Kings Own Royal Lancaster Regiment

[Guest MattW]

At least I presume, from my very limited search of various websites, that this is what the 'R Lancs Rgt' is, that is mentioned as the 'Regiment or Corps' that my grandfather's Discharge Certificate says he joined in October 1916 at Whitehall, London.

Am I right ? If not, does anyone have any ideas as to which Regiment the DC was referring to ?

If it was the Kings Own RLR, can anyone guide me as to where I might find out more about this Regiment ? For example, where was it formed, where did it serve, what units did it consist of, did it have a Machine Gun Corps (grandad was in the MGC when discharged in March 1919), and so forth.

Further info from the DC reveals that grandad had two blue chevrons (but nil red) when discharged. What does this mean (the DC indicates that he was discharged as a Private) ?

This is my first post - I've got a feeling that it won't be my last !

Any help/advice will be very much appreciated.

Thank you.

MattW

[jim_davies]

Matt,

Here's a couple of ideas to start you off.

Check out the page on the main site showing the Royal Lancs Regt. It gives a brief outline of the "careers" of each of the battalions. Different battalions of this regiment in a number of different divisions, and hence saw service in most theatres.

If the discharge certificate gives a serial number, someone on the forum might be able to give you an idea of which battalion he served in, etc.

The chevrons I think refer to service in a theatre of war. (I'm not 100% sure). So two would mean two years service.

The Machine Gun Corps recruited/drafted men from all units and I'm not aware that certaain regiments provided men for individual MGC units-but you may want to contact the MGC old comrades association.

http://www.mgcorps.ndirect.co.uk/

Your best bet would be to track down his records at the PRO. If you can't go yourself, perhaps someone here could point you in the direction of a reputable researcher.

Good luck,

Jim

[Guest MattW]

Jim,

Thank you for your help. My grandfather's serial No. as quoted on the DC was M/88/D/L/419. Does this help anyone identify his Battalion ?

I've looked on the PRO site to see if they have records for surnames beginning with 'P' but I can't make sense of their site, which seems to indicate that they have some 'As' and some 'Ws' bit nowt in the middle ! What am I doing wrong ?

Matt

[Mark Hone]

The Regiment has a very good museum and archive at the City Museum, Market Square Lancaster,LA1 1HT. The collection was under threat a couple of years ago due to Local Authority cuts but I believe that it was repieved, thank goodness.

[Doug Dawes]

I found the King's Own Museum in Lancaster really helpful in tracing the WWI record of my wife's grandfather. Peter Donnelly is the Assistant Keeper there and even spent time with me during an imprmptu visit to the Museum. Email him on kingsownmuseum@iname.com. Tel No 01524 64637 F ax 01524 841692. Worth a visit if you can. Incidentally one of the souvenirs my wife's grandfather brought back from the war, which I have inherited, was a pair of binoculars with 90MGC stamped on the case. Coincidence?