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Army schools


essdee

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Not having found what I was looking for in Kew I played War Diary lotto, ie close your eyes, open a page, point and order what ever comes up.

Here are Army School sites for 5th Army, April’17 which may be of interest; it’s a subject that has come up in the past.

R.A. school……Sailly-le-Sec

Infantry school……Toutencourt

Musketry school……Warloy

Sniping school……Vadencourt

Signalling school……Contay

Cookery school……Belle Vue Farm

Gas school……Albert

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Hello essdee

In which War Diary did you find them? There are few, if any, Army Schools whose own War Diaries are in the class-list and it would be very useful to find out where to look for their "umbrella". GS Diary?

Ron

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essdee,

Thanks very much for troubling to post this. I too would be very interested to know the class for the schools references (no pun intended), please

Ian

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Ron/Ian

The previous extract was taken from the diary of the Adjutant and Quarter Master General for the 5th Army, respectively referred to as‘ A ‘ & ‘ Q ‘ on the distribution lists of Corps orders. You could track the moves of the various Schools of the 5th Army from these diaries.

I called back into Kew today and read the whole of the A & Q diaries for 5th Army which provide an interesting insight into many aspects of the organisation and running of the Army.

There are lists of Infantry Brigade/ Battalions monthly strengths, the whereabouts of the Mobile Pigeon Lofts ( the numbers of birds sent out and the numbers returning, even the number of ‘ losses ‘ per Corp ) the incoming and out going movements of all sorts of units from Labour units to Special RE Companies.

There are reports giving the break down of laundry costs showing how much soap was used and the cost thereof, the number of pillow cases laundered and so on.

The canteen could procure 50 tons of sweets a month but had trouble getting toothpaste, one month the canteen store reports ‘a serious shortage of Port’, the next ‘the situation has become critical’

In each month there is a list of Routine Orders, seemingly written by someone with nothing better to do. The men are ordered not to fish in the local river with hand grenades, not only because it’s a waste of fish, but because it was ‘unsporting behaviour’.

There are all manner of orders and lists in these diaries which answer many of those odd questions. Where else would you find out that chewing gum could not be supplied owing to ‘prohibition of export from USA’

Stuart

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Thanks Stuart

It seems even odder that staff officers working under Sir Hubert Gough could find the time!

Incidentally, when researching the modifications to the Army Act betwee, 1881 and 1914 I came across an Act of Parliament passed in about 1890 called the Fisheries (Dynamite) Act. Basically, it said "You mustn't fish in the North Sea with dynamite." Using hand grenades seems almost tame in comparison!

Ron

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  • 7 years later...

Mmm  (embarrassed) ... I hope it's never too late to say 'Thank you, Stuart' in which case, thanks. I have just come across this and my apologies for not acknowledging seven years ago!

 

Ian

Edited by Ian Riley
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