This post will look at army service numbers and the dates on which these were issued to men joining the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the York & Lancaster Regiment. The period covered is July 1881 to July 1914. What follows is a snapshot from a larger database of Y&L numbers and joining dates.
The regiment was formed in July 1881. The 1st Battalion, York & Lancs was formerly the 65th (2nd Yorkshire, North Riding) Regiment of Foot. The 2nd Battalion, York & Lancs was formerly the 84th (York & Lancaster) Regiment of Foot. The new regimental title was derived from the areas in which the regiment recruited - principally the Duchy of York and the Duchy of Lancaster.
There are over 73,000 York & Lancaster Regiment service & 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.
25 joined on 16th July 1881
261 joined on 7th February 1882
579 joined on 13th January 1883
798 joined on 12th March 1884
1063 joined on 9th January 1885
1361 joined on 9th January 1886
1751 joined on 26th January 1887
2200 joined on 21st February 1888
2566 joined on 26th March 1889
2696 joined on 5th January 1890
2902 joined on 9th January 1891
3227 joined on 27th January 1892
3654 joined on 6th February 1893
3925 joined on 30th June 1894
4161 joined on 26th January 1895
4626 joined on 17th March 1896
4813 joined on 4th January 1897
5244 joined on 22nd September 1898
5348 joined on 23rd January 1899
6216 joined on 15th June 1900
Note that between 1900 and 1902, those Volunteers from the 1st Hallamshire Volunteer Battalion and 2nd Volunteer Battalion who joined the regular battalions of the York and Lancs Regt were issued with numbers in the 7000 and 8000 range.
6361 joined on 8th March 1901
6884 joined on 17th July 1902
7245 joined on 30th January 1903
7702 joined on 21st March 1904
8217 joined on 5th January 1905
8375 joined on 23rd January 1906
8584 joined on 14th January 1907
9048 joined on 25th January 1908
9405 joined on 8th February 1909
9792 joined on 24th May 1910
9922 joined on 1st July 1911
10052 joined on 22nd January 1912
10313 joined on 4th January 1913
10558 joined on 11th July 1914
When Britain went to war with Germany three weeks later, men joining the newly formed service battalions (with the exception of the Pals Battalions which had their own number series), were issued numbers from the series which had, up until that point in time, been used only by the two regular battalions.
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