BOER-WAR-L Archives

Archiver > BOER-WAR > 2001-10 > 1002772279


From: Iain Kerr <>
Subject: Re: [BOER-WAR] Fw: Ernest ACKROYD, East Lancs
Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2001 04:51:19 +0100
References: <5.1.0.14.2.20010908150042.009f5d40@pop.clara.net>
In-Reply-To: <008a01c15126$37f51420$6c428a90@default>


At 10:53 10/10/01 +1000, Rosemary Ackroyd wrote:
>Ian
>
>Thank you very much for the information on my grandfather quite some time
>ago. I apologise for my delay in responding - the US tragedy, the birth of
>my stepdaughter's first child & a nasty bout of flu have all intervened.
>
>I wasn't really surprised that you don't know of the 'Scarborough Militia'.
>I thought that I had looked sufficiently hard to find some trace if it was a
>formal name - tho' I'm a country mile away from being an expert.
>
>Do you know if the East Lancs recruited in Yorkshire? I'm grasping at
>straws here, I know. Ernest was the only member of his family to move to
>Lancashire & I have no idea why.
>
>I suppose too that he could have been in one regiment for his first lot of
>service & then recalled to another at the start of WW1. I don't think his
>service was continuous - the documents I have refer to him being recalled.
>
>On another tack, do you know if soldiers serving in South Africa would be
>included in the 1901 census in any form?
>
>Many thanks
>
>Rosemary Ackroyd

Rosemary,

After the territorialisation of the infantry regiments of the British Army
of the 1870s, formalised in the Army Organisation Act, 1881, the county or
area recruiting of infantry regiments occurred as a general
principle. However Lancashire and Yorkshire are more complicated, being
geographically large counties, each with several county regiments. And
there are strong rivalries between the counties.

So the East Lancashire Regiment will not have actively recruited in
Yorkshire. But that is not to say that a Yorkshireman may have enlisted in
a Lancashire regiment.

It was not unknown for a man recalled from the reserve, or voluntarily
reenlisting on the outbreak of the Great war to have joined a different
regiment.

And during the Great War, men were directed to where manpower was needed on
first enlistment, or after 1916, conscription. An men injured and casualty
evacuated often found themselves sent to a new regiment or corps on
recovery their fitness after a period in hospital.

If his service was broken, it is quite feasible that his pre-war service
records will have survived. The WO 97 Soldiers' Documents (Attestation and
Discharge Papers) archive is the main series of personnel records for long
service soldiers. For those discharged between the years 1882-1913, the
documents were listed alphabetically for all soldiers who had survived an
Army career, and not just those discharged to pension. These documents are
a wonderful supply of information about the soldier and contain a mass of
detail on his career. These records are held at the PRO, Kew under the
Group letters WO 97

The censuses of the UK were just that. Officers and men, and their
families, of the British Army serving overseas have never been included in
census activities. [My family and I are thereby absent from the 1961, 71
and 91 censuses for that reason). So men serving overseas during the
Second Boer War will not be found in the 1901 census.

And I am Iain "with two eyes"!!!

Yours aye,

Iain Kerr in Windsor, Berkshire, United Kingdom
Web Page at: http://home.clara.net/iainkerr/index.htm
RootsWeb Sponsor and Listowner for the WORLDWAR2 Mailing List.

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