1891 Devonport
1892 Secunderabad
1897 Bellary
1899 Ahmednagar
1901 Subathu
1904 Quetta
1906 South Africa
1908 (Sep) - 1910 (Jan) Pembroke Dock
1910 (Jan) - 1912 (Oct) Pretoria
1912 (Oct) - 1914 (Sept) Tientsin, China

1914 Tsingtao / Hong Kong
1915 (Jan) UK
The photo on this blog is an anachronism and shows men of the 24th Regiment of Foot in 1879.  Image taken from Historik Orders.

Dorsetshire Regiment 1881-1914 - 1st and 2nd Battalions

The information on this post has been compiled as a result of examining service records in WO 97, WO 363 and WO 364.  All of these series are now online via subscription or pay per view.

The Dorsetshire Regiment was formed on 1st July 1881; the 1st Battalion from the 39th (Dorsetshire) Regiment of Foot, and the 2nd Battalion from the 54th (West Norfolk) Regiment of Foot.

The newly formed regiment was established as the county regiment for Dorsetshire and started numbering from 1 in 1881.

6 joined on 5th July 1881
262 joined on 6th February 1882
465 joined on 2nd March 1883
1089 joined on 13th June 1884
1555 joined on 11th April 1885
2306 joined on 28th December 1886
2320 joined on 10th January 1887
2681 joined on 1st June 1888
2792 joined on 7th January 1889
2998 joined on 13th January 1890
3162 joined on 6th January 1891
3446 joined on 13th June 1892
3693 joined on 22nd March 1893
4310 joined on 5th March 1894
4607 joined on 7th January 1895
4805 joined on 16th January 1896
5350 joined on 26th March 1897
5645 joined on 18th January 1898
5872 joined on 5th April 1899
6114 joined on 27th February 1900

The Dorsetshire Regiment fielded one volunteer service company during the South African War. It did not leave “… an interval of a clear thousand between the last number received by an ordinary recruit… and the first Volunteer number” but carried straight on from where regular numbering left off. Numbers 6020 to 6101 were all 1st VSC men who joined in January 1900, so too were the drafts numbered 7108 to 7126 who joined in 1901.  The 1st VSC sailed for South Africa aboard the SS Devon on 29th March 1900.

6367 joined on 9th September 1901
6422 joined on 17th January 1902
6674 joined on 4th March 1903
7142 joined on 11th February 1904
7533 joined on 25th January 1905
7990 joined on 18th July 1906
8280 joined on 30th January 1907
8440 joined on 3rd January 1908
8657 joined on 2nd January 1909
8915 joined on 5th April 1910
9094 joined on 27th February 1911
9318 joined on 17th January 1912
9500 joined on 6th January 1913
9784 joined on 9th June 1914
9828 joined on 5th August 1914

The First World War

When Britain went to war in August 1914, men joining the new service battalions were issued with numbers from the same series in use by the two regular battalions.

Recruitment rates 1881-1911

Between 1st July 1881 and 21st March 1891, The Dorsetshire Regiment recruited 3,162 men, a below average rate of 330 soldiers a year and one which placed the regiment in the fortieth position out of sixty-nine infantry recruiting regiments. Nevertheless, it was to be the regiment’s most successful recruiting period.

Recruitment in the 1890s tailed off considerably, the regiment adding just over 3,205 men between January 1891 and September 1901; or a rate of 300 men per annum for the decade. It would be a similar picture in the next decade too.

Between September 1901 and February 1911, the regiment added a further 2,727 men to its ranks, an average of 290 men per year for the decade. From being 38th in the 1880s, the regiment fell to sixty-first position in the 1890s, climbing one position to sixtieth in the first ten years of the 1900s.

In total, between 1st July 1881 and 27th February 1911, The Dorsetshire Regiment recruited 9,094 men, well below the national average (355) at just 307 men a year.

1st Battalion stations 1881-1914

1881 Bengal
1882 Chatham
1885 Malta
1886 England
1888 Malta
1889 Egypt
1893 Meean Meer
1895 Bangalore
1897 Tirah
1898 Nowshera
1902 Feroxepore
1906 Gosport
1909 Farnborough
1911 Blackdown
1913 Belfast
1914 France and Flanders (from August)

2nd Battalion stations 1881-1914

1881 Cherat
1885 Aden
1887 Malta
1888 Portsmouth
1891 Plymouth
1893 Enniskillen
1898 Crete
1899 Malta
1899 South Africa
1902 Portland
1904 Colchester
1906 Madras
1910 Poona
1914 Mesopotamia (from November)

George Henry Johnson

I've received an enquiry asking for any information about George Henry Johnson of The Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghmashire and Derbyshire Regiment) who died in Flanders in 1917.

Soldiers Died in The Great War notes two men of this name who died whilst serving with this regiment, one in 1916 and one in 1917. The man who died in 1917 was killed in action on the 28th November 1917. He was born in Farndon, Nottinghamshire and enlisted at Newark. At the time of his death he was serving with the 1/6th Battalion, a Territorial Force Battalion and had the number 242600. He was entitled to the British War and Victory medals.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission notes that he was the husband of H Johnson of 20 George Street, Newark, Notts. He is buried in Philosophe British Cemetery in Mazingarbe; grave reference III.A.40 (see map above).

George's number is a mystery to me. I had suggested that his original number -20007 - noted on his medal index card, suggested enlistment into a service battalion in 1914. However, Stuart, in a comment on this post (below) has put me right. He writes:

"This particular number, 20007, is not an original enlistment number, which explains your difficulty in pinning it down. The N&D territorials used the 20*** series of numbers for inter-TF battalion transfers during 1915 and 1916. In this particular case, with the man residing and enlisting in Newark, he would almost certainly have enlisted originally with the 8th Bn (original TF number unknown) and at a later date was posted to the 6th Bn, with subsequent change of number. Unfortunately, the Notts and Derby Regt usually work in alphabetical order (rather than original TF number order), so it is very difficult to work out the original numbers."

Stuart, thank you very much for that.

George's six-digit number certainly belongs within the range of numbers allocated to the 6th Battalion when the Territorial Force was re-numbered in 1917. The fact that he was only entitled to the British War and Victory medals means that he certainly didn't arrive overseas until 1st January 1916 or later. No service record appears to survive for this man.

250,000 thank-yous

I see that this blog notched up its 250,000th page load earlier today; quite remarkable and I'm really very pleased that so many people have visited the blog and that increasing numbers are repeat visitors.

I have plenty more data which will be published and that will be coming soon.

But in the meantime, thanks for visiting and thanks for helping me to achieve this milestone.

Image courtesy of ww1propaganda.com

13390 James Cree, 20th DLI

I'm using this post to illustrate another query, received this morning, and my response to it.

"My granddad, James Cree, served with the DLI in WW1. His service number was 13390. A postcard that I have shows him to be with No 3 Platoon, A Coy, 20 Batt DLI, JE [or IE?] Force. I bought John Sheen's book, Wearside Battalion but there is no reference to JE [or IE] Force and all their service numbers begin with 20. His WW1 Medal Index Card shows him as serving in France from 23 September 1915. Would he have joined 20 Batt from another and have you heard of JE [or IE] Force?"

James's number would appear to date to August 1914 and so he would certainly have been serving with another battalion before being posted to the 20th DLI which wasn't raised until July 1915. His number belongs to the series used by the service battalions, whereas the Pals Battalions - the 18th, 19th and 20th - each started a separate number series from 1, those numbers each prefixed by the relevant battalion number; so 20/1, 20/2, 20/3 etc for the 20th Battalion for instance. You should check the medal roll at the National Archives to see if other battalions are noted but it would be my guess that he first served with one or the other of the 2nd Battalion or the 10th to 15th. The 16th battalion was a reserve battalion and the 17th Battalion onwards either didn't serve in France or weren't there until after James Cree had landed. There are two medal rolls to check: the 1914/15 Star roll and the BWM and Victory Medal Roll. The roll references are on his MIC.

James would appear to have arrived in France as part of a draft for a battalion, rather than as an original member of one of the New Army battalions. Have a look at The Long, Long Trail website, specifically the page which deals with the Durham Light Infantry.

IEF is probably Italian Expeditionary Force as the 20th Battalion served in Italy from November 1917 to March 1918.

S/11087 - Seaforth Highlanders

Another enquiry, this time from Les concerning a Seaforth Highlander enlistment with the number S/11087.

The message reads:


"I have a copy of his MIC card showing Regimental Number S/11087 and the fact that he was awarded the Victory and British medals. The reference is G/104 B10 Page 615. He enlisted with the Seaforth Highlanders. I do not know which battalion he was in. Family stories are that he spent time in India but I cannot trace any exact dates for joining / leaving or if he indeed went to France. Any clues or direction?"

The first thing to note is that the fact that he was awarded the British War and Victory Medals indicates that he served overseas in a theatre of war.

The number dates to around the 20th October 1915 and was issued to Ernest Bond. There is little to be gleaned from the MIC although the S/ prefix indicates a wartime service enlistment. The regiment raised four service battalions, the 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th; the latter becoming a reserve battalion. None of these battalions served in India although the 1st Garrison Battalion, formed in July 1916, moved to Salonika the following month. It's possible that he served with one of these service battalions or indeed with the 1st or 2nd Battalions. The 1st Battalion had been in India pre WW1 but Ernest's number rules him out as being a regular (unless he had served pre WW1, been discharged and then re-enlisted in October 1915). The 1st Seaforths served in France and latterly Mesopotamia (from July 1915) and finally Palestine (from January 1918). The 2nd Battalion fought in France and Flanders.

You should check the medal rolls to see if there is a battalion noted but unfortunately there is nothing in his number to indicate which battalion (or indeed battalions) he served with.

Francis Roloff - Rifle Brigade

I've received a message from Ann Roloff on my Royal Engineers' post about her great grandfather, Francis Charles John Roloff which I reproduce in part, below:

"The card says he was in the Rifle Brigade - am I right in thinking that's what the 'S' stands for, in his regiment number? His rank was Private. But what does the number 10807 correspond to exactly? Can I find out, somewhere, where they were stationed? Also, on the card there is a Victory medal listed, with roll number: M/102 [looks like a]B 18 [[M/102B18]], and page:2430."

I've reproduced the Medal Index Card above and also checked to see if there is a surviving service record in WO 363 or WO 364. There isn't.

The S/ prefix indicates a WW1 enlistment for the Rifle Brigade so we know that he enlisted for wartime service only and wasn't a pre-war regular or a member of the Special or Extra Reserve. The fact that he received the British War Medal and Victory Medal only also indicates that he didn't arrive overseas until 1st January 1916 or later.

The medal index card (MIC) reference number is M/102B 18 which is the reference number for the actual medal roll. His entry appears on page 2430.

The letter M on the MIC reference is the code for the record office, in this case Winchester, and M/102B is the reference for the Rifle Brigade. This code tells us that Francis last served with the Rifle Brigade and that his medals were issued through the Winchester record office. There is no battalion mentioned on the MIC but a check of the original medal roll (housed at The National Archives) may (or may not) reveal that. You can view these rolls at The National Archives or engage a researcher to look at these for you. If you can identify the battalion, you'll then be able to consult the relevant battalion war diary.

As for Francis' number, my data suggests that it dates to around the third week of May 1915. I would also add that there are Rifle Brigade experts who regularly visit The Great War Forum and they may be able to fill in more details for you. The GWF is a fantastic resource and always worth a visit.

Royal Engineers 108*

I received an email from someone who had read my recent post on the Royal Engineers and was enquiring about their own relative who joined the Royal Engineers and was given the number 10822. When did he join?

With all of the regiments and battalions I've covered - and have yet to cover - there is, or can be, a difference between the date a man attested and the date his attestation was approved and he was issued with a number.

Here is a sample of Royal Engineers attestations for men with five figure numbers beginning 108**. All of these records survive in WO 97, now published online here: British Army Service Records 1760-1915.

10805 attested [Chatham - 7&5] on 17th March 1902.
10807 attested [Warrington - 7&5] on 5th March 1902.
10810 attested [Reading - 7&5] on 14th March 1902.


10813 attested [Manchester - 7&5] on 15th March .
10826 attested [Bury St Edmunds - 7&5] on 19th March 1902.
10827 attested [Barrow - 3&9] on 17th March 1902.
10828 attested [Reading - 7&5] on 20th March 1902.
10829 attested [London - 7&5] on 19th March 1902.
10848 attested [Lurgan - 7&5] on 18th March 1902.
10852 attested [Hamilton - 7&5] on 31st March 1902.
10853 attested [Lurgan - 7&5] on 20th March 1902.
10854 attested [Manchester - 7&5] on 26th March 1902.
10856 attested [Newcastle-on-Tyne - 7&5] on 29th March 1902.
10865 attested [Helston - 3&9] on 1st April 1902.
10868 attested [Accrington - 3&9] on 2nd April 1902.
10879 attested [London - 3&9] on 3rd April 1902.
10883 attested [Worcester - 3&9] on 7th April 1902.
10884 attested [London - 7&5] on 16th April 1901.
10888 attested [Wexford - 3&9] on 1st April 1902.
10893 attested [Southampton - 3&9] on 7th April 1902.

So quite a variation in dates here. They're all March or April 1902 but the dates are only roughly sequential. The main exception here is 10884 who attested on the 16th April 1901 and who deserted the following day. So why does this 1901 attestation have a number which wasn't being issued until a year later? The answer lies in the date that the men's attestations were approved.

Here is that same list of numbers, this time with the approval dates instead of the attestation dates:

10805 approved 17th March 1902
10807 approved 17th March, 8/40 Reg District
10810 approved 19th March, 2nd Reg District
10813 approved 19th March
10826 approved 20th March, 12th Reg District
10827 approved 20th March
10828 approved 21st March, 49th Reg District
10829 approved 23rd March
10848 approved 27th March, 87th Reg District
10852 approved 31st March, 26th Reg District
10853 approved 29th March, 87th Reg District
10854 approved 29th March
10856 approved 2nd April, 5/68th Reg District
10865 approved 3rd April, 32nd Reg District
10868 approved 3rd April, 4th Reg District
10879 approved 8th April
10883 approved 8th April, 29th Reg District
10884 [finally] approved 9th April
10888 approved 13th April, 18th Reg District
10893 approved 8th April

Number 10893 is still slightly awry here, but the approval date; the date on which the man was appointed to his regiment, in this case The Royal Engineers, is the date which triggers the issue of the regimental number. And if you look at the small extract I've taken from the attestation paper of number 10810, you'll see that the number is written in a different hand, and a different ink from the other information on that first page of the attestation. The man's details would be filled out at the point of attestation - his age, address, trade etc - and the number comes after the attestation has been approved.

So to go back to my questioner and his relative who had the number 10822, my guess would be that he attested - presented himself before the recruiting staff - probably between the 15th and 19th March 1902, and was approved on the 19th or 20th March.

As for our 1901 attestation who deserted on the 17th April 1901, he forfeited 324 days' pay before being returned to duty on the 7th March 1902 and finally had his attestation approved on the 9th April that year. He was discharged at Chatham less than a month later as "not likely to become an efficient soldier".

4th Suffolk Regiment - 1908-1914

I was writing up some notes last night on a 4th Suffolk man with whom I had corresponded in the 1980s. I have already posted on this blog regarding the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the Suffolk Regiment, and also the 5th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment. Here then is a snippet from my database of 4th Battalion men.

The 4th (Territorial Force) Battalion succeeded the 1st Volunteer Battalion which could trace its origins back to July 1859 with the formation of two companies raised in Ipswich. Over the next few years, more companies were added and the battalion supplied seventy-four men (three of whom died) for service in Suffolk Regiment volunteer service companies during the Second South African War. By 1907, the 1st VB had nine companies and 826 men out of an establishment of 1048 and would increase this number over the next couple of years.

By early 1914, The 4th Suffolk Regiment was headquartered at Portman Road, Ipswich with companies A to D also based in the town. Company E was the Lowestoft company and Company F was based at Halesworth with a drill station at Saxmundham. Fremlingham was home to Company G, which had a drill hall at Woodbridge, and Company H was located at Leiston with a drill station at East Bridge. The battlalion was originally part of the Norfolk and Suffolk Infantry Brigade with the East Anglian Division.

145 Arthur Reed joined on the 2nd April 1908. He was a serving member with the 1st Volunteer Battalion, Suffolk Regiment
766 Charles Button joined on the 11th February 1909
1102 Stanley London Mayhew joined on the 20th January 1910
1210 Thomas Charles Baker joined on 6th February 1911
1761 James Henry Cain joined on 23rd October 1913
1854 Harry Howard joined on 14th February 1914
1980 John Stocks joined on 3rd August 1914
2225 William Samuel John Smith joined on 1st September 1914
2327 Jack Reason joined on 5th October 1914
2730 John Henry Brown joined on the 13th November 1914
3018 Henry Williams joined the 2/4th Battalion on 14th December 1914

All of the above number/date information from surviving service records in WO 363 and WO 364 - online courtesy of Ancestry.co.uk.

Leicestershire Regiment - Soldiers Died - October 1914

It can be a depressing exercise trawling through the lists of WW1 casualties. All of these Leicestershire Regiment died in October 1914 and this snapshot will endeavour to determine when they joined up.

4887 Frank Ridley
6089 John Morrigee
6457 William Henry Moreby DCM
6515 Joseph Turner
6531 Joseph Simpson
6533 Harry Briggs
6560 Arthur Goodman
6586 Percy Bowley
6602 Albert Swan
6644 John Barker
6666 Harry Gilbert
6853 Ernest Bailey
6854 Thomas Edwards
6857 William Dawes
6879 George Spriggs
6930 William Hallam
6970 Ernest Sharpe
6971 Frederick Oakley
7018 Harry Price
7153 Frederick Shaw
7187 John Bosworth
7197 John Oswin
7217 Joseph William Atkin
7218 Albert Waddams
7268 Albert Thorpe
7297 William Elmore
7357 Harry Stevenson
7372 William Arthur Routlege
7471 Dairmid Macdonnell
7600 William Robert Bradford
7605 Robert Bell
7635 Harry Smitten
7648 Harry Charles
7659 William John Nixon
7680 George Groom
7694 Frank Wood
7704 William Curtis
7719 Arthur North
7764 Wilfred Carter
7819 John Riley
7924 John William Ellis
7973 Matthias Summerland
7997 George Willcocks
8036 Arthur Eagle
8040 Wilfred Walker
8084 Albert Edwin Hannay Ball
8390 Robert Frank Hough
8401 Stephen Hunt
8405 Sidney Robert Bewshea
8456 Bernard Kelagher
8514 Albert John Mead
8562 Ernest William Ward
8605 Rowland Frank Walter Edge
8855 Arthur George Prater
8861 Cecil Edward Bacon
8875 Arthur Sharp
8935 Henry Victor Reed
8971 Edward Albert Relf
9088 Gilbert Frederick Erwood
9109 Alfred Charles Mills
9259 Thomas Groocock
9282 Arthur Elks
9324 Frank Claude Freeborough
9411 Eric Rushton Cooke
9415 William Jeffs
9438 George De Bow
9540 William Frederick Mercer
9555 Herbert Elson
9561 James Bostock
9585 Henry Cecil Wharfe
9653 Harry Wragg
9660 Albert Hoult
9699 Frank Clay
9721 John Henry Deacon
9760 Robert Ernest Boulton
9840 James Crawford Eaglesome Mackinnon

In addition to these NCOs and men, the following Leicestershire Regiment officers also died in October 1914:

Thomas Henry Bowley
William Henry Gordon Dodds
Francis Le Maistre Gruchy
Theodore Prain
Cecil Smeathman
Lancelot Barrington Crofte Tristram

At the Going Down of the sun, and in the morning, WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.

What do the men's numbers tell us?

Assuming that they were all regular soldiers from the 1st and 2nd Battalions, this is when they joined the Leicestershire Regiment. John Morrigee died at home whilst with the 3rd Battalion but may have been a regular soldier posted to the depot.

1897
4887 Frank Ridley, 1st Bn
1901
6089 John Morrigee, 3rd Bn, died at home
1902
6457 William Henry Moreby DCM, 1st Bn
6515 Joseph Turner, 1st Bn
6531 Joseph Simpson, 1st Bn
6533 Harry Briggs, 1st Bn
6560 Arthur Goodman, 1st Bn
6586 Percy Bowley, 1st Bn
6602 Albert Swan, 1st Bn
6644 John Barker, 1st Bn
6666 Harry Gilbert, 1st Bn
1903
6853 Ernest Bailey, 1st Bn
6854 Thomas Edwards, 1st Bn
6857 William Dawes, 1st Bn
6879 George Spriggs, 1st Bn
6930 William Hallam, 1st Bn
6970 Ernest Sharpe, 1st Bn
6971 Frederick Oakley, 2nd Bn
7018 Harry Price, 1st Bn
7153 Frederick Shaw, 1st Bn
7187 John Bosworth, 1st Bn
7197 John Oswin, 1st Bn
7217 Joseph William Atkin, 1st Bn
7218 Albert Waddams, 1st Bn
1904
7268 Albert Thorpe, 1st Bn
7297 William Elmore, 1st Bn
7357 Harry Stevenson, 1st Bn
7372 William Arthur Routlege, 1st Bn
7471 Dairmid Macdonnell, 1st Bn
7600 William Robert Bradford, 1st Bn
7605 Robert Bell, 1st Bn
1905
7635 Harry Smitten, 1st Bn
7648 Harry Charles, 1st Bn
7659 William John Nixon, 1st Bn
7680 George Groom, 1st Bn
7694 Frank Wood. 1st Bn
7704 William Curtis, 1st Bn
7719 Arthur North, 1st Bn
7764 Wilfred Carter, 1st Bn
7819 John Riley, 1st Bn
1906
7924 John William Ellis, 1st Bn
7973 Matthias Summerland, 1st Bn
7997 George Willcocks, 1st Bn
8036 Arthur Eagle, 1st Bn
8040 Wilfred Walker, 2nd Bn
1907
8084 Albert Edwin Hannay Ball, 2nd Bn
1908
8390 Robert Frank Hough, 1st Bn
8401 Stephen Hunt, 1st Bn
8405 Sidney Robert Bewshea, 2nd Bn
8456 Bernard Kelagher, 1st Bn
8514 Albert John Mead, 1st Bn
8562 Ernest William Ward, 1st Bn
8605 Rowland Frank Walter Edge, 2nd Bn
1909
8855 Arthur George Prater, 1st Bn
8861 Cecil Edward Bacon, 1st Bn
8875 Arthur Sharp, 1st Bn
1910
8935 Henry Victor Reed, 1st Bn
8971 Edward Albert Relf, 2nd Bn
9088 Gilbert Frederick Erwood, 1st Bn
9109 Alfred Charles Mills, 1st Bn
1911
9259 Thomas Groocock, 1st Bn
9282 Arthur Elks, 2nd Bn
9324 Frank Claude Freeborough, 1st Bn
1912
9411 Eric Rushton Cooke, 1st Bn
9415 William Jeffs, 1st Bn
9438 George De Bow, 2nd Bn
9540 William Frederick Mercer, 1st Bn
9555 Herbert Elson, 1st Bn
9561 James Bostock, 1st Bn
9585 Henry Cecil Wharfe, 1st Bn
9653 Harry Wragg, 1st Bn
9660 Albert Hoult, 1st Bn
9699 Frank Clay, 1st Bn
1913
9721 John Henry Deacon, 1st Bn
9760 Robert Ernest Boulton, 1st Bn
1914
9840 James Crawford Eaglesome Mackinnon, 1st Bn

I've not checked all the medal index cards for the men above but all the 1st Battalion men that I have checked, arrived overseas in France on the 9th September 1914. All of the 2nd Battalion men arrived in France on the 12th October 1914. There was a certainly a wealth of military experience represented above.

6457 William Moreby DCM, would have joined the regiment in August 1902 and would have signed up either for 12 years' Long Service, or more likely 3 years with the colours and 9 in the Reserve. The majority of the men therefore, with numbers in the range 6457 to 8084 (Albert Edwin Hannay Ball) would have been reservists, some of these men with no active soldiering for nearly nine years. Some of these men could have extended the period of their service and so may have still been serving with the Colours when Britain went to war in 1914. For those men though who had been on the Army Reserve for almost a decade, marching along those long, straight cobbled roads of Belgium in August 1914 would have been an incredibly arduous task.

The man with the least experience was James Mackinnon who had joined in the first half of 1914 and therefore had had less than a year's active soldiering with the Leicesters when he was killed.
In 1981 I met and interviewed a 1st Leicestershire Regiment man, Stan Brown. His photo is on my post about Leicestershire Regiment numbers, and he also appears in a photograph of Chelmsford's Old Contemptibles. I've also just recently added a small account about Stan on my World War 1 Veterans' blog. Stan's number was 9732 and he'd joined the regiment in July 1913. He recalled:

"On the march it was Bob Hough and myself and I was only a kid. I was only seventeen when I got wounded. As far as I was concerned, it was an extremely wonderful period for me as a youngster. I was enjoying myself. I'd met Bob before we was put out and I suppose we was classed as scouts. We went in front and if we saw anything, one of us had to go back and tell the officer. He was an old stager really, not in terms of age but in soldiering. He seemed to me to be the boss. He was a wonderfully fit bloke."

Bob Hough is 8390 Robert Frank Hough, listed above, who had joined the regiment in 1908 and who would have therfore been coming to the end of his seven years with the Colours when Britain went to war. He may have seemed like an old stager to Stan, but he was still only 22 when he was killed in action on the 24th October 1914. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Ploegsteert Memorial, pictured at the top of this post.

I've borrowed the photo on this post from the History of Skelton-in-Cleveland website. Leicestershire Regiment service records here: British Army Service Records 1760-1915

East Surrey Regiment curiosities - 364**

I was reading through posts on the Great War Forum the other day and came across this query about an East Surrey Regiment man: George Addison.

What puzzled me about this man was his number. He had enlisted in 1914 and yet his number was not from a series of numbers I would have expected to see for 1914 enlistments for this regiment. I decided to investigate further by making a list of men who had numbers beginning 364* and then checking their names against surviving service records in WO 363 and WO 364 to see if there were any patterns. Here are the results:

36411 William J A Edwards, arr o/seas 1916 onwards
36412 Stanley W Bartram, arr o/seas 1916 onwards, later L/13015
36414 Alfred W Green, arr o/seas 1916 onwards, later Labour Corps
36415 Sydney W Lloyd, arr o/seas 1916 onwards.
36418 Joseph J Nicholson, arr o/seas 1916 onwards.
34620 Henry Ernest Perry, arr o/seas 1916 onwards. SWB MIC gives enlist date as 02/11/1917
36423 Charles William Ashpole, arr o/seas 1916 onwards. WO 364. Enlisted 11/12/1915
36427 Joseph Kilborn. SWB MIC gives enlist date as 27/05/1916
36430 Robert D Paulett, arr o/seas 1916 onwards.
36436 Joseph C Hall, arr o/seas 1916 onwards, later Labour Corps
36437 Charles T Hancock, arr o/seas 1916 onwards.
36439 Herbert R Harris, arr o/seas 1916 onwards.
36441 James H Chiverton, arr o/seas 1916 onwards.
36453 Herbert Evans, Unknown Bn, arr F&F 07/10/1915, later ASC
36454 George F Addison, 7th Bn, arr F&F 28/07/1915
36455 Henry C Morland, 7th Bn, arr F&F 29/07/1915
36455 Horace Alfred Allen
36456 William S Beteux, 8th Bn, arr F&F 27/07/1915
36458 Alfred T Clouder, 8th Bn, arr F&F 27/07/1915
36459 George A Crouch, 8th Bn, arr F&F 27/07/1915
36460 Alfred W Caston, 8th Bn, arr F & F 27/07/1915. WO 363. Attested Norwich 8th Sep 1914 with Norfolk Regt. Transferred to 8th Bn E Surrey Regt on 11th Sep 1914
36461 John Chestney, 8th Bn, arr F&F 27/07/1915
36462 Albert Cullen, 8th Bn, arr F&F 27/07/1915, later L/13024
36463 William Cullum, 8th Bn, arr F&F 27/07/1915
36464 John W Flack, 8th Bn, arr F&F 25/08/1915
36465 William H Curtis, 8th Bn, arr F&F 27/07/1915
36466 William J Cutting, 8th Bn, arr F&F 27/07/1915
36467 Wilfred J Darkens MM, 8th Bn, arr F&F 27/07/1915
36468 Albert Joyce, 8th Bn, arr F&F 25/08/1915
36469 Thomas A De’ath, 8th Bn, arr F&F 27/07/1915
36471 George E Fox, 8th Bn, arr F&F 27/07/1915; SWB MIC gives enlist date as 05/09/1914
36472 David Goodman, 8th Bn, arr F&F 27/07/1915
36475 William G Collins
36477 Arthur Fisher, 8th Bn, arr F&F 27/07/1915
36478 Alfred E Forder, 8th Bn, arr F&F 27/07/1915
36479 Frederick James Pulsford, 8th Bn, arr F&F 27/07/1915. Formerly 4933 East Surrey Regt
36482 Albert Floyd, arr o/seas 1916 onwards.
36483 Leslie Edward Fisher, 7th Bn, arr F&F 03/06/1915
36487 Thomas W Jones, arr o/seas 1916 onwards.
G/36491 Frederick William Manifold, arr o/seas 1916 onwards.

I have to say that the results are inconclusive due to the paucity of surviving service records, although I am tempted to draw the following conclusions:

36401-36441 are possibly Derby Scheme attestations from late 1915.
36454-36483 are mostly 7th and 8th Bn enlistments from 1914

I wonder whether there is a Norfolk/Suffolk link here somewhere as a number of the surnames are particularly common to those counties and I wonder how many of these man transferred onto the East Surrey Regiment from the Norfolk Regiment and the Suffolk Regiment. At least one did - 36460 - but admittedly, he may be the only one.


So as I say, an inconclusive result and a topic within a topic for which further responses would be most welcome.

Royal Engineers 1881-1914

This post will look at numbering in the Corps of Engineers, regular enlistments only, between 1881 and 1914. With such a huge corps, any study of numbering such as this can only provide a brief snapshot. Nevertheless, this may prove of some assistance in helping to narrow down enlistment dates for numbers covered within this vast range.

The Corps of Royal Engineers was formed in 1856 from the Royal Engineers and the Royal Sappers and Miners. Typical terms of enlistment for the regiment changed over the years.

Service records for all of the sample numbers and dates below survive in the series WO 363 and WO 364 at the National Archives (online at Ancestry.co.uk) and WO 97 (on line at findmypast.co.uk). Establishment information from Scarlet into Khaki by Lt-Col James Moncrieff Grierson (Greenhill Books 1988).

16995 joined on 2nd May 1881
17483 joined on 13th June 1882
17625 joined on 4th October 1883
18971 joined on 27th May 1884
19753 joined on 9th April 1885
20829 joined on 3rd March 1886
22091 joined on 19th September 1887
23152 joined on 25th September 1888
23596 joined on 1st February 1889
24832 joined on 12th May 1890
26081 joined on 12th September 1891
26307 joined on 22nd January 1892
27354 joined on 7th February 1893
28032 joined on 23rd February 1894
28773 joined on 1st January 1895
29999 joined on 25th February 1896

A new number series commences:
1 joined on 31st March 1896
3 joined on 7th April 1896
4 joined on 8th April 1896
601 joined on 8th January 1897
800 joined on 6th May 1897
1007 joined on 30th June 1897
1641 joined on 17th February 1898

Peace-time Establishment in 1899

1. One Pontoon or Bridging battalion consisting of two companies comprised of a total of 199 officers and men and 64 saddlehorses and draught horses.
2. One Telegraph battalion consisting of two sections: one at Aldershot traiuned exclusivley for service in the field, the other in the south of England employed for telegraphic service in the country.
3. One Mounted Detachment Field Depot quartered at Aldershot to train drivers for the field companies. Comprised of 115 officers and men and 33 horses.
4. Two Field Parks comprised in total of 33 NCOs and men and 21 horses.
5. One Balloon section at Aldershot comprised of two officers and 40 NCOs and men.
6. Eight Field Companies (Nos, 7, 11, 12, 17, 23, 26, 37, 38. Four Field Companies were on the higher Establishment and four on the lower. Of the higher companies, two were at Aldershot, one at Chatham and one at the Curragh Camp in Ireland. Of the lower companies, two were at Aldershot, and one each at Shornecliffe and the Curragh. Higher establishment companies each consisted of three officers, 182 NCOs and men and 26 horses. Lower establishment companies each consisted of three officers, 95 men and 21 horses.
7. Eighteen Fortress Companies (Nos 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 9, 15, 18, 20, 24, 25, 29, 31, 32, 36, 41, 42 and 43). Each company consisted of three officers and 92 or 93 NCOs and men.
8. Two Railway Companies: one at the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich, one near Chatham, each consisting of two officers and 65 men.
9. Twelve Submarine Mining Companies (Nos 4, 21, 22, 27, 28, 30, 33, 34, 35, 39, 40 and M). Companies 4, 30 and M were stationed at Portsmouth, Plymouth and Chatham respectively and comprised 510 NCOs and men in total. These three companies were known as the "central companies", training recruits for the submarine mining companies and operating electric search lights in the naval ports. The other nine companies were stationed at different fortified naval ports and comprised between 44 and 65 men. Each submarine company was commanded by three officers.
10. One Coast battalion organised into 11 sections and comprised of 14 officers and 190 men stationed at those ports which only had militia or volunteer submarine mining sections.
11. Four Survey Companies (Nos 13, 14, 16 and 19) comprised of 24 officers and 454 NCOs and men.
12. Eight Depot Companies (A, B, C, D, E, F, G and N) garrisoned at Chatham and comprising 20 officers and 818 NCOs and men.

War-time establishment in 1899

In times of war, a field company of engineers (197 officers and men) was added to every Division of infantry. A mounted detachment (116 officers and men) was added to every cavalry division. In addition, to every army corps, as Corps Engineers, was added a field company (197 officers and men), a pontoon company (200 officers and men), a staff and four sections of the telegraph battalion (226 officers and men), a field park (43 officers and men), a railway company (147 officers and men) and a balloon section (48 officers and men).

2631 joined on 2nd January 1899
4319 joined on 6th February 1900
7679 joined on 6th February 1901
9788 joined on 3rd January 1902
12142 joined on 8th January 1903
13806 joined on 17th May 1904
15623 joined on 22nd March 1906
16173 joined on 16th February 1907
17948 joined on 24th September 1908
18313 joined on 12th January 1909
19801 joined on 25th January 1910
21130 joined on 2nd February 1911
22616 joined on 2nd March 1912
24416 joined on 12th April 1913
25895 joined on 15th January 1914

For a good summary of the Royal Engineers during the First World War, see The Royal Engineers on The Long, Long Trail website.

Also see my post on a range of Royal Engineers numbers: Royal Engineers 108**.

Hertfordshire Yeomanry 1908-1914

I've just added a post to my World War 1 Veterans' blog about Frederick Mason Matthews who served in Gallipoli with the Hertfordshire Yeomanry and was later commissioned with the 2/1st Essex Yeomanry. I've already partially covered Essex Yeomanry numbers on this blog, so here are some sample numbers from an incomplete sequence for the Hertfordshire Yeomanry.

803 Henry Bridger joined on 8th April 1908
1090 Clifford Alfred Watkins joined on 20th February 1909
1257 James Dubbin joined on 23rd March 1910
1315 Philip Clark joined on 31st January 1911
1570 Douglas Brydon joined on 1st November 1913
1649 Charles William Beeton (aged 43) joined on 25th July 1914
1681 Thomas Carruthers joined on 3rd August 1914 (the day before war was declared)
1772 William Frederick Marshall Blyth joined on 2nd September 1914
2118 Edgar Ralph Braggins joined on 3rd October 1914
2129 Stanley Herbert Finch (later 105486) joined on 9th October 1914

On its page dedicated to the Hertfordshire Yeomanry, The Long Long Trail website notes:

1/1st Battalion

August 1914: Hertford, part of the Eastern Mounted Brigade.
10 September 1914: sailed for Egypt.
19 January 1915: joined the Yeomanry Mounted Brigade. This was originally an independent command. It moved in August 1915 to Gallipoli as dismounted troops, was placed under command of 2nd Mounted Division and was retitled as 5th Mounted Brigade.
December 1915: withdrew from Gallipoli and returned to Egypt.
March 1916: was split up

2/1st and 3/1st Battalions were raised in September 1914 and 1915 respectively.

When it was re-numbered in 1917, Hertfordshire Yeomanry men were given numbers within the range 105001 to 110000.

Pictured above, Lieutenant Colonel Samuel Gurney Sheppard in an undated photo. He won the DSO whilst serving with the Imperial Yeomanry during the Second South African War and died of wounds whilst leading the Hertfordshire Yeomanry at Gallipoli on the 21st August 1915.