Research.
Investigate, Explore, Delve Into, Examine, Make inquiries, Seek, Follow a Line of Investigation.

During the many years that I have now spent researching the War Memorial and the War Dead of Wolviston I have learned so much. Peter Hart in the preface to his book Voices from the Front clearly warns; "When using history you have to be sceptical. But this is surely one of the ground rules of any historical research: if something is frankly unbelievable, then don't believe it without a great deal of solid confirmation". 

It did not take me long before I soon adopted the research attitude of unless I can prove it, it is possibly wrong.

Not all one sees or reads on the internet is totally true and some, sadly, is wholly incorrect and misleading.  Even the large organisations are not exempt. Until the 1st March 2016 the Commonwealth War Graves Commission had the incorrect date of death for George Stockburn Middleton [see the section The Wolviston Men] and also consequently, the incorrect inscription on his headstone.

The lesson that I very quickly learnt was check everything then check it again. Though I had originally taken the date of death details from the CWGC web site as true it soon became clear due to my own research that in the case of Middleton the CWGC had got it wrong and a search of the internet showed many other individuals and organisations had also. Why would anyone question the CWGC? My reply would be why not.

The point of this is to make sure any research is robust and question everything.

 

Regimental Numbers.
But it is only a number, isn't it?

The regimental number of a serviceman or servicewoman is one of the pieces of information that is usually available to the researcher which sadly is often under-utilised. The number was used on almost every item of paper dealing with the soldier and is even engraved on the rim of his medals. Generally [there are always exceptions to any rule] it is the number that will eventually confirm and identify the correct individual even when dealing with large groups of people or where common surnames occur frequently.

Occasionally the number may have a prefix of a letter or group of letters or another number and this may also help in learning more or building a larger picture of the soldier’s career path, if for example he may have moved or been transferred between battalions or regiments. The Army Service Corps for example extensively used a single or double letter prefix to indicate which branch of the Corps a man was attached to for trade or employment purposes.

However the whole subject of regimental numbering is fraught with problems and it is a very complex subject. Some battalions within the same regiment had its own series of numbers each starting from 1, so it was possible for there to be 1234 Pte Smith in the 1st Battalion, 1234 Pte Smith in the 2nd Battalion and 1234 Pte Smith in the 3rd Battalion. As mentioned, occasionally to get around any confusion, the battalions might prefix the individuals number with the battalion number, so in our example it might be 1/1234 Pte Smith, 2/1234 Pte Smith and 3/1234 Pte Smith. Later if 2/1234 Pte Smith were to be transferred to the 3rd Battalion he would not be confused with 3/1234 Pte Smith. The researcher would see also that whilst 2/1234 Pte Smith was serving with 3rd Battalion at the time of his death [for example] he had originally belonged to the 2nd Battalion and so for the researcher this may open another line of enquiry. 

Territorial battalions followed a similar system until 1 March 1917 when under Army Council Instruction 2414 of December 1916 they were re-numbered with six digit numbers starting from 200,001.

Even if the soldiers service papers do not survive, and many do not, it is possible to estimate fairly accurately his enlistment date by searching for other numbers bracketing the individuals regimental number and seeing if other service papers do survive. For example a soldier has the regimental number of W/239 and he belonged to the 13th Battalion Cheshire Regiment, his papers do not survive. However the service papers for the following soldiers do survive and give their enlistment dates. W/191 enlists 5 Sept 1914; W/219 enlists 4 Sept 1914; W/265 enlists 5 Sept 1914 and W/289 enlists 3 Sept 1914. Given this evidence it is reasonable to assume that our soldier W/239 enlisted sometime between the 3rd and 5th Sept 1914. But this practice was not universal among infantry battalions.

As a point of interest and as an example of how problematic the regimental numbering system was. There were 220 soldiers each issued with the same number of 1883 between 1914 and 1918. Of those 37 died during the war.

It was not until 1920 that all new soldiers and the Army Reserve received a unique Army number and this system continues to this day.

 

Enlistment.
Hurry up and join lads, it will all be over by Christmas.

Volunteers.
At the outbreak of war Field Marshal Lord Kitchener as the newly empowered Minister of State for War convinced the Government that the war with Germany would not be a short affair. He told them that in his opinion it would take three or even more years to fight and defeat a highly trained and well equipped enemy force. As a direct result of his beliefs Kitchener encouraged early mass recruitment and hundreds of thousands of men from all groups and levels of society rushed to enlist. The men who were all volunteers were by and large assigned to new formations that were specifically created to cater for the rapid expansion of the Army. The volunteers would enlist for three years or the duration of the war and in the early days were mostly allowed to choose which regiment they may join. Five new armies were created and were referred to as Kitchener Army. They were numbered K1 to K5. These armies contained six divisions [K5 had seven] each division consisting of twelve battalions.

Numbers of new recruits had begun fall and so on the 15th July 1915 a National Registration Act was introduced making it compulsory for all men and woman between the ages of 15 and 65 to comply with the act and register, stating their occupation and ability to work and they were then issued with a registration card. It allowed the Government a snapshot in early 1915 of potential recruits and also industry employment figures and those in reserved occupations.

Derby Scheme.
The influx of men coming forward to enlist slowly started to reduce and the Government decided that other measures to maintain a continual and sustained level of recruitment were needed. On the 11th October 1915 Lord Derby was appointed Director General of Recruiting and devised and introduced a scheme known as the ‘Derby Scheme’. The Derby Scheme then asked males who were not in a reserved occupation and between the ages of 18 and 41 to either enlist now or to register their willingness to enlist and they would be called as required at a later date. It was also made clear that voluntary enlistment may soon be a thing of the past and conscription was on the horizon Attesters wore an armband whilst still in civilian clothes and waiting to be called forward to show their willingness to serve.

These Derby Scheme men were organized into 46 groups and classified depending on age and marital status.

Groups 1 – 23: Single men aged between 18 and 41, one group per year.

Groups 24 – 46: Married men aged between 18 and 41, one group per year.

The process identified over two million potential recruits but many did not register before the Derby Scheme closed on 15 December 1915. Often those who did register were not called forward for many months anyway.

Conscription.
The Military Service Act came into force in  January 1916 it was later amended and modified on the 25^th  May 1916 to include married men and made enlistment into the armed forces compulsory from 2^nd March 1916. Every British male resident who was between the ages of 18 and 41 on the 15^th August 1915 and unmarried or a widower was liable for military service unless he had a child or a dependent relative to support. These conscripts were also placed into groups.

Between January and June 1916 the groups and classes were called up in the following order:

Groups 1 – 23 Single Derby Scheme men 25 January – 28^th March

Groups 1 – 23 Single Conscript men 3^rd – 28^th March

Groups 24 – 46 Married Derby Scheme men 7^th March – 13^th June

Groups 24 – 46 Married Conscripts 3^rd – 24^th June

There were those who claimed or attempted to claim exemptions and local tribunals heard appeals against service. These appeals and the tribunal’s decisions were often reported in the local and national newspapers. If exempted from service the exemption was often if not always conditional. If a man was exempted due to a reserved occupation for example, should he later leave that occupation he became liable once again for military service. The first notice an individual often received of his call up under National Conscription was the issue of a railway warrant for his travel to the reporting centre by a set date and time. By April 1918 the age limits for conscription were extend to include those between the ages of 18 and 50.

 

War Gratuity.
Money if you live and money if you die.

The war gratuity was introduced in December 1918 as a payment to be made to those men who had served during the war for a period of 6 months or more home service or for any length of service if a man had served overseas. The rules governing the gratuity were implemented under Army Order 17 of 1919.

In most cases the war gratuity was paid to men in lieu of a service gratuity due under the Royal Pay Warrant however, as the war gratuity was not introduced until 1918, many men had already been paid the service gratuity and therefore, when it was calculated, the war gratuity had to be adjusted so a man did not receive the full value of both. The monies due were generally paid in to a Post Office Savings Account for each man who had to apply for a savings book. If the man had already died or had been discharged as insane an alternative payment method could be used. Details of gratuities paid to deceased soldiers are shown in the Soldier’s Effects Registers. These registers are held by the National Army Museum but have recently been digitized.

There is much information that the War Gratuity Payment and the Register of Soldier’s Effects for deceased soldiers can help the researcher with, it may also help with estimating a month of enlistment.  Due to the rules governing the gratuity setting out payments for set periods [monthly] and allowing for rank and if service was home or overseas. It is possible for the researcher to take these various factors and work backwards from the known date of death to arrive at a month of enlistment. Though like many things the researcher must allow for some error factor. Depending on the day of the month the soldier died depends if a whole months payment was made or an amount equating to a percentage of a whole months payment.

However if an approximate month of enlistment is arrived at using the war gratuity and then the researcher also attempts to use the regimental number bracketing mentioned above to try and find others with very close regimental numbers whose service papers do survive a more clearer and larger picture begins to build.