KOYLI 1st (Reserve) Garrison Battalion

[Tom Wales]

I understand that the KOYLI 1st (Reserve) Garrison Battalion in May 1918 moved to Ireland and was stationed at Berehaven, Co. Cork

I would be interested to know if this was a Territorial Battalion or would have included Territorials

It would also be interesting to understand what their range of duties might have been at this location

[Tom Wales]

Sorry to raise this again but I have tried to obtain information about KOYLI service records by contacting this email address for the KOYLI archives DINF-RIFLES-RHQ-AOPontefract@mod.uk

Could anybody tell me if the email address is currently valid or how I might otherwise go about obtaining the information in my original post

thanks

Tom

[sotonmate]

Tom

Slim pickings on the information front here !

Your e-mail address for KOYLI Archives ties in with what I have found.You may not have asked the right question as you have mentioned service records,and I am guessing that they don't have any and might have taken the trouble to tell you that what there is may be on Ancestry UK or Find My Past.

Nonetheless they may be able to specifically say what the function of their Garrison units was.

I searched the NA Discovery database for refs to KOYLI Garrison Battalions under WO refs generally, One War Diary for France ( 2 GBn 7/16 to 7/18) and a few Medal Card refs for men of Reserve GBs who were posted to France to top up numbers.

You may have seen that Berehaven is in Cork Harbour and that there were coastal artillery batteries based there to protect from enemy shipping (as was around the coast of the Brit Isles and our overseas territories generally) and it would be reasonable to expect that there was also feet on the ground for protection against troop landings. In addition there was probably a training programme also under way,and I cannot think that there wouldn't be any Territorial soldiers in the complement,and from these ranks postings were made as well as receiving recruits. You could undertake a few checks on the soldiers of the Medal Cards to see if you can trace any service records,this might partly answer your question.

There were quite a lot of Army units based in Ireland pre-1914,and as the regulars were moved out to fight the war in late 1914 other reserves were brought in to maintain security.

I hope that my answer helps to stimulate more comment,it often does when my reasoning conflicts with others !

[Tom Wales]

Thanks for the encouragement - I will keep plugging away

Tom