Railway Supply Companies

[David Ingleby]

William John Kilsby is one of the soldiers I am researching for our Weedon project and died of wounds in Calais in August 1915. He was a driver in the Army Service Corps, 17th Railway Supply Company.

I know a Base Supply Depot was established in Calais in April 1915 and assume he would have been based here and presumably was injured whilst transporting supplies to, or on the return from, the front lines.

The only 17th company of the Divisional Trains was part of 6th Division - is this the same one?

What did a Railway Supply Company do? Did it supply BY rail, or did it USE railways to supply?

Are there any war diaries available? If not, are there any sources which might point me in the right direction of what happened to William?

Sorry there are a number of queries here, but the ASC is a bit of a closed book as far as I am concerned!!

[Waggoner]

David,

I would think that a Railway Supply Company would move and account for supplies as they travelled from the supply depot to the loading railhead and then on to the offloading railhead where the supplies would be turned over to the next unit in the supply chain, most likely the Divisional Train. Hope this helps.

All the best,

Gary

[David Ingleby]

Thanks Gary