31 October 2016

11th Royal Dublin Fusiliers - Part II Orders 29th May 1917


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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