Artillery?

[Guest Soozy]

Hi, I am doing a little bit of family history research and came across a photo of my Uncle, Robert Dickson Forbes OBE. He was born in 1898 so was quite young when he fought in WW1. I wondered what regiment he was in, I think the Artillery, his cap is a soft top cap and other photos Ive seen on the internet are hard topped peeked caps. He has one strip on his sleeve, what that for Private? Were there other divisions within the Artillery? How can I research his army record on the internet? So many questions, thanks for reading.

Soozy

[max7474]

He is a Lance Bombardier in the Royal Artillery. His cap is mid war and has a soft stitched brim unlike the later post war stiffened brims.

[daggers]

Welcome to the forum.

The cap badge is Royal Artillery, but he could have served in any of the three branches, Royal Horse, Royal Field or Royal Garrison Artillery, who all wore the badge.

Where is the stripe on his sleeve? If above the elbow it could the chevron indicated that he held the appointment of lance bombardier, or rank of bombardier, one rank above gunner.

In the photo we see only a white lanyard, worn by 'other ranks' of the Artillery branches.

If your man served overseas he should have a medal index card, available online via Ancestry, or the National Archives at Kew. Around 2/3 of all service records were lost to a fire during WW2. Those that remain are on Ancestry.

Before going further, click on the link to the Long, Long Trail site which gives large amounts of help in understanding the army and WW1.

D

[Guest Soozy]

Thank you so much. The chevron was on his left sleeve between his wrist and his elbow, but it may just be part of the uniform and not an actual rank chevron.

[Staffsyeoman]

It is probably a Good Conduct stripe then; this is a subject which has much exercised the Forum before, so I'd recommend using the search engine!

[battiscombe]

several possible artillery Robert Forbes, none listed R[obert] D[ickson] as far as I can see.. but a Driver Robt D Forbes 169657 renumbered 652366 which would place him as enlisting in field artillery then being posted to a Scottish Territorial Field Artillery Brigade and with them when new territorial artillery numbers were allocated..

257th Brigade, RFA previously TF/ 1/1 LOWLAND Brigade [bETWEEN 11 MAY 16-3 JUN 16]
or

325th Brigade RFA TF/ 2/LOWLAND

that sounds likely ... but it looks like his records have not survived as far as I can see. His unit may have been in the 65th Division, in Ireland?? so he may well have been posted on to serve elsewhere by 1918..

http://www.1914-1918.net/65%282L%29div.html