ASC and Army Fire Service - what unit?

[oxlade134]

I have a John William Blencowe 1884-1963 who was a Staff Sergeant in ASC see medal cards attached, John was a plumber and fireman in Kidderminster Fire Brigade and was Lieutenant of that Brigade in 1923 . I have also attached a 1932 photo of the Brigade, he is in this photo but unfortunately I cant identify him.

I believe though that he may have served in the ASC in charge of a Fire Brigade service.

My query is about the formation of Fire Service in the ASC , how was it organised especially overseas, which units should I concentrate on to see if I can find a record/mention of his service in the ASC.

[jay dubaya]

The S prefix denotes Supply and in particular S4 denotes Supply Labour (of the 4th New Army).

From Young's ASC;

The ASC was the military arm responsable for military fire brigades the major garrisons and ASC depots each had a fire brigade, these were manned by local civilian firemen - the ASC were responsable for their administration and the provision of drivers. This was also true of the army on the Western Front and other theatres of war. The Base Depot at Le Harve and Calais for instance, boasted of their own all-military fire brigade, as did Salonika and subsequently Constantinople.

With this in mind I suspect that these fire brigades were made up from men of various units and not a specific company designated as such

Jon

[oxlade134]

Hi Jon,

Thanks for the book title and this information, I wasn't expecting to find this man or a specific unit just to understand the general circumstances of deployment so this is good enough.

Roger