Regimental Numbers

[Jon Shattock]

I've just bought a pair to the Northumberland Fusiliers. The thing that attracted me to it was the man's number; 4-3992. I assume this means he enlisted into the 4th battalion. The thing that surprised me is that the SWB roll shows he enlisted in March 1916. I had thought such numbering was a early-war practice and would not still have been used at this date. Does anyone know how long it continued for?

Jon

[Paul Reed]

The use of number prefixes continued throughout WW1, in many regiments.

[Muerrisch]

An Army Order or ACI told battalions 1914 or 1915 to use a suitable prefix to avoid the confusion caused by the following:

Regular battalions [two or four of] shared a series between them, and all regular reservists were in that series

the Special Reserve battalion had a separate series

each TF battalion had a separate series.

So, once war caused stirring and mixing, one could have number 9876 say times six surving in one battalion of a regiment with seven battalions.

The Service battalions did not add to the problem, as they were for this purpose Regulars.

Needless to say RWF took not a blind bit of notice and ignored the order, and I am still trying to sort out the mess.