Genealogy Chat

How do you find which battalion someone served in?
I know my grandfather served with the Sherwood Foresters Regiment during WWI and I do have his Army Number but I would like to know whether he was sent to the front line. Can anyone give me some advice.

When about?

It was WWI so it was between 1914-18.

You could look at his medal card -£3-50 to download from the documentsonline site. This may give the date he entered, and will give his medal entitlement. There is a section on the same site which explains where they had to be and for how long, to qualify for a medal. You could look for his service records on Ancestry, or if you post his name on here, someone will look for you. His service records, if they survive, should give his battalion. If his records aren't on Ancestry, they may be at National Archives, although lots haven't survived. If they haven't survived, the medal roll (only available at National Archives), will give you his battalion. Or you could contact the Regimental museum which may know which battalion he was in, but probably not much more.

Thanks Ann for those suggestions. I have had a look on Ancestry under the Pensions Records and he is not listed. Also had a quick look on documentsonline but I need to know his battalion first.
My grandfather's name is Allen Marsh and he was born in 1879 and died in 1926 both in Notts. His army number is 26764 and he was a private. So if anyone has access to any Sherwood Foresters records and could tell me his battalion I would be most grateful.

her is his medal card details

Description Medal card of Marsh, Allen
Corps Regiment No Rank
Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment 26764 Private
Labour Corps 30335 Private

Date 1914-1920
Catalogue reference WO 372/13
Dept Records created or inherited by the War Office, Armed Forces, Judge Advocate General, and related bodies
Series War Office: Service Medal and Award Rolls Index, First World War
Piece McGrath D - Mill J
Image contains 1 medal card of many for this collection


Number of image files: 1


Image Reference Format and Version Part Number Size (KB) Number of Pages Price (£)
128592 / 20820 PDF 1.2 1 317 1 3.50
Total Price (£) 3.50

Roy

Jean

As I said before - you could get his battalion from National Archives (not online, you'd have to go, or get someone to go for you). The references on the medal card (you don't need to know his battalion to get this) will lead to the medal roll, which will give his battalion. Or, the Regimental Museum will possibly know which battalion he was in, as I also said before.

Many thanks Roy and Ann. I will have another go at looking at documentsonline and see how I get on. I have never had to deal with army records before so am a bit green about this side of things!

Jean in Somerset

I have now downloaded the medal card for my grandfather Allen Marsh but I am having trouble understanding the information on there. Under the heading Roll is the following: LC/101B19. Does this mean he was in the 19th Battalion and what does the rest of it mean? Can anyone help?

Jean

That is the reference for the medal roll as I said above, which isn't online and is only available to look at at Kew. The 19 doesn't have anything to do with his battalion.

Sorry Ann I did not realise - as I said before I am very green on this army stuff. I can't see me getting up to Kew as I live in Somerset. Could you recommend a researcher? I am very keen to find out which battalion he served in and if he was sent to the front. He was not killed in action but died in 1926 possibly from a war related illness. My brother has been in touch with the Regimental Museum but they could not give us any further information.

Jean

Jean
Contact the Sherwood Foresters Regimental Museum. By typing in Sherwood Foresters. They would be able to help you out.
Regards
Andrew

I would think he probably wasn't sent to the front line as he was in the Labour Corps.
The LC did all sorts of jobs, but mostly behind the front line. So take one example - duckboards.
From the raw planks, the boards would have to be manufactured and sent off to some railhead, lets say Poperinghe just behind Ypres, and from there they went by road to the front to the east of Ypres. Now the road to Ypres was subject to shelling and bombing, so the LC would have to maintain it. East of Ypres, the road was subject to severe shelling, and besides, if you wanted to set up an artilliary battery in the middle of a field, guess who built the road to it. In the case of the 3rd Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele) it was impossible to build roads to the front line, and up to 3 miles of duckboard track needed laying. In drier conditions, the final approach to the front line would be via communication trenches, and behind the front line, there'ld be a second trench line (the support line). Although the combat solders would be involved in constructing these trenches, the LC would usually be quite heavily involved too. Finally, duckboards would be laid in the trenches. In the later part of the war, a standard method of trench construction was to dig a V sahaped trench, then stick a series of inverted A shaped timber frames in it, and run duckboards over the horizontal bit of the A, leaving a space underneath for drainage, and planking the walls using the legs of the A as a structural support. These A frames would need to be manufactured too, again, probably by the LC.

Most of the Labour Corps was British, but there were some specialized Dominion units in the LC. There were Canadian and Australing Tunnelling units (Britain had to keep many miners home to seve its ramped up war manufacture.) Canada had large labour pools in two key areas, and eventually sent over more than 30,000 forestry workers. Also, Canadians eventually took over the construction of all light railways, which were typically located near the front. In the Passcendaele offensive, these railways averaged 100 breaks per day from shellfire, so building and repairing these forward road and rail supply links was not necessarily a cushy number.

The Official History of the Canadian Army in the First World War devotes part of Chapter 16 to Canada's Labour Corps:
http://www.cefresearch.com/matrix/Nicholson/Transcription/
Clearly this will differ from your guy's experience, but it might give some flavour. However, the only way to be sure of what your guy did would be to find out his unit, and check out that unit's war diaries. These WDs might also be available at the regimental museum. We're lucky as most Canadian units' WDs are online and free - however, most of my rellies are brits - can't win, eh.

Dear SH,

I overlooked his former N&DR service. You're probably correct. Although some people were inducted directly into the LC or its equivalent (e.g., most of those Canadians with special skills I mentioned), the most likely reason for a combat soldier to be transferred to the LC was that he got medically reclassified down from "Fit A-1", typically as a result of sickness or (especially on the Western Front) wounding. Bean, in the Australian official history, notes that the AIF repatriated their wounded at much higher rates than other forces, and explains this by the fact that the AIF had a much lower non-combat troop percentage than other forces.

Incidentally, I'm sure he didn't spend 99% of his time ducking bullets. The combat arms had to be constantly rotated out of the front line to avoid burn out - it was just too stressful, so if it wasn't an emergency defensive situation, they'ld normally spend about as much time out of the front lines as in, as can be told from, e.g., the 1st Bn Gordon Highlanders WDs, which are available (as a transcription) online:
http://www.thegordonhighlanders.co.uk/Pages/Diary.htm

Many thanks everyone for all that information which is all completely new to me. I live a long way from Kew so I think I am going to employ a researcher to look at my grandfather's Service Records and Medal Roll so hopefully I can find out what really happened to him in the War. I never knew my grandfather as he died 20 years before I was even born and only very recently found out that he was in the Sherwood Foresters, so this is a whole new area of research for me.