Royal Scots - 3rd (militia) Battalion 1895-1908

My records for the 3rd (militia) Battalion of the Royal Scots Regiment are incomplete but I publish below a sample run between 1895 and 1908.

6194 joined on 21st October 1895
6301 joined on 21st January 1896
6657 joined on 4th January 1897
7062 joined on 4th January 1898
7520 joined on 3rd January 1899
8146 joined on 4th January 1900
8622 joined on 2nd January 1901
9014 joined on 3rd January 1902
9381 joined on 5th January 1903
9706 joined on 12th January 1904
9997 joined on 11th October 1904

A new numbers series commenced when the battalion reached 9999

1 joined on 13th October 1904
94 joined on 4th January 1905
447 joined on 3rd January 1906
827 joined on 23rd January 1907

The militia gave way to the Special Reserve in 1908 and men who had been serving with the militia and who wanted to join the Special Reserve, retained their old militia numbers. Thus, when you look at the numbers of men joining in 1908, there is a real mixture of old militia numbers and new numbers issued for the first time. So for instance, 1193 Alexander Burnett and 120 Samuel Gaw both joined the Special Reserve in 1908. Alexander was a new recruit who joined in January that year, whilst Samuel, who joined eight months later, was a seasoned old hand who was joining up to complete his six years' service which had begun with the 3rd (militia) Battalion in 1905.

As for the number series used by the 3rd (Special Reserve) Battalion, it was simply a continuation of the same series which had been used by the 3rd (militia) Battalion; a practice which appears to have been widely adopted throughout the British Army.

With the exception of Burnett and Gaw whose records survive in WO 364, all the other records referenced above survive in the WO 96 militia series, which are, since I published this post, now online courtesy of  Find My Past .

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