Lancashire Fusiliers - 6th Battalion (TF)

This post will look at numbering in the 6th Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers, between 1908 and 1914. All numbers and enlistment / joining dates below have been gleaned from a study of attestation papers in WO 363 and WO 364. These papers are also accessible on-line via Ancestry.co.uk which is currently offering a FREE 14-day trial.

I have previously referred to the 6th Lancashire Fusiliers in an earlier post which sought ot identify those Territorial Force battalions which, when the TF was formed in 1908, continued with the same number series which had been used by their Volunteer predecessors.

For instance, when Harry Jennings Sowray attested with the 6th LF on the 1st April 1908 he was 44 years old, a serving member with the 2nd Volunteer Battlion, Lancashire Fusiliers, and a time-expired regular having served with the 1st Battalion, West Yorkshire Regiment. His 'new' 6th LF number - 4988 - was the same number he'd been given when he joined the 2nd VB LF on the 2nd April 1892. Similarly, 5314 Abraham Grindrod who signed up with the 6th LF on the 28th April 1908, had originally been given that number when he joined the 2nd VB LF on the 22nd June 1894.

As far as new recruits were concerned, numbering in April 1908 probably started at around 7670, and I base this assumption only on the known enlistment of John Hynes who was given the number 7667 when he joined the 2nd VB on the 27th March 1908 - and carried on using it when he joined the 6th Battalion (TF) shortly afterwards.

7831 joined on 13th January 1909
8166 joined on 1st February 1910
8417 joined on 23rd January 1911
8548 joined on 6th March 1912
8774 joined on 3rd February 1913
9101 joined on 13th March 1914
9143 joined on 4th August 1914
9474 joined on 3rd September 1914
10420 joined on 21st October 1914
10432 joined on 30th November 1914
10466 joined on 3rd December 1914

Interestingly, by the time the TF was re-numbered in 1917, there were around fifty 6th Battalion men still serving who had previously seen service with the 2nd Volunteer Battalion. One of these men was Harry Jennings Sowray who was given the new number 240008 and who would have been, by then, around 53 years old. Nor was he the longest serving man on the 6th Battalion books in 1917. His number suggests that there were seven Other Ranks whose service pre-dated his own.

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8th (Lanark) Battalion, Highland Light Infantry

The 8th Battalion, Highland Light Infantry, was another of those Territorial Force which did not start numbering from 1 in 1908. Formerly the 9th Lanarkshire Rifle Volunteer Corps, it later became the 4th Volunteer Batttalion, HLI and continued with the 4th VB number series when the 8th HLI was born in April 1908. It was the only HLI Territorial Force battalion to adopt this practice.

5053 Pte James Dudgeon joined the 8th HLI on the 28th April 1908. His number though, dates way back to the 5th February 1902. By March 1908 the 4th VB was numbering at 5683 and I'll pick up the tale at this point.

This post will look at numbering in the 8th HLI between 1908 and December 1914. As usual, all of the information recorded below is taken from surviving service records in the WO 363 and WO 364 series at the National Archives. These records can also be accessed via Ancestry.co.uk.

5683 joined the 4th VB HLI on the 20th March 1908
6060 joined the 8th HLI on 18th June 1908
6147 joined on 19th January 1908
6605 joined on 10th February 1908
6853 joined on 6th February 1911
7083 joined on 14th April 1912
7196 joined on 30th January 1913
7554 joined on 19th February 1914
7628 joined on 6th August 1914
7844 joined on 28th September 1914
7860 joined on 2nd October 1914
7893 joined on 2nd Novembber 1914
8016 joined on 23rd December 1914

When the Territorial Force was re-numbered in 1917, the 8th HLI was allocated numbers within the range 305001 to 330000. 305005, for instance, was issued to William Speirs whose original TF number, recorded on his attestation papers when he joined the TF on 28th April 1908, was 5229. This number, in turn, had originally been issued to William when he joined the Volunteer Force in 1903 or Pre-April 1904.

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