5th (Buchan and Formartin) Battalion, Gordon Highlanders

The 5th (Buchan and Formartin) Battalion, Gordon Highlanders was a Territorial Force Battalion formed on 1st April 1908. It was the natural heir to the 2nd Volunteer Battalion and the 3rd (The Buchan) Volunteer Battalion, Gordon Highlanders and was headquartered at Peterhead. It was administered by the Aberdeenshire Association with companies and drill halls in the following locations:

A Company
Strichen; drill stations at New Pitsligo, New Aberdour, New Dear and Maud.
B Company
Peterhead; drill stations at Longside and St Fergus.
C Company
Peterhead; drill stations at Boddam and Hatton.
D Company
Turriff; drill stations at Fyvie and Cuminestown.
E Company
Ellon; drill stations at Auchnagatt, Methlick, Skilmafilly and Newburgh
F Company
Old Meldrum; drill stations at Tarves, Newmacher, and Pitmedden
G Company
Fraserburgh; drill station at Rosehearty
H Company
Fraserburgh; drill station at Lonmay

414 joined on 16th May 1908
506 joined on14th January 1909
1128 joined on 15th March 1910
1262 joined on 3rd February1911
1382 joined on 31st January 1912
1548 joined on 6th January 1913
1753 joined on 19th February 1914
1872 joined on 4th August 1914
2164 joined on 2nd September 1914

A 2/5th Battalion was formed at Peterhead in October 1914 and upon formation the 5th Battalion became the 1/5th Battalion Gordon Highlanders. The 2/5th Battalion used the same number sequence as the 1/5th.

2399 joined on 19th October 1914
2497 joined on 7th November 1914
2699 joined on 7th December 1914
2840 joined on 5th January 1915
3041 Joined on 6th February 1915
3070 joined on 4th March 1915
3101 joined on 3rd April 1915
3186 joined on 4th May 1915

A 3/5th Battalion was formed at the beginning of May 1915 and it too used the same number sequence as that being used by the 1/5th and 2/5th Battalions.

3251 joined on 8th June 1915
3289 joined on 5th July 1915
3357 joined on 3rd August 1915
3404 joined on 20th September 1915
3409 joined on 4th October 1915
3507 joined on 1st November 1915
3590 joined on 3rd December 1915
3662 joined on 1st February 1916
3722 joined on 15th March 1916
3890 joined on 20th April 1916
3956 joined on 29th May 1916
4157 joined on 7th July 1916
4361 joined on 15th September 1916
4379 joined on 5th October 1916

When the Territorial Force was re-numbered in 1917, men from the 5th Gordons were issued numbers in the range 240001 to 265000, the lowest number being issued to the man with the lowest number from the first series. For instance, 240139 was issued to George Bruce who had originally joined the battalion on the 21st March 1912 and whose original number, according to his surviving service record in WO 364 was 1466.

Carolyn Morrisey's excellent website devoted to the 5th Gordon Highlanders is well worth a visit and also includes useful information on the numbering in this battalion: The 5th Battalion, The Gordon Highlanders. Map of Aberdeenshire (2012) courtesy Google.

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1908. What a difference a year makes.

In 1908, the birth of the Territorial Force (replacing the Volunteers) and the introduction of Special and Extra Reserve Battalions (in place of the old Militia battalions), completely re-wrote the County Regiment numbering series.

I've recently joined the Border Regiment Forum and I was looking at army service number series in use by the regiment before the 1908 changes and afterwards. The regiment is as good as any to use as a case study.

In 1907 the Border Regiment had a regular 1st and 2nd Battalion, using one number series between them; two militia battalions, the 3rd and 4th, using a separate number series each; and two volunteer battalions, the 1st and 3rd Volunteer Battalions, also each using a separate number series. I presume there was also a 2nd Volunteer Battalion at some stage which had been disbanded.

With the formation of the Territorial Force (TF), the numbering series in the 1st and 3rd Volunteer Battalions were abandoned and men were given new numbers. Those who were already serving as Volunteers attested using Army Form E.502. Those who were not serving, used attestation form E.501. The 1st Volunteer Battalion became the 4th (Territorial Force) Battalion and the 3rd Volunteer Battalion became the 5th (Territorial Force) Battalion.

The image at the top of this page shows attestation form E.502. The letter B, handwritten on the top right hand corner, indicates the man's company. He was living at Carlisle, attested at Carlisle and Companies A and B of the 4th Border Regiment, as well as the battalion HQ, were situated in Carlisle. Below is an example of attestation form E.501, this one completed by William Head who was joining the 5th Border Regiment. The letter E on his form indicates E Company which recruited from the Egremont area of Cumberland. Both images are Crown Copyright. Click on them both for readable versions. Complete service records for both these men exist in the WO 364 Pension Series at the National Archives, and now on-line via the Ancestry website.


Not all newly created TF infantry battalions started numbering from 1 in April 1908 and there are plenty of examples of battalions which continued with the same series of numbers which had been in use by the Volunteers. Other battalions, which now found themselves being administered by more than one County Territorial Force Association, found themselves encumbered with more than one number series. This is particularly evident in some Scottish Regiments (although not, apparently, the Border Regiment).

The 4th Militia Battalion of the Border Regiment was one of 23 militia battalions ordered to be disbanded. Serving 4th Battalion militiamen were encouraged to join the newly created 3rd (Special Reserve) Battalion, and many did so. 2157 Private Henry Baylis and 2161 Private Henry Clark had originally joined the 4th Battalion in 1904, Baylis in September and Clark in December. That their numbers (which were issued sequentially) were only a few digits apart and yet their dates of joining nearly three months distant, helps to explain why the authorities considered the 4th Militia Battalion to be surplus to requirements. Both Baylis and Clark re-joined the 3rd (Special Reserve) Battalion in January and February 1908 respectively and were given new numbers. Both men's records (militia and Special Reserve) can be viewed on-line via the Ancestry website.

Serving members of the 3rd Militia Battalion were also encouraged to join the newly created Special Reserve Battalion which continued with the same series of numbering that had been in use by its Militia predecessor.

The only battalions unaffected by the changes introduced in 1908 were the two regular battalions, the 1st and 2nd, which continued their steady plod. By the end of April 1908 the two battalions could claim to have recruited just nine and a half thousand men over the previous 27 years.

I'll deal with Border regiment recruitment patterns in greater detail in future posts. This entry though serves to illustrate the changes in regimental numbering in Infantry of the Line regiments before and after 1908, and the Border Regiment example is typical.


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The Gloucestershire Regiment - 3rd (Special Reserve) Battalion

Prior to 1908 the Gloucestershire Regiment had two Militia battalions, the 3rd and the 4th. When the Special Reserve was formed in 1908, the 4th Militia Battalion was disbanded and men from it and from the 3rd Militia Battalion were encouraged to transfer to the newly formed 3rd (Special Reserve) Battalion.



Unlike many Special and Extra Reserve Battalions which, when they were formed, simply continued with the old militia series of numbers that had been in use, the 3rd Gloucestershire Regiment started numbering from 1.



Recruiting for the militia as a whole, ceased on 15th January 1908 and from the following day, all enlistments were for the Special Reserve. See my earlier posts on the creation of the Special Reserve and the Special Reserve appendices for the full detail.



The first number currently on my database for the 3rd (Special Reserve) Battalion, The Gloucestershire Regiment is number 57 who joined on 20th January 1908 having previously served with the 4th Militia Battalion. The last number on my database is currently 3279 who joined on 3rd November 1914.



In that first year, 1908, over 700 men enlisted with the 3rd Gloucesters (number 711 joined on 30th December 1908) but then recruitment slowed dramatically, averaging roughly 300 recruits a year (for instance, less than 800 men joined up between 1st January 1909 and 10th January 1912).



Here then, are some army service numbers and corresponding joining dates for the 3rd Gloucesters between 1908 and 1914.



57 joined on 20th January 1908
721 joined on 1st January 1909
1059 joined on 1st March 1910
1323 joined on 2nd May 1911
1517 joined on 10th Janaury 1912
1815 joined on 11th January 1913
2015 joined on 27th March 1914
2104 joined on 13th August 1914
2616 joined on 3rd September 1914
3219 joined on 15th October 1914
3271 joined on 3rd November 1914



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Also see my other posts on the Gloucestershire Regiment:

1st and 2nd (Regular) Battalions, The Gloucestershire Regiment

4th (Territorial Force) Battalion, The Gloucestershire Regiment
5th (Territorial Force) Battalion, The Gloucestershire Regiment
6th (Territorial Force) Battalion, The Gloucestershire Regiment

The Service Battalions, The Gloucestershire Regiment

View Gloucestershire Regiment service records, pension records and medal index cards on-line.

The creation of the Special Reserve in 1908

Further to comments yesterday regarding the transition in 1908 from Militia to Special Reserve, I've been doing some digging through old Hansard transcriptions for 1907 and 1908. There's a wealth of information (not all of it easily found through Google searches) courtesy of the Hansard Digitisation Project which makes fascinating reading.

This from the Duke of Bedford (who was vehemently opposed to the abolition of the Militia) speaking in a House of Lords Debate that began on 18th February 1908 and continued two days later.

"My Lords, the Army Order of the 23rd December last is one of the most important Orders ever issued by the Army Council. It abolishes the Militia, and attempts to create a new Force which is to be known as the Special Contingent. That force is divided into combatants and non-combatants. The combatants comprise Engineers, Artillery, and Infantry. I propose to deal with the Infantry only, and to begin by reading Paragraph 2 of this Order. Under Section 30 of the Territorial and Reserve Forces Act, a man who has not served in the Regular Forces may, under the provisions of the Reserve Forces Act of 1882, enlist into the Army Reserve. These men will in future be known as Special Reservists. A Special Reservist of the Infantry, then, is a man who has never served with the colours of any regiment of the Line, and who under this Order will not even know to which regiment of the Line he may be drafted when the Reserves are called out. It is proposed to form this Special Infantry Reserve partly by direct enlistment, which began on the 15th January last, and partly by asking Militia officers and men now serving to transfer to the Special Reserve on the abolition of the Militia. One hundred and one Militia battalions are to train this year as Militia, and at the end of their training will be asked to transfer to the Special Reserve. Twenty-three battalions of Militia have been disbanded."

But the Duke of Bedford was too late. As he had stated, the Army Order dealing with the "Scheme for the provision, organization, and training of the Special Reserve required to supplement the Regular Army, and the application of the Scheme to the existing Militia" had already been issued the previous December.

I reproduce below, the copy of that Order (15 pages in total) and I do so with grateful thanks to Graham Stewart who kindly sent me this, along with a lot of other useful reference material which I shall post on this blog in due course. Click on each of the images in order to read the text more clearly.

Various appendices are referenced in the Army Order. I have included these on a separate post: 1907 Army Order - Special Reserve - Appendices I - XI.

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The mavericks

Let's take a small hypothetical county regiment around the year 1909 and look at what we would expect to see in terms of numbering series within the regiment. This regiment has two regular battalions (one based at home, the other overseas but both battalions taking their numbers from the same series) and by 1909 they've reached about number 9500 and can quite happily keep on going until 19,999 as per the instruction laid out in the King's Regulations for 19o8.

The 3rd (Special Reserve) battalion, having been formed out of the local militia battalion in 1908, has retained the militia numbering sequence and might be at around 5000. The regiment also has four Territorial Force battalions, each of these having their origin in local Volunteer battalions and each having started numbering from 1 in April 1908. At this stage, the majority of men in these TF battalions will be men who previously served as Volunteers.

So we have seven battalions in total and at a snapshot for 1909 it's pretty easy to see who belongs where. That man with number 9300 must be a regular, number 4800 must be a Special Reservist and number 400 is going to be a Territorial Force man with any one of the four TF battalions. So much for hypothesis.

Let's now take a look at a real example for 1909: The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles). By January 1909, regular soldiers joining the regiment were being issued numbers in the 10,300 range. The Cameronians had two reserve battalions, the 3rd (Special Reserve) Battalion and the 4th (Extra Reserve) Battalion (both with separate number series). In terms of numbering, the 3rd Battalion was slightly - by about 250 digits - ahead of the 4th Battalion, thus number 6986 was issued to a 3rd Battalion man in May and number 6740 was issued to a man in February. (Incidentally, the two battalions seem to have maintained this gap, certainly up until the end of September 1914).

The 5th and 8th battalions of the Cameronians, are the mavericks of the title of this post. In 1908 when most other Territorial Battalions were commencing their numbering from 1, the 5th and the 8th Cameronians, (born respectively out of the 1st Volunteer Battalion Scottish Rifles and the 4th Volunteer Battalion Scottish Rifles), carried on with the same number sequences used by those Volunteer units. Thus by March 1909, a man joing the 5th Cameronians would be given a number in the 5800s whilst a man joining the 8th Cameronians would be given a number in the 8100s. (The 6th and 7th Battalions had not followed the example of their wayward brother and sister and had started numbering from 1.) When these battalions reached 9999, they started numbering from 1 again. The 8th Battalion reached that point in November 1914 and the 5th Battlion in September 1915.

So what then, do we make of great uncle Jack who we know was discharged from the Cameronians in August 1915 and who had no medals but had the number 6000? These are the possibilities that the Army Service Numbers database will throw out:

1. 6000 would have been issued to a 1st or 2nd Battalion man at some point between 1897 and 1898. Armed with this information, if you know Great Uncle Jack was 24 when he was discharged, he couldn't possibly have been a pre-war regular. We can apply the same age logic throughout.
2. 6000 could have been 3rd Bn man who joined in 1908 (and who was subsequently posted to either one of the regular battalions or a service battalion but retained his 3rd Bn number).
3. 6000 could have been 4th Bn man who joined in 1908 (and who was subsequently posted to either one of the regular battalions or a service battalion but retained his 4th Bn number).
4. 6000 could have been a Territorial who joined the 5th Bn in 1909.
5. 6000 could have been a Territorial who joined the 8th Bn in 1908.

We do know, that if Great Uncle Jack had no medals he either didn't serve overseas or he deserted and therefore was denied his medals.

In any event, there are a number of possibilities there but we can say that the number 6000 was not one issued to a man joining a service battalion. In August 1914, Kitchener's men joining the Cameronian service battalions were being issued with numbers in the 11000 range and above. The man could have been discharged from a service battalion but if this was the case, his number indicates that he would originally have been posted from either the 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th Battalions.

There are numerous examples of what I'll call "maverick" battalions but as often as not, their numbering series are more of a help to a modern day researcher, than a hindrance.

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Army Service Numbers 1881-1918

This blog is an information resource for which will look at British Army service numbers issued between the years 1881 and 1918. Its aim is to provide information which will help researchers and family historians determine - from a soldier's army service number - the date he joined a particular unit of the British Army.

The concept of this blog is simple. Every “Other Rank” soldier was issued with a service number. Although in most cases these numbers were far from unique and in fact often repeated many times in a single regiment, it is nevertheless still possible - in most cases - to estimate a likely joining date from a man’s army service number.

For the most part, I shall focus on army service numbers issued to Infantry of the Line. There are also some corps - The Army Service Corps and Labour Corps for instance - which are currently beyond the scope of this project.

A word of warning too. It is wrong to assume that numbering sequences in battalions always followed a sequential pattern. They didn't. As the war progressed and casualties grew, large numbers of men were often transferred from one battalion to another and allocated numbers within blocks which did not fit the sequential patterning seen to date. This becomes particularly evident in most battalions from 1916 onwards. For an example of this, see my post on the 23rd London Regiment.

I'll begin with army service numbers in the Essex Regiment. Don't forget there are millions of British Army records published on Findmypast and Ancestry.

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