William Foster b.1880

[Guest lizzyc]

Wonder if anyone can help. I have a photo of my great-grandfather William Foster, born 1880 Bedfordshire, but lived in Tooting, London. He was a coal man, so worked with horses and we knew that he went to Salonika and in the picture he and his pals are wearing jodhpurs. Can we work out what regiment he was in, what dates he went there, if he had any medals, and what was his rank and role? Any help greatly received. There are too many William Fosters on the ancestry military search results to help me. Thanks. Liz C

William Foster Salonika.pdf

[Blackblue]

Do you have a middle name Liz? Looks like Army Service Corps to me.

Rgds

Tim D

[Gardenerbill]

Liz, you could try posting the image in the 'Uniforms & Cap Badges' sub forum of 'The Paraphernalia of War'. The uniform experts might be able to provide a bit more information. There were certainly Yeomanry (cavalry) units in Salonika Derbyshire for one.

[kenf48]

Welcome to the forum.

I think you need to scan the cap badge on the best magnification, or have a look at the original under a magnifying glass and compare it with examples on the web. I'd agree the Army Service Corps. If you do a google images search for Army Service Corps badge WW1 there are many examples. No badges of rank are visible so if he was in the ASC he was probably a 'Private' or 'Driver'. The ASC were fond of prefixes to the soldiers' numbers e.g M or M/ = Mechanical Transport/; S = Supply a full list is on the parent site the LLT

http://www.1914-1918.net/prefixes.html and may help to eliminate some more. While on the site you can check out the Army Service Corps and the Salonika Campaign as well as indispensable tips on researching a soldier.

Once you've confirmed ASC that narrows it down considerably but there are still 30! You still have a problem as he may have gone to France first or gone overseas after 31/12/1915 in which case date entered theatre would not be shown. I've had a quick look and can't find any where Salonika is shown. His minimum medal entitlement would be the British War Medal and Victory Medal with the possibility of a 14-15 Star. The first troops were sent in October 1915, four more Divisions followed until March 1916 and the final Division the 60th (2/2 London) in December 1916. There were few replacements sent out outside these dates.

Because of his age he may have been on Garrison duty around the port, but that's speculation. The terrain at the front was unsuitable for horse transport so pack mules were used after motor transport had delivered supplies and ammunition which means there were limited uses for horse transport, and as you say the group do appear to be involved with horses. The biggest problem in the campaign was sickness, malaria and dysentery, which caused more casualties than enemy action.

There is a group who specialise in the Salonika campaign http://www.salonikacampaignsociety.org.uk which may be of interest in any event there is an account of the campaign.

Ken (Foster!)

[Raster Scanning]

My 2 penneth.

I think they are Royal Engineers