What Did Serving At Home Involve? 308 coy ASC

[lynseyjane]

My Granddad was in ASC company 308 which appears to have spent time in Halton Camp in Wendover before moving to Crowborough Camp in Sussex. His unit was never sent to the front and I would like to get a picture in my mind of what he would have been doing as far as the war effort goes.

I have been told he was a driver of a carriage carrying heavy artillery being drawn by two horses. He somehow got pulled off the carriage and down between the two horses giving him massive head injuries.

But what would the company have been doing? Training other recruits? Some sort of duties related to defending the home front? Or....?

Any help would be greatly appreciated as I'm trying to write a biography and need to flesh out his time during the war.

[Philip Wilson]

The unsung heroes of the British Army in the Great War - the ASC, Ally Sloper's Cavalry. Soldiers cannot fight without food, equipment and ammunition. In the Great War, the vast majority of this tonnage, supplying a vast army on many fronts, was supplied from Britain. Using horsed and motor vehicles, railways and waterways, the ASC performed prodigious feats of logistics and were one of the great strengths of organisation by which the war was won.

308 Company was formed 2 April 1915 - disbanded 1 December 1921 and is listed in Michael YOUNG'S book Army Service Corps as being at Wendover, Crowborough Camp,Sussex - Eight New Army.

Its role - 45 Reserve Park,(HT)- horse transport - local duties. For further info search in The Long,Long Trail under ASC and then Reserve Park Companies

[lynseyjane]

Thanks Philip. But I've read all this already. Doesn't really tell me what "local duties" are.

[delta]

i would suggest the transport of stores between locations

[Philip Wilson]

i would suggest the transport of stores between locations

308 Company would have replenished a multitude of stores(eg.food, clothing and essential equipment) for units at different locations within 8th New Army.

[centurion]

It appears to be a sort of general catch all term for dogsbodying. I've seen for example references to "carting mail, stores, explosives, labourers, supplies, ammunition and petrol" and (not in the UK) "distributing food (mainly flour) to destitute civilians" - a sort of military equivalent to the local carrier

[lynseyjane]

Thanks everyone.

[Mk VII]

Recently some parts of the model trench systems at Halton (now an RAF station) have been dug out and restored to something like their original appearance.