Finding Elsie's boy

It's always nice to hear a success story, better still to be instrumental in that success.

Earlier this week I had an email from the Royal Cornwall Museum who are putting together an exhibition based on a series of diaries written by a local Cornishwoman. Elsie, the woman in question refers to 'Charlie' going off to fight in the First World War, and the museum wanted to know if I could help identify Charlie. They knew his name and the fact that he enlisted in March 1915 and that later in the war he was wounded whilst serving with the 7th Battalion, Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry. Later, by now with the 1st Battalion, he was wounded again. Could I help identify Charlie?

The key to getting close to this was identifying his regimental number. Knowing he enlisted in March 1915 with a service battalion enabled me to advise the museum that his regimental number must have been between - approximately - 18600 and 19300.  The next step was to run some searches on my British Army Ancestors website which has 11.6m records and includes records in WO 372 (medal index cards) and WO 363 and WO 364 (service and pension records). The search is flexible and I advised the museum to run searches on his forename, regiment and number, using the wildcard * to obtain maximum results. The search looks like this on the site:

Here, typing Char* would identify men called Charles or Charlie (or Charlemagne) and 186* would identify all numbers beginning with 186. Cornwall* saves typing out "Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry" and would also catch mis-spellings like Duke of Cornwalls Light Infantry and other combinations. 

I advised the museum to run the same search for 187*, 188* 189* etc and to makes note of all the results. Three hours later I got a message back to say that they'd discovered who Charlie was. Actually, the exact words were, "Your site is incredible, and the information you provided has led me to my Charlie after weeks of searching for him! Thank you – the rather irksome mystery is no more!"

The Charlie concerned is this man, Charles William Haslam, who served with the 1st, 7th and 2nd Battalions of the DCLI.

I'm thrilled that a combination of my regimental numbers' knowledge, and my decision to invest in a website which provides a simple search across millions of British Army records has yielded such a fast and positive result. Now to find a photo of Charlie.

I research soldiers! 

Contact me if you need help.

The importance of regimental numbers in military research

This is a well-worn topic on this blog but it doesn't harm to go over the basics again once in a while. And before I forget, the image above is borrowed from the Postcards of Cornwall website and shows men from Section 4, A Company, 10th DCLI photographed in 1915.


The reason I began my study of regimental numbers in the first place was that for many of the men I was researching at the time, a regimental number on a medal card / medal roll was all I had. Knowing how particular the army was I felt sure that there must have been a system in place when it came to issuing regimental numbers and that if I could crack the code, a man's regimental number could tell me quite a bit.


Over the years I  have built a database of men with known enlistment and/or transfer dates and the regimental numbers they were issued with. I did this for the majority of all infantry of the line battalions and for all other corps except the Army service Corps and Labour Corps. My study embraced all branches of the army: regular, militia, special reserve, extra reserve, Volunteer Force (partial), Territorial Force, Yeomanry and New Army (from 1914). I have published a fraction of this research on this blog.

So here's an example of what I mean. The eight names listed above are the first eight results you get if you run a blank search of "Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry" on Ancestry's medal index card collection. The DCLI appears to be one of the worst affected regiments when it comes to surviving documents from 1914-1918 and so understanding when numbers were issued for this regiment becomes particularly important. Here's what I make of the numbers:


36689 Percival H Abbiss
Some papers survive in WO 363 but documents dealing with his transfer to DCLI do not survive. From my database, 36689 dates to October 1917


38115 Albert E Abbott
No service record survives. The number dates to late November 1917.


5288/201891 Albert S Abbott
No service record survives. The six-digit number marks this man as a member of the 4th (Territorial Force) Battalion. Papers survive in WO 364 and show that this man enlisted in April 1916, although he had attested earlier, in December 1915, under the Derby Scheme. My army service numbers database also identifies patterns of Derby Scheme enlistments.


6326 Alfred Abbott
Some papers survive in WO 364 which show that this man was discharged from The Norfolk Regiment in June 1917. The papers show that this man enlisted in 1891 and again in October 1914. The 1891 enlistment cannot have been when he was issued with the number 6326 and therefore this number must have been issued in October 1914. The only battalion that this can have been was the 3rd (Special Reserve) Battalion.


676/240010 Arthur W Abbott
No service record survives. The six-digit number marks this man as a member of the 5th (TF) Battalion and an enlistment date of June 1908. This man was probably an original member of the 2nd Volunteer Battalion which pre-dated the 5th (TF) Battalion. By the time he was issued with his new six-digit number in 1917, he was the 10th longest serving man in the battalion.


28818 Fred Abbott
No service record survives. The number dates to September 1916.


23049 George Abbott
No service record survives. The number dates to August 1915.


27960 George Abbott
No service record survives. The number dates to May 1916.


So there you have it in a simple blog post: eight good reasons why regimental numbers are important.


I also offer a comprehensive, fast and cost-effective military history research service. Follow the link for more information.

Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry - 1st & 2nd Battalions

This post will look at army service numbers issued to men joining the regular battalions of the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry between the regiment's formation in July 1881 and August 1914. The regiment was formed out of the old 32nd Regiment of Foot and the 46th (South Devonshire) Regiment of Foot.

There are over 23,000 Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry service and pension records (for this regiment - and its antecedents) in various War Office series held at the National Archives. Clicking on the link will take you to the results on Findmypast but you will need a subscription or Pay-Per-View credits to actually view the records. Findmypast has by far the most comprehensive British Army service record collection.

Use the regimental numbers and dates on which these were issued, below, to determine parameters for when your own Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry ancestor would have joined up. Note though that these numbers are only for regular enlistments. Special Reserve and Territorial Force battalions operated completely separate regimental number sequences.

35 joined on 18th July 1881
415 joined on 15th July 1882
1100 joined on 5th June 1883
1236 joined on 8th April 1884
1559 joined on 6th January 1885
1943 joined on 8th January 1886
2495 joined on 26th January 1888
2854 joined on 20th January 1889
3199 joined on 4th October 1890
3282 joined on 9th February 1891
3634 joined on 2nd January 1892
4012 joined on 31st January 1893
4356 joined on 24th January 1894
4822 joined on 18th June 1895
4995 joined on 12th February 1896
5201 joined on 6th April 1897
5466 joined on 23rd May 1898
5741 joined on 25th January 1899
6116 joined on 12th January 1900
6541 joined on 25th May 1901
6911 joined on 13th March 1902
7274 joined on 3rd March 1903
8216 joined on 15th September 1905
8338 joined on 19th March 1906
8566 joined on 17th January 1907
9080 joined on 8th September 1908
9217 joined on 5th January 1909
9378 joined on 1st March 1910
9711 joined on 16th February 1911
9895 joined on 17th April 1912
10163 joined on 20th February 1913
10456 joined on 4th August 1914

During the course of the Great War, the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry added eight service battalions to the two regular, one reserve and two Territorial Force battalions that already existed. These new service battalions would all draw their numbers from the same series listed above.

I also offer a comprehensive, fast and cost-effective military history research service. Follow the link for more information.

Books from the Naval & Military Press

Historical records of the 32nd (Cornwall) Light Infantry... 1702 to 1892 

Edited by Colonel G C Swiney and illustrated with ten fine colour plates showing the evolution of the regimental uniform. There are notes on its costume and equipment, ten black and white pictures, and fifteen appendices on subjects such as the regiment’s VC holders, its roll of officers, and biographies and memoirs of its colonels and officers. An unusually full and complete account of a distinguished unit.

With 'The Thirty Second' in the Peninsular and other campaigns

An Anglo-Irish officer’s memoirs of the Peninsular, Waterloo and other Napoleonic campaigns. The book was recommended by The Duke of Wellington.

History of the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry 1914-1919

The record of ten battalions that served overseas, all on the Western Front with two battalions going on to the Salonika front. Includes roll of honour (4510 dead), honours and awards (including Mentions in Despatches) and an index.

With the Cornwall Territorials on the Western Front

Excellent history of the 5th (TF) Battalion on the Western Front from May 1916 until November 1918. The 5th DCLI had battle honours at Laventie, the Somme, Arras, Cambrai, Passchendaele and St Quentin. Illustrated by the author who was severely wounded in June 1918. Includes roll of honour and list of officers who served.

I've borrowed the image on this page from the excellent Light Infantry Regiments website which has detailed information on the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry and other British Light Infantry Regiments. The photograph depicts men of E Company, 2nd DCLI in Hong Kong in 1913.