Which regiment

[Guest Sharon8]

Hi All,

Can anyone help me with this question,would a soldier be necessarily enrolled in a regiment that was closest to where he was living at the time?

As I often match a name say with only the medal lists to go by and there can be more than one regiment or am I just being thick?? I would just like to get my

info correct before adding to my family tree.

Thank you Sharon

[John_Hartley]

would a soldier be necessarily enrolled in a regiment that was closest to where he was living at the time?

No. At the beginning of the war, men could pretty much choose which regiment they joined but, within within afew months (and certainly when conscription was introduced), they went where they were assigned.

More information, as often, at the Long Long Trail:

http://www.1914-1918.net/recruitment.htm

[roughdiamond]

Stick the details of the person on and we'll see what we can do.

Sam

[kenf48]

While John is correct, it doesn't hold good for every soldier or recruiting office - even in 1914. Sometimes the recruiting officer had an affinity with a particular Regiment and steered people towards that Regiment.

Equally there was an element of choice, I recently read a delightful tale about a man from Sussex who wanted to join the Seaforth Highlanders, the recruiting officer - Coulson Kernahan desperately tried to dissuade him as he had never left Sussex and had no idea where the Seaforth Depot was etc etc. He predicted the man would not be understood and would be bullied. Sure enough it happened as predicted and a couple of weeks later he was AWOL but was brought back to the Sussex office by his (far more sensible and 'steely') sister and after some negotiation was put into his County regiment where he was soon 'shaping well, if slowly...'.

By 1915 my great uncle from the East Midlands found himself serving in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders with no such consideration, alongside men from, for example, Kingston-on-Thames. I believe the Scots referred to all these men as 'Londoners'!

Anecdotal I know but examples of some of the anomalies.

Ken

[roughdiamond]

A lot would depend on the age of the man and when he joined, from what I've learned on here, many men of military age joined their local Territorial Bn's just before or on the outbreak of War, they then volunteered to serve abroad with them.

However, later as the Derby scheme then Conscription came into force, men, including those who didn't reach military service age till later in the War, would be sent where they were needed, men may have joined a local Bn but would be posted overseas to another Bn/Corps with no links to their local area, the former wouldn't appear on their Medal Card as only the Bn/Corps that a man first served in a theatre of War with and subsequent Bn's/Corps he served with appeared on it.

My 3 Gt Uncles in my signature below and my Grandfather (not listed) illustarate this, John Barton was a Mobilised Reservist, Duncan McDonald from Kilsyth joined and died with his Local Territorial Bn and Thomas McGuire who like Duncan volunteered early in the War joined the Connaught Rangers even though he lived in Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire, the town did have a massive ex-pat (pardon the pun) population though. My Grandfather was conscripted into the Gordon Highlanders a Bn based in Aberdeen, 150 miles away from his home town of Coatbridge and his local Bn Cameronians (Scottish Rifles).

What I'm trying to say is there's no simple answer.

Sam