North Staffordshire Regiment - PoW Other Ranks 1914

There is only a single entry in the 'Princess Mary tin' prisoner of war collection that I found and that is 8501 Private George Raven of the 1st Battalion who was captured in October 1914. The entry additionally adds that his home address was 221 Windmill Street, Carlton Hill, Nottingham and that he returned to his home on the 6th November 1918.

Between September 1914 and February 1914, 352 non-fatal North Staffordshire Regiment casualties, officers and men, were reported in The Times casualty lists. I know this because I have transcribed all 78,460 non-fatal casualties reported up until the 27th February 1915. 

George Raven was recorded as J Raven and reported missing in a War Office list published on the 2nd November 1914 and then reported in The Times on the 4th December 1914. In the same issue, 6780 Pte H Appleby (recorded as J Appleby) was also reported missing:

Harry Appleby must have subsequently turned up, almost certainly wounded, as he was discharged in April 1916. I couldn't find a record for him in the ICRC collection and there is no indication on his medal index card that he was a prisoner of war.

There are two officer casualties who were reported as wounded and prisoners of war but George Raven appears to be the only North Staffordshire other rank who was captured by the Germans before Christmas 1914. The ICRC website records that he arrived at Hull as a repatriated prisoner of war on the 27th November 1918 (which sounds more plausible than the 6th November date on the Princess Mary tin list.

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3rd Battalion, North Staffordshire Regiment - Boer War casualties

I photographed this memorial in St Mary's Church, Stafford a couple of months back. It's towards the back of the church in what seems, sadly, to have become a general dumping ground for cleaning products, stacks of chairs, fold-up tables and other bits and pieces.
 

The plaque records the names (and numbers) of men serving with the 3rd (Militia) Battalion who lost their lives in "South Africa or at Sea" between 1900 and 1902. Details as follows:

3240 Private J Critchlow
6015 Lance-Corporal H Coomer
5199 Private A Dabbs
2206 Private J Finn
3229 Private J Finney
5027 Private J Keenan
1726 Private E Kidd
4163 Private T Latham
5932 Private E Rayner
9792 Private G Robson
393 Private P Rodgers
5790 Private A Salt
1621 Private G Smith
5462 J E Thomas
3659 Drummer G Williams

If  nothing else, the memorial is a graphic illustration of the toll taken on the British Army by disease rather than Boer shot and shell.

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North Staffordshire Regiment - 5th Battalion

This post is a snapshot of North Staffordshire Regiment enlistments into the 5th (Territorial Force) Battalion between 1908 and the end of 1914.  The information has been compiled from surviving service and pension records in WO 363 and WO 364. 

The 5th North Staffordshire Regiment was headquartered at Hanley. Prior to the formation of the Territorial Force in 1908 it had been designated the 1st Volunteer Battalion North Staffordshire Regiment (since 1883) and before that, the 2nd Staffordshire Rifle Volunteers

89 (a former member of the 1st North Staffordshire Volunteer Battalion) joined on 14th April 1908
445 joined on 17th February 1909
1042 joined on 11th March 1910
1334 joined on 19th February 1911
1649 joined on 23rd January 1912
2146 joined on 18th March 1913
2414 joined on 18th February 1914

On the outbreak of war the disposition of companies was as follows:

A Company: Longton
B Company: Hanley
C Company: Burslem
D Company: Tunstall
E Company: Stoke on Trent, with a drill station at Hanley
F Company: Stone
G Company: Newcastle-under-Lyme
H Company: Burton-on-Trent

The battalion was part of the Staffordshire Infantry Brigade of the North Midland Division in the Northern Command.


2590 joined on 11th August 1914
2919 joined on 3rd September 1914
3514 joined on 1st October 1914

A 2/5th Battalion was formed at Hanley on the 1st November 1914 and the 4th Battalion was now re-designated as the 1/4th Battalion.

3800 joined on 5th November 1914
3961 joined on 28th December 1914

A 3/5th Battalion was later formed in May 1915.

The photo on this post is borrowed from the Staffordshire Past-Track website and shows former 1/5th men at a reunion in 1927.  2/5th and 3/5th Battalion information courtesy of The Long, Long Trail website.

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North Staffordshire Regiment - 1st & 2nd Battalions

This post will look at numbering in the regular battalions of The North Staffordshire Regiment between August 1881 and August 1914.

The regiment was formed in July 1881; the 1st Battalion from the old 64th (2nd Staffordshire) Regiment of Foot, and the 2nd Battalion from the old 98th (Prince of Wales's) Regiment of Foot. Service records for all of the following numbers survive in the WO 363 (Burnt Documents) and (mostly) in the WO 364 (Pensions) series at the National Archives in Kew, London. Also see the British Army Pensions in WO 97, now online with Findmypast, for more North Staffordshire Regiment pension records.

In actual fact, there are over 34,000 North Staffordshire Regiment pension and service 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 North Staffordshire 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.

9 joined on 23rd August 1881
313 joined on 9th August 1882
543 joined on 17th February 1883
1315 joined on 17th September 1884
1432 joined on 24th January 1885
2001 joined on 17th April 1886
2313 joined on 4th March 1887
2496 joined on 27th February 1888
2692 joined on 4th January 1889
2954 joined on 29th January 1890
3295 joined on 26th February 1891
3591 joined on 19th January 1892
4015 joined on 16th February 1893
4428 joined on 15th February 1894
4701 joined on 8th January 1895
4899 joined on 25th January 1896
5246 joined on 18th February 1897
5580 joined on 17th February 1898
5823 joined on 2nd January 1899
6100 joined on 8th January 1900
6367 joined on 16th January 1901
6568 joined on 1st April 1902
6812 joined on 6th January 1903
7174 joined on 7th January 1904
7910 joined on 10th January 1905
8139 joined on 31st January 1906
8469 joined on 10th June 1907
8697 joined on 13th January 1908
9209 joined on 10th August 1909
9271 joined on 15th February 1910
9471 joined on 25th February 1911
9702 joined on 14th March 1912
9961 joined on 30th August 1913
10006 joined on 13th December 1913

My pre-WW1 data ends at this point. When Britain went to war with Germany eight months later, the new service battalions would draw numbers for their recruits from the series that had been in use by the 1st and 2nd Battalions.

The image on this post shows officers of the 2nd Battalion, North Staffordshire Regiment outside the Officers' Mess in Multan, India in 1908. The image comes from Wikimedia Commons.

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