Samuel Clyde Clarke Greenidge No. 4384

[crodgers]

Hi all,

I am a new member here and I am amazed at the amount of knowledgeable people here. So hopefully someone can help me with a query I have regarding the service of Samuel Clyde Clarke Greenidge No. 4384. What I have been able to gather so far was that Samuel was a member of the Barbados Volunteer Force and went to London and signed up to the Territorial Force on the 18 August 1915. We was posted to the 2/17 London Regiment as a private.

I searched through the London Gazette from around 1914 through to 1921 discovered that Private Samuel Clyde Clarke Greenidge graduated as a 2nd Lieutenant from the Artists Rifles Officers Training Corp on the 9th January 1916. He next appears in the London Gazette on the 8th Decemberr 1917 where he was promoted to Lieutenant and was part of the London Regiment.

On the 1st April 1919 he relinquishes the rank of acting capain (addl).

Now I am hoping someone can explain to me a couple of things...I have his sword that says ‘LIEUT S.C.C GREENIDGE 3/17th COUNTY OF LONDON REGT 1916’ on the blade (so I presume that this was a Graduation present)

But the Country of London Regiment merged a couple times I gather but haven't quite figured out the sequence.... especially as some of the documents I have says he was in the 2/17 London Regiment.

Any help would be gratefully received.

Kind Regards

Cam

[Paul Nixon]

Welcome to the forum, Cam.

Samuel Greenidge's service record survives at the National Archives in WO 374 / 29075. Post a request in the "Im going to the PRO / National Archives" and see if some kind soul will dig out the salient points for you.

Paul

[crodgers]

G'day Paul,

I actually requested the records from the Natonal archives ... and got some wonderful information. I was hoping someone can help decipher what happened to the County of London Regiment in which he was posted.....from what I can gather this Regiment changed it name a couple of times..the engraving on his sword says 3/17 County of London Regiment....but other records say he was in the 2/17 London Regiment. But also there is mention of 28th London Regiment (Artists Rifles)...hence my confusion.

Hope this makes sense.

Kind Regards

Cam

[Paul Nixon]

Hi Cam

Judging by your greeting, and the time of day you're posting, you must be in Oz.

The regiment wouldn't have changed its name. Briefly, before WW1 the regiment would have been the 17th London Regiment. When WW1 began most Territorial Force battalions found themselves swamped with new recruits and formed 2nd line battalions to accommodate these men. These second, and later third line etc battalions were expressed as 2/17th, 3/17th etc. The old 17th Battalion would have become the 1/17th.

The 2/17th Londons were formed in August 1914 and went overseas in June 1916. The 3/17th "Formed in early 1915 and moved to Richmond Park. Went in January 1916 to Winchester. 8 April 1916 : became 15th, 16th and 17th Reserve Bn. Moved to Wimbedon in December 1917 and 17th went on to Orpington in 1918."

This latter information from The Long, Long Trail: http://www.1914-1918.net/london.htm

So the 3/17th was a reserve battalion and then your man moves to the 2/17th which would, from June 1916, be an active service battalion. The 28th Londons was another completely different battalion of the London Regiment.

Also see my blog posts on numbering in these battalions:

17th London Regiment

28th London Regiment

Hope this helps

Paul

[crodgers]

You are right..Autralian to the core. Thanks very much for your help it's much appreciated. This was first attempt researching a soldier....it's been an eye opening experience.

Thanks again

Cam