Skipman Posted 16 July , 2012 Share Posted 16 July , 2012 14/6/1916. A newspaper report on this date, tells that an Aberfeldy 1/6th Black Watch man, " has been home spending a 6 days respite from the trenches. " He left for France again on Tues (13/6/1916) evening. " I'm guessing his period of leave started on 8/6/1916? At this time his battalion were in the Maroeuil area. There is no mention of men going on leave in the diary. When is he likely to have left the battalion, and which period might his furlough cover, if he left central Perthshire, on the evening of Tuesday, 13th of June 1916. Would his six days leave include his travelling time, and were Scots at a disadvantage being, obviously, further away? Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Tom Posted 16 July , 2012 Share Posted 16 July , 2012 It is highly likely that his period of leave from his unit was between specific dates and time. There was probably an entitlement for leave in each year and I think, operations permitting, his unit could make an allowance for travel time to and from Scotland. I suppose it might be said that such soldiers were at a disadvantage compared with, say, a soldier who lived at Dover, but I doubt there was any formal allowance for home address. Old Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted 16 July , 2012 Share Posted 16 July , 2012 Thank you Tom. What a relief it must have been to get home for a bit. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ss002d6252 Posted 16 July , 2012 Share Posted 16 July , 2012 There's an interesting thread here http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=64475&hl= Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted 16 July , 2012 Share Posted 16 July , 2012 Thank you ss002d6252 that's a great thread, don't know why I didn't find that? Cheers Mike Give us a first name mate, make one up if you want, but ss002d6252 is a hassle to write Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dycer Posted 17 July , 2012 Share Posted 17 July , 2012 Mike, From the 8th Royal Scots War Diary. 1st to 20th December 1915-The rate of leave to all ranks of the Battalion continued to be most satisfactory,2 Officers and 32 Other Ranks leaving each week;Leave for those going to Scotland was also extended to nine days. George Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IRC Kevin Posted 17 July , 2012 Share Posted 17 July , 2012 One of the most common offences on the conduct sheets, particularly for married men, seems to be 'overstaying leave'. Typical punishment tends to be FP No. 2 or fine of days pay equivalent to the number of days late reporting back. The frequency leads me to suspect that most soldiers were willing to take the knock for the extra time at home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
centurion Posted 17 July , 2012 Share Posted 17 July , 2012 Give us a first name mate, make one up if you want, but ss002d6252 is a hassle to write Copy and paste then it doesn't matter even if it's written in Arabic,Cyrillic, Hebrew or Chinese. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David B Posted 17 July , 2012 Share Posted 17 July , 2012 Have just been re reading the service docos of my g/father to try and see how and when he was given leave from France. It would appear that from his entry into France he was given leave - 6 days at a time - approx every six months during his time overseas. The leave was only to UK (he was a Jersey native) so I suspect that he spent his leave with his wifes parents - I don't think she was there as there is no record of her travelling to UK from Jersey. This regularity of leave may have been because he was the RSM of an heavy artillery brigade, not that I would dare suggest anything underhand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Clifton Posted 21 July , 2012 Share Posted 21 July , 2012 One of the most common offences on the conduct sheets, particularly for married men, seems to be 'overstaying leave'. Typical punishment tends to be FP No. 2 or fine of days pay equivalent to the number of days late reporting back. The frequency leads me to suspect that most soldiers were willing to take the knock for the extra time at home. The punishment is in line with the recommendations in King's Regs i.e. the same number of days FP as the number of extra days absence, for which he also lost the pay. In many cases the reason for overstaying leave may have been problems with rail connections, missing the return boat at Folkestone etc. The Army seems to have taken a practical line - it was the sodier's responsibility to be back on time and if he was overdue he was punished accordingly, but the punishment was pretty nominal, to recognise that he wasn't entirely to blame. Ron Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
centurion Posted 21 July , 2012 Share Posted 21 July , 2012 The Army seems to have taken a practical line - it was the sodier's responsibility to be back on time and if he was overdue he was punished accordingly, but the punishment was pretty nominal, to recognise that he wasn't entirely to blame. Not strictly true there are accounts of soldiers returning from leave 'working the system', Brophy and Partridge describe it as follows "When a battalion was on the move it was often very difficult for such men (returning from leave) to rejoin it and returning soldiers might spend easily (and deliberately) a week or more in making several short railway trips, a delightful holiday rich with new scenes and an air of personal freedom otherwise unknown in the Army. The principle was to board the wrong train or at least miss the right one and the persuade the RTO to date stamp the pass so that the town major would provide a night's billet and a day's rations. Most RTOs were ignorant of the location of any troops at all and did not care where the transients went so long as they moved on the next day." Presumably such men could claim that they had rejoined the army on time if not their specific unit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WilliamRev Posted 21 July , 2012 Share Posted 21 July , 2012 Looking at my grandfather's (then 2nd Lieut S Revels, 1st Royal Scots Fusiliers) service record, I find that he only went on leave back to Scotland once during the war - he left his unit and embarked at Boulogne on 19th May 1915 on "The Queen" (a pre-war pleasure paddlesteamer), arrived in England (Folkestone) on 20th May, and his leave is marked from19th, then that is crossed out and replaced by 21st May, to 28th May, as though the clerk has suddenly noticed that he has to travel up to Glasgow and has added two days. On 24th May his doctor wrote a letter to the Home Office saying that 2nd Lieut Revels is suffering from "dyspepsia" and needs several days rest. The War Office extended his leave by three days to 31st May, the date he arrived back with his battalion at St Eloi, just south of Ypres, where he lasted exactly a fortnight before being wounded.. My g-father never again went back to Scotland on leave (although he spent Aug 1916 to June 1917 back in Scotland after being wounded for a second time on the Somme18th July 1916) - I have a memory of him telling me that he found going home on leave very upsetting, so stayed on the continent when he could, but I can't remember any more details alas. [We had these conversations 30 years ago, when he was 88 and I was aged 18, and I now so wish that I had thought of taping them.] William Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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