My database of British regimental numbers has been largely built by using online resources. I've been a subscriber to Findmypast for eight years, and an Ancestry subscriber for close to fifteen years I should think. For me, subscriptions are essential, a necessary annual expense.
Which leads me nicely into this new offer from Findmypast, 10% off the price of a UK or World subscription.
The UK sub suits me just fine as I have few overseas ancestors and I use it pretty much exclusively for military records these days. There is a wealth of military data: the worldwide British Army indexes for 1841, 1851, 1861 and 1871, the British Army Service records (far more records indexed on Findmypast than at Ancestry), Scots Guards, Honourable Artillery Company, Tanks, Artillery... it goes on. With so much on offer,I consider a full-price sub to be a bargain, let alone a sub that offers 10 PER CENT OFF!
This is a time-limited offer which starts at 12.01am GMT this evening (ie one minute past midnight on the 19th July) and ends at 11.59pm GMT on Sunday 30th July.
Grab yourself a bargain by following the links on this page. This offer is only being promoted through partners like me, so don't miss out!
There are 119 men on this list of East Surrey other ranks who were captured by the Germans on or before Christmas Day 1914. In due course, all of these men - all those who survived, anyway - would be sent Princess Mary's gift to the troops; and this is the list of those men who were to receive that gift.
10730 Pte Thomas Hughes does not appear on this 6-page typed list which was sent to Sir Ernest Goodhart by the officer i/c East Surrey Section, Infantry Record Office, Hounslow and which is today catalogued as B.O.2 1/171by the Imperial War Museum. Nevertheless, Hughes was certainly a prisoner and has a report in WO 161 which can be accessed on Findmypast (and via The National Archives' website). There may be other omissions too.
The image on this site is one that may be familiar to past readers of this blog and my Chailey blog, and shows 6738 Private Sabourin (middle row, far left) who was wounded and captured on the opening day of the Battle of Mons on the 23rd August 1914. The photo of him and other convalescents was taken at Chailey in 1915 after he had been repatriated.
I research soldiers!
10678 Private H Baldwin
7664 Private C Barnes
10601 Private T A Barron
6674 Private A G Beckley
10441 Private E H Benford
5977 Private A J Bennett
6852 Private T Bennett
10509 Private G D Betts
5299 Private John G Blacklaws
8667 Private F Blay
10162 Private D Bloomfield
9053 Private H Bowyer
8003 Private G W Burge
8928 Private D J Burne
10709 Private J Butler
10431 Private H A Byford
9895 Private W H Cain
6060 Private W Cannell
7998 Private R Casey
7544 Private W Casey
7190 Private W J Castle
10346 Private W Chamberlain
10168 Private G Clark
8178 Private J Clark
8430 Private G Clarke
9300 Private T K Collis
9953 Lance-Corporal Harry Condon
9065 Drummer William Condon
10591 Private A E Cook
8242 Private H Cook
10781 Private B Cornwall
8742 Private A Cotsford
5395 Sergeant A G Craven
10761 Private F Dawes
7716 Private P Donovan
8716 Private E J Durham
8993 Private E Elliott
7753 Private E Ellis
7680 Private A English
7743 Private J Evans
10319 Lance-Corporal Ewyer
10238 Private H Farmaner
5522 Private W J Finn
8904 Private H B Frost
10425 Private A E Fullex
10468 Private W Gatland
10475 Private A G Giles
9357 Lance-Corporal W G Goodyear
7219 Private D Gosnell
9759 Private H E Grant
6660 Private H Halfpenny
10210 Private P Harding
6098 Private A C Hardy
6992 Private H Harris
9382 Private G Harvey
8418 Private W E Hawkins
10079 Private M R Healy
8240 Lance-Corporal D J Hearn
8025 Private H E Holland
10561 Private S G Hooper
8099 Private L Hubbard
10216 Private J S Humphrey
7736 Private C A Irvin
7844 Private S G Joanes
10412 Private J R Johnson
9333 Private A Jones
7610 Private C Jones
10634 Private R W Jones
8133 Private T Jones
9326 Private H E Kawson
10197 Private F King
10508 Private W A Lewis
7502 Private W R Lloyd
9001 Private A Lock
8112 Private W Marke
9516 Private W J McFarlane
7684 Thomas M Moore
7859 Private R Morgan
10623 Private J Munday
10031 Lance-Corporal W R Neale
10918 Private Harry Newton
10729 Private J Oakley
7959 Private M O'Connor
10329 Private W Parry
10081 Private F J Press
7751 Private H Priggen
10550 Private F Purdy
10087 Private T Richfield
6738 Private C Sabourin
10102 Private Frederick S Samworth
10312 Private F Sayers
8117 Private G Searle
7867 Private C T Sherlock
8276 Private H E Shipling
8182 Private Albert Sills
7916 Private J W Smith
8659 Private W J Sorrell
7706 Private H Stanton
7712 Private E Sullivan
9849 Private H D Taylor
7910 Private W J Telford
10462 Private H C Thomas
5585 Private J Tripp
8783 Private A Trower
8160 Private Albert Turrington
8245 Private W Tutin
8572 Private G Vary
7698 Private H J Vince
10621 Private H W Wales
7930 Private P Walker
8496 Private W J Wallington
10590 Private E Wallis
10027 Private W Walter
10717 Private C W Ward
10710 Private F Warren
4130 Private C Westlake
10341 Private E Wood
7892 Private H S Wyatt
7501 Private I Young
I've been transcribing - for some while now - non fatal casualties reported in The Times newspaper for 1914. I expect to complete this task this year and will then augment the data with other 1914 data.
The men listed below all served with the Bedfordshire Regiment and were all reported as having been wounded. Their names were notifed to the War Office on the 27th November 1914 and they appeared in a casualty list published in The Times on the 5th January 1915.
I publish this small sample here because it serves as useful spotlight on the British Army at this particular time. I have not anlaysed this list of wounded men in particular depth but I can tell, by looking as far as 6927 APte Arthur Mabbott, that there are a lot of men from the Special Reserve in this list. I have indicated this by noting (3rd Battalion) next to their names, although this detail does not appear in the official casualty lists.
It is important to note the difference between regular soldiers and men of the Special Reserve. Whereas the former were career soldiers, the Special Reserve were men who had enlisted for part-time soldiering only, albeit they would have known that they would be sent out as drafts to the regular battalions if they were needed. It is also important to remember that the regular 1st and 2nd Battalions adopted a completely different regimental numbering sequence to the 3rd (Special Reserve) Battalion. So whereas 6313 Joseph Knightley, for instance, must have enlisted as a career soldier in July 1898, 6237 Pte William Levitt and 6381 Pte J Smith had both enlisted in 1910.
Such important distinctions are not generally noted in casualty lists, although the simple addition of a 3/ prefix to the special reservists' numbers would have made it very obvious what these men's origins were and when they had enlisted.
What this list says to me though is that already, by November 1914, the Bedfordshire Regiment had suffered significant losses and had already taken in large numbers of men from the Special Reserve. These men too, were now returning back to England as wounded soldiers.
I research soldiers!
4677 Pte Arthur Worbey
5366 Sgt G Hodge
5373 Sgt E Hutchinson
6037 Pte A Mills
6108 Pte Alfred Richardson (3rd Battalion)
6137 Pte Arthur Holt (3rd Battalion)
6234 Pte S Webb
6237 Pte Roger William Levitt (3rd Battalion)
6313 Pte Joseph Knightley
6381 Pte J Smith (3rd Battalion)
6388 Pte John T Bates
6494 Pte Arthur Green
6512 Pte Albert S Fitch
6707 Pte Harry Darlow (3rd Battalion)
6712 Pte W Waller
6779 Pte A Abbott
6827 Pte Charles Harley
6849 Pte J F Randall (3rd Battalion)
6858 Pte Charles Gregory (3rd Battalion)
6916 Pte Abel Clark (3rd Battalion)
6927 Pte Arthur Mabbott (3rd Battalion)
6991 Pte G Thompson
7017 Pte B Wood
7030 Pte J Keep
7066 Pte F Gooding
7171 Pte S Evans
7174 Pte A Butler
7216 Pte F Coppin
7289 Pte W Webb
7398 Pte H Gray
7412 Pte E Carter
7451 Pte Arthur H Haile
7570 Pte J Goodwin
7612 Sgt P Chandler
7656 Pte A Turner
7730 Pte J Fensome
7936 Bandsman E Clarke
8306 Sgt P Folkard
8355 L-Sgt W Gale
8388 Bandsman E Fynn
8398 Pte W Millard
8441 Sgt C Guerin
8458 Sgt E Endersby
8469 Pte F Wright
8509 Pte E Keogh
8548 Pte F Crew
8555 Pte E H Reid
8591 Sgt G Roper
8692 Pte C Smith
8742 Pte J Marney
8812 Cpl A Smith
8841 Dmr A Pearcey
8874 Pte F Richardson
8922 Pte C J Hooper
8939 Pte I Afford
8963 Pte W Shaw
8978 Pte J Hornett
8981 Pte A Chandler
8982 Sgt F Bulley
9024 Cpl J Newby
9035 Pte J Ellis
9047 Pte F Braybrook
9074 Pte T Gardiner
9097 Pte A Jeeves
9134 Pte H Cooper
9135 Pte H Gear
9220 Pte G Webster
9231 L-Cpl H Halls
9260 Pte G Harlott
9264 Cpl W R Brown
9267 Pte Frank Bird
9278 Pte J Eccles
9294 Pte S Webb
9299 Pte A Chennells
9326 Pte W Robinson
9337 Pte Edward Boxall
9349 Pte J King
9385 Pte A Beard
9397 L-Cpl G Taylor
9419 Pte C Wright
9445 Pte E Larman
9459 Pte G Ellis
9475 L-Cpl T Sharpe
9503 Pte O Denton
9544 L-Cpl E Pepper
9581 Pte W Papworth
9594 Pte J Goodhead
9595 Pte J Sharp
9598 Cpl F Robinson
9648 Pte A Skinner
9655 Pte E Parker
9690 Pte H Osborne
9712 Pte D Lydle
9726 Pte A Gilbey
9744 Pte G Butler
9756 Pte A Tomlinson
9759 Pte S Simons
9804 Pte G Cope
9808 Pte P Clark
9819 Pte Arthur Richardson
9826 Pte S Rumbles
9837 Pte S J Folwell
9867 Pte W Mardling
9869 Pte A R Maydwell
9891 Pte A Mee
9951 Pte H Wright
9973 Pte R Franklin
10017 Pte W G Watson
10030 Pte A Woodcock
10031 Pte G Brown
10041 Pte J Reid
10042 Pte A Fitzjohn
10048 Pte W White
10081 Pte H Denton
10144 Cpl P Sandilands
10145 Pte T J Harris
10171 Pte W Austin
10188 Pte G Stringer
10374 L-Cpl T Allen
