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Remembered Today:

Service number prefix


Pat K

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Please be patient with me, I am sure the answer to this must have been given many times but I have not been able to find it.

What is the significance of a prefix before a service number. In this case we are talking about Royal Munster Fusiliers and in particular my grandad.

His service number was 6951 and he was severely wounded December 1916 France and discharged as a result in April 1917. His SWB roll entry gives his number as 3/6951.

What is the significance of the "3/".

Battalion number would be my guess but 3rd Bn RMF was a reserve battalion which did not serve in France. And if he was transferred from the reserve why doesn't his service number reflect the battalion transferred to?

Or have I got this all completely wrong?

Any help gratefully accepted

Pat

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It means he was initially in the Special Reserve (3rd Battalion) and had been posted to one of the active service battalions overseas. Sometimes (not always, by any means) it is shown as a prefix to indicate his original terms of service. From my experience its use can be rather haphazard, although my (limited) experience suggests that Irish Regiments tended to use the notation more than others.

Special Reserve is explained in detail at the link below;

LLT - Reservists

Best wishes.

Andy.

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Thanks for the explanation Andy

I was hoping to establish where he was fighting when he was wounded by researching the Bn diaries so this is bad news for me I suppose

Kind regards

Pat

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Don't despair - his Medal Roll Sheet will show the battalion or battalions he served in while overseas. From that you can determine which was the last unit he served in overseas before evacuation.

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Thanks Graham

I never realised that the ordinary medal rolls would give that sort of info, I always assumed that the SWB roll would give the most interesting info (Although thinking about it, of course I had nothing to base that view on )

Kind regards

Pat

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  • 10 months later...

Did SWB roll give date of enlistment ? (as that is one of its great bits of info)

As noted BW & VM roll will give Bns served with

for what is is worth serials 3/6948 and 3/6952 were KIA and appear in SDGW - both served with 2nd Bn which had the highest turnover/casualties in the regiment

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