Regimental Part II Orders are real gems; the sadness is that so few survive. I think I read somewhere that these were mostly destroyed during the same bombing of London's Docklands in September 1940 which also destroyed 60 per cent of the other rank service records. Some regiments may have copies still, but most do not.
Findmypast has the most comprehensive collection of British Army service records online, and their thoughtful indexing of lists of men found amongst papers in WO 363 has turned up some very useful documents.
The extract below is a transcription of 11th Durham Light Infantry men who proceeded overseas to France on the 28th May 1917 (see the image above which Crown Copyright, The National Archives). I thought I'd manipulate the data and place it in regimental number order to determine when the men had joined up. First though, here are the 86 men:
13538 Sgt Martin, B Company
18256 Pte Scullion B Company
20082 Pte Pannell B Company
23961 Pte McDermot C Company
24926 Pte Jones C Company
24942 Pte Ashenhurst B Company
25096 Pte Jackson A Company
25102 Pte Reardon C Company
25368 Pte Chandler B Company
25434 Pte Ashenhurst C Company
25611 Pte Ahern A Company
25637 Pte Douglas B Company
25962 Pte Hegarty A Company
26043 Pte Cronin C Company
26090 Pte Brown D Company
26224 L/Cpl Conway D Company
26297 Pte Scanlon B Company
26354 Pte Kelly A Company
26546 Pte Lalor A Company
26596 Pte Jones B Company
26772 Pte Holden C Company
26973 Pte Wynne A Company
26979 Pte Gough B Company
26994 Pte Doyle D Company
27023 Pte McDonagh B Company
27370 Pte Kennedy B Company
27385 Pte Lynch B Company
27428 Pte Smalley A Company
27452 L/Cpl Armstrong D Company
27640 Pte De Lacy B Company
27680 Pte Ennis A Company
27729 Pte Doyle D Company
27957 Pte Devine C Company
28269 Pte Lyons A Company
28270 Pte Murphy A Company
28406 Pte Kelly C Company
28407 Pte Byrne B Company
28607 Pte Douch A Company
28652 Pte Quinn B Company
28655 Pte Burke A Company
28673 Pte Cosgrove A Company
28683 Pte Hernon A Company
28684 Pte Cahill B Company
28716 Pte Devine B Company
28731 Pte Harte B Company
28732 Pte Kearns B Company
28733 Pte Tattersall C Company
28734 Pte O'Hanlon C Company
28738 Pte McDonald B Company
28747 Pte Duff B Company
28954 Pte Robinson A Company
28965 Pte Rowe A Company
28969 Pte Hunt B Company
28971 Pte Byrne B Company
29042 Pte Overend C Company
29043 Pte Smith C Company
29055 Pte Keatinge D Company
29058 Pte Duff B Company
29063 Pte Ryan C Company
29075 Pte Connolly A Company
29081 Pte McManus B Company
29131 Pte McGovern B Company
29133 Pte Buckley B Company
29211 Pte Murphy A Company
29215 Pte Osborne C Company
29216 Pte Gillor B Company
29220 Pte Cowell C Company
29223 Pte Hughes B Company
29243 Pte Oldfield C Company
29245 Pte Metcalfe B Company
29247 Pte Walmsley C Company
29251 Pte Cullen B Company
29252 Pte Willan C Company
29270 Pte Byrne B Company
29278 Pte Smith D Company
29289 Pte Skinner D Company
29291 Pte McDonough A Company
29293 Pte Dean B Company
29333 Pte Davidson A Company
29335 Pte Flint A Company
29717 Pte Gargan B Company
29765 Pte McFarlane D Company
29830 Pte Hepburn D Company
29831 Pte Fay D Company
29917 Pte Heffron D Company
29939 Pte Lightbound B Company
Sergeant Martin is the longest-serving and most senior of the men here. His regimental number tells me that he joined up around the 8th September 1914, but he was certainly not overseas any earlier than 1st January 1916 and it is possible that this posting in May 1917 was his first time abroad. He later served with the Labour Corps.
The rest of the men have numbers in the range 20082 to 29939. 20082 dates to around the 21st September 1914 whilst 29939 would have been issued over two years later in October 1916. For many of the men listed here, this scrap of information is now all that survives of their service records although First World War medal index cards and campaign medal rolls 1914-1920 have been publsihed online.
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