Medal Roll - anomaly?

[Mallard]

Why would a man be listed in the medal roll of the 3rd London Regiment , Royal Fusiliers, ( this is the unit name on his headstone; CWGC website omits the words "London Regiment"), when the medal roll (WO 329/1909) shows his only postings abroad as:

13/9/17 - 20/10 17 - East Kent Regiment

23/10/17 - 29/1/18 - 12th Royal Fusiliers

30/1/18 - 153/18 - 10th Royal Fusiliers

His MIC, which misled us until we looked at the medal roll, shows:

East Kent Regiment - 202983

Royal Fusiliers - 275306

3rd London Regiment - 275306

The man in question is William Charles Brooks who died on 15/3/18 and is buried at Lijssenthoek. He had originally enlisted on 25th November 1914 (army form O.1844 re National Insurance) as 2094 in the East Kent Regiment ( apparently 2/5th battalion), and he may have been discharged in 1916 before re-enlisting. he was definitely working in his home parish for two or three weeks in February 1916 and again in May 1917. His service record has not survived.

His burial at Lijssenthoek is consistent with the whereabouts of 10th Royal Fusiliers in March 1918, but makes no sense if he had been in the 3rd London Regiment, which is why we went beyond the MIC and the looked at the actual medal roll.

So the question is really about record-keeping. We are very happy to believe that he ended his days in the 10th Royal Fusiliers, so what is he doing on the medal roll of the 3rd London Regiment (in which he does not ever appeared to have served) ?

Any suggestions welcome.

GJ

[stevem49]

The 3rd City of London Regiment are The Royal Fusiliers - title 'The Royal Fusiliers, (City of London Regiment)' I presume that the 2 entries are actually the same.

[SteveE]

I guess it all boils down to the fact that your man was a Territorial Force soldier, initially with The Buffs but who was then subsequently transferred to another unit. Unlike most Infantry Regiments the Royal Fusiliers didn't have Territorial battalions of their own but had a number of battalions of the London Regiment affiliated instead. The number 275306 is from the number range allocated to the 3rd Bn. London Regiment (250001 to 280000).

I assume your man was transferred from the Buffs to the 3rd Bn. London Regiment, for administrative purposes only, in order to retain his Territorial Force enlistment terms. It appears unlikely that he ever went anywhere near the 3rd Londons other than as 'headcount' but once numbered was then immediately posted on to service battalions of the Royal Fusiliers as required.

Regards

Steve

[David_Underdown]

The Royal Fusiliers had no Territorial Force battalions of its own, only the affiliated battalions in the London Regiment (1st to 4th battalions and 29th and 30th, each potentially having 1st, 2nd and 3rd lines versions during the war of course, see http://www.1914-1918.net/london.htm). To preserve a man's TF status they were given a notional posting to one of the London Regiment battalions, but then posted to another Royal Fusiliers battalion - note the fact that his MIC shows a 6-figure 1917 TF renumbering number. See this explanation of how renumbering worked, and the effect of being posted from a TF battalion of the London Regiment to a regular one treated as part of the same Corps http://www.1914-1918.net/TF_renumbering_infantry.htm. You might also like to look at these two items on my blog, where I struggled to work out a similar case http://halfmuffled.wordpress.com/the-towers-and-men/a-e/ashtead-st-giles/sydney-reddick/ and http://halfmuffled.wordpress.com/2013/02/25/the-first-individual-page-sydney-reddick/

[Edited to fix links and typos]

Edited 19 November , 2013 by David Underdown

[Mallard]

Very many thanks for resolving a long standing mystery - we would never have worked it out ourselves. We are in touch with two people who will be especially delighted as a result of your help - Charles's great-niece, and the lady at Poperinge compiling a database of the men buried at Lijssenthoek.

GJ