RFA in Lahore?

[asdarley]

Hoping that this great forum will again deliver! Have in my possession a Christmas card sent by a Robert John Foster RFA. (A very Christmassy scene of a gun team pulling the guns through mud and heavy shellfire adorns the inside!)

However, on the cover is a white elephant in a circle with Lahore printed above and the Artillery motto Ubique Quo Fas Et Gloria Ducunt Inter Aquas Ignesque under it,

I am led to believe that the elephant was the crest for the 15th Battery RFA Is this correct?

As far as I can gather the Battery was mobilised 4/8/14 Aldershot, and served out the war in France/ Flanders

I have had great trouble tracking my man down. I have one suspect a Robert J Foster Gunner RFA on a medal card with two service numbers quoted 2384 and 697005. Could this be my man?

Finally....where does the Lahore connection come from??

All and any suggestions most gratefully received!

[MJohnson]

i

[MJohnson]

Seem to have lost the thread on last posting .

Hope this one goes well .My grandfather told me a little of his army service but have only got half his papers and most of them are medical .He enlisted in the RFA in 1903 and was posted to India in 1911 and from what I remember he was in the 11th Brigade Lahore Division at Jubbelpore .He served there until the Division was sent to France in November 1914 .. He didn,t remain in the Division however .. I don,t know if this helps .

Maurice

[asdarley]

Thanks Maurice, Thanks for replying, your information does help..in showing that a regular soldier could have been in India prior to the war. I am hoping the two service numbers reflect some sort of transfer from one unit to another.

[Rockdoc]

Lahore was one of the cantonments in British India and had a regular posting of British troops. My Grandfather left for India in March 1910 and returned to Britain in January 1914. He spent time at several places but the last part of his time was at Lahore. He was in 25 Battery and the Brigade he was in out there was not the one it went to Belgium with in October 1914, with 7th Division.

Keith

[asdarley]

Thanks Kieth....Grateful for the input...It suggests my chap could well have been in India prior to war breaking out. Do you know if his service number was changed when he swopped Brigades?

[battiscombe]

the number you cite is a territorial number and not a regular.... the numbers look to relate to 55th or 57th Divisional Ammunition columns.. and West Lancs Territorials

the regular 15th Bty was in 36th Brigade and had not been in India for many years. There was no Robert John Foster in the 36th Brigade in 1914.. and they had been in Ireland or England for the previous decade at least ..Robert William Foster in 36th BAC and Walter Foster in 71st battery in Aug 1914... they were in France-Belgium throughout the war

any suggestion as to the date of the card ..?? although its sounds like a wartime card? The battery was in India postwar, in a renumbered 26th Brigade I believe..

[asdarley]

Battiscombe Thanks for the reply. The numbers relating to West Lancs Territorials might be something. The chap was from the Southport area, so that would be the right region. Maybe the Lahore name above the elephant is some historical reference? The card is from France 1917 have attempted to attach a copy of the card. Maybe that would help?

[MaureenE]

Perhaps Lahore may be an "Honour Title". Perhaps the Battery was originally part of the Bengal Artillery, in the days of the East India Company Bengal Army. The Bengal Artillery became part of the Royal Artillery after the Indian Mutiny in 1857.

From a post on the Victorian Wars Forum http://www.victorianwars.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=693#p2882:

There is a book written in 1975, "Honour Titles of the Royal Artillery" which covers the period 1751 to 1951, written by Major General B.P.Hughes, and printed in the UK by Henry Ling Ltd, The Dorset Press, Dorchester, Dorset.

Cheers

Maureen

[Rockdoc]

Do you know if his service number was changed when he swopped Brigades?

It remained the same. There were two administrative groupings in the RA at the time of the Great War. My Grandfather was a regular, enlisting in 1909, and 57659 was his number in the records of the RHA/RFA. His number changed after his transfer to the RGA to 197636 and he kept that while he served with 99th Anti-Aircraft Section but he reverted to his previous number when he was transferred to 129 Brigade RFA in 1918, after the war ended in the Balkans. I don't know whether he ever served with that Brigade because he was demobbed in January 1919 but he was officially transferred to the RFA as all his medals carry that service number.

Keith

[asdarley]

Thanks Kieth and Maureen for your comments. I think Maureen you may well be correct about Lahore being an honour title. And interesting to note the way numbers were retained.

Thanks againto all who have attempted to educate me! By the way, would anybody hazard a guess as to where the picture on the card originates? A Painting? an engraving? Is it well known?

[Trevelyan]

Had the battery been attached to the Lahore Division before the war, or later during the war?