10 June 2014

Denbighshire Yeomanry 1908-1914

This post will look at numbering in the Denbighshire Yeomanry between 1908 and 1914.

In 1914 The Denbighshire Yeomanry was headquartered at No. 1 Erdigg Road, Wrexham with A Squadron also based in Wrexham and with drill stations at Llangollen, Mold and Rusbon. B Squadron was based in Denbigh with drill stations at Prestatyn, Rhyl and Ruthin. C Squadron was based in Bangor with drill stations at Carnarvon, Llandudno and Beaumaris. D Squadron was based at Birkenhead. The regiment was part of the Welsh Border Mounted Brigade.

Numbering started from 1 in April 1908 and continued at a snail's pace over the next six years. The majority of 1908 enlistments were men who had formerly served with the Imperial Yeomanry.

149 joined on 15th April 1908
293 joined on 29th November 1909
348 joined on 27th September 1910
407 joined on 29th November 1911
453 joined on 17th December 1912
475 joined on 11th February 1913
509 joined on 16th January 1914
541 joined on 4th August 1914
608 joined on 1st September 1914
888 joined on 12th October 1914
938 joined on 2nd November 1914
1086 joined on 14th December 1914

The 2/1st Denbighshire Yeomanry was formed in September 1914 and was converted into a cyclist unit in July 1916. A 3/1st unit was also formed in 1915 and it remained in the United Kingdom until it was disbanded in 1917.

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Paul

The numbers you quote are for A & B Squadrons. At least the pre war ones are. See later for after war started.

C Squadron and D Squadron had their own number sequence.

The enlistment book for C Squadron is in the RWF Archives as is the book for B Squadron. The whole RWF archives now having been deposited at Wrexham County Archives,Wrexham. I have not been able to locate the books for A & D. Incidentally the enlistment books for pre 1908 (the DHIY) are at Flintshire County Archives, Hawarden.

C Squadron starts at 3000 Albert Hill in April 1908 and the last one is 3252 John Jones on 7 8 1914.

Piecing together Medal Rolls/surviving papers etc shows that D Squadron starts at 5010 John B Fenlon (5000 would be more natural?) with first enlistment date found so far being 5021 William Jones at 11 4 1908. The highest number with an enlistment date I have found so far is 5281 Jarret Roberts on 22 8 1914.
I now come to the B Squadron Book.
The book starts of quite confusingly but settles down in January 1910 with numbers being allocated chronologically at
307 Samuel Emmanuels on 3 1 1910
through to
541 Frank Roberts on 4 8 1914
After war outbreak numbers are still allocated and full name and address logged up to 586 John Jones on 2 9 1914. There is then a gap in issue from this book till a batch is issued from 858 to 892 with only number and name showing. The only date is 858 on 14 9 1914
There are obvious gaps in the numbers allocated in this book pre war and sufficient records have been found of those ‘missing’ numbers to show that they were allocated to A Squadron men (including an A SQdn Training List 1914 showing name/number/troop of about 120 men)
It’s highly likely that the main book issuing numbers from shortly after the war outbreak is the ‘missing’ A Squadron enlistment book. Or maybe they started a new book altogether for all 4 Squadrons plus the 2nd Line men in September and the 3rd Line later on in 1915.
The highest number for this A & B combined/all Lines & Squadrons sequence is 2237 John Francis Gardner on 22 2 1917.
The TF renumbering exercise took place April 1917 and the DHY block was 215001 to 220000. If the above is confusing then this lot are even more so. There does seem to be some sort of pattern but I wouldn’t like to commit to it at the moment.
The DHY had lost its 1st Line men on active service to RWF 24th Bn Territorial Force. They received a RWF number from a sequence starting at 345001. The RWF numbers seem to have been allocated as follows:
345001 to 345374
First 20 or so being NCOs, thereafter to the men from the A&B sequence (pre & post war outbreak) in ascending DHY number
34379 to 345427
From the A Squadron sequence in ascending DHY number
345428 to 345461
From the D Squadron sequence in ascending DHY number

The 24th Bn RWF was brought up to Infantry battalion strength by transferring men in from other RWF battalions, those men being renumbered from 345462 onwards with two distinct alphabetical sequences to start off with. More work is needed on this.

It is often said that the DHY converted to 24th Bn RWF but it was only the 1st Line. DHY continued in existence with the 2/1 unit.


Hywyn Williams

Paul Nixon said...

Hywyn

Many thanks for posting so extensively and authoritatively on this; much appreciated.

Paul

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