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Labour Corps and C & R


teabag79

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Could anyone please help me interpret the attached medal index card please.

Frank appears to have changed from the Queens Regiment to the Labour Corps, which I understand was formed in 1817, somewhere along the line. Is there any way of knowing by the regiment number when he changed and where he would have served?

Also, I get that he was awarded the Victory, British and 14 Star with clasp, which I know means he would have been under enemy fire as soon as he arrived in the theatre of war. I don't know what the C & R comment means.

Thank you.

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No attatchment this end teabag79, however C & R would be Clasp & Roses see here and I suspect that 1817 is a typo, his LC number may give a date of transfer

jon

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Thanks Jon. I don't know what happened to the attachment. I have tried to attach it again. Hopefully it works this time. If not, his Labour Corps number was 207142.

post-101784-0-35941200-1379000509_thumb.

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Teabag

Welcome to the forum

If this is the Frank Nottridge who was born in 1872, he had seen previous military service with the Royal West Surrey Regiment, between October, 1890 and April, 1891, when he was discharged "Medically unfit for further service".

His service papers can be found here
http://www.findmypast.co.uk/army-service-records-result.action?sdrfnbr=973569005

Sepoy

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The Labour Corps number was issued in the period June - September 1917. (Courtesy of "No Labour, No Battle")

I'm afraid there is no way of extracting which Company from the number alone.

Phil

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The 2 prefix and date of entry strongly suggest that as a pre-war reservist he was posted to and went overseas with the 2nd Battalion (who were in South Africa when the war started). The War Diary of the 2nd Queens is online http://qrrarchive.websds.net/menu1.aspx?li=1

The diary shows a draft arrived on the 11th November 1914 after the Battalion had suffered heavy losses the previous weeks around Ypres, this strongly suggests he was in that draft.

However it's more than likely that while he initially went overseas with the 2nd Battalion he did not remain with them until transfer to the Labour Corps but probably transferred into one of the Labour Battalions of the Queen's before 1917. The evidence for this is that these Battalions were incorporated into the Labour Corps around June 1917 (when number was issued as at post 5).

It's almost impossible to track his movements without a service record but we do know the Queen's Labour Battalions were formed in 1916, and we also know that only a handful of the 'old sweats' were still serving in their original Battalions by the end of the war, typically men posted to Pioneer or Labour Battalions had received a downgrading of their medical fitness category either due to wounds or sickness brought on by the rigours of front line service.

See also http://www.1914-1918.net/queens.htm

[and just for completeness the C and R comment is 'Clasp and Roses (I)ssue (V)oucher 152/L (dated) 7. 7. 20.]

Ken

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