Somerset Light Infantry group

[coldstreampaul]

I purchased this from a local market, it still is in the original frame which is fragile so the pic I have taken is through glass.

Somerset Light Infantry I can work out by the badge, can anyone estimate a year for the photograph or where it might have been taken.

I have tried some close ups of the Officers and Buglers.

Regards

Paul

Close up of Officers

Close up

[FROGSMILE]

There are some men and officers with what appear to be Great War medal ribbons and wound stripes and several have many good conduct badges to indicate longer service. On that basis I would estimate the photo to be circa 1919, or thereabouts. The location is more problematical, but it might be Jellalabad Barracks, which was the regimental depot in Taunton. The entrance looks typical for an officers' mess, or regimental HQ of the period, but the location could equally also be a barracks at Tidworth, Colchester, or any of the Victorian built garrisons.

[coldstreampaul]

Hi Frogsmile,

Thanks for the expert info as always.

Regards

Paul

[FROGSMILE]

Hi Frogsmile,

Thanks for the expert info as always.

Regards

Paul

My pleasure Paul, it's a cracking photo and very evocative of Light Infantry military culture with the silver bugles, green cords and the Bugle Major with the shorter Parade Mace used by Light Infantry because the faster marching pace made the full size, heavy infantry version, unwieldy.

[coldstreampaul]

My pleasure Paul, it's a cracking photo and very evocative of Light Infantry military culture with the silver bugles, green cords and the Bugle Major with the shorter Parade Mace used by Light Infantry because the faster marching pace made the full size, heavy infantry version, unwieldy.

Hi Frogsmile,

Yes it is a very nice photo, quite large too 46 x 38cm

Just noticed a name in pencil in the corner probably the photographer hard to make out but looks like Lafatelle Belfast

Also on the back there is paper label saying "This picture belongs to Anthony R Williams and in the corner a makers label W Sullivan 10 Lower Arcade Bristol which I guess would tie in with the Somerset theme.

Regards

Paul

[FROGSMILE]

Hi Frogsmile,

Yes it is a very nice photo, quite large too 46 x 38cm

Just noticed a name in pencil in the corner probably the photographer hard to make out but looks like Lafatelle Belfast

Also on the back there is paper label saying "This picture belongs to Anthony R Williams and in the corner a makers label W Sullivan 10 Lower Arcade Bristol which I guess would tie in with the Somerset theme.

Regards

Paul

There was a partly Victorian built barracks in Belfast that housed an infantry battalion and that might well be the venue of the photo. If you put "Images of Victoria Barracks, Belfast" into google you might well find something to match up, although be aware that much of it has been rebuilt and/or modernised, so I don't think there is much of the original structure left. It ought to be possible to research if a battalion of the SLI were based there. See below:

The Barracks was to remain very much the same when it was built but in the early 1880's all this changed. In the Spring of 1883 the original Barrack accommodation was greatly increased by the addition of two large blocks of buildings and the purchase of Trainfield House which was converted into an Officers Mess. The old Artillery Barracks was absorbed into the new Infantry Barracks as was the land between it and the old York Street Mill dam which stood on Churchill Street. A number of new entrances were created with plans to have the main entrance on Glenravel Street. This was objected too by the Eye Hospital and Skin Hospital which stood on that street whose main objection was that the noise of marching soldiers would disturb the patients. A compromise was reached and the new main entrance was situated on Henry Place which was the street leading to the old Cemetery. The work was done in accordance with Lord Cardwell's 'centralisation' scheme. Now the Barracks could afford accommodation for ten officers and 182 soldiers, and there were quarters thirty two married soldiers and their families. The Barracks, cavalry and infantry, were sufficiently large to accommodate upward of one thousand men but during times of disturbance they could accommodate up to three thousand men by placing the extra forces under canvas. The military gymnasium was actually erected before all this work commenced and both it and the Garrison Church were built in 1879 with the first mention of it appearing in the Belfast Street Directory the following year.

Over the next few decades more and more buildings were added until it became one of the largest military bases in Ireland. There are literally thousands of newspaper reports relating to the Barracks in the local press from the 1880's onwards. As would be expected these involved troop movements and appointments as well as balls and various forms of sport which took place in the complex. However there were also more unique coverage and one of the most interesting tells us that the first hot air balloon flight in this part of Ireland actually took place in the Barrack square directly facing what is now the Recy. There were also more sinister reports appearing. Over the years there have been quite a few unsolved murders in the Infantry Barracks, some of them being quite horrific. One of the few solved cases involved a teenage soldier who shot his corporal and was the first person to be hanged in Crumlin Road Prison.

The complex remained the Infantry Barracks up until 1901 when the queen died. It was then renamed Victoria Barracks in her honour. The next major change to take place in the Barracks occurred over thirty years later when it was targeted, bombed and partly destroyed by the Luftwaffe on the night of April 15th, 1941, killing many hundreds of people in the surrounding area.

[coldstreampaul]

Hi Frogsmile,

Many thanks once again for all the extra information, very interesting.

Regards

Paul

[Old Owl]

Hi Paul,

Not much, but I think that the photographer will be Lafayette ---Well known photograpers to this day, I believe.

Robert

[coldstreampaul]

Thanks Robert.

Regards

Paul

[FROGSMILE]

Thanks Robert.

Regards

Paul

The Lafayette Studio in Belfast was opened in 1900. This link gives an interesting history: http://www.lafayette.../Main.aspx?Id=1

There were other barracks in Belfast, including at Holywood, but Victoria Barracks seems quite likely. It should be possible to find when the Somersets (1st or 2nd Batt) were there.

[coldstreampaul]

Hi Frogsmile,

Thanks for that link.

Cheers

Paul

[Guest]

Hi Paul

Came across your thread while trying to find out more about the 6th Somerset L.I. battalion. I thought the following information might be of interest to you!

Kelly's Directory of Bristol, (1933), lists at 10 Lower Arcade, "Sullivan Wm & Son, picture frame maker &c".

The 3rd Somerset (Reserve) Battalion was a training unit and remained in the UK throughout the war. It moved to Belfast in 1918. My grandfather joined the 3rd before being posted to the 6th.

The attached link is interesting and has photographs of officers of the 3rd.

http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/gwa/document/8878/3300

Hope it is of help to you.

Regards

Pete.

[FROGSMILE]

Hi Paul

Came across your thread while trying to find out more about the 6th Somerset L.I. battalion. I thought the following information might be of interest to you!

Kelly's Directory of Bristol, (1933), lists at 10 Lower Arcade, "Sullivan Wm & Son, picture frame maker &c".

The 3rd Somerset (Reserve) Battalion was a training unit and remained in the UK throughout the war. It moved to Belfast in 1918. My grandfather joined the 3rd before being posted to the 6th.

The attached link is interesting and has photographs of officers of the 3rd.

http://www.oucs.ox.a...ument/8878/3300

Hope it is of help to you.

Regards

Pete.

That makes sense Pete. The 3rd (Reserve) Battalion was previously the old Militia battalion and had the role of providing trained replacements for the two regular battalions.

The photos are interesting and the first three are not of SLI but of a generic machine gun course encompassing a wide range of units. It is only the second half of the photos (several very faded) that show exclusively SLI soldiers.

They seem to be the history of one man going from his initial machine gun training to joining the machine gun section of his own regiment, the SLI.

[bantamforgot]

Any better ?

[FROGSMILE]

Any better ?

The 'faded photos' I referred to were the ones at Pete's link, not the OP's in this thread bs.

Addendum: I realize that your input was well intended boysoldier.