3rd County of London Yeomanry to RFA

[David Porter]

I've been looking at the formation of 67th Divisional Ammunition Column and men with numbers in the form 920xxx. To my surprise I found a block of almost 100 men who had originally enlisted in 3rd County of London Yeomanry near the head of the number series. They are pretty much placed in surname alphabetical order which makes this easy and service records for most have survived. The block posting happened from 2/4th Home Counties Brigade RFA (aka 338th Bde) which was being broken up in the Summer of 1916. Looking further I find that over 300 men made the move from 3rd County of London Yeomanry to 2/4th Home Counties Brigade RFA on February 25, 1916 as their new numbers range from 1397 to 1717 (all handed out on the same day). The question is, having recruited these men in November 1915 for what I take to be 3rd line Yeomanry, why were they transferred to the RFA the following February? The LLT page - http://www.1914-1918.net/county_london3.htm - gives no hint as to why this occured. The only thing I can think of is that the Establishment was dramatically reduced but I would welcome other suggestions.

The grouping of 300 then seems to have been split up between 67th DAC, 335th (before that was broken up), 336th Bde, 337th Bde plus a few to 291st Bde. A good many saw service in Mesopotamia with 18th Indian Division.

[Stoppage Drill]

I did some research into 3 CoLY a few years back whilst on the trail of a particular individual. There are some fascinating papers still in the possession of the present day TA unit at their barracks in Croydon.

So here's an informed guess; about 100 men of the unit declined overseas service in 1914. The CO, Arthur Weston Jarvis was unable to persuade them. One of those declining was a Sqn Commander, whose reluctance created a vacancy for the individual I was tracing who was appointed to command B Sqn, then became 2 i/c, was wounded on the advance across the Salt Lake above Suvla, then in due course became Provost Marshal MEF.

Is it possible that these 100 that you are interested in were those who declined in 1914 but served on in UK and were then caught by the Military Service Act, passed in Jan 1916, becoming liable to overseas service ? The numbers and dates fit.

[Guest]

At the time the 1/3rd CoLY line was part of the Suez Canal defences and taking very few casulaties and therefore not needing large numbers of reinforcements. The 1/3rd County of London Yeomanry was particularly poorly served by way of a written history - none appearing until after WWII. The period in question only has 9 lines in Boris Mollo's history. I suspect the reason was that Weston-Jarvis left the unit in Oct 1916 having fallen out with the Bde commander. His diaries up to that date are the best source of info, but of course would not refer to the 3rd Line unit. It is extremely unlikely that the 3rd Line ever kept a diary. Had Weston Jarvis stayed with the unit I suspect they would have had one of the more illuminating written histories. He was an avid diarist.

MG

[Stoppage Drill]

This unit kept an informal dairy - the Adjutants job - which is still at Croydon. There are also many letters from Weston Jarvis to his wife - these are very revealing. Had a few harsh things to say about Australians !

[David Porter]

Thanks for the background and pointers. I found it quite strange that 300 men enlisting in November 1915 were all transferred to the RFA a few months later. Perhaps there was a lack of training facilities or more enlisted than they could cope with (this was during the Derby Scheme). I did find out they were based at Ranelagh Camp, Barnes and the move took them out to Sevenoaks. Acting Adjutant was 2/Lt Herbert Irving Bell. As you say, doubt there will be anything about the 3rd Line in the diaries but it is good to know that they exist. The remaining unit went from London to being "affiliated to 9th Reserve Cavalry Regiment at Dublin". The reasoning behind suddenly expanding the 2/4th Home Counties Brigade must have something to do with the 1/4th Home Counties Brigade going back overseas on March 9, 1916 - that side of it at least makes sense.

EDIT: Adding approximate numbers for reference.
The service numbers in 3CoLY run mostly in the group 2340 - 2680 and on RFA transfer 1393 - 1717 (ordered alphabetically)
Renumbered groupings are 915859 - 916039 for those remaining in 338 Bde and 920022 - 920115 for those joining 62nd DAC on or before August 12, 1916.
However, 338 Bde also begins to break up around this time, some go to 335 Bde (and later to D/336) whilst others go 336 Bde (and later D/291).
The renumbering, which happened later, does not reflect their new brigades.

[Guest]

Block postings were reasonably common... Over 100 men from the 2nd Line of the Derbyshire Yeomanry ended up in the Durham Light Infantry for example.... a Company Of Jersey Light Infantry ended up in an Irish Battalion in the 10th Div of Kitchener's Army (although they were volunteers) and I am sure this thread will flush out a host of other examples.

[Graham Stewart]

Interestingly years ago I found this - ACI 98 of the 14th January 1915 regarding the numbering of personnel within the T.F.D.A.C's. on their formation. This possibly implies that the T.F. Divisions were probably 'deficient' of D.A.C's., which needed to be formed with some urgency. Therefore to save on removing RFA personnel from their assigned Brigades, would it have just been as easy to form the D.A.C. from scratch using personnel from other T.F. units within the Divisional recruiting area???