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30 September 2014

3rd (Militia Battalion) Devonshire Regiment

It's been a little while since I posted regimental numbers here - too many 1914 Prisoners of War to be looking at - but as I'm giving a talk on regimental numbers in Devon this weekend, it's perhaps apt that this post should look at numbering in the 3rd (Militia) Battalion of the Devonshire Regiment.

What follows is a snapshot of enlistments between 1892 and 1900.  I will follow this with a separate post on the 4th (Militia) Battalion and in due course, as time permits, I will expand the series to take in other years. Both the 3rd and 4th Battalions maintained separate number series although as we shall see, looking at the series side by side, it is virtually impossible for some years, to tell one battalion apart from the other.

2480 joined on 10th February 1892
2657 joined on 13th February 1893
2888 joined on 26th November 1896
3030 joined on 16th March 1897
3250 joined on 12th March 1898
3546 joined on 5th June 1899
3640 joined on 25th April 1900

My source for this information was mostly surviving papers in WO 96, now easily accessible online through Findmypast. Whilst quite a few Devonshire militia records survive, frustratingly many do not distinguish between the 3rd and 4th Battalion (and the fact that in many cases, the recruiting sergeant was a sergeant belonging to the 4th Battalion is no guarantee that the man went into the 4th Battalion).

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