East Surrey Regiment - PoW Other Ranks 1914

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.

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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

Silver War Badge roll on Ancestry

This post really belongs over on my Army Ancestry blog, but as I've already posted there today about the Imperial War Museum's marvelous new Faces of the First World War project on flickr, I'll write about the SWB rolls here.

Pictured above is an extract from the Silver War Badge Roll for the East Surrey Regiment, and an old favourite of mine, Charles Sabourin.  Charles lost his right leg at Mons on the 23rd August 1914 and, taken prisoner by the Germans, was repatriated to England in early 1915, then spending several months convalescing at Chailey in Sussex.  You can read more about Charles Sabourin - and see a photo of him - on my Chailey 1914-1918 blog.

The Silver War Badge roll is probably the most comprehensive of all the WW1 medal rolls and now you can search them on Ancestry - but only if you have a premium membership.

Typical information you'll get from these rolls will be the man's name, number, regiment, battalion, date of enlistment, date of discharge, cause of discharge and sometimes, the man's age or his date of birth.  The badge number is always given and the rolls tend to be organised in badge number order. The East Surrey roll above does not give the battalion or the man's age. However, the London Regiment extract below, gives both.

With a bit of care, it is also possible to use the information on the SWB rolls to determine enlistment dates for a soldier you are researching.  Care should be taken however, because although the man's date of enlistment may be given, the regiment he was discharged from may not necessarily be the regiment he originally joined.

However, looking at the East Surrey Roll we see the following numbers and enlistment dates:

8505 on 1st February 1905
7487 on 15th September 1902
9733 on 6th November 1908
10864 on 29th April 1914
10536 on 1st October 1912
6738 [Charles Sabourin] on 31st October 1900
8860 on 7th August 1906...

As it happens, all of these numbers are spot on for The East Surrey Regiment for the dates given, the majority of these men presumably having gone out with the BEF in August 1914 and, like Charles Sabourin, being wounded - or falling sick - shortly afterwards.

So all in all another great resource from Ancestry but it's a pity that more and more of the military stuff on their site seems to be falling into the premium rate category.  I'm lucky that I can afford to subscribe at that level and I personally still think that it's a bargain, but then again I'm a heavy Ancestry user and now that these SWB rolls have appeared, I shall be an even heavier one.

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

East Surrey Regiment curiosities - 364**

I was reading through posts on the Great War Forum the other day and came across this query about an East Surrey Regiment man: George Addison.

What puzzled me about this man was his number. He had enlisted in 1914 and yet his number was not from a series of numbers I would have expected to see for 1914 enlistments for this regiment. I decided to investigate further by making a list of men who had numbers beginning 364* and then checking their names against surviving service records in WO 363 and WO 364 to see if there were any patterns. Here are the results:

36411 William J A Edwards, arr o/seas 1916 onwards
36412 Stanley W Bartram, arr o/seas 1916 onwards, later L/13015
36414 Alfred W Green, arr o/seas 1916 onwards, later Labour Corps
36415 Sydney W Lloyd, arr o/seas 1916 onwards.
36418 Joseph J Nicholson, arr o/seas 1916 onwards.
34620 Henry Ernest Perry, arr o/seas 1916 onwards. SWB MIC gives enlist date as 02/11/1917
36423 Charles William Ashpole, arr o/seas 1916 onwards. WO 364. Enlisted 11/12/1915
36427 Joseph Kilborn. SWB MIC gives enlist date as 27/05/1916
36430 Robert D Paulett, arr o/seas 1916 onwards.
36436 Joseph C Hall, arr o/seas 1916 onwards, later Labour Corps
36437 Charles T Hancock, arr o/seas 1916 onwards.
36439 Herbert R Harris, arr o/seas 1916 onwards.
36441 James H Chiverton, arr o/seas 1916 onwards.
36453 Herbert Evans, Unknown Bn, arr F&F 07/10/1915, later ASC
36454 George F Addison, 7th Bn, arr F&F 28/07/1915
36455 Henry C Morland, 7th Bn, arr F&F 29/07/1915
36455 Horace Alfred Allen
36456 William S Beteux, 8th Bn, arr F&F 27/07/1915
36458 Alfred T Clouder, 8th Bn, arr F&F 27/07/1915
36459 George A Crouch, 8th Bn, arr F&F 27/07/1915
36460 Alfred W Caston, 8th Bn, arr F & F 27/07/1915. WO 363. Attested Norwich 8th Sep 1914 with Norfolk Regt. Transferred to 8th Bn E Surrey Regt on 11th Sep 1914
36461 John Chestney, 8th Bn, arr F&F 27/07/1915
36462 Albert Cullen, 8th Bn, arr F&F 27/07/1915, later L/13024
36463 William Cullum, 8th Bn, arr F&F 27/07/1915
36464 John W Flack, 8th Bn, arr F&F 25/08/1915
36465 William H Curtis, 8th Bn, arr F&F 27/07/1915
36466 William J Cutting, 8th Bn, arr F&F 27/07/1915
36467 Wilfred J Darkens MM, 8th Bn, arr F&F 27/07/1915
36468 Albert Joyce, 8th Bn, arr F&F 25/08/1915
36469 Thomas A De’ath, 8th Bn, arr F&F 27/07/1915
36471 George E Fox, 8th Bn, arr F&F 27/07/1915; SWB MIC gives enlist date as 05/09/1914
36472 David Goodman, 8th Bn, arr F&F 27/07/1915
36475 William G Collins
36477 Arthur Fisher, 8th Bn, arr F&F 27/07/1915
36478 Alfred E Forder, 8th Bn, arr F&F 27/07/1915
36479 Frederick James Pulsford, 8th Bn, arr F&F 27/07/1915. Formerly 4933 East Surrey Regt
36482 Albert Floyd, arr o/seas 1916 onwards.
36483 Leslie Edward Fisher, 7th Bn, arr F&F 03/06/1915
36487 Thomas W Jones, arr o/seas 1916 onwards.
G/36491 Frederick William Manifold, arr o/seas 1916 onwards.

I have to say that the results are inconclusive due to the paucity of surviving service records, although I am tempted to draw the following conclusions:

36401-36441 are possibly Derby Scheme attestations from late 1915.
36454-36483 are mostly 7th and 8th Bn enlistments from 1914

I wonder whether there is a Norfolk/Suffolk link here somewhere as a number of the surnames are particularly common to those counties and I wonder how many of these man transferred onto the East Surrey Regiment from the Norfolk Regiment and the Suffolk Regiment. At least one did - 36460 - but admittedly, he may be the only one.


So as I say, an inconclusive result and a topic within a topic for which further responses would be most welcome.

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East Surrey Regiment - Special & Extra Reserve

From 1908 The East Surrey Regiment fielded a 3rd (Special Reserve) Battalion and a 4th (Extra Reserve) Battalion, both these battalions being the natural heirs of the 3rd and 4th Militia Battalions, respectively. Men who had served with these militia battalions and who wished to complete their service with the newly formed Special and Extra Reserve battalions, retained their old militia numbers. Both of the militia battalions had operated separate number series and these series continued in use with the Special and Extra Reserve battalions into 1915 (and possibly beyond, although my database peters out then).

When Britain went to war in 1914, the East Surrey Regiment created two additional number series for men joining the 3rd and 4th Battalions for wartime service only. These two numbers series, one for the 3rd Battalion and one for the 4th, both started from 1 and both were prefixed SRGS or SR/GS or SR/GS/ES (and probably a good many other combinations as well for that matter). The letters stand for Special Reserve General Service East Surrey.

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East Surrey Regiment - 1st & 2nd Battalions

This post will look at army service numbers and the dates on which they were issued to men joining the regular battalions (1st and 2nd Battalions) of the East Surrey Regiment.

There are over 37,000 East Surrey Regiment 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. Some of these records can also be viewed on-line on Ancestry although Findmypast has by far the most comprehensive service record collection.

Use the regimental numbers and dates on which these were issued, below, to determine parameters for when your own East Surrey Regiment 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.

The regiment was born in July 1881. The 1st Battalion, East Surreys had previously been the 31st (The Huntingdonshire) Regiment of Foot. The 2nd Battalion, East Surreys had previously been the 70th (Surrey) Regiment of Foot.

My data for this regiment begins the year after it was formed, in 1882. What follows is a snapshot of numbers and dates from a far larger database. From October 1902 numbers were generally, but not always, prefixed with the letter L/. I have omitted this prefix from the series below.

83 joined on 7th January 1882
773 joined on 16th February 1883
1302 joined on 13th May 1885
1827 joined on 11th October 1886
2052 joined on 9th September 1887
2332 joined on 26th March 1888
2538 joined on 1st January 1889
2966 joined on 10th April 1890
3341 joined on 21st January 1891
3970 joined on 29th December 1892
4396 joined on 10th August 1893
4784 joined on 6th June 1894
4929 joined 17th May 1895
5059 joined on 20th July 1896
5451 joined on 29th October 1897
5605 joined on 29th October 1898
5806 joined on 13th January 1899
6271 joined on 30th January 1900
6902 joined on 26th January 1901
7181 joined on 4th January 1902
7664 joined on 12th January 1903
8104 joined on 12th Januar 1904
8632 joined on 9th October 1905
8806 joined on 7th July 1906
9347 joined on 20th November 1907
9545 joined on 13th February 1908
9774 joined on 6th January 1909
9910 joined on 4th January 1910
10134 joined on 5th January 1911
10355 joined on 4th January 1912
10600 joined on 1st January 1913
10787 joined on 7th January 1914
10918 joined on 3rd August 1914

The following day, Britain went to war with Germany. As with regular enlistments into the King's Royal Rifle Corps, The Royal Sussex Regiment and The Buffs (East Kent Regiment) during the First World War, The East Surrey Regiment maintained the number series above for men who, during wartime, still wished to enlist in the regiment as career soldiers for 7&5 (Seven years with the colours, five on the Reserve). Men joining up for wartime service only were given numbers from a separate series prefixed with the letter G/. So to continue with the regular numbering:

11012 joined on 23rd November 1914
11039 joined on 29th December 1914
11079 joined on 15th January 1915
11124 joined on 1st February 1915
11176 joined on 13th March 1915
11235 joined on 23rd April 1915
11251 joined on 18th May 1915
11269 joined on 3rd June 1915
11325 joined on 9th September 1915
11369 joined on 3rd December 1915

My data for regular East Surrey enlistments currently ends at this point but I'd be happy to augment the series above if anybody can add to this.

It is important to make the distinction between numbers issued from the regular L/ prefix series and numbers issued from the wartime G/ prefix series. For instance whereas G/11554 was issued on 11th August 1915 to a man joining up for wartime service only, the same number (but with an L/ prefix) would, as can be deduced from the series above, have been issued to a man joining up for regular service between October and December the same year.

The photograph that I've use to illustrate this post with, comes from my Chailey 1914-1918 archive and shows L/6738 Private Charles Sabourin of the 1st East Surrey Regiment recuperating at Hickwells, Chailey. Charles is seated in a wheelchair having lost his right leg as a result of a wound sustained on the first day of fighting at Mons - 23rd August 1914. A Boer War veteran who had enlisted on 31st October 1900, the bitterness he felt as a result of his wound, subsequent spell as a POW, and then repatriation, is evident in the entry he left in his nurse's autograph album. He wrote:

Pte C Sabourin
1st East Surrey Regt
Wounded and captured at Mons

I would like to meet the German
who fired that shrapnel. I would
certainly treat him.

Charles Sabourin is one of those rare cases who has papers in both WO 363 and WO 364. These documents are also now available on-line.


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