WW1 Medal Rolls - early bird discount ends soon!

 

 

The early bird discount price of £250 for the Naval and Military Press medal rolls CD ROM ends this weekend.  From Monday, you'll be paying £350 + VAT.

 

Don't forget, Naval and Military Press offers interest-free easy payment terms over four or twelve months so don't miss the opportunity to grab a bargain and then spread the pain.

 

What you get in this massive undertaking is a full index of First World War campaign medal recipients, with every field indexed! 

 

Additional information included on these rolls can include:

 

Battalion/s

Duration of service

Date enlisted

Date discharged

 

In short, everything you need, using war diaries, to construct a full service history. This is arguably the most significant First World War military release this year. Don't miss out!

 

Click on the link to order and make the most of the discounted price whilst you can.

 

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

 



Naval & Military Press - Save 20% on ALL titles

OK, fill your boots. Here's the bi-annual Naval & Military Press sale: 20% off ALL stock for orders placed by 6pm on Monday 21st January 2013.  Click on the image above to go straight to the Naval & Military Press website.

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

6th (Banff & Donside) Battalion, Gordon Highlanders

The 6th (Banff and Donside) Battalion, Gordon Highlanders was a Territorial Force Battalion formed on 1st April 1908. It was formed by the amalgamation of the 4th and 6th Volunteer Battalions of the Gordon Highlanders, each of these battalions contributing four companies of men (the 4th VB accounted for companies E to H, whilst the 6th VB accounted for companies A to D). The 6th Battalion was headquartered at Keith and was administered by the Banff Association. The distribution of companies and drill stations was as follows:

A Company
Banff; drill stations at Aberchirder, Cornhill, Portsoy.
B Company
Dufftown; drill stations at Aberlour, Chapelton (Braes of Glenlivet), Glenrinnes, Minmore
C Company
Keith; drill station at Grange.
D Company
Buckie; drill stations at Findochty, Cullen.
E Company
Inverurie; drill stations at Pitcaple.
F Company
Alford; drill stations at Cushnie, Lumsden, Glenbuckat, Strathdon, Corgarff, Towie.
G Company
Bucksburn; drill station at Dyce.
H Company
Huntly; drill stations at Insch, Rhynie.

There were certainly two number series in use for this battalion, and what follows is largely conjecture based on what is a relatively small sample of data from my own database.

One number series (which I’ll call Series One) began at 1 in 1908. The second number series (which I’ll call Series Two for the sake of consistency) may have started at 10000 or 12000 or higher. The lowest number I have for this series is 12094 David Allen Clark. His surviving attestation papers in WO 364 show that he joined the 4th VB Gordon Highlanders on 7th April 1896. He then attested with the 6th (Banff & Donside) Battalion at Alford on 17th April 1908. He was signed up on Army Form E.502 which was the form to be used by “Imperial Yeomanry or Volunteers, enlisted or enrolled before the 1st April 1908, enlisting in the Force”. Pages one and three of his attestation papers give the number 468 which is crossed out and over-written with the number 10294.

It is this lower number series which appears to have been discontinued after war broke out. Beginning at 1, here are some sample numbers and enlistment dates up to 3rd August 1914:

167 joined on 16th April 1908
208 joined on7th April 1909
664 joined on 7th November 1910
723 joined on 2nd February1911
901 joined on 12th January 1912
1159 joined on 13th February 1913
1431 joined on 31st January 1914
1675 (the highest four-digit number on my 6th Gordons database) joined on 3rd August 1914

From the five digit series:

10394 joined on 14th June 1908
10492 joined on 16th February 1909
10701 joined on 12th September 1910

I have nothing at all after 10701 until we get to 25th August 1914 when 10705 joined the battalion. It almost looks as though in September 1910 the decision was taken to abandon the five digit number series and just continue with the series which had started at one. This decision, if indeed it was a decision, was reversed in August 1914 when the five-digit series was continued at the expense of the other series. As I said, this is all conjecture on my part, and if anyone knows any different, or can add further speculation, please do post a comment. On the face of it, given that the 6th Battalion was the result of a merger between two distinct Volunteer Battalions, logic might suggest that one series was used by men from the area previously covered by the 4th VB whilst the other series was used by men from the area previously covered by the 6th VB. Unfortunately, an analysis of places of enlistment for men from both series does not support this theory.

10705 joined on 25th August 1914
10732 joined on 6th September 1914
11119 joined on 1st October 1914

A 2/6th Battalion was formed at Keith in October 1914 and upon formation the 6th Battalion became the 1/6th Battalion Gordon Highlanders. The 2/6th Battalion used the same number sequence as the 1/6th.

11480 joined on 2nd November 1914
11664 joined on 7th December 1914
11746 joined on 14th January 1915
11816 joined on 6th February 1915
11864 joined on 22nd March 1915
12094 joined on 17th May 1915

A 3/6th Battalion was formed in May 1915 and it too used the same number sequence as that being used by the 1/6th and 2/6th Battalions.

12208 joined on 1st June 1915
12302 joined on 13th July 1915
12456 joined on 16th November 1915
12575 joined on 21st February 1916
12585 joined on 2nd March 1916
12671 joined on 14th June 1916
12870 joined on 25th July 1916
12912 joined on 4th August 1916

When the Territorial Force was re-numbered in 1917, men from the 6th Gordons were issued numbers in the range 265001 to 290000, the lowest number being issued to the man with the lowest number from the first series. For instance, 265005 was issued to J McLaren who had originally joined the battalion on the 1st April 1908 and who, before that time, had served with the Volunteer Force.

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

Royal Scots Fusiliers - 3rd (Special Reserve) Bn

This post will look at numbering in the 3rd (Special Reserve) Battalion of the Royal Scots Fusiliers between its formation in 1908 and the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914.
The 3rd (Special Reserve) Battalion was the natural heir of the 3rd Militia battalion and like the majority of Special and Extra Reserve battalions, continued with the same number series that had been used by its militia ancestor. A glance at 1908 enlistments for the 3rd (SR) Battalion shows a whole range of numbers dating way back into the 1890s.

Coincidentally, the regiment's two Territorial Force Battalions - the 4th and 5th Battalions - when they were formed in April 1908, also continued with the number series that had been in use by their Volunteer Battalion predecessors.

All of the information below is taken from surviving service records in the WO 363 and WO364 series at the National Archives - and now available on-line via Ancestry.co.uk.

4111 joined on 2nd August 1908 (but he had originally joined the 3rd Militia Battalion in March 1899 and the number dates to then).
5617 joined on 15th May 1909
5937 joined on 2nd April 1910
6162 joined on 13th April 1911
6342 joined on 22nd February 1912
6571 joined on 9th June 1913
6678 joined on 5th January 1914
6831 joined on 8th August 1914

Also see my post on numbering in the regular battalions of the Royal Scots Fusiliers between 1881 and 1914.

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

The Ten Tommies

Some while ago I bought a couple of albums which had been kept by a VAD probationer whilst she was working at auxiliary hospitals in Rawstenstall, Lancashire. Inside one of these albums was an eight page leaflet produced for The Ten Tommies - a troupe of entertainers (all ex-servicemen) who, according to the introduction, had spent over 100 weeks in hospital between them. I've been meaning to dig a little deeper into their stories and this blog gives me the opportunity to do so. I'm reproducing all of the pages below. Click on the images for readable versions.


This particular leaflet was published on 11th June 1918. I have no idea when the Ten Tommies gave their first performance but certainly some of the men here were not discharged from the army until 1917. I am guessing that one of the locations where they provided their entertainment was at Rawstenstall.

Medal index cards (MICs) for all of the Ten Tommies, and service records for some of them, survive at the National Archives in Kew and can also be viewed on-line via Ancestry.co.uk which is currently offering a 14 day FREE trial.

"All of the boys," the leaflet says, "have moving stories to tell of the horrors of wounds, gassing and barbed wire entanglements..." That may have been the case, but as I will show, three of the ten never left the UK and rheumatism rather than shell or bullet was the cause of one other discharge. The leaflet, is 'of it's time' and a healthy scepticism should be applied to some of the so-called "facts".


Private Bert Danson was K/516 Pte John Herbert Davison who enlisted with the 22nd (Kensington) Battalion, The Royal Fusiliers on 19th September 1914. The author Hector Hugh Munro (Saki) joined this battalion in August 1914 (army service number 225) and by the end of September, the battalion had signed up a full complement. John Davison was 34 years and 105 days old and was a professional music hall artist. He was five feet, eight and a half inches tall, had a fresh complexion, brown eyes, grey brown hair, and tattoos on his upper left arm. Although he enlisted at Shepherd's Bush in west London, he was Manchester-born and gave his home address as 56 Wilton Road, Chortlon-cum-Hardy; the same address where his next of kin - his father, Henry Davison - was living.

Bert Danson, or John Davison was the brains behind the Ten Tommies, yet his tales of waking in the trenches and the boom of the gun were all imagined. Bert never made it out of England and he was discharged from the army on 15th February 1915 as medically unfit. In December 1916 he applied for a passport and was presumably successful, having been "twice around the world" by 1918.

Private Jack Shandley was 242344 Pte John Shanley who - according to the Ten Tommies leaflet - originally joined the 1/4th Seaforth Highlanders on 19th October 1914. He was sent to France almost immediately, arriving there on 7th November 1914 and thus qualifying for the 1914 Star with clasp and roses (although he does not appear to have claimed the latter). John Shanley later transferred to the 1/5th Seaforth Highlanders and was discharged from the army on 24th October 1917.

Lance-Corporal Maybury was L/9891 Lance-Corporal Ernest Mayberry, a career soldier who had joined the Middlesex Regiment on 20th September 1904. He arrived in France on 5th September 1914 and thus, like John Shanley, could claim to be an Old Contemptible. He was discharged on 25th May 1916 and would later claim the clasp and roses for his 1914 Star.

Sergeant William Duffield DCM enlisted with the Yorkshire Regiment on 1st September 1914 and was given the number 12719. He arrived in the Balkans on 28th September 1915 and was discharged from the army on 16th March 1917.


Private Arthur Townsend joined the Royal Fusiliers on 2nd September 1914. He served with the 2nd battalion but the GS/ prefix on his army number - 16687 - indicates that he enlisted for war-time service only. He arrived in the Balkans on 25th August 1915 and was discharged due to wounds on 29th July 1916.

Private Bert Shaw was 4391 Private Herbert Shaw of the 30th Royal Fusiliers. He enlisted on 12th November 1915 at St Paul's Churchyard, and gave his address as 86 Grove Lane, Camberwell, south west London. He was 35 years and five months old and working as a variety artist.

Herbert was five feet, five inches tall, had a sallow complexion, grey eyes and brown hair. A depressed scar on his left knee, and a dimpled chin are also recorded on his surviving attestation papers.

Herbert gave his next of kin as his father, Jabal - or Jubal - Shaw of Hill Street, Ashton under Lyne. He joined at Leamington on 15th November 1915 and was immediately posted to the 30th Royal Fusiliers. Like Bert Danson though, Bert Shaw never made it out of England and on 29th August 1916 he was discharged as no longer physically fit. He had served 292 days.

A Medical Board report dated 15th August 1916 concludes:

"Neurasthenia.
Originated 1915 at Leamington. Has always been highly nervous and found that he became worse when he was shooting on ranges. He is in a highly nervous state and is very tremulous and has a good deal of palpitations, has also a good deal of rheumatism in his shoulders and back. Heart sounds feeble. Not caused or aggravated by military service. Permanent. Prevents ¼."
Bert was paid a £25 gratuity under clause 7(2) Royal Warrant 1917. A pension claim in September 1916 was rejected the following month.

Private Jack Roberts was 202450 Pte John Roberts who enlisted with the 4th Dorsetshire Regiment on 14th November 1914 and was discharged due to sickness on 3rd May 1917. John Roberts remained in the UK for the duration of his army service.

29993 Private Peter Murphy of the 16th Cheshire Regiment enlisted in October 1914 according to the Ten Tommies leaflet. His army service number though, indicates that he joined up at least a year after this date and he certainly did not go overseas until 1st January 1916 or later. He was discharged from the army on 12th January 1917.

Bandsman Charles Clare was 2996 Private Charles Clapp who attested with the 2/2nd London Regiment at 9 Tufton Street, London on 23rd September 1914. He took the Imperial Service Obligation the same day. Charles was 20 years and nine months old and stood five feet ten inches tall. He served overseas in Malta and Egypt and was discharged in January 1916 due to rheumatism in his knee and shoulders. A Medical Board in June 1916 awarded him a pension of 4/8 per week for 18 months.

Private Frank Howell was 17457 Corporal Francis David John Howell who joined the Welsh Regiment on 15th October 1914, served with the 14th Battalion and was discharged on 23rd July 1917. He arrived in France on 2nd December 1915 and thus qualified for the British War and Victory Medals and the 1914-15 Star. His MIC does not indicate that he claimed the silver war badge.

In some respects, the Ten Tommies can be said to be representative of the British soldier between 1914-1918. None of the men were conscripted but the ten comprised one career soldier, two Old Contemptibles, Territorials, Pals and Kitchener men; not to mention a gallantry award winner. Three men never left Britain whilst the others served on the Western Front and at Gallipoli. At least two of the men were career Music Hall / Variety Artists and it's possible that some of the others were too.

I have no idea whether the entertainments the men presented were for the financial benefit of the Ten Tommies, the War Effort or a combination of both. In any event, by June 1918, the British population had been beaten down by four years of relentless and costly war and if nothing else, the Ten Tommies seem to have done "their bit" to buck up the spirits of wounded soldiers and the population alike.

I'd be interested to hear from anyone who has additional information about the Ten Tommies.

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

The Gloucestershire Regiment - 5th Battalion

The 5th Battalion, The Gloucestershire Regiment, was a Territorial Force Battalion formed in April 1908. It had its origins in the 2nd Volunteer Battalion, The Gloucestershire Regiment.

By February 1914, the distribution of 5th Battalion companies was as follows: HQ and A and B Companies were at Gloucester, C Company: Stroud, D Company: Tewkesbury, E and F Companies: Cheltenham, G Company: Dursley, H Company: Campden.

Here are some sample army service numbers and corresponding joining dates for the 5th Gloucesters.

717 24th September 1908
1106 joined on 30th September 1909
1245 joined on 2nd March 1910
1339 joined on 29th January 1911
1598 joined on 15th March 1912
1758 joined on 29th January 1913
2104 joined on 30th March 1914
2473 joined on 28th August 1914
2849 joined on 7th September 1914
3336 joined on 13th October 1914
3406 joined on 3rd November 1914
3734 joined on 4th December 1914
3822 joined on 23rd January 1915
3878 joined on 2nd February 1915
3949 joined on 16th March 1915
4106 joined on 17th April 1915
4198 joined on 8th May 1915
4359 joined on 1st June 1915
4474 joined on 9th July 1915
4498 joined on 4th August 1915
4533 joined on 4th September 1915
4570 joined on 12th October 1915
4615 joined on 3rd November 1915
4719 joined on 6th December 1915
4767 joined on 15th January 1916
4790 joined on 8th February 1916
5013 joined on 14th March 1916
5265 joined on 27th April 1916
5300 joined on 2nd May 1916
5443 joined on 1st July 1916
5492 joined on 4th August 1916

I'm going to stop at this point as from here on in, with men transferring into the 5th Battalion from other Gloucestershire Regiment battalions, and from other regiments, the data becomes far less sequential (for instance, 5965 also joined on the 1st July 1916, transferring from the 6th King's Liverpool Regiment).

There were also supernumerary companies attached to the 5th Gloucestershire Regiment, these filled with local National Reservists. These men were at first numbered in the same series noted above, although from July 1915 they were allocated a separate series beginning at 20000. Thus 20003 joined on 13th July 1915 and 20095 on 26th October 1915. Supernumerary Company men who had previously been given four digit numbers from the main series were not re-numbered when the five digit series was introduced.

When the Territorial Force was re-numbered in 1917, the 5th Gloucestershire Regiment was allocated numbers within the range 240001 to 265000. Here are some numbers and dates from this six digit series.

240009 originally joined on 5th April 1908
240198 originally joined on 29th January 1913
240371 originally joined on 1st April 1914
240642 originally joined on 26th August 1914
240913 originally joined on 11th September 1914
241133 originally joined on 27th October 1914
241191 originally joined on 26th November 1914
241225 originally joined on 21st December 1914
241269 originally joined on 2nd February 1915
241304 originally joined on 29th March 1915
241316 originally joined on 17th April 1915
241403 originally joined on 27th May 1915
241482 originally joined on 9th July 1915
241496 originally joined on 10th August 1915
241522 originally joined on 12th October 1915
241624 originally joined on 6th December 1915
241650 originally joined on 15th January 1916
241800 originally joined on 14th March 1916
241985 originally joined on 17th July 1916

Again, I'll stop the data at this point. Well worth a visit for anybody with a Gloucestershire Regiment interest, is the Soldiers of Gloucestershire website which includes searchable databases of 19th Century and WW1 Gloucestershire Regiment men. Key in the numbers above to reveal brief details about the men, or read their service and pension records or medal index cards via the Ancestry.co.uk website.

WW1 poet Ivor Gurney was a 5th Gloucestershire man. His original number was 3895 which means that he must have joined the battalion between 2nd and 24th February 1915 (3908 joined on 24th February 1915). He was later re-numbered 241281.

Also see my other posts on the Gloucestershire Regiment:

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

3rd (Special Reserve) Battalion, The Gloucestershire Regiment

4th (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 Gloucestershire Regiment in the War 1914-1918

Search British Army WW1 Records HERE!


The Naval and Military Press has re-published this work and has this to say about it:

"As the subtitle states these are the records of the 1st (28th Foot), 2nd (61st Foot)), 3rd (Special Reserve) and 4th, 5th and 6th (First-Line T.A.) Battalions, in other words this is the history of the battalions of the regiment which existed prior to the outbreak of war. The one appendix lists the twenty-four battalions that existed during the war, indicating the theatre of war in which they served and in which division. Eight of these battalions did not serve overseas, and of the rest only one (7th Service Battalion) did not serve on the Western Front, it went with 13th Division to Gallipoli, Mesopotamia and Persia. Total losses amounted to 8,100, 72 battle honours were awarded and in the appendix is shown which honours were awarded to which battalion.

"In August 1914 the 1st Battalion was stationed in Bordon, part of the 3rd Infantry Brigade, 1st Division, and was among the first British troops to disembark in Le Havre, on 13th August. The first quarter of this book is concerned with the doings of the 1st Battalion which saw action in the early battles of the war - Mons and the retreat, the Marne, the Aisne, First Ypres and Givenchy.

"The 2nd Battalion was in China when war broke out and came home to join the newly formed 81st Brigade, 27th Division which arrived in France in December 1914 and in November 1915 was transferred to Salonika, where it remained for the rest of the war. Three chapters of the book deal with the operations in that theatre of war.

"The three Territorial battalions were in the South Midland Division, later the 48th which crossed to France at the end of March 1915 and fought on theWestern front till November 1917, when it was sent to Italy where it remained till the armistice. The final chapter gives the account of operations in that theatre.

"The author, a well known military historian, was probably the most prolific among the writers of regimental and divisional histories, some thirteen in all, and this account reflects the skill of the writer in producing a very readable narrative, which draws on the Battalion Diary, on individual accounts of actions, some quite lengthy, and makes use of footnotes to give casualty details in addition to those contained in the text, various comments, and items of information from other sources to confirm or add to the main text. The maps are good. There is no Roll of Honour nor list of honours and awards."

Search British Army WW1 Records HERE!

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