Recruit training 1918

[Tim Lynch]

Hi,

I'm looking at recruit training in 1918 and trying to get some idea of how it was organized. I understand from various sources that intakes were sorted by age so that a company could graduate at the same time but does anyone know what sort of time block that meant (ie were they sorted into one month blocks, two months or what?) I have lads enlisting in the same town and getting adjacent TR numbers and others enlisting in completely different towns with the same result so what was the process of sorting recruits from attestation to arrival at the training battalion? At what point were they allocated to a TR battalion?

What I'm also trying to find out is what size a recruit company would normally be and within it would each platoon be made up of lads born around the same date? I'm looking at a draft and from the TR numbers I can see maybe four distinct groups of names each in roughly alphabetical order. All were born in late 1899 and their TR numbers all fall within a bracket of around 200 (from 93632 to 92833). I know that there is only around a week between the birthdate of several of the men. From that, could I assume that if someone has a similar birthdate as someone whose birthdate is known then it is likely that they will have a similar TR number and be part of the same platoon?

Can I assume, for example, that all those born around the 28th Sep would be in one platoon and those born around the 5th Oct in another or is that too simple?

Any advice, suggestions, references or even weary redirections to a thousand previous posts welcome!

Thanks

Tim

[JefR]

Hi Tim

I'm afraid I can't answer your questions, but I shall be following your thread with interest because I have been going through the same process - in my case following a draft of 100 lads born Jun/Jul 1899 from the Kings Liverpool Regt 53rd (YR) and 51st (Grad) Bns transferred to the 7th Norfolks on arrival in France 5th April 1918.

I intend to post more details shortly but meanwhile, very briefly, the 100 were in consecutive number order in both the KLR and the Norfolks and at the same time in almost perfect alphabetical order from C to W. By extending the search at each end of the KLR number range, I found that their 'training group' - which I assume was a company - numbered 130 men in a complete alphabetic sequence from A to Y, again with consecutive service numbers in both the KLR and their subsequent regiments (7th Suffolks and Northants).

I wondered if the number of men in a company of a training battalion was something of a moveable feast that depended on the quantity of recruits that arrived at any given time - I shall be very interested to see if anyone can throw any light on the issues you've raised.

Regards

Jef